Gone way too long.........

It has been a very hectic and crazy fall and the blogging has definitely suffered!!  To keep this short and very visual I am going to give you a picture review of some of the things that have been keeping me busy since my last post!!!

Stitching journals with my own sun prints and creating Art Quilts.

Creating some fun textile necklaces with my fabric/paper/resin beads for sale at Artful Dimensions Gallery.

Managed to squeeze in a trip to Cape Cod to visit my Mom over a long weekend in October.  I even managed to catch a glorious sunset at Rock Harbor in Orleans, MA.

Got some shots of some sea gulls hunkering down for some blustery weather!!

We took a wonderful little drive to a friends organic sheep and veg farm!!

Once back in VA, I have taught several classes, Collage Jewelry classes have been very popular.

I took part in Fredericksburg VA, first experiment with Yarn Bombing!  Hopefully more events will be coming this summer!!

I was very involved in the Presidential Campaign for Barack Obama !! Becca and I were able to get VIP tickets to go to a Rally featuring our wonderful First Lady, Michelle Obama!!  What a thrill that was!!! She is such an amazing woman, incredible Ambassador for our Country, a wonderful Mother and an amazing speaker!!

Unfortunately we could not get close enough to shake her hand or to give her a hug.

Becca and I had a wonderfully inspiring time with all sorts of like minded Democrats and Obama supporters!!

Election night was so very exciting as our candidates,  President Obama and Senator Tim Kaine, easily won their respective political races!!!! I spent many hours working the phones and knocking on doors to make sure that Virginia came out in the Democrats column. Such a relief!!

Buddy and I spent several hours sewing and getting things organized in the sewing room .  I have been making finger-less gloves using cashmere and wool sweaters that I have recovered and re purposed after felting the sweaters in the washing machine.

This group of my gloves have already been sold but I have just listed several new pairs in my Etsy shop.  You can take a peek here.

I created some collaged fabric with silk fibers, silk fabrics, wool fibers and recycled cashmere sweaters to create this swing vest.  After needle felting , lots of free motion embroidery and then wet felting, this garment is now available for purchase at Artful Dimensions Gallery in Fredericksburg, VA.

Creating this piece was a wonderful adventure and I plan to work on many more garments in the near future.

So that is a quick wrap up of what I have been doing with some of my time!  I promise not to ignore my blog and my wonderful followers for such a long period again!! I have missed you all!  I hope that everyone has had a wonderful Fall and Thanksgiving , Spring if you are among my Down Under buddies!! 

ART ON EVERYONE!!!! 

Lots of Teaching and a New Toy!!

It has been a long time since my last post and I have been very busy!!  I have been busy teaching, developing new classes,

(Class samples for a new Needle Felted Cuff class at Artistic Artifacts)

and making class samples for display at various venues and shows.

 I have also been working intently on a quilt for the Arts and Old Lace Quilt Challenge.  This is another challenge created by quilt artists Cyndi Souder and Judy Gula of the Power Suit Challenge .  This challenge is much more suited to my style as it involves using old lace.

 Cyndi received an offer of fabrics and laces left over from a bridal shop. Not wanting to turn down such a generous donation of such fabulous textiles, the Arts and Old Lace Challenge Quilt Project was born!!  Cyndi is a master of such things and has a real knack for promoting and organizing such events!!
 The excitement is building as the due date arrives (May 31) and I am still working on my piece!  The truth be told, I misplaced my packet in my home studio and after spending two full days trying to locate it, I cried UNCLE and asked if there were any stray bits left over.  Judy rustled up some scraps, I pulled out a bunch of bits to use from my stash and  dove into the process.

I cannot reveal anything significant till after the show date ( July 21 at the Artistic Artifacts Annex in Alexandria VA)  But I will show you a few details and teaser photos.

I have been very inspired by Allison aller's wonderful new book all about embellishment and I used her technique for using Angelina (c)  fibers fused to silk fabric and then cut out each floret by hand ,to create this  flower.  One very important tip: use very sharp scissors!!  I love these by Havels!  You can purchse them here, of course!!

I used a piece of a vintage bureau scarf here and added some seed beads inside the lazy daisy stitches that formed the leaves around the flowers.  The stitches had gotten kind of , well LAZY  looking and the beads perked everything right up!

Here I kept up with my feather stitch work that i used so much in my Coral Cacophony piece and created some feathery foliage.   A few beads added to this lovely vintage doily really added some great sparkle! Ok that's it! No more for now.  I may show a few more photos of tiny portions before the Big Opening , so you will have to stop by again!

Now, for a change of subject, My New Toy!!  My wonderful husband and kids have gotten me a wonderful teaching tool for a combined Mother's Day + Birthday gift!  It is an Asus Tablet with keyboard docking station!!  Cover your ears Apple product fans , but it is much BETTER than the IPAD as it allows you to add memory and has a USB port .  I can load entire slide shows of teaching techniques and examples that I can use to introduce ideas and techniques at the start of my classes.  It has a large touch screen that allows you to zoom in on stitching details and it can be passed around from student to student and pictures flipped through with a flick of the finger without worrying about dropping a stack of pictures on the floor!!  Brilliant I tell you!!!  I used it today for the first time in one of my classes and it was the BOMB!!!!! 

The tablet portion can easily detach from the key board and serve as a tablet for easy passing about.  here are a few pictures to show you how I am using this wonderful teaching assistant!!

Here is the tablet with keyboard attached showing a picture of my finished tapestry Coral Cacophony.

Simply by touching the screen and spreading my fingers I can zoom in on any detail to discuss any aspect of the piece.

For example we talked about using the same stitch but in different thread types and sizes to achieve depth in a tapestry piece.  I was able to find a spot on the tapestry where I had used the technique and describe how I had done it and what materials I had used.  (All the while the actual piece is hanging in the gallery at Artful Dimensions in Fredericksburg!)

Then with another flick of my finger, I was able to move over to another spot and talk about other details, like rocks wrapped and stitched into bits of lace, for example!!!

Just could not be more useful , fun and informative!!!  Now when I have trouble finding the words to describe what I am trying to explain, I can circumvent the stuttering mouth -brain connection and whisk out the tablet with the pictures that are worth so many thousands of words!!!!

I am so very lucky to have such a wonderful family to support my artistic efforts and a husband who adores setting up the new tools for me!!!

Fabric Book Swap-Opening Doors

One of the new committments that I have taken on for this year is a Fabric Book Page Swap with a group from Stitching Fingers. There are 12 of us in the swap and we each make a page for one other person based on a specific theme, once a month. For this month the page theme was "Doors". THis is the page that I created. The first thing that came to mind when I saw the theme was the hidden door to the Secret Garden.
I created the door from heavy Duty Interfacing and painted it with acrylics and then added free motion embroidery to add details. The hinges are made of leather as is the door handle. The door opens to reveal a fabric/paper collage.

I needle felted the surrounding forest with wool fleece and then added embroidery and beading details.

I kept the back very simple using a printed fabric and adding a small pocket for a tag that holds swap info.

I had promised myself that I was going to cut back on the number of swaps as I was always creating really good work that was being sent away, never to be seen again. I was getting some great work in return but I knew that I needed to focus on refining my style and creating a business plan for my work. This project with such a wonderfully talented bunch of gals was too good to pass up. I have already started work on the Page for February which will be done all in WHITE, one of my favorite challenges- especially considering the bright and bold path I have been following lately.