I have a white “silk” orchid that was very realistic looking when I purchased it several years ago. Over time, however, it has yellowed badly. I considered several ideas about how to best revamp these pretty petals. Eventually, I decided just to paint them, with ordinary acrylic paint. This worked well. I left the fiddly…
Here are some interesting links for your enjoyment. First, a gallery of wonderful quilts made by the Front Range Contemporary Quilters. You’ll love them! Next, check out the beautiful and subtle work of Cas Holmes. Finally, something a little different: painted pebbles. I was intrigued by these because some of them looked almost like they…
Here’s my challenge piece, complete. I call it Fragrant Climb. Detail: In a nod to the small flowers near the stairs in the inspiration photo, I drew on additional open-petal ones (above.) I liked the effect and will use it again. I’m pretty happy with this piece. Especially since I wasn’t that crazy about the inspiration…
Once I had the background and leaves finished, it was time to focus on the flowers. First, I auditioned fabrics. I had quite a big selection of fabrics to choose from, so it was easy to use a different fabric for each petal. Next, I started adding white flowers with open petals. I love these…
Every so often my small art quilt group, Dirty Dozen Fiber Artists, likes to have a group challenge. Frequently, we use a photograph as our starting point. We select something with lots going on so different people can respond to different elements. This is the photo we selected for our recent challenge, “Welcome to Provence.”…
Woohoo! I’m so delighted to finally have my eBooks available as immediate downloads. One is called Personal Workshop: Adventures in Color. It’s jam packed with information: 64 content pages, plus another 22 workbook pages. As the name implies, it’s set up as a personal workshop. There are several pages of information and examples, followed by workbook…
Have you ever lost steam on a project part way through? This happened to me recently, only I lost interest before I even got started. After the FUN and success of Bush Berries, I was excited to try another “cut and paste” design. I started with this photo of a Flame Vine. Pretty awesome, right? I decided…
I once had a shopper ask me “How much do you charge for one of those place mats?” Quch! Not what I wanted to hear, but I get it. To viewers who are not used to seeing art made from fabric the small pieces can look somewhat utilitarian. To avoid that, I often mount or…
In my last post, I showed you the start of several small pear collages. I had great fun with them as I continued to work with portions of my original pear picture, vintage linens, papers, and hand stitching. Here’s the completed version of the one in the last post, Pear Study #1. This is #2 complete. #3,…
Every so often I like to spend a week or two doing something artistically different. Maybe with fabric or maybe not. At these times, I typically pick up a good art book and spend time reading it and working through some of the exercises. This time, it was Cas Holmes’ book, Stitch Stories. If you’re…