Illustration Friday - excess

...baggage, that is...

cotton fabric, mulberry paper, linen thread and acrylic paint on 6" x 6" stretched canvas

New Fiber Postcard

Block-printed Fish, 6" x 4"

I'm working on some new postcards for swaps and the first bunch are done and ready to be mailed. This one gave me a chance to try out the new Stewart Gill paints I bought at Festival in Houston and the pearlescent acrylic inks I picked up in my favorite local art supply store.

This series is bound for the latest students in a class that Elin and I teach called Swap Art. Elin shows the students how to make fiber ATCs in the first class and they make enough to trade with each other. I teach them how to make fiber Postcards in the second class and then we all mail postcards to each other over the next couple of weeks. Fun! I can't wait to see what they come up with.

Then it's on to the postcards for the latest round for Postmark'd Art. Our group has been trading for a number of years and we have members from all over the world.

Happiness is...

42 new colors of Caran d'Ache Neocolor II Wax Pastels. Santa, are you listening??

I seriously love these things. And new colors - my heart's all atwitter. I've used them on fiber postcards, on art quilts and on paper. They're simply scrumptious. They blend beautifully with a little water and a paintbrush and you can add layers and layers of colors.




Earlier this year I made a quilt for Virginia Spiegel's Fiber Art for A Cause reverse auction and the incomparable Tomme Fent bought it. This is a detail of the butterfly on the piece, Muiopotmos, all done with the Neocolors and one continous line of quilting. Yep, one. The background is hand-painted fabric.

Giving Thanks

Happy Thanksgiving

Gobble, gobble.


Almost out from under a big deadline and then I can actually post new art again!

Journal Quilt 07

Here's my Journal Quilt for 2007. This is the third time I've participated in the Journal project and I'm sorry to see it come to an end. Next year I'll be exploring weekly journals on my own. I've got a few ideas already...

Quilting Arts Gifts Issue

The Quilting Arts Gifts Issue hits the news stands today. I contributed two articles to it and, as always, the crew at Quilting Arts did a fantastic job with the photography and layout. All of the contributors were asked to make a holiday card for the issue as well and mine is a Peace Beetle. Nevermind that I made that up, it could become a new iconic holiday symbol, right? I started with a piece of watercolor paper (90# Arches), embossed it, added mulberry paper with stamped letters (Paz is Spanish for Peace), printed a beetle onto a piece of batik, stamped it with a Chinese saying and overprinted it with a found object, topstitched and painted the edges and finito! Maybe all of my Christmas cards this year should be Peace Beetles. Watch for one in a mailbox near you...

My articles are about creative wrapping with fabric (good for the earth!) and table settings. The rest of the issue is terrific, -- as soon as I have time I'll be trying out some of the projects. A bunch of the people I met in Houston last week have articles in it and Elin does too. I have to start thinking about ideas to submit for next year's issue.

Happy Halloween!

My friend Julie and I are down in Houston, Texas at Quilt Festival this week. Pokey encouraged all of the vendors in the Make It University section to dress up tonight for Halloween - so we did! She claims John forgot to pack her costume, but she did have on a great witch's hat. Mmmhmmm. Coming back from changing into my costume I encountered the girls from Fiber On A Whim. Here's Kristin, looking completely adorable.

Here's Jan and Karla, in full All Hallow's Eve regalia. Their booth is right around the corner from ours and it's great to finally meet them in person. They're even more fun in real life.

Back in our booth you can see that Julie really got into it, complete with black lipstick, huge false eyelashes, broomstick and striped stockings. Doesn't she look great?

And here I am, dressed for a night out with the coven. My outfit was not complete without these incredible shoes:



We got a lot of trick-or-treaters at our booth and gave out a ton of candy. We were a little tired at the end of the night, but we had a great time. Happy Halloween!