Fabulous Workshop This Past Weekend

I went to a workshop at the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles on Saturday. The teacher was a local artist, Judith Content, who has a must see exhibit at the museum right now. We made fabric candies and rocks and had a fabulous time. Here is a picture of my work in progress:

If you look at Judith's work you will see that there is lot's of opportunity for embellishment here. I will post again when they are done.

So Much Inspiration!

Another week, another workshop! Last summer I saw this class listed at a local art store and had to have it. But, "Oh no!" I had something on the calendar already. Bummer. But on further inspection I found she was teaching the class again in December so I called immediately and got myself on the class list. So Saturday I enjoyed an absolutely delightful 4 hours taking a "Tape & Spray" workshop with Zoya Scholis. The process involves tape and masks and spray bottles of watercolor and you wind up with an abstract piece that may or may not be what you had in mind at the beginning of the process.

First the taping

Here it is midway through the process

This was as far as I got in class

And a second piece not yet completed

So much fun! And after the class we drove up into the Sierras to Nevada City to visit my Sister-in-Law. We spent a lot of time looking at galleries and now my head is bursting with ideas. So little time, so much art!

The Diva Challenge

This is a Use-My-Tangle challenge, the tangle being Moowa by Anya Ipsen.

Tangles Used: Moowa and  Basketweave

It took me a while to get a result I was happy with using this tangle but I do like it and look forward to trying it again.

Beads 'N' Things

Last week was just way to full of Thanksgiving to manage a post so this one will have to do double duty.

Stitching and Things

A while ago I mentioned that I was working on a large project. Well, in between all the Thanksgiving preparation I did manage to put the final touches on it. This is a beaded cuff designed, kitted and taught by Leah Ready for the Greater Pacific Region of the Embroiderers' Guild of America.

Shibori Ribbon and Beads on a stiffened felt base

I am really pleased with how it turned out and am grateful that Leah was willing to teach this workshop for us.

I also made this fun little Fabric Origami Ornament with one of my groups a couple of weeks ago. I found an on-line tutorial that has really good directions on how to make these just in case one of you can't resist ;)

Diva Challenge
Last week's Diva Challenge was to use reticules and fragments to tangle your tile. I went a more stitchy route (surprised?) and worked on something I've been meaning to do for a while. I did a felt applique last summer using Molygon and have been trying to decide ever since if I want to add surface embroidery to it or not. So Saturday evening I printed out a picture of it on glossy photo paper and tangled the Molygon areas with patterns that at least resemble stitches I could use. It was a lot of fun but I may have to try again on a larger print out since this was approximately quarter scale.

Before

After

This week's Diva Challenge was Reticula/Fragment part 2. This time the fragment was supposed to be asymmetrical. I'm not really sure what is meant by a fragment...just a portion of a tangle? Anyway, I just drew a grid and picked a tangle that is asymmetrical. Having now looked at Carmela's blog I see that I may not actually have done what was intended but having put all that ink down and also having a policy of showing my first attempt, here it is.

Tangle Used: Florez

Wishing you all peace as we move through the Holiday Season.

A Prayer for Unity

The past week has been a hard one. My spirits were lifted when I saw a piece on TV about the Positive Post-It Movement and how it is being used by people in NYC subways. Later that same day as we were driving to lunch we noticed that the Unity Sculpture in Fremont, CA was covered with Post-It Notes. I guessed why and we went to check it out and sure enough, there were lots of supportive messages as well as few expressing their fears. Someone had left Post-It Pads and Sharpies so you could add your own message, which I did.

Unity by Bruce Beasley, 2014

I'm still working on that one, last ornament for my exchanges this year and hope to have it done by next week. So in the meantime, the only thing I have to show is my Diva Challenge for the week. I started by stringing my tile with the symbol Umoja which means Unity in Swahili. I filled the areas with Keeko and OOF, leaving some of the OOF only partially tangled.

Tangles Used: Tipple, Keeko, OOF

This week I leave you with the music video Unity by Shinedown.

How to Finish a Tubular Ornament

I had several people ask me how I had finished the ornaments I posted about earlier this week. So here is how I did it.

Materials Needed:

Stitched ornament (Mine was on 18-ct canvas 64 threads wide x 64 threads high)
Two 1-1/8" circles cut from mat board  (or a size that fits your ornament)
Two 1-1/8" felt circles
Two 2" fabric circles
9" twisted cord
One 2" tassel
sewing thread
#10 embroidery needle
sewing awl
white glue
Polyfil

Preparation:

1. Trim the canvas leaving 1/2" canvas seam allowance all the way around.
2. Pierce the center of the mat board circles with the sewing awl.
3. Glue felt circles to mat board.
4. Center a fabric circle over a felt covered mat board end cap. Using running stitch on the back side, gather fabric around the mat board to fit snugly and knot to secure. Repeat for the other end cap.
5. Thread the ends of the twisted cord through the fabric, felt and mat board. Tie ends together to secure hanger.
6. Thread the hanger of the tassel through the fabric, felt and mat board. Tie ends together to secure.

Finishing:

1. Fold the side seam allowances to the back of the stitched piece and ladder stitch into a tube.
2. Fold the seam allowance at the top into the tube. Place the fabric covered cap with the twisted cord hanger on top of the ornament tube and ladder stitch in place.
3. Turn the ornament upside down and stuff with Polyfil.
4. Fold the seam allowance at the bottom into the tube. Place the fabric covered cap with the tassel on the ornament tube and ladder stitch in place.

Now How Do I Reset My Internal Clock?

I envy those of you who live in places that don't use daylight savings. It isn't that I don't like daylight savings per se, it's the time change that gets me. It's easy enough to run around the house and reset the clocks, but my internal clock will be off for weeks. <sigh> There was an article on vox.com with excellent visuals of how changing or not changing the clocks would effect the amount of light in our lives. But enough whining! Let's get on with the art.

I have set aside Take-A-Stitch Tuesday for a bit. Last month I did InkTober and right now I am working on ornaments for various gifts.

I literally could not resist this one. I don't even know who I may give it to!

From the 2016 Just Crossstitch Ornament Issue

I actually made 5 of these but one has already been given away. Very fun to stitch, a bit tedious to make into ornaments. But the result was so worth it!

Holiday Twirlaments by Kathy Rees

Diva Challenge

This is a Use-My-Tangle Challenge and I was really excited to see that the tangle is Eaxy. I saw this on a tile a month or so ago but couldn't find step-outs. I can't believe this pattern is made out of selectively positioned Xs. I would have never guessed!

Tangles Used: Eaxy and Isochor

Falling Into Autumn

Our Indian Summer weather seems to be over and we have had several days of rain. Enough so that the new, green grass is beginning to come up through the old, dried grass.

And even more important to our water situation, we've had snow in the Sierras. So here's to a (hopefully) wet Wet Season.

InkTober

Diva Challenge

I wasn't feeling very well last week so I never got my Diva Challenge posted even though I finished it. The Challenge was to use NZeppel and Flux in a DuoTangle, two tangles I really like.

Tangles Used: NZeppel and Flux

This week's Challenge was to be Halloween themed. I decided to make a Zendalla using bat shapes. When I want to do something like that I use the website Drawerings. So grateful to have such great tools out there! As a sort of Tangle-joke I used the Tangle Garlic Cloves to keep these little vampire bats at bay ;)

Tangle Used: Garlic Cloves