travels and stuff

 I had the good fortune of spending 8 fabulous, art-filled days in New Mexico last month with three of my friends.  In the last several weeks, I've been working on a visual journal of sorts; it's mostly my photos along with various bits of paper and postcards picked up along the way.  Working on it has been a joy because it brings back memories of the trip.

 I think Taos was my favorite place but Albuquerque and Santa Fe were also wonderful!

I've had a problem getting things composed here at blogger lately so will put some of my photos up on the next post.

it's in there!

This quilt top was artfully arranged by members of the Portland Modern Quilt Guild, and chosen by Kathy Miller of Michael Miller Fabrics to be displayed in their booth at Quilt Market next month!  My block is in the third row, far right.

There were 48 awesome blocks submitted by guild members for this challenge and the ones not in this quilt will all be made into 2 other quilts that will be shown at the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show and the Northwest Quilt Show.  Yay! 

 

edit:  well, I guess Quilt Market was this month and here's a photo of the finished quilt taken by Elizabeth Hartman as it appeared at the Michael Miller booth in Kansas City.

Workshop at Teahouse Studio

 I traveled down to Berkeley, California recently to experience a two-day workshop at the Teahouse Studio,

 which is the workplace of artist, and gracious host, Mati Rose McDonough.

 The star of the workshop titled "Layers of Lines, Layers of Meaning: Thick Embroidery" was our instructor, Rebecca Ringquist, who is a wonderful fiber artist from Brooklyn, New York.

 Rebecca shared with us her techniques for creating richly layered, embroidered pieces.  These are some examples of her beautiful stitched art.

 Rebecca, on the left, checks out the work of her students on the sunny patio outside the studio, where we also gathered for delicious catered lunches.

 One of my classmates, Penny, had a clever way of organizing and storing her threads...wrapped around photographic slides in a carrier.

 One of the exercises in the workshop was to do some timed embroidery sketches...I was Penny's subject for one of her pieces. :o)

 Here's a portrait of our class group, from left; Mary, Jessica, Rebecca, Penny, Leah, and myself.

Below is a sampler I made in class, using hand and machine embroidered sketches on sheer fabric and linen, and applique.  I came away from the workshop with new embroidery techniques and a load of inspiration!

new things

The sun finally came out for a while today so I ran out to take a few pictures of recent projects. This wall hanging started out as a table runner but in the interest of being completed within a reasonable time frame became something a bit smaller. All of the prints used came from a deconstructed rag rug. I will explain... One of my very creative friends, Tory, discovered that within a modest rug may be some very interesting material (you can see what she did here). So, while in World Market one day I decided to pick-up a rag rug that was on sale and see what I could do. When I got home and took it apart I ended up with a pile of super-colorful cotton fabric scraps of wax block prints. They needed to be washed and pressed but it was worth the effort. With the addition of some Kona solids and silk pieces, I was able to put together the panel, and there are still a LOT of scraps left. It was fun to use fabrics that I probably wouldn't come across anywhere else but in that rug.

I decided to add a beaded fringe to the bottom border as it just seemed to be the right finish.

I couldn't resist deconstructing another bargain rug, this time finding some lightweight silk scraps. My grand dog, Baxter, decided they made a comfy resting place.

In another instance of using what you are given, I created a quilt block for a challenge from the Portland Modern Quilt Guild to use some lovely cotton solids donated by Michael Miller Fabrics. Some of the blocks created by our guild members will be made into a quilt to be displayed at quilt market in Kansas City this year.

back to blogging...

It's good to be here again, been a while...my computer-savvy son managed to restore my blog background. Isn't it great when our kids grow up to be so helpful? It looks different here now, but I kind of like the change.

Lots of things going on in the last couple of months, and several fun things to look forward to this year. I'm trying to be more focused with my art making; and more recently, learning how to use a new camera I picked up on craigslist (purchase initiated by the above mentioned adult child...).

One of my customers from the PAC holiday sale requested that I make a few more wire-worked pins so have been working on those. Also, I've finished a quilt and taken on a major project in re-doing my work space above the garage. More on that later.

Day After

The Portland Art Collective holiday show is over for another year and I'm feeling gratitude and relief; thankful for having spent two fun days with over 20 of my art friends and their work, and relieved that I can now clean things up at home and move on to new projects. These are a couple of shots of my space.

The show was quite a success! We had good attendance and sales that exceeded all previous years. The publicity committee did an excellent job of getting the word out. Robin Olsen, who started our group and Lorraine Jones, chairperson of the show, were interviewed at a local community radio station last week which you can listen to here.
All of the participants worked very hard to make the show a great time for us and our guests.

Edit: Lots more photos posted to the PAC blog, thanks to Dayna!

what's going on over here

Just popping in to say "hello" and share some of the holiday goodness that is developing in my little workshop. The Portland Art Collective holiday show is only two short weeks away and true to form, I'm feverishly creating things to fill my space at the last hour. These rag ball ornaments will hang on the "danglie tree" at the show. They're made of muslin and silk sari scraps wrapped around a foam ball.

The inexpensive rubber stamp sets I purchased here makes quick work of personalizing the muslin ribbon; the individual letters snap together...viola!

Some of these little matryoshka dolls will sit in a basket on my table and others will hang on the tree.

Lots of hooky business going on here, too, making crocheted scarves.

And sewing a few totes, as well. Somehow... it will all get done in time.