Tagged

Arline tagged me to tell 7 things about me, so....
1. I live in the woods and love it. I'm more of a doer than a social person.
2. I love to experiment and haven't decided what I want to be when I grow up-never will grow up. This is too much fun.
3. I can't seem to focus on just one technique and have probably 20 things going at the same time.
4. Blogging and computers groups have become very important. I'm learning so much.
5. I was born in New York City but left early and am a westerner at heart.
6. I raced sports cars when I met my husband. When I wrecked his baby(car), and he ran to me to see if I was OK, my roommates knew it was true love. Over 43 years ago, so it took.
7. I love animals and wanted to be a vet until I realized that I would be crying over every sick one and attacking every abusive owner.
I'm not going to tag anyone, because there are too many that I enjoy.

Gift and TIF

This is the wonderful Calendar Girl card that I received this month from Susan D.
My February TIF Challenge piece is finished. It is a sampler of laidwork and was fun to experiment with a stitch I haven't used much. The Challenge was implemented by Sharonb http://sharonb.wordpress.com

Class Tester

My friend, Sue Bleiweiss, is writing a class on creative journal techniques, and I am testing it for her. It's going to be a great class and will start in the fall. You can read about it here http://webpages.charter.net/sbleiweiss/mmtechniquesclass.htm

Above are pictures of the journal I made to hold my samples. My theme is trees, hence the greens. It and leaves are recurring themes with me. Lucky me not to have to wait for fall to work on it.

Rubber stamps

Last fall at Art and Soul in Portland I took a class from Traci Bunkers in which we made some rubber stamps. We used an adhesive backed foam that is available in the childrens' section of Michaels. We were putting them on foam core, but these new ones I put on acrylic, so I can see

where they stamp. The foam is easy to cut, so I used the decorative scrapbooking scissors. It also molds to little. These are few that I did last week.

Class Projects

I've been taking 2 classes at http://www.joggles.com/ Here is my bracelet all beaded and ready to glue on the metal cuff. I enjoyed the beading, but glue is not my thing.
Here is the stitched shell. It really is straight-just wouldn't sit right on the scanner. It is postcard size. It was fun to get back to hand stitching. Both classes were excellent. All that I've taken online have been.

Calendar Girls

Here is my interpretation of the February photo. It is done on hand painted tissue paper and appliqued in Ultrasuede. The link to the group is on the side bar.

Look who came to visit. There were 3 of them, but the time I found the camera and went outside, the first two were in the woods. I love living out here.

Swaps

I'm in 2 swaps this month with Unlimited Textiles. The first is a brooch that is needle felted, machine embroidered, and hand beaded. The theme this month is Passion, and my passion is leaves. The quiltie is whole cloth with hand embroidery. That fabric always said passion to me. I hope my partners like their swaps.

Take It Further

First, thanks to all who visit, but who don't have an email contact. I enjoy the comments and meeting other artists.

For February, I decided to do a sampler in the colors that Sharonb http://sharonb.wordpress.com/ had listed for the challenge. With the 2 hand work online classes, I didn't get much done. I'm exploring laid work.

Bead Journal Project

For February the piece is a section of a leaf with ice running down it. We have had an unusual amount of snow this winter for the Pacific NW, so it influenced my thinking. I've been home most of the time, because our hill gets bad weather even if the rest of the area doesn't.

The pailettes are held on with beads. The bugles and other beads echo the path water and ice follow as they drip/slide down the leaf.

Class Projects

I'm taking 2 classes at http://www.joggles.com/ that are requiring a lot of handwork. I'd forgotten how much slower that is but am enjoying the process.

The first is a Beaded Cuff class-I love to bead and have a yellow necklace for this to go with. It's not my usual color scheme, but I have multiples of bracelets in teal, blue, and purple.

The second is Sumptuous Surfaces with Sharonb http://sharonb.wordpress.com/ . It still has a lot of stitching to go, and Thursday we do another design. I hope this week isn't as busy as the weekend turned out to be.

Trades and Class work

The purple quiltie it one I made for an online class on cords through http://www.creative-textile-and-quilting-arts.com/ The buttons and fabrics are ones I received in a swap. I couch cord on quite a few things and enjoy how it can be manipulated.

This is the ATC I received from Susan D. http://artoftextiles.blogspot.com/

I love it.

This is a quiltie that I received from Alis http://alis-clair.blogspot.com/ The theme was Art Nouveau. Isn't it great.

Sweater

A sweater I hand knit for a friend was too short, and the red yarn was running out, so I picked up stitches under what was then the lower band and knit a skirt. Then I did another band around that. I think it worked, and I hope she likes what I did.

Take It Further

Again, I will be doing the color scheme. Color really talks to me. Here are the fabric and threads I have chosen. I think I want to stitch a sampler this month.

This is part of the challenge started by Sharonbhttp://sharonb.wordpress.com/

Book

I made the tab book from Issue 2 of Fibre & Stitch www.fibreandstitch.com . First I painted the pages using watercolor pencils, twinkling watercolors, crayons, and anything else I could find. When they dried, I didn't like them, so they sat around for a while, until I decided to do a wash over them with blue ink. It unified them.

The cover has painted tissue paper and machine stitching. The decoration is hot glue that was dropped on a molding mat, painted with acrylic paints, and when dry rubbed with Treasure Gold. The ties are sueded thread. If you make a book, don't pull the ties too tightly. This one is hard to open.