VALENTINE'S DAY

Happy Valentine's Day, blog friends!

Mixed-media art quilt. Vintage and photo-printed fabric/paper.

Wishing you love, chocolate, roses...and a cuddle buddy. Stay warm. Looks like Old Man Winter is about to get a little crazy around here.

Scout and Nigel

SANDPIPER

Vacation was great, but it's good to be home and up to my elbows in paint and fabric again. Played around with this pic from a March trip to Blackwater.

Used editing software to get this. I loved the purples, so I printed it on fabric and used some snippets on the final project. Also, cut out the bird and used it as a template.

Started with a previously collaged and painted background. This one has nautical references. I was lucky enough to find notebooks that contained engine logs and ship's supply lists at a used bookstore. They are large and make a great background layer for all sorts of paper projects.

Printed this on fabric, backed it with linen and cotton batting and began to layer the fabric for my sandpiper, and finished with this.

Used bits of the gorgeous fabrics in my oldest scrappy quilt. I'm going to be very sad when I've used that up, so I should probably start looking for another. Tip: Using fusible webbing will stabilize fabric enough to enable you to use even very fragile bits.
Finished with a bit of hand stitching.
In barn news, Abby has the "clover slobbers." A 1200 pound teething baby and a Saint Bernard together could not generate the amount of drool that one horse produces at the peak of clover time. It's disgusting. Is that TMI? The good news is, it is August and we still have pasture. Usually the grass is brown by this time, but we are still mowing the lawn weekly, and I've even had to cut the pasture. Can't complain about that when parts of the country are dry as dust, so I am counting my blessings here.
Tootles, blog friends.
XO

ROOMS WITH A VIEW

I went down to the river early yesterday. There was a break in the rain and the tide was high. The light wasn't great for pictures, but this birdhouse caught my eye.

Sailwinds Visitor's Center in Cambridge.

I played around with photo-editing.

Then printed it onto fabric. Like you do. Adding snippets of this and that, machine and hand stitching, and this sweet little bit of text which I found in a 1907 first grade reader.  "Bird and bee and water singing." The perfect description of a summer day.

Hope the birds are singing where you are today. XO.

MORE WINDOW STITCHING: HAUNTED

Still working from my church and abandoned house photos taken in Dorchester county. Finished this today, and couldn't wait to show you because it has a surprise. And because I worked really hard on it.
First, the original photo...

Then my fabric version...

I'm not the kind of person who sees Jesus in her French toast, nor have I ever grown a vegetable that looked like a dead president, but check out the left hand window, top middle pane, on the lower sash. I'd just begun working on this when I realized there was a face in the window besides the one on the right, and I didn't put it there myself. I've cropped it so you can get a better look. It's hazy, but squint a little, or tip your laptop screen. I'll wait.

Can you see her? It was very clear when I printed the photo onto fabric. She appears to be sitting sideways with her head turned toward the window, if that helps. She's wearing a flowered dress. Mike thought it looked like a sheep. I think it looks like a lady, and I'm just dying to go back down there and take more pictures. Do I really think it's a ghost? Of course not! Am I going alone? No way.

EVERY NEEDLE TELLS A STORY: DORCHESTER

As you know, I've spent a lot of time in Dorchester County with my camera over the past several months, and as much as I love Blackwater National Wildlife refuge and all the waterfowl photo-ops, I'm equally intrigued by the many old churches and abandoned homes. Recently, I've begun to incorporate them into my artwork.
With a picture of a church window as the background, I added machine and hand stitching, snippets of vintage fabrics, and scraps of paintings and photos that I'd transferred to fabric for previous projects. The picture of the smaller barred window was taken on Elliott Island and I believe the church window is on the way to Hooper's Island. The egret photo was taken at Blackwater. The vintage photos are from my stash. 
There are so many locations where the marsh seems to be reclaiming these old buildings. I should stitch faster before they're gone. Every needle tells a story.

The original photo...

 The finished piece.

8 X 11 fabric and mixed media

XO.

PAINT, SCAN, PRINT, STITCH

Lots more stitching going on here. This time, I sketched a figure over paint and layered paper, on canvas. I then scanned it, printed it on fabric, backed it with black linen and a layer of quilt batting and stitched. Also added scraps  (the seagull, the beach house, etc..) of previously printed fabrics, old beads, hand embroidery and machine-stitching. 
Here's the original canvas...

And the finished fabric piece...

She loved to breathe the sea air. It soothed her soul but troubled her hair.

In other news, I am still stopping frequently at Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge. So much squawking, flapping, and nesting going on there now. I wish you could see...

The osprey gets my vote for the best stinkeye. His nest was quite close to shore, and he looked as though he would happily use that beak to defend it.

Blue heron.

Lots of snowy egret around.

Good thing I had an outdoorsy weekend, because it's raining buckets now. Stay dry, my friends. XO.

FEELIN' THE BLUES, IN PAPER AND FABRIC

The "Deep Blue Sea." Collaged papers and acrylic paint, Micron pen, and charcoal...

8" X 10" art board

Printed on fabric, and embellished with hand and machine stitching, fabric scraps, and vintage buttons and beads.

8" X 10" fabric backed with Cotton Naturals batting.

"Deep Blue Sea"
Hoping all your blues are the art and music sort. XO.

Art and Soup

Noted psychologist, Abraham Maslow, said, "A first rate soup is more creative than a second-rate painting."
Not wanting to take any chances, I've done a bit of both...

Black-Eyed Pea Gumbo

The first layer of my Flora Bowley painting.

And because I can never choose between sewing and painting... a bit of "bitchy stitching."

Crappity crap! I see I've left the "d" off of use. Tomorrow's first project!

Hope your Tuesday was creative and nourishing!

Wednesday: Random Stitchy Stuff (Every Needle Tells a Story)

In a push to get ready for the holidays, and finally stock my etsy shop, I am doing a major studio cleanup. Here is a small sampling of needlework that I am sorting and finishing...

Spring had awakened a longing for adventure which she hoped was real, and not a false  sense of bravado brought on by a new dress and the seductive qualities of polka dots...

Moonbug

Rubber stamp by Hampton Arts
She would not see the molehills...only mountains.

In the interest of full disclosure...I attempted this same cleanup last holiday season, and never quite got there.

Hope your workspace is neat and tidy!

Good News

Doing a happy dance here! So busy preparing for Thanksgiving that I didn't even check the mailbox yesterday. If I had, I would have found this...

The Winter 2012 edition of Art Quilting Studio, with this...

My mixed-media quilt titled, Nigel and the Storm!!!! Like I said, happy dancing!

What I Made On Wednesday

This little quilt is dedicated to the "Fly Tribe," a very talented group of artists who offer support and encouragement everyday. The first in a series of "what if's" dedicated to this amazingly supportive clan of women...

Hope your Wednesday was amazing, or at least pretty good.

What I'm Making Today...

Making today...8" x 11" art quilt. Materials: recycled linen napkins, pearl cotton, Pitt pen, fusible webbing, vintage buttons, embroidery floss, etc...

Trying to decide whether to bind it in the black/white polka dot, or go for something a bit more colorful. Anyone...?