For all you former Northerners...

I thought you probably needed a lilac fix.

I sent my grandson a late Birthday present recently. It's a place mat with fabrics that represent his interests:  music, golf, and fishing. I added his picture to really personalize it. The binding is yellow. The other side has the music pattern.

It's been a long time since I've posted so I don't think anyone will remember our Fab Fiber Women had a challenge. It had to consist of at least 80% brown, some sheers and the word "Hope". 

Kate had hers done and hanging in no time and it's great...I'll put up the picture in a second, Jan is working on hers as is Judy and then there's me.

Honestly, I've come up with ideas and then tossed them as I was working on them, but I shall do it. I think it's the brown that's doing me in.  Have to do it, after all it IS a challenge.

Kate's finished challenge. The sheers are reflecting the light, but Kate used stones and covered them in fabrics and then painted words on them. It's great!

Jan had some time off work and decided to put all her scraps to good use. She must have worn out her sewing machine!

She made dozens!

Stop by soon, I will be back to posting now for sure.

The intrepid spirit of daffodils...

is remarkable. They were covered with snow twice and the second time they were already in bloom.

We've had about two or three nice days and I guess that's all they need. It certainly is a morale booster to see spring flowers (even though it's raining...again).

the lighting was a little flat so not much contrast.

How tough are daffodils?

Okay, this is getting tiresome, really. We have another two inches of snow on the ground and my lovely daffodils are covered...again.

We're resilient, living in Michigan, but even we are begging for Spring weather now. I couldn't go out and take pictures of the flowers covered with snow because of my air cast so I did some through the window stuff.



The usually busy squirrel feeder on our deck.




Looking across our neighbor's yard.  Note their picnic table is ready for Spring!

Yes, this is lovely, but it would be lovelier in December!.

 

Join me on a tour...

of the "Fascination with Fibers" show presented by the Huron Valley Council for the Arts in Highland, Michigan.  The cultural arts center is in the Historic Highland Station House, a wonderful building that is totally charming.

The exhibition runs through April 30 and if you're in the area be sure to see the show. There is more to see than what I've posted here.

Please note that this is a beautifully hung show, but here and there I couldn't get close enough to take a better picture so it may appear that things are slightly out of kilter, but it was me, not the artwork.

On with the show...



"Embroidered Jacket" by Mary Bajcz



"Snowdrops" by Mary Bajcz





  



"Out of the Blue"  by Trish Boyle

  

"May, Pearl, and LaVerne" by Nadine Cloutier






"Vela"  by Julie Fedolak

 


"Electra" by Julie Fedolak

 


 

"Silence in the Garden" by Anna Kocherovsky




 

"Chair" by Anna Kocherovsky



"Dream"  by Anna Kocherovsky



"Coco"  by Sybil Phelps



"Connections I"  by Susie Krage





"Connections II" by Susie Krage



"Willow Weaving"  by Kathy McMinn

 

"Cartwheel Constellation"  by Barbara Fogle Mercer

"Purple Passion"  by Madeline Navarro

"Order Among Chaos"  by Cindy Purola

"Like a Baya Weaver Bird"  by Lauren Sopher



"Tea Time"  by Cheri Skomra



"Woven and Wavy"  by Jennifer Stafford



"Irises by the Garden"  by Jennifer Stafford



"Transmutations"  by Delores S. Slowinski

So ends my tour. Be sure to stop by the gallery and see the rest of the show.

Just a quick stop to say hello...

and to mention that probably like everyone else, this has been a hectic week.

We've had a nature "treat" for several days on our lake. There have been dozens of Canvasback ducks and I was told this was unusual for us. They are really lovely and seem to spend a lot of time head first in the water.

We had a "Fabulous Fiber Women" meeting last night and tackled paper cloth and I'll show you the results soon. We all need to finish our projects, of course. So now there's an additional UFO. It's late, talk to you soon.

I always have a long list of excuses...

but, honestly, I won't bore you with them. I really am working on bits and pieces for my Challenge art quilt that we are doing in our new fiber arts group. Our challenge is to use 80% brown, some sheers and incorporate "knowledge". 

Let's just say there have been a few interruptions, but I guess that's real life.

I've been playing with my Photoshop Elements program. I'm not good at it, but I certainly persevere! So naturally, it takes me twice as long to "do" something I am happy with. I've hand painted and printed fabric, painted cheesecloth, used my own photographs, hand colored the images and so on and so forth and somewhere, probably in the Milky Way, are a few photos I'd love to find again.

The oak tree, bottom left, (above) was used in several images.

Here is THE tree again. The images on the left were manipulated in Photoshop, then printed on paper, hand colored and then printed on fabric.  The tree on the right is the same tree, but printed on my hand painted fabric.

More stuff.

Meanwhile, I'm also doing a challenge type of thing with my sister-in-law. We keep it pretty light and I thank her for that.

Tomorrow I will be practicing making paper cloth, since I will be "teaching" our new group next week. That's funny, actually, since tomorrow will be my first time.

And...there's the matter of the unread book for book club, but that's our secret.

And...the high school gals are coming for lunch. I told them to skip the white glove test since I have a broken foot. No doubt, they'll arrive wearing white gloves.

Do you need your sunglasses?

Sorry about the "new look" of my blog. Am trying to change it back, no luck so far. I think I'll have to borrow a neighborhood six year old to help, they're so good at this.

Aren't these the very best...

fabric bowls you've ever seen? Desiree Vaughn created these and I salivate when I see them. 


They're in the Fall 'o6 issue of Quilting Arts magazine and even though fabric bowls are everywhere, I think these are the most artistic. 


Desiree Vaughn's fabric bowls

  Okay, now that I've become inspired, it's back to my challenge art quilt.

I'll admit I'm a tree junkie...

and always have been. And I think that's what my theme will be in my next project because our "Fabulous Fiber Women" group has created a challenge.

We have to have 80% of "it" done in brown, we have to include sheer fabrics and somehow incorporate Hope into the final piece.

Now, I don't hate brown, but I sure don't love it and so this will be a true challenge.

I will do an art quilt and I've been thinking of adding lots of texture and today, wearing my air boot and dodging large patches of snow I took some photos that I will use.

Sadly, this ancient oak loses a couple of limbs each year

I have lots more, but these will get me started.  Brown? Honestly, I'm trying to think positive on that one. Will hand paint my own fabrics tomorrow.

Haven't painted the air boot with Lumiere yet. Another tomorrow project?

A New Fiber Arts Group is being created...

and I feel so fortunate to be a part of it. We may be calling ourselves "Fabulous Fiber Women" and we are!  Even though we are a tiny group at the moment, I can tell we have great potential because of our enthusiasm. 


Judy "loves all things artsy/crafty" and has a workroom in her lower level to die for! She has yards and yards of her hand-dyed fabrics and lots of art quilts on her walls. Plus, and here's my favorite part...boxes and boxes of anything anyone would ever need for any project. Judy loves thread painting and says it relaxes her. (When I do free-motion stitching, I have to remember to breathe!)

Our other member is Kate and she is a multi-faceted artist! We will be at her studio soon and I'm sure it'll be a great adventure.  She has a background in Landscape Architecture at MSU and Kate likes to combine the various forms of textiles, glass and metal to embellish an art quilt and often uses photographs within the pieces or as the inspiration for the piece. So talented Kate sews, paints, fuses and slumps glass, and creates custom greeting cards at www.piecesofmeartgifts.com

Me? Well, my background for what seems like forever has been painting in mainly acrylics and some oils. But, I've always loved fiber art and I'm doing a lot of fabric painting plus I'll be at Dye Camp this summer for a couple of days so that will be a whole new experience.  I'm really looking forward to learning new things from the very accomplished women that will be there.

At our first meeting, Judy introduced us to knitting/crocheting such as done by Prudence Mapstone who does such creative work! Well, Judy is amazing at this. Me? I can knit and crochet if my "how to" books are next to me, but I have high hopes of making a wall piece out of these and a few more. (small wall piece). I tried to use wire from a scrubby type of thing, but that was painful so I'll forget that. I'm bravely showing a few pieces here. I'll tell you about our long-term challenge next. Hint: Brown!

I may just add some of the metal scrubby thing.