What's New?

I started taking a class on how to create Fabric Collage at LillStreet Art Center several weeks ago. It was a short five week session that ended just this past week. The new session starts this coming up week. It was an excellent class and I highly recommend it if you live in the Chicago area. More information can be found here http://www.lillstreet.com/class-detail/5774 .

Below is a picture of how far I have gotten. The next step is to embroider on it. I haven't decided whether I want to try machine embroidery on it or not. The class gives you a brief introduction to freehand machine embroidery but I think I need more practice before I actually use it on this piece.

The piece is a bit abstract, it is based on a drawing I did of the cracked and plastered sections of my bedroom ceiling (goes to show you, you can find inspiration in anything...lol). I used sheer silk over cotton in some places to illustrate where plastered portions had been replastered a couple times (plastered ceilings can be very interesting in the layers that can build up in touched up spots).

I also managed to get out and get some spring photos during the Easter weekend.




All in all it was a nice weekend. There was an Easter Egg Hunt at my husband's Aunt's house for my niece a and nephew on Saturday (my Husband and Mother-in-law were the bunny's hiding the eggs while I mostly took pictures). And, a Sunday brunch with the cousin's at my Aunt's house. The weather here in Chicago is finally getting spring like after a "mostly" cool start (there was one day a while back that we hit almost 80 degrees and then it promptly dropped back down into the 40's). We have actually been in the 50's and 60's since Easter weekend (and the trend is supposed to continue according to the weatherman). The downside is we have had a lot of rain (all kinds of flooding in the southern part of our state). Which of course it not as bad as the killer tornadoes that hit the southern part of our country. I feel so bad for those who lost their homes and/or loved ones. My thoughts and prayers are with them.

Wordless Wednesday...well, mostly wordless.

I figure this is my last chance to put up a winter picture as it looks like spring is going to fully hit us this weekend. This [above] was actually taken just outside of South Haven Michigan just before Valentines Day.

And, below is a picture of me doing a snow angel in the street the day after the Chicago Blizzard of 2011 [just a couple of weeks before Valentines Day] taken by my wonderful husband [and published with his permission :)]


I guess I need to go out and catch some pictures of spring this weekend.

More Pink!

I just wanted to put up a quick note that you can see my entry as well all the other artist's entries which were in the Ravenswood Pink Walk on House Beautiful's Flickr page (photos taken by a professional photographer...I had serious digital camera envy when I saw him taking photos...lol). Below is the link to their Flickr page:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/housebeautiful/sets/72157626113654489/
(For reasons unknown to me I can't seem to get blogger to put this in as a link so you will have to cut and paste...sorry!)

Been Awhile!

Yikes! A whole month has gone by since my last post (actually , I think it has been two months....arghhh). Well I haven't just been sitting on my laurels. The project I began in my last post is finished as far as the felting goes (still needs to be embellished some more) although it got interrupted midstream and put aside so that I could do a last minute piece for an artwalk I got into (It was called The Ravenswood Pink Walk and was sponsored by House Beautiful Magazine and The Ravenswood Art Walk Organization). House Beautiful Magazine declared that the color for this year is pink. They did their whole March issue around the theme of pink.

Anyway, first up is the project I started at the last post.

The above picture is the culmination of the lace, vanilla & white & oatmeal merino wool, the natural colored blue face leicester wool, cotton doily, silk roving, and locks you saw in the picture of my last post. It took me quite a while to felt and the lace on the sides did not get as tacked down by the wool as I would have liked. The doily is tacked down nicely though (I wonder if it is because the lace trimming is synthetic...usually that is not a problem if the weave is loose enough...hmmm, I will have to ponder on that). Of course I am planning to do some embroidery on it and maybe even a little beading (not sure about the beading). Anyway, the wall hanging is my representation of the tree of life crossed with the idea of the hearth fire or the furnace of our being.


Next up is the wall hanging I made for the Ravenswood Pink Walk.


As I said the theme was pink and I only had two weeks to pull it together. It was February, the theme was pink, and the only thing that was coming to mind was hearts. Hearts...hearts...and more heart! I know it it cliche but my brain was fixated on it, so I tried to think about what hearts are associated with and just went with it. The title of the piece is "Three of Hearts" and it is made of various shades of pink, purple, and red merino wool and merino prefelt, lace inlay, and some violet merino tencel blend wool. It has some embroidery around the pink hearts (I did not do as much embroidery as I wanted because I ran out of time but I may revisit that now that the walk is over). Lastly it has an old time medical illustration that I silkscreened in each of the hearts. I had a lot of fun with it even though I felt a bit rushed. Below is a picture from the reception for the Pink Walk which was held at Architectural Artifacts (if you look close you can see my piece standing on an easel in the back).


Hopefully things will calm down for a while so I can continue to work on the first piece. I hope all of you who are reading this are safe and well.

Beginning a New Project

Today Chicago is in the deep freeze. With wind chill we are presently at -2 degrees below zero and tonight we may drop down to -15 degrees below zero. There is frost on many of our windows (as you can see above) and the contrails of the airplanes flying overhead earlier today were hanging in the sky for quite a long time before dissipating (as seen below).



I am starting on a new felting project. I plan to make a felt wall hanging in shades of white, vanilla, buff, and light to medium brown wool with lace inlays. I will most likely also embroider it after felting it since I love the look of embroidery on felt. I also plan to use some silk roving, some angora, and some locks. Below is a picture of the supplies I have laid out to be worked with this weekend.


I don't have a clear design plan at the moment. It is kind of a nebulous idea floating around in my mind that I am trying to flesh out tonight. I am doing some sketching and hope to have a clear (or at least mostly clear) idea of what I want design wise by tomorrow afternoon. Well I am off to bed. I hope all of you are staying warm (unless you are in a part of the world where you would prefer to be cool...lol). Goodnight!

Starting the New Year off right

...so, in the vein of starting the year as you wish it to proceed, I have been doing some blogging, some stitching on felt, some sorting of photos, some reading, some facebooking, some exercising (went swimming), some more blogging and facebooking, some rearranging, and finally some more stitching. All in all I think it has been a good start to the New Year. Next I plan to do some sketching.

Happy New Year!

Well it is officially the first day of 2011. I decide to update the picture heading my blog since the flower was a little too early summer. And, although the snow has been washed away by the rain I am sure we will have snow again soon once the cool down comes this weekend (this is Chicago after all). My husband and I were supposed to be at a party tonight but he has been sick with a really nasty cold since the beginning of the week and still isn't better. From what I am hearing this really bad cold has been going around and takes a good ten days to clear...poor hubby! Anyway we toasted in the New Year with a glass of sparkling grape juice with my mom and then he went off to bed. Definitely hope 2011 brings good health to us all. I hope you all are having a safe and happy New Year!

The Eve of the New Year

Hi!
For me, 2010 has been a year of many ups and downs. A memorable 'up' was having my first solo installation of my felt art (the nuno-felted flags that flew from the top of LillStreet Art Center in Chicago IL back in June). A memorable down (which I am still working on recovering from) was a number of health issues that popped up in Mid-September including a couple of trips to the E.R. for what turned out to be panic attacks though that was not officially diagnosed until a couple weeks later (took a while to rule out other things like problems with my heart or adrenal gland). Anxiety/Panic attacks are not something I would wish on anyone. At the time I thought there was something wrong with my lungs or that I was having a heart attack. Another 'up', I was in a number of art/craft shows this past year and scoped out a few more for possible entry next year. I have managed to keep up with my sketchbook/journal more often than not. I have also been experimenting with embroidering on felt quite a bit. Basically the first two quarters of the year were good, the third quarter was rough, and the final quarter has left me thoughtful. All in all it was not a bad year but I am hoping 2011 will be better (particularly health wise). I have a backlog of things I would like to blog about which I want to get to over the next couple weeks. One of my goals for 2011 is to try and blog once a week. For the most part over 2010 I managed to at least do one a month and sometimes more. But once a week is now my goal. Also a number of bloggers I read are choosing a word for the New Year. I have decided my word will be compose. I wish to be composed, calm and self-possessed. I also want to compose more experimental art work. I wish to compose a healthier, more joyful, and more artful life. So, yes, my word for 2011 is 'compose'. I will leave you with a few photos of the weird weather we have been having here over the last few weeks (which has been very up and down...lol).

The night of the first snow storm


After the second snow storm around Christmas


Over the course of today (We have had rain and thunderstorms going on since last night and now all that snow is almost gone...not to mention it was in the mid 50's in temp. both yesterday and today. Although, I understand we will be back to cold temps tomorrow and for the rest of next week)

Craft Fairs

I know this is late but if you happen to be in Chicago my mom and I will be in two craft fairs this weekend. We will be in the Streeterville Artisan Market which is held in the Lurie Research Center downtown at 303 E. Superior (picture of poster above...and yes, that is my orange nuno-felt scarf pictured on it...happy, happy!)(Hours for Saturday the 20th are 10am to 3pm, and for Sunday the 21st 11am to 5pm). The Streeterville Artisan Market ran today, but, sorry to say, I didn't have my act together to blog about it in time (to busy trying to catch up with making stuff since I was sick with various problems for almost two months). The first day went well. If the whole weekend goes this well it will be a successful one.

We will also be at the DIY Trunk Show (well, I will be with both of our stuff while mom's remains at the Streeterville Artisan Market with the rest of our stuff) which is on Saturday November 20th only at the Pulaski Park Field House at 1419 W. Blackhawk in Chicago (hours are from 10am to 5pm)(sorry I have no electronic poster for the DIY but you can check out there website at http://www.diytrunkshow.com/ )

Hopefully I will be able to get on a more regular posting schedule now. I will post pictures sometime next week. Have a great weekend!

Illinois Chapter Meeting for the Surface Design Associaion

Hi!
I just wanted to put a blurb here that the Illinois Chapter of the Surface Design Association will be meeting tomorrow (Saturday) October 30, 2010 here in Chicago at the LillStreet Art Center (which is located at 4401 N. Ravenswood which is the corner of Montrose and Ravenswood) up in the Textile Dept. at 10am. If you are a member or are interested in finding out about the Surface Design Association come out tomorrow to the LillStreet Art Center and check out the meeting. The first part of the meeting will be discussing Surface Design Association business and the second part will be discussing our work and doing some show and tell. If you are in the Chicago area come and check it out.

Today is 101010

Just an odd bit of trivia for today. I thought it interesting that today's date 101010 is binary code for 42 which any reader of Douglas Adams knows is "the answer to life the universe and everything". 42 is also equally divisible by the days of the week. I also decided to blog this piece of trivia since it is also my age. Sorry, just had to get my geek on...LOL!

Bad Health

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I have been having some health issues and haven't had the energy for much. I have been through a battery of tests and I'm just waiting to see what the doctors think is wrong. It is scary when you lose your health. For the last couple weeks I have kind of withdrawn into myself and am just trying to take care of me for a little while. I have always been the one others depend on and I have been trying to fight the guilt for letting those others down. I need to take care of myself. There should be no guilt in that. There is a lesson here somewhere. Hopefully it won't be a hard one to learn. I actually have many things I want to post about, but I will leave those to another day. In the meantime here are some pictures for inspiration.