HAPPY DANCE!

After six weeks, my daughter has regained complete control of her foot. On Monday, the neurologist said that she did not have any nerve damage and on Tuesday, she could walk. He believes that she had an internal infection and there was some inflammation pressing on the nerve. I am so happy and relieved that there is a happy ending!

I saw some beautiful handmade beads that looked like glass and wanted to make some myself. This melting pot is used to heat the UTEE to the perfect temperature for coating the beads. Stay tuned . . . maybe I'll have some wonderful items to share.

I really enjoy reading about creativity and trying different exercises to stretch my thinking and skills. You just never know where it will lead. The latest addition to my ever growing collection of creative tools is the Creative Whack Pack (book and deck of cards). Here is the text from the card "Exaggerate"

"Imagine a joke so funny that you can't stop laughing for a month. Paper stronger than steel. An apple the size of a hotel. A jet engine quieter than a moth beating its wings. A home-cooked dinner for 25,000 people. Try exaggerating your idea. Think big; what if it were a thousand times bigger, louder, stronger, faster, or brighter? What if the number of people who could use it were increased a thousandfold? Now think small; what if it were only one-thousandth as powerful, fast, costly, or complicated as before? How can you exaggerate your idea?"

Fire Storm Completed

It feels great to be creative again. I hoping that all the aches and pains are gone for good. I just finished quilting a wholecloth piece that I painted a while ago. I think it turned out really great. I really didn't plan on painting a fire scene, but when I stood back and looked at it, it reminded me of the Santa Barbara wildfire that burned for months. There are two fabric trees appliqued to the foreground and tulle, organza added to the top section to resemble the flames and smoke. Here's a photo of the finished quilt.

I've added a binding that has a very narrow piped edge along the inside, in this case it is purple. It's a technique that Ricky Timms features on his Grand Finale DVD. This little flash of color (it's about 1/32" wide) provide a big impact. I have to say that it isn't easy and wouldn't recommend it to people that get frustrated easily. It took more hours than I want to admit, but I'm in love with the look and the fact that it is completely done by machine is a bonus. This is the second time I've done a binding using this technique. I'm guessing that after doing it 5 or 6 times, it will become quicker and easier.

I bought this really fun package of paper clips and thought I could use them for rubbings but the hand is the only design that works well. The others have too many 3-D parts. They made me smile . . . so they had to come home with me.

March ATC's

I figured I better post something before you thought I abandoned my blog. I've haven't created much in the last few weeks and didn't have anything positive to write about . . . so I stayed quiet. That doesn't happen to often, but the last few weeks have been rough, both physically and emotionally.

A few weeks ago, somebody side-swiped my car (with me in it), so I've had quite a few aches and pains that started in my upper back and travelled down to my legs. No fun. On top of that, my daughter is having a problem with her foot and the doctors cannot figure it out. She has had MRI's on every part of her body, EMG's on the nerves in various parts, lots of blood work and a Spinal Tap and still no results. It's pretty frustrating and emotionally draining. I'm waiting to hear what they plan to do next . . . and trying my hardest to stay positive.

On a brighter note, Fibervision had a great turn out for the artists reception at the Architectural Foundation. The exhibit looks fantastic, if I do say so myself.

I did manage to make some ATC's to exchange with my group this week. It felt really good to play with the paint and markers. We had 15 artists exchanging cards this month. This photo will show you some of the cards I made.

Quilt on Canvas

Here's the newest addition to my canvas series. Hmmm . . . is it a series if all they have in common is the painted canvas they are sewn onto? The style of each quilt is very different. I blogged about the other two pieces here and here.

I love the way it looks mounted on the painted canvas and am going to explore this further.

At our last Fibervision meeting we had a workshop on Creativity. Brecia Kralovic-Logan discussed several different ways to tap into our individual creativity. This is a tracing of my hand that I decorated during the session. Brecia said to use it as a reminder that I am a one of a kind artist making REAL and one of a kind ART work.

Brecia shared several quotes with us, but this one really got my attention. "Given the chance, that place inside will speak to each of us." Mark Nepo

The workshop finished with a mini fashion show of Brecia's incredible wearables. They are very imaginative, colorful and textural.

Frame of Reference

My favorite group of like-minded thinkers, Fibervision, is having an exhibit called Frame of Reference at the Santa Barbara Architectural Foundation from March 4-March 28. In addition to their fiber art, each artist will display their source of inspiration. It may be a photo, a seashell or perhaps a movie or a single word. The reception with the artists is on Friday, March 7th from 5:00 - 7:00 pm. We will have the gallery open for Viewing with the Artists on March 8th and March 15th. It's going to be a lot of fun and all of you are invited!! My quilt, Imprint of the Soul, was chosen for the front of the postcard; If you would like to see a photo, I blogged about it here. Fibervision has started a group blog, please stop by here to see what we're up to.

Photoshop Manipulation

These postcards were made from photos that were manipulated in Photoshop. I printed the tweaked photos using my inkjet printer and pre-treated cotton fabric from Jacquard. These are going to be traded with members of the Surface Design group. It's a lot of fun playing with Photoshop because you're never quite sure what your image will end up looking like. Hope they like them!

It was a Colorful Week

This week was both colorful and creative. First was my ATC exchange. Ever since our exhibit at AFS and newspaper article, this group has been growing steadily, and this month we had 20 artists trading. It's always fun to see what everyone comes up with. Here are some of the beautiful cards that I received.

Top row: Mary Stanley, Angela Moll, Syd McCutcheon Second Row: Colleen Darling, Lindsay C (she's 10 yrs old), Joan Dineberg

Top row: Angela Howard, Pierrette Bottom Row: Judy Nilsen

This is a beautiful hand-painted piece that I purchased from Terri Stegmiller. I loved everything about this piece as soon as I saw it and it's even more beautiful in person. Thanks Terri.

I took the day off from work (always good) and spent it beading with a several of my creative buddies, Oleta, Jeanne, Mary and Lora. Deana Hartman lead the "Need to Bead" workshop and showed us quite a few stitches ranging from simple scatter stitch to encrusted collage. I have a large collection of beads (what a surprise) and brought way more than I could possibly use, but I just wasn't sure which piece I was going to work on. It was a lot of fun and I still have a long way to go before my piece is worth showing.

ATC Trade

These are my offerings for the ATC trade tomorrow. If you are in Santa Barbara, stop by to meet a great group of artists at the Good Cup Cafe on the Mesa.

Some of the backgrounds have a bleached design, others have been monoprinted using Sherrill's Sorbet paint. I really love the great assortment of colors and the great coverage of this paint is truely amazing.I had lots of fun playing with the positive and negative shapes, circles punched from aluminum foil and recycled receipts.

Cyber Fiber Postcard Trade

If you haven't already heard about the online trade and upcoming exhibition organized by Susan Lenz, you really should visit her Cyber Fiber blog. Susan has a wonderful assortment of postcards and ATC's available for trading. Here is postcard #40 that I reserved.Here is the bottom layer of my postcard for Susan. It consists of silk, inkjet photo, painted baby wipe & commercial fabric scraps. I added a total of five layers of yarn, painted dryer sheets, thread ball bunches and stitched each layer down.And here's the final card all trimmed, stitched and ready to mail. I really like the idea of recycling materials and love the layers of texture that this technique creates.

Can Frogs Smile?

I've been so busy, the week just flew by. I finally took a little break today while the sun was shining and went to one of my favorite places, the zoo. As usual, I took a bunch of pictures, but I had to share this one with you. Can frogs really smile? Sure looks like this one can, that smile made my day. I'm going to make a large print of this one and post it in my studio.

Last weekend after our Fibervision meeting, Susan and I went to the Elverhoj Museum to see our show hanging for the last time. It was a great venue and I hope we can do it again in the future. One of my pieces sold, so I wanted to visit it for the last time. We exchanged UFO's for our second annual reVision challenge. I have documented all the before reVision tops and quilts. Stay tuned for the unveiling later in the year. The piece I have is a complete quilt about 48" square. I am having a little trouble cutting up a finished quilt, but I'm confident I will find a way to reVision this piece into something that will make Lorna proud!

Susan had a wonderful present for me, a beautiful rusty and overdyed piece of fabric. She has been rusting everything in sight with great success. I haven't had much luck, but I do have some old macrame rings rusting outside and will try again soon.

This last photo is a postcard that I received from Betyann. It is a Photoshop Manipulation PC trade from the Surface Design group. Betyann made a negative from an old family photo in Photoshop, printed it on Cynotype fabric and hand embroidered the flowers. Very pretty.

Imprint of the Soul

This is the quilt I've been working on for the last couple of weeks. It has a lot of stitching, both by hand and machine. I love the colors and the way the light hits the silk. It feels very rich and elegant.

The first source of inspiration came from a poem that my son Sean wrote called Couturier. Here is the first line: "The first things to notice are the sterile lights illuminating fabrics one dreams of but rarely visits with touch".

I've collected some silk fabrics, but never used them. After reading his poem, I couldn't find the silk fast enough. I was working on a series of line drawings that I felt would work well with the poem and the silk. I ended up doing a lot more hand stitching than I usually do but the texture the seed stitching was exactly what the piece needed.

Okay, enough already, here it is. Did you notice all the circles? I'm telling you, they keep showing up in my work.

With any luck, it will be on exhibit at the Architectural Foundation of Santa Barbara in March. It is a little bigger than the size specified, however, my Fibervision group is known for breaking the rules. We'll see if the rule breaking/bending applies to size!

More Paint, More Depth

A couple of weeks ago, I posted photos of the first pieces that I painted. I left the fabric to dry overnight and didn't realize that it would continue to change until the fabric was dry. Was I ever in for a surprise the next morning! Both pieces were very pastel, the salt had sucked a lot of color out and our tables were uneven, so a lot of color slid off. Live and learn! They were nice, but I knew they could be better. So, I decided to add a second layer of paint and here are the progress shots. I paint in my dining room now, so the dry time is much shorter and my tables are even!The colors are so rich and they have so much depth now. I feel like they are finally finished.