A Day to Play

Well today I was caught up enough to get to play in my studio. Yay! Anyway, I did a lot of painting and fabric embellishing that I'll have to show another day as it's all drying.

I was so excited today when I saw my first clematis bloom of the season. This is one of my favorite clematis plants. This purple is so heavenly. By the way, clematis is my most favorite flower. I have seven different varieties of clematis growing.


A few days ago I received this fantastic fabric page from Dianne. Dianne does some fabulous work and you can see her blog here.


And one thing I can show you that I made today are these two postcards. These will be winging their way overseas to the United Kingdom. They are for a birthday swap I'm involved in.

Journal Quilt #21

Well I think this was one of my most quickly put together journal quilts yet. I haven't had much time recently to work on much and this was kind of last minute. It is based on Karen Eckmeier's pattern "City Skylines".


Thank you to those of you who have commented on the previous post and have given well wishes on the new online zine, Fibre & Stitch. Our site was down for a little while this morning (Saturday), but is working again. Hope that doesn't happen again.

Also this weekend, my baby boy is taking a big leap and graduates from high school. Oh my! Where has the time gone. I still remember holding him in my arms at the hospital right after he was born. I hope everyone has a wonderful Memorial Day weekend and hopefully you get an extra day off of whatever it is you do.

Announcing...

I am pleased to announce the launch of Fibre&Stitch, an exciting new Mixed Media Arts online publication published by Sue Bleiweiss alongside a very talented team of artists.

Available quarterly beginning in September 2007!

Published 4 times a year, Fibre&Stitch is packed with a wide variety of articles and projects covering all types of mixed media techniques. Not just for the Fibre Artist, Fibre&Stitch explores Paper Arts, Collage, Machine and Hand Stitching, Art Journals, Wearable & Decorative Arts and much more.

Written to appeal to every level of artist and crafter, there is something for everybody in each issue of Fibre&Stitch, from in-depth full colour technique articles to quick and easy make-it-and-go projects.

Each issue is guaranteed to inspire and stimulate your creative muse!

Visit www.fibreandstitch.com to learn more about this publication and to subscribe.

My Apologies

I need to extend my apologies to some of the gift winners from over the past weekend. I sent your gifts and didn't have enough postage on them. I was so upset when I learned this from a couple of you who had gotten yours already. I even had checked the amount on the usps.com website. They've made so many changes on that site recently with the new postage rates and I thought I knew what I was doing, but obviously not. I'm sorry!

Better?

Remember this?

Well I redid it and now I have this:

Okay, now I need your input. Was my decision to change the background a good one? I didn't change the background of the original....I just made a new one. I had trouble getting a good photo this morning.

And the Winners Are...

Thanks everyone for making my blog anniversary a special one. The entire week was a blast, especially getting all those lovely comments from you all. Late last night I asked hubby to help me draw the 6 winners. And without further ado, here they are:

1. Sue B
2. Auntie Jude
3. Susan R Cleveland
4. ML
5. SuZ
6. Vicki

Congrats! Did Bob pick good???? I'd so love to be able to give all of you a gift, but Wow! there were so many of you commenting (which I'm not complaining about). The picture below is what I've made for you lucky winners. They are 6 inch mini paper quilts. I so hope you like them. I would appreciate if you would email me with your mailing information so that I can get these off to you. Thanks again everyone for a special week.

Happy Blog Anniversary to Me

Well, I can't believe it. One year as a blogger. Where does the time go? When I started out blogging I thought I was the last one to jump in. But not so, I've noticed more and more bloggers and I'm thinking it will continue to grow and grow. I've decided that after a year of this that I really enjoy it. I know some of my family members like my blogging as it gives them a chance to keep up with what I'm up to. I also feel that it drives me harder to create. Before I'd just blow off creating something because I was mostly the one seeing the end result. But now I'm more committed and have found that I'm stretching myself further to be more creative...and I like it. I also like blogging because it has brought me together with all of you and I've met so many wonderful people. It's so much fun to be able to share with each other and to share with those who live in parts of the world that I never dreamed I'd have contact with. Thank you all for sharing this with me.

Here is this week's journal quilt. Wow it's number 20. Only 32 to go. The focal piece was something I had created some time ago and just had never done anything with.


Also, here are my rust dying experiment results. I used steel wool pads for this. Can't say I'm overly ecstatic about them, but I can now say I've tried it. I did find another metal object that I'm going to try out with the rust dying to see if I like the result better. Maybe I'll have those results in a few days.


Oh, and one more thing. Today is the last day for commenting in my little give-away contest. I'll be announcing the winners tomorrow and sharing the gifts I've made for the winners.

TGIF!

Well thank goodness it's Friday huh? Well I'm not so sure it will be a really enjoyable Friday for me. I have to mow the grass. Ugh! But I should look at the bright side, at least I have a riding lawn mower and there's actually grass to mow and it's not withering away from the dry and heat like last summer.....so far. It could possible be another scorcher of a summer here as today we are supposed to get near 90. Ugh! Again!

I only have the postcard to show today, as yesterday I had to work and didn't have a ton of time to get some stuff made or worked on. Happy Friday everyone, and I'm really enjoying all your commenting this week...but I know there's that gift giveaway that's really driving everyone to comment...he he he.

Sneak Peek

Here's a sneak peek at what I'm making for the blog anniversary gifts.




Thanks everyone for your comments/suggestions about the flower quilt in the previous post. I'm not sure at this time exactly what I will do, so I'm going to keep it up on the design wall and wait until it tells me what to do.

Flower Quilt

I made this the other day. It's 12 x 12. My personal critic (and you know who you are), said the vase fabric should be different as it blends in too much. I agree, so I'll probably make another one.

Art Nouveau

I'm involved in a monthly fabric page swap through the Fiber Art Friends group and this month my swap partner is Dianne. She chose art nouveau as her theme. I had a book on my shelf that has art nouveau stained glass patterns in it and I found the one of the girl. I transfered the pattern to muslin and then colored her in with watercolor paints. I then cut her out of the muslin and used her like an applique. The background fabric she is on is a batik with butterflies all over it. I've seen a lot of art nouveau designs with butterflies. Dianne, I hope you like what I've made for you.


On another note, just want to remind everyone that all this week, starting yesterday, that anyone who comments on my posts will be entered for my blog anniversary drawing. One winner will be drawn from each day's comments. I can't believe that, at the time I'm writing this, there are only 4 commenters from yesterday....hmmmmm, nobody wants a gift????

On the Slow Boat

I received this postcard from Francoise over the weekend. We were beginning to think it was lost forever as Francoise had mailed it in early April. She had even put it in a plain white envelope, so it's not like it was getting admired along the way. Don't you just have to wonder why some mail takes forever to get to its destination. Thank you Francoise I love the card and if you didn't notice in the photo, there's an itsy bitsy little embroidered heart on it.

Happy Mother's Day

I hope everyone's day is filled with love, happiness, and no cooking. I've spent most of the day mowing and doing yardwork. Ugh! Our temperatures were a bit too warm for this time of year which made the day a little unpleasant, but not too much. At least the wind isn't blowing a 100 miles per hour.

I've no pictures to show today...sorry! But I do want to tell all of you out there in blogland that next Saturday is my one year blog anniversary. Sooooooo, why am I telling you now????? Well I'm going to have a little contest, with prizes even, and I'll announce the winners next Sunday. Yes, that was plural. What's the contest you ask? Well I'm going to try and remember to post to my blog every day this week. And I'll pick a name randomly from each day's comments. So that means there will be 6 winners in all. It will start tomorrow (Monday 5/14) and run through Saturday (5/19). I haven't totally decided what the prizes are yet, I guess you will just have to be surprised.

Journal Quilt #19

Here is this week's journal quilt. This one uses up strips of cotton duck that were cut from the panels I use for making handbags. I wove them together then did some machine and hand stitching.


Something else I did today was resort my thread. It was getting all messy and I also needed to fit in some colors that were purchased within the last few months.


I'd also like to thank everyone for commenting here. I love your visits and I love getting comments too. Ocassionally someone will ask a question and they don't have a blog or don't give me any way to contact them. Sorry if you don't hear from me, but I don't know how to get a response to you when you don't provide a little more info. Have a great weekend, and Happy Mother's Day!

New Handbags

I've been busy making handbags over the last few days. The first two shown are for sale on my website and the third (pink) was a commission. I hope she likes it.




Here is another birthday postcard that arrived last week and I totally forgot to show it. This one is from SuZ and she has machine embroidered a fairy on it and then added some lovely flowers. Thanks SuZ, it's wonderful.


And this is a new book I got recently. The New Creative Artist, a Guide to Developing Your Creative Spirit. Hmmmm, I'm wondering if I can become more creative. I sure hope so.

Journal Quilt #18

Here is this week's journal quilt. The yellow tulips in my garden were my inspiration.

I Need More Room!

I really, really, really need to make some room in my space, so have decided to do some purging. I've gone through my books and magazines. All of these are available if anyone is interested. Please send me an email if something grabs you. I will accept payment through paypal or with personal checks.

All of the Susanna Oroyan books are sold. Thanks!

Artitude is sold.

These quilting mags are sold. Thanks!

Doll Crafters are sold.

The Soft Doll & Animal mags are all spoken for. Thanks!



Thanks to everyone for looking and taking these off my hands.

The Oddball

My tulips are in full swing and I think this year is the first year I've had this many blooming at one time. Plus, I've been trying to stay on top of keeping them sprayed so the deer don't eat them. They got a handful of my plants early on before I had started spraying them. Hmmmm, wonder how that yellow tulip got in there.


I love this grouping of tulips with the pale and deep yellows together.


And look at these little guys coming up....love these!


Today I made a padfolio. The background fabric is a piece of muslin that I had underneath another piece of fabric that was being dyed. The dyes soaked through and left the bottom fabric very pretty. I couched some eyelash yarn onto the background and then free form cut some leaf shapes from some silk fusion and sewed them down. I scalloped the edge of the flap, just for something different.