Creative Every Day - Nature

Here's a sketch for the current CED project I am working on... It happens to be done as a sketch in someone else's Moleskine. However, it does give me a feel for the subject. I am sure that the owner of the Moleskine will be happy with having a preview sketch.

Ravens are an ongoing fascination with their tricksters selves born from an encounter in a reservation in the 4 Corners area back in 2002. As I was driving through north of Yuba City, I saw a raven harassing a Native American long distance runner. It was trying to pull hair from her pony tail. My fascination continues today with the 200th anniversary of Edgar Allan Poe's birthday this year. I did a postcard challenge earlier this year for Quilt Art about the poem the Raven.

BTW: Anne, this is all your fault. Here's the study for that 12 x 12 canvas we talked about earlier. The right side raven will have a shiny object in it's beak when all is said and done..

Collage Mania

I would like to suggest that you all go take a look. Most especially, as I have been the beneficiary of the American Cancer Society's good works.

http://www.virginiaspiegel.com/CM2009Collages1.html

It's a reverse auction of art work in various medias, but primarily fiber related. I know a lot of the artistes from various art quilt groups I belongs to on-line.

You'll also see some of the Raven Challenge Postcards. I participated in this challenge as well. I blogged about it somewhere in the older posts.

I have been knitting more than anything for the last couple of years. I do keep my hand in quilting with challenges like the Raven card I did with QA and the Slice Quilt and the Baggos I do with the Fiber Pirates. Which reminds me I have to do a quilt for the Coffee Challenge with the Quilt Mavericks. It's due next week.

Here's part of a challenge we did over to the Fiber Pirates, it's my section of a slice quilt. Here's the Raven Challenge Postcard from the Quilt Arts group.

Two of My Embellished Tee Shirts

Here are pictures of two tee shirts I have embellished over the years. A friend from the Quilt Art list was asking for suggestions on embellishing some plain shirts she had. I, of course, chimed in about these. I have done more shirts but these are the only two I have kept for myself.

The blue one with the thistle applique is over eight years old and has been WORN A LOT. Which means, it has also been washed a lot. It has held up really well in my opinion. It was done with fusible applique and then the applique was satin stitched in place.



The brown tee was done last year. It's a Vintage Style from Joann Fabrics. The lace was knitted from a vintage Berroco cotton ribbon yarn (left over from the stock of my Mum's store, By Hand in Philly) and then hand stitched to the neck and sleeves of the tee. It has also been worn and washed a lot.

My First Award

I just got a message from Mixed Media Artiste and Extraordinary Friend, Anne of the El Milagro Studio blog and she was awarded one of these and choose to honour me as well. In reading her blog post about the award, I realized how small is this cyber world we inhabit. This award was to sent to her by a friend we have in common, Quilt Artist Extraordinaire, Tristan and she also passed the award onto another friend we have in common, our dear Mixed Media Artiest Extraordinaire Marion across the pond.



The accompanying text with the award is as follows:

"This blog invests and believes in the PROXIMITY-nearness in space, time and relationships. These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement! Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers! Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this clever-written text into the body of their award."

So, here is the list of bloggers I choose to honour with the Proximity Award, in no particular order and for no particular reasons.

Lini - http://essexhooker.blogspot.com
Rebecca - http://danceswithpitbulls.blogspot.com
Nic - http://nicknits.blogspot.com
Tala - http://corvustristis.livejournal.com
Camilla - http://soulshamans.blogspot.com
Hope - http://loopy-love.blogspot.com
Gina - http://sleepyeyesknitting.blogspot.com
Erin - http://bewitchingwickedsway.blogspot.com

Today's Creative Every Day

Here's today's Creative Every Day. The challenge was to use words. With grateful thanks to the What's in Your Altoid's Tin Group on Ravelry. These are stitch markers relating to a comment from someone in that group (KnitsWithPenquins, you know who you are). She said I should hang a sign around my neck that said "Will work for Ginger Roos." So, in response to that jibe, I have created these stitch markers. One set says "Will craft for Ginger Roos" and the other set says "Will craft for Trader Joe's".

We, Daughter o'Mine and I love Trader Joe's. It a wonderfully eclectic food, beverage and sundry store based out of SoCal. When we lived in California, fully half of our food budget went to TJs and all of our party food budget as well. Sadly, there are NO Trader Joe's in Colorado. We have discovered that the nearest one to us is in Albuquerque, NM. It's an eight hour round trip from here and with the winter weather a trip not to be undertaken lightly. We do plan on going sometime in the Spring.

Erin has taken an empty suitcase to Las Vegas in order to shop at the TJs there. I have taken a cab from the Phoenix Airport to the one there, also with an empty suitcase in order to pick up a few things. Our favorites from TJs include among others: Chocolate Covered Almonds, GINGER ROOS, Ginger Cat Cookies, Danish Self Extinguishing Candles, Cotton Dish Towels, Expanding Sponges made from some vegetable or another, Raspberry Peach Blossom Juice, CRUMPETS, Mini Crispy Chocolate Chip Cookies and I am sure there are others too numerous to name...

Send me some Chocolate Covered Almonds and I will send you the Will Craft for Trader Joes stitch markers. Send me some Ginger Roos and you'll get the Ginger Roos stitch markers..

BTW: Here the link to the blog of the Quilts Arts Edgar Allan Poe 200th Birthday Anniversary Post Card Challenge: http://qaravenchallenge.blogspot.com/
My postcard is here on my blog in an earlier post as well as on the QA Raven B.log

Today Is the Anniversary of Edgar Allan Poe's Birthday

Happy 200th Birthday, Edgar Allan Poe!

I do apologize up front for the quality of photos. The tulle overlay on the card made the camera crazy.

I belong to an on-line group, called Quilt Art. At the beginning of the moth we got to talking about it being the 200th anniversary of the birth of Poe and his poem, The Raven. We ended up deciding to do a fibre postcard challenge incorporating themes from Poe's works, especially the raven. This is one of my efforts.

To make this card I thread painted the house and tree on a layer of fabric and a layer of Timtex (thanks, Lynda). It is my version of one of the houses in Baltimore that Poe lived in. The tree is in front of the side where he lived. The ravens were laser printed on paper and then torn around for a feathery effect. They where then trapped under a layer of tulle, I also stitched around the ravens to keep them from moving around too much..