Debbie Babin » classes

Sign Up Now-Springtime Course Online

admin — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 14:27:50 +0000

SPRINGTIME…..time for renewal…..perfect time to learn some new things!

Textile Art with Pizzazz! begins Minimum of 5 people

Scheduled for April 1st (will be extended to April 15th to meet the minimum of 5)

Six lessons, $65 Sign up here

Why not join us? This course is an excellent way to strengthen your skills, learn some new ones as well as open your eyes to knew reveal new experiences with your work.

This course will challenge you and make you “stretch”.

Course design: Flora Rosa Crimson (detail)

Comments from people who took this course in January 2010.

I recommend this for anyone who likes color and wants to learn how make the colors in their works, even flat-pieced quilts, into something spectacular. Wendy

Thanks Debbie for a great workshop! Your ability to challenge and provide honest and constructive feedback made this workshop a very valuable learning forum. This program is great done in the comfort of my own home, not having to travel and rivals any in-person workshops that I have participated in. Well Done!! Joann Dnistransky Textile Art Pizzazz – March 2010

Join me in a chat session tonight-Guest speaker: Debbie Babin

admin — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 14:47:42 +0000

I have been invited to be the guest speaker in a chat session organized by Quilting Weekly.

Schedule: Monday March 22nd, 2010 8 p.m. CENTRAL TIME ZONE

It is open to the public. To participate all you have to do is go to Quilting Weekly and sign in as a guest.

Quilting Weekly is a site that is owned and operated by Chris Dahl. The focus is on traditionally styled quilting. She offers many things for quilters including a wide variety of courses online. She has been receiving inquiries about fiber art; how to learn more about it. This chat session has been set up to address this topic. I am very pleased to have this opportunity to talk about my favorite subject: Fiber Art.

By the way….a chat session is not actually talking, rather writing to each other in an open chat room. Everyone who participates sees all of the messages that are posted. It is real time allowing anyone to submit and contribute to the chat. I look forward to spending time with everyone this evening.

Directions:

Go to the goodies tab and look for “chat room”, click that and a window opens to allow you to do 1 or 3 things as explained below.

Click “guest” and it will show a box with guest(followed by random number) highlight this and type in your name. You will show up in the room as (name)(guest) name will be replaced with the name you type in.
Click “sign up” and it takes you to chatroll to set up an account.
Type in username and password if you are already a member of chatroll.

Once you log in either as guest or as member you simply type in your conversation in the bottom blue rectangle under the main window and hit enter on the keyboard to send a message.

A few other tips: At the bottom right corner you will see a few icons, here is what they are.

Speaker – turns on and off the sound (not actual conversations, rather a popping sound when a new message is posted) which is handy if you are doing multi-tasking and minimize the screen. (just like the chat screen on Face Book)
Bulls eye – takes you to the chatroll site
Box with arrow – minimizes the chat room so you can browse the web or work elsewhere on the computer.

Mid Atlantic Quilt Festival Images

admin — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 15:29:06 +0000

I am proud to have my piece titled: Fragments included in the traveling SAQA exhibit: Fibrations. The exhibit was included at the Mid Atlantic Quilt Festival held this weekend.

I was not able to attend the show. I was totally delighted today when I received a slide show of photos that a friend had taken at the show. She took pictures of the quilts she admired. The pictures include close ups of some of the work as well as the awards with descriptions and names. My piece is number 141. Thank You, Cathy Tyler! Visit Cathy’s blog

Enjoy!

Textile Art with Pizzazz! course begins

admin — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 17:57:19 +0000

On Line Course will begin this week.

Six Lessons, $65

Flora Rosa Santa Fe (detail)

Two people contacted me yesterday seriously interested in this course and signed right away.

I am now offering private tutoring. This allows the person to work at their own pace. I am available for questions, guidance and critiques.

Since two people will beginning at the same time, I offered the option of working together. People who study online either love inner acting with others or prefer to work in solitude.

They both agreed that they would benefit from working together. Easy enough! The course will be conducted on a private Yahoo! group. Now we will utilize the forum and photo albums.

Now that this is set up others can join in the fun as well. Contact me if you are interested. Don’t hesitate, as we begin soon.

Textile Art with Pizzaz Supply List

Course Description

Images of the Flora Rosa design can be seen in the REALISTIC GALLERY look at the first five pieces.

New Online class venue

admin — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 22:00:36 +0000

I have decided to offer online classes here on this website starting January 2010. I will offer scheduled classes but also something new: independent study. The same classes will be available the only difference is all of the lessons can be downloaded all at once and utilized at your convenience. I have observed while conducting an online class that many people often do not utilize the forum. Personally, I think this is a shame as participation there will enhance the lessons tremendously. So, for those who prefer to work in private and not be bound to a set online schedule, this is for you!

Let me know what you think about this. I love feedback!

Think “outside” the Take out Box

admin — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 16:14:14 +0000

There is still time to sign up for the next online class I have offered at Joggles. Just go to here to sign up click here for details.

Take Out Box

Join me, this class is loads of fun!

In addition to the Take out Box, special hand made contents is created as well. A tray fits inside to hold four very realistic fabric sushi “fushi”.

For extensive details, visit my online classes page here

Welcome to my new website

admin — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 15:22:43 +0000

I have created this new website. Now everything is in one spot! This is wonderful. There is tweaking to be done but that is probably an ongoing thing anyway.

Please take a look around. There are multiple pages.

The home page will escort you through the remaining pages. Other than this blog there extra pages that combine specific topics.

Please do not hesitate to give input, report something that isn’t clearly explained or something you would like to know more about.

I am excited to launch this new format and embrace all of the new things that will develop from it.

Stay tuned, more news coming soon regarding: On line classes to be offered here in the near future

Current On line Classes

admin — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 12:43:13 +0000

My new class titled: Vintage Botanical Interpretation is almost finished.

Vintage Botanical Interpretation 22x25

Vintage Botanical Interpretation, detail of righ top corner

My classes are provided by Joggles www.joggles.com

The class has five lessons and began in July. I have truly enjoyed conducting this new class. There is a nice group studying with me.

Think “outside” the Take out Box

will be offered in the Fall.

Start date: September 30th

Think "outside" the Take out Box

The contents for the box are kept secret…..you will have to take the class to see what is inside!

Hint: Faux edible

Four Lessons, $40

The descriptions of the classes are on the joggles website under classes.

I hope to see you in the class. Please tell your friends too.

Tin Heart

admin — Fri, 22 May 2009 22:29:05 +0000

One of my favorite tools are antique tin ceiling tiles. The designs are classic and unique. I like to use them as an “impressing” plate.
I find and purchase the antique tiles on EBAY. New or similar tiles are available in stores like Jo Ann’s and home improvement.

I found this one at Jo Ann’s. It is painted metal with small holes hammered which emphasize the design.

This is the impression of the tile.

The tile was placed under the surface and impressed using gold metallic ink.

The result is wonderful and rustic. A traditional way to use this impressed design would be as a center focal point. Usually I try to push beyond common ideas so I imagine I will likely try something off center or who knows what?

The surface is tissue paper painted with Ranger Ink color wash. Several colors are sprayed and overlapped to create various effects. Colors: Plum, Espresso and Butterscotch.

My newest and favorite antique tile has a heart design.

7″ x 11″

This design produces a wonderful impression! I liked it so much when I received it I had to try it out right away. Here are the results.

15″ x 18″

Painted tissue paper was used in both cases.

Actually, the impression of the heart came about via several steps as the first attempt didn’t work very well.

The steps I used:

1. Place the painted paper over the tin tile and hold in place.

2. Use a contrasting ink pad (I used an ink pad with rich Sapphire blue ink.) to press over the surface.

3. The impression was not clear enough so removed the tile and applied a coat of silver fabric paint to blur the impression. This left a nice effect!

4. Then I put the tile back underneath and tried a second time with the Sapphire ink. Walla! Perfect effects. The paper is supple enough to push down into the crevasses.

There are quite a few more things I added to complete this piece; too many to detail here. But, for the finishing touch I added a glass bead fringe which added a nice sparkle.

This piece is made mostly with paper. The only fabric that is used is inserted into the vertical panels on both sides of the heart. The fabric was placed under the paper, stitched and the paper cut away to reveal the fabric.

The finished design was layered with batting and backing and machine stitched. Various embellishments were added primarily heart motifs that repeat over the surface. The edges are finished with painted organza.

Now I am sure you are thinking: Tissue paper? Isn’t that too thin and fragile? Yes, but not after several extra steps; however, unfortunately I cannot reveal them here. These steps are detailed in my new class Vintage Botanical Interpretation offered at Joggles and scheduled for August 2009.

Check it out! I think you will enjoy learning my techniques and methods.

Playing "Catch up"

admin — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 15:15:22 +0000

Lately I have been playing “catch up”. After my trip to the Timber Barn in Ohio, I had to take time to think. A number of persistent thoughts were circulating in my mind.

The class I attended was called Working with Intent. We were to arrive prepared to work with a specific plan. I thought about my plan for weeks. I took photos, made sketches and reflected. What did I want to accomplish in this class? My on going complaint about my work is that I wish the finished pieces were larger. I often see wonderful additional compositions after my work is finished. I often say, “If I could just extract this part” and “wouldn’t it be grand if the finished size were (really) large!” This is my dream. I have tried to work on a large scale but I end up working sections and not the entire space.

So, during the class presentation I stated that my intent was to work on a larger scale.

This seemed like a huge expectation to me but I was prepared to stick to it.

Other people had much more complex statements of intent. After listening to everyone speak I realized how each of us brought unique intents to work on.

On the last day of the class we again gave a presentation. This time we explained what we had accomplished and state whether or not we reached the goal of our planned intent.

I did manage to create two rather large pieces which I put many hours into. I was proud of the results.

My presentation was brief and to the point. Yes, I thought I accomplished my intentions.

Others took 10 to 15 minutes pontificating upon their efforts. I came away thinking, “Was my goal truly worthy of intent?” And further more, “Do I work with intent, in general?” These questions began to permeate my thinking. I started to question my work and pondering about the question of substance. What is the substance of my work? Is it necessary to have substance? The word: intent haunted me. I was depressed about the whole concept of intent and had no interest in working at all!

After about a week of going in circles and sinking with self doubt, I decided to at least finish the work I was doing in the TAG TEAM workbook study group. There are 9 chapters with exercises and I had five more to go. The next one was on collage. I have a lot of experience with collage and started to skip that one but then I decided to go forward. I had a good image I had printed onto habotai silk. My water theme had turned out to be a good choice. I have realized and confiremed that water is truly an ongoing theme in my life and flows smoothly from my mind. This was just the medicine I needed; to free my mind of the trappings of self doubt. As I began to work the piece quickly fell into place; I was back in business.

Collage with image transfer on silk

A stream of possitive thoughts began to flow so I took advantage of the renewed energy to play “catch up”. The next chapters that appealed to me were about painting on fabric and thread painting.

I had some pieces of white Kona cotton that I had already hand painted earlier in the study. These were done when I was first exploring the water theme. I used a 15×22″ piece of the painted fabric to begin an underwater scene with fish and nautilus sea shells, which are my favorite shells.

I used a set of new paints that I had not opened yet. These fabric paints are “Moire” by Jaquard; what luscious effects! The paints create a translucent quality that truly resembled an underwater appearance. I wanted the composition to have a freedom of movement.

Step 1 fish and shell shell are set up with a base coat

A base coat of assorted colors were washed onto the surface spontaneously to set up the shapes of the fish, water and sea shells. The subjects swirl around together as they would in water.

A the cloth was placed over a layer of timtex, batting and backing (in that order) to make a “sandwich” for stitching. Now it was time to initiate thread painting. The subjects were outlined with variegated rayon thread. In addition, two words “under” and “currents” were added in all caps. This is only the beginning stage of the stitching and are actually quilting at this point. I plan to develop this effect further with thread painting as the piece progresses.

Next, details were added for definition.

Fish scales were enhanced with shades of orange, red and green moire paint. The patterns of the sea shells were highlighted as well as the areas of water.

Close up of the fish

The composition is well underway but does need more work.

In the meantime, my mind was alleviated from stressing out about “intent”.

I have decided that my TRUE intent is to enjoy myself and that is what it is all about.

Now I feel like I can get on with my life!