Gardenscape #3 - Update

Here ends another great weekend at Gardenscape.  I always spend the entire third day there.  Gosh I forgot how busy it gets.  It was so nice to see smiling faces and familiar faces from last year.  I am super excited about being asked once again to introduce fibre art to another school art program locally.  That door is just opening for me and I am so grateful.  Isn't that weird!?

So, here is my update:

Red dots are sold -THANK YOU!! : )

Three will go into my Winnipeg show - I marked them in the photo able.  I'm keeping Rosewood Once to myself.  It makes me happy.  I'm glad it didn't leave.  It's simple and muddy and looks just like the prairies on my birthday.  : )  Maybe that's why I like it.

Rosewood Once, 2013  NFS

Window Frost #2 & 4 are still available if anyone is interested now both SOLD - Thank you!  They sure got a lot of attention.  Below is Aglow II that is up for grabs.  It's framed in blue barnwood (see top corner of the board).

Aglow II, 2013  available

My little mini Cattails at Sunrise is available too SOLD thank you! (approximately 4x4" framed to 9x9").  On the board, you can see it just to the left of the one above.

Cattails at Sunrise, 2013 available SOLD thank you!

I thought they would sell right away - but they were very high on the board, and glared the overhead lights.  It's a crappy setting for art.  I need to keep my regular sized pieces for the next exhibit.  If you are interested in any of these little ones, drop me an email to mysweetprairie@gmail.com.  I have paypal and am happy to ship anywhere.

I have to say, in retrospect the response from onlookers was just fantastic.  I really love watching people discover my work.  It was always exciting when they run away from my board and then returned with groups of friends or family.  That happened a few times.  : )  Anyhow, I could go on and on.  I visited with so many wonderful people.  I could go on and on with stories.  Mostly though, I want to say a big warm thank you / danke / merci.  ; )  I am totally re-energized to get right back to work.

again, Happy Sunday!

Workin' the Mojo

I thought I would say a quick 'hello & welcome' to all the new faces showing up on my blog.  There's been a little surge as of late, and it's really exciting to see a batch of new followers!  If you are new here, please feel free to click on the tabs above to learn more about me, or click on the 'slideshow' tab to see some of last year's work.  All my work is original (please do not copy) and are inspired by my own personal photo shoots of the land & sky around me.  This weekend I managed to really finish some pieces that I had thought were kind-of done.  I must remember that 'kind-of done' is really 'not done'.  So here they are now, ready for the next show:

Cattails at Sunrise II, 2013 (3"x3")

When that piece was 'kind-of done', I walked through my sewing area in the evening when everything was poorly lit.  I happily glanced over to the embroidery above and couldn't see a darn thing in the sky!  That pretty sky was bleah in the dark.  So I added the stitch lines (which I LOVE) and made the sun much much brighter.  I stitched my initials in thread in the bottom right and now it is finished.  ; )  Much better.

I added some blue/black hologram thread to the water and finished handstitching the reeds so that this is done too:

Aglow II, 2013  (4.5"x6.5")

TADA!  Lookie here - the winter scene with the red barn glowing in the sunset is all done.  It's meing framed right now and oooh I can't wait to see it!  I added frosty trees & bushes, fenceposts and barbed wire.  I chose gold thread for the grasses poking up thought the snow in the foreground, and stitched the sky as well.   Done!  ; )

A Prairie Winter, 2013  (6"x8")

I love the cattails piece SO much that I've started a bigger one where there is more orange in the sky.  I'll show you soon! ; ) 

** Also - I'm running a second 'Basic Threadpainting' spring class at Creative House this Friday in Saskatoon.  There are a couple of spots left.  You need not be an artist.  Also, this is not a 'how to copy Monika's landscapes' class.  It is a beginner class to get you started on the mechanics of coloring with thread onto cloth using a sewing machine.  You will need a machine that can be set for free motion stitching, and the following thread colors: white, grey, beige, black.  Everything else will be supplied.  It would be ideal if the class was filled with Janome owners, but not mandatory.  Click here for info or to register on their website.

a 'glamour shot' of Crocuses in Spring, 2013  (6"x9")

I love glamour shots : )   OK - Linking up to WIP Wednesdays at The Needle & Thread Network.  Have a great week and thank you for stopping by!

Friday Finishes - BIG TIME!

I feel so accomplished and productive this week!  I can even explain how thrilled I am about that, especially considering that my kids have been home all week for the break.  My glasses are terrific, and thanks to some afternoon napping, I was able to pull some late nighters and sew until 2 am.  It's not as exhausting as it sounds.  I feel like I can get 2 days worth of work into one.  Fasten your seatbelts - here are some finishes from this week...

a little mini for the annual Gardenscape show in March in Saskatoon

That one is very small and I'll frame it myself.  The Spring Crocuses piece is all done.  I added so much hand stitching in beautiful platinum blonde threads.  I predict this spring will be much greener from the amount of snow that's out there waiting to melt.  Last year was so unbelievable dry.  Here is a detail...

so dry, such soft colors, such a pretty spring it was...

Here is the full piece completed.  This one is larger and will be professionally framed.

Spring Crocuses II, 2013

Here is an interesting show.  I printed out a photo I took near Grasswood Road to have beside me instead of using the computer screen.  I did up this little piece by sight (no printing or tracing or templates)... and when I was done, I laid it on the photo to take a picture.  I laughed!  I could totally light it up perfectly!  Pretty funny...

click to view larger

I love the sky in that one.  I embellished the rays coming down.  The reeds are all hand stitched.  It worked out really well. 

But wait!  There's more.  The reeds in the last photo reminded me of hand stitching cattails onto a little mini I made last year.  I had this crappy blurry dark source photo... source photos need not ever be perfect.  There was something about the composition and the glow in it that made me fall in love.  I found it in my files, and stitched it out one more time with the prettiest yellow sky.

Add some hand dyed silk ribbon, some variegated thread, and some chunky yarn.  Tada!

Cattails at Sunrise III, 2013

Want to see the source photo?   I'm afraid to show you.  lol  It's baaaaaaad.  But again, the quality is not the point.  It's what I can see in it that makes it so worthwhile.

my dark photo, brightened up a touch...

And there you have it.  Now I'll spend some time stitching my initials into them and prepping them for mounting.  On Monday I'll take them all to Donna @ CMP to get framed.

Whoopee!!  : )))

Off to the Framer!

I just completed this final commission from last year.  It's based on 'Aglow at Grasswood' which was sold last month.  A woman asked to me make another version of this for her to purchase.  I never did post much about the first one as I failed to take a good photo of it before it was off to the framer.  Before I began this commission, I took a good look through the source photographs I took from that day.  It was the evening after a major Tornado warning was eventually lifted.  I knew that black sky would crack open and pour sunshine over the fields, so I zipped down to my favorite spot on Grasswood Road to wait for that moment.

directly to the south...

to the left

to the right

As I looked closer at some of the photos, I noticed just how wet those fields were!  I love the water in this one, and so I decided to incorporate a bit of that spring flooding into the new piece.

THIS was the one I wanted!  I liked the orangy-reds and browns in it too, though I liked the original sky & cattails from the first one.  Off I went...

painting a new sky

I put it all together onto a good stabilizer and away I went...  After a couple of afternoons of free machine stitching the field, trees, and the outline of the heavy storm clouds, I was ready to begin hand stitching.  I filled in some deeper tones and highlights into the grasses.  I love stitching grass.  LOVE.  I darkened the edges around the flooded parts of the field.  I stitched out some French Knots to serve as the bumpy dried cattail puffs that were left on the stalks from the year before.

Tada!

Aglow II, 2013 Commission for M.

Seriously - I knocked my socks off myself!  I LOVE this!  Standing back to look at this, I get all teared up.  It takes my breath away.  I still can't believe I did this.   I must sound completely ridiculous.  (It's not wrong to be excited by your own work, right?)  I am jumping up and down over this.  I often go through the unfinished, 'ugly phase' in disbelief that I can pull it off.  Then I pick up a hand stitching needle and the magic begins.  I am so proud of this piece!  I hope that 'M' loves it too.  #1 - this is only possible with a gazillion shades of all the right greens.  I cannot stress that enough.  #2 - never be afraid of hand stitching.  Quilts... abstract fibre art... threadpainting... hand embroidery always manages to take the 'beauty' factor up a notch. 

Tomorrow, I'm off to the framer so she can work her magic. ; )