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!

Last Few Days In Florida!

My idea of the perfect cottage, I'm sure there is room for an artist's studio! This little cottage is in our neighbourhood in Madeira Beach where we take our walks. If only .....


This photo is of a very unique garden collection at a beach cottage. The amount of inspiring beach stuff was amazing. I loved it! This last week, hubby and I ventured into St. Petersberg to see the Dali Museum. Symbolism was Dali's specialty. I was thrilled to see his personal symbolism in his very weird paintings. When I taught Dali to the kids at school, I was not too far off in my interpretation of the symbolism.



More mail box art! This one is part of that cute pink cottage pictured above.



Personal Symbols Class: Lesson 2
This is my painted peltex using beach colours.



This is one of the pieces with stamping, splattering and painted starfish. I used a little fishes stamp, an abstract stamp for fimo and a real shell from the beach. I cut it up into post card size and covered it in gel medium ( decoupage glue).




Sketchbook doodles using beach symbols.

Combined symbols, from the beach.

Additional Symbols from the internet.

Finished postcard piece. Paper symbols glued on, stitched around, beaded. Button embellishments and found jewelery piece in upper right corner.

At the Beach

(the heart symbolizes my love of the beach)

My finished svar______ crystal reversable bracelet made at the Celestial Bead Shop in John's Pass yesterday. It was a challenge using needle and thread. Thank you to the teacher, Suzanne. I used two colours of crystals and two colours of 11 and 15 beads. It involves 3 distinct patterns circles sitting upon each other. It is so beautiful. I can hardly wait to show my beading buddy, Sandra!

My friend at the beach today. He sat near my chair for the lonest time! The breeze was cool,, the sun was warm and the sound of the waves was heavenly! For sure I am a Beach girl!!!

Florida Art

My latest Stitchery under construction on my hand painted fabric.


Floral Art at the Florida Botanical Gardens




Hello again from Florida. Its a bit cool here, they are talking a bit about snow! Just yesterday I sat at the pool reading and sunning. On Sunday, I travelled to the Florida Botanical Gardens and took in the heavenly flora, unfortunately I didn't see any alligators, though hubby was sure he saw some big turtles. Above is a photo from a lovely water garden.




In the neighbourhood I am collecting photos of mail box art on my daily walks , some of it is hand painted like this one. Other examples include a carved manatee, a golden retriever and a football helmet! I am sure I will be inspired to make something using mail box art.

I started this week with my on line class with Susan Sorrell over at Creative Chick on Personal Symbols. Below are some of my sketches using drawings from nature and my own symbols for emotional expressions.


Drawings from the beach

Tomorrow, I start lesson two of Personal Symbols. This required a trip to JoAnns to stock up on paint, brushes, glue, medium, a new stamp, a stamp pad, embellishments, peltex and some decorative beach papers for collaging. Until next time, keep stitching.

Mixed Mania in Florida

Hello from Florida. Its amazing! Vacation is so quiet and time does go slower. You have fewer things to fret about doing. I find that I am missing having my pet with me.
This the cute little Pool beside our little yellow cottage at Madeira Beach, Florida.



I have been doing some stitching in the evening on this embellished piece consisting of scraps from my challenge piece for The Thread Studio. I think I'll call it Cascade, I love doing the varigated French knots using pearl cotton and embroidery floss.



I spent an afternoon painting papers with watercolour paints and watercolour crayons. I had just finished reading one of my Christmas presents: Mixed Mania by Cheryl Prater and Debbi Crane. Good Book and lots of ideas to try!



I will cut up some of the papers for other projects. Following are two pages I did in my ongoing sketchbook.



Lastly, a view of the Gulf of Mexico at sunset. That's Hubby walking on the beach.


Until next time, keep stitching!

Welcome to Madeira Beach Florida

Art Fest ATCs


Cyber Fyber Postcard ( vote for me)


We made it to sunny Florida! We have a cute little yellow cottage and a very private pool and we are across the road from the Gulf of Mexico. A short distance away is John's Pass, a boutique and restaurant area. It was worth getting lost in St. Petersberg for the afternoon. The stop in Lake City at The Fabric Art Shop was well worth it. I found books, threads, and painting tools to buy. It was hard to stop gathering stuff at the cash register. Since then I have visited JoAnn's fabrics and The Rainbow's End Quilt Store in Duneden. I found some wool roving at R's End for embellishing. They have hundreds of bolts of fabric, that it makes you dizzy! I only got two fat quarters near the cash register that caught my eye. We went over to a nearby Cafe and met Bee who sells old estate jewellery. I bought some little trinkets that had just come in and would be great to add as embellishment.

Another surprise is my winning Artfest for a second time on Cloth Paper Studio. My ATCs sent to Susan Lenz for the Cyber Fyber ATC trade were chosen by Suzy. Thank you Suzy! This is a great group to join and the artists are very friendly and supportive of each other's art. My post card and ATC traded to Susan Lenz for Cyber Fyber is now on the site and could use your vote. http://cyberfyberexhibition.blogspot.com/