Fiberart For A Cause!

Today is the first day for purchasing collages at Collage Mania! Today, the pieces sell for a minimum donation of $80 to the American Cancer Society and tomorrow they sell for a minimum donation of $40. Guess who (and I am not naming any names) sold both of her pieces both of her pieces today? I am so excited I had to call my family and share the news. Now all I have to do is sign them and package them for mail. I will do my shopping at Collage Mania tomorrow. There are still plenty of pretty pieces available.

Thursday

Yeah!! It's Thursday, one day before Friday and the weekend. This past weekend was productive: I made 2 purses using an Amy Butler pattern and started a baby quilt with the repro fabrics. I decided to make 12 inch blocks comprised of half square triangles. Each 12 in block has 25 half squares in a single color. I will set them with white blocks that have appliques of bears and hearts. I will add a picture later. Off to work now...there is a Dallas Guild meeting tonight. Will post about the DAFA meeting later.

As Far As I Will Go

I am done! Done, done, done! The time between February and now is done, can't play catch-up any more.

There are a few things I would like to share. I had a couple of pieces accepted by Virginia Spiegel in her Fiber Arr For A Cause, Collage Mania 2008 . 100 percent of the proceeds benefits the American Cancer Society.

Full Circle 1

Full Circle 2

I was thrilled when I received an email from her telling me one of my pieces was featured on her April 9th Tuesday Blog. The preview starts Monday, April 28 and the auction starts Monday, May5.
I was looking at my copy of Quilting Arts, Studios, and on this pass, I was actually reading rather than staring at the pictures in awe. I love to see who is quoted and where they are from so it was no surprise when I saw a few comments from Texans. Oh look - someone from Garland - well maybe I know her - yep - it was me. I had to read it a few times to see what my quotable gem was because I answered the survey so long ago. Anyway, it was fun seeing my name in print.

On a recent trip to Boston to visit my daughter, I took a side trip to Stow, MA, home of Quilting Arts and Cloth, Paper, Scissors. It was a 40 minute drive from my hotel through some beautiful countryside. The trees weren't green yet but I can just imagine during the spring, summer and fall, it's paradise.

Speaking of green - I entered the Quilting Arts Go Green! challenge. The challenge is to make a 5 X 5 piece using materials you already have. I used the tea bag packaging and fibers to weave a background and added flowers punched and cut from fabric scraps and a horribly, ugly silk flower I have. I stitched in the stems and leaves but ended up adding beads and sequins to make them stand out. I added a flower made of paper beads and added a bit of nylon netting. The background was colored using fabric crayons as transfer dyes. Whew! I put quite a bit of effort into a 5 X 5 square!

I have been up to my old, sad, pathetic behavior again. I bought fabric (that's not new) but it's repro fabric - what the hell was wrong with me? I am a weak woman when there is a 'going out of business' sale. I ended up with pink and yellow fabric, and everyone knows you cannot do anything with pink and yellow, so I was forced to buy blue, green and purple to round out the palette. I confess, I AM WEAK!!!!!! As a consequence for exercising no self control, I must make a baby quilt for a friend who is becoming a grandma. This is a high risk pregnancy and the mom is on total bed rest. Off to make pinwheels or something...

2008 Highlights so far

January:
I celebrated my birthday with my good friend Linda, her husband Larry and son Kyle. We went to The Tavern and dined on Prime Rib, mashed potatoes and peas. Yummy, delicious comfort food. Linda gave me a bouquet of beautiful, fragrant lillies.

I also enrolled in a couple of classes at Quilt University Patchwork Illusions with Karen Combs and a dyeing class with Marjie McWilliams. Here are a couple of the blocks I made during Patchwork Illusions:

The dyeing wasn't as successful. I struggled getting the red dye to take to the fabric. The dye bath that I poured down the drain was beautiful, the fabric sucked big time.

February:

Dallas Area Fiber Artists hosted the Federation of Fiber Artists Conference this year. The exhibit titled Horizons in Fiber 2008 was held at the Art Center of Plano. I enrolled in 2 workshops, one covering screen printing with Dawn Zero Erickson and one teaching 3D Shibori with Carol Lane Saber.

Dawn Zero Erickson

our supplies

Carol Lane Saber

our supplies

At the end of the month, I went on an ACTS Retreat with my church. ACTS stands for Adoration Community Theology and Service. I had a wonderful time and made several new friends. I found it interesting that you are identified by the church service you attend. To save you from asking, I attend the 7:30 am service.

Catching Up

I started this entry in February (hence the date). It is now April and I am publishing. Atta girl Sherrie!

Happy April! I have quite a bit of catching up to do so let's get started.

December, 2007

I decided I needed a light box to photograph my etsy gems. Rather than spend the $100+ and buy one, I found directions on the internet for making my own light box. I purchased some pvc, various connectors, pvc glue, a white sheet and some colored poster board.I was rather pleased with the assembly and I am looking forward to using it.

I attended the Dallas Area Fiber Artists Christmas party and won the bid for some beautiful polymer clay beads and a composition by Flo Barry. I left the beads on their string and draped them over a mirror I have in the dining room. Will I be able to use them? Who knows.

I decided to make a project outlined in Quilting Arts Magazine. I made some amulet necklaces. They are made with acrylic felt that is embellished to look like leather on the outside. Foil has been added to the inside for some bling. These pictures show the outside and inside. The blue one is mostly completed with beads and cords.

outside of amulets

inside of amulets with foil applied

completed amulet

I also made a few check book covers using a free pattern from Fiber and Stitch.

And just for grins, I will show some of the loot I purchased at the International Quilt Show in November. This is a guilt thing since I exercised absolutely no self control:

here are some beautiful glass beads and buttons

here are my Artgirlz treasures.

some Stewart Gill Paints

silk fabric squares in various colors

variety pack of various silk odds and ends from Treenway Silks

Wonderfil Thread variety pack

During Christmas vacation, an old friend from my days at EDS was in town visiting. Reverend Carolyn Byars came by and we visited with another friend of hers. Carolyn is in the middle.

Final item to share for the month of December is a wall hanging I created. Here is a layout using some of the polymer clay masks I made. The masks leave much to be desired and haven't made it onto the quilt yet.

Okay, I will take a break now.

Season's Greetings

Time to catch up. Let's start with Houston International. This was the first time I was able to attend for more than one day. We started our adventure on Preview Night. The 'we' is my good friend Linda and her Mom who came down from Minnesota for the show. With the precision and focus of treasure hunters, we marked our map of vendors and took off with list in hand. I really should clarify this - I was the only one with a list, they were 'browsers', I was serious. In the end, of course I spent too much money but I had a blast. I attended a 'Make It, Take It' mini-workshop with Sue Bleiweiss and created a mini padfolio. Sue is the inspiration behind Fiber and Stitch . Fiber and Stitch has lots of good articles on mixed media techniques from artists around the world, worth taking a look at.

I met up with members of the African American Quilters yahoo group. We visited, took a group photo and did a show and tell.

Of course there were the quilts - the beautiful quilts. I will post just a few of the many photos I captured.

Here is the Grand Prize winner - a work by Hollis Chatelain.

Here are a couple of pieces created by two award winning artist friends of mine.

This piece is by Tonya Littman

This piece is by Barbara Barbara Oliver Hartman.

I participated in the final year of the Journal Quilt Project so of course I was happy to see my work hanging amongst the other inspired works. Here is a link to blogs from other participants: http://quiltart.com/JQ_links.html

To my surprise, there was an exhibit of the quilts published in Creative Quilting Journal Quilt Project and I was able to see another one of my little works.

Gotta run.

It's Been a While

Has it really been 3 months since my last entry? I guess I will just have to catch up. Let's see...
After the workshop at the end of July with Mary Ruth Smith, I decided to join the Dallas Area Fiber Artists and the Surface Design Association.
I committed to participating in the final year of the Journal Quilt Project and as usual, I was working up until the last minute completing my work. On this piece (17x22), I used techniques learned in the workshop with Mary Ruth Smith. There is stamping with hand made stamps, fabric painting, hand embellishing with metallic gold thread. I found this really beautiful thread that has a black wrap on it but also irridescent film that shows green and brown. I used it to sew a grid and I left lots of tails hanging. I even made my own sequin looking things out of metallic gold cardstock. The binding has seed beads all around and the skeleton leaves are metallic. This was fun. I even managed to get the sleeve and labels completed!

I took 2 more classes at Quilt University - People in Places taught by Linda Schmidt and Upside Down Applique, taught by Susan Brittingham. I completed much more of the work for the Upside Down Applique class than I did for People in Places. Another underwater scene but this time with sea horses. One day, I will complete the work for both classes and put them in the Finishing School Gallery.



I even managed to make a batch of hand dyed fabrics. I did the 24 color batch and there is still so much for me to learn. This time the colors were more even but it seemed to wash away during the last step. I will get it some day.