What's New!

Colorful Experiment #1

Supplies:

• Milk
• Plate
• Liquid Food coloring
• Dish Soap
• Q-tips

Directions:

1. Pour the milk into a plate until you cover the bottom surface.
2. Add drops of food coloring in middle of the milk in the plate.
3. Coat the Q-tip in the dish soap and dip it in the milk. Watch what happens!

The science behind this reaction has to do with the way the soap molecules and the fat from the milk are interacting. Fat is hydrophobic, a type of molecule that repels water. By adding the soap, we are breaking up the hydrophobic fat particles and holding it inside the soap.

Colorful Experiment #2

Supplies:

• Hard coated candy
• Plate
• Warm water

Directions:

1. Put the candy pieces in the plate. You can place them around the edge, or any other design you can think of!
2. Add some warm water to the plate, making sure that there is enough to cover the bottom of the plate. Watch what happens!

The science behind this interaction has to do with the warm water dissolving the color coating on the candies.
Each of the candies has a slight difference in the sugar content, which means they have different densities; they all take up a different amount of space. The reaction we are seeing here is called stratification, where water splits due to differences in the density of the materials.Try cold water and even different kinds of candy. What happens?

Watch these projects at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9geJ7KdXqK0&list=PLMEg2Dd0dSFctLfDQxsL5…

Black Lives Matter and so we celebrate Black Voices in stories for children. These picture books are available at the Pikes Peak Library District. Click on the pdf link below to see the booklist.

Celebrating Our Home, the Pikes Peak Region

Early in 2020, Makers Liz Kettle and Ruth Chandler of Textiles West set out to teach community members how to create fabric collages to celebrate the beauty of our Pikes Peak Region and share stories of our home and community. A week into the Spring Residency, everything came to a halt due to COVID-19.

Rather than stop the Textile Art Project altogether, Liz and Ruth transformed it into a virtual format, so that our community could be creative and stay connected even while sheltering at home. In many ways, the finished compilations are a record of our community and our shared experience during this unprecedented time. We’ve compiled all the finished pieces submitted by local community members into a Flickr album, which you can explore here.

You can also see the pieces in person as part of a rotating display by visiting the following libraries during the months listed below. At the end of the display rotation, the piece will live at Monument Library.

• September 2020:Library 21c
• October 2020: High Prairie Library
• November 2020: Old Colorado City Library
• December 2020: East Library
• January 2021: Sand Creek Library
• February 2021: Monument Library

Even though the Spring/Summer Textile Art Residency has come to an end, you can still create your very own collage! This project is traditionally a textile (fabric) project, but Liz and Ruth have adapted the project to use just about any materials you have at home. Get started by looking through the various PDF project patterns (see below) and reading through this tutorial PDF. This will give you a basic idea of the project and let you know what supplies you’ll need to get started.
Then, watch the video below to see Liz explain how to get creative and pull it all together! (Please note the video cuts off at the end, but all important content is included.) Links to supplementary videos examining various stitch types are also available below.

---

Patterns

• Aspen Leaf
• Columbine
• Giraffe
• Garden of the Gods
• House
• Lark Bunting
• Bighorn Sheep
• Wind Turbine

Supplementary Videos

• Cross Stitch
• Feather Stitch
• French Knot
• Herringbone Stitch
• Running Stitch

---

Textiles West's teachers are all experts who know the power of creating and understand that for many, textiles are a much more accessible art form than traditional art forms.

Liz Kettle

Through her work, Liz Kettle tells tales that are personal as well as those that speak of relationship, humanity, and the earth. She chooses a nontraditional palette of fabric and stitch because she believes they connect us and draw us closer in a way that cannot be achieved with traditional art materials alone. Liz uses a variety of techniques drawing from the deep wells of quilting, mixed media collage, and paint to tell and support each unique story.

Liz is the co-founder and Director of Textiles West, a Textile Art Center that aims to inspire widespread awareness, participation, and appreciation of textile and fiber arts.

Liz is passionate about teaching and is a co-author of two books; Fabric Embellishing: The Basics and Beyond and Threads: The Basics and Beyond. She is also the solo author of First Time Beading on Fabric, Layered and Stitched and Know Your Needles. Liz has articles published in Quilters Home, Quilting Arts, Quilting Arts In Stitches and Cloth Paper Scissors Studios, and has appeared in the PBS show Quilting Arts TV.

Ruth Chandler

Ruth Chandler grew up in Japan where the vibrant color and texture of Japanese fabric, combined with the simplicity of Japanese design, caught Ruth’s attention. Ruth learned basic Sashiko from an elderly neighbor and at the age of four, and began to create and sew her own clothes at the age of ten which became an outlet for her imagination and creativity.

She made her first quilt in 1990, a queen size, hand-appliquéd and hand-quilted Hawaiian pineapple quilt, and she has never looked back. In her own unique style she loves to use new techniques mingled with the old and her work usually shows the influence of her years spent in Japan. Shibori, Boro, Sashiko, and indigo dying are her love, however she also teaches garment sewing and other classes to children and adults.

Ruth teaches locally at Textiles West in Colorado Springs, and nationally at Art and Soul Retreats. Ruth has written several articles for Quilting Arts magazine, blog posts for Havels’ Sewing, and has work published in several books. Additionally, Ruth is one of the co-authors of the best-selling book, Fabric Embellishing: The Basics and Beyond, and is the solo author of Modern Hand Stitching.

Ruth may be contacted for nationwide classes at ruthachandler@comcast.net.