Happy Friday!

Happy Friday Everyone!  I love the start of the weekend, so full of possibilities...  It's supposed to rain here tomorrow - good day to stay in and sew.  I hope to make progress on some fun things I have in the works. Hope to have some "sneak peeks" for you soon!

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Happy Wednesday

Happy Wednesday friends!  Just popping in to say hi.  Hope everyone is having a good week, with lots of time to create :)

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Color Crayon Challenge

The quilt guild I belong to recently hosted a Color Crayon Challenge.  Each member blindly picked three crayons and was challenged to "make something" using all three colors.  It was amazing to see what everyone came up with - we have such a creative group!

My colors were tan, light blue and violet.

Since I've been loving mixed media lately, I decided to create a fabric mixed media book.  I incorporated a mix of techniques, including machine stitching, hand embroidery, painting and stamping.  I wanted the feeling of the book to be free and loose, so I didn't draw out any of the shapes ahead of time.  I just cut and sewed, leaving the raw edges exposed for added texture.

Front Cover

I created each page, and then "bound" the book together by sandwiching stabilizer between two pages at a time and machine stitching around the perimeter.  Then I bound all of the pages together with a large blanket stitch using embroidery floss.

This was such a fun project, and definitely outside of my comfort zone!  I used free motion quilting to sew most of the fabric pieces in place.  I decided ahead of time that I wanted to look to be rough, and it's amazing how much easier it was to free motion quilt when I did not pressure myself to make it look perfect!  A great way to practice your free motion quilting skills.  I definitely look forward to creating more projects like this :)

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Happy Easter

Happy Easter Everyone!  Today we're enjoying some BEAUTIFUL weather here in the Pacific Northwest. Perfect day to get out for a walk and enjoy the sunshine.  The signs of Spring are everywhere, I just love it! Hope you're having a great holiday weekend :)

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Vintage Notions

Happy Friday Everyone!  One of my favorite weekend activities is scouting antique stores and flea markets for vintage sewing and embroidery notions.  Makes me wonder what they may have been used to create way back when...  Hope you have a chance to do something that you enjoy this weekend!

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Early Flower Garden

This quilt is making me think of Spring...  I'm loving the colors, and the process!  It's the perfect project - hand sewing, portable and fast!  I'm thinking of adding in some light gray, what do you think??  These templates are really coming in handy...

Art Retreat Weekend

Last weekend I had the pleasure of attending an amazing event - the Nuture Your Creative Seed mixed media art retreat hosted by the this awesome girl.  And I had the BEST time meeting new friends, relaxing and creating art!  The retreat was held in Poulsbo, WA, which you can get to by way of ferry from Seattle, and then a short car ride.  Our accommodations were amazing, and the scenery wasn't to shabby either...

  

We were a short walk away from the beach, which gave us the perfect opportunity to soak up some much needed sunshine!

See the mountains peaking out from the clouds??

I got to spend the entire weekend creating with 14 other amazing gals.  Our first class was taught by the lovely Jeanne Oliver.  We got our creative juices flowing by making backgrounds on water color paper in the morning, which would then be bound into art journals.  Serena supplied us with the most amazing supply of vintage papers and ephemera!

Then in the afternoon, Jeanne taught us how to paint faces, which was really outside of my comfort

zone, but so much fun!

The second day of classes was taught by the super talented Mindy Lacefield.  It was interesting that her process was totally different than Jeanne's.  She gave us art prompts and had us thinking back to childhood.  We created two backgrounds and then she showed us how to paint a bunny and a girl.  Bright neon colors are not normally part of my color palette, but they really grew on me!

It was really interesting to learn two completely different processes from two such amazing artists, and I was so thrilled to meet other gals who love making art as much as I do!  Everyone's talents and techniques were so inspiring!  Overall, it was a truly fabulous weekend that I felt so privileged to take part in.  I was a little nervous about going, because I did not know anyone else who was attending, but it was such an amazing experience that I would absolutely do it again in a heartbeat.  Goes to show what is possible when you put yourself out there and take a chance :)

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