Start of a New Year and New Intentions

It's been quite a long time since my last post. I had high hopes for a number of posts about this past year. But the holidays, commissions and gifts and an addiction to the ease of Instagram sort of got in the way!

This year, I have a new intention...I intend to get back into a regular blog-posting practice. I am shooting for a post a week to keep you up-to-date with what is going on with me artistically and with my classes.

The photo collage above is a great summary of this past year! Happily, lots of stitching took place including the wrapping up of a special project...the Textile Museum Muse Project. In this project, twenty of my students spent several months having the opportunity to view amazing textiles from the Textile Museum's collection--use them as inspiration and create some amazing original works. I put together an hour-long program about the project to share with my fiber guild in June. The works were simply amazing! In October, I started a second go 'round...more of a class format where we meet once a month. The works are progressing beautifully and we have the big reveal at the end of January...can't wait.

Ancient Aliens: Inspired by an ancient Peruvian tunic

This was also the year that I started the Scissors and Stories Project...starting with a piece featuring scissors that belonged to my maternal grandmother. I put the word out and got an amazing response from people who have a special connection to a pair (or pairs) of scissors that have a family story. I recently put the breaks on this project, but plan to slowly but surely continue work on it. My piece also became the centerpiece for an article for Quilting Arts magazine (Aug/Sept 2018 issue). In the article, I take you step-by-step through the process of how I created the piece.

Inside Nanny's Sewing Basket: Three Pairs, One Ornate

Perhaps the biggest creative breakthrough for me in 2018 really started at the very end of 2017! I started selling rolls of hand painted cheesecloth and was challenged to show people how it could be used with hand stitching. I focused on layering fabric scraps on wool felt or wool fabric, adding the cheesecloth and couching threads to hold everything together. Over this year, the collages and layers have become more involved and started me on a series of tree (tree of life) works. I rounded out the year making a series of cellphone and talisman pouches using some of the same techniques.

Night Bloom

Talisman pouches

Cellphone pouches

This new direction continues to appeal to me and I can see that there will be more art works with layers of sheers, cheesecloth and stitching for 2019!

Also look for new classes and workshops starting this coming weekend with a collaborative Spin and Stitch workshop...spinning our own threads to stitch with! I'm very excited about the potential!

So...I'm pressing the restart button and plan to make this blog a weekly habit. Hope you will stop by weekly to see what's new!

Happy New Year and hope that this year is full of happy creative adventures!