'Three Squared' is Finished...

Yesterday I shared with you the wonderful weekend workshop I participated in with Alice Vander Vennen (see it here). So I'm just quickly popping in to show you this piece, which I've called 'Three Squared', finished and framed.

The first shot shows it with the mat, and the second after it's signed and framed (but sadly with terrible reflections...how do you photograph art behind glass?).

Weekend Workshop with Alice Vander Vennen...

I just spent the most wonderful weekend with my Group of Eight friends and the incredibly talented Alice Vander Vennen. It was a fun filled workshop and the work that was produced was fabulous. Here are the pieces I have come away with...

We started with a couple of small exercises to get us warmed up. These were intended to be used for cards so we mounted them on card blanks.

The next exercise was a little larger, but we were still working quickly and loosely. I love the juxtaposition of the various fibres and textures combined with the minimal hand stitch.

This small square piece, framed in a 10" square frame, started out as a card, but I worked back into it a bit and decided to frame it.

These two photos are close ups of individual components of a larger piece. 

There is still a little more work that will go into this piece before it's ready to be framed.

This piece is the start of a work in progress. I honestly don't know where this will take me, but I love the relatively fast, intuitive manner in which it's coming together. Time will tell where it goes and what it becomes ;)

Wafer was a most wonderful companion during the weekend. Although she loves little silk scraps and thinks of them a bit like chewing gum, for a six month old (today's her half birthday) she did very well during the two day workshop. I'm proud of my silly girl!

Another Look at a Work in Progress...

A while ago I showed you a few shots of a new piece I'm working on. Life (and puppies) are keeping me busy, but I am still working away at it, so I thought I'd show you a few more images. Today I've been working on some machine stitching before I get back to the rest of the hand stitching and beading...

I should be able to show you the finished piece before too long!

...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!

A Little Stitching and a Wedding Cake...

I have not been very productive this summer with regards to my art, but inspite of the often fall like weather, we've been keeping busy and enjoying a lot of family and friends at the cottage.

I have managed a little more stitching on this piece, which will eventually become part of a larger art quilt with a literary theme.











In addition to this and a bit of art journalling as seen in the blog hop posts, I've been busy decorating cupcakes (a total of about 230) for a couple of 50th anniversary parties and a wedding.

On short notice, due to some unforeseen circumstances, I also ended up making a wedding cake for the wedding so they'd have something for the official cake cutting photos, etc.

  

The Little Prince...

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery was a favourite when I was young, and one quote in particular has stuck with me.

A few weeks ago I showed you the beginning of this block (it will be part of a larger art quilt based on literary quotes) in this post.

There is still more hand stitching to come, but so far the quote and the outline of the Little Prince are complete...I just had to show you I have been doing a little stitching. :o)

Heart Swell...or puff...

I've decided to do a series of small pieces using my hand dyed fabric and various techniques, all incorporating hand stitch.

This piece is starting with a heart stencil designed by Margaret Applin.

Using a palette knife, I applied a nice thick coating of Pebeo Expandable Paint through the stencil.  Be sure to keep the stencil firmly held onto the fabric so that you don't get any paint under it.  I used a temporary spray adhesive to achieve this.

Let dry according to paint directions and then 'puff' using a heat gun.

I'll show you more once I get to the hand stitching. Have a great day!

Oh, Look...a distraction...

I haven't been working on much lately in my studio...I think between the winter blahs, the Olympics, and other distractions I just haven't been very motivated.  I am still working on this hand stitching piece that I've given you a couple of peeks at previously (here and here) but it will be a while before I finish that.  I'll need to listen to a lot more TV to get that piece done!

As if I didn't have enough distractions, last week I finally gave in to myself and bought an iPad.  I've been resisting for a long time, but I finally decided to use a little of my retirement gratuity to treat myself!  Talk about distractions!  I'm reading more, playing around with new apps (Have you seen Paper by 53?) and just learning all the wonderful things I can do with this great new toy.

I did think I should make a little protective sleeve for it for when I'm out and about with it, so I pulled some commercial fabric from my stash (I've just about completely stopped using it for my fibre art) and set to work making a very simple 'case'.  The idea is that I can just easily pull it out when I want it, so there are no closures.





Okay, I changed my mind...I've added a simply button and elastic loop closure just so I don't have it fall out because I'm caring it upside down.

If you have any favourite apps, I'd love to hear about them!

See you Friday...

Stitches Like 'Buttah'...

As I mentioned last Monday, I've finally got out my Babylock 12 Needle Embellisher again and I've started a new piece.  I'm using little bits of dupioni silk as well as some wonderful silk 'yarn' which I've been hanging on to for a while, and embellishing it onto a felt background.  I love the richness of the colours and the texture is so fabulous to work with!  I just love hand stitching through felt and silk!

Here are a couple of close up shots of the beginnings of some couching I'm doing with some of the silk 'yarn' pieces.

It's time to pull out some of my embroidery books for some inspiration! One of my favourite books is Judith Baker Montana's Free-Form Embroidery.  It's a stunning book, full of so much wonderful inspiration!

Shadows Revealed...

I'm happy to say that "Shadows" is finally finished!

Here are a couple of close ups that show the hand and machine stitching in a little more detail:

I have another photograph that I am thinking about doing in a similar way...this could be the beginning of a small series.  Time will tell.

An Extra Post This Week...

Hi Everyone, I'm popping in with an extra post today to let you know I'm posting over on StencilGirl Talk blog today to share a quick little tutorial on how this "Stepping Stone" art quilt began.

I was inspired by a beautiful skein of thread and that led me to audition a bunch of my hand dyed fabrics and some batiks I had in my stash.  The tutorial shows how I used a bit of surface design using three incredible stencils designed by Terri Stegmiller. Please pop on over to the StencilGirl Talk blog to check it out!

This quilt is actually made up of five smaller quilts which were then aligned and stitched together with some areas overlapping.  After finishing the hand stitching that I've shared in posts here and here, I took the five pieces to the my studio for some machine stitching.

 

And here is the finished piece.  Unfortunately, the stitched design in the circles does not show up well in the photo.  It looks much better in person (In my humble opinion!).

Progress on Shadows...

I've finished the hand stitching of the text on this 'Shadow' piece, and I've outlined the shadows themselves with back stitch.  

I had planned to fill in the shadows using tiny running stitches in the traditional Kantha style, but it just doesn't have the impact I want.  I think because of the texture of the actual fabric on which I transferred this image, those subtle stitches are lost.  I guess my next step will be to pull those stitches out and then figure out what I want to do instead.  

I'm also planning some machine quilting in the background, probably with a variegated thread that will blend in with the variety of golds, tans and browns in the image.  

Some many ideas, and so little time!  Dime is keeping me busy, as would be expected, but he's doing great.  I fit my stitching in during his naps, so I'm not as prolific as I was before he arrived.  Kind of reminds me of being a new mom. LOL  

Stitching Finally Resumes on My Shadows Piece...

I've got a couple of pieces that I had been working on prior to my cycling accident in May, which had to be set aside because I couldn't do any hand stitching.  Then, even though I could have started to work on them again, I just couldn't seem to get back to them.

However, these days, thanks to our new little foster puppy, (see Monday's post), the only fibre art I seem to be fitting in to my day is a little hand stitching while he's napping.  It's a good thing that young puppies need several naps a day!

This piece began as an iPhone photo of my elongated shadow, taken one summer evening while I was out walking our dog, Casey.  I played around with it in Photoshop, transferred it to fabric, and now I'm adding stitch to complete the piece.

I'm almost finished with the text, and then I'll move on to my shadows.  I have a couple of ideas for what I might do to add some stitch to the shadows.  Hopefully I'll be able to share the results soon.

Still Adding Hand Stitch...

If you read Monday's post, you'll know I've been a little distracted from my art in the last week thanks to our new foster puppy, Dime.
I am managing to do some hand stitching while he naps, but when he's up it's pretty busy around here with play, training, and walks, etc.

I've just about finished the hand stitched texture I wanted to add to this piece, so I may have to set it aside for a little while before I can get to the machine work I have planned for it.  I can't imagine taking Dime into the studio so I can do some machine work at this stage...just too many dangerous things for the little guy to get in to!

In addition to the Sorbello stitch and the 'triple' stitch I showed you in a post last week, I've added some French knots and some very random cross stitches.

As you may have figured out from the photos I've shared, this piece will actually be made up of a number of smaller pieces (five to be exact) that will come together to make the larger piece.

Maybe I'll be able to share more on this piece by this time next week.

Until then, I'm going to pull out a piece I started working on back in the Spring, before my hand stitching was sidelined by the cycling accident and the resulting fractured wrist and injured finger.  It's based on a photo I took, and I'm excited about the direction it is going so far.

I hope you're all having a fabulous week!












Linking to WIP Wednesday.

Adding Texture With Hand Stitch and Revamping the Group Of Eight's Blog...

Last week I posted about some inspiration I got from some wonderful threads my friend Heather gave me. Well, it would seem other art has been set aside and this has been my focus for the last couple of days.  I designed and pieced the components of this new piece, yet to be named, and I've been adding some texture with hand stitch.  I'm really enjoying using the Sorbello stitch (thanks again to Heather for teaching it to me!). I'm also adding other hand stitch to various areas before I move back to the machine to add some dense quilting.  I'm still amazed that this all started because my friend gave me a pretty skein of interesting thread! (Leah, I believe this is what you'd call a squirrel. LOL)

But, prior to working on this piece, the weekend was spent revamping the Group of Eight Fibre Artists blog.  Please pop by to see the new format, learn more about our fibre art group  and 'meet' the other artists in the group.  There are a few artists I'm still working with to get photos taken of their work, but most of the galleries are ready for viewing!

I'm linking to WIP Wednesday at Needle And Thread Network.

And Along Came A Spider...

Well, it's finally done!  Each time I did some hand stitching on this piece, more ideas for additional hand stitching just kept popping into my head.  Ultimately, I've done way more hand work on this piece than I had initially expected to, but I just love how it turned out.  A bit of machine quilting/doodling and a few finishing touches (hanging tabs, embroidered binding and the fabric covered hanging rod), it's finally time to hang it and move on to other things.

I should tell you how it got it's name...I kept thinking it would be Indigo 'something', but nothing came to mind that made me happy.  Then one day, while looking at this section my husband said it looked like a spider web. I had done a lot of hand stitch in the darker areas, leaving the light lines created by the string or elastic bands that had bound the fabric during the indigo dyeing process.  They did indeed look a bit web like.  And then I saw the spider just sitting there (see him in the red circle?).  I did some machine stitching to further bring out the web and then hand stitched over the spider to make it pop.  So you see, one day the spider did literally just come along!                                                                                                                       

BTW, Michelle, the fabric was adhered to the hanging rod using the transparent Paverpol.  There, I've finally used some of it!

On-going Progress...

I had hoped by now that this indigo piece would be done, but I'm just having so much fun with the hand stitching that I keep finding more places to add it!

Having said that, I'm just about out of things to hand stitch and I do have some specific machine stitching ideas that I want to incorporate as well, so I should be getting to the machine work any day now...