My Studio Wall

We've been doing lots of renovating/redecorating at home lately. Charles has been out of work and between looking for a new job and practicing his guitar, he's been tackling chores around the house - boring things like re-caulking the bathroom and the windows and fun things (well fun for me) like texturing and painting walls. He even rebuilt my range and painted it black. His industriousness rubbed off on me and I've been doing a ruthless purge and organizing of the studio. While most of the projects aren't ready for viewing quite yet - one wall of the studio is ready and I'm so pleased with it. It features art from some of my friends and some of my own as well. It makes it a pleasure to step into the studio, even when I don't think I have the energy or enthusiasm to work. The wall makes me all warm and tingly - reminding of good times with friends and sipping on a cup of coffee and looking at the wall for a few minutes usually gets my muse fired up to get out the supplies and work - even if I only have a short time available. Like Martha would say 'it's a good thing'.

Slow but steady

I've had a summer cold - or allergies - or something that has made it difficult to sit and bead - having my head bent down at 'beading angle' causes incredible sinus pain so I can only work for short periods of time. I've been working on the May Bead Journal Project page a little bit every day for the past couple of weeks and am finally nearing completion which is a good thing because I already have a plan for the June page.

And on to May

I was stumped for the May Bead Journal Project page. Sometimes the most difficult thing is just beginning. I fondled many beads many times looking for inspiration, remembering what Robin Atkins writes in one of her books about just picking some fabric, picking a bead that speaks to you and sewing it on. But it just wasn't happening. Due to many forces the beads weren't singing to me - the only ones I gravitated to were dull, gray, sad little beads because my world seemed pretty gray and dull. And so, I brought out a little pile of sad gray beads and found the little slab of cut stone with some gray in it. Then I of course needed fabric and as I went through my stash I realized that I don't really have any dull, gray, sad fabric but I did find a fat quarter of some dull lavender and grabbed that. I set about to prepare my surface, pre-washing and ironing and tacking on the wool felt backing and began to sew the focal bead when I read the words printed on the fabric "Be bold and mighty forces will come to your aid". I hadn't really even noticed the print on the fabric before I sat down to work with it. But the words 'be bold and mighty forces will come to your aid' began to make perfect sense for this piece. I started with the knotted up, enclosed focal bead and then started to 'be bold'. It will be interesting to see where this goes.

My April ArtFest Bead Journal Page is done!

And just in the nick of time, seeing as it's the last day of April - oh how I hope Spring really is on the way.

This page was a total departure from the norm for me and was a lot of fun - once I got over the 'it all has to be color-balanced' I had a lot of fun. As I wrote last time, there are many things on this page that were collected during ArtFest, so if they don't make sense to you - well that would be because they really aren't connected in any other way.

Now I'm off to think of what to do for May.

The Dogs

Some of you know that I'm owned by four dogs (well there are six cats too but they aren't quite so demanding). I've updated pictures of them on the sidebar. Irie is my old grumpy bossy girl. Every time I think she's on her last legs, she surprises me by chasing Zakk up the hill. Zeke is the same age as Irie, but since he extends very little energy (i.e. he's a slug) he doesn't seem quite as old. Zeke's best trick is laying down to eat and grabbing everyone's food bowls with his paw and pulling them over to him so he can finish their food as well.

When we got Mushu, my son and his wife were VERY concerned. She's a Tibetan Mastiff, Rottweiler, Pit Bull mix - they were certain she'd be quite vicious - she's anything BUT - she's the sweetest girl in the world and loves to be brushed and to snuggle up with you in bed. Like I always say 'punish the deed, not the breed'.

Zakk? well Zakk is another story - a wild boy - still not totally housebroken but are terriers EVER totally housebroken? He's very smart and very inquisitive and very cute and he totally loves Charles - they are two peas in a pod those two.

And that is the update on the dogs.

April Page

Every year I come home from ArtFest with all sorts of little treasures - mostly gifts and trades. I usually put them in a box and never give them another thought until I'm doing a major studio clean/renovation and come across the boxes and think "well I can't really throw this wonderful stuff out but. . . ". So I close up the boxes and put them back in the cupboard where they stay until I come across them again. This year I decided to incorporate some of my favorite ArtFest treasures into my April Bead Journal Project page. This entire page is quite a departure from the norm for me. Everything about it is pretty random - the color scheme, the 'theme', and again, as always, I don't know where I'm going with it. The orange button with my name on it was my name tag from the event. I cut the back off of it and did a rather free form peyote stitch around it. The square collage in the center is by Randi Feuerholm-Watts. She didn't come to ArtFest this year but participated in a collaborative project that I was in and sent her pieces along with some one else. The 'theme' of this years' ArtFest was "sea monsters" and I really liked Randi's interpretation of that. The slumped glass is from Nancy Drew (yes, that's her real name) and the little button with the painting of the girl is from Sunny Carvalho who taught one of my classes. The small beaded button is from a woman named Sage and all the little polymer clay women remind me of my friends that I only see once a year at ArtFest. My friend Suz made us all 'sea kelp' fuzzy knit scarves - the ruffle is symbolic of the scarf I chose in pastel colors.

I have a whole bag of treasures I gathered at ArtFest - It will be interesting to see how I incorporate them along the way.

March BJP page is finally completed.

I have been sick with a bad cold that I brought home as a souvenir from ArtFest and have been stitching away on my March page which is now finally completed. I also have begun work on the April page - it's a real change from me, incorporating several fun items I received as gifts/trades at ArtFest as well as being another color combination I don't frequently use - orange/peach, light blue, lime green and brown - we'll see how that works out. But for now, here is March 09.

Home from ArtFest

I had a wonderful time, playing with all sorts of media that I don't normally play with and having some bead time as well. Thursday's class was with Sunny Carvalho and while the subject matter wasn't terribly appealing to me initially, I wanted to learn how to use the Genesis Heat Set Paints that she uses for her faces. It was a wonderful class and I even grew to like the little big-eyed girl when I was done. Sunny is an excellent teacher - I just wish the class had been two days so we could have gotten a bit more in-depth about portrait painting.



The second day of class I took another class from Karen O'Brien. I took a different class from her last year and really enjoyed her class and thought I could learn a bit more from her, which I did. The other great part of this class was sitting with my friend Lelainia Lloyd as well as meeting a delightful married couple. The four of us chattered away all day whilst painting and gluing - It was really a fun day.

My Saturday class was with Keely Benkey (previously Barham). Keely is the best teacher, bar none - My friends and I say we would love an ArtFest where it was 'all Keely, all the time' and this class was no exception. Though there were several people in the class who quite possibly had never held a beading needle before, Keely managed to have everyone work at their own pace. I'd never done bead weaving before, in fact, I must admit, I didn't even know the simply peyote or square stitch before this class, but I had lots of fun (with the help of my buddy Sarah) and anticipate using some of what I learned in future Bead Journal Project pages.

As much as I enjoyed myself at ArtFest and laughed until all hours of the morning and survived on far too little sleep and saw friends I only see once a year, I was happy to be on the ferry boat coming home early Sunday morning. And I'm already looking forward to ArtFest 2010!

by the skin of my teeth

I managed to start the March BJP page during the actual month! This page is representative of St. Patrick's Day - the historic perspective of this day that is really a day of religious intolerance in many ways. The driving of the snake from Ireland being symbolic of driving out the old pagan ways. I'm trying to learn more about the world and so did some reading on the history of Ireland and its' long history of discrimination against the Irish people - both in their own country and when they immigrated to America - not all that long ago signs saying "No Irish need apply" were commonplace - can you imagine that happening now? Okay - enough with my history lesson - here's the beginnings of the March page.


I'm off to ArtFest in the morning for my annual battery recharge - lots of eye candy upon my return.

FINALLY!!

February is finished - I don't know why it took so long but it did - Time to put all the beads away and start on March though I think that I may start April and take it to ArtFest with me to work on there.

*still*

plugging away on the February page - I came very close to finishing it on Saturday - I sat and watched "A Streetcar Name Desire", "The Corpse Bride" and "Frida" while I beaded. I always cry at the end of Frida - you'd think I'd know she dies. Anyway, I beaded while I watched movies and long into the night but when there was maybe another hour or so of work to be done - I just couldn't go on. I was soooo tired. Hopefully I'll get some time after work this week to finally finish. Here's a photo of the 'scene of the crime' - the mess I develop when beading. I have a giant studio with tables and countertops that my beloved built for me but do I use it? NO! I work at a tiny tv tray table. He (the beloved) screwed a larger piece of wood onto the top of it because he got tired of seeing me work in such a small space.




This past weekend I also finished up with the seed bead organization. It is so nice to be able to actually *find* things and it's ever so much easier to put everything away when I'm finished. This process helped me to learn that I have far too many blue-green/teal beads and hardly any brown or gray ones.

Still plugging through February

I'm still working on the turning in circles February BJP page - I've never been this tardy before - I feel like I work on this page all the time but it never seems to get done - I know I'm making progress, it just doesn't feel like I'm making enough progress. Hopefully the March page will go faster - I already have an idea for it but I don't want to start it until February is finished.

slow progress

First off - let me say I am so tired of snow - It snowed again here in the Pacific Northwest, the place where it doesn't snow - remember? that's why I moved here from Detroit?


I've got too many irons in the fire - the Bead Journal Project, a class on Joggles.com, getting ready for ArtFest, a collaborative necklace project. . . and making slow progress on each of them.
Here is the work to date on the February Bead Journal Project page.

and updates on progress on 2 of the six projects for the joggles.com class - I'm so far behind on that one - thankfully my boss at my day job is going to Mexico next week so I'll have more free time. (yay!)




I really kind of like the back of the painted quilt - I might try doing something like this in the future - just free motion line drawing on muslin - pretty fun huh?


So that's where I'm at this second week of May - behind on a lot of things and just rather discombobulated - If I owe you a phone call or an email response, I'm sorry - I'll get to it as soon as I can - life is just rather annoying right now.

My poor neglected blog

I have too many projects in process at one time. The class on joggles.com involves a different mini-quilt technique each week. Somehow my 'mini-quilts' have turned into larger projects and those coupled with my Bead Journal Project page, working on a couple of round robin projects I'm participating in, getting trades ready for Artfest and oh yeah, my day job that is 40 hours a week with an added 10 hours of commute time and I've really felt like I'm burning the candle at both ends. Hopefully, now that the days are longer I'll feel like working more when I get home from the office rather than just curling up with a good book. Speaking of good books, I just received The Crafty Chica's Guide to Artful Sewing and is really is a fun read and true candy for the eyes. Everything Kathy does is so bright and colorful. And she quotes ME in the book! What better recommendation could I give you than that?




Now on to the works in progress. I finished a second landscape quilt. It was really fun working on these and I hope to do a larger one in the future.






Another class project was a painted quilt - I selected my puppy Zakk as my subject (and no he didn't hold still, I used a photograph). The painting process was really surprisingly easy once I got the hang of it. The quilty is pinned together now, waiting for some machine (and possibly hand) quilting.



And yet another class project was a felt applique quilt - I got a little carried away with this one - la Catrina is very big - about 20 - 30 - Since this photo was taken, I've removed those pink leaf sequins, added a turquoise felt 'flounce' to the brim of the hat and a garden of bead and sequin embellished flowers - I'm thinking la Catrina might be done by the end of the month. After the surface is done, I'll still need to quilt her and finish the border. Now you can see what I mean when I said I got carried away with these projects - the class format was to do 8 x 10 inch sample quilts - I should have followed directions.





And last but not least is the little applique bird quilt - I came closer to following the size suggestions this time. I think I'll finish this one with some hand embroidery and free motion machine quilting - all in yellow threads. And maybe some shiny black buttons to finish it off.


Work also continues on the 'turning in circles' February Bead Journal Project page, though I've been remiss about taking in progress photos of the page. I'll try to do that soon.

So what have YOU all been making?

Thanks for stopping by. I'd love to hear comments and/or suggestions for my quilties.

something new

I'm taking a break from the circles, letting my finger heal up while waiting for a leather thimble to come in the mail (who would have thought it would be so difficult to find one locally? certainly not me).

I'm taking another on line class at Joggles.com. I love taking these classes - they give me a sense of structure that I can still work on according to my own schedule. The current class is being taught by Jane LaFazio who is an amazing artist and the topic is art quilts. The first one was a 'landscape' quilt. This was the lesson that least appealed to me when I looked at the class description, but I'm really glad now that I went ahead and did the project (and of course I added a few beads).

February BJP page beginnings

I feel like I've been running in circles lately - can you tell?

Vintage?

I love vintage glass beads, especially the flower shaped ones. I don't know what it is about the glass but it just seems different (it probably has heavy metals in it so don't put them in your mouth). One of my favorite time wasting habits is searching the net for vintage glass beads and herein is the problem. I think of something as being vintage if it is OLDER THAN ME which means something manufactured before the 1950's. I think we're heading toward antique status here rather than vintage but in my world, it's still vintage. Imagine my surprise when I pop 'vintage' into a search engine and find plastic - vintage plastic? plastic? that's not vintage - (now before you correct me please remember that this is my own personal world that we're talking about here) and these plastic beads aren't cool bakelite which is really resin and not plastic anyway - we are talking about things taht I found in my Aunt Elaine's jewelry box when I was a child in the 60's. NOT VINTAGE - (remember this is still my own private world we are discussing).

The same goes for the Melamine that they are now selling at vintage - it was ugly at Aunt Ruth's house and it's ugly now. My children (who are in their 30's) were so excited when they received a set of 'vintage' melamine dinnerware for their wedding - the pattern was the same that my Aunt Alice had with those mod little rounded triangle thingys - ugh. And the 'vintage rafia tumblers'. I saw some on eBay for $12.50 each. They used to give those to you at the gas station when you filled your tank (after they were done checking your air pressure, oil and windshield wiper fluids).

I suppose now I'm sounding like my Grandma Lola - remembering the 'good old days' - but that's not it at all. All I ask is that when searching for things that are 'old', I don't find things that were manufactured after I was born. Is that too much to ask?

Snow!

I woke up to a snow covered world and stayed home from work and finished my second January page. I really need to learn how to use a thimble because one of the fingers on my right hand looks like ground meat.

Continuation of 2nd January page

I'm really enjoying playing with all of these new stitches - It's taking a long time to do but I really do love the bottom portion of this piece - I'm so glad that I decided to do another January page.