On My Design Wall

Just took a fresh look at my "design wall" and decided what to finish up this weekend. I'll have the house to myself  - no excuses not to finish at least one of these projects.

This is Beach Buddies.

Almost finished the quilting - just the sky and details of the clothing.  Then I will bind it and attach a hanging sleeve.

This is an original design based on some photography that I did a few years ago.

I've got mostly handwork left on this watery, fishy piece so it'll be a good one to work on too.

And if I need a break from the stitching I'll pull out my paints and get back to work on KR.  He really needs to be finished.

Faultlines of the Heart

When presented with the February word: "love" I thought of many ways to go with it - parental, romantic, physical, familial - even love of music, nature and so on.  But what I really wanted to deal with was loss of love - specifically loss of loved ones.  When my Mom passed away last year I had to deal with the sadness of her loss plus the fact that she was the last one. Her passing followed my Dad's (by many years) and my brother and sister's deaths more recently.  I reflected on how we all suffer loss of love - or loved ones - then have to face our publics as though everything was completely right in our world.
Here you have a heart that has been fractured into many pieces along the faultlines that were there all along.  And floating over the pieces of the heart are a tangle of ribbons attempting to hide the tears underneath.

Letting go of love

Hot salty tears flow freely

Bruised battered heart cracks.

All the red "shards" combine to form one complete heart. The pieces have been attached to the background with a lot of heavy quilting. I used heavy cotton plus metallic. The ribbons are hand tacked. Under the ribbons are tear-shaped beads peeking out. I purposefully left the thread tails and frayed edges alone as they are part of the over all feeling that I wanted to generate.

Boulevard of Broken Dreams_0002.wmv

Received New Word in Haiku-Art

As promised we received our inspiration word for February late yesterday.  The word is "love".  What else for the month of February?  I have some ideas spinning around in my head already.  They aren't of the lacy heart variety.  Stay tuned.

January Haiku-Art Fiber Piece

My goal was to illustrate nature's propensity to new beginnings in the face of adversity.

A secondary goal was to try some new creative techniques or materials.


Lutradur - burned edges, stamped and painted with pearl-ex
Angelina fibers - stamped
 Rosebud photos printed on cotton, appliqued and thread painted.
Purchased leafy vine appliqued
Haiku printed on Extravorganza - edges fringed and painted
Scattered beads
Sheer tulle layered over the piece
Layered and quilted
Edges finished with  zigzag stitch