old quilt!

I love the fabrics in this old quilt that I found at the local thrift store. I just washed it and have it outside drying in the sun and thought I'd show you some of the odd fabric designs. I also love that the back side is PINK! I have it on my bed in the winter in case I need 2 quilts up here in the mountains.
And below ...the doll bodies that I am currently working on...

Yay! Justin!

Hope you don't mind a tiny bit of motherly bragging...but...Justin, 14, got honored yesterday for being one of the top 10 artists in his class and also for perfect attendance! He graduates from Jr. High on Thursday morning and my other son, Jason graduates from High School later the same day. Proud of my boys! Justin is the fourth from the left...
And here he is the third from the left...they posed for a photo op...

playing with felt...

This is the felt vessel that I made and didn't want to show you....so last night I needle felted it and it looks better. I think I may still do some more embellishing...either stitching or more needle felting. It won't fit into my new Embellisher...I was thinking of trying the machine out on it..but I think it works best on a flat surface. I did use it on the following piece. First I needle felted the Chumash Indian designs from a cave that is in walking distance from our house...and then I put it under the Embellisher to see what would happen. It really felted it...but I lost a little of the detail of the designs. So now I think I may want to do a little hand embroidery to bring back the detail of the cave paintings. This is for Tricia's fiber exchange (4 "x 6 ") that I found online. The theme is ancient symbols so I went with something close to home. I have always been fascinated by symbols...ancient and otherwise...so this was a fun challenge. We have until the end of June...so I have a little time to make it a bit more interesting.

And here is our first artichoke! We have a container garden on our deck filled with various vegetables and a few sunflowers. It's always fun when things begin to show up...like this little artichoke and the green tomatoes and baby lettuce.

Felt vessel

Two sides of the funny little felted vessel that I made a week ago...now with a little needle felting and stitching with some cool Japanese thread from Habu Textiles.

Cambria Rug Camp Show

My friend, Maren and I drove up to Cambria to see the Rug Show where 4 of our friends were taking classes all this week. A wide variety of rugs were in the show which filled up a large room at the Cambria Pines Lodge. Both teachers and students had their rugs on display. These are just a few..... Enjoy!

Cats!

This little cat has been waiting for a face for awhile...

And these are our 2 new kitties....very playful and fun to watch. Look at that sweet face! Tiger is not too happy to share his territory but I am hoping he will warm up to having some playmates...

Felt experiment...

I decided to try to make some felt vessels and these odd little creations showed up! I'm sure that if I had tried to make something with two openings and a handle it wouldn't have looked like the one on top!....but I sort of like it anyway...and I think it will be fun to do some stitching on. The smaller one is about the size of a tennis ball and it also needs some embellishing. I also made a third one that is too weird to show...I may have to dye the whole thing to make it presentable...
I can see that once I get the right kind of wool for this type of felting that I will make a bunch more. For the shape I used a balloon and layered wool roving around it and then covered it with the cut off top of a panty hose. Then felted with olive oil soap and water and lots of rubbing and rinsing and put out in the sun to dry. For the small one I felted around a squishy ball of my son's and then had to cut an opening to get the ball out. I still have a ways to go before they look anything like the one that Barbara made!

Il Madonari

These are a few of the wonderful chalk paintings that were done over the Memorial Day weekend in front of the Santa Barbara Mission.

Fiber ATC's

This little group of fiber ATC's got sent off to Kansas yesterday....I made them in a bit of a hurry....used an old vintage table cloth for the background, a felt bird and silk grass and added a little flower for color....we will eventually get 10 new ATC's in the mail...all with birds...can't wait!

Embroidery and felt

Finished the little Tiny Village embroidery...
Barbara Carr made this beautiful felt vessel at a workshop on Whidbey Island in Wa. recently..and the wonderful yellow felt purse below. Barbara will be helping me teach Nuno felt scarves next fall at ArtFiberFest in Oct. 2008.

More Hook-in photos...

This is part of Penny McCall's fabric house assemblage for Art From Scrap....isn't it wonderful!
Here is our group circle rug for Jane..so far...a few people still need to do their circles and then we do the center and background.
Lovely Maren working on a new pillow...
Katie's lion rug....
Close up of the back of Penny's rug so you can see one of the ways to finish the back. She binds the edge with wool...matching the colors of the edge of the rug and then sews the twill tape to cover the rough edge...
Another of Penny's rugs back side....so nice!
Here's a close up showing the shiny ring on the hand....
Here's the front with the unfinished edge showing....
Close up of Penny's flowers....

REal flowers at Carol's...I love these Matilija Poppies....and the bees were loving them too!