What I've been Working On

Hello Friends!

Last Thursday we had our Arts Collaborative show, on the same night that our town celebrated "Fright Night". Our high school students carved what looked like a hundred or more pumpkins and they were lit and displayed on the expansive outside stairs of our library. An awesome display! (Of course I forgot my camera!)

Our show was at the former Gas and Light building downtown, which is going to be used as a Cultural Exchange in our town. A new G & L building was erected and this old building is going to be a wonderful resource. Our show was the first event held there and very exciting!!

Part of the night was a chance for little trick or treaters to visit local stores and get candy, so we had a flow of tiny princesses and superheroes milling about, along with their parents. A fun night!

In preparation for the show, I worked on a couple of older pieces, adding new elements and borders. This first floral is above in the header of my blog, as it looked before. I added more leaves, embroidery and beads, and a new white outer border.

This second piece was done quite a while ago, and I added embroidery, beading and appliqué in the foreground. I remember spending a long time machine embroidering this picture, but I think the hand work adds texture and interest.

This piece never quite got finished. You can see the thread where I left off beading. The elements are ready, the vase shape needs to be modified, and all I have to do is finish it before I tuck it away!!

Now that the show is over, I really want to take a breather. I feel myself wanting to try some different things, different materials, different subjects. I'll still keep up my sketchbook and will share with you whatever I decide to do.

To my friends and readers, you are just a handful of people, but very dear to me. I really appreciate your comments and friendship. Thank you!!

Have a wonderful week!!!

An Exhibit and A Reception

Since my last blog post, I've been working constantly on fabric pictures for an exhibit at the wonderful Create Artisan Studio, where I frequently take classes. I knew that I wanted to concentrate on faces, which I love to draw, and that evolved into the idea of adding little stories to them and calling the exhibit "Narrative Portraits". I then decided to focus on women, and they became "Empowered Women" - a lot to live up to!

Here are my ladies:

 

…and, finally, this is my depiction of my wonderful daughter:

The reception for the show was so heartwarming - a lovely turnout of old and new friends - more than I ever expected. Here are some photos:

And, finally, me with my supportive husband, Bill! Couldn't have done it without him!

It was so good to work so hard toward a goal and have such a satisfying result. I'm very grateful to have had this terrific opportunity!

Thanks so much for visiting!

Smiles...

   Judy

Gone, but, I hope, Not Forgotten!

I've been a bit of an absentee blogger lately, more because of a lack of creativity on my part than lack of interest in blogging. We are going through yet another heat wave right now, and, even though I have an air conditioned home, the heat somehow seeps into my mind and makes me feel lazy and unproductive.

I did enter into the spirit of excitement last week as an Arts Collaborative friend, AnnMarie Gallivan, opened her artisan studio called CREATE. She'll be offering classes in all sorts of arty things, and I made her a flag to celebrate her opening. It has sparkly embellishments which don't show up in this photo, and invaded my ribbon stash for the fringe.

I've also pulled out this appliqué picture of my house, which I had started years ago. I've been stitching in the details, but plan to embellish it quite a bit with hand and machine embroidery. I also have several stitched drawings in process, but have been slow to finish them up. As I said earlier, lazy!!!

I hope to get back on track soon. Sorry I have not been visiting you, my  blogger friends, but I'll be by soon!

Hope your summer is going well!

Fabric Sketches

I've been distracted and doing a lot of thinking lately, and one thing that has suffered is my blog! 

I'm ready to make a tour of my favorite blogs tonight and catch up on what everyone is up to!

This is a little fabric sketch I made a while back, and I'm thinking about concentrating on this style for a while. I had used the same method on this picture of my daughter Kate:

I never did finish up the painting challenge for May, but I'm happy that I was able to try painting again after being away from it for so long. I'm feeling the need to focus on one thing and I'm going to be making some changes on my blog. 

We had the most gorgeous, sunny and cool day today - windows wide open, curtains fluttering and a really invigorating breeze threading through the house. I did some good cleaning and organizing, but I'm feeling it tonight! It sounds like we'll be having some heavy rains this weekend, so it will be good to stay in and do more straightening and purging of "stuff". I have several bags in the garage ready for the Salvation Army. Feels good to create some space. Tomorrow I'll go to our library book sale, but will try not to overindulge!

I hope that you have had a good week. Thanks for stopping by to read my blog, and have a great weekend!

AED Day 6 - Apple Picking!

Today, on day 6 of the Art Every Day challenge, I finished up this little lady carrying fresh picked apples from the orchard! I'm thinking she looks like a Mary Jane - what do you think?

She is cut from commercial fabrics fused onto muslin and appliqued with a machine satin stitch.

The muslin background was then painted with fabric paints and the details sketched in with a machine straight stitch. I then went back and added a bit more shading with colored pencils.

I also wanted to show some beautiful handmade gifts (the best kind, I think) given to me as a belated birthday gift by my friend Karen.

                                      

The pillow is filled with lavender and smells heavenly!

The towel to the right is neatly trimmed with lovely birch tree fabric.

And the pretty bag in front is filled with balsam needles from the trees on Karen's property in Vermont!

Am I a fortunate lady or what!!

Thank you so much, Karen!

Woodland Scene - Finished!

Well, I have finally completed my woodland scene! It ended up being more complex than I had first intended - sometimes a picture takes on a life of its own!

 I had started out with a geometric background and meant to keep it simple, but as I applied  the trees and foliage, it became more realistic looking, and I added more and more. The forest floor looked a bit bright, so I used pastels to add shadows, rubbing them into the fabric. This will never be washed, so I'm not concerned about their rubbing off.

I stitched over the whole surface, which added texture and motion. In times past, I used to carefully satin stitch around the edge of every detail in an applique picture, but I'm getting looser and just using a meandering straight stitch, sometimes outlining, sometimes not.

I'm very happy to have finished this project 

and now.....

on to something new!!

Applique Collage #2

Here is my second applique abstract collage this week! If these abstracts seem like a departure from my usual style, I should tell you that this one and a few others have been sitting around in my studio for at least a year, waiting to be stitched and finished. Although I usually tend to work in a realistic style, I've always had the desire to experiment with abstract!  In fact, I started the year off by laying out an abstract hanging which you can see here. I never did finish it, but should try to do so at least before the end of 2008!!

I'm also interested in doing some tiny ones (I love tiny!) to make into necklace pendants! It's on my "list" of ideas! Don't we all have one?

Anyway, I added some beads to this piece and had fun making it!

Applique Collage

Here is an abstract applique collage I just finished. I used commercial fabrics and some textured threads. Each element is sewn down with a zig zag stitch and I added some metallic elements I found in my "collage" box. I'm working on a few abstracts and hope to finish at least one more before next week.

That brings me to some exciting news! 

Next week I'm going to the International Quilt Festival in Houston with a group of friends!!

I'm so excited - it should be wonderful! I'm looking for inspiration and new techniques, and fabrics and embellishments at the huge vendors mall!

What a fun trip to look forward to and I'll have plenty to blog about when I get back!!!