Happy New Year!

Connections Challenge, just a little bit!
On the way to Florida:
Here I am in a Motel 6 in Lexington, Kentucky. We drove all day and are really tired out! Half way to Florida and warm tropical weather! I am thinking of my visit to the Fabric Art Shop in Lake City, Florida! I can hardly wait!
Above is a snippet of my embellished piece I made for the Thread Studio's Challenge 'Connections'. It was sent 2 days ago along with a couple of entries to Sew Sommerset, my Cloth Paper Studio, 4 x4 swap and something else I have completely forgotten. The deadlines were met and sent off in time!
I saw my article for Fibre and Stitch as it will appear in the next issue of the magazine! Sue is a great editor. She made my article sound fantastic! I think I need a full time editor. www.fibreandstitch.com

The photo below is a felted purse I made for my niece, Emily, for Christmas. She really liked it along with the scarf stamped with peace signs I bought at Winners.


Emily intend on her Christmas present!



I made a small embellished button for the front of the bag. In side it is lined with pockets. I had to figure out the size and put it all together on Christmas Eve. The purse was knitted and felted previously by me. And I'm not really a knitter!
I'm doing a little stitching before crashing in bed, working on some more 4 x4 Crazy quilt blocks to go with the swapped ones I will receive. I see a wall hanging in my future!

Merry Christmas Fibre Artists

My Self Portrait: You Are What You Eat!

Finally have all my Christmas shopping done! My son, Jamie always wants a surprise and that is difficult to do when he is 27 years old. The other day I saw those treats called Kinder Surprise that used to drive me crazy when the boys were young, little toys everywhere. I'm thinking that it would make a great surprise!

Last night I was crazily making some fibre art for my friends, Margie and Helene. We meet for breakfast every so often. We all worked at the same school. I decided to make the 4x4 blocks from the Quilting Arts Gifts issue. The article is written by Virginia Speigel. They were a lot of fun to make and I was able to use some of my painted fabric. My one friend thought it was a coaster and that makes perfect sense. Frame or use it for your coffee!

I finished my article for Sue and Terri at Fibre and Stitch and I sent it to both ladies. I am posting a taster of the landscape I created. The article is called Easy Landscape Manipulation. This job was one of my big intentions and now it is completed! Also, I am putting the finishing touches on my challenge piece for Dale Rollerson, soon I can post it to down under along with the 4x4 challenge I am doing with Cloth Paper Studio and a couple of pieces of embellishing I am thinking of sending to Sew Sommerset for the next issue.

Taster!

I have promised myself to only work on my intentions and to prioritze my goals and not to get swamped by too much. Thanks to my friend, Carol Wiebe, for this sound advice. http://silverspringstudio.wordpress.com/

I am rereading one of my favourite books, 'Don't Sweat The Small Stuff'' ( and its all small stuff )This is a perfect time of year to take things as they come and not to get stressed about the details. I met one of my 'to do's' on Friday from the book. I told three people at the Chris Hadfield Public School where I occasionally work, that I loved them, via emails and that felt so good. Erin, Leanne and Lisa remember that I do love you! ( Also Great Teachers!)

This is the second Christmas without my dad. This is my favourite photo that I took in Savannah Georgia in 2006. Notice the name of the restaurant!!! I am not so sad now but I miss him like crazy. I know Oskar is keeping him company where ever they are!

Dale's Challenge

Two of my ATCs

Atc trade from Embellish,stitch and enrich class

I have been working on my art piece for the challenge for The Thread Studio, Dale Rollerson's website in Australia. The embellishing went fairly fast and I am now working on the hand embroidery with my motif that I have chosen for the theme 'Connections'. I have found my personal style I think with the embellisher. The motif just happened as I embroidered following an embellished piece of yarn. I used it on a ATC and a bookmark I made. The real challenge will be sending my art to Australia on time. If I am included in this show my art will travel several venues in Australia. I'm hoping to make a few embellished backgrounds to take on vacation to hand embroider, too bad I can't take everything with me to Madeira Beach in Florida. I am so looking forward to palm trees, tropical sunsets, warm breezes walks on the beach and fish for supper every night. Our landlord called and it is 80 degrees in Madiera beach. http://www.thethreadstudio.com/ Go to Challenge.

In other news, I am having my first solo show at the Greenwood Quiltery Gallery in Guelph in April, 2009. My title for the show is Fibre Art from the Heart. All my art comes from a place in my heart: family, friends, places, and pets. I love the Greenwood Quiltery store. Joanne (owner) and Christine (curator)have a lovely little gallery with a quilt store that caters to the fibre artist as well as the quilter. http://www.greenwoodquiltery.com/

Finally, my group http://www.fibreartstudios.com/ has been invited to the Abozzo Gallery in Oakville next fall for the World of Threads Festival. A major invitation! I am loving my embellished pieces more and more all the time and I am sure I will include some of them in future shows.

This entry has taken double the time, I accidentally erased it by checking back for an internet web address. I won't do that again. My biggest question for bloggers is: how do I move my photos around? They always appear at the top of the blog!!!

Until next Tuesday, then I'll be on holidays! Teaching for two weeks has taken its toll, I am dog tired every night. Luckily my husband is doing all the cooking and shopping and errands. He just won't clean washrooms!

Thanks to Diane from http://www.clothpaperstudio.com/ for my Pay It Forward package that arrived today.

Art Fest

Happy Tuesday!


I am posting my embellished bookmarks given as gifts to my friends in my Material Girls Fibre Art group. They were chosen for this week's Art Fest featured art on the Cloth Paper Studio yahoo group main page. Some members of the group wrote wonderful things about my art work. It was chosen by last week's artist Agnieszka who has a wonderful blog at latarnia.wordpress.com
I am in the final stages of my article for Fibre and Stitch Online Zine for their issue on raised surfaces. I am writing about using wire form in a landscape. ( photo below ) If you are interested in subscribing go to fibre and stitch.com . I am in my second year of subscribing and recommend Fibre and Stitch for its interesting articles on technique with a variety of projects. One of the blogs I follow is Sue B's ( editor )because of the amazing books that she makes. I took a couple of Sue's classes using mixed media.

Wire form

I've sent out my Pay It Forward hand painted fabrics to Calgary, Derbyshire and El Paso. I painted these in Elora at he School of art in a class with Gunnell Hag. Gunnell sells and promotes the Color Vie system of painting. She paints amazing fabrics herself, some for the Arts and Drama Community in Toronto. ( The Lion King )


This week I won't be busy doing art at home or housework ! I am working at a very special school, Chris Hadfield Public School in Milton. I am teaching Special Education in which I get to work with all grade levels. I want to say hello to all my grade 7 friends who have checked out my blog. I really enjoy helping you and your teacher, Erin, in the Art room. Erin told me about a extraordinary photographer, Chris Jordan. His art focuses on major problems in our communities like etrash. I've been researching websites with his art in preparation for Erin to do an Art unit inspired by his photography. Rachel Ray has an interesting video cast featuring Chris Jordan on her website.


My horoscope for today under Gemini: When the going gets rough, it is easy to forget that every moment is a precious gift and a unique opportunity to find and celebrate the magic of creation.No matter which way time is flowing for you, it is determinedly leading you to something very good. (Phil Booth, Toronto Star)
Until next Tuesday, happy stitching!

As Promised

It is Tuesday already and I have begun my weekly blogging as promised.

I joined a new group last week suggested by my friend Anne Marie. Cloth Paper Studio is a group very interested in sharing fibre art and doing swaps. I signed up for the first 4x4 swap and I have almost finished one block of three! I love to do the hand embroidery and I have been without a TV project for a few days. I changed the look of my blog determined to learn how to use it. I still haven't figured how to do a badge from places like Flickr. I also set up a Flickr account: www.flickr.com/photos/donnafunnell I now need to learn how to use Flickr. All this technology goes on and on.

My first order of business with CPS is Pay It Forward. Yarngoddess is sending me something and I am sending some of my handpainted fabric to the first three artists that respond to PIF in my blog. Send me your snail address by private email after you have confirmed that you want to receive my fabric. Most of my fabric I painted is using the Colour Vie system of paints and can be seen in my quilt 'Intuitive Hearts'. This was the quilt that was auctioned off for the Breast Cancer Support Project. ( see previous post )

I have been working on Lesson 5 of the Embellish, Stitch and Enrich class I recently took with the Thread Studio in Australia. Dale Rollerson is the instructor and I really learned how to use my embellish machine in a creative way. I really love to hand stitch on my embellished fabrics. I highly recommend this online class. http://www.thethreadstudio.com/ I made many new friends from down under, the UK and the US. We started our own Yahoo group so that we could keep corresponding and sharing ideas and photos of our embellishing art. We also traded ATCs. I made 19 ATCs! Whew! But the ones I received in return were fabulous! I plan to display them in a fabric journal some day or a fancy box! I met Jenny who has a mini schnauzer and is a former teacher in this online class and we continue to email on a regular basis. I am including a photo of my favourite embellishing piece based on a Fred Williams painting.

Lots to do tonight, my small fibre art group 'Material Girls' are meeting tomorrow night for a Christmas potluck and sharing on the topic of threads. We like to do studio play dates together. Our last one was painting threads and cheesecloth with Setacolours. I am making a surprize for each of the Material Girls, something embellished and embroidered. I am a firm believer in RAK. (Random Acts of Kindness) I'll post a photo in Cloth paper Studios. clothpaperstudio@yahoogroups.com Until next week, don't sweat the small stuff.

Mail Art

This the back of a piece of Mail art that I sent to Australia this afternoon. I did the Tom Thomson tree and my friend Anne Marie did the maple leaves. The front of the envelope has work by Arlee from Alberta.

Back to Blogging

Oskar

I have been remiss in keeping up my blog. I'm just reading everyone else's blog. Well just fibre artist and mixed media artists. I have been consumed by yahoo groups as well. Now that I have a new laptop I can do so much more and much faster. Thank goodness that old dinosaur died!

Embellished ATCs

My good news has to do with my Intuitive Hearts Quilt. If that quilt could talk. I know its travelled around. I last heard throught the fibre art grapevine that it was hung for display at the Creativfestival. This time I choose not to go to the festival and order stuff online instead and my quilt was there! Then I heard about its time at Casa Loma in The Quilt Auction: Cure for Breast Cancer. It sold for over the asking price! for $1600! The highest price for a Fibre Art Quilt! Oh, Joy! I wish I knew who purchased my quilt.

I've decided after this accomplishment I will try to keep up this blog weekly. Its a challenge. I already keep a diary journal, 3 or 4 visual journals and a scrapbook of my quilting to fibre art career. And I am always writing in my head. Last night I fell asleep visualizing a special journal about the life of my beloved pet, Oskar.

The other reason I need to blog is to promote my article that I am writing for Fibre and Stitch, the online magazine. Writing for a magazine has been one of my intentions. After talking to my friend Carol Wiebe, I am being more careful about what I choose to do with my art instead of becoming overwhelmed by commitments and a very messy house.

My studio has expanded into the dining room so I can paint there as well as use my embellisher. The basement family room has my books and sewing machine and fabric. I also have an easy chair and ott light for hand working front of the T.V. My computer sits on a desk on the other side of the room. If there was another empty room, I'd overtake it too.

I have been finishing up an online class with the Thread Studio called Embellish, Stitch and Enrich. Dale Rollerson's class was a lot of fun and I met the greatest people in our yahoo forum. I made 19 embellished ATCs to trade with my new friends from the US, UK, and Australia. I learned how to creatively use my embellisher and I love it. One of my finished pieces hung in the Oshawa Fibre Art Show a couple of weeks ago.

I am going to finish with a tribute to my Oskar who died on August 25th, 2008. I will miss you always! Love you little buddy.

Mixed Media Class Lesson 2

Padfolio back

Padfolio front

I have been participating on an on line class with Joggles.com Sue Bleiweiss is the instructor. This is my mixed media box, that opens up and has 3 drawers. The fabric paper is made with felt, painted cheesecloth, paper, organza, soy silk, all fused together with Misty fuse. I decided that I needed to freemotion stitch my fabric paper. I also made a padfolio with the left over piece of fabric paper. This class has been alot of fun and I am not even half way through. Look for more exciting projects!

Intuitive Hearts Finished

Intuitive Hearts Finished
Close up
Mixed Media Class Lesson 1
Sewer's Notebook Lesson 1
Cyber Fyber ATC Postcard Trade


I finished my commission with little time to spare. My friend Janet delivered it to Stratford after I had time to share with the Oakville Stitchery Guild at our monthly meeting. Janet said Carol Miller of THE QUILT, was pleased with our work. I am looking forward to seeing it in their catalogue and at the shows it is scheduled to be shown. Janet's piece was amazing! The best I've seen of her work! Bravo Janet!
I started my Mixed Media class with Joggles and Sue Bleiweiss in the last week of January. I worked 4 days straight making fabric paper and my finished notebooks. I've had little time to do the other lessons, but I ordered more materials from Joggles and I won't worry about the time line. I'll plod along at my own time line. It has been fun to see other participants' work on the MM forum.( from all over the world)
My friend Anne Marie introduced me to Cyber Fyber and I was able to make a ATC and Postcard trade with Susan Lenz who is curating this exhibition. I also joined Fiber Art Mixed Media or FAMM started by Susan Sorrell. What a cool place to hang out on the computer. I have several friends already.
I also decided to subscribe to Fibre and Stitch Zine after receiving a handmade journal from Sue Bleiweiss, such a generous and sharing artist. Checkout her blog and etsey shop. suebleiweiss.typepad.com
She makes amazing journals!!! And that's how I got connected to her Mixed Media class.
That's all for now, I will catch up on the workshops I've taken recently!

The Quilt Project for Breast Cancer

Painted Colour plan
Intuitive Hearts


I have been commissioned to create an Art Quilt for The Quilt Project for auction this year. I have been working hard to embellish my blocks and have just finished today and I have laid out the blocks randomly so far. I painted the fabrics last summer with Gunnel Hag at the Elora Art School with the Colour Vie paints. I added lots of commercial cottons and Batiks as well. The theme is Woman and I choose a woman's heart as my focus motif. I am calling my piece, 'Intuitive Hearts'. I used embroidery and beading as my embellishment. Very soon I'll post the finished quilt since the due date is the end of January. I am a bit of a procrastinator since I have had a least 6 months to work on the project!!! But life does get in the way and since the passing of my dad in November, I am sure that my focus has changed quite a bit.