I guess I have been busy

I enjoyed making the first woven piece so much I had to make another in mostly blues and greens.  This time I attached it to a piece of old linen napkin that I dyed and stenciled and wrapped that fabric around a piece of foam core board.  It is about 6"X 8".

Here it is, still on the loom.  I put the gift card in the photo to give an idea of the size of the piece.  Plus it is a cute gift card from Powell's book store, my favorite book store.

As you can see I have continued to make large tote bags out of feed sacks.  There are so many colorful bags, and they are quite strong.  I have given plenty away and I use several for my recycling stuff.  Still there is a big pile of them waiting to be turned into totes, mostly the plainer ones.

In my last post I showed the piece of felt I had been playing with on the needle felting machine.  I turned the felt into these little pillow hearts.  I like the above one the best.

This heart has the foil on it but I think I needled it too much and most of the foil came off.  It does look better in person, the photo doesn't show it to advantage.  It has sequins and beads, including some polymer clay beads I made.

Last but not least, I finished a beaded bracelet I have been working on for awhile.  I had to crop in real close so you didn't have to see my sun damaged skin so much.  This pattern came from a book by Beverly Ash Gilbert titled Beaded Colorways.  It is a lovely and very inspiring book showing how to create free form bead weaving projects.  I'd recommend it.

Sometimes I feel that I don't get much accomplished down here in the studio.  That is one good thing about the blog, it helps me to focus on what I have done, rather than what I haven't.  When I began to gather photos for today's post I realized I have been busier than I realized plus I haven't even shown all the things I've been working on.  I have several nieces either getting married or having babies so I'm also making baby quilts and thinking about what I could make for a wedding gift.  Not any big quilts for wedding gifts!  I'm not up for that much focused work at the moment!  Not with all the garden chores at this time of year.

I hope you all are enjoying some fine late spring weather.  I'm continuing to enjoy this fine spring rain here.  Sorta.  It is better than too hot or tornadoes, that's for sure.

Be well.

More fabric hearts

Here is one more look at the fabric hearts I made and gave away at Christmas. 

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  The blue one above I intend to give to the woman who runs the cafe where I had my work hung for the past two months.  It is down now, I still need to go pick it up though and I will give her this then.  One piece sold.  Evidently there was a couple traveling through town on their honeymoon clear from England.  I am quite honored that they chose my piece to go back home with them.

I need to settle down and make some plans and goals.  I have been tidying up the studio, taking care of loose ends, also planning to teach a class on journal making this Saturday so have been preparing for that.  I have never done this before so wish me luck.  Our weather has been absolutely lovely for several days now.  Freezing cold but sunny days and starry nights.  It is supposed to change tomorrow, back to rain.  That will certainly put me in a studio state of mind.  I want to get busy on another dooleybobber, enough with the hearts already!  I hope you are all enjoying the new year and I look forward to seeing what you all post.  Until then,
Be well.

Heartfelt

I finished another beaded heart today.  I went back to the more traditional shaped heart as you can see.  I am finding that I enjoy making these better when I am making them specifically for someone.

Here is a close up of the charm I used, I shall call this the Goddess Heart.

Also I am continuing to make these fabric hearts, which I intend to give as Christmas gifts.  I'm getting a little faster at them, these are #2 and #3, Love and Cherish.  They are rather like a combination of my beaded hearts and my dooleybobbers.  I am still experimenting with the heart shape, but I'm liking the shape of Love.

On "Cherish" I used old lace, some vintage fabric, sequins and beads, with hand embroidery.  There is a little angelina fiber too. When the light catches this one just right, it looks like it has tiny electric lights on it, due to the sequins.

"Love" is using more lace and vintage fabric, a velvet heart with a shell-like green heart on top, beads and hand stitching.  Oh yeah, and a tag from a tea bag, that says something on it.  Maybe you can read it if you click on it.  Okay, I'll tell you, it says "When God made time, He made enough of it."  Celtic saying.

I hope you all are staying safe and warm.  I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for taking time to read some of my posts and to follow along with my artful musings. I appreciate that you do, and especially when you have time to leave a comment.  I wish you all of the best that this season has to offer; generosity, kindness and love.

Be well.