New Work - Fun with Stencils - Autumn Ginkgo

I just completed this little piece I call "Autumn Ginkgo". I used a stencil from Laura Murray Designs and Stewart Gill paint to make the ginkgo leaves. I had made the background and the pleated border quite some time ago. (The border is a technique I learned from friend Vikki Pignatelli.) So when my good friend Cyndi Souder said she was teaching a stencil class in Houston and would love to borrow any samples I might have, I thought it was a perfect opportunity to use my new stencil and create one for her. Another UFO done.

SAQA Auction - Fourth Purchase

This delightful piece is by Shelley Brucar. I have been on a fish kick lately so this piece goes nicely with Clowning Around by Jan Potter and the series I made over the summer. My beach house in California is going to get some great artwork.

SAQA Auction - Third Purchase

This piece is by Vivien Zepf. It's called Together II. I was drawn to the imagery of helping hands. I was recently designing a logo for my new company called Giving Back Technology and came up with a very similar image. The message portrayed by these two hands transcends our personal beliefs in religion or politics. It shows caring about another and making the world a better place.

SAQA Auction - Second Purchase

This is the second piece I purchased in round one of the SAQA auction. It's called Rita Experiences Her First Hot Flash. The artist is Patricia Charity. So you can probably guess why this piece was meaningful to me. Hint: I celebrated my 50th birthday recently. The thread work is stunning. Click on the picture to see it close-up.

Thank you Patricia for donating this piece.

SAQA Auction - My First Purchase

In the first round of the auction, I purchased three pieces. Two have arrived. I am very excited. The artwork is so much better than I realized from the photos on the SAQA website. So here is my first one, called Clowning Around by Jan Potter. Jan had a similar piece in Sacred Threads. I immediately recognized her SAQA donation since I am intimately familiar with all the Sacred Threads pieces. So this feels like a souvenir of the Sacred Threads show.


Thank you Jan for donating this piece.

New Work. University of Michigan Bioartography

I have finished a new piece called Escher's Needlepoint. It is based on a scientific photo by Kaelyn Male, a scientist at the University of Michigan. My Fiber Artists and Loose Ends group is doing a collaborative exhibit called "Art Under the Microscope"with University of Michigan scientists from the Center for Organogenesis, the Gifts of Art program and the Society for the Arts in Healthcare. The exhibit opens October 19th. To learn more, visit the exhibit announcement on the Gifts of Art website.

SAQA Auction Started Today

At 2:00 (ET) the SAQA 12" x 12" reverse auction began. Last year I purchased three beautiful pieces and now have them mounted and hung in my home.

This year, I donated a piece called Icelandic Poppies. I am thrilled that it has sold on the first day (within the first few minutes). Here is a screen capture showing the sale. Thank you to Ann Sielman, our Executive Director, Martha Sielman's mother.

I hope everyone will check out the auction. It's a great way to contribute to this wonderful organization and to acquire some unique pieces of art. Here is the link:
http://www.saqa.com/newsebulletins/Squares09_1.aspx

I Admit it. I'm a Cat Person.

I have three rescued cats. At one time we also had two dogs and a lizard. I asked the vet how many pets a family could have before they were considered eccentric. She said that when the number of pets is greater than the number of people in the home, well it's something to think about.

This morning I was winding a bobbin. I like to multi-task. So after it started to wind, I got up to check my email. When I came back, Kahlua was playing with the moving thread. This can't be good. But it is amusing. I managed to grab the camera and catch her in the act.

She also decided that the machine is tasty. If you look closely you will see her pink tongue licking the top of my machine.

It's time to take my machine in to be serviced. Fred will probably ask me about all the cat hair. Hopefully he won't notice the cat spit.

New Work - What I Did During My Summer Vacation

I spent five glorious weeks at our summer home in California. The weather actually was not very nice. It was overcast and chilly. So rather than spending a considerable time down at the beach, I spent more time in my studio.

While I brought UFOs to work on, I ended up creating these four new pieces. The pictures can be enlarged by clicking on them.

It all started with a cool fish stencil I bought while at the Long Beach IQF show. It's by Laura Murray. The stencil also has some feathery plants which look like seaweed or kelp. I haven't done a lot of beading so this was good practice to use beads for the fish eyes.

After this piece, I knew I was going to visit my friend Claudia Sammis so I wanted to make something for her. I also wanted to experiment with Angelina fibers and couching on decorative threads. This little 12" x 12" is the result. I call it "Fish for Claudia".


After the fun of couching on decorative threads, I decided I wanted to try more of that so I made this next piece. The background fabric was one of my purchases from Long Beach. Friend Cathie Hoover saw it and said it looked like me. So of course, I bought it. The pleated border at the bottom I learned from quilt teacher and friend Vikki Pignatelli.


Finally, I made this last piece. More couching and a focus on beads this time. At the bottom you can see shells from our beach that have been drilled to make buttons. The large orange fish is from the stencil but enlarged and done with thread work instead of paint.


Here's a close-up of the shell buttons from our beach.


All in all, it was a great summer in my studio. I stretched myself to do more embellishing with paint, beads and fibers.

Hoffman Challenge Picture from Suzanne

I received this picture from quilting friend Suzanne Kistler. She attended the Rocky Mountain Quilt Festival and got to see all the Hoffman Challenge 2009 pieces. My piece Woodland Spring is traveling in trunk QC-F. Thanks Suzanne!