Fiber Arts at the Fredericksburg Museum

Remember to click on each picture to see a close up!

Last Friday I accompanied my fiber artist friends Barbara Posey and Stephanie Woolsey to the Fredericksburg Museum , in Fredericksburg VA, to drop off our work to be included in the First Fiber Arts Exhibit ever held at this venue!  The piece that you see above is a brand new piece titled Autumn Daisy.  I created this art quilt using all of my own hand dyed and sun printed fabrics.  The title references the glorious yellow daisy type flowers that bloom all over the place here in Virginia, starting at the end of August.  The wild small bushes bloom like crazy and are butterfly magnets.  We often see many Monarch butterflies swarming these bushes as they store up food to make their long migrations south.

I have been invited to join 6 other local fiber artists in this exhibit.  The exhibit at the museum will coincide with a large invitational exhibit, Contemporary Work in Fiber, that will be taking place at the University of Mary Washington just up the street.  You can check out that exhibit and all the particulars about it here.

Autumn Daisy hanging at Artful Dimensions Gallery in Fredericksburg along with Piece of the Rainbow, a mosaic work by Cathy Ambrose-Smith.

Every stitch on this piece was done by hand.

You can see a faint yellowing in the center of each daisy flower.  That yellow stain is left behind by the pollen from each blossom,  when the flowers are applied to the wet fabric and pressed into place the pollen comes in firm contact with the fabric and leaves it's mark.  I love that about these flowers.  the shape of their leaves is wonderful for sun printing as well, with the serrated edge to give extra interest.  It is almost time for the flowers to start blooming in the ditches and along the road sides again!! I will be doing many more sun prints and offering them for sale in my Etsy Shop!

My second submission is titled New Again.  This piece began as a needle felted piece combining wool roving with silk fibers and fabrics.  Then I added all sorts of vintage laces, trims and beads.  I crafted a puffed heart covered with a silk brocade from a vintage scarf and beaded the heart. I added many vintage mother of pearl buttons , some crystals, fresh water pearls and many tiny seed beads in all sorts of shades of pearl and white.  In other words the old became New Again as part of a New whole.

Here you can see some of the wonderful edging lace and vintage tatting that I stitched on and then embellished further with beads.  I made the frame myself using foam core collaged with brown paper, then painted and varnished the entire piece. 

If you click on this photo you can see a close up of the puffed heart and the surrounding area.

My last submission absolutely had to be my underwater tapestry titled Coral Cacophony.  If you would like to read the specifics of the creation of this piece you can click here.

The exhibit opens in early September, so check back to see pictures of my co-exhibitors work as well as the opening event!  you are in for a real treat!!! You can be sure that I will be sharing it here!!

"Red All Over"

I have gotten word that my dear friend Judy ,of Judy in the Dyes, has received her commissioned Corded Cuff. Now I feel free to post my latest creation. Judy requested a cuff in red. I made the cording using seam allowances from a red cashmere sweater and some special yarns and shining threads and gathered all of the beads with red included, as well as things that spoke of Judy, her interests and passions.

I adore creating special pieces for people who i know well or for whom I have a good idea of their likes and special interests.  I can really personalize each piece with charms and special focal beads and even bits of jewelry that may have seen better days.  I also include vintage bits- buttons especially, and I prefer using a vintage button with a shank for the loop closure. As you can see above, I work among a pile of possibilities that i have culled from my stash as I am never quite sure where the spirit of the project will take me nor what pice will be the perfect fit for a specific spot.

Each piece is completely hand stitched and lined with lovely soft Ultra Suede.

Here you can see the shank button and corded loop closure along with the vintage Czech red glass flower bead and the vintage Lucite lime green flower bead nearby. Judy is an avid gardener and I knew that I had to include lots of floral and leaf elements.

                                     
Judy also requested some turquoise to accompany the red. (Easy Easy- that just happens to be one of my current favorite color combinations as well!!) Nest to the Peace symbol above you can see a tiny millifiore face bead and just to the right of that tiny face, is a vintage red a black glass bead (Victorian I think.) there is also a deep blue and gold Victorian glass button just to the lower left of the Peace symbol.  I love finding tiny treasures to fit in to these very personal pieces!

I am thrilled to report that Judy is thrilled with her commission and it is also a perfect fit.   I hope that she gets many years of pleasure from her piece and that she is always reminded of the special friendship that we share.  ( Did I mention that we have never met?  We found each other through the blogging world and then Face Book and one of these days we are determined to meet in her lovely textile studio in Georgia for some serious textile/dye pots play time!!!)