Thursday, September 30, 2010

Patching things up for Louise

My girlfriend, Kim, has a cute 8-year old "puppy", Louise.
Louise liked the bedspread on Kim's son's bed soooo much...
 she ate a big hole out of it!
So Kim and I put our collective creative heads together and...
sewed bits of fabric from a suit of Kim's husband...
and now the bedspread is sportin' a fine, handsome patch.
And Louise has reclaimed her rightful position as queen of the house :).


Posted by Christie Minchew at 11:40 AM 0 comments
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Tuesday, September 21, 2010

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
Posted by Christie Minchew at 6:14 AM 4 comments
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Tuesday, September 14, 2010

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!
Posted by Christie Minchew at 9:58 AM 1 comments
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Friday, August 20, 2010

In the Studio: felting fun

I'm getting ready for the "Come Out and Play" Sculpture and Art Show that starts next Saturday (August 28th).  This year, I'll be adding some new pieces including hand-felted bracelets.  So the last couple of days have been spent making "coils", and today I started beading them.  Here's my very first one:
I was stumped as to how to make these adjustable and not have some dangling end underneath - horrors. I finally came up with this twist, literally, of wire that can be raised and lowered to tighten over the end where it fits the best.
I'm excited!
Posted by Christie Minchew at 3:21 PM 4 comments

Thursday, August 5, 2010

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.
Posted by Christie Minchew at 5:52 AM 2 comments
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Wednesday, August 4, 2010

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

Posted by Christie Minchew at 6:48 AM 1 comments
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Saturday, July 24, 2010

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
Posted by Christie Minchew at 8:42 AM 2 comments
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Friday, July 9, 2010

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
Posted by Christie Minchew at 9:36 AM 3 comments

Thursday, July 1, 2010

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.)
Posted by Christie Minchew at 7:52 AM 3 comments
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Friday, June 25, 2010

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 :).
Posted by Christie Minchew at 3:30 PM 2 comments
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