Lesley Riley's TAP-Transfer Artist Paper

I've just tried TAP for the first time.  What a wonderful product.  It is the most amazing product for transferring images on to fabric (or "virtually any surface" to quote the packaging).  I don't have any photos to share yet because I'm just in the very beginning stages of designing a new piece, but I had to take a minute to give a shout out about this great product.  It's from C&T Publishing and I know you can get it on the Interweave site and from Amazon too.

Have fun playing!

My Husband Bill's Creative Expression

Today I was talking to some friends as we looked at a lovely celtic knot pen that my husband Bill had recently made.  They encouraged me to share some of his woodworking creativity on my blog, so here it is.  Bill is a retired elementary school principal and a self taught wood worker.  This first photo shows a selection of his pens.

Bill has also been creating end grain cutting boards.  The first was very attractive and certainly functional, but the more he made the more creative he became.  They are true works of art!  Here are just a few of them.  And yes, I do use them on a regular basis for all of my food prep!

April Showers...

Today we woke up to snow on the ground and high winds.  At times when I looked outside I saw blizzard like conditions.  Not exactly what I was expecting for the middle of April.  So, I decided to head into the studio and make some flowers bloom.

I was inspired by Donna Funnell's Fabric Collage (see my last post) and by the latest issue of Quilting Arts in which Jeanelle McCall did an article on some fun flowers.  I used Donna's collage background idea and her great black and white whimsical flower stems and then used Jeanelle's idea for fun flowers with black machine embroidery to make them pop.

Visit my friend Donna Funnell

My friend Donna Funnell is the guest artist at the 3 Creative Studios website.  Click on the link to visit the site, read the interview and try her technique of the month (Fabric Collage).
http://3creativestudios.com/guest.htm

A sample Fabric Collage by Donna Funnell.

Wet Felt Study 3

This piece began as another piece of wet felt.  I used my embellisher to add a small piece of hand knitting and some swirls of additional wool rovings.  Finally, I added the hand embroidery and beading.   The ‘binding‘ was created by folding the edges and securing them with the embellisher before adding the stitching.  I especially like the way the colours came together in this piece.  I don't usually work with pink, but I really like how it worked with the green and blues in this piece.

Another Felt Piece

I've been playing around with another piece of a wet felted background.  I decided to make it a bit more sculptural and then I added a lot of hand embroidery and beading to it.  I think it's done for now....

Sketchbook Challenge - April Theme: Branching Out/Out on a Limb

Here's my finished journal page for my version of the Sketchbook challenge.  It really was fun to push myself to sketch with pen and ink.  I used the Inktense pencils that I won a while back.  They're fantastic!  I highly recommend them.  You colour with them as you would with a pencil crayon, and then use a damp brush to go over them and get the intense colour.  It's like watercolour, but it's actually an ink.  Great product!

Earth Day ATCs

I participate in a couple of ATC swaps.  One with my GOE fibre art group and one with Lisa Fulmer at http://lisalizalou.blogspot.com/p/atc-swap.html.  Check it out if you'd like to participate. 

Lisa sets a theme each month, so I always make 3 ATCs at a time.  One I keep for myself, and the other two are used for the swaps.  This month's theme is Earth Day. I had been playing with some wet felting and needle felting (using my embellisher) and I made a nice mix of green, white and blue swirls that reminded me of some of the satellite shots that we sometimes see of the Earth.  I like the texture and depth that the Earth has to it.

Intriguing Signs

I recently took this photo of road signs because ever since the first time I noticed them they just sort of tickled me.  They're at the intersection of a tiny lane and a back alley in "downtown" Georgetown.  I used Photoshop Elements to digitally alter the original photo.

Wet Felting Piece is Finished.

Several years ago I was beach combing on the beach at Goderich with my friend Heather.  I picked up this wonderful little piece of wood that day and I've had it in a bin in my studio since.  Well, it has finally found a new use.  I love the way the green felt supports and frames the blue embroidered piece and I think the piece of wood, with it's wonderful, aged grey colour and interesting twist and turns contrasts nicely with the delicate embroidery and beading.

GOE Challenge

My fibre art group, GOE (Group of Eight) poses various challenges to the members each year.  Our current challenge requires us to use a particular piece of fabric and create something that represents the theme "Spring has Sprung".  The challenge fabric was about 6 inches square.

challenge fabric

My inspiration was a video I watched on making wool felted Easter eggs.  Below are some photos of my finished egg from various angles.  The beaded quadrants were quilted with a double sewing machine needle, using a green thread and a peach coloured thread.  All of the beading and embroidery were done after the egg was assembled and stuffed.

I've included the link for those of you who would like to make one yourself. www.joggles.com/woolfelteastereggs-video.htm

Top view: 4 quadrants and cord for hanging.

Beaded side view.

Cross stitched seam.

Feather stitch with Colonial knots.

Wet Felting

A couple of friends and I are planning to play around with wet felting, so I decided to give it a try.  Here's my first piece.  The green circles worked out quite well, but some of the white balls didn't adhere so I used my embellisher to integrate them into the blue.  I then folded it into itself and added some embroidery and beading.

                                                                                                   

Sketchbook Challenge - April Theme: Out on a Limb

As per Jane's description of the April theme, I am definitely going out of my comfort zone with this sketch.  I'm not one to work on paper but I had to push myself to 'go out on a limb' and try it.  The 'big mouthed Nkondi was inspired by some of Lisa Li Hertzi's work.  .  The next step will be to do the fibre journal page.