Just In Time

I did it! Just in time to. I finished the stocking. The stocking is snow white beaded with size 10/0 gold beads and 11/0 silver beads and I made my stars from various size beads and tacked them down to the stocking when I was finished with the other beading, considering I have had a few falls and had a bad one last night I was surprised I finished at all.  Now as I am writing this blog I am noticing things wrong. I wanted a very simple, yet elegant stocking. I did not want an over decorated stocking. I wanted it simple to match my tree.


I have a snowman wall hanging, a wall hanging for my brother, three or four art quilts, and of course the piece that looks at me every day and says "I will be here when you are ready." All of these plus doctors waiting for me. I think I might find something to occupy my time.

When I am making my art I am taken to another place. Where I don't have to worry about doctor appointments, or getting sick, or having seizures or being in pain. I am free. If I want to put a crazy color or a embellish softly on a heavy fabric, I can. I am the one in control. Not the diseases. 

I was recently diagnosed with Muscular Dystrophy to go along with Epilepsy and Complex Regional Pain Syndrome. Please understand by no means is my life ruled by my illness. I try very hard to rule them, sometimes I win, sometimes it goes the other way. My God willing I will wake tomorrow and it will be a good day and I will accomplish more than I did today. 

                        

Getting Ready For Christmas ?

I have done it this year. Due to being ill I have gotten behind since Halloween. Ugh! All of my normal organization has gone right out of the door. I didn't get the tree up until Monday of this week and it still isn't decorated completely. I have to address sign and mail Christmas Cards before the weekend.
I have my stocking to finish for Fiber Art Traders on Yahoo. I am really excited about it.

I have new art quilts designed. Actually they have been designed for three years. I have been scared of people judging me. Or them not being "perfect."
I have a lot of designs but frightened of what people will say about me my work. I am a creative perfectionist by nature. I live with a right brain left brain conflict most of the time. Live in my world for a day. LOL :)

I will get everything accomplished, on time. Because that is what you are supposed to do. 
Do what you say you are going to do; when you say you are going to do it; how you say you are going to do it. ~ Larry Winget  
I believe that if more people followed this philosophy there would be fewer problems in the world.

Well enough of my rambling tonight. Goodnight Happy reading Thanks for stopping

Really I Have Been Hard At Work

My last trade was a Christmas Doll trade. I made three six-inch dolls. An angel, an icicle doll, and a friendship doll. Each one has varying degrees of difficulty yet are fun to make and I had not made them in many years. I had forgot how much fun I had making dolls.

For the icicle doll I used a dark blue tone on tone snow flake material to make the body which is nothing more than a carrot shape. I sewed in funky yard at the top to represent hair as I was making the body. Then I molded a face with a mold a clay and painted it to match the material. I made arms from blue glass beads and one 6mm roundel bead in the center to represent hands. I put beads down the side to make it look like icicles and at the bottom I made tiny icicles.                   
The friendship doll is a Jill Maas pattern. I have always adored her patterns, if you have a chance look them up. The doll is simple to make. I think the hardest part about it this time was the head. I want to make a few more for some friends who went crazy over her. I didn't use velvet I used cotton this time. I used white cord sewn down with gold colored thread around her face. She has a purple heart, beading above her head, cross stitch, gold cord, flower ribbon held down by little beads.I drew her face on also.

Would like some feed back

painted fabric

 

 

Okay this really needs help. I haven't quilted it yet. The piece is about 9" by 12"  it kind of reminds me of left brain right brain conflict or rough seas. I am not unhappy enough to dump it, yet not happy enough to continue with it. Not sure what to do. Yet I know if I set it aside I won't get back to it for a long time. Any ideas?

~Dorothy~

My First Group Trade

I joined a group on Yahoo called FiberArt Traders, really cool group of ladies. The first trade I joined was "Once There Was A Snowman PSI Trade."

Inchie is 1inch x 1 inch, a Plus Size Inchie or PSI is 1 1/2 inchies x 1 1/2 inchies, and a Twinchie is 2 inches x 2 inches. So got the definitions. They are called other names as I have found out. But they are little gems no matter.

The trade was to make 5 snowmen, each consisting of 4 separate inchies, hat, head, tummy, bottom. Basically 20 psi's. I keep one complete snowman for myself and send four off to new homes and get four in return. Pretty cool huh.

Sounds all well in good if you know what an inchie is and how to make one. I had seen these marvelous little wonders, but how to make them? Off to the world wide web I went. Surely there would be someone out there who could show me how these little gem are created. I found a few, looked at even more. Discovered a lot of things you can do with inchies. A great idea for those left over snip its. I finally found a tutorial. wouldn't work for what I was doing, even though it gave me the general idea of how to make the gems. So I took the basics and made them my own.  Isn't that what art is, taking the basics and making it your own? So in no time I had my little snow people out partying. 

Don't they look like they are having fun.

So now after I had done all the trial and error, trust me with a sewing machine that just straight stitches and zig-zags, no fancy computer button to set stitch length and all that those edges were a trick. I think I got them though. The moment of truth came when I posted them to the site. Would anyone like them? I sure hoped so. Well I hope they find happy homes because I had fun making them. I can't wait to get mine. 


~Dorothy~

I am on a forum of advanced art quilters so that I may learn from their experience, and expertise in a certain areas. Learn how they choose their medium of choice, and how they got to where they are now.  Lately though, there has been some discussion over art quilts, fiber art, textile art, and contemporary art quilts. I have my own thoughts on these issues and I want to share them here rather than inflame or raise eyebrows on a message list.
I recently saw the "Tristan Quilt" through the images on file at at the Victoria and Albert Museum.  http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O98183/bed-cover-the-tristan-quilt/ 
This bed cover was made between the years 1360 and 1440 and it fits all of the definitions of a quilt, yet it is considered art at a high form for it's time. To continue along that same line, keep browsing in that same catalog. Look at the "textiles", they are a higher form of art than what many of us produce today to put on our beds.
I become angry when someone tells me that my form of art is not correct based on their desires to cubbyhole the industry. Each artist is an individual doing what makes them feel good in their heart. If you are not happy doing what you are doing, don't do it.  I made my first quilt when I was four years old. My grandmother gave me scraps of fabric and needle and thread. The next year I turned it into a stuffed turtle. After that I was off and running, I have had a life long love affair with fabrics, needle and thread. Does that make me an artist, maybe, to me, myself and I, yes.
Now if you are working in fabric, fiber, textile, quilt, or contemporary quilting, you have one thing in common, with the statement I have already made. We are all working with  fibers.  To me, this is a large community and we need to learn to get along.

Today little new work was done

I got up this morning thinking I was going to finish one cloth doll and get a good start on three more. No such luck, the Memi struck. i had to go out this morning and while I was away the little darling jumped up in the chair, onto the sewing table, and helped herself to coffee and a new toy. Well it was a toy to her, just not to me when I came back and saw her laying on living room floor faceless. So that left me ripping apart a doll that just needed embellishment. Oh well gives me the chance to improve her anyway. I was looking at her and not liking the way she looked. She was missing something or I needed to do something different with her. So all is well that ends well.
I did get three others cut out. And the fabric chosen for another. All of these dolls are relatively easy art dolls. The embellishments are harder to choose than making the doll is. I will spend time this evening working on my dolls and reading blogs. And writing some instructions to a few projects to appear in future blogs. 

I have put a gadget on the side of my blog for ovarian cancer. I know that some people can find all these things annoying. But did you know Ovarian Cancer is one of the most under funded cancers out there. It is also the most deadliest in women today. It strikes young women without warning. Someone special to me has ovarian cancer and I want to do this little thing to help her.