Lucky Fish

 

 

 

I became a bit obsessed with making these little guys over the winter. Any car ride, 

TV show I didn't want to pay attention to, idle moment, I was stitching.  Going through 

fabric scraps, looking through buttons, matching up floss you get the idea.

 

 

Another pattern from Ann Wood. This was a freebie.

The possibilities are limitless on decoration. Making good use 

of the embroidery floss stash & scrap fabric bin.

 

Made myself a couple tools to help in the assembly.

For the tiny areas in the head & tail I made a stuffing tool from a big needle. 

Cut off the end so you have a little fork to grab the batting & twist it. 

Shoved the pointy end in a cork. Perfect.

Sharpened a small dowel to further coax stuffing into the right spots.

Size perspective. 

After accumulating so many I decided to give them to friends in sets of three. 

 

 

 They got to choose from the "bait ball".

 

   

Friends with a cabin on the Boardman River want me to make

several fish to be inside & out in front of this metal skeleton.

I have ideas of what they will look like. I figure about 15 fish should do the job.

 

Inside the cabin is this wonderful print. It may be my jumping off point 

for the consumed fish. 

What strange little thing occupied your time this past winter? 

I can't be the  only one who got caught up in something unexpected.

Back in the Saddle

Happy New Year!  Let's get 2021 off to a good start. Getting back into blog posts are on the list.

     Oh my, I haven't posted since April 30, 2020! The end of the A to Z Challenge. Just couldn't muster the enthusiasm. But I'm back! ready to share the artful things that inspire me, keep me going,          cause me to obsess.  

Made a list of "things I did during Covid" in my journal so I could see I haven't been idle. The art community has been out in force sharing, teaching, encouraging, raging...  I will share my list and work through stuff I've created. Are you ready to join me? 

What have you done over the past year? What have you cooked? Where have you gone outside to feed your soul?  Did you make something fun, interesting, wacky, useful, beautiful, ugly?  What are your plans going forward?  I'm willing to share it all. Will  you?

                This is the first of many things I will share that have occupied my time                                      as well as what is on the list to do now.

             There is a virtual art exhibit at Crooked Tree Art Center I am proud to be a part of.                             The flip book turned out great. Please check it out & let me know what you think. 

Each Guild member was allowed 2 pieces. These are mine. 

                                            I plan to do the April A to Z again.                                                            That should get the fires started again to blog. 

    The first image is some of my MANY "Lucky Fish" I have been obsessed with  for quite awhile. It was a free pattern from Ann Wood. As I have a huge bin of scrap fabric & a large cache of embroidery floss it seemed the perfect thing to use up what I have on hand, which has been one of the themes in my creations over the past year. 

 I have now give them away in threes to friends.

It's a spawning ground in my studio.

Made my own little tool for stuffing the teeny tail corners. Snip off the end of a big needle stick the pointy end in a cork, voila, a stuffing tool as good as what you can buy. 

This guy is one of my favorites. Already given away, so I will make another. 

Some perspective on size. 

I took a few online courses. I will share my clay "Fat & Happy Bird" creations next time.

Use It All Up

As a group artists tend to hang on to stuff because "you never know when..."

Here we are, lots of time to create & we need that stuff now!

We are vindicated in our tendency to save crap. 

Some of the fabric above dates back to my college days in textile design class,

 workshops years ago & scraps from my canvas bin obsession. 

Lots of quilting fabric lines my bins. The larger scraps have been sorted
by color & are being used to make larger pieces I can use up for the interiors. 

We have lots of old wall paint from various room & furniture make overs.

 They work on canvas for the background color!

I love red!

I'm partial to this can of metallic silver.

You should see it in person. 

 

Not sure what we were going to paint this color. 

I think it was a failed idea. 

It works well on fabric.

Old ledger pages become small note books.

 Gotta have paper with me at all times.

Old sweaters that have been felted are being used

 to make pin cushions and amulets.

That leads to using all that Floss I mentioned.

I could go on but you get the idea. 

Are you finding stuff in your home you can use up
while we are hangin' out?

Emboidery

E is for Emboidery

 

Lots of hand stitching in my projects these days. It is meditative,
 makes you slow down. You can get lost in it.  This is a good thing.

I think the cosmos wants me to embroider. I have acquired LOTS of embroidery floss from
three friends. First was my close art pal who was given a huge
 neatly bagged pile of floss from a friend. Next one had an aunt who was
clearing out her stash of unused art supplies. Finally was my paper making mentor
who was  decommissioning her studio.

You can't let something like this go unanswered & unused.

 

Somewhere I ran across a suggestion to use spent thread spools for floss. Brilliant!
With all the sewing I do I had quite a collection. Trying to use floss from the skein you buy
 is maddening as it tangles very easily.

I have dabbled in embroidery since I can remember. I saved this piece from a chambray shirt I embellished in college. Not sure why. Maybe so it could show up in this post?

I took a lovely class in Petoskey with Christine Mauersberger this past summer.
She walked us through several exercises to help create lines & images
 to use in samples of techniques.

Riffing off our finger prints.

We scattered salt onto black paper
then used french knots to recreate the density of the grains on fabric.

Quite time consuming This is as far as I got.

I've been having fun making pin cushions from old sweater pieces I've felted.
I then embroider the pieces before stitching together. They are filled with rice.

Do you have a passtime that engages your hands, gets you to slow down, and absorbs you?
I highly recommend it in these times of being at home.