Sunday Snapshots

I'm only posting one photo today, but it has a funny story.  I told my youngest that once I am all moved in to the new studio, the old space will once again turn into a room for their art, boardgames, crafts, etc.  Well - oh my.  She had this vigourous energy all of a sudden, "come on mama!  Let's get you out of here!  Where do we start?"  Ha!  Well if that isn't a way to have a child clean and declutter with joy, I don't know what is!  Her favourite thing to do is sort spools by colour.  I have fifteen new bins and away we went.

This is only my collection of regular weight threads.  There are about 750 of them.  Half are greens & yellows.  The spools will sit out on a long, long shelf along a wall, just behind where I sit and threadpaint.  : )  It feels great to reorganize things!  There's a number of things I don't need or don't use, so I plan to donate to the Grandmothers for Grandmothers sale next month here in Saskatoon.

p.s.  I have baseboards, door trim, and furniture in now!  YAY : ) 

Happy Sunday

Commission for ME (!) And one completed..

A commission for me.  YES!  Remember last year when I commissioned an illustrator to make a family cartoon for the holidays?  It was the BEST.  No regrets.  Now in anticipation of my new workspace, I've been dreaming up something special - something very personal and from my heart.  I approached a fibre artist that I consider to be SPECTACULAR.  I found her work on Flickr and decided to 'pop the question'.  She said yes!  I'm so thrilled.  I'll show you when it's done.  Her style is very specific (for lack of better term) so if I show her off now, you'll miss half of the excitement when I unveil the final artwork.  I am buzzing with happy over this.  I makes me understand how important of a role an artist has with a personal commission.

Speaking of commissions, I just finished up a threadpainting for a very special woman who is soon to be leaving the prairies.  She requested the grasses swaying in the breeze.   I just finished it up this morning.  I'm not sure yet what to name this piece, but it's a big deal I think.  She'll be taking this little bit of prairie with her, packed up in a box with her belongings, next to other boxes full of more of the same.  I'm not sure where she's going, but I understand it's a big move.  It was life changing for me the day I came back to the prairie.  It's bittersweet thinking about her leaving.

If you are reading this, I hope you love this and I sincerely wish you all the best on the next chapter in your life.  : )

Things I Love Thursday

I love matching thread colours.  It's like playing I Spy.  It's a most enjoyable process.

grey-green

charcoal / rusts

blondes / soft grey / a hint of smokey mauve

pewter

Then I start to 'paint'.

I call the the 'ugly phase'.  : )

I love the 'ugly phase' too.

I love the point where I am done the main threadpainting and move into the details.

I love how thread looks like grass.  I love how grass looks like thread.

: )  I will show you the finished version soon. : )

Happy Thursday!  I'm off to Regina / White City / Rouleau.  Looking forward to the fun!

linking to WIP Wednesday at TN&TN

Wonderfil Thread

Don't get me wrong - I love any and all thread.  Mettler polyesters, King Tut cottons, Sulky variegates.  All of my rayons happen to be Wonderfil threads.  I have a LOT of colors.  Wonderfil is Canadian, out of Calgary I believe.  I stocked up at a big quilt show a number of years ago.  Since then, they've been kind enough to sponsor gifts for draws I've had here and at the Needle & Thread Network.  You can also see more projects at their facebook page.  Since Creative House (a shop in my city) packed their place with the entire line of Wonderfil, I've been shopping.  Mostly, I go for the colors I need.  Cheaper threads are a nightmare, linting up the machine WAY too much for threadpainting.  The Wonderfil threads are great because they are huge spools at a very affordable price, and they are low lint to lint free.  Plus - they are all here at my fingertips!  So I've been stocking up on more cottons.  The problem is that I go in thinking, "hmmm, maybe this is the right color" which is ridiculous when you are standing in front of a wall of thread.  Jane Evans stocked me with her old thread cards, ensuring me that they will absolutely come in handy.  She was right.  So I ordered some from Wonderfil.

Wonderfil Thread Color Card books in my sewing room : )

It is nice to have all the colors in your sewing room to decide before you head out to purchase.  It's a huge time saver to call and say, "do you have thread # xyz in stock?".  The spools are huge - 1000m for under ten dollars.  To make it sweeter, Creative House just launched all their shopping online!  (click to link)  They were so excited - I was their first customer.  : )

Wonderfil is a Canadian company with headquarters in Calgary

Yum.  I could eat thread for breakfast.  : )  So here's some cool news - a rep from Wonderfil UK emailed me to ask if they could showcase my work on their site!  COOOOOL.  : )  Really cool. 

Okay - off to sew.  I think I'm having withdrawal!  lol  Talk soon,

Teaching, Learning, and Show & Tell

What a BUSY week.  Oh my.  I taught two classes, and I took two classes!  The 2 postcards workshops were great.  I always enjoy offering them.  I got a couple photos from Judy, the owner of the Studio on Ninth.  They are from the second class (the day I forgot my camera).

hey look, it's me!  Thanks Judy : )

aren't they pretty!!??  : )  Click to see them bigger...

Then, this afternoon, I attended the second of a four part Wonderfil thread course called "Luscious Threads".  There was a project today with really, REALLY thin thread that I quite enjoyed.  I did a lot of free motion work, raw edge applique, and even did my first-ever trapunto!  I thought that was pretty cool.  It was a non-traditional method where you don't have to slice the backing fabric.  I still can't get over how thin that thread was - Decobob & Invisifil.  It was like hair.  Seriously.

you can barely see the thread!

pretty, though I should not have outlined the Trapunto with beige thread.  Just a sampler...

Last, but not least, I attended the final night of my USCAD class.  This was made possible by a scholarship from the Saskatoon Quilters' Guild.  It was thirteen 3-hour evenings of "Experimental Fibre Art II".   The purpose of the class was collaboration.  I started two pieces and passed them on to other classmates to complete, and I finished one piece that someone else started.  There is also the wrapping piece, and one last one I collaborated on with Jill Cope (also a member of our quilt guild).  I will absolutely post photos, but not until after our class exhibit!  : )  I love love love what I made.

I had no idea, but our Instructor Anahit has booked a space at the University this Thursday night if you would like to come see!  6-8pm would be great, and it's free.  I'm pretty proud of my work!  It's very... experimental.  : )  We will be there earlier to set up and check out the space for the first time.  Here is the poster Anahit made to announce the event!

I won't be there until shortly after 5, but will stay until 8 when we take our art home.  Most of us feel that the one who finished the art will keep the piece... I think?  hmmm.  I hope to see some friendly faces there!

Cheap Thrills & Some Fancy Schmancy

The right color.  Why is it so hard to find?  Painters have it better I think.  They have standard colors in any medium of paint.  They can also blend.  I swear, I have 20 shades of green thread and still feel I never have the right color.  The same goes for yellow.  I can pick a bright, strong yellow in several different brands, and no two will be the same.  I'm doing up another canola field, and can you believe I cannot find the right yellow!?

It shouldn't be so difficult.  Canola is yellow, yellow, yellow.  I ended up running out to the store again and purchased these.  I took them home, and the embroidery floss is perfect.  Not too dull.  Not too light.  Not too neon.  Not too warm.  Not too sparkly.  It's perfect.  That's the great thing about embroidery floss - there are a bazillion numbered shades of every color.  I have since completed about 1500 french knots with it.  I'm about half way done.

Great news!  A new Value Village opened near my house just days ago.  It's a few blocks away from where our quilt guild meets.  I went with Arwen & her tooth-fairy money to do some treasure hunting.  There wasn't a lot, but I did come home with bags of these for just a couple dollars.

The colors are fabulous - lots of naturals for landscapes.  Believe it or not, there are no two colors alike in that pile.  What a terrific lot!  I'm sure I'll use them in my winter-scapes.  And then I saw these for a dollar...

It's a bag of 4 packs of Candlewicking floss.  Nice!  Then I came home to search for hours on the internet for postcard stamps - like rubber stamps for inking the backs of the postcards.  I have a plain one, but I want fancy-schmancy.  What an ordeal.  Michael's doesn't carry them and didn't seem to care to order them for me.  They pretty much put all the scrapbooking places out of business.  So I looked on the internet.  I fill out all this info only to find they don't ship to Canada.  GAH!  I found some really pretty ones, but they won't arrive until after jurying.  Oh well.  I did speak to the last scrapbooking place in the city, and the woman I spoke with has one and will let me use it while I wait for my order to come in.  (THANK YOU!!)  Goodness me.  I have too many to put through my printer, so I want a pretty stamp that I can use.  (I'm not sure Staples makes them pretty enough, you know?)  Aren't these lovely?  These are what I'm waiting for.

Fancy-schmancy!  Unfortunately, it's a whopping $30 to express ship one sheet of acrylic stamps to my house.  I'll wait for it to arrive locally.  Then I have to buy the ink.  Goodness me.  I'll have to get all those scrap-bookers into sewing up their postcards in my classes so that I can make the bucks to buy the goods.  lol  Isn't that always the way?  : )