Studio Tour

It's not often I get to an FSG (Focus Study Group) meeting in Atlanta; when it does work out, it's magical. Maybe because it's so seldom which makes it special and maybe because I'm inspired by such very talented and sharing friends - a bit of both, I think. Pat Stettler, who started the group 15 years ago hosted the meeting. It was a treat seeing her new home and best of all, her STUDIO! I love seeing where other artists work, but I must admit, I was turning a tad bit green while seeing hers, green with envy that is! Her studio space is the entire downstairs. Pat bought the house while still under construction so she still had some input. Pat is a gifted artist, does many things and created a space for each area. First off, Pat is a quilter and what a great space with so much natural light.
Drool - look at those fabrics and even better, the wonderful storage system for them!

This next room is the "wet studio" and where I started to turn "green". I love my studio but would love a designated place for wet work.

This next area was for paper/mixed media. Pat does beautiful cards and mixed media work. The drawers hold stamps and other supplies.

Pat does beautiful jewelry and makes her own glass beads so of course there is a space for that!

I laughed and loved Pat's love of "Felix the Cat".

What a great day! Thanks Pat!

Forever Friends

Meet FSG - Focus Study Group, a group which was started 15 years ago by Pat Stettler. The original concept was to help and support each other in our own personal journey as a fiber artist. There were no dues, no officers and yes, there was homework. What it didn't mention was the strong friendships we would develop and the memories we would make and share along the way. I have a deep appreciation for friends, but there is something to be said for those that have been part of our lives for what seems like forever.
So meet my Forever Friends - first is Patsy Eckman (far left), one of the funniest and most talented ladies I know- also known for her love of frogs - Ribet (or is it Rivet?)! Next is Pat Farr. I've always called her the Queen of Circles; she has done an amazing series using that shape but has changed directions, wait til you see. Third from left is Barbara Butler. Barb creates all her own fabric and one of the most talented artists I know - you'll see what I mean. Kathy O'Meara Magnuson is next, loves collage and also keeps us organized - next (3rd from the right) is Helen Thompson. Her hand stitching is amazing. She is currently the "mother" of the group. Chris Hartwell, baby of the group is a master at machine embroidery and then Pat Stettler who knows how to do..well.. everything! She was the host for the meeting today.
Pat F has gone in a new direction with discharged fabrics, simple lines and very interesting combinations of fabric. I love this next piece - especially the discharged pieces at the bottom.

And on this next piece, the middle, discharged area reminds me of skeletal figures. You never know what to expect when you discharge which is what makes it so interesting.

Pat Stettler does felting among other things. She felted this sweater very heavily, so that it stood upright, like a sculpture. She threw it in with a maroon colored sweater which fuzzed onto this one and loved the effect so she left it.

I love this next piece. Pat S felted a sweater and decided to make "fingerless" gloves with the sleeves, cutting a hole for the thumb and catching the slack at the wrist with a cool button. How clever is this woman!

Patsy made these adorable covered cord baskets with little "do-dads" hanging off the edges. I love the Halloween one with the pumpkins. What little (or big) girl wouldn't love one of these!

Chris Hartwell has loved machine embroidery for as long as I've known her. She is becoming a master at it. This is not a photograph but an actual embroidery of a window. I think it's pretty fantastic!

Barbara Butler creates all her own fabric and I might add, it's amazing. Her imagery is always so interesting and the fabric combinations wonderful as you can see.

Barbara also rusts fabric, discharges, dyes, does Shibori, prints - the list goes on. She's just a wonderful artist.

Webster's dictionary defines "girlfriend" as a "woman friend of a woman". I think if he were here today, he might have to re-write that definition more to the tune of "a girlfriend is a friend who is supportive, loves you no matter what and is there with a hug when you need it".

I love my "Forever Friends"!

A bargain is a bargain

I can't resist a bargain, whether I like it or need it, if it's a deal, it's mine! Such was the case at the end of last years fall season. One of craft stores had 90% off - yes you read that correctly, 90% off all the fall flowers, pumpkins etc. I was like a kid in a candy shop, I was un-stopable and well you know, the rest is history.
A couple of hours and many, many bags later, I arrived home. My husband eyed the merchandise and asked what I was going to do with 14 bags of silk flowers, pumpkins and cat-tails. Duh, silly man, NOT THAT MANY! He was close, but he'll never know.  Well they were put away and somewhat
forgotten. This year while going through that storage area, I rediscovered my bargain treasures. Spread over the kitchen table, I decided to just dive in doing something I've always enjoyed.
Probably the hardest part about this whole thing is finding a place to store them when the season is over. So here are the results of my great bargains.
This is arrangement # 1 made for my DR table.
and this one was very tall - so perfect for the floor.

and arrangement # 3

and this one

I know a bit of overkill but I did promise darling hubby to stay far away from craft stores post season this year. Happy Fall everyone!

Mushrooms

My computer is home, all fixed after being gone almost a week. I'm a child of the "non-computer" generation. I've never been good with them, am highly intimidated by them and positively can't live without them - kind of a love-hate relationship. Right now I love mine, it's purring like a kitten and doing everything it should. It feels good to be blogging again and those of you reading this, thanks for hanging in there with me.
I wanted to share some wonderful photos I took yesterday and today on morning walks. I love mushrooms, the way they look, so many beautiful varieties. I don't eat them, never have but they are a thing of beauty. I have a folder full of pictures of mushrooms. I know it's a quilt in the near future. The first ones had already died by the time I took the second ones. I'm glad I take my camera everywhere.
The texture on the caps are amazing.

There was just this one lonely little mushroom. It died and along came this next one almost in the  identical spot. I wonder what tomorrow will bring? hmmm

Hope you're all having a wonderful Labor Day Weekend and enjoying the last little bits of summer.

Fabric for Small Studies

I really like doing these Small Studies and feeling good about making a very teeny, tiny dent in my fabric stash and trying out various new screens, paints and techniques. I just finished one using leftover digital imagery from the Windows quilt which is almost done - love those leftovers too! I pulled out a some fabric for my next study; I like some of the fabric (if not all) to be something I made. In my marbling days, I did a lot of tissue lame - a hard fabric to marble but worth the effort. It really has a lot of energy and I'll probably quilt it following the marbling lines. I paired it with the blue silk noil which is very quiet and a good side-kick for the marbling but think it needs something else.
Think this hand-dyed purplish color might do the trick.

Yup!! think it's good, off and running again.

Stay tuned to see what it becomes. I'll be curious also. 

Until then, happy sewing.

Goodbye to Summer

The signs of Autumn are here - that "goldeny" look the sky gets, cooler nights and almost, not quite but almost fireplace weather. I can hardly wait. I love our veggie garden but the only thing left are the tomatoes. Many of the flower beds are dying off including my happy Sunflowers. I took pictures last week and am glad I did; they're now gone. I'm not disappointed; I love the fall and all that comes with it - so one more look at the Sunflowers. Goodbye to summer and welcome fall. This was the Sunflower garden behind the veggies; each plant was a different variety.

The bees seem to love these flowers.

This is how I remember Sunflowers with the large brown centers.

Love these - so many varieties I had never seen.

I saved my favorite for last. I love those big, luscious centers so thick and bright.

Hope your summer was a great one.

Small Studies - Trees III

Sometimes you find a piece of fabric in your stash, hidden away and have no idea where it came from. I make most of my fabric using surface design techniques - some good, some not so good, and some I love but they get lost in the shuffle somewhere. Here is one of those LITS pieces (lost in the shuffle) dyed, clamped and Shibori dyed, discharged and stamped. I'm not an "orange" person, but really liked this piece (detail below).
It was a small piece so I chose to use it in one of my "small studies". I put black next to it and liked the way they worked together. The orange reminds me of a sky at sunset and since I love trees, thought of using them in the foreground.

Creating these small studies are fun as they go together pretty fast, and the best part - you can try a new technique without investing too much time. To preview fabric combinations, I hang them on my wall and use a mat board to isolate them. I use the same size opening that will be used in the finished piece. This gives me an idea of proportions. This combo doesn't have enough black for what I want to do.

This is better.

One very gloomy day, John (hubby) and I took a ride. It was magical to see forest and trees in the midst of fog and gray skies. This is one of the pictures I took. I liked the silhouette of all the different size trees and their lacy branches. I put the pictue in Photoshop and made it into a photocopy. The photocopy had to be recopied on a lazer printer so off to Staples to do that. In order to run it through a Thermofax, you need to have a toner with carbon in it which ink jet printers don't have.

Here is the screen I made on my Thermofax.

I planned to screen the entire image on the black and orange. I wanted it to be continuous; the black side would be discharged and the orange side would use paint, probably black. Here is the finished piece!

I'm a happy camper.

PTA Meeting

Our PTA group met today. It's always great fun, lots of eating, talking, planning and sharing. Connie received a vintage apron from Mary Berry - just because. Connie loves aprons, always wears them, kind of reminds me of "June Cleaver" except where are the high heels?
and the official "1966" on the front and a hidden pocket underneath!

Georgia Bonesteel and Charlotte Warr Anderson run a retreat each year in Montana. Both have wonderful styles and each very different from the other. Every student has the opportunity to take both workshops. Georgias project for this year is very cool. I love the way she did the "M" for Montana. I think students will really enjoy making this and how lucky we are to have a first hand look at it!

Gen Grundy is doing a crazy quilt for her daughter using silks, velvets and gorgeous stitching. I love what she's done so far and look forward to seeing the finished piece.

The machine stitching is just beautiful on each one and every block so unique!

Gen is a master at machine work as well as using the embroidery unit on her machine.

As always, a great group, so much fun and talent to be surrounded by. I am so lucky, thank you gals for a great day!

And the Emmy goes to

With television emmys upon us, I thought this would be fun to share.  Yup, that's a genuine Emmy you see in the picture and Yup that's me holding it (hubby next to me) and Nope I didn't win it! We were up in NY several months ago and my husbands cousin who works for NBC has won 5 emmys related to the olympics. Her mom has one of them which she brought to the restaurant to show us. Let me tell you, this sucker is one heavy weapon and ohhhhh so shiny. It was great fun to see and hold one of these awards and of course, everyone in the restaurant wanted a picture (of the Emmy, not me holding it!)

The Tepee

There used to be a show on TV, think it was called the Munsters. It had all kinds of weird characters.  One always reminded me of a "walking rug or bush.  I don't remember the name of it but as I looked at our filled out tepee, that character came to mind. My son wanted to try this so he placed the poles in the shape of a tepee, then wrapped wire round and round, then waited and waited and then
Voila! It's really quite pretty, has a variety of vine type flowers most of which only bloom in the morning. I think this would be really funny with a "top hat" on top of it!

This is one of the vine type plants growing up the tepee called a "Love in a Puff". They are little puffs and when opened, there's a seed inside. Peel away the outer part of the seed and there's a heart shaped part to the seed, how clever. I wonder who thinks of these names!

and the Dahlias are really beautiful right now, some the size of a dinner plate - almost!

and our seasonal Hibiscus!

Hope you're enjoying this beautiful weekend!