Goodnight

Fall ATC's

I'm doing a swap with the FAT ladies " The signs of fall".  Here are my 4 ATC's I made to trade.  Black felt, free motion stitching, red and gold satin with Chinese print, tulle, coppery metallic thread and copper.

WCA of GA "The Ragdoll Project"

The Woman's Caucus for Art of Georgia is taking on a project to protest the human trafficking and child sex slave business.  I have been asked to participate.  I spoke to the woman who is spearheading this project and was told we will be making rag dolls without faces to represent the children.
The project is a offspring of what Philadelphia did last year
http://phila-wca.blogspot.com/2011/08/call-for-art-rag-dolls.html

It will be held here at the 2 Rules Fine Art Gallery located at Marietta Square in Marietta Georgia.
http://www.2rulesfineart.com/

Native American Earthenware 1200-1400

Measures 8 1/2" L x 42" circumference

Early Caddoan decoration on a prehistoric Southeastern pottery of the Crocket Curviliear design.   Red pigment (hematite) was rubbed into the etchings.  

The Caddo Nation is a confederacy of several Southeastern Native American tribes, who traditionally inhabited much of what is now East Texas, Northern Louisiana and portions of Southern Arkansas and Oklahoma.

I tried to depict the piece of ancient pottery with white thread stitching on black felt, the thread being the etchings that would be done on the clay.

This piece in the Fiber Art Fusion show

Uguisu

Measures 25 1/2" L x 17" W

This wallhanging was inspired from my deck of Korean playing cards they measure 2 1/8" x 1 3/8", I fondly remember playing this with my mother as a young adult.  In Korea the flower card game is called "Hwatu" ( 화투 ) which translates as "battle of flowers" another name for the game is "Go Stop".

The bird depicted in this wall hanging is a Japanese Bush warbler (Uguisu) English name Japanese Nightingale, which sits on the branch of a plum tree amongst the beautiful blossoms (Prunus mume), commonly known as ume or Japanese apricot. The tree originated in China and later was brought to Korea, Vietnam and Japan. The blooms have colouring ranging from white to rose to deep red.

The Nightingale is famous for it's beautiful song and is much depicted in Japanese poetry.

The plum blossom, which is known as the meihua (梅花), is one of the most beloved flowers in China and has been much used in Chinese art and poetry for centuries. The plum blossom is a symbol of winter and a harbinger of spring. The blossoms are so beloved because they are viewed as blooming most vibrantly admist the winter snow, exuding an ethereal elegance,while their fragrance perfumes the air at even the coldest times of the year. The plum blossom came to symbolize perseverance and hope,also beauty, purity, and the transistoriness of life. In Confucianism, the plum blossom stands for the principles and values of virtue.

Midnight Chaos of Stormy Dreams

in the show

Artifacts

Fiber Art Fusion and Mountain view presents:

Finished

What should I do with it?

New Year, New Art

Last night my Fiber Art Fusion group had a meeting and workshop. The workshop was using stitches to fill in the blank so to speak. One thing we worked on was a Elegant Feather that we made using the technique Jude Hill of Spirit Cloth shows us on her blog

http://spiritcloth.typepad.com/spirit_cloth/the-magic-feather-project.html

I was greatly inspired to work and finish my little project I had started the night before. I had in my mind to use my previous work to incorporate stitches on it. I used my computer and printer to make a little piece from an iron-on sheet that I ironed onto Kona white cotton fabric. Truth: the iron-on made the work greenish but I am doing stitches on it so it surely doesnt matter, I find I like the pre-treated cotton printable sheets in the package when I print something out that I will be working on. The colors stay true to the original.

In the first picture on the top left hand side is the iron on ironed onto the cotton, next to it on the right side is the original and the bottom piece is what I have worked on.

I started with the feather, filled in the circles with the blue and pink pearle cotton running stitches then did the green dmc floss back stitches. The piece did not look remarkable and was very dull looking. So I filled in the muted black and made it darker with 4 strands of black sewing thread as I can not find my embroidery floss anywhere right now, it works very well. Now i am finishing up with gold metallic thread and I really like this piece the more I work on it. Don't know what to do with it, maybe just make it into a small piece of art, incorporate it inot a larger piece of art or a needle case? What do you think?

Embroidery Scissor case

http://www.etsy.com/listing/80532890/scissor-case-accessories

I finished the new scissor case with it's matching fob. Black moire fabric, red silk ribbon roses hand embroidered, gold metallic thread hand stitched and beaded. White gimp hand sewn down over the edge.

New Project

Here is a sneak peek on what I am working on.

Victorian style Crazy Quilt Scissor case

I had a custom order for a crazy quilted scissor case with a matching fob. I crazy quilted it using fancy fabrics and did some hand embroidery and silk ribbon embroidery. Measures 4 1/2 inches x 3 inches.

Pacific Ocean

What a lovely view, water crashing on the rocks and beach is a beautiful sight.

California Coastline 2011

We followed 1 for a while and got dizzy from the roller coaster ride and finally got on 101.

Oh but what a ride it was! This spot has the blackest sand I have ever seen.

April

Peacfull Contemplations

Madonna of the Magnificat

Painted by Sandro Botticelli in 1481

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/index.html?curid=11552390

This 8" x 10" sits next to my computer tower. Every time I look upon it I am filled with peace and I think on how well my life is playing out for me.

I made this collage some years ago and thought others could find their inner peace if they also gazed on the perfect peacefull visage of utter innocence.

Coneflowers

For some reason I thought these were cornflowers? Very pretty with raised centers, the bees and bugs love this flower. Has Perennial Salvia violet blue. Very hardy, we went on vacation and we thought it was dead but I separated the 3 plants around the Coneflower and they came back to life. You cant see the Salvia very well, I took pictures too late they have already bloomed and spent but they comw back regularly with new blooms.

We planted these in a old antique cow bucket, whatever that means (?), over a place where a huge old oak tree has been cut down and the area where the roots were, are sinking in. The tree was cut because my husband was afraid of it falling on the house. As the droughts and heavy thunderstorms are proving him right with lots of trees falling on peoples houses here in Georgia.

Yesterday's post.....

I posted yesterday about my Hibiscus tree and the seedlings I received this year. My mother is 71 years old and she helped me plant the seedlings in my yard. We did the mother and daughter thing sharing and bonding and spent some time together with a common goal with a task to be done. Mind you these are 6"-8" wooden sticks we planted but they was well on their way becoming leafy in April.

Here is what the seedlings look like now after the incident in May. My husband put stakes down this time. I asked him to do this before we left on our vacation, as I reminded him our neighbors cut our grass for us while we are gone. Our daughter moved back home and can do this chore was his answer. One of or neighbor still felt the need to cut the lawn and proceeded to cut all the saplings down with the grass.

I'm glad to say they are alive and well, except for the 1 that perished. It was doing well just last week, but I found a wooden stump in its place the other day and wonder why it did so.

Hibiscus: Rose of Sharon

About 5 years ago my mother brought me these twiggy little seedlings she dug from her garden. She didn't know the name of the flowering bush just they are purple and some are white. Therefore I didn't know the name of this bush/tree until I asked my neighbor who told me they are called the Rose of Sharon. I had an a suspicion they was hibiscus but wasn't sure myself they truly are. I did research on the internet and had found out these are indeed Hibiscus and the Rose of Sharon. The internet is a wonderous place and a unending book of information if you know how to present the wording correctly. So those long years ago only one plant lived through my brown thumb and is a majestic flowering bush/tree with beautiful blooms.

This year in January for her birthday mother came to visit me and I took her out with my daughter to eat at the Chinese buffet, as this is a tradition we have started long ago in the 1980's. I also received a bunch more of the Hibiscus twigs and this time I am determined to keep them all alive. I believe there are about 19 or 20 of them we had planted.

In April my husband and I went on vacation and while we was gone our neighbor cut all the little seedlings down, but after babying with watering and plant food they all came back to life with tiny growths of leaves and they are thriving now except 1 that did not make it.

Fuchsia

I made this 8"x10" collage for the American Cancer Society as a donation and now think I want to make a larger piece of it. I have ideas and have already drafted in my mind what it will look like and what type of materials I will use. The black on this piece is real leather and is raised up and I think I will use something a little flatter.

Here is a link to read up on the fundraiser we was doing.

http://debbiesreflectionsofmyself.blogspot.com/2008/05/american-cancer-society-fundraiser.html