What's Keeping Me Busy...

I don't seem to be able to find much time in my studio these days, but I have been very busy so I thought I'd share a few of the things I've been up to.

I continue to keep up on my art journal calendar, and I really enjoy recording the highlights of my days in such a fun and colourful way!

Because of his sad misfortune, I learned about Artis de Partis. Sadly, this particular little fellow lost an arm so as a favour to a friend I performed some delicate surgery to reattach the limb.  Artis de Partis was very brave during surgery considering that with the exception of a glass of wine for the surgeon, no anesthetic was used.

Yoshi and I continue daily outings to expose her to as many opportunities and experiences as possible. Often it is just the two of us, but we also like to get together with other foster 'parents' and their future dog guide puppies.  

We recently had a coffee date with Mojo, another future dog guide. As you can see, Yoshi quite liked this tall, dark and handsome flat coated retriever.

We also participated in an informal group mall visit in which we practised our skills among the many distractions of the mall and other puppies.

While at the mall, Yoshi sent her letter to Santa, asking for a pair of non-slip booties so she could sit in a more 'lady-like' fashion on slippery floors!

Popping back into the studio briefly, I was able to repurpose a damaged spatula that I felt was no longer safe for use with food.  It'll make a great mark-making tool for Gelli prints and such!










In addition to volunteering to raise these incredible future dog guides, I enjoy participating in many of the PR events that help to bring awareness to these amazing service dogs. These dog guides are provided to the clients at no cost, and all funding is raised through private and corporate donations and sponsorship!

Did you know that Dog Guides are trained to assist with more than blindness and visual impairments? Lions Foundation of Canada trains six types of Dog Guides to help with a wide range of disabilities including: deafness, hard of hearing, autism spectrum disorder, type 1 diabetes with hypoglycemic unawareness, epilepsy, as well as physical and medical disabilities. To learn more or to make a life changing donation, please visit www.dogguides.com

Canine Vision | Hearing Ear | Service | Seizure Response | Autism Assistance | Diabetic Alert

Yoshi and I have already participated in two Santa Claus parades, and we are signed up to walk in two more upcoming parades!  For the Kitchener parade, we invited my Mom along (she's temporarily in a wheelchair due to a foot issue). Having Mom along was a great help because I was puppysitting Kermit, a 13 wk old puppy and he ended up snuggled on Mom's lap in the sleeping bag. I'm not sure who enjoyed the cuddles more!

The Oshawa parade was a bit wet and messy, so by the end of it Yoshi was looking a bit more like a black lab! By the look on her face, I'd say she didn't care for my suggestion of a bath!

Because I've become totally hooked on this role as a foster puppy 'mom', I've decided it's time to get a bit more organized. I've been drawing a few rough ideas for a cabinet that will house the puppy kibble, treats, toys and miscellaneous other needs that are currently tucked into various cupboards and corners of the kitchen.  I've got a perfect space in the kitchen, as well as an incredibly skilled and willing husband, so once I finalize the plans and draw them to scale, he's said that he'd be happy to construct it for me!

As I mentioned earlier in the post, in addition to raising Yoshi, I've been helping out some foster mom friends by looking after their puppies for a few days here and there. Yoshi loves having other puppies to play with, and my husband and I enjoy having the extra puppies around too!

And finally, I'll end this way to long post by showing you that I am still working on the hand stitching of this piece in progress. However, gone are the days when I would stitch and listen to TV for hours...I seem to spend more time playing and/or walking Yoshi! As such, this is going to be a much longer term project than I first anticipated.

Life is busy but wonderfully fulfilling! Thanks for stopping by to catch up on what I'm doing! Have a fabulous day!

...And About a Million to Go...

Here's another couple of pictures of the piece I'm currently working on.  It is going to involve a crazy amount of French knots as well as some other hand stitching before it's done...which may not be for some time since I'm babysitting a few additional future dog guide puppies in the next while.  

Yoshi and I will enjoy the puppies, but I don't know how much time I'll find for my art. LOL. However, when I do find time for this, I must say it is relaxing!

The Denim Series Finishes...At Least For Now

The final piece in the series, goes back to using some rust dyed fabric along with a piece of hand dyed coral 'waffle' fabric.  The French knots found their way onto this piece as well.  I seem to be in a bit of a French knot kick these days.  The coral fabric seemed to invite simple cross stitch in those wonderful little square depressions and I decided to use a simple running stitch to provide some movement in the rust dyed area.  The mono printed denim was machine quilted using a repeating squared spiral pattern.  Since I wanted to leave on the two buttons from the original denim shirt, I've called this piece "Two Random Buttons".

My Denim Series Continues...

I've deviated slightly in my denim series, bringing in some other commercial fabrics for this latest piece.  I especially like the combination of the mono printing done using my Gelli Plate and bubble wrap, combined with the hand embroidery on the shirt tail.  I pulled the colours from the beautiful piece of commercial fabric with it's loose and easy floral pattern.  I did some random French knots on the lighter green band on the left to add some more texture to the piece.  For lack of a more creative name, this piece has been called "Blue and Green".

WIP

 Here are a couple of close ups of this work in progress.  I had no idea how much embroidery floss you go through making French knots!  I've been separating the floss into 3 strands to get a nice big knot, and I've already gone through an entire skein of floss!  I'm not even half way through making all of the French knots I want on this piece, but  fortunately the variegated green is one I dyed myself, so I can make more.  

I'm off to get my hands green...I know I should wear gloves, but I just find them so awkward and hot!  Good thing I don't have to be anywhere in the next couple of days!

Machine Doodling on White...next steps...

I finished the next stage of this piece (you can see the first post about it here) so that I'd be able to take it with me and work on the hand stitching while sitting in the hospital with my aunt.  I used Tsukineko ink in black and spring green.  When using these inks on fabric, they need to be heat set with a hot dry iron!

The next step is to add lots of French knots in the green and then decide what to do with the white areas.

Butterfly Transitions

The other day I gave you a sneak peek of this piece, in which I showed you some of the quilting from the back, as well as providing a link to the original photograph.

Since then, I've spent a few hours working hard to get the background machine quilted.  When that was finished I made a whole lot of French knots to add some additional texture to the dupioni silk that is the background of this piece.

And, here it is, finished and mounted over a stretched canvas.  I'm very happy with how it turned out, and wish that the photo did it justice.

Below are a couple of detail shots.  This finishes a fifth UFO.  I am so glad Tracey gave us the challenge that she did because I've really been tidying up a lot of outstanding pieces.  I still have four other UFOs to finish plus the three new pieces that I have in the works, all of which I started in the last month.

It's funny to think that when I first started to quilt in 1999 I did one quilt, from beginning to end, before I started another project.  Now, I can't imagine staying that focused on one thing!  Add in my art journalling and photography and I just have to laugh...