funky flower

here's a funky flower made from wool scraps .....

Global Art for Peace Project

I will be volunteering at Art From Scrap this weekend to get the Global Art for Peace project started. Haven't quite worked out the design yet, but should be lots of fun to get the kids and parents involved in a collaborative piece that we will send off to another country. In April groups and individuals all over the world exchange their art pieces through the mail with their "art partner" and it is yours to display and keep.
Photos of past Global art pieces that we've made in the schools. The first photo is from 4 years ago when my son was in 4th grade...we rug hooked this fun PEACE rug and sent it off to Canada.
The others are from 2 years ago...we made wall collages, fiber art...woven pieces....a book with individual pages with quotes and collage....more fiber art....usually I come up with a basic design or background and the kids take off from there.They always amaze me with their talent and enthusiasm.

Hike to the Falls

We had a lot of rain over the weekend so it looked like a good time to check out Nojoqui Falls. Only about a half hours drive through green rolling hills and oak and sycamore forests, I got Dennis and Justin to go for a hike in the light rain. We all agreed that it was the most water we had ever seen coming over the falls.
Made it back home in time to see the Academy Awards!

Show at Art From Scrap: three

Tonight is the opening reception for the show called "three", an exhibition of collaborations.
Penny McCall invited Colleen Darling and me to join her in collaborating on 3 small canvases with the theme "bird"...we each started a canvas and then passed them on to the next person and then all three of us worked on the finished pieces. Will be fun to see what the other groups of three came up with. Syd, Carol and Mary Price also will be in the show. Join us if you are in the area!
Sat. 6-8pm at ARt From Scrap Gallery...302 East Cota, Santa Barbara

And Dale..send me you address so we can exchange ATC's ..I saved one for you!

two inch squares...

These two 2" squares are being sent off to Monica at http://girl-gone-thread-wild.blogspot.com/
for a special project to help raise funds for Susan G. Komen breast cancer organization. The little squares will be sewn onto a stuffed doll and auctioned off later. My sister-in-law is dealing with this type of cancer and I have good friends who have dealt with this as well. Thought this was a small but "do-able" way to show support. Squares due: March 1...still time to make a little square and send it off!

Dolls and Nuno felt

found these 2 dolls at our local thrift store....the ladies were just putting out about 10 of someone's doll collection and these 2 spoke to me. The carved one is from Portugal and I love the little beaded vest on the other one.
and a couple of Nuno felt samples from out Sat. workshop....still experimenting with this process...the colors are a bit odd...but I had to try felting "shapes" into the surface.

more from Creative Females

Penny made this eye catching wall piece
Barbara made this wall piece from her Japanese fabric collection
Maren made this and 2 more...strip piece quilting...Kaffe Fassett fabrics! Yum!

Thought I'd post a few more photos of the cool stuff the girls are making...and Carol's grand daughter, Lea wrote a great article for the Coastal View News about our rug hooking group. They put a nice color photo of our group with our self portraits and also of a rug we made and donated to the Carpinteria Valley Arts Council to be auctioned off in support of a new arts center.

Creative Females hook-in

Fran's colorful "hit or miss" circles rug...
Carol's '"Liberty" rug..almost finished..
Maren's lovely hooked rug with a braided trim border.
Annie's replica of an antique Shaker rug she will give to the Shaker community when completed.
This is Jean's house pillow called "Home is where the art is".

Today we had a great time at Maren's lovely home hooking and talking and planning our next projects. Maren made us a delicious almond raspberry coffee cake, cookies and fresh lemonade.
I am going to give it a "go" as the new secretary and hope to set up a Yahoo group for us so we can keep track of meetings, field trips and share our photos. Posted photos of some of the works in progress today. I spent most of my times taking notes and then finishing up a small hooked owl.
Yesterday Barbara and I taught a felting class at the Art Clinic. Everyone made colorful and unique nuno felted scarves and cool beads and flowers. I was so busy felting and teaching that I forgot to take pictures, but Syd had her camera out...so she will probably post them on her blog.

Little things....

make me happy....like my new socks that I bought on Valentine's Day. And finishing up this little fabric ATC for February...and this funny quote that I found...

A Happy Valentines Day to You All!

ATC DAY

Today we have our monthly ATC meeting at the Good Cup Cafe.I was up until past midnight working on these ATC's. I first stamped the hand carved eraser stamp with black acrylic paint on the red background and them doodled and colored it with oil pastels. This morning I stitched it to a cardboard backing...actually easier for me than gluing. I am sure there will be lots of Valentine themed cards to trade. We also made a special card for Syd's daughter, Jill who is expecting her first child, a girl. These will be put into a special ATC book for her.
And Attention: Sari Mills...please contact me about the blog giveaway...if I don't hear from you by Feb. 14 I will do a new drawing for the Black Cat.

Nuno felt day...

felting over a beaded fabric
felting over a beaded and embroidered fabric
felting over a velvet flower print
felting over some little silk flowers
felting over the embroidered and beaded pink fabric (once a purse from the thrift store)

got in a little Nuno felting yesterday. Still might do some needle felting and stitching on top...can't wait to do more experimenting with this fun technique.

Basket of Hearts

I can't seem to stop making these fun little stuffed hearts! I took some heart pins, cats and the stuffed hearts down to Imagine today to see if they needed more. They only had one heart pin left so I dropped off 10 more plus the other things I brought down.
We have our Valentine ATC meeting coming up on Wed. and Barbara and I will be teaching felting next Sat. at the ART Clinic in Solvang and I want to make a few more samples.

Artists' Books Made Here

Yesterday I was over in Solvang at the ARt Clinic working with Penny and Colleen on our collaborative pieces for an Art From Scrap show coming up soon. Before leaving Penny and I hopped over to the Elverhoj Museum of History and Art to see a cool Book Arts show. Lots of very different pieces from local artists..."expressive content in non-conventional forms"...if you are in the area ---go see it! And the large post card is designed to be cut and folded into a little book--how cool is that?
Elverhoj Museum
1624 elverhoy Way
Solvang, CA 93463
They are having a workshop called "Never Judge a Book by its Cover" on Sat. March 1, 9:30 to noon.

A walk on the beach...

view from Goleta pier....I always walk out and back and then up the beach..
Easter Island type stone carving outside the restaurant...(for Mimi K.)
here's another guy...
kinetic sculpture near the kid's playground...it also makes ding-dong sounds as the wind blows..Studying Santa Barbara style...UCSB student lying on picnic table reading...(click photo to see)

After dropping off the boys to school I try and get in my beach walk before starting the days errands. Today the ocean was sparkling and people were out sunbathing....a nice way to start the day. Photos of the sights at Goleta Beach this morning....

I love Fabric!!!

2 different bird prints from Japan
Oohh lala! Kaffee's lucious prints....
love the colors of this felted wool...and dusty pink chenille...
what fun! bunnies, chickens and spirals....
Great texture on this tie dyed Japanese fabric and the over dyed one in the background...

Here are some of the delicious fabric fat quarters (and more) that I received for my birthday.
Having so much fun just looking at them and trying to imagine what I will do with them...makes me want to start a quilt! I went and bought a Kaffee Fassett book with wonderful designs and I think one of the quilts has inspired a new hooked rug design....I haven't made a rug in awhile, so I think it will be fun to have a new hooking project. Thanks all, for the Birthday wishes!

Giveaway Winners!

The Blog giveaway winners are:

Hooked heart: oddbird studios

Black cat: sari mills

Heart pin: tamboinmo

If you will please send me your addresses ( to my email at: zumiow@earthlink.net) I will send out your goodies this week.
Thanks to all who wrote in. I enjoyed your comments so much...this was fun for me....I think I'll do it again in about 6 months on my Blog anniversary.

Tokens of Affection

Made these little stuffed quilty hearts for one of the party favors....