FABRIC, YARN, CRAFT SUPPLIES SALE

Fabric & Yarn Sale

Saturday, July 25

9:00-1:00 

28 Arden Street, New Haven (Morris Cove)

We can’t store it all!  Two artists/quilters are reducing their stashes.  

Quilting, Sewing, Knitting,

Arts and Crafts Supplies

*Fabric *Yarn *Books *Patterns *Beads

*Paper crafting supplies *Drawing supplies

 and more.

Sentinelle is finished

This is my sentinelle piece for the upcoming Sisters in Cloth exhibit in Stony Creek at the Willoughby Wallace Library gallery, which is opening Friday, March 27.

The wood block prints were purchased from Dijanne Cevaal and each of us decorated our print according to our own aesthetic. I often embellish with some (or many) beads, but this one is strictly embroidered.

I've had some positive comments on my Facebook page, so I think I may have to do another. Dijanne has a new similar design, Queen of Chartres--along with other block prints. Click HERE to see them.

The act of sitting and embroidering while I was recuperating from pneumonia was quite therapeutic. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed this needle craft. Perhaps another sentinelle or a Queen of Chartres will be upcoming?

Sisters in Cloth has an exhibit coming up this month. The show runs March 27 through April 29. I have two pieces in it (although I'm still working to finish them).

The show includes a collaborative project, Fiber Journeys, which connects one piece to another by a pathway. The second part of the exhibit is our collection of sentinelles. We purchased the wood blocks from Dianne Cevaal and embellished/decorated them according to our individual preferences.

Having been sick over the winter, I reconnected with my love of embroidery. My sentinelle piece includes old embroidery stitches and some new ones I hadn't used before.

Happy New Year

2015

The years pass so much more quickly as I have celebrated more and more birthdays. My mother-in-law said that many times, and I've found that she was right.

We are well into this century and I am in my seventies. I won't be achieving everything I had thought I would, but I am doing what I like. I teach math at a community college, which is very gratifying, and at a local state university. Freshman math. The things most people hate, but I try to make it as painful as possible. And I love my students.

The main drawback to my continuing to work is a lack of time and/or energy to pursue my art. If it weren't for Sisters in Cloth, I might never get any quilts done. In November I completed this quilt for our recent exhibit at the Guilford Public Library. It has now been transported to another exhibit at Brookside Quiltworks in South Egremont, Massachusetts.

I enjoyed making this quilt, as it used traditional techniques but non-traditional fabric. (I love making all those points and corners come together.) Except for the white, of course, the fabric was all from one piece of my snow-dyed fabric. The pattern is Greek cross, but the lack of sashing between the blocks gives it a very different look. I also quilted it differently from the way I might have back when I was doing more traditional quilts.

Happy New Year to all.

Around the World Blog Hop

 

I'm delighted to have been invited by Mary Lachman to take part in this blog hop. I hope to visit many new sites and hope to get visitors to mine. As I said in my previous post, my blog was hacked and disappeared. I'd been working on it for many years and had many delightful posts, as well as a list of bloggers that I enjoyed following--also lost. This worldwide blog hop is serving as an incentive to start working again.

I invite you to also visit Diane Cadrain's blog.I know Diane through SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Associates). She can be seen knitting small items, such as leaves, flowers, or backgrounds, that she may include in her next quilt. I had the pleasure of walking by and viewing Diane's quilts on display at the UConn Health Center for three months as I made frequent visits there for dental work.

Diane is a member of The Connective Fiber Arts Collective (CFCA), a group of very talented women who frequently exhibit their work around the state. I am happy to be friends with many of them.

Mary is also a member of CFCA and SAQA. I was first drawn to Mary's work when I saw her unique felted art that incorporated lace and doilies into her pieces. Mary is a delightful person who is also a scientist and the author of a book, Moth in the Window, a beautiful book focused on her grandfather's poetry.

What I have been doing more than anything is teach math. I try to get some projects done on the side. This is not the ideal way to be an artist, because often I have inspiration and a desire to create, but there is a pile of exams to correct.

If you check an earlier post in this new blog, I took a class, along with other members of Sisters in Cloth, with Kate Themel. She is one of the most talented women I have had the privilege to meet.

I have just finished a small piece for a Sisters in Cloth exhibit at the Guilford Town Hall. While going through the fabrics I have painted or dyed, I came across a piece of mono-printed fabric--created in a class with Rayna Gillman--that contained a leaf image. I cut off that part; it was about 6 x 8. After free-motion stitching around each leaf, I painted them with Inktense pencils. Here it is, framed and ready.

This picture had a white circle in the middle--the reflection of the flash. I was very happy to be able to cover that with the paintbrush in Adobe Photoshop Elements.

I'm afraid you won't find too many posts here. The blog I had had for years was hacked. All those lovely posts, gone. That turned me off blogging for quite a while, and has held me back from spending a lot of time on my blog. But, here I am, desiring to be part of the world-wide blog hop. Mary Lachman sent me an invitation to take part.


I joined Surface Design Association in May, when a Connecticut chapter was formed. Many artists who are members of SAQA are also members of SDA.

The CT SDA has its first exhibit taking place right now at the Mark Twain Library in Redding, CT.












I have a pillow included, which is made from my snow-dyed fabric.


I have to admit that I love this pillow. While the patchwork design is a simple one I created, it is the fabric that makes the pillow beautiful. 

I interfaced it completely to make it more durable.

I like making a buttoned back so that the cover can be removed for cleaning. It took me a few tries before I got the buttonhole technique correct. I was a bit rusty. My buttonhole automatic foot does not work with buttons of this size.

I also am exhibiting a few pieces of fabric that I've dyed:

This piece has very pretty areas. I don't like the overall look.

Maybe there are a few more pillows to be made.

Hurrah! I finished a quilt.

The quilt I started in Kate Themel's class is finished. I didn't declare it complete until I added the sleeve and a label, which took a couple of weeks after the actual quilt was finished.

Here it is. I just love the background fabric. All fabrics are by Carol Eaton.

I'm considering making another because I love Kate's beautiful pattern. I probably should make one of my own design, but then I'd have to struggle so much to decide on a design.