Great Mail Today

I received a gorgeous fabric postcard in the mail today. I'm in a swap where we are to incorporate paper and fabric. Well the following card is from Kari and she did a knockout, fantastic job, in my opinion. The colors are beautiful. She added just the right touch of shimmery metallics (these aren't showing in the picture), many fibers and threads, and a nice mix of papers. All of this on what appears to be a background of light blue satin. Thanks Kari!


The next package was two books I had ordered. I've heard good things about these two books from some members of the Fiber Art Friends ring I belong to, so I thought they should be good additions to my craft library. Just from paging through them, I can see the reviews were right. Can't wait to start reading and experimenting.

Play Day Today

Sometimes when I dye a piece of fabric I lay another piece under it to catch the extra dye. Well I came across one such piece this morning and decided it was time to jazz it up. Recently I had created some foam stamps from some extra insulation foam that my honey didn't need. This piece was stamped with three of these homemade stamps. The block of squares, the heart, and the swirl. Then, to punch up the swirl and heart I outline painted them with black. I really like this piece. But then these are some of my favorite colors. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it at this point....it's so nice I hate to cut into it.


The other day I picked up some coffee filters to play with. I dyed about 9 of them, all the same color. Then I found a background fabric, cut up some of the filters and arranged them on the background. Next I snipped some eyelash yarn (that's the little areas that looks like worms), added in some angelina fibers, some snipped rayon threads, and some sparkly netty stuff (which I'm pretty sure can't be seen in the photo). I laid a piece of sparkly tulle over all of this and a piece of peltex under all of this. Then free motion quilted the whole thing. I like how this turned out also. Again, not sure what I will end up doing with it, probably making some postcards or ATCs....hmmmmm, maybe a box.

What I've Been Up To

Earlier today, after I had the kitties fed, the birds fed, and me fed, and while in the middle of doing laundry....I made this:

MMMMMmmmmmm, yummy, one of my favorite flavors of pie....pecan. I've been hungry for one of these for a few days now, so I finally got all the ingredients to make one.

Over the weekend, I did some embellishing on a fabric box I got from Joanna. You may recall from an earlier post that Sue, Joanna and I were doing a fabric box round robin. Well we've sent each other a fabric box made from our embellished fabric. Now we get to keep the boxes and embellish if we want to. Here's what I did to Joanna's box:



And here's the detail:


Also, over the weekend, I received a fabric postcard from my swap partner for a swap entitled "Ingredients Swap". My swap partner, Sarah, received the goodies I sent her and immediately proclaimed she knew what she was going to do with all of it. Well on Saturday, this is what I received. Neato isn't it? Thanks Sarah, you did a fabulous job.



Oh, what a busy weekend I had, because I also received a package for another swap I'm in on a different group. This swap is a birthday swap. When I signed up we were to choose a month, didn't have to be your real birthday month....I chose October. Now the other swappers send me a small gift in October...and I in turn send them gifts on their birthday months. I received a great package from Katherine. She had it packed full of handmade papers. There were so many different kinds of papers in there. Some were textured, some were very, very textured. Some are thick, some are like tissue, some have leaves and flowers, some are printed, some are painted. Anyway, there was quite an assortment. They are all so lovely, thanks Katherine. By the way, I found out she is selling these. If you are interested in them, e-mail me and I'll give you her info.

More Postcards Done

Well I didn't get as much done yesterday as I'd hoped. But then again, when you consider I was supposed to be at work and instead stayed home with a rotten headache, then I imagine I could view it that I got a lot done. Yeah, I like that reasoning.

Well I finished these up this morning. They are fabric postcards for a swap I'm in. The theme of this swap was.....incorporate paper and fabric together in a postcard. The center area is something I had actually done a while back. It is a paper fabric technique published by Beryl Taylor. I think I first had seen it in Cloth Paper Scissors Magazine. And it is also in her new book.

My Baby's Home

That's the good news.....the bad news (well maybe not bad) is that they couldn't find anything wrong really. He made a few adjustments but overall couldn't find anything else. So I'm hoping my machine will work for me now.


Then, since my sewing machine is home, I was able to complete this project. I have started to really like the felted purses that I'm seeing. The only problem is....I don't knit. But I do crochet. So I found a pattern that the bottom was similar to what I wanted to achieve and experimented until I got a crocheted piece I was happy with. Then I threw it into the washer and felted it. I had actually seen a handbag somewhat similar to this on the cover of a Japanese craft book and fell in love with it. So I set out to create my own version. The Japanese version had a draw string style handle. Also the Japanese version wasn't felted. Hope you like it.

Lesson 2 - Done

I've finished my Fiber Collage Class lesson 2 homework. Just in the nick of time too, as a new lesson will be given tomorrow. Here it is....3 guesses as to what it is, and the first two don't count. LOL!



Today, Sue and I had an ESP moment and we had the same idea. We had been discussing web rings (if you aren't familiar with web rings, visit the links to the rings I'm in, they are along the right side of my blog). Back to my ESP story....well we both thought we should start a web ring and invite all our textile/fabric/fiber/whatever friends to join. So if you are interested, please check us out. Oh and Sue came up with the fantastic logo to go along with our ring.....recognize the girl?????

I've Been Bad

I had gotten a most beautiful chenille scarf from my friend Sue and totally forgot to get it here to show it off. I had put it away when I got it because I was afraid my kitties would snag it and want to play with the fringe. You know what they say...out of sight, out of mind. I am so bad. Well a few nights ago my parents were visiting and I got it out to show my mother, and that's when it dawned on me that I had yet to blog about it. Here is my beautiful new scarf. Our weather has taken a turn toward the cold and windy lately, so it's the perfect time to start wearing it.


And on another note......I thought I'd show you my living room. Well part of my living room anyway. This is one of my favorite rooms in my house, even though it doesn't get used very much. I think my craft room has got to be my all time favorite and then my living room comes in second. I think this is because I love the colors in there. You can see two wall quilts I made that hang above my couch and love seat. In the corner, on some shelves my husband built around the wood stove pipe coming up from the basement, is my cat teapot collection and a couple dolls I've made.

Another Challenge

I joined a swap on the Surface Design group I belong to. This swap is a little different in that I am assigned a partner. For this swap my partner is Sarah. The swap is called the Ingredients Swap. We send each other items from our own stash. Pictured below are the items I've received from Sarah. Now I am to make a fabric postcard using the items she sent me. I am allowed to add in some of my own stash items if I choose. Once done, I send her the postcard I've made for her and she'll send mine to me. Sarah sent 3 different fabrics, 3 different fibers and a small packet of beads.

Separation Anxiety

I took my sewing machine in for a check up today. It was starting to act up. They indicated it could be a week or so till they may be done with it. I don't know what I'm going to do with myself. I guess I'll have to do some dying, painting, drawing, and other things I've been wanting to experiment with. So maybe the next week or so won't be soooooooo bad.

I enrolled in another online class with Susan Sorrell through joggles.com. This class is called...Fiber Collage. Here is my result for lesson one. We were to make a small quilt sandwich and embroider around the edges. This measures 7" x 7".

Productive Weekend

Wow am I crossing off lots of things on my "get done" list. Good feeling. I finished up some more fabric postcards. These are for a swap on the Surface Design Yahoo Group. The theme for this one was...Stamping on Fabric. For these, I took many stamps and started stamping away using both fabric paints and rubber stamping ink pads. I also used both handmade stamps and purchased stamps. I started with a scrap of fabric that had some color added randomly here and there. Not exactly sure how it was added as I received this fabric piece in a swap. The very last stamp I added was using paint that puffs up when heat is applied. After puffing it up, I highlighted it with gold metallic paint.


Then, I made three fabric boxes (only 2 shown). Some of you may recall that I was participating in a round robin with Sue and Joanna, in which we altered and embellished each other's fabrics. Well this is now the next round...we are each making 3 boxes with our fabric. Next I will be sending Sue and Joanna each a box for each of them to further embellish and so on. I made these from a pattern in Janet Edmunds' book....Beginner's Guide to Embroidered Boxes. They stand a little bit over 6" tall.

Dandelion Fluff

I finished up 4 fabric postcards for a swap I'm part of for the Surface Design Group I belong to. The theme for this swap is Painted Fabric. The painted area of these is the fluff part of the dandelion.

Late Last Night

I finished a couple of items last night. Another Go Girl Handbag and another art quilt. They are both for sale here.



And in case any of you are wondering which 4x4 I chose to keep....I'm going to keep the blue kitties, since I love kitties so much I figured I better keep a kitty piece. Which reminds me of something my husband said a couple days ago that was so cute. He has really become a softy when it comes to our cats, and he was petting one on his lap and he said "They don't melt in your hand, they melt in your heart". Awwwwwwwwww!

4x4 Alpha/Number Swap

Well can you believe it? This is my third posting today. Wowzer! I finished my 4x4 numbers. I was assigned the number "2". This swap has probably been the longest one I've ever been in. This is the fourth segment and the first was in July. So far I've received 4x4's for the letters A through P, and I'm expecting Q through Z to arrive any day now. Then once this last segment is over I should have the numbers 0 through 9. This round I decided to make each 4x4 different. The past three rounds I made them all the same. Now I have the hard decision of picking one to keep for myself. Hmmmmmm, I can't decide. Which one should I keep?

Results from the QA Goodies

Well I pondered for what feels like forever, and I couldn't come up with something I felt was really WOW. This was indeed a challenge in that most of the items I received were all the same coloring. Not a lot of contrast. I feel like I flunked this challenge. But I will chalk it up to experience. The first photo shows how I cut up pieces of everything and laid it out on a piece of felt. I then laid tulle over it all and quilted with rows of stitching.


I had a lot of leftover cheese cloth and small pieces of each of the other items. So I took an old book page and smeared it with matte medium and started sticking shapes down on it. Then covered it all with the cheese cloth. After it dried, I took some purple paints and lightly brushed over some areas. Then I added some interference powders for an irridenscent look in spots.


I cut heart shapes out of the paper fabric and put them on pieces I'd cut out from the collage fabric. And there you have it, postcards and ATCs.

The Challenge

My blog bud, Darcy, has challenged her fellow bloggers to create a list. She asks us to record 5 thoughts that went through our heads while creating. Here's mine:

1. You're such a good helper. (Referring to the cat who has her nose right down in my work)
2. Goll darn hair is everywhere.
3. Wow, it's almost 10:30 p.m. already?
4. This room is becomming a pig sty (said while looking under stuff for my mechanical pencil) .
5. I'm gonna have to throw that piece right into the trash....I'm just not happy with it.

So that's a tiny little look into the mind of me. Anyone else up for the challenge?

I'm Still Around

I've had a crappy weekend. I was sick....lay on the couch, head throbbing, weak muscles, moan and groan sick. Today I am finally feeling better, but still not back to tip-top condition. What a waste of 3 days. I didn't feel like doing anything. I didn't even get to craft. Tomorrow.....I'm going to conquer the world...yeah right! But I will at least try and do a little crafing...as I'm starting to have withdrawal symptoms. So, my blog friends, I hope you didn't think I was ignoring any of you. Some of you may remember me talking about not feeling the greatest the weekend before....I think that was a preview of what was to come. Ugh! Hope no one else gets this, as it was no fun.

I did manage to have enough energy today to finish up this little art quilt. It's for sale in my etsy shop here.