What are you making?

photo by Suebee's World 2014

Here's a two-fer: a photo of what Sue did with my Purse Organizer pattern AND a link to her blog "Suebee's World".  It's a great blog  with a LOT of info and great pics.  Go check it out.

But I should have said, here's a three-fer because here is a photo from Christi, too.

Thanks for sending in your photos.  It is a lot of fun to see what happened after my pattern goes out into the world :).

Look what Kristine and Vicki did!

Photo courtesy of Kristine C

I love it when customers send me photos of what they have created with my patterns.

Photo courtesy of Vicki B

And these are two really great looking organizers.  Vicki added the side tabs herself (photo above).

Thanks, Kristine and Vicki, for sending these photos!

Eight of Nana's tablecloths equals one great bathrobe!

One of my best girlfriends is a FABulous artist (with paint), so we decided to barter my sewing skills for her painting prowess.  Two years later (that's right!), I got started on a bathrobe made from a bunch of her favorite grandmom's vintage tablecloths. Stained and holey, these weren't so enjoyable on a table.  But repurposed into a robe?  Cha-ching!  Here is Happy Kim modeling her new robe...

So she gets to think of Nana and enjoy the cheery fabrics at the same time.  Note: This was Kim's idea; I just executed.

Now about that painting.... :).

Unforgotten in cloth, felt and stitches

For a while now, I've been wanting to combine the various media and techniques I've learned into one piece. I challenged myself to do just that in this piece entitled "Unforgotten".  Inspired by the poem by Robert Service, I wet-felted the background and then added details in fabric and stitches to render the written into the visual. The images can be enlarged by clicking on them.

"Unforgotten"

I know a garden where the lilies gleam,

And one who lingers in the sunshine there;

She is than white-stoled lily far more fair,

And oh, her eyes are heaven-lit with dream!

I know a garret, cold and dark and drear,

And one who toils and toils with tireless pen,

Until his brave, sad eyes grow weary – then

He seeks the stars, pale, silent as a seer.

And ah, it’s strange; for, desolate and dim,

Between these two there rolls an ocean wide;

Yet he is in the garden by her side

And she is in the garret there with him.

Poem by Robert Service

merino and corriedale wool roving, cotton, linen, embroidery thread, beads, cord, hand wet felted, machine and hand stitching

Xylem : Stitched

The life of a wall-hanging: 

From inspiration...

From "Heaven and Earth", published by Phaidon

to cutting and swirling and piecing and stitching...

to finished hanging...

to its debut at the "Come Out and Play" art show...

to sending it off to a new home :).

.

Adios Amiga!

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.

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

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 :).

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.)

Jelly Belly Button: revisited

I wrote about this piece last August as I described the felting process. But before I could take a good "The End" photo, I made the mistake of taking it up to my girlfriend's (for show-and-tell) and she convinced me that it had found its perfect home.

You see, she has a turquoise wall in her home that was the perfect compliment to my "Jelly Belly Button". And so it is.

[Why I didn't think to take a straight-on shot of it is a mystery (errr). Guess I'll just have to go back for a visit:).]

For those itty bitty fabric scraps...

One of my very favorite friends, and her very favorite man, just happened to mention that they were going to get married...that weekend! (They were flying to Vegas for a business conference.) You see, she didn't want any fanfare, no big deal made of it. Well, we showed her! Three of us took her out for a quickie shower :). You know, manicure, pedicure - all four of us lined up and chattering away. One brought flowers, one brought wine (do you know they didn't let us bring it into the salon - dang!), and one brought chocolate (of course). And I had a great time stitching up this card out of little bits and pieces of my can't-throw-the-minisculest-bit-away-fabric.
Two hearts. Intertwined. Just as it should be. Just as I hope they are for many, many, many years.

Bringing the art out of people and putting people into art!

I had the privilege (and fun) of helping out a wee bit with Peg Gignoux' latest collaboration. This time it is with Newcomers School in Greensboro, North Carolina.

(Click to enlarge and photo)

Peg (at right in the photo above) is working with art teacher Victoria Wreden Sadeq (left) and her students to create a textile work that reflects the students' amazing diversity and what it is to be a newcomer to this country. Fifty-two countries are represented by the students who worked on this piece! Peg worked with the students to dye organza to create a myriad of beautiful, translucent colors. Then the students wrote down words about what the colors of that cloth meant to them. There were some powerful words that reflected the kids' rural (and in some cases, textile) backgrounds in their home countries. The students then translated those words into their native languages, made stencils and cut the words out of their hand-dyed cloth. They incorporated (and sewed and fused) canvas, world maps and their words to make a very colorful collage. But that's not where it stopped. They cut it all up! They mixed it up!!

Because of Spring Break, Peg has been hand-stitching these pieces together herself. But, once the students return from their break, they will help finish the two sections. The work under construction is being made in two sections that, once mounted, will measure 264 " wide by 56 " high.

The Community Cloth project is designed to fit into the Newcomers School library but, before its installation there, it will be included in an exhibition at Green Hill Center for North Carolina Art (who sponsored the project) in Greensboro from April 9- May 1, 2010.

Peg also teaches various workshops (one I posted about previously - so great!) and works with other community groups to develop wonderful pieces of art. Stayed tuned to hear about her workshops in France!

Felting is not for wimps!

This week is officially "Felting Week" for me. I finally figured out that, although I can multitask, I cannot multi-focus. So I set all fabric and sewing aside and set about learning a new technique with fiber. "Not too exciting", you say? Oh, I beg to differ! It's all a matter of perspective.
And lest you think this looks pretty easy to do, let me just say this was one of the tougher workouts I've had in a very long time. Hello Hamstrings! Yep, I used my hands, my arms, my back, AND my feet and legs to beat this jelly roll into submission. But I do like the results :).

How Nice!

What a nice way to start my day: a note from Emma letting me know that she has featured me on her blog, http://noogalcreations.blogspot.com/. Please check her Etsy shop out, too - what fun feathery and oragami-inspired accessories she's made...

Prayers for Melyssa

(Click to enlarge any image)
This little number is my version of "prayer flags". I was inspired by the photos of prayer flags that my step-daughter showed me after her trip to Nepal and by the fun garlands that Debra Cooper over at littleblackkittyart makes. But my biggest reason for making this is that one of my very best friends (and college roommates) recently found out that she has lung cancer.

So I set about doing just about the only thing I could think of doing to give her something cheerful to look at in her already quite cheerful home. I came up with as many prayers and quotes and words as I could and scattered them across some happy fabric swatches (of which I have many!).

Now she can stand under these and let them rain down on her.One of Melyssa's passions is birds. So what more appropriate holder of the prayer flag chain than some wire birds with curly streamers flying behind them?

If any of you out there pray, would you please send a prayer up for her? I know she'll feel them...and smile.