Quilting Arts Gifts magazine

I have an article published in the 2013/2014 Gifts magazine!

I wrote an article about creating (really nice) scarves out of cotton jersey, thermofax screens and deColourant (a color discharging product).

On one of the scarves, I wrote (copied) a poem in longhand with the deColourant in a small-tip container.
Here's a shot of editor Jane Davila wearing it in her "Editor's Note" in the front of the magazine.
It looks good on you Jane!

The staff did a great job setting up the shot.

So - run out and get a copy.
Then go home (or to a friends home) and make something!


Okay one more thing.
Go to my Etsy shop and look at the thermofax screens there.
They are exactly what you need to make one (or several) of these scarves.
If you want one of the fern screens, comment here and I'll set up a private sale for you.
I don't think that those screens are listed there. The fern on the black scarf is there not the one on the red scarf though.
But the bee in the red scarf is! I drew that honey bee so you will find it listed under the "Artist Drawn" screens.

Now, my friends, you need to keep flexing your creative muscles.
I know that I haven't been flexing my writing muscle (i.e.blog writing) but I've been flexing my drawing, painting, stitching and dyeing muscles while I've been quiet here.
Oh and my fishing muscles too!

Seriously, I do know how very important it is to keep being creative.
It is the oxygen that I breathe in.
It helps me to blow off anger, illness, guilt and sadness.

Without creativity, I am nothing.
It sounds dramatic and it is...I would be boring, depressed and very, very ill if I allowed my creativity to whither.
You will be as well if you don't keep exercising that particular muscle!

Just.
Do.
It.

Published!

I just found out that at least one of my pieces for the "8 That Create" group show in New York (back in the fall)  is in the latest "Quilting Arts" magazine!

I completed 5 different pieces of art for the show and loved all of them.
I know that the paper dress is in the article on creating 3D pieces of artwork.
I really wanted to make a larger 3D piece but just ran out of time...so I made a teeny tiny dress out of a sheet of handmade collage paper. I used pieces of an 1878 women's magazine about fashion.
There were drawings of the latest Paris fashions, the hats, the shoes - everything that a well dressed woman should desire.
I thought that they looked uncomfortable and cumbersome.
I suppose that I would have been a renegade back then too!
Here are some photos of the dress.
I placed it in a vintage looking shadowbox that gave the dress more of an antique look.
I used lace that my grandmother had wound around an old piece of newspaper. She always saved every little snippet of lace, ribbon and fabric for later use.
(so that's where I got that habit from!)

This is vintage lace from my grandmother's extensive stash.
She was a doll doctor as well as a quilter and maker of many other things.
I have most of the materials that she used to make doll clothes.
Lucky me, right?

I loved using the original articles from the journal.

The drawings were so interesting.

Do not fail to send for that Portfolio of Fashions, ladies!

I also used vintage netting (tulle) on the dress. I was originally going
to have a tulle skirt but didn't like the bulk that it gave the dress.
I had already sewn it on the dress so I just crunched it up
and created a belt for the dress.

"Quarterly Journal Dress"
The dress is apx. 10 inches long and 9' wide (the width of the sleeves as
they appear in the photo). I love the shadowbox frame.
It really allows the dress to be the star of the show.

I actually created another dress just like this one - the only difference is that I fused the scans of the paper onto tissue paper and then fused them to very light weight scrim.
Yes!
Tissue paper!
It is so soft and feels so dainty.

The tissue paper is so thin that you can see through the dress.
Hmmmm...I guess that I need to make a slip too...

This is an original piece of vintage pattern.
I used the original instead of scanning it and printing it out.

Who besides me can't help but looking up doll dresses?

I am planning on teaching this class at "Artistic Artifacts" in Alexandria Virginia this year.
I love teaching at Judy Gula's shop - tons of room to stretch out, lots of good shopping opportunities and I just love Judy and the shop staff.
I'll post the dates on my schedule as soon as I get my butt in gear and give them a date - I mean as soon as the dates are firmed up.
If you'd like to be notified of the date, please sign up for my newsletter (the one that I promise to send out this year). Or keep an eye on the blog.
This is the first piece of art that I have had published in Quilting Arts magazine...the first of many. I have several articles just waiting to be sent in for potential publishing.
Don't forget to buy your copy of "In Stitches" volume 9 to see my article there as well!

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.

I'm a Winner!

I regularly read Quilting Arts Magazine blog.

On August 8, there was a posting from Pokey about leaving a comment to win a goodie bag of screen printed fabrics that she was going to create.

So, what is a Fabric Fiend like me to do...?

Right!

Leave a comment!

On the August 11 post, I read that

I WAS ONE OF THE WINNERS!

How awesome is that?!

Last Friday, I received the most awesome assortment of hand created fabrics

that you could imagine.

So many luscious colors, shapes and designs.

I am posting pictures and scans of every single piece so you can see just how wonderful they are!

I showed them to my son and he ask what I was going to make with them...

I hmmm around and he finally said...

"I'd be afraid to cut in to them."

Well, well, well...

and he's not even a quilter!

But, I am going to be

FEARLESS

and use them.

Wow...

I'll have to get past the Creativity Retreat first and them come up with something.

Well, I finally gave in

and started my own blog. I read others and really enjoy them. What I really enjoy is seeing what all the other artists are creating...how they are creating it...I enjoy the learning experience as well as the sharing of info with others.

I will begin my Blog with a picture of my latest project. I went by Judy Coates Perez directions in the Apr/May Quilting Arts magazine. I changed a couple of things so I could use what I had available at home. Instead of using tea bags, I used an awesome product called Kimwipes. It's a low lint wipe used in a lot of industrial settings. My awesome husband is a sales engineer in an industrial setting, so I have access to them. They come in a box of 140 and measure 14 x 16 inches , plenty of room for a large design image if you want. And I believe they are reasonably priced ( even more so if you figure just how many designs you could put out with that many sheets!).

Anyway, here's the (unquilted) paper quilt.

I have had so much fun with this and learned quite a few things. Some things that I will do on the next one and some things that I won't. The tree in the center, the key hole and the small tree are all from the Kimwipes. Notice how the wipe paper almost disappers into the fabric background. It is also very transparent so it's easy to trace images. If you are interested in trying it , let me know and I'll try to get some.

Well, this has been a great week so far...I've actually been able to cross off a few things from my (growing) "to do" list...this blog included.

More later.