A Little Imagination and a Pile of Junk

and the winner is...

...Amy! Congratulations Amy and thanks for playing. Shoot me an email with your snail mail addy and I will get out the fabric to you this weekend! That was fun! I will definitely do that again, Lord knows I have more fabric than I know what to do with.  Thanks to all of you who played. Sorry for the late post, but it has been a busy day, week, etc. Today I took my youngest to her preschool open house. She is sooo proud to be going to school. We had to bring the backpack (small, pink, Dora, on wheels--need I say more?) and everything. She is familiar with the school because her brother went there last year but now it is her school. My baby.... I'll try to be back tomorrow with works in progress, although you could just look at last weeks post 'cause, not much has changed. I am working on a few new things on top of those, though. Maybe that's why I never seem to get anything finished.

works in progress and fabric give away

Much to my husband's displeasure, I've accumulated so much stuff that I am overflowing my art room and spilling out to the rest of the house, esp. the kitchen table. Today there are multiple stacks of fabrics and scraps for works I have in progress.

More tote bags for my Etsy shop, a new skirt for me, and a-long-time-coming purse for my mother in law. On top of all of this (quite literally) are piles of fabric, like these beauties,

that were delivered or thrifted this week--its been a good week. Because of the bounty of fabric goodness and because I am so thankful for each one of you who take the time to visit my blog, I want to share the wealth. I scored more than I need of this very pretty vintage fabric off Ebay recently and I'm giving away a yard plus to one very lucky commenter to this post. Here it is:

So, if you'd like to share the love (see directly above), leave a comment to this post and let me know you'd like to be considered. On Thursday of this week, August 31, I will draw one of the names and ship out the fabric to the lucky winner, okay?

Now it is time for the big decision: work on projects or take a nap. Hmmmm, such a hard one. I'm really excited about my new bags, but...an afternoon nap is hard to beat! It is pathetic, really, because I know that I'm going to take that nap. The nap almost always wins out in the end. It's a win-win situation, really....

some collage and fabric goodness

I'm trying to catch up on a few things that were set aside to finish the shop update. This is for Laura's Alphabetica journal. Her theme was Ladies: A to Z, and I chose Elgie who is my Grandmother. The photo is one of my favorites of her when she was just 13, less than a year before she met my Grandfather who she was married to for over 50 years. My Grandma has been one of the most influential people in my life and you may recognize her picture because her image is a recurring element in a lot of my artwork. Isn't she stunning? The letters each represent one of the Fruit of the Spirit which she exemplifies.

You can see that even on this paper piece I had to get some sewing in! Normally, hand stitching is extremely relaxing and almost meditative for me. But, for some reason, sewing on paper just makes me anxious. Maybe it is punching holes in the paper. I tend to get very impatient and just want the work to be done already. Maybe it is because working with glue and paint are so often immediately gratifying.

Speaking of gratifying experiences, I received a beautiful stack of fabrics from Hancock's of Paducah. They have a great discount fabric section and you can find wonderful fabrics for about half off. All of these were on sale for $3 or less for a half yard.

(Hmm, my picture of the fabrics is twice as big as my collage. What does that say??) These are my favorites:

My first Amy Butler fabric and some beautiful ones by Jane Sassaman. Thanks, Kathy, for introducing me to her designs. I love the vibrant colors.

Recently I also stumbled upon these at the other Hancocks. The red and green is another Jane Sassaman that I found on sale for $4 a yard--I got 2. The other $1 print is kind of a crazy tropical, safari, big truck/large animal kind of theme. I'm thinking it will look good cut up for patchworks.

This week we are getting ready for school. Maisey starts pre-school in less than two weeks (sniff, sniff) and Soren and I will start our homeschool lessons around then, too. The kids were playing with another little girl at the post office when she asked them what school they went to. Maisey waxed on eloquently for about 5 min. on "the little lamb school she will go to when she grows up" and Soren said loudly, " I go to school at homeschool!" I don't think he knows exactly what that means, but he is excited to do "lessons" again.

Ugh. I have a terrible headache, so I'm off to rest. John and the kids are seeing Over the Hedge for the third time so I get a quiet house for a while. Ahhh, quiet.

Etsy update and mailing list

Just letting you know that I finished uploading all the new stuff to my Etsy shop. I am also starting a mailing list, so if you would like to know about future updates to my shop, just send an email to littleblackkitty (at) sbcglobal (dot) net with "mailing list" in the subject and I'll get you added. Thanks so much and I'd love to hear your thoughts on the new stuff!

new totes, pincushions, and more

Finally I'm ready to update my Etsy shop! I've been working hard on adding some special things for a while, but I wanted to have a good number of things before I uploaded them. I finished up my quilted fabric and decided to make it into tote bags. You can see more pictures here. Both of these bags will be in my shop later today--God and kids willing! Along with the bags, you can find some pincushions made from my paper towel fabric, a new fabric book, and even sunglasses cases! Here's a sneak peek:

Check out my shop later for more pictures and details. Now that it has taken me all morning to take the photos, edit and post them, I've got to get to the grocery store and run some errands. I'll be back later this afternoon with the Etsy update!

a new book & patchwork experiments

The past week's work has been mostly experimental--my favorite kind of work. Yesterday my beloved postal carrier brought me the much anticipated and drooled over Mixed Media Explorations.

Since I ordered the book, my daily prayer has been, "please-God-let-me-get-my-book-today-please-please-please!" And yes, apparently, I am that shallow. But--oh!--it did not disappoint me and was well worth the wait. (I'm getting all giddy just typing this. I actually have goose bumps.) This book is exquisite. Luscious. Magnificent. And all of those over the top adjectives--it truly deserves them. I have to admit that I was a bit nervous buying it sight unseen (at $38, including shipping), but it is worth every penny for the pictures alone. Beryl Taylor's art is unparalleled. I don't even know what to compare it to. Her attention to detail is awe-inspiring. Her use of color and texture--stunning. And as if that's not enough, she generously shares so many of her techniques de-mystifying her processes, but certainly not her talent. You will be amazed. I am so dying to show you more pictures, but I will be good...just go get your own copy so we can talk about it. I promise, if you love fabric, paper, embellishment, embroidery, or beautiful things in general, you won't be disappointed.

It seems that I have a hard time making anything lately without using my sewing machine. And my favorite thing has become patchwork pieces using some of the to-die-for commercial fabrics out there mixed with some of my own hand painted ones. John barely cashed his paycheck this week before I blew my "allowance" on stacks of fabrics from ebay and here. Since my new goodies are en route, I had to satisfy myself with putting together my first patchwork bag:

I actually made the patchwork front to cut up for some smaller projects but because of personality fault #2 discussed here, I couldn't bear to cut it up so I made it into a purse. Having that one saved from potential disaster then freed me up to experiment with some more random patchwork fabrics like this one:

I started with a piece of muslin as a base then pinned on squares of patterned and mostly-solid fabrics. I dyed the solids myself earlier in the week. Once the entire piece of muslin was covered, I stitched everything down just enough to keep it in place. Then I added some more mostly decorative stitching in a second thread color to emphasize the layered block pattern:

Then a few more fabric pieces here and there as focal points, and more decorative stitching:

I like it so far, but it needs a bit more embellishment. Some little details here and there  as accents and to tie everything together. Already, though, I'm thinking this will be a tote bag.... Maybe you'll even see it in the shop this week, she thinks ambitiously.