Something About Nothing

Sorry about the quietness here on the blog, it has been a very busy month filled with work, trips, illness and fun too, so I will do my best to catch up on what has been going on since I last posted. I created two small free form pieced wall hangings. This piece was for a show at the Bountiful Davis Art Center, and is created from pieces of my Cyan Dyed fabrics.  She will be returning home next week. This piece still needs to be finished but will be entered into the "Threads of Resistance" show.  Keeping my fingers crossed that it will make it in the show.  It is the first piece I have hand quilted in a very long time.  The cats sure like it! Just before the hubby and I went to take care of our grandson for a weekend I caught a nasty head cold.  I haven't been able to shake the stuffiness in my sinuses and have had quite a few bouts of dizziness leading to a visit to the ER, a follow up with the primary care doctor and now an upcom...

I feel the need to get better at making word stamps and the only way that will happen is if I practice!  So here goes: Not as smooth as I wanted but not bad. I decided to grab a scrap of MooCarve and see if it were easier to get smoother lines. Still rough in my eyes.   Maybe if I work larger until I get better???

While working on repeat patterns I designed this little bunny and his yummy carrot. I couldn't decide what to leave and what to cut away at first. Once I stamped them, I knew I had made a few mistakes.   I did my best to correct them. and I think they are pretty cute! Perhaps another bunny from foam as a background?

Still working through my tulip obsession,  this time with a set of baby tulips from a piece of "garbage" Eco Karve. They make a cute addition to my planner.

A number of years back I had the opportunity to take a class from Melanie Testa. I had read all of her books, watched her on Quilting Arts TV, and followed her work online.  One of my friends accuses me of being a Fan Girl.  I can't deny it, it's true.  I am a huge fan of Melly's work!  I have learned so much about surface design from her over the years. I feel fortunate that our art has brought us together as friends as well. In 2013 I had the opportunity to take Carol Soderlund's Dyeing to Discharge class, and I soon became a big fan of Carol's too.  Carol's class was so well organized, and full of great information for dyeing and discharging.  By the time the week was finished I was exhausted, but filled with new knowledge and fresh ideas for my surface design work. I was thrilled when I heard Melly and Carol would be working together to publish a book on printing fabric.  They are the perfect artists to create this book. I have anxiously a...

I rarely make or receive real phone calls anymore, but the other day I found myself on the phone with a pencil in hand.  Of course, that meant I started to doodle.  My usual doodles are cartoon faces, or stars, but for some reason I was feeling very tulip-y. I decided to play with the design a bit more and create a stamp. I'm going to play with this image more! I think I might be getting a bit of spring fever.

Last week I blogged about this journal.   It was a test in embossing. Once I knew the embossing powder would work on a similar surface to a Moleskine journal, my daughter and I worked together on an image.  She wanted something abstract but tidy.  Finally an image was born, and carved.  The image was trimmed several times until it had just the right balance of negative and positive space.  Each edition was stamped on to deli paper the size of the journal to see if it would work.  I would have been happy with the first edition, but as I carved away more and more I loved the stamp more and more.  My daughter's vision was awesome. Finally the image was embossed on to the journal.   Whew!  I was pretty nervous I would mess it up. Each time I sprinkled the embossing powder, some of it would stick where it didn't belong and no amount of tapping or hitting the journal would shake it off.  Ultimately I used a paint brush ...