Happy Valentines Day!

We had a Valentine's swap at our art group meeting this month, and this was my card. I wanted to see if I could take Beryl Taylor's reverse applique technique and use it in a shape other than a circle. It works fine, but I still think there are much easier ways to get a similar effect, so more play is needed.

Stirring It Up

I've been feeling stuck lately so decided to play around with a few new things.

Beryl Taylor had an article in Quilting Arts Dec./Jan. 2011 on machine reverse applique. I thought it would be fun to try using busy black-and-white patterns as my foreground.

You make a set of them:
Then cut them in quarters and rearrange them to make wonky circles:

I think they'd make fun long banners.

I first saw Ro Bruhn play with these here. I love what she did with all the hand embellishment on top and thought I'd do that. But Beryl's directions call for these to be 4" squares, which end up with some pretty tiny, but very thick, little bits. I think I'll try it again with at least a 6" square before I work with hand embellishment on top. This is the sort of project I love because it gets me thinking of all sorts of variations to try next.

The other thing I have been absolutely loving is working through the exercises in Steven Aimone's "Expressive Drawing" book. I first wrote about that here.

Right now I'm doing an exercise where you draw with black paint and then go back in and "erase" with white paint. You work as large as possible, fast and loose. It's fabulously freeing!

And I'm starting another Pamela Allen online workshop this week, so I'm hoping I'll have inspiration coming from all sides.

The Gift

I had such a wonderful surprise when my art group presented me with a giant bin full of their fabric scraps this week! I delighted in each and every one of them--the good, the bad and the ugly--they will all find a place somewhere. I spread them out on my floor and admired each in detail and let the possibilities flow.

Usually when I haven't worked for a while (Like Now!), I get back into things by playing in a mixed media journal. This time I decided to play with all those new fabric scraps and try a little pocket folder I saw in the Jan./ Feb. issue of Cloth, Paper, Scissors. Heidi Sekovski and Karin Winter describe how they make a Folder Journal out of a standard manilla file folder. It reminded me of the very fun journal for Mexico I made in Mary Ann Moss's online Remains of the Day class. You can see that one here.

The Folder Journal is made by sewing paper and fabric onto a manilla folder, then folding and stitching little pockets in it for your journal papers. Here's mine, without any journaling paper in the pockets:

The Front:
The Back:
The In-Between:
It was fun to dig through my new bin of scraps and see what would work. I made a lot of mistakes with this one and found that I would revise their directions next time. If you decide to try one, I recommend adding all the fabric and embellishments that you want before you fold it into the journal shape. Once that's done, you can't get into areas to stitch stuff on. I have enough scraps now, that I just might try another one.

Merry Christmas!

I'm away from the computer for a while to spend some time with my family. May you all have a holiday season full of joy and peace!

Rejuvenation

I'm heading to the coast for a little rejuvenation and quiet time with my family this week. I'm taking along these journal prompts. They post a new one every day this month and have some really great topics for contemplating both the past year and the upcoming one. Thanks Maggie for pointing me to those.

I'm looking forward to catching up on blog reading when I return.

A Happy Blur

We spend so much time getting ready for the show, then it all seems to be over in an instant, sort of like Thanksgiving dinner. But it is such a happy event that it all feels worthwhile, and it just seems to get better every year. Thanks to everyone who was able to come and support the show!

I am always busy until the very last moment setting up my booth, so I have only a smattering of decent pictures to show. You can see all the artist's work over on the Portland Art Collective blog.

Here's my booth this year:

I was planning on just having these little silver and white trees bare for props, but my son told me they didn't look right. At the last minute I decided to add my baubles that I'm planning on using for a bigger project. I was really happy I did. I sold quite a few of them, and I now have a reason to sit and make a lot more.

One of the centerpieces of our show is our dangly tree at the entrance. Many artists make small ornaments and we display them all together for a very dramatic entrance.

And just a sampling of some of the wonderful art.

Lorraine Jones' zen-like hangings which start with the wooden slats from old barrels:

Tammy Vail's hand-dyed tassels.

Dayna Collin's Fearless Faces:

Darlene Veltman's wacky stuffed figures and wall quilt:

Lenall Siebenaler's bright, whimsical paintings.

Paula McNamee's flooded metal, key pendants.

Stephanie Brockway's carved and found wood sculptures.

Tory Brokenshire's found object sculptures:

I apologize for all the wonderful pieces that I didn't get pictures of, but then it would be impossible to capture it all.

I stepped outside on break one evening just in time to catch the sunset in the windows. A spectacular ending to a glorious weekend.

Few More Things

Here are a few more things I've been working on for the show.

I started these little pillows quite a while ago back here without any direction in mind. They formed into funky little wall hangings. I hung one of these in my kitchen to see how long it takes my two teenage boys to realize that it doesn't really work.

And I've been doing more of my "Delicate Soul" series and enjoying every minute of them.

Now just a few last minute details and I'm all ready for the show. It's always a great weekend of hanging out with art friends in a very festive environment, and I will be very thankful when Sunday arrives and it's all over.