Foxes, elephants, and cupcakes...

Three of the last six foxes that were delivered this week to a local shop.

And two cashmere elephants that joined them.

Tops of a few of the wooly cupcake pincushions that I made for a friend.

Had fun working in the garden this week. Got some new things planted to enjoy with our lettuce greens that are ready now. Sunflowers planted by my studio...and the honeysuckle is blooming.

Back across the Bay....

Had to stop into "Castle in the Air" for a visit! Another of my favorite places. I got to chat with Ulla Milbrath, a wonderful artist, teacher and blogger  about Blue fish clothing and other things while Penny checked out the stores goodies. 

Another "must visit" store is Tail of the Yak. Such beautiful displays...I bought a few paper garlands and lanterns for my studio and Penny found some fun things too.

Back on Fourth St. we stopped in at Crate and Barrel. We don't have one where we live so it's always fun to see what's new in the design world. Penny found some nice black and white plates and I just took some photos of things for inspiration.

A fun pillow full of embroidered circles..

more pillows.

and can't miss on a breakfast at Bette's Diner!

The Ethnic Arts store is an amazing place full of folk art from all over the world. Rooms full of hand made sculptures, textiles, furniture, plus jewelry and the nicest women owners. I put in an order for a David Marsh table for our new breakfast nook. My husband converted our old laundry room into a fun nook off our almost remodeled kitchen. The nook has been finished except for the right sized table for months now. So hoping to pick it up when we go back up to Berkeley for Jason's graduation in May.

Justin has taken over the nook for doing homework and eating on the "Costco" table because I can't seem to ever get the dining table uncovered with all the art supplies, sewing machine, paint and felt!

Senior prom this Saturday for Justin, so I will be working at the store and missing Teesha Moore's workshop at the Art Clinic...

I will survive! and stop whining....it's just that Teesha is one of my favorite people. She has encouraged and changed so many artist's lives in so many ways through Artfest and Artfiberfest and sharing her wonderful art and ideas along with Tracy, her husband that when she is this close by it's hard not to want to take her workshop.

Anyway.... a few more photos from Ethnic Arts and then back to regular programming...I did finish 6 foxes, some elephants, and pin cushions to deliver to Imagine. Still addicted to Pinterest, help!!!

Have a great weekend!

San Francisco Adventure

Friday morning Penny and I set off for our SF adventure. We made it to Valencia St. where we knew there were a bunch of fun shops to visit. We put 3 hours worth of quarters in the parking meter and set off.

There are lots more fun places to visit in the city but this trip we only had one day here so a walking we did go.

Treasures & Oddities inspired by the Garden & Natural Sciences.

824 Valenica St.

inside Paxton Gate...

a fun window display...

loved this window full of crocheted doilies...

had to stop in here and get a cookie...

Fun traveling with Penny who spotted things my eyes might have missed. 

Here she is taking a photo of some interesting architecture across the street.

One of my favorite shops, Laku! The lovely Yaeko makes most of the things in her shop using recycled sweaters and other fun things. She even let us take a peek into the inner sanctum in back of the store where she creates her whimsical delights.

1089 Valencia St.

www.lakuyaeko.com

After a visit to the Cut Loose outlet store (where we found  a few things) and a great Indian lunch of dosa and curry we found our way over to SCRAP in the industrial district. We had heard about it but hadn't been able to find it on previous trips. It is quite similar to our "Art From Scrap" but bigger and with different things, of course. We had fun browsing around until it closed at 5pm and came away with some pieces of fabric, what else!

Beautiful quilt hanging on the wall at SCRAP.

loved this sign!

At the checkout area this fun yarn ball hanging greets you.

 Our checkout lady was the creator of it and we told her how wonderful it was....big smiles!

Back across the bridge at rush hour...but we made it to our hotel for a little rest before settling in for the evening.

More to come...

Adventures in Stitching

We had a wonderful time at our workshop at the Teahouse with Rebecca Ringquist.

First she had us do lots of contour drawing with right and left hands. Then we did timed embroidery pieces of the drawings. It was a fun way to loosen us up and try different ways to draw and stitch.

These are a few of my attempts at quick stitching.

This is part of a larger piece I worked on the second day. It already had some heirloom embroidery on it for me to play with....

another part of the same piece. I machine stitched the flowers and then stitched around them by hand.

Penny and I stitched late at night in our hotel until midnight we were having so much fun.

We really enjoyed the great atmosphere at the Teahouse. Maty Rose painted while we stitched and she catered the best lunches for us. One of the chefs had worked for Alice Waters...so you know it was fresh, local and healthy and delicious! We had good weather for the weekend so we ate our lunch outside with a view of the Berkeley hills.

Here are a few of Rebecca's incredible work. This first one is a sampler that she sells as well as several others fun ones.

This one she was working on in class. Lots of layers....

Our class photos at the end of the day on Sunday. We had a really great group of artists and had fun helping each other with ideas and sharing fabric and inspiration.

I had to get a photo with Rebecca! She is a sweetheart and great teacher. 

Highly recommend taking a class with her if you get the chance!

One last photo of Rebecca showing us  some machine embroidery tips.

Hopefully tomorrow I will post some more photos of our trip. We had a fun shopping day in San Francisco before our class. And some more fun time in Berkeley on Monday.

Hope your weekend is creatively wonderful.

Off on a Stitching Adventure....

My art buddy, Penny, and I are off to the San Francisco Bay area for an exciting 2 day workshop at the Teahouse Studio in Berkeley. We are taking "Layers of lines, Layers of Meaning: Thick Embroidery with Rebecca Ringquist. We are taking some old embroidered fabrics and our sewing machines, a list of fun places to visit, and some cookies for my son Jason who will join us for dinner on Thursday.

Check out Rebecca's cool website for a look at her wonderful stitching.

So while thinking of embroidering I thought I'd post some photos of things "embroidered" from the past.

The top piece is a sampler that I just keep working on...not sure what I will do with it when done...

This piece is from a fiber ATC project that I joined online years ago. Each month we made an ATC and posted for the others to see. I finally got them stitched onto a piece of linen.

I cut off the top a bit in this photo...oops.

These next pieces are samples for a fiber arts class that I wanted to teach for Artfiberfest (but didn't).

I still need to fill in the fabric pages with lots of stitching and illustration.

Just a funny embroidered bird tea party I never really finished...maybe I will now.

A close up of an angel I stitched many years ago. I ended up sewing it to the front of a handbag and sent it in to a magazine...can't remember which one!

Another funny little piece. Just some stitching around and on a piece of bright bird fabric.

Love stitching with these hand dyed felts I found on Etsy...

I use these on fiber jewelry and other pieces of fiber art.

Hope you have a creative and stitchy week full of fiber fun!

Hope to have some workshop photos when I return sometime next week.