Another thank you....

Its spring cleaning time and the studio is no exception. It helps that the fiber art group I am in, Running with Scissors, is having our second annual art supply garage sale. Its funny because I've been going through everything in my studio and showing no mercy.

And as I go through everything, I realize more and more just how hard the past few years have been. For those of you who don't know, my dad passed of cancer late last year. He was sick for two and a half years and it was the hardest thing I've been through - ever.

Healing is coming along, but its slow and when I sift through things like my studio, I remember how little time there was to do things. I tossed stuff in boxes and didn't think twice about it. In the midst of the chaos at home, I closed my fiber art store, Lost Arts Stitchery. Many of the things that came home from the store closing were never dealt with and I feel like I'm drowning in STUFF.

I also found the nice pottery bowl I purchased from the Plymouth Potter's Guild last year for my Fiberart for a Cause postcard collection. I was a little startled at just how many postcards I had obtained through the course of the project. But when I looked at all of them in the bowl, I was touched again at what the project had accomplished.

My dad's cancer wasn't beatable, we knew that pretty much from the very beginning. But the truth of it is that he lived much longer then people in the past with his type of cancer and he had a much better quality of life. So when I look at that bowl full of postcards, I feel like everyone involved in the project helped to give even more hope to a family in the same situation.

Its a comfort to walk into my studio and see it and to know what Fiberart for a Cause was able to accomplish. On the very top of the collection is a postcard
Virgina Spiegel, the organizer of Fiberart for a Cause, mailed to me when things were particularly bad. It was such a bright spot in my day when I received it and I don't think I will ever be able to thank her enough for all the sacrifices she made during the course of the project. She is truly an angel.

Putting it in writing...

...can sometimes make it even scarier....DEADLINES.



Although I bought a nifty dry erase board from IKEA so at least I have fun writing all of them down. I liked this one because the frosted glass let's you put a poster or large print photo behind it so you can customize it. My sister-in-law, Jill, took this really cool shot of a zillion rubber duckies when she and my brother went on their honeymoon to Hawaii. Ralph and Jill are awesome photographers (click on their names to visit their Flickr sites.)

Here is one piece that I am working on crossing off the deadline list. I joined the Kansas Art Quilters and they have an upcoming show called Altered Views. Its a spin on the eye exam chart. I'm procrastinating quilting it. My goal is to get it done this weekend and after all, its saturday envening. I have a whole another day to the weekend.



This one is different for me. For one thing, its white. I had to go buy the fabric for it. And yes, I HAD to go shopping for it. White is not a color strong in my stash.

Another thing that makes it different is that I don't plan to embellish the heck out of it. I'm trying to do some more quilts that focus on surface design. I have it up on the design wall right now and I'm thinking once I quilt it I will start to like it more. I like it, just keep feeling like it is naked.

But I promised myself that this one will be surface design and quilitng. Yes, ma'am, I mean it. No embellishments, not even beads. Nope, I swear. Only fabric and thread. *whimper* Wish me luck on this one....

Something New...

This probably doesn't look horribly exciting. But it is...and let me tell you why...

The past two years have been very difficult, lots of stress, lots of family things going on. I've managed to keep creating throughout it but I can't say that I've been super thrilled with the results. In fact, I've been letting that little voice in my head (you know the one that tells you how much you stink at art) run rampant lately. I managed to squash it today.

I've got lots of deadlines looming on challenges and projects. I decided to try to get one out of the way today. And I took a different approach to doing it:

1) I went back to working with a general idea and just going with the flow.

2) I pieced the background. (Yes, I've never done that before. Quit looking at me weird.)

3) I used nothing but the sewing machine to do #2. (If you know me, you know this is my shameful little secret. Me and the sewing machine don't always get along well. But we are working on getting to know each other better and I'm not sure who its more painful for - me or the machine...)

4) I used a rotary cutter. (Again, something I don't usually do.)

5) I made this one two friends. I'm finally making good on my intention to work in a series of at least three quilts when I start a topic.

Now, don't get too carried away. Does this mean I measured anything? Nope.

Does this mean the sides are straight? Never.

Does this mean I'll finish the edges with binding? Most likely not.

And of course these were created with a 3-dimensional embelllishment as the inspiration point so they won't be flat for long.

It seems like the creativity is slowly creeping back in. It might seem small but its a relief to know its still there and brewing. I'm hoping it keeps going!

Kat's Art Show

My friend Kathy Campau has a show of all her artwork at the 212 Arts Center in Saline. It opened last weekend and I was excited to go out and see it with my friends Leann and Mary. We got a little lost on the way there but it was worth the little goof we made with the directions!

I'm a bit bummed because some of the photos I took were a little shaky and not worth posting. And of course one of them is the photo I took of Kat in front of one of her quilts. *sigh* I have to work on steadier hands when I photograph things. Kat gave me permission to take some photos of her work to post on my blog so here goes.

Kat does everything - and does it VERY well!!! She had such a variety of work on display, it was fantastic to see everything in one place! I first got aquainted with Kat's work through her flower quilts. Here is a photo of one that really caught my eye, its a giant red lily.


Another thing that blows me away about Kat's quilts is her free motion quilting. Here is a close up of another flower quilt showing her quilting. I just love it!!


And here is another quilt from Kat that I just love, she does these most awesome mask quilts. I took a class from her on it and it was so liberating. I'm one of those people that has a hard time wrapping my mind around using lots of patterns together and have always been impressed by Kat's ability to make everything work together. Of course, my quilt from that class isn't finished yet (shhhh....don't tell Kat!) but I learned a lot from her and it has made me braver with patterns. I particularly like this mask quilt.


Kat also had her art dolls and her mixed media work, including this shrine, on display.




Kat also had an amazing display of felted purses that she made. Of course that photo didn't work out well so I don't have one to post but take my word for it, its fantastic!!

I find it so inspiring to go to fiber art shows but I have to admit that it is so much more fun when you are friends with the artist being featured! :) I'm so happy for Kat to have this show, its much deserved and just wonderful!!!

Useless Trivia

Okay, so I'm looking up weird and useless trivia for a new project that I'm starting. I'll post pictures of it when it is finished.

I've spent lots of time looking up useless trivia, there are tons of sites for it online. And I have to admit that it get addictive. Some of these things are gross but some are kind of interesting. I'm pretty easily amused. :)

Here are some of the ones that caught my eye:

-The housefly hums in the middle octave, key of F.

-Cats have more then one hundred vocal sounds, while dogs have about ten.

-Honey is the only food that doesn't spoil.

-All polar bears are left handed.

-Powdered non-dairy creamer is flammable.

-A cockroach can live nine days without its head before it starves to death. (I have no desire to find out how someone figured this one out...)

D-onald Duck was banned in Finland because he doesn't wear pants.

T-here are more plastic flamingos in the U.S. than there are real ones.

-Slugs have 4 noses.

-A sneeze travels out of your mouth at over 100mph.

-Months that begin on Sunday always have a Friday the 13th. (This is true! April and July this year are the only two months starting on a sunday and they are the only ones that have a Friday the 13th. Never noticed that one before!)

Okay, I'm done now. I'll have pictures soon of the project I gathered all this stuff for. At least it was fun to research! :)

Shrine Retreat weekend

"Let Peace Begin with Me" by Lynn Krawczyk

This is the second art retreat weekend that a group of us have gone on. Mary is the brains behind the organization and we are now calling ourselves "The Escape Artists." (Thanks to Joan for the snappy name!) We take a weekend, run away to the Comfort Inn in Livonia, and gorge ourselves on art. We chose to do shrines this time.

We were inspired by Carol Owens book, "Crafting Personal Shrines." Its stuffed full with inspiration and the photo above is my attempt at using the techniques in her book. I asked everyone at the retreat to write down their wish for peace on a slip of paper and hung it from the ceiling of the shrine. I also used a tile I purchased at the Plymouth Art Fair from an artist of the Village Potters Guild (forgive me because I don't remember the name). Leann was so good to me and carved me a pair of rubber feet stamps for the shrine too. It was the perfect touch.

I did like making this shrine but have to admit that I found cutting the foam core board for it tediuos. Its the whole making sure all the measurments are exact thing that started to drive me batty. So I reverted back to using wood boxes for two other shrines, one of which is "Broken" shown below.



I did one other one with a piggy in it but the picture didn't come out good so you'll have to wait to see it until I can take proper pictures of it for my website.

I wasn't the only one hard at work! Here is what everyone else was up to:

Here is Leann's shrine, showing off her specialty: skulls. The skulls in the paper are from a rubber stamp she carved herself and she made the larger skulls inside the shrine too.




Julia's shrine was really colorful and cool! She painted the papers she used to decorate it. I loved the texture of the papers, it really made the piece fun.



Joan was REALLY busy! She got FIVE shrines done and plans to hang them on her wall. I am so impressed with everything she got done and they all look incredible!!! From top to bottom they are: Peace, Lust, Hope, Passion and Joy.

Cynthia has done a phenominal job with the techniques from the book. She done a beautiful shrine as a wedding gift and a garden shrine to her passion for her gardening hobby. Here she is hard at work. :)

Emily was really kind to stop by the retreat and drop off a box of frames that she thought we might put to good use. (Thanks Emily!!) Here is one of Ruth's shrines featuring the frames, looks great!

Stephanie is a fellow engineer, you can kind of tell from the concentration when she is working! Her shrine is very cool, unique angles and really fun! Wish I had taken a picture of it when it was farther along to share but trust me, its cool!



And here is Sidney's shrine, again at an early stage. She has really added a lot of detail to it since I snapped this photo. She keeps insisting that she hates purple but for some reason I think she is lying to me. ;-)



There was a lot more going on throughout the weekend and I didn't get many more photos. I had my nose stuck in my work. Finally the artist coma is over!!! :)

We are planning on doing another one in June, maybe something fabric this time. Can't wait!!!

2007 Invitational Reverse Auction

Well, I was the last one to get my artwork in but I made it. Here she is, "At the Heart of It." Its my donation for the Fiberart for a Cause Invitational Reverse Auction whichi is being held on March 12-16, with a pre-sale on March 9.

I'm really excited that Virginia asked me to take part in the auction this time. I was a little worried that my doll might be too weird but I decided to just go with it. :)

My dolls have really taken on a more assemblage/shrine feeling to them. Its a style I plan to develop more over the course of the next year. I have two other dolls kicking around in my mind that I'm going to start in on and they too will be box dolls. I just feel like you have so much more freedom when you don't have to worry about the arms and legs and making everything look realistic. Just not my style.

At any rate, I hope the doll does well. I hope ALL the pieces do well! Its such an awesome cause and I can't thank Virginia enough for all the hard work she has put into this project! :)

After IKEA came to Canton... :)

Well, here are some pictures of my new and improved studio! This is so cool!! I still have a little more organizing to do and need to do some decorating but its hard to believe what it looked like before. I may eventually get new work tables to match the rest of the furniture but the budget has been spent and I'm loving every bit of it! :) Hooray for IKEA!

Before IKEA came to Canton...

Okay, since everyone else is being brave enough to post photos of their messy studios, here are mine. Although its never really been clean, closing my store made it even worse. IKEA has just opened in Canton, Michigan (only a mere few miles from my house! Hooray!) and is now helping me to get organized. This is what it looked like before I attacked it, I think you'll agree that it most definetly needs some help!!!

I've already done a lot of work pulling everything apart. Although you have to make a bigger mess to make it clean. I'll post photos of the progress later tonight. :)