what i did at the gallery

It was a good day to be in the VAAM Gallery downtown. The weather was chilly and blustery which made the warm, brightly lit gallery seem even cozier than usual. In addition to making several sales, including 3 pieces of my own jewelry (yay!) I managed to get quite a little studio time in. I worked some more on the piece I posted yesterday, adding pink, purple, and green angelina to the soy silk roving, then pulling apart a red dyed silk cocoon rod into three pieces and embellishing it down (that's the 3 red blobby things). I covered the whole thing with a piece of sheer purple chiffon and finished it off with a couple strands of different fibers which I kind of just let fall on the piece and embellished them down where they landed.

I had asked yesterday whether bookmarks would be a good use for this piece and got several positive responses. However, the longer I look at it the more I'm seeing it framed. I don't know. It isn't finished yet so I have some time to decide.

I wanted to go ahead and do some bookmarks, especially as I would like some to give as gifts in the near future, so I embellished another piece of Kunin felt with wool roving, angelina, dyed cheesecloth, sheer light blue fabric, all overlayed with a dark blue chiffon headscarf, then cut the results into three pieces, each 2" x 6". I've finished one bookmark with various fibers, beads and a fun ceramic charm, and the others are well on their way. I'm happy with the way these turned out. Two of them are backed with a green/blue batik and the other with a piece of wide, sheer, sparkly ribbon.

Not a bad day, I'd say.

another "what is it" moment

I was playing around with the embellisher last night and did the following, using soy silk roving and a piece of orange Kunin felt backed by heavy pellon:


I put a piece of sheer purple chiffon over the soy silk; the cord is one I made a couple of days ago and is just laid on top for contrast. I have been thinking about making some small items to sell in the VAAM Gallery. Maybe this will turn into bookmarks or somesuch. I'm working my shift at said gallery tomorrow, so I'll probably work on these.

the tie that binds

I was fiddling around with making machined cords last night. The pink and green cord is space dyed silk ribbon from carma.biz stitched around a solid woven cord inner core. The blue/purple is some fiber I purchased from joggles.com and is also wrapped around woven cord, as is the variegated pink on the right, which is just some commercially made grosgrain ribbon. Along the bottom of the photo is a double layer of hand-dyed viscose gimp from stef francis. These I just machined together without anything wrapping them.

Here's a little closer shot. You can see the unfinished edges of the silk ribbon, which I think adds texture and makes the cord more interesting.

As usual when I make things like this, I have no idea what I will use them for, but they're bound to come in handy sometime.

Thanks for the comments on my doors blogpost yesterday, especially from new posters. (You oldtimers know I love you already, I hope!)

doors

Several bloggers from around the world have posted pictures of doors on their blogs today, so I thought I'd get in on the act. If you'd like to see more, you can go here for a pretty comprehensive list of participants.

These are the doors of the McPherson Opera House, most of which is already restored with the rest to be completed in early 2009. I love the stained glass ornamenting this door.

This is the elegant entrance to McPherson Museum & Arts Foundation. Once a private residence, it has been fully restored to its original 1920's splendor.

This is the much more mundane and functional side door to our local newspaper.

This is actually the back door to a couple of downtown businesses. I think the wrought iron around the couryard is rather charming.

This is the backdoor to one of my favorite shops, the bead store.

This is the front door to a very charming historical home in my neighborhood.

The front doors to the First Congregational Church. This has a gorgeous reproduction in stained glass of part of Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling. Really beautiful backlit at night.

Not a great photo (out the window of my car) but the building is wonderful, our 140 year old courthouse built of native limestone.

Another church, this one not so fancy. I've included rather more than the door because it gives you the kind of run-down, desolated feel of the place.

This is the front door of my friend Jean. She and her husband live in a lovely old Victorian home with lots of charm.

double inchies

I am not happy with the quality of this photo, but it gives you some idea of what I did last night between supper and bedtime.
Can you see the little flower buttons stitched on? I made leaves out of green fuzzy rick-rack. You can see everything more clearly if you click on the photo. I think I'll maybe mount these on some black matboard and frame them.

This morning there was the most gorgeous sunrise. Of course, I was admiring it from the moving car after taking Dylan to school and I didn't have my camera so the best I can do is this photo which I got here:

This was even taken in Kansas! Rooks County, to be exact, up in the northwest area of the state. In Kansas we have the advantage of no mountains or anything to get in the way of a beautiful sunrise. Of course, there's nothing to block the wind either, but that's a different subject.

Have a good day, everybody.

UPDATE--I don't know what is going on with blogger but it wasn't allowing for clickable photos, so I fiddled together this closeup of my own. This is the top double inchie in the photo above. At least you can see the flower a little better.

unnecessary purchases

I did a little shopping over the weekend although I need absolutely nothing. I ended up with some really cute and colorful trims in happy, springy colors. I especially like the wide paisley ribbon and the blue/green argyle. There should be some rainbow colored rick-rack in this photo but somehow it didn't make it. (Couldn't be photographer error, no way.) I loved the tiny reels of specialty ribbon--four feet of ribbon for .87. How could I not get them?

I bought the tissue paper because I might need to send some things out soon and my tissue paper selection is second-hand to say the best and tatty to say the worst.

that's more like it

At last I have something stitchy to show after days with nothing. This is what became of that funny patchwork piece I put together. Moogsmum purchased a couple of these cute wallets on etsy the other day so I went looking for a pattern and found it (on about.com, I think). It suits the patchwork.

Here's the inside, complete with room for cash, credit cards, and coins. I just think this is such a clever pattern.

And here's the outside, unfolded. As with any new pattern or project this represented a bit of a learning curve. It was a little labor intensive but that was due at least in part to me figuring out how to put it together. If I make others it will probably get easier and faster.


The rest of the patchwork became an artists' postcard, an ATC, and some embellished bits I may turn into inchies or double inchies. These projects used up all but a sliver of the patchwork which makes me happy.

It was a good weekend. We didn't go anywhere but got some things done around the house and let Dylan recuperate more. He has spent hours this evening playing with our huge collection of Lego's, mostly amassed by his two older brothers. Dylan has been fever free since Saturday morning and is in good shape to return to school tomorrow. I think everyone is pretty much over all their icky bugs (I'm knocking wood furiously right now) and if the weather today was any indication, spring can't be far away.