Gifts from a friend

My dear friend, Jodie recently moved from Washington to their new home in South Carolina. It's always sad to have friends move far away but we've already been sending mail and gifts across the country. She makes wonderful paper crafts and has been painting too. She has just started getting her blog going and getting her craft room back in order. Here's a few cards and an awesome journal she sent me recently. You should check out her blog Carolina Caffe Girl! Thank you Jod!

Butterick will travel

This old pattern envelope works perfect for mail art. Great, now I'm going to start a pile of old patterns? Eek!

Lovin' these embroidered ladies

More fabric book covers in the works.

French Knots and more practice

Just working away on various embroidery projects...not sure what they'll end up in yet.



added the So In Love and hearts



I learned a lesson from this last picture. This shot is before I started sewing this into my fabric book cover. If you look at my last post I see it ended up being smashed down a bit when ironing. oops. Live and learn.

I am also excited because today I signed up for a class with Serena Barton in Portland! It is "Transferred Secrets: Photo Transfer Techniques. And it's just a few weeks away. She has several  classes that sound wonderful. You can check them out here.

Take Cover

I am working on turning my bits of practice embroidery into fabric books and journals. Here is a cover I finished today.

Romance

I finished one of my dolls this weekend. The head is paperclay painted with acrylics. The body is sewn and stuffed. I decided to give her a black and red color scheme and she sort of ended up fitting into this Valentine's season. I think her expression makes her look like she's waiting for her Valentine to arrive.

My New Love

Why did it take me so long to find embroidery? Now, I am in love.

Having a wonderful time playing with stitches.

Leftover 3'' squares

I have some little squares that didn't actually make it into the Civil War quilt.  I made a lavendar-filled scissor fob with one the other day.

Doodling with paints and threads

In between work and whatnot here is a bit of what I've been doing...

 Playing around with Carla Sonheim's Drawing Lab book. These watercolor doodles are a lot of fun!

 Practicing my embroidery stitches and got a crewel book this weekend. Like I need another book!

I am going to make this Postcrossing embroidery into a postcard to send somewhere in the world.

Alter It Monthly

I am so excited to have Alter It Monthly back this month,  and with a wonderful sponser,  ARTchix Studio! The theme is shrines, nichos, alters, dream boxes                     

( and, in my case, potential fire hazards)

.

 I didn't set out to make a religious shrine. These things just kind of happen. I was playing with my new inchie shrines from Art Chix when I came across this Mary icon from my Grandma and it ended up going in that direction.  I'm really just a fairweather Catholic, often going when I'm on vacation and we see a beautiful church, or we're visiting family. For many years it seemed the only time I attended Mass was when I was visiting my Grandma in Pittsburgh, PA, and she went here to Assumption in Bellevue.

She was married there, my parents were married there, and I...was married near the ocean in Washington by a Presbyterian ( like I said, Fairweather), but this church holds many special memories for me.  I had my First Communion here, although all I remember is my special cake with the pink, plastic rosary on it. There were many Christmas Masses, my Grandparents' 50th anniversary, and several ordinary Sundays when Gram and I went to church.  I can still hear her groaning about the way people dressed too casually for Mass these days and I knew better than to show up in jeans. Actually, I still feel a little guilty when I end up at Mass in denim- I'm pretty sure God doesn't care, but my Grandma does!

With all that said, my shrine became a tribute to this particular church, built in 1931, a special place I am nostalgic for. The photo transferred on fabric is from a book the church had printed for their dedication ceremony, and the stained glass windows I know and love are yet to be.

Materials used: ARTchix inchie shrine, covered in Distress Crackle paint, two dollar frame found on sale at Borders, metal roses and white flower from ArtChix, vintage icon, felt, seed beads, German glass glitter, acrylic paints, crackle, muslin, transfer paper,Creative Paperclay for candle holder, cut-off birthday candle, and I think that covers it.

2011...try more dolls!

Enjoyed my day starting 2 more dolls with paperclay.  At least one is destined to be a marionette...or at least I'm going to try!