Let Me Entertain You

It's amazing how liberating it is to post your most personal art work.

I have posted paintings that I have done...

ones that I felt were FAR below The Mark.

Way below The Mark...

but you know what?

These paintings show that I am trying...

I am Doing The Work.

I am Practicing...

I am working towards My Goal.

Sooo...in that same vein, I thought

I'd really step out there

and share some more...

My sketch book.

Anyone who knows me (loves me...).

knows that there are a couple of things that I hardly ever travel without -

my sketch book and a small bag of knitting.

My theory is that

1. You never know when The Muse or Inspiration will hit - You HAVE to have your sketch book or some paper to catch a few frantic marks to decipher later.

2. You never know when you're going to get stuck in traffic(or the doctor office).

I HAVE to have Something to keep me busy.

(I often carry a couple of my fav magazines - Quilting Arts or Cloth, Paper, and Scissors.

You don't subscribe to them?! No WAY!

You HAVE to!

If you're reading my blog,

and you like the kinds of things that I do then

you MUST SUBSCRIBE

to both of these magazines!

GO NOW, SUBSCRIBE.

Back to The Post.

So, I decided that if I felt so much better after posting these paintings,

imagine how awesome I would feel

after posting a few pages from my beloved Sketch Book.

So I decided to give it a try.

Here are a few random pages...different subjects...

they range from bunnies to tassels to rubber stamp houses to faces...

and a little in between.

This tree was copied from "The Decorated Page" by Gwen Diehn.

This book is wonderful!

I have checked it out from the local library

at least 5 times...

I need to buy it actually...

perhaps I'll tell Santa about it.

I was practicing my name

after looking in "Modern Mark Making" by Lisa Engelbrecht.

Another Must Have book.

And I do Have that one!

This is a design for a purse tassel that I sketched up.

I have a similar one on my Origami Purse.

I am teaching that class at My Quilt Shoppe

in Hendersonville NC on Dec. 13 of this year.

Click on the above link for info about it.

It's a great class that is from 10:00 am -3:00pm. Based on your sewing skills, you could leave with a purse on your arm!

I'll be sharing quick and easy quilting tips and I promise we will be having FUN!

This is a great gift idea for Christmas too!

Or a quick, really nice gift for your self!

Call the shop at 828/692-8870 to register and

get your supply list.

Do it TODAY!

This is Bunny...a tale for another day.


I saw a rubber stamp with a house similar to this...can't remember the designer though. If you know, let me know and I'll post the name.

A quick sketch of a face.

Practice, practice, practice!

Hey, it's those Bunnies again...same Bunny, same story...
Another day, another tale.

This is a double spread from sketches I made...

either from memory or some book on cartooning from the Local Library.

I really have to jot down book titles and authors.

I try to give credit at every chance I can

but this is once that I failed to write down all the pertinant info.

Sorry!

Another double page spread.

Same story, some I made up, some I copied from books.

I tend to do much better when I have something to look at.

My son (who is an awesome cartoon artist) does better drawing from his imagination.

We envy each other...

but respect the others talent more than envy.

This last page is from a book that was about character development in animation.

I'll try to get names and titles..

I REALLY am sorry not to have them.

Ok...that's enough "sharing" for me for one night.

Hope that you enjoy my humble offerings as much as I enjoyed sketching them.

Now,

Go

and

Draw.

Dose of Delivered Inspiration

Look at what my UPS man brought today...

A Martha Lever Excettera Journal.

She uses her own calligraphy and hand drawn/painted images

to form a beautiful collage that graces the front of this lined notebook.

You have to go to her Etsy shop and

look at all the yummy things that she has there.

I LOVE this journal!

I had seen them in her shop

but failed to order one

before she sold out...

So, I emailed her and ask if she was going to do more.

I'm so glad that I ask

instead of just wishing I had of bought it when I first saw it.

Within a day or two, there they were...

The most difficult thing was

deciding which one that I wanted.

I'm excited too

cause she is developing one with

Poppies

on it.

I love Poppies and Martha's are

Awesome!

And look at the note card she sent with it!

Beautiful enough to frame.

And the sweetest note

on the back of it...

I can just feel her beautiful spirit in all of her work.

Follow her blog here

and get your daily dose of Martha (Lever not Stewart)!

I've Been Painting

Camping at Lake Jocasse

Imagine being surrounded by a beautiful view like this...

every side, every direction that you look you see these beautiful rolling mountains...

sparkling clear water...

leaves bursting with color...

loons diving for fish...

otters rolling around the water...

sea gulls,

scuba divers...

wait...scuba divers...?

Yep, another favorite spot for the local scuba divers is Lake Jocasse...

did I mention how deep this lake is? How great the under water visibility is?

We did see all of the above items...

the otters were definitely the cutest...

they were just as interested in us as we were in them!

Anyway, here are a couple or three pictures.

We were so busy enjoying the scenery that we didn't take many pictures...

Another excuse to go back now...

My husband had the camera all day...

his view of things...

Can you see the loons in this picture?

(ha ha-not the one above this comment...it's the next one silly!)

We couldn't get too close to them without scaring them away.

The next pictures were taken at the camp site.

I noticed this wonderful fungal growth (or mushrooms?) on the side of a tree and had to take a picture of it.

Then I noticed the hole in the tree under it...

it had an acorn tucked inside of it!

Isn't that cool?!

This friendly fellow was creeping around the camp site...

trying to camouflage himself on the neighboring leaf...

I looked in Wikipedia but couldn't find an exact entry of this bug. If you know the name of it, please feel free to add a comment with it.

Oh, and sorry for the blurred picture...

We were camped beside a cute couple from Lexington SC, Johnathan and Shelise.

He is in the military and she is a dental hygienist.

They sat by the fire with us Saturday night into the wee hours of the morning, laughing and talking.

And graciously accepted our invitation to breakfast the next morning.

Isn't it great to meet and make friends every where you go?

Felting Leaves

The leaf that I am felting began life

as a flat piece of beautiful variegated felt from Nancy Bruce.

Here it is after I had cut the

pattern from a tracing of a cookie cutter.
I say why use the cookie cutter to cut cookies

when you can just eat the dough

and use the cutter for much more interesting things...?!

After cutting this, I began adding layers

of boldly colored roving (hand dyed by Nancy), felting them after each layer.

I found this to be such a soothing, rhythmic activity...

a mindless type of thing...

great for people like me

that can't seem to even sit in front of the TV without

DOING SOMETHING...

anyone out there like that?

I like to have something in my hands, like knitting, crochet, drawing...

just SOMETHING to DO.

Here is a scan of the type of roving and fiber

that I used on top of my felt leaf.

After some nice soothing felting activity,

I decided to add a yarn outline and some veins to the leaf.

I liked this better, the way that it defined the edges...

while adding more Autumn colors to the mix.

I'll add some beads and baubles...

what is a felted leaf

without a few beads and baubles anyway?

I'll try to see if Nancy has a blog or a website

(you should Nancy!)

(You need an Etsy site or something...

your work is much too beautiful to keep hidden at your home!)

Does everyone that has seen her work agree with me?

Right, Patsy?

Well, I think that this new art form that I have learned will really add a lot to upcoming fiber pieces...

So thanks Nancy for giving me a good foundation to start on!

I'm looking forward to adding to my felting skills.

I've Been Bitten By A Bug...

Perhaps you can help me identify the pesky thing...

Any ideas? Here's another look or two of others like it.

Ahhh, great you figured it out!

It's dry felting!

This is the first time that I have done it and I really like it! I think that I'll try more but before that I'll show you pics of the Felting Class with Nancy Butler at our monthly Fiber Art Alliance meeting in Asheville NC.

All the beautiful pieces above are done by Nancy...she is so talented and such a great teacher!

My pictures do not do her work justice.

They must be seen in person to apprecite all the design work she has done.

She was a little nervous at first but she did a great job.

Thanks Nancy!

There's my buddy Anita Heady.

She has started a Quilting Arts Alliance in Athens Georgia.

Email her for questions.

And there's two of my most favorite people in NC...

Patsy Thompson and Gen Grundy.

Look at Patsy's site for AWESOME free motion quilting DVDs.

And the Light...

The Bendable Light.

Get one.

Today.

It TOTALLY revolutionized my sewing!

And My Gen (yes, Jane, she is MY Gen)...

so happy to see her again!

And I hope you're feeling better Gen!

Look at these ladies, working so hard!

I am so sorry I didn't get their names to post...

forgive me.

I did ask permission to take their picture though.