"Not Quite as the Crow Flies"

"Not Quite as the Crow Flies"

16.5" by 11.5"

Created for the Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Challenge at Art Quilts Around the World.

I usually dislike these kind of challenges.  I tend to save and recycle everything anyway, so it wasn't necessary for me to have a specific challenge to do that.  

However.  When this was announced, I had previously made arrangements to gift another artist a couple of bags of the tiny scraps from my little hand-sewing project.  Mainly because I recently drastically downsized my living arrangements;  I just can't keep everything anymore.  Fortunately, I still had the baggies full of tiny scraps and used them for the leaves on my tree.  

The crow was drawn on a leftover scrap of fabric from my scrap fused fabric bin.  I used fabric, paint, and beads from my stash for the rest.  I did have to purchase a new spool of black thread, but that was because the one I was using disappeared and I would have needed another one anyway.  

This piece reflects my main impetus for recycling -- to save our environment for the wild things.  I took a winding path to get here, hence: the title.  

Woodland Ridge: The Walk

 Directly behind the building at Woodland Ridge Retreat is a path through the woods that leads to this beautiful lake.

I walked down there in the afternoon and, since I forgot the bug spray, became fresh meat for the local  insect population.

I heard lots of bird sounds, but it was hot and they were hiding in shady places.

On my last morning, I walked down the road to the trail.

I enjoyed the view of the river from the trail bridge.

There were interesting webbed creations on some of the bushes.

The view through the bridge coming back.  I am so looking forward to returning here and perhaps spending a day walking the trail.

And this is my unfinished piece.  That is a chalk outline of a heart at the lower right that I am currently cogitating.  It's for after the dashes in the upper right corner.  

Dots and Dashes at Woodland Ridge Retreat

 Last week I was fortunate enough to take a class with my friend Lisa Binkley (you can find her blog here) at my friend Chris Daly's Woodland Ridge Retreat in Downsville, Wisconsin.

Three days of stitching and fabulous food: all in a wonderful wooded setting in northern Wisconsin - as close to heaven as I've been lately.

We started with these hand-dyed cotton pieces layered over a thin batting and with cotton fabric on the back.   We had a pack of beads, some threads and a couple of needles.

You can see some of Lisa's work on the wall behind the ladies stitching.

I think these were taken after the second day of stitching.

That's mine on the upper right corner.

Here we all are at the end of the second day.

And after three days of stitching.

Next up:  the area surrounding Woodland Ridge Retreat.  I walked to the lakes behind the retreat and down the Red Cedar Trail a bit and I have some photos of the beautiful woods and water in the area immediately adjacent.  

Bollywood Challenge at Art Quilts Around the World

"Jazz Hands!  Bollywood Style"

11.5" by 16.5"

This is my finished piece for the Art Quilts Around the World Bollywood challenge.  I pieced the background with sparkly red fabrics from my stash, then machine appliquéd the hands.  I used a double layer of the sparkly gold fabric to make it show up well against the red background.  

I had planned on doing some work on the hands that would suggest henna designs, but I couldn't find a medium that would work on the gold fabric.  Paint didn't sit on top nicely (my original plan), machine thread didn't work at all, and hand embroidery didn't look right.  So for now, it's finished.  

Fueling the Magpie

I have this sparkly necklace that I really like.  But I haven't any earrings that I really like with it.

"You'll want something simple," the lady at the store said.  "So as not to compete with the necklace," she continued.

And the polite person my mother raised smiled and nodded and said nothing.

While the magpie inside shrieked, "ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!!!"

So I dug my jewelry-making tools out of the mothballs, along with some sparkly stuff from my stash, and created these beauties to vie with the necklace.

Since I had all that stuff out, it was determined that I may as well make more than one pair.

These are for DD -- they include: the sun and the moon, which shine upon her; a star, which she is; and a heart because she has mine.  And a couple of crystals to satisfy the magpie.

And a pair for me -- in my favorite colors (some of them, anyway.)

OK -- back to fiber.  I have some things that are nearly finished -- I'll get photos up here soon!

I'm linking up with Nina Marie at Off the Wall Fridays.

March BJP is Finished

"Lion and Lamb"

4.5" x 4"

This is my Bead Journal Project for March.  Yeah, I know it's a tiny bit late...

I took strips of fake fur and glued them to a piece of Peltex cut into a shoe shape, then attached the beads for a claw and a hoof.  I added some beads in the furry parts for random sparkle.  If you click on the picture, you can see them a bit better.  They do kind of disappear into the fur.

I have started April -- it's a different shoe.  Stay tuned...

February BJP is Finished

"Come To Me Pump"

I know it's a little past February, but it's finished.  And I have already started March.  My goal for this month was to use different colored beads to show depth.  Hence, the white beads for highlights.  I'm not sure it was successful -- to me, the white beads just look like stripes.  Maybe if I had just used lighter colored red beads like I did on the toe.  Or maybe I should have used some of the white beads on the highlights on the toe.

CQ 4x4s

These are the CQ 4x4s that I created to swap.  I sent them out yesterday.

They are four inch square and each one is a stand alone bit of art with bits of fabric, threads, and beads.

Scraps of fabric were stitched to a Peltex base with the stitch and flip method.  I started with hand embroidery and switched to machine.  The beading was all done by hand.  Unfortunately, you can't see all the beads in the pictures.  But they're there.


In exchange, I have received these:

Name This Quilt!

I started making this a long time ago.  I had this pink fabric from a dye gradation that had an area that looked to me like a splash in a pond.  Never mind that it's pink.

So I quilted around it and added some foil and some Angelina scraps.  Around the time I was making this, I took a beading class, so I started adding beads.  I guess I thought I was going to bead the whole thing or something.


I made a couple of frogs á la Christie Friesen to complement the little frogs stenciled on the fabric.  I made some (out of scale) lilypads and flowers for the frogs.  Then I got sick of beading and sick of the pink, so I put it away.

Fast forward to last week.  I have been working on a piece for a show in Beaver Dam, WI -- the "Waves and Water Exhibit"  at the Beaver Dam Area Arts Association.  It wasn't going well and with all the horror happening in the Gulf, I remembered the pink thing.  I had wanted to make a statement about disappearing wetlands and how frogs are the cave-canaries of the marsh.  But short of "Toxic Swamp" or "Marshy Mess," I'm not coming up with much.  Nothing with even a whiff of elegance.  Or at least something that would let it stand on its own.  "In the Pink,"  "In the Drink," "Everybody into the Pool," "Swamp Gas," "Wetland Witness," nah...

I took it to a meeting of Madison Contemporary Fiber Artists.  I had been asking about methods for hanging pieces, but when I set this out and arranged the polymer clay bits, everybody said, "you should display it flat -- just like that."  Apparently there is space for a 3D horizontal work.  Cool.  Now if I can just come up with a title.

Yippee Skippy!

Look what I got in the mail!

I've been working on some top secret projects lately -- and I can't show mine (um, because they're not finished), but I can show the ones I received from others.These beauties are known as Crazy Quilt 4x4s (CQ 4x4s).  They are four inch pieced and embellished bits of art.  I am involved in a trade with 15 other artists and I will post pictures of mine after I mail them out.  In order (I hope -- I'm still having trouble figuring out where things are going to end up after I click "PUBLISH POST" -- I really wish blogger would enter the 21st century and have a WYSIWYG compose window.)  Anne Marie from Canada did the blue and gold one, Cheryl from WY did the one with the dragonfly, 

Sandy D from VA created the one with the snowflake rays and Beth near Chicago did the other snowflake one.

Oh, and I finished my nursery rhyme challenge quilt, but I can't post it yet, so here are a few sneak peaks:

January Bead Journal Project Revealed

"Snow Shoe"

Fabric covered Peltex, with Swarovski crystals and beads

I wanted to totally encrust the shape with beads, but that hasn't happened yet. If it does, I will post another picture then.

This is my January journal entry for the Bead Journal Project (BJP), an opportunity to develop and grow as an artist by creating one beaded piece each month for a year. There are no BJP police to make sure that I finish my pieces each month -- I am on my own to conceive an idea and follow it through; but I have support and encouragement from the entire membership of the Project.

Little Autumn Bag

Nearly every year, I make something for the silent auction that benefits the elementary school my children attend. This year, I am making little bags. So far, I have finished one.

First I took a piece of hand-dyed fabric and, with an old Stewart Gill stencil, I painted some feathers on the fabric with Setacolor Shimmers: copper and chocolate. Then I layered it with batting and some fallish, leafy fabric and quilted around the edges of the feathers.

I set in a zipper and stitched up the sides with a little loop for a handle.

Here is a picture of the inside:

It still needed something.

Last night, my sister-in-law and her husband took us to dinner and afterward, she gave us a couple of bags of stuff. At the bottom of one of the bags was a treasure:
Lovely wooden beads! I'm going to string a few together and attach them to the zipper tab. They're just what it needs to finish it off!

Ghost Leaves Explained

I made a "ghost" leaf for each of the fall leaf blocks.
I used sparkly tulle sandwiched in between layers of hand-dyed cheesecloth.

I used orange cheesecloth on top of the tulle and brown on the bottom.

I had a hard time deciding how to mark the leaf shape so I could sew around it. I finally would up using a freezer paper template ironed on and then I traced the shape on my machine using a straight stitch.

Then I removed the freezer paper and satin stitched around the edge of each leaf shape and stitched a leafy vein in the center of each "leaf."

I cut out each shape and fastened it to the block using beads.
This is a finished block -- note the thick sparkle thread marking the veins of the hand-dyed leaves. I wound the thread on a bobbin and sewed it on each one from the back.

If you click on the pictures, you can view them close up.