Published in Quilting Arts Mag!

When my copy of the October/November issue of Quilting Arts Magazine arrived today I about burst from excitement.  A couple of months ago I entered a piece in the "What's Your Signature Color" reader challenge and my piece made it into the magazine.  This is a small 8" x 8" quiltlet made of fabric that I pieced, stamped, quilted, embroidered and embellished.  The squares are fabric-paper edged with gold and layered with small fabric scraps.  Sadly the blurb next to my piece says I live in Lakewood, California when it should say Colorado, but that little error hardly dents my thrill at being published in one of my favorite magazines.

My blog has been languishing lately for lack of acceptable photos to post.  As an art blogger I feel like I can't post anything unless I have a photo to go with the post, but my artwork has all been in awkward stages and my photo sessions have not been very successful of late.  The other day I tried to take photos of some of my artwork on the day that I had my eyes dilated.  Needless to say, those photos did NOT come out well!  LOL!

For several months now I have been working on artwork in a raspberry, lime, plum color scheme.  I've been trying to use the same basic materials in each piece so that they are part of a series, but I have not been trying to make each piece similar to any other piece.  Frankly I'm getting sort of tired of working with the same materials over and over again, but at the same time the ideas just keep on coming.  Money is really tight in my world right now so I'm also trying to play with ways to make the most of the materials I have.  Ways to use every scrap.  Sometimes I think this way of thinking holds me back since I feel like I have to a use what I already have.  But it is so easy to fall prey to the idea that a new art supply or tool will magically cause me to make amazing, inspired art.  Anyway, working in a series has proven to be a very productive approach for me.  

The piece above is made from leftover backing paper from painted Wonder Under, and stained newspaper that have been woven together.  I used t-shirt transfer paper to add a word cloud to the surface and then I added a swipe of pearlescent white paint and splatters of white gesso.  Earlier in this process I had created a "fabric" from little scraps of other fabrics that I quilted in spirals and then cut into piece that I finished with a blanket embroidery stitch.  I added these squares with glue and stitch and then added a few finishing embroidered motifs.  Then I mounted the whole things on a painted canvas background.

This piece is also made of woven papers.  Specifically embossed wallpaper and fabric paper that I made of all sorts of materials.  I stitched purple organza flowers over the top and added the quilted bottom portion and a border.

I have some plans for this series is I can make a few dreams come true.  There are several other pieces in the series but some of them aren't finished yet.  More photos to come!

Cat Hair Studio

I wanted to call my blog Cat Hair Studio but the name was already taken.  There's a good reason for wanting to call it that.  Everything I make ends up covered in cat hair!  Short of closing the door while I work there is no possible way to keep the cats out of the studio, and frankly, I enjoy their company.  Once I ended up with a cat with blue paint on his paws!  OMG, the chaos!  LOL.  I had to scramble to catch him before he tracked blue paint all over the house or tried to lick it off.  There is a rule that applies to cats as well as people....DON'T EAT YOUR PAINT!  This lovely glimpse of a newly finished piece is posted merely to amuse the cat lovers out there.  Don't worry, the  hair will be removed and better photo's will be taken.  I'm thinking of submitting this piece and a couple of others that are part of a series to some magazine or other.  I just have to finish everything first!

Leda's Flowers

Here is a new piece that I finished a little while ago.  Getting the pictures taken and edited for posting takes me forever!  The down side of bloggin! LOL.  This began with a piece of fabric-paper in shades of red and purple, which is a favorite color combination.  So many of my pieces begin after experimenting with a technique I want to try and this is no exception.  This is a remnant of my first piece of fabric-paper, made a couple of years ago.  I also wanted to to try printing images on silk.  I chose one of Leonardo da Vinci's drawings and was really pleased with the way it came out.  This piece includes embossed velvet (so much fun!), embroidery, beading, and stamping (with acrylic paint).

Autumn Flowers art quilt

I recently completed this art quilt that I made to go in my new office.  Our offices relocated recently and the new building is painted in all these autumn colors.  My office has a gold accent wall and since autumn colors are not my favorite color choice I had to come up with something new to go on the walls.  While helping a friend move I was gifted with a piece of rayon fabric that was printed in a patchwork design in colors I knew would be just perfect to go on that gold wall!  I began by quilting the fabric with gold thread.  That really made the patterns pop!  I had placed red velvet behind some of the squares and after the quilting was done I cut out part of the rayon to show the red velvet in a reverse applique technique.  Then I decided to paint matte medium along the cut edges and coat them with gold glitter.  What a messy process!  I made some fabric paper in coordinating colors and cut out the rosette pieces which are glued down and then I placed tulle netting over them and stitched it down to ensure that the little pieces didn't lift up.  The little metal squares are made of foil candy wrappers fused to felt.  The large flowers were cut out of a wool blanket and stitched on with gold thread in a blanket stitch.  The centers of the flowers are made of candy wrappers and gold buttons.  I edged the quilt in gold cording and a copper eyelash yarn and mounted the whole thing on brown velvet stapled to a framed canvas.  It looks just great in my office!  Here is detail image:

Beryl Taylor workshop

In April I took a workshop presented by Beryl Taylor who happens to be one of my favorite artists.  Her book Mixed Media Explorations is what really got me started working on my own art.  She invented fabric-paper and I just couldn't wait to try it.  The workshop was a lot of fun and Beryl was so generous with her knowledge and art supplies.  We created three pieces during the workshop although I didn't actually get them finished until I got home.  The piece shown here is a small wall hanging that took me quite a while to finish.  It is created from fabric-paper, watercolor paper, stamps, embroidery, buttons, sequins and beads.

These are the covers for a min-book we made.  It is about 3 inches square.  Here you see some copper and aluminum tape that have been embossed and colored with alcohol inks.  Working with metal is the only thing I had not done before taking this workshop.  The rest of the pages of the book follow.  They are made with fabric-paper, felt, book pages, fabric, stamps, embossing powder, copper, etc. 

The last project we worked on was a steampunk quilt.  This is my least favorite of the three pieces.

Christmas Diamonds

Well I'm obviously not much of a blogger yet. I've been meaning to post these photos for two months. The holidays start in October in my family due to several birthdays and it just seems like there is never time to take care of tasks like this. Anyway, here is another project that I made this year. I got into a Christmas project frenzy for a while over the summer with the intent of having something to sell, turn into cards, etc. That didn't happen but I still enjoyed making Christmas-y things.  The only thing that makes this a Christmas project is the snowflakes.

fabric paper, bristol paper, tissue paper, acrylic paint, beads, embroidery, ribbon, stamping, glue, punched paper, brads, fabric

painted wonder under, painte paper towels, hand dyed string

Red and Purple Floral

Titling my art is something I have yet to figure out. In the meantime I tend toward a fairly literal description. This piece was completed earlier this year and is my first official piece of mixed media art. In 2006 I began studying fine arts at the Metropolitan College of Denver. I spent two wonderful years studying and thoroughly enjoying being an art student but I was compelled to leave school when I developed chronic pain issues and could not keep up anymore. After years of struggling to figure out what I wanted to do with my life I am determined to make art, even if I can't finish my degree right now. In my spare time, when I am not in too much pain, I make art. This piece came about after reading Beryl Taylors book "Mixed Media Explorations". I began by making my first ever fabric-paper. The floral motifs in some of the scrapbook paper I used inspired me to work on a floral theme. Like Beryl Talor, I adore fleur de lys and metallic elements. The flowers are all paper or fabric-paper. The fleur is fabric-paper with cut out red velvet wonder-undered and embroidered over the top. The background is cotton and hand embroidered with gold metallic floss. I machine embroidered over all the flowers and added beads. The lace edging is all hand dyed with the same paints and inks that I used on the fabric-paper. I learned a lot from making this piece. Right now it hangs in my bedroom where it matches the red and purple color scheme.