A Busy but Creative Life

Its been crazy for me lately. Self doubt can breed procrastination and sometimes panic! The postcard samples above are for a workshop I am teaching on Saturday for the Yorkshire Rose Quilt Guild. I want to be at my best but fear of the unknown is sometimes overwhelming. I have two days to get ready, that should be enough time!



I haven't had any time to work on my class with Susan Sorrell, but here is my Symbol piece almost finished, made completely with painted Peltex 70. Very hard on the fingers when doing all the embroidery. These are all beach symbols a memory of my time at Madeira Beach.




My group, the Material Girls had a great time using Shiva Paint sticks on fabric. I really liked the foamy stamps the best, they were so easy to work with. Stencils were fun too. I can see these pieces in a small art quilt or postcard.





Finally, a published author! This is from Fibre and Stitch issue 7, if you wish to purchase. http://www.fibreandstitch.com/ It is very special to see your name beside 'guest author'. Maybe more articles are in my future!




These are my February 4 x 4 Crazy Quilt swaps for Cloth, Paper Studios. I love to stitch small projects.





This is my grand niece, Maddie, at her baby shower. She did not like dressing up, but was very comfy in her sleeper with Piglet. I completed a red sampler with lots of machine quilting and a bit of embroidery. It looked very chic when I washed it and the batt shrunk up a bit.



All of this in one week. Not quite, I also attended two guild meetings. The Oakville Quilting Guild had a guest speaker, Anita Zobens presenting her knowledge of threads and at the Oakville Stitchery Guild we had a wearable art show and slides. It is so encouraging to be around so many enthusiastic stitchers and artists. I did turn down a couple of art related jobs, just couldn't fit them in. It's no wonder I have sleep apnea. If you are using a CPAP machine I would like to hear from you. I lasted half way through my first night. Well, I will try not to forget to blog next Tuesday night. If you need entertainment in your life, go see Slumdog Millionaire! Until next time, keep stitching!

Trades from Friends and Baby Madelyn

This is my grand niece, Madelyn Sarah, who was born in Newfoundland about 11 weeks ago. We finally got to meet this last Sunday! She is so cuddly she just melts into your shoulder. She smells so baby sweet!



This is some random stitching I did while on holiday onto some hand painted fabrics. No idea yet of a project to put them into!




These are my trades from the Cyber Fyber ATC exchange. The first on the left is from Robbie Payne, the middle is from Doreen Gray and the one on the right is from Kate North. They are a great addition to my collection.




These are my 4 x4 crazy quilt swaps from Cloth Paper Studio. The top left CQ is from Rachel Murphree. The top right is one I made. The bottom left is from Liz Kettle. Liz is part of the dynamic duo Goddess Within Designs with Debbie Bates. I have met both ladies in my fibre art travels. The bottom right CQ is from Linda Moyes. They are all so unique! I am participating in the next swap which is a heart theme CQ 4 x4. It is so nice to get surprises in the mail.
Happy news for me, my article Easy Manipulated Landscapes is now published in Fibre and Stitch and it looks great. I was thrilled to receive a cheque in the mail as well! I thought I was doing it for the the satisfaction of being published! My friend, Carol Weibe also has an article published in the same issue. On a sad note, Fibre and Stitch has only one more issue before closing down. :( My Exquisite Corpse round robin is ready for the mail. So sorry, I can not put a photo of it here. It is a secret until next August.
We are counting down the days until Oatie comes to his forever home. Hubby and I watched alot of the Dog Whisperer on holiday to get our doggie fix! I enjoyed the 10 Chihuahuas from hell! He made them all into balanced follow the pack leader dogs.



Lastly, a photo of Maddie and her great aunt Donna, me! I tend to like photos that really only reveal my smile and my new highlighted do. Until next week friends! Thanks for reading my fibrejournal!

New Puppy!

This is the new puppy we chose today!!!! I just have to finalize the deal and pick up is March 1st! I think his name will be Otis or Otie! I'd like to spell it Oatie, like the cereal! I just couldn't wait to blog tomorrow! But I will have other news in my fibrejournal for tomorrow!



Another very cute photo!




That's all of him! I asked hubby to chose from two puppies that looked like twins! It will really be his dog like Oskar was. BTW, Oatie is a black and silver miniature schnauzer from Sandra Gambles pups in Niagara Falls. Until tomorrow, happy doggie dreams!

At Home and Its Snowing!

Where does the time go? That is my profound statement for this week. On Marie Z's blog she suggested playing this game. Grab the book closest to you. Right now. Go to page 56. Find the fifth sentence. Post your sentence on your blog. My closest book was the Artist's Way. Really! Try it, it may be exactly what you need to read, mine was.
I am home to the cold and snow. The drive north was uneventful, all the roads were clear and dry. We decided to head home the second day and save the hotel money which I spent at the Duty Free shop. Today we got 5 inches of snow so it was a good decision.
Above is another embellished archway piece, the embroidery is in progress.



While at Madeira Beach, I also worked collaging in my sketchbook, mementos of what I did on our vacation. I paint and stamp the pages ahead of time.
My visit to the Dali Museum .



My visit to the local boutique area called John's Pass.

For this week's personal symbols class, I started on my Matisse like collage. Here are the Beach symbols arranged on my painted peltex. The symbols are also painted peltex.

This is an outdoor shot of the Painted peltex. I mixed primary colours to get other colours. I was not able to make black with these paints, therefore a blue background.

Sketches of my Beach symbols in my sketch book.

Matisse inspired piece with some stitching, simple embroidery stitches. I've learned that it isn't easy to get the needle through all that painted peltex. I should have listened to Sue about putting the glue on the back. Ouch!!!!

In other news, I am a new member of the Round Robin Group called The Exquisite Corpse. I really can't say anything about the topic of our intended work but it is exciting! You can see other completed EC's on the blog. Each artist covers up their work except for 2" for the next person to see. Our leader is Arlee Barr from Calgary. My friend Anne Marie is also a member.

Sadly, I am not getting my puppy this month. The mom had her pups prematurely( all boys ) and they were not healthy enough to survive. Our breeder is trying to find another puppy for us. If she finds one it will be meant to be. I believe in destiny, if it is meant to happen, it will. I am also looking on line at other breeders for a little Schnauzer puppy! I am not meant to be DOGLESS!

Where does my time go? This is worth contemplating and considering on how to make better use of my time! One of my goals is to get more organized so I have more space to do my art. I definitely will NOT contribute more time to housework, it is always there and gives little satisfaction. Tomorrow after lunch with my good friend, it will be time for making art. Until next week, happy stitching friends!