Posted 1/12/13

I worked on a few books this weekend and thought I’d post some images. The book above has a quilted cover that uses a scrap of some great mixed media fabric I made several years ago in a workshop with Judy Coates Perez. She’s amazing. I layered some batiks on top and included some watercolor paper for the interior pages.

To make these 4 miniature books (4 1/2″ x 3 1/2″), I use some of my dyed batting and black and white cotton scraps for the covers. I used interfacing in the middle to increase the stability. For the book construction, I just used a stitch length of 5 and sewed right down the signature with my machine!

This last book is for my upcoming niece’s birthday. She’s still a kindergartener, so I hope I can post without her finding the images. She is such a great kid. I always go home finding little piece of art or secrets tucked in my bag somewhere. I thought I’d make her a sketchbook/journal with lots of hiding places.

I had to include a little bit of skull fabric so she’d know it was made by me! My sister found this fun skull fabric for me. The signatures are stitched in with a medieval long stitch binding using some hand dyed perle cotton thread from Laura Wasilowski.

This last image shows a detail of some of the pages. I sewed in some envelopes and library book pockets so that she will have more places to hide her treasures.

I will be teaching a textile bookmaking class for the 2013 Surface Design Association in San Antonio, Texas. Registration opens this week. See you there!

Posted 05/07/12

I’ll  be teaching some fun new classes for Quilts, Inc. this year. I thought a sneak peek would be in order. These will be fun, action packed classes. I hope to see you there! Here are images and descriptions of the 3 classes that I am teaching for the International Quilt Festivals at Long Beach and Houston 2012. If you have any questions about the supply lists in the catalogs at quilts.com , please feel free to email me.

1) Quilted Sketchbook - This class is a hybrid: you get both book arts and quilting. Design a book full of creative possibilities enclosed in your own unique quilted cover. Learn how to use book arts techniques and a medieval binding stitch to wrap it up. These books make great journals or sketchbooks, and are excellent gifts for special people in your life. This is a full day class, we will design and quilt the cover in the morning and then comeback to use the book binding techniques to stitch in the pages in the afternoon.

2) Stamps, Stencils and Image Inspiration - This is an exciting mixed media class for art quilters. Alter your textile surfaces with simple techniques, handmade tools, textile paints and found objects. Explore creative exercises to generate your own unique imagery for mixed media compositions. This is a half day class full of great techniques.

3) Fused Fabric Postcards -  Discover techniques for unique mailable gifts and art quilts. Explore journal quilting to chronicle experiences and investigate larger quilt ideas. Delve into inspiration tools to create imaginative compositions. This is a half day class full of fusing fun.

I look forward to seeing you at the quilt festivals this year for some quilting fun!

Posted 6/23/11

I had a lovely time at the Surface Design Association Conference this month! I traveled to the lovely city of Minneapolis, Minnesota.  I saw so many lovely images and met lots of interesting artists.  As the SDA Creative Promise Award for Student Excellence Graduate Recipient for 2010, I also have a lovely spread in the current issue of the Surface Design Journal.

My work is still on display through August in the fair city of St. Paul in the Currents show at the Larson Gallery on the University of Minnesota Campus. I was pleased to be able to see the Surface Design Association Student Show in person.  Envy was awarded Second Place in this show!

I thought I’d share a few links of the lovely things you will want to purchase or investigate that I garnered during the conference. Enjoy!

Books and Resources:

India Flint, Natural Plant Dyes and Techniques
http://www.indiaflint.com/index.htm
Book: Eco Colour: Botanical Dyes for Beautiful Textiles
http://www.amazon.com/Eco-Colour-Botanical-Beautiful-Textiles/dp/1596683309/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1308693416&sr=8-1

Chunghie Lee, Korean Wrapping Bundles
New Book: Bojagi and Beyond
Order through bojagiandbeyond@gmail.com

Carolyn Kallenborn, Woven Lives DVD about Oaxacan Weaving Traditions.
http://www.vidasentretejidas.com/
http://www.amazon.com/Woven-Lives-Entretejidas-Carolyn-Kallenborn/dp/B0051UHDCC

Natalie Alabama Chanin, USA Cottage Hand Sewn Sustainable Clothing
http://alabamachanin.com/
Books: Alabama Stitch Book
http://www.amazon.com/Alabama-Stitch-Book-Celebrating-Contemporary/dp/B004KAB3FC/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1308693608&sr=8-2

Alabama Studio Style
http://www.amazon.com/Alabama-Studio-Style-Celebrating-Sustainable/dp/B00509CRDY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1308693608&sr=8-1

Cave Paper: Handmade Papers by Amanda Degener and Bridget O’Malley
www.cavepaper.com

Spoonflower, Custom Printed Fabrics
www.spoonflower.com

Minnesota Center for Book Arts, Book Arts Residencies/Fellowships
http://www.mnbookarts.org/index.html

LFN Textiles: Artist’s Ribbons by Laura Foster Nicholson
http://www.lfntextiles.com/servlet/StoreFront

Jiyoung Chung: Joomchi, traditional Korean Papermaking process
Book: Joomchi and Beyond
http://www.jiyoungchung.com/

Posted 5/10/11

A lovely group of fiber artists, led and curated by the fabulous Kathy York, have created a group fiber exhibit: “It takes a village”. I hope you get to see it in person soon at a venue near you! We were each invited to make a unique house for the village. I was truly delighted to make something really fun and whimsical!  As I searched for an idea, I knew I had found it when I decided to make a tree house.

My tree house is nestled into two trees, structurally created with Peltex interfacing. I used my own hand dyed fabrics, as well as some commercial batiks that I over painted to get them to the color and surface texture that I wanted. The tree leaves were created with my dyed cotton batting and commercial black and white print fabrics, backed with interfacing.

Any house of mine needs a skull banner to be inhabitable. However, my favorite part is the rope ladder! I hope you enjoy your studio tour of our village.

Check out all of the contributing artists and their lovely work. Join us for the rest of our blog tour!

Susan Else (website) May 2 http://www.susanelse.com/

Frances Holliday Alford May 3 http://www.franceshollidayalford.com/weblog/

Pamela Allen (website) May 4 http://pamelart.homestead.com/titlepage.html

Frieda Anderson May 5 http://friestyle.blogspot.com/

Lisa Call May 6 http://blog.lisacall.com/

Jane Davila May 9 http://janedavila.blogspot.com/

Naomi Adams May 10 http://killerbeedesigns.com/blog1/

Jamie Fingal May 11 http://jamiefingaldesigns.blogspot.com/

Barb Forrister May 12 http://www.freespiritartstudio.blogspot.com/

Vickie Hallmark May 13 http://fiberartglass.blogspot.com/

Connie Hudson May 16 http://beyondtherail2010.blogspot.com/

Leslie Jenison May 17 http://leslietuckerjenison.blogspot.com/

Sherri McCauley May 18 http://sherrilipmanmccauley.blogspot.com/

Judy Perez May 19 http://judyperez.blogspot.com/

Melanie Testa May 20 http://www.melanietesta.com/mtype/

Laura Wasilowski May 23 http://artfabrik.blogspot.com/

Kathy York May 24 http://aquamoonartquilts.blogspot.com/

Posted 2/1/11

Fluvial, 2010, 32″ x 48″ x 2″

I just thought I’d post some recent sculptural fiber work that I have created. I’ll be working on getting all of my new work on the regular part of my website soon!

This piece was created as I was thinking about water, rivers and different views of landscapes. This piece references an aerial view of a meandering river. The lovely turquoise color that you see is my hand dyed cotton batting, which is exposed to your view when I cut up my quilts and reassemble them into these quilted collages.

Fluvial was exhibited at the Waterways: Rivers on the Edge exhibition in 2010, where it received a juror’s award.

Maybe this will help keep your thoughts warm thinking of lovely summer river adventures during these days of winter!

Posted 10/15/10

We had a great time at my Surface Design Exploration workshop last Saturday for the Quilter’s Guild of Dallas! We painted, stamped, transferred, carved and glued all day. We made a lot of white fabric a lot more interesting! Just sharing a few photos of our great group of students.

I full expect to see fabric created in this workshop as ACEO’s, Priority: Alzheimer’s Quilts, or Mini quilts for the Quilter’s Guild of Dallas auction!

I’ll leave you with a tiny self portrait of myself as Dr. Horrible, ala Dr. Horrible’s Sing-a-long-blog. It is almost Halloween, you know.

My sister of Puking Pastilles, has a free Dr. Horrible embroidery pattern sheet! I transferred her “goggles” image onto my digital print of a self portrait in fuschia. I used the CitraSOLV transfer technique that we did in class last Saturday. Super easy and fun! Even long distance we can collaborate.

Posted 9/21/10

 Don’t miss out! We have 9 spots left in the workshop I am providing for the Quilter’s Guild of Dallas on 10/9/10. We will be exploring all sorts of surface design techniques.

Here’s what we’ll be doing:

Explore textiles and printmaking in this exciting and dynamic class. Explore many avenues including purchased stamps and stencils, found objects, transfers, and hand-created tools to alter the textile surface. You will learn how to add pattern to cloth with resists, rust, dye, and textile paints. We will have a good combination of your own explorations of techniques and some things that I will demo only due to chemicals/messes/time constraints in a workshop environment.  

Contace the guild at workshops@quiltersguildofdallas.org or myself at killerbeedesigns@gmail.com for more information.

See you there!

Posted 12/30/09

As promised, here are my woven shibori results! Quite lovely texture and patterning in “Naomi” green. It was such a nice way to end my weaving class.  This piece was created with cotton 5/2 yarn. I really liked the other pieces in my class that were created with 10/2 yarn. With the finer thread, the pattern results were even more dramatic.

It was a fun filled, fabulous, and a bit of a frenetic first semester. I just took a holiday break with my sweetheart, and am now furiously back to work. I am making messes in my studio and taking advantage of my gift of 14 days before I go back to being a full time grad student/teaching assistant/art history paper writer.

Welcome 2010!

Posted 12/7/09

I made it! The first semester of my 3 year MFA program at UNT has been amazing and quite a whirlwind. Here are a few photos of the unpacking of my studio space on campus. I am fortunate to have a large, private studio space with dyeing facilities and all sorts of other great amenities. 

I have tackled an amazing amount of techniques and had all sorts of fabulous adventures, many ending with my hands a new and exciting color.  Potato and corn dextrin resists, dyeing batting, screen printing, rusting, smocking, devore, flour paste resists, you name it, I’ve tried it this semester.  I can’t wait to get to the rest of my list of things to try.

This last photo is a piece that is still in the dye bath right this minute. It is a piece of woven shibori, still on the loom. The pink threads are the gathering threads to make the shibori resist, and will be taken out when the dyeing and washing is complete.   I’ll get you a photo of the completed woven shibori piece, disaster or not.

Posted 4/29/09

The Collage Mania preview is up! There are 383 collages available on May 5, 2009 for an $80 minimum donation. On May 6 and 7, 2009, they will be available for a $40 minimum donation. This is the last fundraiser for Fiberart for a Cause which benefits the American Cancer Society. Thank you, Virginia Spiegel and Karen Stiehl Osborn for all of your hard work on this project!

I donated 3 collages for the sale this year, which are located on page 15 of the Collage Mania preview. Take a look, find something lovely and donate generously.