New Zealand Bound

Well, I'm not going to New Zealand, unfortunately, but one of my pieces is on its way as part of a group exhibition from the Fibre Art Network. The exhibition is called Canadian Content. Our exhibition will be part of a large quilt show called the Remarkable Symposium 2011 in Queenstown, New Zealand from April 18th to 23rd, 2011. Pretty exciting!

My piece is called "Wild Rose Hip" and it measures 18" wide by 26" long. It is predominantly needle-felted wool and has been machine quilted.

Sunny Sunflowers

This weekend's creativity involved two-dimensional gardening. Here are three miniature sunflower quilts I made to sell on Etsy. Cute and sunny and fun to make

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Friends

Penguin has a new friend. King Penguin that is... or mini-Giraffe. I made this Giraffe over the weekend with instruction from Wool Pets by Laurie Sharp. Turned out kind of hairy. Maybe in the olden days, giraffes were hairier? Or maybe this is a Northern Alberta Giraffe. And must admit Giraffe is kind of buff... more like horse muscles than giraffe :-)

My quilt is now listed on CraftHope for Haiti... http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=38828647 hopefully it will sell and the money can go to help people. CraftHope is close to raising $10,000 in three days for Doctors without Borders. Kind of exciting to help by sharing a skill.

Sunflowers - Sunshine

It is a sunny winter day today and makes me think of summer. I made some sunflowers this week and here they are to share with you.

I've been using grosgrain ribbon as binding and it is working like a charm! I've also been tackling some machine quilting and having a little success at that... pictures coming soon.

It worked!

I don't have much to say, except it worked!! The wool inside the lava chamber glows and bubbles and boils. Keep in mind this little quilt is about 3 feet high. Cool, eh?

Now I must put this project aside and work on another more pressing deadline... Christmas! Keep you posted :-)

Of Easy Wind and Downy Flake

I have always been fascinated by snowflakes. From catching them on my tongue as a child, to capturing winter scenes in a snowfall as an adult... snowflakes have been a big part of the wonder of winter. My favourite poem of all time is Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by poet Robert Frost.

Here is this week's snowflake quilt all finished. I added a simple border and even simpler quilting. I did not want to take away from the snowflake. The quilt is bound with black Grosgrain ribbon that adds a nice texture to the outside edges.



It is for sale on Etsy if anyone has a notion to live with it :-)

Sheepish Snowflakes

Today I am posting the next step in a mini-work in progress for art every day month. The background is blue wool roving, and now I have added a snowflake of white wool, as well as ivory seed beads and rhinstones. It is nothing like I imagined... as usual, but I am happy with it. I think it will become a small wall-hanging over the next few days. I'll share as I progress.

I am segueing to a new project now as a deadline fast approaches. I will share the progress each day as I work, and with luck and some hard work, I might have it almost finished by the end of November! Tune in tomorrow...

Masquerade

Next week I am attending an art quilt retreat near Edmonton. It is mainly a professional development retreat with a few fun activities in the mix. One of the challenges we are participating in is a project with a mask theme. Here is a preview of what I am working on.

We are also dressing up on Halloween, but I haven't figured that part out yet. I have a wizards hat, but nothing else... so I will have to get creative soon.

One thing at at time!

Replenish

I just returned from Edmonton. It was time to replenish supplies! It wasn't really... it was time to visit my daughter at University, but I also spent many hours in quilt and wool shops. I tried to just look, but that didn't work very well.

I did buy more felting wool and a wonderful book on felting wool animals. It is called "Wool Pets". I am really excited to start working on something from this book. Not that I need more pets... just another creative avenue to explore.

I also saw a unique art quilt exhibition by Lorraine Roy. The exhibition is at the Alberta Crafts Council Gallery. I love trees and Lorraine captures everything about them beautifully from leaves to roots. The detail in her work is exquisite. It is well worth seeing this exhibition if you have time.

My little vacation was inspiring so I am brewing ideas in my studio today!