Heartfelt

Here's my latest hooked creation. I used some felted wool knit for the blue background instead of regular wool fabric and it seemed to work fine.

 Been having trouble with Blogger for the last few days. I tried posting  this at least 3 times and "nothing!" At least it seems to be working now. It could be our internet service which isn't the greatest....who knows?

Doing some major clean up and getting rid of stuff that I no longer need or use. Feels good, but still a long ways to go. Enjoying the summer weather and have gone boogie boarding in the ocean three or four times so far.  Starting to pick tomatoes and lettuce from our garden and am watching a red headed woodpecker out my office window as I type! Hope you are enjoying your summer days...!

summertime

It's Summertime and I am loving being able to sleep in! Since I am such a night owl and love to stay up late stitching and reading it's great to sleep as long as I can. When school time rolls around I will be up at 6am and that is too early for me! I have another month of freedom to savor. I made the little linen bird just for fun and may do a bit more stitching, we will see.

I got all the pieces stitched down before our meeting on Tuesday. Colleen showed us some fun new stitches to play with. I used the "fly " stitch on two of the leaves and practiced the "bullion" stitch on a piece of scrap wool. Fun to have a few new stitches to work with. Maren shared her beautiful stash of hand dyed wool with us and had lots of great nibbles and ice cold lemonade. We got to meet several women from the local Quilters Guild, many of whom are planning their next trip to the Sisters Quilt gathering next year. And this weekend is the Long Beach Quilt Show and Sale. Pondering if I should try and go....

I funny little owl I painted the other night...found the frame in the free box at our mail boxes and decided to play with it. 

A little corner of my house with odd and ends, some I've made and others I've collected.

And here is Henry trying to take a nap on my messy work table. A dear friend just gave me the wooden bird stamp and I can't wait to use it on some fabric.

And now I'm off to the Art Clinic to work on some fun wearable art pieces that we started last week!

Working with wool...

Spent a fun day at the Art Clinic yesterday making recycled fabric clothing. Colleen was working on a wool leaf project for a demo next Tuesday that I hope to go to and inspired me to get out my box of wool and get some leaves ready to stitch down. Above is what I came up with. We plan to do some Sue Spargo inspired applique and stitching with a new group called the "Spargoettes". Hope to learn some new embroidery stitches and techniques. I tend to use the ones I've learned long ago over and over and it's fun to try something new. I now need to get these stitched down before Tuesday.

Coastal fog...

After some nice beach days we now have coastal fog cooling off the mornings. I am enjoying the cool weather as it puts me in the mood to work with wool again. I got back into rug hooking and made a bird and rabbit this week.

Here they are together sitting in our jasmine and honeysuckle vines with the fog in the background. I still have quite a few other projects going on. Today I plan to paint the fabric owls that I started months ago, make some bird legs, and work on the little dolls that I didn't get finished for the July show.

Birthday doll...

I am still unpacking from the July 4th show and getting back into the swing of things. Off to a birthday lunch in Solvang for Sukey. Made her this doll out of some Peruvian handwoven fabric. She makes the best Frieda dolls and is always painting or drawing or stitching. And I have some dear friends coming to stay for a few days. I turned my art studio into a guest room- well half of it anyway!  So hopefully I will get back to my art soon, although it is nice to have a little break. 

The 4th of July show got a nice write up in the local SB News Press and I even had my picture in the paper!

Whoo hoo! Hard to see but that is me at the bottom of the page.

Getting ready for the 4th of July

Got a bunch of wild foxes ready....

and some striped kitties....4 cats out of one small sweater, not bad!

Linen rabbits....

a small cashmere kitty...

a tiny linen owl...

 some kimono silk flower brooches...

and some little felt owl pins...just some of the things for the 4th of July art show . Off to set up tables for tomorrow. Hope you have an enjoyable weekend! Back soon!