Last Day of Art Every Day Month

I have not been present every day this month, but I have definitely done more artwork than usual. This has been a lovely opportunity to share artwork, meet new people and see the work of many other creative artists! I'm so happy to have been a part of Art Every Day month!! Thank you, Leah!!!

AEDM Day 27

Yesterday we went on a longish ride for a wonderful visit with family. While Bill drove, I entertained myself by drawing in my sketchbook. I was looking at magazine photos for inspiration. I find that, by the time I sketch something, change a few details around, and then translate it into cut paper or fabric, it looks totally different from the original inspiration. Just one way of working - often times I just cut or draw directly from my imagination.

What are you working on today?

Hope you have a pleasant day!!

AEDM Day 26

Is it really day 26? As I write the title of this post, I'm amazed at how quickly this month has flown by! My creative juices have been lagging lately, but I want to finish the month on a good note.
It's a bit exhilarating to make creativity a priority for each and every day - waking up and thinking, "What shall I make today?". It's a good exercise and can make a creative person realize, I love this. I love the stimulation of my art materials, the flow of ideas, the possibilities! It's a good place to be and I'd love to be there all the time!

For now, I have these small efforts to share -

A little artificial flower arrangement I made for my mantle. The colors make me smile.

And a fused fabric background I put together for a soon to be finished picture.

Some flowers, some stitching and we'll be on our way!

Hope you have a beautiful Saturday!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I've been flying under the radar for the last couple of days - but I wanted to come up 

for air and wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving!!

I have many things to be grateful for, and one of them is my my blog, 

through which I have met so many wonderful friends.

I hope everyone has a lovely day!

This is a wall hanging I did MANY years ago!

I hope to have something new to share very soon!

AEDM Day 19 - Weekly Word

 I is for...

 Inspiration

Beautiful Nature ~ always inspiring!

AEDM Day 18

Recently I've been working with sheer fabrics, but this morning I put together this landscape, inspired by some rich colored remnants I came across in a box while cleaning my studio. The sky fabric is hand dyed, but I can't remember where I got it. That's unusual for me, since I usually remember where most of my fabrics came from - even those I acquired 30 years ago!! I love my collection of materials and each one pretty much brings back some kind of memory. I do recall the deep purple nearest the sky was part of a blouse I wore, which became stained. The front fabric was purchased recently and I folded it over a piece of thin batting to balance the textured selvages of the other fabrics.

I'm happy with how this piece is coming along. My instinct is to add some trees, but then again, maybe the movement in the sky colors supplies it with enough detail.

What do you think?

Hope you have a wonderful weekend!!

AEDM Day 16

A wee sketch for today...

Hope your day has been a good one!

AEDM Day 15

A wisp of a landscape...

made from my stash of sheer fabrics.

Have a wonderful day!

AEDM Day 14

Today I found another unfinished piece and decided to complete it. This is an embroidery I had started when I was designing my present blog banner.

First off, I determined the size I wanted and printed the words onto some white cotton, freezer paper -backed cotton. I quickly discovered that my current printer does not have an adjustment for paper thickness and I jammed it a couple of times before getting this done. I then drew my kitties with a purple, disappearing ink pen.  

I'm not that experienced with hand embroidery, although I did it as a little girl and really love the look of it. Instead of using an embroidery hoop, I fused the piece of white cotton onto some thin white flannel, for stability and so that the stitch ends wouldn't show through. (I pretty much make up my own rules when I do things!) I began embroidering and abandoned it at this point.

Today I finished embroidering everything but the whiskers. I used pastels, this box of which I've had since high school, and a pointy Q-tip to blend the color.

The final step was to add the whiskers. I love the texture of the embroidery, and the softness of the pastels. Now I can add this to my collection of Angus and Rosie art! They are very inspiring subjects!!

Have a Wonderful Day!!

AEDM Day 12 - Weekly Word

     H is for...

Happy!

I'm so happy that it's a beautiful fall day and that I'll soon be going out to visit my sister, and I'm also happy to be a part of AEDM! 

This picture is the final version of the piece I started the other day:

                            

                                

As you can see, I've added leaves, stems and other elements, changed the vase fabric and put in what, I hope, looks like a little glass bird. I feel so good to have finished it - although I may tweak it a little bit more!!

Here's wishing you a wonderful weekend! 

AEDM Day 10

I have no new artwork to show today, so I thought I'd share a bit of my day instead.

It was a rainy day, but outside my porch this tree looked beautiful against the gray sky!

If you've ever read Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way, you know the value of an artist's date - time spent refilling your store of ideas and inspiration. It could be a walk in the woods, a visit through blogland, or a day like the one I had today. Along with a group of like-minded friends, I went on a fabric shopping trip to two great fabric stores. Our first stop was Fabric Place Basement in Natick, MA. Fabric Place had once been a favorite of New England sewing enthusiasts, and we were heart broken when all of its locations closed several years ago. Now the owner has opened this new store, and we are thrilled!

There were lots of goodies to look through. I bought some beautiful cotton fabrics that said "landscape" to me and some color saturated sheers which will be ideal for flowers.

Our next stop, Sewfisticated Fabrics in Framingham, Massachusetts, was another treasure trove in which  I found even more gorgeous sheer prints.

Being surrounded by a wealth of colors and textures is definitely stimulating to the imagination, and I can't wait to start creating some new work with my newfound materials! I'll show you my finds later!

See you tomorrow!

AEDM Day 9

Yesterday I posted a fabric picture of a vase of flowers I had done, and Gwen, of Foxglove Hill, asked me to explain how I did it! So I decided to do a little tutorial of sorts.

I started out with a vase template, some sheer and semi-sheer printed fabrics, sharp scissors and a 4"x6" piece of background fabric ( in this case white ) which I fused onto a piece of watercolor paper and then deckle-edge cut the paper around the fabric. For this project I used Wonder-Under fusible web by Pellon to back all fabrics.

I held the vase template, under the semi-sheer fabric, up to the light to select the best placement, then traced it on the back and cut it out.

                                        

I freely cut into the sheer printed fabric, making organic leaf and petal shapes. I like to call these 'fantasy flowers'!

Here are the shapes I cut out.

I decided to slim down the vase a bit and started pressing petals and leaves, which had been backed with fusible web, in place lightly with a dry iron. I love using sheer fabrics because, when one shape is laid over the other, beautiful shadows are created. I found a different piece of sheer printed fabric with some darker greens and cut stems out of that.

This is as far as I got today, and it took one hour and ten minutes. I'm planning to add more details and I'll post the finished piece tomorrow!

Hope everyone is enjoying a great day!

AEDM Day 8

This fused fabric picture was sitting unfinished on my ironing board. I used some semi-sheer dress fabric for the leaves and flowers, a cotton batik for the vase, and hand embroidered the flower stamens.

The finished size is about 3 1/2" x 5 1/2".

It feels so good to finish up some of the UFOs around my house - more to come!!

Hope everyone has a fabulous day!!

AEDM Day 6

I had a couple of things -er- people on my mind today! My husband was in  the air, flying back home from a business trip to Hong Kong. My daughter Kate was climbing rocks, a quartz conglomerate to be exact, at the Shawagunks in New York. The area is called the Gunks and I wasn't particularly soothed by the cover of the guide which I found online -

The situation made me think of another blog post I did in 2007 about another anxious day - you can read about it here.


The bottom line is, Kate's an experienced climber and has probably had an exhilarating day. And Bill arrived home a few minutes ago, tired from a long trip, but in good shape. I worry too much, I know. And when I cartoonize myself doing it, I can really see the futility and humor of it all! Things just about always work out for the best. I like the Mark Twain quote,

"I have known a great many troubles,

but most of them never happened."

Here's wishing everyone a wonderful week to come!

AEDM Day 5

My creativity for today ~

Making a loaf of pumpkin bread and a hand made card for my neighbors,

who are so good to me when my husband is away on business.

Hope everyone enjoys the rest of the weekend!

AEDM Day 4 - Weekly Word

  G is for...

...for the blessings, challenges, warmth, richness, difficulties, love,
 sadnesses, ecstasies, joys, pains and pleasures
of family.

AEDM Day 3

Today I'm posting a peek at a landscape that is in progress. Right now it is fused fabric with a hand painted sky. I worked on it a bit this morning, but have a long way to go with it - adding more details, machine stitching and hand embroidery. The white on the top and bottom is the batting to which the pieces are fused.

So far so good with AEDM! I'm off to a quilt show in New Hampshire today, where I hope to find lots of inspiration!!

Have a creative day, everyone!!

AEDM Day 2

                

After the Rain

This is a piece of fabric art I had fused together a few years ago, but never stitched. I used some of my hand painted fabrics, commercial cottons and sheer fabrics for the background trees and yellows on the grass. It is backed by thin craft batting, so when I stitched it all down today, it took on a bit of a quilted look. I love the way trees in Autumn look after it rains. The colors of the leaves intensify and the trunks become nearly black with moisture. 

Hope everyone is having a great week!

Art Every Day Month - Day 1

I couldn't resist joining in with Leah Piken Kolidas' Art Every Day Month again this year. It has been fun for me before - no pressure, but a chance to push myself and show up more often in my studio and, hopefully, have some new pieces of art finished throughout the month. And that is my operative word this month - finished!
Many things that I'll be tackling will be unfinished projects I've cast aside, but now want to bring to completion. Of course, there will be spontaneous new pieces also, and, of course, CATS!

And so, for my first project, I came across this little paper cut I had started a while ago. It is very small - the cats, in total, are three inches across. I did some more smoothing of edges and added a background and other features, and finally finished it just a few minutes ago.

Sweet Dreams

 I will probably never work on something this tiny again - at least not a paper cut! I can't tell you how many times I cut a little black nose and mouth only to have it slip out of my hands into the depths of my dark green sewing room rug! Could you hear me gnashing my teeth?

Anyway, it does feel good to complete something, and I'll be moving on to my Day 2 project later!

Oops - can't resist adding this photo of Angus and friend from last night!

See you tomorrow!