Randomness...

It 's always fun to get a nice surprise in the mail. The latest issue of Haute Handbags was waiting for me in the mailbox yesterday. In the Gallery section there was a photo of my felted wool tote that I sent in months ago.

Somehow I managed to finish up a box for the "Outside the Box" show this morning and get it down to the Faulkner Gallery just in time. The silent art auction will benefit "Health Care for All-Education Fund". On October 8 there will be an evening of music, refreshments, and local celebrities at the Cabrillo Pavillion Arts Center, 1118 East Cabrillo Blvd. 7 to 9 pm along with the auction. Music by John Douglas and Friends. Hope to see you there!
That's Mary Chubb holding my box so I could take a quick photo. She had just turned in her box. I remembered taking a collage class with Joan Gunther and Mary 19 years ago!
The Rug Hooking class at the Art Clinic on Friday went really well. Seven lovely women showed up and got right to work hooking their various projects. Loved teaching at the Art Clinic-only 30 minutes from my home and a fun environment with lots of great music and art on the walls.
Somehow I forgot to take any pictures! I hope I get to see some of the completed pieces.

So today after I dropped off my box I went to Anthropologie and bought 2 plates that I've been wanting and then mailed off some Blue fish clothing I sold on Ebay and since we have been having another heat wave here I headed on down to Goleta Beach for a walk and a swim. I found a parking spot right on the end and took this photo of a local painter working on an oil painting of the cliffs and ocean. I took the photo right through my car's front window!
I spent about an hour in the water with my boogie board and caught a few waves. The water is the warmest its been all summer. I may just have to go back in tomorrow after our Hook-in at Maren's.

New Squirrel, hearts, and Henry

Here is the second squirrel I hooked up last week. I got him sewed up and stuffed last night. I am still looking at No. 1 to see if I want to make any changes.
Here are the little heart pins as they look right now. I still need to put felt on the back and sew on a pin back and then they will be done.
Here is how they looked when I cut them apart....I still trimmed them some more before gluing the edges to the back with Sobo fabric glue...see below.
Once I had glued the back sides down I put a heavy book on top to flatten them. It worked!
On my drive down the mountain I just had to stop and take a picture of this funny rock face that someone left on the side of the road.
And here is Henry taking a roll on the driveway....he always comes to see what I am doing outside...usually taking a picture of something I've made or watering the garden. He likes to chase the water as it drops through the bushes and doesn't mind getting sprinkled.

Little hearts

One dozen little hooked hearts that will turn into pins soon.
For this project I used some white burlap that I found in my art room. I drew 12 little hearts with a Sharpie and then started hooking. The burlap is quite stiff and unpleasant to work with but I decided to finish up anyway. Lesson learned, back to the good stuff-either the nice linen burlap from Scotland or my regular burlap for non-rug projects.
I got in my nice low tide beach walk yesterday and even went in the ocean for a quick dip. The water is warm for Santa Barbara right now-65 degrees-so I try and go in whenever I have the chance.

Oh and by the way, I will be teaching a Beginning Rug Hooking Workshop at the Art Clinic in Solvang, CA this coming Friday, Sept. 25-10 to 3pm.
A kit will be provided along with wool and background music.

Art Clinic is located at 1576 Copenhagen Dr.-between Atterdag and Fourth Place.
Solvang, CA
email me if you would like to join us!
zumiow@earthlink.net

Bugs and more bugs...

Just had to share with you the great Kleenex boxes that just showed up at the market! Really fun graphic art of bugs...so I stocked up and bought one of each! Usually the boxes are pretty boring but these are fun and colorful, but will my boys notice?

My art friend, Tara Ross sent me this wonderful book recently because she knew that I would love it...and I DO! Had to share it with you, too. The art is needle felted in fun bright colors that make you smile. The author is Beatrice Alemagna who lives and works in France.


And I liked this illustration that I found in a magazine that I receive called" Teaching Tolerance."
I subscribed when I was teaching children's art classes and it just keeps coming. Not sure if you can read the quote, but it is by Marianne Williamson and the art is by James Yang.
It says:
In every community, there is work to be done.
In every nation, there are wounds to heal.
In every heart, there is the power to do it.

And I did get some rug hooking done last night! I got 7 small hearts hooked that will be made into pins. Hope to get in a beach walk and a quick check in at the thrift store!

Pumpkin family

Here is the whole family of new pumpkins....I worked on the two small ones last night and got them sewed up and stuffed before heading off to sleep.

"Pets in Heaven " Shrine

This shrine isn't finished yet, but I thought I'd show you some of the steps to make something like this if you are so inclined. I seem to like to work on more than one piece at a time so I prepared all the cigar box shrines at the same time. First I painted them with gesso and white acrylic paint...a few coats to cover any printing. Then I used my scroll saw to cut out the top piece to give it more of a "shrine" look. I glued and nailed it to the cigar box and painted it again.
I found some fabric that I painted at least a year ago and thought it would make a nice bright background for the figures that would come next. I used some fabric glue to put the fabric in and let it dry overnight.
The next day I covered the backs with some interesting paper and put hangers on two of them.
I drew up some of my favorite pets that I've loved and are now gone and sewed around them with my sewing machine.
Very simple shapes work best because these then need to be turned inside out, stuffed, and painted with acrylics.
I will add some names to the final shrine and more decorations to the edge, plus I drilled holes at the bottom of the box to hang little charms for each pet.
The show isn't until October so I have a little more time to fiddle with these.

Little Squirrel

Here is the squirrel that I got hooked up last night. Now I will let it "rest" for a bit and see if I need to "fix" anything. That means tearing out a few strips of wool here and there if I don't like how things look. When I hook I don't usually have a plan, just a pile of wool that I think will work on what ever piece I'm working on. Sometimes I get lazy and just make the wool that I have work....and then later I go back and cut up more wool if some particular spot bothers me. I already did a little "fixing" on this piece this morning, but I am anxious to get to work on the next squirrel for Muse.
This is a close up of am embroidered piece I made and put on a felt purse.

Finishing up and starting again...

I finally got the legs and shoes sewn onto these two hooked birds.....and...
the pumpkins got sewn up and stuffed. So I started a new project for my night time rug hooking...
a little squirrel! I may hook an acorn in his paws or thought about adding one of my velvet acorns with the real acorn caps.....we'll have to see what looks best.
I am adding some of my soft felted sweater wool in this piece, to give it a fuzzy grey squirrel look.
Right now the squirrels in our neighborhood are busy collecting pine nuts and acorns for the winter and it's fun to watch them jumping from tree to tree and making their funny squirrel noises.

Linen tote bag

I found this wonderful English linen sample at Art From Scrap and finally made it into a tote bag.

I am very excited to have been accepted into the "Day of the Dead" show at the Guardino Gallery in Portland, Oregon on Alberta St. I have a fiber-mixed media shrine in the works and maybe one or two more. Yesterday I prepared two more cigar boxes that will hold my shrines.
My plan: Shrine #1 will be for my mother (artist, art teacher, cool mom), shrine #2 will be for Lost pets, and shrine #3 (if I get this far) Lost loves- of course this one will have a nice fabric heart in it-at least that's the plan today.

Sampler update...

I got a little more work done on the Sampler the other night and put a "face" on one of the linen stuffed creatures that I've been having fun with.

Pumpkin No.2

I got Mr. Pumpkin face no.2 hooked up the other night and started working on my sampler again last night. Yesterday Syd taught a fun class on plaster art at the Art Clinic. I made several pieces that will be backgrounds for more work. Still thinking about what to do with them. A fun class-always great to learn a new technique and be with the Art girls.
Off to take my son to school-it's late start day so I will get in my beach walk and a peek at the thrift store.

Pumpkin faces...

It's September already so it's not too early to be working on pumpkins for an upcoming order.
Finished hooking the first one last night and got a start on no.2 before getting sleepy.....

We spent the day on Lake Cachuma yesterday in our little boat. The boys caught fish (and released them) and we saw deer, coyotes, and beautiful red tailed hawks. I finished the book I was reading and enjoyed the quiet and being with my boys...we all got a little sunburned, ate the chocolate chip cookies I made for the day and spent the rest of the afternoon at home relaxing and cooking dinner. A nice Labor day weekend.

Beach rocks!

Two sides of a fun beach rock I found on my walk yesterday.
It's still very hot here so I got in a swim, too. It's the best way to cool down and always brings out my happy ten year old self!

Today is our 21st anniversary...planning on a dinner date (with the boys, too) at Opal in downtown Santa Barbara...they have a great menu....and delicious food!

Bead show is here for the weekend...might just have to go take a look, not that I need any more beads...but there just might be something "new".....!

Monday night rug hooking

I'm getting close to finishing, but still a ways to go...

We had our monthly rug hooking meeting this week and thought I'd share photos of what everyone is working on.

Katie's "Bite me!" rug is looking good. We all loved the swirlie background. And so did Anne's dog Henry! He had to check out every thing we were working on...a real character!
Maren brought some of her quilt squares that she's been working on....tropical colors for Hawaii.
And we got to see her completed quilt....so soft and lovely with the vintage looking fabrics.
Plus she completed her House pillow....the colors go great with the quilt.
Pepa is working away on her "Three Little Pigs" rug for her grandbaby no.2. We all loved how she did the sky and clouds....
Jean shared her "Space Bug" pillow that she made for her grandson.
Penny brought two of her latest pieces in her gallery series. She is definitely having fun with color!

We all loved Anne's tissue box cover that she hooked! She made up the pattern herself.
This is Chloe, one of Anne's amazing little doggies. She sat on my lap for part of the meeting.
Anne's dogs like to watch Animal Planet and Teletubbies and kept us all entertained.
Ohh, Anne made us the most delicious carrot cake....along with iced tea, cold juice and chocolate crisps.....we were very happy hookers!