I haven’t had much time this week to work on anything but I did cut out some stencils. I tried using the Nautilus shell one but already tore it – sigh. So now I am attempting to use some gel medium to see if that will stiffen them up a bit. I only used card stock for the stencils and I guess I should have used something a bit stiffer. I’m hoping to use these to stencil some more scarves. More on this later.

Yesterday I got several sets of oil paint sticks. I decided that the scarves we had dyed back in July still needed a bit more color. Here is the first one. I stenciled both ends the same. I think I may over dye these again after the paint sticks dry and I heat set them.

Here’s a photo showing both ends. Sorry about the quality of the photos. I need to get a better set up for taking photos. I’m planning on doing at least 2-3 more scarves this way. It was fun!

Here is my piece for the September TIF Challenge. The concept for this month is lists. I do use lists but it wasn’t an idea that really excited me much for making a piece. But I looked up the definition of lists and one of those definitions is selvage or selvedge. While I was researching this a bit, I found a website that was all about how to make quilts from selvages. So I followed the
basic directions from there to make this piece. It was originally going to be a scroll but I don’t really like it rolled up so it is going to be a small quiltie. These were all selvages from my scrap bin and I made the quilt double sided. The quilting of the piece was to further emphasize lines on a list.

Here’s the back view.

This is a close up of my piece about stumps that I am continuing to work on. It’s got a bit more to go and then I have ideas for several companion pieces. I need to have them done before January so I hope I’ll have time to get them done. I’ve got more company coming and I have to work next Friday – bah humbug.

This was an experiment in my journal. It is a method for copying transfers to paper using of all things citrus based paint remover. But it worked great. I copied the music on to the page first and then added the color afterward with leftover dye. I was thinking of adding a pear in the foreground but haven’t gotten to that yet.

Speaking of pears, here is a sketch that I made of some pears the other night.

Even though I haven’t been posting, I have been doing some fiber work. I continue to work on my project based on tree stumps. I have decided that I will make a series of three small (8″x11″) pieces that I am going to enter into a show. This will be the first time I have ever entered anything so wish me luck. It’s not due until January so I can manage the deadline and hopefully my pieces will be chosen. I’m thinking of calling them “Tree Stories” since growth rings on a tree show what has happened to the tree in it’s lifetime. More on this later.

Here’s a bag that I use to carry my fiber, wool etc. in when I need to travel. It was a canvas giveaway bag which was plain and ugly. So I have done the graffiti treatment on it. It isn’t quite complete as I am going to do one more central piece to add to the front.

Here’s the back.

And a close up. I think this is technique is fun because you just keep adding layer upon layer and if you mess up, it doesn’t matter because you can just cover it up. I may add some more writing on the top layer as well. I haven’t decided yet.

Here’s a birthday card I made for DH. He liked it even though it isn’t very manly.

Here is my piece for the August TIF challenge. I had many thoughts about this one but I wasn’t happy with any of my ideas. Then, when I was eating out at a restaurant on their patio, I looked over and there was this branch. And I thought – now that is balance. So this is the piece I made. I could tell you that each leaf represents a part of my life and some are given more importance than others blah, blah, blah… But, really I didn’t go through all that. I think that nature can show us so much and balance is one of those things. I embellished the background on recycled felted sweater and then painted a heavy interfacing for the leaves. The branch is machine stitched cord couched down by hand. The stems are embroidery floss couched down by hand. I painted the veins on the leaves.

Here are a couple of close ups.

So now I’m off to the NW Montana Fair – we usher at the rodeo. Whoopee!