Meet Slime, the swamp monster. He is needle felted sculpture that has been a WISP since last October. He was supposed to be completed for a Halloween challenge but perhaps he only wanted to come out for Memorial Day.

He’s all wool which I dyed. He thinks he’s on a calendar for all those lonely female swamp monsters. So he’s posing in a provocative way.

Here’s a closeup of his face.

Here’s my finished iris piece. This isn’t the best of photos. I stitched the silk iris on the background and did some stitching highlights. I didn’t think the iris were highlighted enough so I added a little pearlescent white paint to high light the iris.

Here is a closeup of the iris with the bud.

And the other iris. I needle felted the stems in place. Now I have to decide how to hang/frame. Perhaps a shadow box.

Here is a beautiful book that I won from Sue B’s blog give away. It is really lovely. Thanks Sue!

Here’s the back.

The inside front cover.

And a page with a library pocket.
Here is my latest project.
Sorry about the crazy posting of photos. Blogger is not behaving. Anyways… The first photo is before wet felting. I used hand dyed wool roving for the backing which I embellished on my needle felting machine. I used a variety of fibers and yarns. Then I sewed on the appropriate color of fabric collage pieces. There are closeups of before and after wet felting. This is the background and I am going to add more fibers, stitching and three iris that I made from dyed silk hankies. More later after it dries! And if you haven’t checked it out yet, go check out Sharon B’s stitchin fingers group. Anyone interested in the fiber arts can join.

I finished the purple bag that I’m planning to use for my workbook. I end up not taking the workbook with me because I don’t carry a purse. Then I’m sorry I didn’t take it because inspiration seems to pop up at the oddest moments. I need to make a pencil case now so my pencils won’t poke through the felt.

I tried a different FME pattern this time. It’s leaves which you can see in this close up.

Happy Mother’s Day to everyone. I’m not a mother but I count my two dogs as children (sad isn’t it?). Anyway – I hope you had a grand day.

Sharon B. raised an interesting question on her blog about women wanting to break all the rules when doing artwork. I know that for myself I think that fiber art is freeing because I feel able to break the rules. One reason I think I don’t like regular quilting is due to having to follow all the patterns and rules etc. My creativity is much more stimulated by doing things that don’t have so many rules. I think that everyone has creativity but so many “rules” are put on them by society, their jobs, their parents etc. that many people never allow that side of themselves to be free. That is sad and what are we losing as a society by stifling all that creativity?

Here’s the bag I’m working on for my niece’s graduation present. It’s not sewn together yet – just waiting for the strap to dry after felting it this afternoon.

Here’s the purple piece that I’m going to make a bag for me. It has silk on the top that you can barely see in this photo.

Here are some experiments with oil pastels. I started by doing a color chart. Then I used masking tape and used different colors in the yellow to red color range. I washed it with watered down red dye.

Here is a small sketch of a pomegranate in oil pastels and then a wash of brown acrylic paint.

This last one is done with a stencil and then a wash of yellow watercolor. It was fun experimenting.