This is what I'm working on for Terri Stegmiller's Faces on Fabric class. So far it's been a lot of fun drawing faces and putting this quilt-top together, but at some point I'll have to paint her face. That's pretty scary considering that I've already put a lot of work into it.

You'll recognize that nagging voice in the back of my mind saying, "but what if I screw it up?"

Here are a couple of cool things about this piece:

1) Her t-shirt is from some shibori-dyed fabric I made a year or so ago. I completely forgot I had it until I started considering what kind of t-shirt she might wear; then I remembered it.

2) The flower and leaves are cut from what Sherrill Kahn calls a "serendipity" cloth. It's a piece of fabric I've had in my studio for a while, and I use it to wipe my brushes on, to mop up extra paint, etc. The other day I was testing out some bottle tips for paint, and I drew a flower onto the cloth. The more I looked at it, the more I really liked it as a flower! I just love it when my refusal to throw anything away actually pays off :-)

Weekly Square #3

Here's my weekly 6x6" square. Since I made so many gecko postcards and ATCs last week, I thought that would be an appropriate theme for this week's square. Plus, the weather is warm and springlike, so I used spring-colored fabrics.

Cathy has graced me with this lovely award. Artistic bloggers are the nicest people, aren't they? I'm supposed pass this along to 8 bloggers, after I list 7 things I love:

1. My lovely partner of 12 years, who amazes me every day with her spirit, her generosity, and her support.

2. Our beautiful daughter and son, who are great kids (ok, they're adults, but they'll always be my kids) and who are as generous and loving as anyone could ask for.

3. Our funny and sweet grandbaby boys. They make me happy whenever I see them or hear their voices on the phone.

4. My mom and my 5 siblings, who have annoyed me occasionally but always loved and stood by me.

5. Our 3 furbabies (of the dog variety), who seem to believe that I'm the most wonderful person on earth.

6. Being able to create every day.

7. My craft room; it's blue and messy and packed to the rafters with stuff, but I love it like crazy.

Here's the text that goes with the award:

"This blog invests and believes in the PROXIMITY-nearness in space, time and relationships. These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement! Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers! Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award."

ATC Frenzy

I've been making lots of ATCs the last couple of days, partly because I needed to get some out for two swaps, and partly because I've discovered that making ATCs is a great way to use my "experiment" paper and fabric--you know, those pieces you make to try out some wonderful new technique, but that you never make large enough (at least I don't) to actually use in a project.

These ATCs are for a yahoo group swap; I used the fabric I made a couple of weeks ago from scraps.






The others came about because I wanted to try out my new Tsukineko inks. I stamped geckos onto fabric, then used the inks and Fabrico markers to color them. Then I very lightly spritzed the fabric with water, and dripped some transparent fabric paint around the geckos (the paint ran since the fabric was wet, but didn't really affect the ink-painted geckos).







I cut the fabric up into ATCs, and used three of them for another yahoo group swap. These had to be embellished, so I added lots of beads and some french knots with embroidery thread; and, they had to have a fabric back, which I'm not crazy about. I like the stiffness that cardstock or watercolor paper gives to a card, so the others are backed with cardstock. They're all sandwiched around craft felt, because I've really been obsessed with using that lately instead of batting for small projects.

So . . . now I have 9 gecko ATCs available, if anyone wants to trade. Leave me a comment with a way to get in touch with you, or email me (see the "email" link on my Profile over to the right). Feel free to specify which ATC you would like (Row 1, Column 3 for example), but I can't promise you'll get the one you ask for if someone else requests it first. Here are the available ATCs:

ALL THE ATCs HAVE BEEN TRADED; THANKS EVERYONE!

Who Has Time to Journal

when I'm busy making journals? I do love making these, though! Another one from Sue B's class. This one has little individual journals in each of the envelope "pockets." It's adorable!

Btw, I didn't notice the batik was a cat print until my partner pointed it out, so all the kitties are lying on their sides :-)

I started writing this post about 4 hours ago, but somehow I kept getting sidetracked . . . I looked at my email, which led me off onto wild google chases until I saw something interesting, which took me down another path to learn everything I could about "drapplique," which made me remember that I still haven't opened my new Tsukineko inks, and so on and so forth. You know how that goes.

Anyway, I decided just before my birthday a couple of weeks ago that I was going to make a "square-a-week" quilt. I think I saw where someone had done this in a QA article. I decided to make 52 6x6" squares, one a week for the next year, then sew them all together with a beginning square and an ending square for a total of 54--I think the quilt will be 6 squares wide and 9 squares long.

I thought my birthday would be a good time to start, and I made that week's square to commemorate it. It's a little dark, but the kind of birthday it felt like--one of those mixed-emotions ones. I added beads since I had been doing a lot of beading that week.

This week's square was based on a design that I created during an exercise at a friend's creative circle gathering. I had hand-dyed some fabric for another project, so I used some of the scraps here. I'm going to try to incorporate several things into these squares: the techniques I was working on that week, the materials I was using that week, and a design that reflects something that was happening.

Of course, my lovely partner snagged my first square to hang in her office, so I had to make another one. This one is just slightly different, but that's ok, too :-)