Enjoying the last week of summer.

The girls and I visited the Ohio Outdoor Quilt Festival last weekend. What a beautiful experience! The event is held every year at Bonnie Brae Farms in Wellington, Ohio. They are a registered Elk farm. Hundreds of quilts are displayed outdoors on the sides of the farm's outbuildings. I will have more pictures to post on Friday. In the mean time, I thought I would give you a sneak peek at some of the frames I am making for my friend...

Lots of layering, painting, inking and stamping...

And even a little bit of water color pencil...

Lots of texturing, and stenciling...

And even some homemade paper hearts! I hope everyone enjoys this last week of summer:) At least it's the last week of summer here in northeast Ohio - most of the schools in this area start next week. Enjoy.

Catching Up on Some Embroidery...

One thing that I consistently hear again and again when it comes to creating every day is to break projects down into smaller projects. That is what I did over the Fourth of July weekend. We had a busy weekend of activities, so I made a conscious effort to make sure I squeezed in some creative time. I gathered up several "in progress" small embroidery projects and worked on them throughout the weekend...

This dragonfly is stitched on a Shout Color Catcher. For those of you unfamiliar with these, they look a lot like dryer sheets but you put them in the washing machine and they absorb any color from clothes like red shirts or new jeans. This one came out a great worn denim color - I had washed a load of blacks and jeans. Color Catchers also take food coloring beautifully. I finished this while sitting around the campsite last Saturday night.

Summer Time and Fairies...

There is just something about little girls, summer time, and fairies...

A couple of weeks ago the girls and I went to Days of Yore Herb and Flower Farm in Wellington for their annual Fairy Festival...

There were lots of little Fairy homes to see, things to make, and stories to hear. There were also lots of flowers and herbs to smell, touch, and even taste. We also got to make our own Fairy Garden and enjoyed a tea party too...

The best part though was seeing my own Summer time Fairies looking like they were mysteriously up to something! Happy and Blessed Fourth of July!

A Day Out Junking Around...

Sometimes there is nothing that feeds the creative soul more than a day out looking for (to quote Tinker Bell) "lost things" and treasures...

My sister, Gretchen, and I went out early Saturday morning to do some "junking". We went to breakfast first at a well known truck stop in Monroeville called Vanson's. (Great breakfast!) Then we headed down Route 20 to the western end of Clyde where we found a rather large "Antique Mall". This place is wonderful -full of a little bit of everything. I found a bag of old collector's spoons for $6.00, not sure what I'm going to do with them yet, but I will think of something...

I also found some old childrens books that I could not pass up. They are so brightly colored and such a joy to look at. They would be wonderful to use for collage projects, although Iwill have to work my way up to it. I was always raised to really respect books and the printed word; as much as I love using old book pages and things like that in my creations I always start off feeling guilty - like I'm disrespecting the book. Even though I know I am re-creating something wonderful with it so that it can live on in another way and offer even more joy to those that see it...
Finally, I found this wonderful green/teal/sparkly fabric to be used as the backing fabric to my bookmark. It contrasts nicely with the purple/eggplant kind of color the papercloth turned out to look like. That's the beauty of papercloth - I might be trying for one type of look, and get something totally different -but all good! When I made this papercloth I was actually trying to get a worn leathered look, but I ended up getting a worn eggplant kind of look. The latter actually ended up going really well with the dried hydrangea flowers I used. Sometimes a change in plans works out for the best! I hope everyone has a Blessed week a head of them.

Creating what I love in 2010...

I love handwork; cross stitch, embroidery, needle felting, crewel work, punch needle, you name it. If it involves using your hands to create with needle, thread, and fiber I love it. I have also been experimenting with collage, but I have was never really satisfied with my results. Then one day I decided I was going to add some cross stitch to my collage...

I was truly pleased with the way this turned out. I put it on the wall above my desk at work. (The cross stitch design is from the Feb. 2009 issue of Cross Country Stitching, no designer's name was given but it was designed for Jeremiah Junction.) I keep trying to think of things to create that will be quick and easy. But the reality is I really love doing handwork, and that just takes time. There is no "quick" way to cross stitch!

I have been embroidering on painted dryer sheets for some time. It's cheap, creative, and very versatile. I can embroider a design on a dryer sheet, (I usually fuse my painted dryer sheets to light weight interfacing, this gives them a little bit of weight) then cut that design out and incorporate it into a collage, or sew it to fabric, or frame it, there are tons of possibilities...

This is one I did with a picture of Fiona and Alexa playing dress up. I even took little scraps from the dresses they had on in the picture and added them to the collage. I then embroidered different designs that reminded me of the two of them; a tiara and a wand, a guitar (thanks to Hannah Montanna!), and of course a mirror... This too hangs on the wall above my desk at work.

There is just something about the stillness of hand stitching that eases my mind. I love nothing better than to get up in the wee hours of the morning, when all is still, and sit, with my coffee and do some hand stitching. It doesn't matter whether I'm working on cross stitch, embroidery or needle felting, it's all wonderful. Here's to a Blessed 2010...