Little hooked hearts...

Just added these little hooked hearts that I will be bringing to artFiberfest.Working on lots of other things and getting all the kits ready to go.
I think my son and I will go see the Da Vinci code tonight.

New wool..

We all had a great time at our monthly rug hookers meeting at Sydney's beautiful home in the Ventura Keys. Maren brought her basket of newly dyed wools, aren't the colors wonderful? She also shared her latest quilt top, only her second one...we all loved it too. Lots of show and tell...Pepa is almost done with her 3 Bears for her first grandchild..
Love having visitors to the blog...and thanks for your comments!

Mermaids and flowers..

Added a couple of rugs that are almost completed. I started them a while back and just added the last rows of hooking. The tape around the edge is to keep the burlap from fraying too much. One photo is of the Mexican folk art mermaid candle holder that inspired the mermaid rug. It looks like we live in tropical paradise, but that's just the railing on our porch covered in honeysuckle and jasmine.
The flowered rug was started at a Karen Kahle workshop I attended with friends in Oregon. I think it will be a big pillow someday.
We have our monthly rug hooking get together tonight and so I'd better get busy on some new stuff.

Squirrels, gnomes and other stuff...

I'm still in my art making frenzy. Stayed up too late trying to finish my little Mr. Gnome. He still needs some black buttons on the front of his jacket, but I could only find one the right size, so I need to get some more before he is really done. I thought Mr. Gnome and the squirrel needed to be photographed together in the garden so here they are. Also posting a photo of some fun little signs I hooked for artFiberfest. Will have to come up with a hanger of some sort. If I have time I will do some more words.
Our little local Artfest group met this week at Cindy O's and Susan B. showed us how to do a light bulb shrine. I am still working on mine but will show it when I'm closer to being finished. These women are all so inspiring and I truly love being with them all. It's great when someone brings a little show and tell that they have made. I've learned so many things from this group; each person has unique gifts and talents that they generously share with everyone. We can also practice our projects on each other that we may be teaching in the future, seeing if things are do-able and work out in a group workshop setting.
And this week I finally got all of the Global Art for Peace projects sent off. Now they are on their way to all corners of the globe...well, a few corners, anyway.We received our piece from Morocco yesterday and it is a sweet little piece of crayoned hands connected together and it came with a CD of Moroccan music. The kids loved it! It has been a really worthwhile project for everyone involved.

Tiger, dolls and toadstools...

I finished up the 3 toadstools today and thought I'd pose them with a funny little creature that I made out of recycled sweaters. And 3 more hooked dolls that I made and while arranging them, our cat, Tiger came to investigate. One doll has a small feather in her hat that was too much for Tiger to resist.
Today is the school Carnival...theme is Wild, wild West. I painted a large wooden backdrop for the 6th grade Sponge Toss..the principal and others put their face behind it and the kids get 3 tosses per ticket. To keep it simple I just did a cactus with a cowboy hat and crow on top...Hard to believe this is our last carnival at Mountain View!

Artist trading cards

We had a fun and lively ATC trading session at a cool coffee shop on the Mesa near Santa Barbara. I posted some of the wonderful cards I received. Such a great group of ladies!

Teapot

Here is photo of a little teapot that I embroidered that is going off to a new home. I painted the mat to go with the piece and it will have a simple black frame to finish it off. Tomorrow is our ATC trade party here in Santa Barbara so i need to go and get some made..pronto!

a sunny sunday

Spent the morning going to the nursery for some new plants for the garden. Got 2 new climbing roses, a rock rose, catnip, sweet peas, and the boys picked out things for the vegetable garden. Photos of my favorite gnome that welcomes me home by the driveway and the sweet hanging bird planter that Maren gave me for my birthday. Feels like spring is really here!

Toadstool Thursday...

Spent yesterday working on more fiber art things. For some reason I was inspired to rug hook some of those red and white mushrooms. I also drew 2 gnomes to hook and can't wait to see how they turn out. Put a few of my mushroom toys in the photo...one holds tiddley winks!

Path to my art studio

Here's some more photos just for fun. I made a mosaic path out of square pavers that I covered with broken tiles, marbles, and pottery and then cemented together with more stuff. My son, Justin helped with some of the squares and they lead up to my little art studio that my husband, Dennis, built a couple of years ago.
Also a photo of some embroidered pins that I made for artFiberfest and a hooked heart that I just made. As you can see, I just love to make "stuff"...especially fiber related stuff!

Self portrait Wednesday..

Just for fun I decided to post some fun and funky self portraits that I've done in the last year or so. One is a rug hooked piece that I did for a show called "About Faces". I didn't get in the show, but my son who was 10 at the time did! He spent about 20 minutes on a fabric collage and I spent about 2 months-on and off. The show was at Westmont College Gallery and it was really great to have his piece in it-he was the youngest person there and got lots of good energy. ALso put in a fiber art piece with embroidery that was in Quilting Arts Magazine a couple of issues ago. Fun to do! And then there are 9 of the funny collage portraits that are part of an exchange later this month.We will each get a book of all our self-portraits--FUN!

Birds, nests, and cats...

Last Friday was foggy and damp and I got to stay home all day and make stuff. I had a great time working on some fiber "nests" that I hope to take with me to the Gallery at Artfiberfest in June in Issaquah, Washington. Teesha Moore, the founder of this wonderful event puts out an invitation to the attendees and teachers to create and bring something to the Gallery to show, share and sell if you want. This year the theme is "Eggs and Nests"...so I couldn't resist. I made 2 nests with wool and yarns and twigs, whatever I could find around the house. One I hooked loosely so that I could "felt" it later with hot water. I am still waiting for it to dry completely! I sort of molded it over a bowl from the kitchen to give it a nice nesty feel.. the other one I am still working on. I tried using my basket making skills to sort of sew it together.
And I had so much fun working on the hooked bird...that I hooked about 7 more! I hope to sell these at Artfiberfest during Vendor night. And the little cat pillow just had to have some whiskers.