Patsy Thompson

Here's another great link for all of you fiber artists...
My friend, Patsy Thompson, has put up a blog post about the quilt top that I did an entry about last week.
Jeez - did that make sense?

I'll try it again...

Last week, I did a blog post about a quilt top that my friend Patsy made.
Go over to her blog and have a look!
(much better, huh?)

As are her photo's and explanation too.
If you've never seen her machine quilting up close (and personal)
you should go to a show ( or class) ( or demo) and look at it.
She is just SO SO talented!
And what an awesome teacher! Her DVDs make it so easy to follow along...
they are clear and concise - they have print outs as well.
And there are free downloads over at her web site!
FREE I tell you!
And a lot of them.
I actually have no idea how many DVDs that Patsy and Ernie (her fabulous) (and funny) husband have.
Go and check that out too.

And how was YOUR Thanksgiving America?
Mine was great - spent with my Baby, family, friends and a plate full of favorite Thanksgiving dishes.
I'd list them all but I had no idea what some of them were called! But they sure did taste good.
My very favorite thing of all was the company that we were with.

The past couple of weeks, we have spent working in my studio.
I had just completed moving all the furniture around, organizing all of my supplies and hanging some original art work on the walls when there was a

slight problem.

"How slight?" you ask.
"Hmmm...not too slight." I answer.

"What all did it involve?" you ask.

Well, It involved some previously sagging sheet rock in my studio ceiling, one man fixing a kitchen ceiling leak,the back of that man's ankle, a Fairly Large Hole in the previously mentioned sagging sheet rock in my studio, about 40 years of heating with coal (and the soot from that heating method),
Kaboom!,
"Ah Shit!" (from the one in the attic)
(OK, maybe a little more verbiage than that)
and one frantic scream of
"Baby! Are you okay?!"
from me.
(oh yeah - and the "Stop! Stop!" that I think I screamed when the Pink Panther insulation appeared to be falling into my studio along with the ceiling sheet rock, the years of accumulated soot, the nails (notice I said "nails" and not "sheet rock nails" that SHOULD HAVE BEEN USED there), the various items that tumbled off of the shelves that they were previously situated on top of including (but not limited to) books, antique family Bibles, vintage stuffed dolls & animals, fabric, spools of fabulously colored rayon thread, embroidery thread, paint, paintbrushes, paper, canvas, artist art paper, journal books...you get the picture?
Anyway...where was I going with (or at) that?!

This is where we are with it - ceiling fixed! (Yeah - hired someone for that job.)
We had to clean the walls, the floor, the doors, the windows and the ceiling itself.
Oh, I didn't mention
Every.
Single.
Item.
In.
The.
Room.
Did I?
Yes. We did.
I am SO thankful for a couple of things.
My ceiling worker, Baby, did not get hurt in all of this. (So, so thankful for this!)
And while I was re-organizing my "stuff"the past few months, I had put the majority of my things in clear plastic containers. It kept the years of soot away from all of the tiny pieces of fabric, the multitudes of plain white and decorative paper, collage items and miscellaneous other items that I keep in my studio.
And I keep a lot of items of my studio.
A lot of really cool things, actually.
But It's All Good.

And it's okay.

Now.

Happy Thanksgiving

I hope that all of you ( in the United States) have a safe and joyful Thanksgiving!

Great link

My friend, Judy Simmons, has done an awesome blog post
on our get together this week.
Run on over and read it!

Surface Design 2

I was so busy oohing and aahing over Judy Simmons surface design samples that I didn't get any pictures! But those of you that know Judy and have seen her work, know exactly what I mean!
I love the way that she manipulates the photos in Photoshop and then prints them on different fabrics.
And organized? Is that lady organized!
You should see her notebooks that are full of samples, all logged in with the particular fabric and what she did to it.
The sheer bird that I used on the collage in my header was printed under Judy's direction and help.
I've ask her about getting photos so I can post them and hopefully some time next week I'll be able to (computer problems prevent that right now).
Anyway, that ends a week long posting spree about the little group that met at the Arboretum this week.
Oh, I did do a "doodle drawing demo" (say that fast three times) and had everyone drawing up a storm by the end of the day.
Even when they all said they couldn't draw a stick man...

You should all get to the NC Arboretum if you can - I want to go back and see what the walking trail has to offer. It looked like it would be an awesome walk through the woods - I'm sure I might be able to find some goodies there.

Art House Co-op Street Team News

As a member of the Art House Street Team, I get news of new opportunities to exhibit your work as an artist...
or author.

Here's one for all of you self portrait fans - check it out!



And here is another for the author (or budding author) , 'zine writer or children's book illustrators in your home.
It's the first ever Art House literary project.

What an awesome opportunity to get your work out there and to tempt your creative taste buds!

Surface Design

Can you believe it?
A new blog post for three days in a row...
That may be a record for me.
And that, in itself, is rather funny. Anyone that knows me, knows that I tend to talk a lot
(I saw all of you rolling your eyes!) but you would think that I'd have more to say.
And I do (have a lot to say) it just takes me SOOOO long to do a blog post.
I like to add links, and have accurate facts and go on and on about things.
Kinda like I'm doing now.
Hmmmm.
So, without muddling up the issue any longer, I'll get on with what I came here to post about.
Friends, fibers and those that are freaks about both.
No really.
I've added some photos of fabric (and fiber) that my friend Nancy Bruce rusted.
Now, you all know that I love rusty stuff (and rusting stuff) but Nancy has been doing this longer than I have.
I think she said for about 10 years.
That's a lot of time. And a lot of rusty stuff.
She found this really cool piece that was awesome to rust with at an antique/consignment shop that we all went to a while back.
Here's a beautiful scarf.


Another scarf - same kind actually but rusted under different weather conditions. Notice how the one below has a much heavier application of rust ( or rust color).



Look at that awesome pattern from the item that was rusting. I can just imagine all sorts of interesting uses for this fiber piece.

Show and Tell

I'm managing to keep my word in posting more photos from my little trip up the mountain yesterday.
My friend Patsy is such an awesome machine quilter - I love her work.
And the colors!
Oh my - she hand dyes all her fabric (check out her blog and DVD's for instructions on that!).
Did you know that she has completely free quilting designs that you can download on her web site?
Yes, completely FREE!
This piece is one that she recently revisited and did some thread work on.
You can't really tell by the photo but the thread on the smaller design elements looks almost fluorescent.
Can't remember the name of it but I loved it!

This is another WIP that she brought - love the applique.
And this one - wow...can you see the machine quilting on this piece?!
It is Beautiful! She said that she used a liquid stitch product to fuse (? right word?) the edges of the green section down.
I think I have early Alzheimer's...I can't remember anything!
Perhaps it's some of the medication that I take that is doing it to me.
Couldn't be that I'm getting older...could it?
It could be that I just need to write things down...
that just might help.

She has a photo gallery on her web site as well -

you should go visit and see what fabulous works of art that she has created.

Besides being a Master Machine Quilter, Patsy is a beautiful woman with a heart of gold.

I love spending time with her!

NC Arboretum

I love trees. And bark.
Leaves are cool too just harder to come by this time of the year around here...
I went to the NC Arboretum today and met with a few of my good friends -
fellow Fiber Junkies, to be exact.
(Missed you Mary!)
All the trees and landscape plants are labeled...
really nice way to keep up with the names if you remember to either write it down
or take a picture of the label...
Which I forgot to do.
Anyway -
look at the bark on this beauty!

See how the areas of the trunk that are between the peeling pieces of bark is that sand or tan color?
I picked up a few pieces of bark (off the ground)
and the back side is that same color!
The front is just what you see on the photo- gray brown with the reddish/rust areas sprinkled around on it.
The back side is that beautiful tan/sand color.
I can just see those bark pieces in a nature themed book, can't you? I loved the ferns in the background area. They look like the same ones that I have in one of my flower gardens. Except bigger. And better.
Sorry for the duplicate photo.

I have many more photos of not only the Arboretum but some Show n' Tell pieces too.
I'll post them later this week.
We had a blast, talking, laughing, drawing and painting.

I am really blessed to be in the company of such talented artists.
You know, if you are able to meet with, hang out with or just generally tag along
with a group of similar artist like yourself, you really need to.
It's so fulfilling to listen to the interaction as well as the things that you can learn from them.
And you never know - you just Never Know what you have to offer them...

So what you need to do is reach out.
Find some like minded peeps and gather them close.
Share your talent and
Let your light shine!

Patterns Everywhere

I can't help but notice patterns everywhere I go.
While driving (well riding) down the Interstate highway with my husband, I noticed some really cool patterns in these PVC pipes that were stacked up on a big truck.
If you look closely, you can see the star pattern around each pipe.
See?

Visual Poetry

This is habit forming...

Visual Poetry

I have been taking more time with photography here lately.
Really trying to think about the what, the how, the why of what I see in my view finder.
And the "what am I going to do with it when I take it" of a photograph.
I own Adobe Photoshop Elements 7. And that's about all I could say about it.
I didn't know what to do with it...
but I have a remedy to that...
Visual Poetry.
Susan Tuttle.
Below are a couple of things that I did on PSE 7 with Susan's help
(she holds me hand...I hear her voice whispering to me, telling me what to do).
The first is a side street in Charleston SC. I've managed to make it all vintage & retro (even though I liked the regular shot as well).
The second was a shot of me that my handsome hubby took -
I actually know how to round corners now!

When I meet online friends in person, several have said things like
"Wow. I thought you would have been taller than that."
or
"Wow. Just lookin' at your picture online, I thought you were a lot taller than that."
or
"Wow. You're short."
I just want to let everyone know that I'm just right for my height...
I am 5'1".
That's not short - that's petite.
That's
Just.
Right.

Heart Rocks

I'm always looking for heart shapes - a lot of people I know do this.
It's so interesting to see what you can find!
I see a lot of rocks while I'm out and about...
Here are a couple that caught my eye last weekend.
I hope that you're all feeling well.
I'm enjoying this southern fall weather.


Are you flexing your creative muscles?
Are you carving out a little bit of time to do the things that you really love to do?

Weekend Photo's

Even though the weather was lousy,

the company was great this past weekend.

I managed to snap a couple of interesting photo's

at Lake Jocasse.

I'm at home today - trying to recover from what my internist calls

"viral induced asthma".

Go figure.

No wonder I couldn't take more than 8 steps while carrying that kayak

in Charleston...