More Beaded Hearts

These are the rest of the beaded hearts I made for my friends.  Above is one for KarenL, she loves blue and cowboys.  The little charm that you might not be able to make out is a saddle.

This one is for April, she loves Teal but I chose these colors for her, I knew she would like them.  And she is always attracted to Dragonflies, also collects buttons.

Yes, this one is for Pinky, who is enamored of sea shells.  And Pink, of course.

For Joan I chose yellow, and I couldn't choose any charm better than a llama for our Llama Lady.

Last but not least is Mary's, she loves red and sun faces. I still need to make one for myself.

The sun is out, so I must get outside and enjoy it before the rain returns. I've got my mp3 player plugged in and now is playing Bruce Hornsby's version of Bob Dylan's Girl From the North Country.  One of my most favorite songs of all time.

Be well.

 

Misty Moisty Morning

My morning walk was quite misty and moisty.  It was beautiful, the sun was almost coming through and making this bright glow in the field.

Anne had a cool picture of a spider web on her blog last week so I thought I should try one too.

Or two. Lots of rose hips this year.

Be well.

Lovely gifts

It is so much fun to get presents in the mail!  Awhile back I received these lovely gifts from Martha.  She makes the cutest things!  The yellow item is a fabric bracelet.  It is the softest short napped velvet with sweet embroidery and applique on.  The little zipper bag with the applique bird was just what I needed.  I had recently given my zippered bag away when my SIL admired it.  I like to keep my little mp3 player in it, and it will also hold my camera.  Can't go anywhere without my camera these days except I never seem to have it when something really interesting is happening.  The cuff has a cute print of dancing foxes on the back and the bag has a print of Matryoshka dolls inside.  Very nicely constructed, both of these items.

Can you see the little pit bull faced necklace?   Martha knows my love for the bully breed and gifted me this lovely necklace.  I might make myself one of the beaded hearts and put it on there as my charm.  It is really a sweet silver charm.  Oh, the fabric is great, isn't it?  I am hoarding it for something really special.  Also she gave me the fabric heart that she stitched on multiple layers of fabrics and the center heart is soft leather.  I'm so lucky to have such wonderful friends.  I've been friends with Martha even before I began to blog, but we have never met irl.  Not yet!  Thanks Martha!  I truly love these gifts from the heart.

Here is Charlie, holding down my latest Dooleybobber.  It is under him somewhere.  I guess he likes to lay on felt and threads and needles.  

I can't have a picture of Charlie without a picture of Rocky.  He is so rambunctious!  Rocky!  Slow down!  Remember your heart condition!!

Today I've been listening to Mark Knopfler.  Enjoying Get Lucky.

Hope you all get lucky and Be Well.

My "Hairy" quilts

I haven't been making as many wall quilts as I used to so I am going to show you some of my old ones.  Remember that you can click on the photos to see better detail.  Someone recently asked me about my Rapunzel quilt, and that reminded me of my series of  "Hairy" quilts.  I didn't set out to make a series of hairy quilts, but after making several with a vague hair theme, I decided to call them a series.  The first was this one, titled Wind In Her Hair.  It measures 58" x 34".  It is all raw edge collaged with lots of fibers and beads couched down.  Machine stitched.  This is one of my very favorite quilts and I have it hanging in my studio still.

Above is a close up of the face area.  Below is towards the bottom of the hair.

A year or so later I joined a challenge and created this Rapunzel's Longing.  I sold this one, I think it measured about 45" x 30" or so.  It is also raw edge collaged with couched fibers.

Below is a close up of her face. 

Another challenge led to this quilt I titled Wind Tangled.  It is a sort of self portrait.  The challenge was to make something with the theme of Entanglements.  I still have this one, stuffed away in a box somewhere.  I like it, more of the raw edge collage work. 

I think this next one could fall into the hairy quilt category:

Flower Girl

I'm in a yahoo group called the Fiber Pirates and now and then we have what we call a Baggo challenge.  All the participants gather some fabrics and embellishments together, enough to fill a one gallon zip lock bag.  We send the baggo to the facilitator who then sends our bag to another participant.  After you get your new baggo you make something with those fabrics and when it is finished it gets sent back to the person who's fabric you had.  You don't know who you are making the quilt for until it is finished.  It has been a really fun thing to do and I have 3 baggo quilts in my studio.  So this was one I created, I call it Flower Girl.  It is another self portrait.  Looks just like me, don't you think?  It resides at Becky's home now, she is the one who's fabrics I received.

I used only fabrics and embellishments I received in the bag, except for the background, which is painted cotton batting.

Last and least is this one:

Crow Woman.  She is just a journal size quilt. It was meant to be a practice for a larger quilt that so far has not been made.  I gave this one away.  It was a first attempt to use a bit of roving and needle felting.  I like the idea of it if not the execution but like I said, it was really only a mock up.

So that is a little journey through my Hairy quilt series.

Summer is about over, if you can even call what we had here a summer.  It looks as though the fall rains have arrived early.  Big surprise.  Today I am listening to The Decemberists album, The Hazards of Love.   

Hope you all are enjoying some more appropriate weather and that you will

Be well.

 

Beaded Hearts

Recently I have been making these beaded hearts. I didn't blog about them because they were gifts and I wanted to wait until the people had them before I showed them to the rest of the world. I put little charms on them that correspond with something special to the person I made them for. The first one went to my friend Martha who raises lots of birds including peacocks, so I chose a peacock charm for her. I think her favorite colors are green and purple so I chose those colors for her heart.

This one I have shown before. I sent it to Anja over in Germany. The face is representative of our friendship. She does a lot of bead work herself and likes most all colors but seems to especially like dark pink and turquoise.

This last one is gifted to Anne. She is especially fond of sacred heart images so I created this one for her, with the sacred heart charm in it.
They are all the same size, about 2" x 3", and they have pin backs on them. Now I want to make one for myself.  I have a little charm that reads GIRLFRIENDS on it, but I also have a necklace that Martha sent to me that has a sort of Pit Bull dog charm on it. I might use that. It is cute.

Listening to a mix on my mp3 player, last song was from Into the Woods, I love Stephen Sondheim.  Now there is some Leonard Cohen, "there is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in...."

I see I have picked up some new followers.  Welcome!  and thanks for joining me in this artful journey, I appreciate your support.  

Until next time, be well.

Giveaway Winner!

I had 22 entries for my giveaway.  This morning I put all the names written on papers folded up tiny into a little container, then reached in with closed eyes to choose one.  And the Winner is.....

MARIE SEGAL!  http://mariesegal.blogspot.com/  How appropriate because she has been having her own giveaways and today she gave away 3 new pieces of her art.  I am happy that she is the winner, well deserved.  Marie picked Broken Hearts but if she has changed her mind she can let me know.

All my commenters are winners in one way or another.  I thank you for playing along.  I intend to do this more often, taking my cue from Marie.  So keep checking in here.  I will do my best to make entertaining posts.  For now I better get back to making more art.  Until next time, be well.

Uninvited guest

I heard a furtive noise and looked to the shelving unit. Are those ears I see sticking up out of the bird seed bucket??

Hey! Who invited you in here??

Little scamp! I had to quit feeding so much food out for the birds because I was being over run by squirrels and chipmunks. Evidently this squirrel decided to seek out the goods. I kept moving the seed bucket around but he kept coming in and finding it. I had put it up on this high shelf thinking he would be foiled finally but no, he still found it! He must be able to smell it. I had to put the bucket into a metal garbage can with a weight on top. He has given up.

See all those squash in the photo? Those are left over from last summers garden. We ate heartily of squash all winter, gave lots away but have these remaining. They are solid still, you can see the Sweet Meat and a spaghetti squash.

Don't forget about my giveaway that is in my previous post. You can still sign up for it until Sept. 11 or until I read my email on Sept. 12 morning. Good luck to everyone who has signed up so far!

Be well.

100th post giveaway

Hello friends!  I have reached my 100th post!  To honor all the friendships I have made since beginning this blog, I would like to have a giveaway.  I pondered on what I could give that would be unique and heartfelt and have decided to give away a piece of my art.  Whoever wins can choose which piece they most desire.  All of the ones pictured here are up for grabs.

This is Dooleybobber #6 and measures 6"x 6.5"  If you want to give it a new name, feel free to do so.  The orange batik background is not part of the piece.  This one is a particular favorite of mine.

Next is Broken Hearts.  It measures 18"x18"

Here we have Wonky Heart, which really is a dooleybobber but I hadn't started naming them that yet.  It measures a rather wonky 15"x 12".

This is another Dooleybobber, I think it was the first one I made so call it dooleybobber #1.  Measures about 7"x 7". 

Dooleybobber #2.  Measures 9.5"x 9".

Key to Life measures about 10"x 14".

Is this silly, to have all these choices in a giveaway?  I guess it doesn't matter.  It is my giveaway and I will giveaway however I want to!

Here are the rules:  write a comment on this post and tell me which piece you would choose.  You must be a follower but you don't need to post about it on your blog or anything.  I'm not looking to get new followers, just to reward the ones I already have.  I have met the most interesting, kind, talented, thoughtful and generous people in blogland.  Thank you all for taking the time to visit and comment.  I have been very pleasantly surprised to discover that there are people out there who actually get a little kick out of my photos and stumbling words.  I will choose a winner in the morning on Sept. 12 and post about it that day.  Thanks for spending time with me, I know how valuable your time is and I appreciate it.  I have had a few new followers sign up recently, I welcome you, thanks for wanting to follow my artistic journey.

Be well.

Gifts from the heart

One of the best things about blogging is all the wonderful people I have been meeting and becoming friends with. I never would have met my German friend Anja if not for blogging. We have been getting to know each other and seem to have made a special connection. Sister Friends! That's what we are becoming. She knew my birthday was last month and she sent me this wonderful package of goodies. The blue eyed dog was on the card. Most special were the mits she knitted for me! I totally love the colors and they are amazingly soft. They fit quite nicely.  Thank you so much Anja!  These gifts mean a lot to me.

Love those little buttons on the cuffs, what a nice touch. The miyuki beads are certainly going to be used up, such a pretty color. She also included several little felt hearts, I'll be incorporating those into one of my projects for sure. The sea green fiber I have already used a bit of in dooleybobbers #7, which I showed a couple of posts ago.  I gifted it to Anja, along with a beaded heart.   Here is another picture of it with the beaded heart included:

She has received it now so I can post about it.  If you have time you might enjoy viewing her blog: http://just-a-moment-in-your-life.blogspot.com/

If that weren't enough, I also recently received a gift that I won from Ces when she had a giveaway on her blog, http://cesandherdishes.blogspot.com/.

She does the most amazing drawings and lovely paintings.  Some very thought provoking art comes from her fertile mind.  I am so happy I won this little matted drawing of the acorn.  An acorn is a very fertile subject matter in itself.  The drawing is about 3.25"x2.25", a bit smaller than an artists trading card (ATC).  I see I should have removed the plastic sleeve this was in, it has created some weird reflections.  Ignore those reflections!  Just don't ignore the art.  Thanks Ces!  I love my acorn.

I am very blessed to have met such wonderful people through blogging.  Watch this space for my next post.  It will be my 100th and I will have a giveaway.  Until then,

Be well.