It's nearly November.

It's been quite a while since I updated this blog (so much for my good intentions). We've been working on a tiny bit of remodeling of the house and taken over a great deal of my time. Charles textured the walls and repainted in the kitchen/dining room and I've been working on painting loteria card images on the cabinet doors and sewing curtains. I still have quite a bit of work to do but hopefully, it will be done by the holidays.
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I suppose we could finish jobs more easily if we didn't have so many occurring simultaneously. We've been working on the studio as well and have converted one of the bedrooms into the supply storage/my dressing area. So we've been tearing up the last of the carpeting, laying tile, painting and reorganizing, purging and repurposing.

I've also been working on some little projects for C&T Publishing - here are a few of them:





The beads will be coming out again this weekend. I need to finish up the last bits of the Bead Journal Project pieces for this year and get ready for the coming round. Registration is now open for the third round of the project so get yourself over to the website to read the details and sign up!

July page continues

It's been unreasonably hot in the Pacific NW - though I grew up in the midwest, it's been a long time since I've had to live in weather that is in the 90's with 50% humidity. Today the heat is supposed to climb to over 100 which would be a record for this area. I've been thinking about childhood summers spent in Michigan because of this heat and remembering summer vacations that we would take. Quite often we would go 'up north' to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan where there were lakes and streams and waterfalls and, my favorite, tourist attractions. I have old photos of me as a child standing next to Paul Bunyon and Babe his blue ox statues, pictures in front of waterfalls and in parks full of cement dinosaurs. One of my fondest memories is the summer we spent at Grand Marais on Lake Superior and walking the beaches looking for agates and visiting places where there were old log slides into Lake Superior and the bowl-like look of the water with their concentric rings in various shades of turquoise, blues and greens. The rings were like the agates in a way. I spent the rest of that summer with my little toy rock tumbler polishing up stones we found on the lake shore. I wish I still had some of the souvenirs from those times - I do, however, have an old silver and turquoise ring with an oval stone quite similar to the one in the upper corner of my July page.

When I started working on the July Bead Journal Project page, I really didn't know where I was going. I hadn't beaded in June and was kind of 'stuck' and remembered what I'd read in one of Robin's books about just picking some fabric, picking and bead and beginning and that's what I did. Now the work is turning into the concentric rings of agates and Lake Superior. I'll have to see where it goes from here, but hopefully I'll finish this weekend.

Bead Muse Returns from Vacation

It appears that my bead muse has returned from her extensive vacation. It's been quite a few weeks since I did any bead embroidery - it just wasn't in me. I puttered with other things but the beads were always in the back of my head. This past weekend as I was organizing some supplies I came across a small bag of various stone cabs and the bead muse suddenly flew into the room and I started stitching again. I'm not certain where this is going but I'm quite pleased with it for now.

The Bead Journal Project is nearly over for this year and a new round will start next January. If you are interested in participating, be certain to check out the website as updates will be posted there. There is also an announcement only Yahoo list that will post updates on registration times. If you would like to be added to this list, just let me know and I'll send you an invitation or go here and join.

I've had a 'little helper' in the studio lately. My baby dog Zakk feels the need to lay on one of the studio work tables so that he can look out the window. He takes over the two cat beds that are there (and the cats are soooo not amused). I think he is jealous of the big dogs because they can just stand at the window and look out but he is so much smaller than them that he prefers to get on the table. He cracks me up.

Missing: Bead Muse

So the bead embroidery fairy seems to have left me temporarily and I can't seem to find her. I have, however, been sewing little fabric collage quilties. Here's another one. This one amuses me to no end. I don't know who the little girl is - I found her image in my 'stash' and loved the little smug look on her face. Someone asked what the number refers to - it really refers to nothing. I found that little ribbon on the floor in the 'art asylum' at ArtFiberFest several years ago and tucked it into my bag. It surfaced again when I was working on this piece. If you knew how much 'stuff' there is in my 'studio' (aka room of stuff), you'd know what a miraculous effort it must have taken for this wee ribbon to work its' way to the top of the heap, so I felt that it needed to be included (along with the odd green safety pin) in this 'badass' quilty.

Happy Birthday Frida (a day late)

I worked on this over the weekend and meant to post it yesterday in honor of Frida's birthday. I'm working through the collage camp videos from KC Willis and learning so much new stuff (I love learning new stuff!). I have about 15 new fabric collages in various stages of completion - most awaiting treasures that are coming in the mail - rhinestones and vintage millinery flowers and hatchets - yes, hatchets - isn't that intriguing?

More later. . .

A very cool thing

As I've written before, I'm participating in K.C.Willis' Collage Camp and Mixed Media Mania classes and am learning a ton and have lots of fun (finished projects coming soon, I promise). Well KC is beginning to offer Studio Retreats right at her very own Lipstick Ranch in Colorado. How cool is that? I'm starting to save my pennies right now because I don't want to miss out on this opportunity. What a great way to have a vacation - I can't think of a better one - KC provides everything you need - no schlepping the sewing machine and a suitcase of supplies across the country. I can tell you from personal experience, that can get to be a real drag. At the Studio Retreats you just show up and make art. Like I said before, how cool is that?

If you want to learn more just go here. Tell KC I sent ya'. And to temp you even more - here's a sample of her amazing work!

Paper and Fabric (and beads?) Oh My!

This is one of the projects that I'm working on in that on-line Joggles.com class with Jane LaFazio. When I first started the project I got a little overwhelmed. Do WHAT? and then huh? - but I plugged along, following the directions (sort of), the whole time thinking "well this is a bunch of crap" and then lo and behold, when I got to the final step I liked it. This is fabric and watercolor paper and a lot of gel medium. I think that I would like to do this again but BIG and in just fabric with a lot of Steam-A-Seam instead of medium. I also think that this needs a few beads? What do you think?