Memorial Day

To all our soldiers both home and abroad...we thank you for all you do for our country. God Bless You and God Bless America.

Have a safe and happy Memorial day!

Little Flower Arrangements

I love the warmer months for the many beautiful flowers they bring....I don't like the heat of summer but it's almost worth it to have a constant supply of flowers at your fingertips. I have an assortment of things to hold flowers down to the smallest one below. It was a favor at a wedding, made for holding toothpicks...I love putting a rose in it.

This large rock had a hole drilled into it and a "frog" attached underneath. The frog has spiky things that hold the stems....along with a well for filling with water.
The well is underneath...
And these next 2 are my favorite...both gifts from some good friends who know what I love!
And I love this one....a combination of 2 different types of Raku...the horsehair raku (white) and the oil slick look around the edge. Nancy knew I collected Raku and knew I would love this.....think I use it everyday during flower season.
You don't need many flowers...right now with all the peonies in bloom...they practically make the entire arrangement.
And they last for 3-4 days....
Big fun...doing these little things.
Have a good and colorful day!

In Love with Peonies

When I was a little girl, I lived next door to my grandmother...her and my mom were great gardeners and shared a Peony garden that separated the 2 properties in the back. I remember walking along the length of this garden, smelling the Peonies and thinking they were the biggest flower I'ld ever seen...I remember them being the size of plates...well leave it to my childhhood imagination to remember them like that. My husband and son planted Peonies a couple of years back and they are really starting to come into their own. Although not the size of plates, they are a beautiful, big flower and right now....my new favorite. We have light pink ones....

And a beautiful deep rose colored one.

John and Mike planted 5 more Peony bushes this year....anxious for them to get big but I know I have a couple of years.

Fiber Day Kids

Fiber Day at the Folk Art Center last Saturday was such a fun day....and working with the kids was great. I used to be a teacher ....many years ago and forgot how much fun working with little ones can be - especially when it's something they like to do. The kids all got a chance to marble a piece of fabric. I had 2 small trays set up, a Cascade rake and some hair curler picks which served as a stylus. They picked their colors - most all of them wanted to use ALL the colors and then they dove right in.....like they had been doing this all of their lives.
Kids are so spontaneous and all did a wonderful job raking the patterns....

This little girl was absolutely adorable...she was very sure of herself and knew exactly what she wanted to do! She also wanted to stay and marble with me all day - I would have loved that. She did come back several times to do more prints!

And with great results!

The most fun part was in the end....drumroll please....when I had them pick up the corners to show all the onlookers the results...and of course everyone cheered and clapped!

You can see in the photo below the hair curler picks I use to make the tynes in the rakes and also individually as a stylus. I also use the wide pick combs that were so popular years ago.

We had kids of all ages and even some moms who did it along side of very little ones (who wanted their mom there as a security blanket)

Wow!!!!!

And another Wow! Moms came up with some clever ways to use their fabric...decorative patches on clothing, book covers, bookmarks....

It was wonderful fun for me, the kids and all the onlookers....makes me realize how much I want to be a grandmother!....Hope my daughter is reading this!!

Fiber Day

Fiber Day is this weekend at the Folk Art Center in Asheville, NC. It's one of the many activities sponsored by the Southern Highland Guild. It's 2 full days of events focusing on fiber...so for the fiber lover, you'll receive an overdose of all the things you love. On Saturday, from 10-4, visit the auditorium for lots and lots of demos on weaving, spinning, dyeing with natural dyes, quilting, machine arts and marbling on fabric. Sunday will present 2 fashion shows featuring garments and accessories made by members of the guild. The first show will start at 1:00 in the auditorium. It's always great fun and a wonderful source of inspiration.
Just to give you a preview, I'll be doing marbling with the kids (both the big and little ones). We'll be using smaller than usual pans so everyone will get to try it...We'll start with a marbling base and 2-3 colors of paint which are dropped on top.
Just using 2 colors here...

We'll be using Cascade rakes and a stylus to rake designs which will be easy for the little ones.

Lowering a small piece of fabric on top of the design....and waiting a few moments for the fabric to look like it's wet.

Then a quick rinse in warm water...and voila...My little marblers willl go home with their own piece of fabric they designed themselves.

There are so many beautiful patterns you can do with this technique but not enough time to do on fiber day...so here's a "look-see" at some of the pretty patterns I will have as samples. This is the Cascade pattern made with the Cascade rake. It was done on silk.

And the waved Non-pareil...my favorite pattern and one I use a lot.

And Bouquet done with a series of rakes and the final rake which uses the Bouquet Rake.

This is a waved Non-pareil using a resist made of contact paper in the marbling process (in the shape of a leaf). I later went back and filled in the area with silk paint.

Hope to see you there....

Happy Birthday

Today is my daughter's birthday...she was born on Mothers Day 35 years ago. My husband ran out that morning to buy me a Mother's Day present.... forgetting I already had the best present I would ever get! So to my sweet, wonderful girl...from then....
til now....it's been 35 wonderful and way too short years....

Hope you have a wonderful day!

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all you wonderful women who have nurtured, loved, hugged, shed tears for, laughed with and cared for family, friends, cats, dogs, chickens and so many things too numerous to mention. You make the world a brighter, happier place!!!!
Have a great day...sending you flowers and good thoughts!

Clever Friends

We had our monthly meeting of Fiber Arts Alliance this week...always an inspiration. My friend Dee Dee recently took a workshop in Nuno felting at John C Campbell Folk Art School. Nuno felting is a form of wet felting using a very sheer fabric as a base whereby the fibers are felted into this base. The results are beautiful...they can be very dense or very gossamer in appearance depending on how much of the base fabric you want to show. Dee Dee covered the entire base piece of fabric on this piece...all kinds of colors and textures along with some tissue lame. Tissue lame will not felt into the base and needs to be covered with a very sheer fabric to hold it in place.

This was my favorite piece...beautiful colors which are not as obvious in this photo. Dee Dee wants to put Ginko leaves on top.

My friend Dot H has been playing with the Zentangle doodling and created these wonderful little samples...but the thing that caught my eye was the fastener she used on the back.

Dot is the "recycling" queen....finds a use for many things so many of us would normally throw out. This hanging device is one of the plastic seals from things like liquid Coffee Mate. I use that product and am always throwing them out...Dot says they work great on light weight pieces. She uses a white glue like Tacky to hold them in place.

I thought this was such a clever idea. After glueing and letting it dry, it can be hung using a nail or something similar.

Dot also showed me a blouse she was wearing...the closures were amazing!

She used an antique button and mounted it on a Chinese coin....how cool is that?

Dot also shared one of her wonderful pieces made from many recycled materials.

Love the use of so many recycled materials....sequin waste, threads

I loved this next piece...a cover made for a notebook or anything you want. Dot started with a piece of fusible web...laid some fabrics etc on top and using a press cloth (Teflon sheet), ironed in place...added more stuff, pressed and any area left unfilled (fusible exposed), were filled in with foils (which works very well with a fusible web). The whole piece was covered with an iron on vinyl to protect, seal and make it "wipeable". It was very cool in person.

Dottie C shared her latest piece with the group...many hand dyed fabrics went into this glorious piece...Wow...what a feast of color for the eyes...

So my very creative friends have done it once again....leaving me with much inspiration and food for thought....Thank you all for sharing!