Studio Snowed-in Day

I pulled the kids off to school in the sleds today!  Whew - what a dump of snow, but the temperature is really nice out.  FUN FUN tonight!  My husband just came in from using the snow blower.  It's just way too deep to shovel.  So I'm 'stranded' in my studio.  ; )  I'm framing up two commissions that are finished (I'll show you tomorrow).  Right now I have October's Eve all matted & framed.  Oooh it's such a marvelous piece to me!  I will have to stare at this one for a long while before I sell it.

I am so in love with the glow in this piece.  The sky is hand painted.  The slough is done with Wonderfil rayons.  I am so glad I chose this over cotton right here.

The knots - I love the knots so much too.  They are the curls at the tops of the reeds.  I know you have seen this one already, but it just feels like a new piece once it's framed.  ; )

I'm super-happy with this one.  Okay - the sun is shining and the sky is blue.  It's just gorgeous outside.  I'm framing a few more before I'm off to get the kids from school.  : )

March - In Like a Lion, Out Like a Lion.

March.  Oh March!  What a month you will be.

* Every Thursday night I have Experimental Fibre Art classes for a total of 18 hrs.

* March 11th is the day I get my work juried at the Saskatchewan Craft Council.  (gasp!)  That is in 10 days.

* March 18th is the day the embroidery guild puts up a double display at the Centre Galleries.  I plan to put the Spirea into that one.

* March 24 is a sneak-peek art show that Creative House has invited me to do.  I'll talk briefly about my work, and do a machine demo (they sell Janome). Nervous?  Yeah, a tad.  I'll post details on that later in the month. I know there will be refreshments and door prizes.  Oooh!  Exciting.

* March 29 is when I put my work up for sale at Gardenscape for 3 days & volunteer there (with traffic of 25,000+ people).

* April 4 (we'll count that as March too), I am doing a presentation for the Bridge City NeedleArts Guild.

WHEW!  After that - all my work goes to new homes, and I start fresh with a new body of work.  In the mean time, March is also the month where A Needle Pulling Thread comes out.  Wait until you see what they have done!  My head is spinning.

I want to let you know that I'll need to blog less for a while, but that never seems to happen!  I'll spend the summer off with the kids, and then get back into it with teaching in the fall.  Pretty exciting!  In the mean time, my husband is pushing me to do a book or video classes, but oh man.  Some day.  Some day!

In the mean time, I have been working on this:

Tipi and Rosehips, work in progress...

I'm so at peace with this.  You might think it looks like crap at this stage, but hold tight!  It's the back drop for the tipi and rosehips, with the dry grasses poking up out of the little bit of snow from last November.  I'm pretty sure I can get it done by the jurying session.  It's a sister landscape to this one.

At the Buffalo Jump, 2011

I just picked up the last of the double mats from the shelves at Michael's lastnight.  Talk about LUCKY.  What they had left was exactly what I needed to get ready for the jurying session.  These are all ready for framing.

Stitchin' away...  framing next week.  Thanks for stopping by!

Friday Finishes

I finished it!  I completed the dark little french knots along the reeds.  I finished the details in the trees as well.  I love the horizontal lines in the tree trunks.  Yay!  It's done.

October's Eve, 2012

This is one I will likely not do again, simply because of the sky.  This one was hand painted/dyed and just happened to be so fitting for this piece.  It was perfect, and completely accidental!  I nearly tossed the sky until when I realized how strongly it resembled that night.

Onward...

Here's a wall hanging I've been tossing around in my head for two years now.  It's a topography of the South Saskatchewan river & the farmers' fields.  I did one before in raw silks, though there was no river in it.  This is just the audition - all the pieces lying on the table.  So far I like it.  This is how I'll be using all those blue decorative yarns eventually.  The fabric pieces you see are all taffeta.

Topography II

You need to imagine that with lots of stitches : )  It's pretty big compared to my little embroideries.  It's maybe 20x30 inches or so?

And then I did a silly thing.  I signed up to make 'I Believe in Faeries' postcards for the PostCard Cottage swaps.  ugh.  I swore I would take a month off because I have so many commitments in March,  Oh March.  It's pretty much ridiculous.  Sooo many commitments.  Sew many.

Happy Groundhog's Day!

Work in Progress

I was finally able to get more done on this piece...  Eve's Glow.  October's Glow.  October Eve.  (sigh)  Still not decided on the title.  I am really enjoying every stitch though.  ; )

rusty French knots in the reeds to show off curls

I am still so very impressed with how those Wonderfil rayons really make the water look like water.

I'm also at the point of hand stitching this piece.  I haven't shown you yet.  It's a new take on Bloom.  It's 3x9 inches... vertical!  I love the feel that cropping things differently creates.  Here's some pretty close-ups of the work thus far.

Bloom 3, in progress

Here is the first Bloom from last year, 6x8".

Bloom, 2011 (sold)

Now that I have more colors, I really look forward to stitching in the blanket flowers onto Bloom 3. 

Check this out.  I was wandering aimlessly around a department store, looking for treasure to perk me up after a week of tending to sick me and sick children.  (Do you ever do that?)  I found it!  Bernat decorative bundles of yarn fibres.  It's a 'scarf making kit' at Zeller's... but I have other plans for these pretties.

mmmm... couching, couching, and more couching : )

No kidding!  Zeller's for ten bucks each.  Nice.  There's a heck of a lot there!  I'm impressed.

Linking to The Needle & Thread Network!  ; )

 

Work in Progress - Nearly Done!

I'm having a lot of fun with this piece.  It has crazy colors, but it's all coming together so well.  This is why it is good to have nearly 300 thread colors in your stash.  ; )  Here is the hand-stitched finishing, part one.

This is based on a photo I took in October.  There were pinks and purples in the darkening sky.  Night was coming.  It was windy out.  I parked just past Grasswood and faced into the west for these shots.  There was a flooded ditch, or maybe a slough lined with green algae and curly-topped reeds.  Those trees are typical - when you can see all these bare top branches poking out above some leafy boughs.  I wonder... if I leave this, will people think I failed to finish the trees?

I have this 7x9 inch canvas clamped into the universal craft stand and my Ottlite is on.  WOW.  These are no doubt my favorite presents from under the tree last month.  I can see good color in the dark, and my work is being held for me.  lol  Brilliant.

I'm quite thrilled at the contrast of glowing burnt orange in the land with the teal and purple in the sky.  I'm really happy as well with the way the water has turned out!  It's rayon Wonderfil, and the reeds are cotton with some hand stitched.  The pond reflects the sky colors really well!

the lower corner of the piece...

I added a lot of texture to the trees' leaves by hand.  There's still lots more to do.

this is my favorite shot

The pink and blue sky is so reminiscent of the beginning of winter here.  So that's where I'm getting the name... "Winter is Coming".  Or should I call it, "October Evening"?  `October`s Eve`.  hmmm.  I haven`t decided.  Inspire me! Hopefully I will get all the stitching completed over the weekend.  There are a few more highlights to add until it's done...  Happy weekend!