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.