When things get busy, the busier I get.........

This is the fabric collage art Quilt that I just finished. I came in just under the deadline wire on this one. I am really pleased because I kept on stitiching till it told me that I was done. At other times I might not have pushed myself quite as hard to make the deadline. This piece had me in it's grip and would not let me quit. The title of this piece is "As Color Returns".

I have just been told that it has juried in to the "Viewpoints" National Show at the Fredericksburg Center for the Creative Arts that will hang in March!! I am so excited! According to the Curator of the gallery, the Juror was quite tough and only accepted 39 pieces for this show. I am very honored to have my work chosen.

Every year at about this time, I start dreaming of Spring. I start wandering in the garden looking for signs of renewed growth. Are any of the bulbs planted last fall peeking out of the cold soil yet, are any of the buds ont he tree's starting to swell? Last week Becca noticed a huge flock of Robins in our yard scratching around amoung the leaf litter looking for bugs to eat. This is quite early for the robins to be showing up- a definate sign that Spring will be here in Virginia soon. Yet here I sit looking out at snow and ice......
Last year I took the photo that I used in this collage of new ferns emerging and unfurling to greet the warm air. I printed the photo on fine cotton and then stitched it to the background of woven found fabrics. The fabrics include a lovely soft raw silk, linen, rusted cotton and handprinted cotton that was then rusted. I tea and coffee dyed some of the cottons and a linen from a damask table cloth.
I have been inspired to create a collage in fabrics after seeing some of artist Jude Hill's amazing Slow Cloths and reading several of her articles in Cloth Paper Scissors. Looking at her pieces reminded me of simple weavings like potholders and rag rugs. Many of us who are still working with textiles, cut our fabric teeth on the square metal potholder frames and the accompaning bag of loops. As I was putting the background piece together I kept thinking of simple stitching projects and how those beginings in fiber works have led me here.

Once the background was together the stitching began and it was almost hard to stop. It really became a beloved project, one that I looked forward to sitting down to at every opportunity.

I have already started writing down ideas and sketching out plans for several more collages. Some will have much more color than this one but beyond that we will have to wait and see.

I will be back soon to share some of the other projects that have kept me running and creating lately. I have lots to share! Hopefully this snow that I am looking at will melt and reveal some new signs of Spring!!! Fingers Crossed!!!

Some Small Works in progress

The small collage above is for the page swap that I am participating in. The gal who will recieve this page had chosen Leaves as her page theme. I am having alot of fun working on this piece, doing all of the work by hand and using only my own hand dyed or hand painted textiles in the work.


I have been enjoying playing around with my small sun printed bits and I have begun to create some small collages for a Call for Art that has been sent out by Liberty Town in Fredericksburg, VA. It is time for me to get back into the juried art game after taking a bit of a break after both of my Bird textile Collage pieces were rejected from the Birds and Words Show. One has to keep on plugging and take all lessons wherever we can find them. We learn valuable things from both the good and the not so great! So I have "gotten back on the bike", so to speak and I will be entering at least one piece to the 6x6 Show for October. The rules state that all mediums are welcome both 2-d and 3-d, but no piece may be larger than 6 inchesby 6 inches by 6inches.
The pictures below are all pieces that I will consider submitting for the Liberty Town Show. I have done all of the stitching work on these pieces by hand and all of the fabrics have been hand dyed or painted by me, using a whole variety of different techniques. Lately I have been enjoying following the blog called Spirit Cloth by phenomenol textile artist Jude Hill. If you do not know of Jude , her classes and her wonderful blog, I cannot reccommend it highly enough.
You simply must stop by for a visit and see what wonders she creates with simple cloth and thoughtful hand done stitch!!
Combining simple techniques, by hand with wonderful color and lots of thought are all things that Jude espouses and I find that I am really enjoying following along in my own way, with my own work. I think that some of you may see her influence is some of my recent collage work.

This sun print was done using an entire tiny maple tree seedling. Each fall, I ahve hundreds of these little guys popping up all over the yard. The leaves are so tiny and perfect and the roots of this one appeared in the sunprint. I backed it with a piece of monoprinted cloth that shows root-like threads flowing down at the bottom. With some added stitching a filled in the roots of the sun print making them extend off of the sun printed cloth and onto the background.

This collage is quickly becoming my favorite as I love the way the clover left it's halo on the linen cloth. The colors may have something to do with it as well!! I think that I will call this piece "IN CLOVER".

I like the feeling of depth that has been achieved by backing this crisp acacia leaf print with the softer fern sun print background cloth. The lemon green frayed cloth at the bottom is a scrap of hand dyed silk.

Below you will find the three finished mini Art Quilts that I have submitted for the 6x6 show at Liberty Town.

For each piece I used ahnd dyed or painted cloth for the backing fabric and I added a simple hanging sleeve and small dowel rod and wire for ahnging purposes. This is In Clover and is 6x6 inches.

This is Acacia and is 5x6.

This is Maple and is 4.5x6.




As I have enjoyed creating these pieces I think that I am going to go ahead and make several more textile/mixed media collages for several upcoming Small Works and Holiday Shows.