No Rules- Crazy Quilting!!

Over the past year or so I have been developing a class called Let's Go Crazy (er) - The Rules of NO RULES Crazy Quilting!!  I have asked the amazingly talented and generous quilt/textile artist Allison Aller, if I may use her fabulous book as a reference and she has given me the green light.  You can see and read about here fabulous book here!  If you have any interest in textile collage, this is a Must Have book!
This past week I taught my first sessions of this class at Artful Dimensions Gallery in Fredericksburg, VA.  We have a great roster of classes at the Gallery and we teach whenever it is convenient for the student, that is why you will not see times and dates on the schedule!!

My dear friend Leslie Brier and her wonderful mom came in to learn how to piece a Crazy Quilt Block and then how to embellish their newly created textile canvas.  We had a wonderful time and we could have worked through the day!!  This class has been designed to allow students to express their personal artistic style in their textile collage- crazy quilt art form.  We want to throw open all the doors and windows and allow all the rules about crazy quilting to flow out and make everyone comfortable with asking themselves those wonderful "What IF" questions that lead to personal works of exuberant textile collage!!

During our first session we covered the Flip and Stitch method for piecing a quilt block.  Then I shared a wonderful method for collaging fabric scraps on Steam a Seam 2 fusible web to create a very crazy collage, Such fun!!

(click on any image to enlarge)

Here are the first blocks that my students created! I enticed them to jump in with some wonderful focal images that had been printed on fabric.  Each lady was delighted with the selection of printed images- they were perfect for their respective personalities!!

After our first class, Leslie and her Mom left and with homework to practice piecing and to return with several blocks that they had created on their home! Here you see a very simple block that Paula created.  We worked on how to start the embellishing process and things to think about and now Paula is itching to get to the FUN part!!  ( Aller's Book does a fabulous job with inspiring ideas and directions for this stage of the CQ ( Crazy Quilt) process!!)

Paula went ahead and created several Christmas themed blocks  as her practice pieces!  For a gal who is not yet good friends with her sewing machine, she did a great job!! we worked on some parts that she was struggling with in her relationship with her machine and things seem to be getting Much better!! It is so nice to be able to ease the frustration of a seamstress so they can get past the anger stage when learning to use their machine!!!

Her you can see one of Leslie's amazing practice blocks.  Leslie and I have both found our local Goodwill shops to be a great resource for fabric finds.  The black lace swatches that you see in this block was salvaged from a dress that Leslie found at Goodwill by the Pound!!  ( Locally , we have an outlet where Goodwill takes their older donations and makes them available to the public for a "By the Pound' price!)I really love how Leslie has crafted this wonderful selection of black and white patterned fabrics!

Here is Leslie's block from our first session.  Leslie has started on her embellishment journey and has added this wonderful flower trim to bring some more color closer to the gorgeous lady in the center of the block.

 Here is another practice block by Leslie!! I love seeing how an individual artists personality is expressed in their work!  With the black and white block and this numbers block above you can see the "Steampunker" part of Leslie emerge!!  I can't wait to see how Leslie embellishes this amazing block.  we will have to wait till our next class and AI will be sure to share pictures with you here!!

For another peek at Leslie's artistic personality you see this third practice block above!!  I know just how Leslie thinks as I myself often go to opposite ends of my artistic expression meter to create very different pieces of artwork!!  This only serves to keep us interested and inspired and excited about all of the wonderful possibilities available to us!!

Check back soon to see the further adventures of Paula and Leslie as they continue to follow the No Rules approach to Crazy Quilting!!

Back From Art and Soul Art Retreat, Virginia Beach

I am just back from another amazing art retreat put on by the wonderful team headed by the indomitable Glenny Moir !  This was an especially important year for the Art and Soul brand as the venue was changed and there were several unknows that go along with such a change.  this year the retreat took place at the Virginia Beach Resort and Convention Center in Virginia Beach.  the venue was wonderful and right on the beach at Hampton Roads.  the staff at the Resort was incredibly helpful and accommodating and the location was terrific.  So enough of the intro , where's the beef?? Here it is!!

(Remember, you can right click on any of the photos to see a larger image!)

First I want to share with you the special apron that I created just for the event.  In past years I have wanted to do an apron like this but time has always been against me.  this year I made time.  I used all of my own surface designed fabrics for this piece, mixing sun prints, rust prints (the owl and gear trivet) and some hand embroidery ( my name in the top right hand corner) one of my hand dyed doilies and some gelatin mono printed fabric.

The apron also served as a walking advertisement  as Judy Gula of Artistic Artifacts was the proprietress of the fabulous on-sight store and she carries both my sun prints and my rust dyed fabrics. ( Several people asked me about the fabrics and I was able to direct them to the store- my rust dyed owl prints sold out during the retreat!! Whoo Hooo!!)

Below you can see several shots of the fabulous displays of treasures that Judy and her design team set up for all of the retreat attendees.

                         The amazing on-site store run by the wonderful team from Artistic Artifacts.

One of the wonderful displays of treasure at the On-site store.

My Rust Printed fabrics on Display at the on site store.

Here is the display of my Rust Dyed fabrics before the shop opened to the public.  Today at noon, Judy and her crew broke down the shop and packed it all up for the return trip to Alexandria.


On Thursday I helped my dear friend Leslie Brier teach her first adventure in teaching at an Art and soul venue.  Her class was titled Mixed Media Robot Assemblages.  She had 11 students and we worked all day taking apart clocks and radios, flashlights and small machines; harvesting parts and building wonderfully whimsical robot creatures.  Leslie was masterful at conveying her techniques and we both worked the room helping with various deconstruction challenges and suggesting various methods for construction.  The atmosphere was inspiring and creative and so much fun!! Below you will see several pictures of robots created by Leslie's students.

A delightful example of a robot created in Leslie's class.  I love everything about this piece!!!

Two  class creatiosn from the Robot class taught by Leslie Brier.

The gorgeous Leslie Brier surrounded by her class of Robot  engineers.

I was also the resident official photographer  for the class and got several great shots of Leslie with her class and their creations.

The view from our classroom windows for the Robot Class and the Resist Dye Class!!  the beach was about 10 feet beyond the windows.  No distraction here!!!!!

This class and my fabulous Resist Dyed Felt class the following day were held in one of the nicest ballrooms in the resort.  this was the view form the huge picture windows.  We were literally 25 feet from the bay beach!!! Heaven even though it was only March!  "When you are lucky enough to be at the beach, you ARE Lucky Enough!!!!"
The next day (Thursday) I had the class that I had been looking forward to all year.  Resist Dyeing on Felted Wool with dye and fiber Artist Extraordinaire Chad Alice Hagan.

A selection of some of the items to be used for clamping and resist along with sample so patterns produced by those pieces.

Here you can see samples of wool felt dyed using various pieces of metal and wood to create dye barriers thus causing wonderful patterns in the wool.  Her is a close up of some of the metal parts that we used.  The black circular disks are vintage rotary phone dials and we have no idea what the other spinney things are, other than Way Cool !

First things first, Chad taught us how to wet felt the needle punched merino wool batts that she provided.  Learned quite a bit at this step alone.  then she described the resist dye process and how we would spend the rest of the day.  First of all, she said that we all had to forget trying to control the patterning in our pieces. This was more difficult for some students than for others!

The newly felted wool, wrapped with rubber bands and ready for the first dye bath.

Here you can see three big bins of undyed felt wrapped with various rubber bands to go into one of three dye baths for 45 minutes.

Chad handled all of the hot dye process to avoid any accidents and to keep things running smoothly with so many students(18).

Felt folded and clamped with various resist pieces and ready to go into dye pot #2.

After the first dye bath the rubber bands were removed and the wool was folded in various ways and clamped between sets of various metal and wooden resist pieces.  We learned that if the wool had not been wet at this point , the resist process would have failed as the water and the clamping are both necessary to keep the dye particles from getting to the wool fibers that are under pressure from the clamped  bits.

Chad as Dye Master and whip cracker- we had to hustle all day to get to the finished product.  A truly terrific experience!

Chad went thru and checked on the clamping process to avoid tangles before she put the whole batch into the boiling dye bath.  Each of us had stitched on small Tyvek number tags so we could identify our pieces.

The sorting of the clamped wool bits after coming out of the steaming dye bath.

When the samples came out of the dye bath, they were placed in the bins and handed out to each student.  At this point all pieces were terribly hot and steaming .  We removed the clamps and resist bits and refolded and reclamped to prep for the next dye bath round in a darker color.

My resist dyed felt pieces.  Wish that you could feel how lusciously silky and soft these bits are!!

Here you can see the wool felt pieces that I created in this terrific class.  I must say that these pictures do not do these fabrics justice.  They are all creamy soft and vibrantly colored and patterned and I cannot wait to stitch and bead them.
One of the very best parts of these retreats aside from learning from fabulous teachers , is connecting again with old friends and making some wonderful new friends!!

Julie Thompson and Jen Crossley meeting in the flesh , for the first time!

Here is a picture of the amazing Julie Thompson and the delightful and wonderful Jen Crossley, all the way from Australia!!! I took a very quick evening class with Jen and had a fabulous time ( pictures to come in my next post) and I managed to see Julie only very briefly while passing in the halls before she had to leave for her home in Arizona.  We did make plans to be in touch on line.  Next time we will be sure to carve out some down time together.  Julie also taught two wonderful classes for 30 very lucky students!!

Judy Gula working the torch and creating enameled beads.

For my next adventure, I was in an enameling class with the awesome Jean van Brederode.  this gal is an amazing teacher.  She has 30+years of experience teaching English to 8th graders and all of that experience has led her to an amazingly organized and information packed teaching style!!  In these classes we , as students, have 6 hours to learn and create, and that time literally fly's by.  Having a teacher as organized and on top of her game at Jean is, is a true joy!! If ever you get the opportunity to take a class from Jean , do not hesitate!!!  Above you see a picture of my pal Judy Gula learning to torch fire some enamel beads.  It took several of us to move Judy away from her store venue and actually relax enough to enjoy a class.  We had such fun together and Judy was able to create a piece of art for herself , for a change!!

Herself at the torch making enameled beads.

Yes, Judy did manage to grab my camera and shot some pics of me working at the torch as well.  I simply had to document Judy doing something other than running the Store- so folks at home would believe that she did take a class.  I guess pay backs really are a B@#$%**!!

My birds nest Bracelet


I enameled each of the beads and disks for this piece and added sari silk and sparkling yarns to fill out the piece.

To top off my retreat experience, I won a Fiskars Craft drill.

I must say that if ever you get the opportunity to attend an Art Retreat, give yourself a gift and GO FOR IT!!  Retreats are amazing experiences that will change your life.  You will be surrounded by creativity of every imaginable sort and you will leave totally inspired and full to the brim with food for your artistic soul.  You will meet wonderful people, connect with on line friends and interact and learn from talented and giving instructors.  Start putting a few dollars away now so when the opportunity arises you can jump in with both feet.
I am very excited to announce that I will be teaching at Art and Soul Portland in October of 2012 and I hope that you all will take a few moments to click on this link and see for your self what these amazing retreats are all about!!

Latest Cuff Class Creations !!!!

Teaching this class has become one of my favorite sources of inspiration and excitement!! I am always delighted to see a students creation take on it's own life and absorb the spirit and mood of each artist. The piece always becomes a mirror of it's makers artistic soul!!
I think that Many of you that know my wonderful friend and amazingly talented artist Leslie Brier, would have little trouble identifying this work in progress as Leslie's work!! You are so right!!

Here you see Leslie's incredible collage of found bits and beads all sewn down on to the ulta suede fabric , ready for attachment to the cuff form.

Yes, you Can see various gears, metal battleships from a vintage Monopoly set, an amazing tiny sparkplug charm that was an advertizing give away, way back when, old buttons, all surrounding a wonderful info label from a small motor!! Fantastic!!! Leslie shared that she has been known to buy small motors just to pry the labeling tags from the carcass!!! Brilliant and so LESLIE!!!

This next piece glows with wonderful soft colors and exudes the lovely, calm and beautiful spirit of it's maker , the lovely Liana! I would never have put this combination of colors together, but this cuff is so shimmeringly gorgeous, I sure do wish that I had!!!

You See, I learn so very much from my students!!

The lovely coral colored bits on this cuff were loving pryed from a vintage buckle that had lost several of it's parts. We are not sure if the lilies are real coral or fabulous Bakelite plastic. No matter, they are divine and became the centerpiece for Liana's fabulous work.

The liliies set the bar for a stunning 3 dimensional garden themed display of color and light play and resulted in a stunning cuff of Artistic beauty!!!
Remember, that the vast majority of my students have never done any work like this before and several have never worked with beads before.!! Yet each and every student that has enrolled in this class has departed with an incredibly unique piece of bead embroidered jewelry!!! It really is stunning and it is NOT all due to my teaching- this comes form inside each person who opens themselves up to the artistic possiblities. I pass on tips and a few simple techniques and several well learned pit falls to avoid, but everything else comes from the hand that passes the needle and thread thru the bead and the cloth!!

This is the cuff that I used as my teaching sample and that I finished off as we dove into the challenges of attaching the beaded cuffs to the cuff blanks. It serves as a reminder to always Laugh and to NEVER take ones self too seriously!!! (This cuff is now for sale at Sophia Street Studios in downtown Fredericksburg!!!)

Release your creative spirit and allow yourself to find the artistic well that flows in all of us-where ever you are-

Take A Class !!

A VERY Quick Update

I am very quickly checking in to give you all an update on my week!! It has been a mad whirlwind , to say the least.!! Just recently I was asked to join the Board of Trustees of the Fredericksburg Center for the Creative Arts,( from now on to be called the FCCA) here in Old Towne Fredericksburg. I was very flattered and after a bit of cajoling I agreed to have my name put on the slate of new trustees. At the annual meeting in November, I was voted onto the Board. At the following Board Meeting I was asked to take on the job of Corrdinator of the Members Art Gallery. The Members Gallery is on the bottom floor of our historic building. The House is known as the Silver Smith's House. It sits on Sophia Street in Old Town Fredericksburg and was built in 1785.

The busiest month for the Members Gallery is December! Of course it is!!!! What had I gotten myself into??????????????? I was assured that I would have lots of help and agreed to take on the job. This past week ahs been dedicated to getting this show up and running and the opening is Tonight. Upstairs in the Frederick Gallery , in the same building , is the Opening of the SMall Wonders National Show. I am so excited to ahve apiece in this show and it is the first time that one of my pieces has been accepted to a National show.!!

So last Sunday starting at 2pm, any Member of FCCA could drop off up to 4 pieces of art to be entered in the Members Holdiay Show. There was no entry fee and the art poured in. As soon as we had the inventory sheet and the show labels we set about to hanging. Now I ahve hung plenty of pictures in my many abodes but never have I dealt with such a volume in such a small space and in sucha short time. Fortunately There was A SYSTEM in place and I ahd wonderful people appear to help me get all 140 plus pieces hung and placed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The two pictures above give youa n idea of how densely we packed the pieces. it is very reminiscent of a Salon of the 1800's in one of the great European cities of art!! Ceiling to floor and every space in between!!!

What made it all even more exciting was we had no idea what forms the art would take, nor really what kind of size variteies we would have to deal with. THis served to make it all the more fun, and nerve wracking!!!

I don't know what I would have done without the help of so many wonderfully genreous aqnd creative people!!! My wonderful art pal Leslie Brier was with me the entire time and when folks stopped by to meet me and to talk to me about "important" concerns, Leslie just kept right on working!!!I also ahd the expereince and vast knowledge of artist and Membership Chairperson Shirley Whelan to lead me thru the day , as well as the hanging help of Norma Woodward, Leah Fromer Lee Cochran and many others. We got it done and I was back home again by 7:30 that very night!!!!

The Energy of Love

This is a fabulous mixed media piece with detachable necklace by Leslie Brier. I don't expect that it will last the evening without being purchased!!!!

These are three of my submissions. My work is very different from the vast majority of FCCA Members. My friend and phnenomenal Textle Collage artist Lorie McCown are doing our very best to introduce more fiber arts ot the area. ( Both Lorie and Leslie have wonderful pieces upstairs in the Small Wonders Show along with me.)

I also have a selection of my felted and beaded ornaments for sale.
Once all of the art was installed I spent a good deal of time decorating with tiny white lights and freshly cut holly in big white jugs. We have two huge bushes on our property that are loaded with beautiful berries so I got some pruning done while gathering the decorations!

Here you can see Santas Elves roller skate assemblage, First Night Baby and a beautiful Resin Necklace and Earring set all created by my pal Leslie!!! This artistss talents are truely astounding!!!

Here is my peice Cardinal Care as it sits upstairs in the Small Wonders Show. I am beyond thrilled with the placement and setting for showing off my textile collage piece. it is flanked by some glorious oils of chickadees and Barn Swallows by a very talented Local artist ( I will have to insert her name here later!!)
This is Leslie Briers fabulous Assemblage titled Goddess of the Kitchen. She takes center podium in the first room of the Frederick gallery and I fully expect that she will be sold tonight as well!! She is created with all sorts of wonderful vintage kitchen gadgets and has a wonderfully whimsical personality!!

This week was also the time for dropping off holiday wares at Liberty Town. Tonight will be the opening of the December Show there as well.

Here you can see a display of several of my owls and some of the miniature canvas collage ornaments that I created. (I have already ahd to restock my owls twice - perhaps I am not charging enough!!??)

And here is a rather difficult to view picture of a display of more of my holiday items for Liberty Town. I amde several Journals that I collaged with vintage text and then covered with painted paper towels. Hopefully folks will give functional art gifts this year as I had lots of fun creating these pieces!!!

So I ahve been very busy away form the computer and have missed visiting blogs and keeping up with everyones fabulous work!! I must rush off and change and get down to the burg to set the table for our First Friday Opening. FCCA Members gallery and The Frederick Gallery is defintely going to be the PLACE TO BE tonight!!!!

I will be back after a Fiber Arts Guild Brunch tomorrow and a bit of a sleep!!!!!

Have a wonderfully festive and happy holiday weekend everyone!!!

A Glorious Day For Sunprints!!!

Yesterday I ahd the pleasure of enjoying a wonderful play day with my good art pal and partner in junking crime, Leslie Brier. Leslie is very busy these days creating her own art and teacher various kid's art classes with a group of artists called The Creative Side. (This is the group that t teaches the drawing classes that have turned my daughter Becca, onto drawing!! They are a terrific bunch of gifted teachers!!) I managed to get Leslie over to show her the in's and out's of sun printing as she has seen my sun prnts and wants to work up a lesson or two for her teaching duties with her students.
Above you see just several of the prints that I created, eventhough we had one of those in and out sun kind of days. I was not sure how crisp our results would be, but I must say that I was pleasantly surprised. Now If I can only be so lucky to be blessed with todays sun shine and light breezes for my Sun Printing Workshop that is scheduled for next Saturday, at noon, at Liberty Town!!!! I would love it if you could all send me sunny thoughts for next weekend!!!

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Sneak Peek at Opening Night!!

First Friday, May 2010, Opening Night ,Patron's Show, Liberty Town Artist's Galleries, is Finally here!!!

I am going to provide you with a few samples of the amazing art works for sale with the price of a Golden Ticket!! (Just like Charlie Buckett of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory!!) Buy a ticket and leave on May 21 with one of these amazing pieces (and this is only a small sampling!)

THe wonderful quilt above is by fiber artist Lorie McCown.

Her is the set of Jewelry created by Leslie Brier of Brier Design and myself. We are thrilled to have it displayed with Lorie's wonderful piece!!!


This is a detail shot of a fabulous tiled mirror created by potter Anna Branner. I love Anna's style and whimsey! Can you see the little woodland elf peeking out from behind the leaf??
Below you will see a shot of the complete mirror. It is not hung quite yet as it requires some heavy duty hardware to secure it!!!

This amazing piece of textile art was hand knit by the fabulous Anne Norse. Anne used wonderful silk yarn to creat this gossamer fine shawl. Anne is a founding member of the Fredericksburg Spinners, Weavers and Fiber Arts Guild.

The Fiber Arts Guild provides Liberty Town with a bottomless well of incredible talent. This shawl is handwoven from fine silk thread by the fabulous Diane of Woven Gems. Be sure to click on the photo to see the detailed weaving pattern that Diane used to create this lucious piece. it is stunning and I am sure that it will be one of the first pieces picked by ticket holders on May 21'st!!!

I ahve spoken of artist Ariel Freeman several times before. You may know that ihave taken several watercolor classes form Ariel and she is a fabulous artist and a gifted teacher. This glorious white iris is Ariel's contribution to the Patron's Show. This stunning piece is quite large and will light up any space. This is one of my favorite pieces but then you all know how much I adore White Flowers!!

This wonderful landscape piece has been painted by multi talented painter, weaver and clay artist Lynette Reed. This stunning piece reflects the wonderful changing skys and landscapes of Virginia. Lynette has

painted this piece on a black substrate and the result is absolutely stunning!!!

#10 is a wonderfully whimsical collage painting done by artist Elizabeth Seaver. Elizabeth has a wonderfully happy style and her paintings never last for long at Liberty Town!!!

Elizabeth contibuted several pieces to the Patron's Show but you will have to come to the show to see her other wonderful works! I can't give it all waway, now can I?????

This wonderful bird has been painted atop a collage by Artist Rob Landeck. I am just getting to know Rob's work but I do know that he has a wonderful depth of talent and always presents his outlook on life in new and different ways!

This is only a very SMALL sampling of the 50+ pieces of amazing art available beginning tonight at Liberty Town Artist's Studio's. Anyone who wishes, may join in and purchase a MAGIC TICKET and participate in the Raffle that will take palce on May 21'st. With only one ticket sold per item of art , so everyone will leave with apiece of art worth at least $200.00!!!! All proceeds will support the amazing community that is Liberty Town!!

I can't wait!!