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/

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.