Discovering an Inspiration

I'm excited!  I love it when I come across something and, all of a sudden, my brain starts going bananas with inspiration.  What a fun feeling.
I've been going through a book I bought recently: Collage Sourcebook.  Many artists are featured including their techniques.  But one kept catching my eye.  And then I read an essay by her on her creative process.  I could identify with so many things she said...or I aspire to become that kind of free artist, an artist whose creations are the outpouring of my heart and my soul through my hands.   The artist is Deborah Putnoi.  And her website has so many encouraging and inspiring words and works...even for those of us who "can't draw".  I especially enjoyed her Journal pages.

I'm ripe for the picking on this, too, as I am starting to do more collage or assemblage with fiber-related materials. Yea for inspiration! :)

Both images are from Deborah Putnoi's site.

It's a treasure to be treasuried (Etsy treasury, that is!)

Kitty016 has been kind enough to include me in her treasury and I just love the shops that she's found.  It's worth a look-see-click :)!  (One of these days I'll learn the secret to copying the treasury in a smaller format...errrr)

Earth is loving wood and green

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  Maple Storage Bench, Ha...

  AbleandBaker
  $429.00 USD
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  Shipping Included- Hand...

  SmilingKnitting
  $49.00 USD
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  Floating Brass Butterfl...

  BrillianceFound
  $42.00 USD
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  4 Blue Buds Wine Tags /...

  cooljane
  $8.00 USD
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  Sitrin, Agat, Jade Gems...

  SevimsDesign
  $40.00 USD
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  Hooded Fall Folk Dress

  qwink
  $40.00 USD
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  Purse Organizer - Lime ...

  sweetbriarstudio
  $33.00 USD
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  total crock- vintage sp...

  harmoniepark
  $9.00 USD
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  NzLbags NEW Everyday Kn...

  NzLbags
  $68.00 USD
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  Copper Falls hearts and...

  Sumikoshop
  $21.00 USD
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  SALE - Sonoma Vineyard ...

  RobertsArt
  $55.00 USD
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  Primitive Tin Pumpkin S...

  PioneerLoft
  $3.95 USD
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  Men's Gladiator Sandal ...

  TreadLightGear
  $85.00 USD
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  o chalet V / original p...

  coolranchstudio
  $55.00 USD
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  Alone On The Branch 7 x...

  bernolli
  $20.00 USD
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  Free Shipping//The Anna...

  Emmamaha
  $18.00 USD

Geometry is my friend

The last class that I took from Peg Gignoux was called "Finding Your Personal Geometry" and here is the result: my first all-but-finished wall hanging. I had so much fun 'working' on it, too.  The only thing left to do is to put the finishing touches on the sides and back.  

The best part of this class was discovering that I absolutely loved the design process and the meditative cutting and arranging and hand-stitching.  I am newly encouraged to find my inner artist :). 

cotton, linen, taffeta, organza, silk, pearl rayon cording, multiple colors of thread

Xylem Series - In the Beginning

I've been having fun in my studio for the last few weeks coming up with a new wall hanging to have for the Art Show I'll be doing starting in August (more on that later).  My inspiration for this piece is an image magnified 2,000 times of conifer wood xylem cells*.  It has a very uneven, repetitive geometry that looked interesting enough to springboard from.  Using some of the techniques I learned in my last art textile class, I sewed and cut and sewed burlap, suedecloth, cotton and organza to make 4 long segments that will make up the background cloth.  And now, I'm appliquing organza, cotton, suedecloth and felt in swirly dollops down each segment.  The hours have gone by enjoyably with each stitch.

* From "Heaven & Earth: Unseen by the naked eye", published by Phaidon

Thread, Glorious Thread!

No one can accuse me of being afraid of color (but one could accuse me of being addicted to it).  Since I discovered Atlanta Thread, my thread stash is almost as big as my fabric stash :).  I love to use thread to add a zing or a subtle surprise.  It makes sewing infinitely more fun.

So which did I pick for this organizer?  Gutterman No. 16, my current fav (a pinky orangy red, 2nd from right).  (The green herringbone fabric came from Fabric Factory, the Paula Prass (of Michael Miller Fabrics) print is Par Avion and came from Little Cherubs.)

Margery's Place, uh, Purse!

Margery recently bought the "A Place For Everything" purse pattern and sent the photo, above, of her finished purse (well, actually, it's for her daughter).  I love it!  She wrote me, "You can just see I added a magnetic catch - I'd never used one before but it was easy - I put two extra layers of fabric behind each part to give some firmness.  Isn't the lining a perfect colour match? I was going to use a light colour (it's always dark inside handbags) but I found this in my local patchwork shop and loved it."  It really is fun to see what people have done with my patterns.  Thanks so much for sending the photo, Margery :).

"Home" Stats

Recently, I published a post of Where In The World I had shipped my purses, organizers, hats, felted pieces and sewing patterns.  While I was at it, I figured out where 'at home' I had shipped.   So here are some little known (ok, totally unknown until now) fun facts...at least for me:

• Sweetbriar Studio has shipped to 45 of the 50 states.
• My birth state, Pennsylvania, has 27 of my creations.

Of the other states I've called "home"...

• Colorado has 7.
• Japan, well, I guess I haven't shipped there...yet!
• Maryland has 12.
• Virginia has 15.
• California has 48 (yep, they're number One in the world so far).
• and I've shipped 15 to good ol' North Carolina.

(Yes, my dad was in the US Navy which accounts for at least 4 of my moves.) So thanks to everyone out there, in my home states or not, who have been so great to me.  I appreciate you!

Making (wacky) Fabric from (ordinary) Fabric

I recently learned how to make fabric from fabric, and I love it!  It gives me just one more way I can add my creative, personal touch to what I am making and can pizazz it up.  Plus, it's one more way to use up those bits of fabric I can't seem to throw away.

So here's how you can do it, too:

Begin by sewing strips of fabric together.  The strips should be 2 to 3 times the length of the finished piece you want to make.

The width of the sewn-together pieces should be about 2 times the width of your finished piece.

Now cut it up at angles...really, go ahead :).

Next, take these pieces and turn some of them in the other direction and rearrange them until they're all wonky...

Then, sew them together.  Whoaaa, it feels a little off the grid!

Here's what mine looked like. 

Now overlay your pattern piece wherever you want, annnnnd...

Cut it out! 

 

Yep, that's it.  Not bad, eh?  And it's so much more interesting and fun than just using what you buy the way you buy it.  Have fun!

Beads! (aka "More Fun With Fabric Scraps")

Recently, a friend, who is also an all-things-fiber fanatic, came over and showed me a few things to do with those eeny weeny fabric scraps I can't part with.  Among her many clever ideas were how to make fabric beads.  Fast-forward to last week when I was making a prototype of my new Pocket Purse design (pattern is now in my Etsy shop) and I started fooling around with this idea.  Wanna have some fun?  It is so dang easy, I'm kicking myself for not thinking of it myself.  Here are the easy squeezy steps:

First, lay a piece of fabric, ribbon, whatever, vertically....

Next, lay lots of little bits horizontally...

Place a coffee stirrer-type straw at the bottom...

And start rolling.

Put a dab of glue at the end just before rolling it all up.

Et Voila!

For one of the beads in the top photo, I wrapped wire around it and spaced glass beads every so often. 

Soooo fun! 

(Also see "Fabric Leftovers" by D'Arcy-Jean Milne for more ideas.)

Where in the World...?

One of the very fun things about having a shop on Etsy is that I get to 'meet' people from all over the world. Just for grins, I recently figured out where in the world my oh-so-nice customers are enjoying my creations. Drumroll please! I have shipped:

29 to Canada

13 to Australia

8 to the UK

5 to Brazil

5 to Germany

4 to Malaysia

4 to Singapore

3 to France

3 to Norway

1 each to Austria, Denmark, Greece, Italy, Mexico, The Netherlands, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and Turkey

...an all the rest to the US...

for a total of 550 orders to 21 countries in all. Fun! If I can't be a world traveler, I'm glad I can travel vicariously through my creative goodies :). Thank you World!