Small craft bazaar

Photos from the Winter Bazaar I was in last weekend:

I prefer making snowmen over santas

Debut of some of my altered paintbrushes

I love painting these doll chairs

My very whimsical one-of-a-kind painted doll chair

I'm now branching out and painting on other found objects as well

Another one of my painted chairs

More fabric baskets

A few Christmas coiled fabric baskets

One of my tables

Another table and I still couldn't get all of my stuff displayed

There wasn't a lot of room in the gymnasium at the school

Two of my "in progress" art quilts

I cannot believe my favorite upholstery store is going out of business!!  This store was a hidden gem for me.  When one first enters this shop it seems pretty small, then there are swing doors to the second part of the store.  The first room housed most of the upholstery, the second room had mainly trims and tassels.  Then there was a third room in the back!  This is where I get super excited because they have bins and bins and bins full of remnants... CHEAP!  When I started making art dolls years ago I would use these remnants as their clothes.  Some upholstery is very textured and rich in colors and there are different types of patterns that you can't find in a traditional fabric or quilt shop. 

Since my artistic endeavors change like the wind I can usually find various uses for my art supplies.  Sometimes if I'm working on two different projects in two different mediums they will overlap, hence my love of art quilts.  Art quilts combine traditional quilt methods with a modern twist, usually adding unexpected objects to beautiful wall hangings. And this is where my ideas overlap... I could use my upholstery remnants as a base to creating unique one-of-a-kind art quilts!

This was one that I started a few months ago:

Of course it was 2-D until I added beads, yarn, ribbon and puffy paint to it.  I also made some of the centers stand out by using extra upholstery and stuffing it with cotton.

Then I found some of my old sculpey beads that go almost perfectly with these colors!  I probably made these in the early 90's.

(circular bead in the bottom right hand part of the photo)

Again this is not finished yet.

Last week when I went to this upholstery shop again (they aren't closing until at least December) I found this remnant that I fell in love with!  The moment I saw it it inspired me.  The dark brown part of the leaves are velvet and feel oh so soft!  Here was the picture I took a few days ago after quilting it and hand sewing a row of gold beads:

As you can tell by the photo there are gold accents on the beige background part of the upholstery.  When I quilted over this it seems to disappear so I wanted to make that stand out again... fabric markers to the rescue!  I have also added decorative yarn and turquoise beads.

I have a huge collection of beads and usually I can find the right colors to go with my projects.  Here is a photo of everything I've used so far:

As with the first one posted here I like to work on these for a while then walk away for a few days. This is why I could never be on Project Runway, sometimes they only have one day to complete a challenge!  Anyway, when I return to a project it is with "new eyes" and I am able to be inspired again.

Jewels for the Wall

For Christmas I received a subscription to Quilting Arts Magazine.  I love this magazine because it combines quilting with other mediums (right up my alley!).  I started making art quilts about 1-2 years ago, embellishing with found objects and beads.  This magazine shows me how to create my own fabrics with dyes, stamps and silk screening.  An article in the December2014/January2015 issue entitled Jewels for the Wall by Natalya Aikens inspired my next creations.  She made mini art quilts, framed them and then painted the frames to match the colors in the quilts.  Mine, of course, looks nothing like hers but that's the beauty of art!  Every artist has their own talents and interpretations of their world.

This was my very first one:
I only used fabric, beads and paint.

And because I love owls this was my second one:
For this creation I used fabric (the owl), upholstery (the gray background and the blue branch) and puffy paint (little designs coming off the branches).  There are also beads sewn on the eyes.

My third one is my absolute favorite because it's not as tight or structured as the last two.  I call it Steampunk and Butterflies.
(again I used fabric, upholstery, beads, clock parts and other hardware)

(top part):

(bottom part):

This is the start of two new creations.  I will be embellishing with seashells, sea grass and of course more beadwork.  The horizontal frame will be the seashore and the vertical frame will have lighthouse fabric in it.

These and many more creations will be for sale in my booth at the Newport News Fall Festival of Folk Life first weekend in October, please come out and see me!

The start of my Nutcracker Art Quilt

I love art quilts.  I love making them and I love looking at them.  Sometimes an art quilt contains embellishments such as beads, ribbons, found objects and things from nature.  A few months ago I started hand sewing beads onto one of my art quilts and I LOVE how it is turning out.  Granted it is taking a while but it is totally worth it!  

After deciding to embroider the centers of my Block of the Month blocks (see last post) I have really embraced this type of needlework.   I love it because to me everything about embroidery is creative, I can draw my own pattern and I can use any colors I want.  If you can't draw, or need ideas, all you have to do is search "coloring pages+mermaids" or whatever you little heart desires.

About a year ago I found this Christmas fabric on sale.  I traditionally like red and green but this one really grabbed my eye.

I had not known what I was going to do with this fabric until a few days ago.  Along with peacocks, mermaids and Halloween I also like nutcrackers (like mother like daughter!)  I found a line drawing of a nutcracker online and have decided to embroider him in blues and greens.  He will then be the center of one of my art quilts with this fabric being one of the borders and maybe the backing.

I love adding sequins and beads to make it really "sparkle":

I purposely did not sketch in the eyes because I was going to use black beads and I didn't want the pencil marks to show but last night I had an idea, I may paint the eyes so I can get the tiny details.

This may be for sale at the Newport News Fall Festival next year or it may not depending on how much I fall in love with it.

The Newport News Fall Festival

I have loved going to the Newport News Fall Festival since I was a little girl.  My mom has been doing this show with her artwork for a number of years (25+) and I have helped her set up since I was young.  Two years ago she suggested that I apply (I had to be juried in with my own artwork) and sell my stuff.  I was honored and humbled to say the least.  I have always looked up to my mom, she is an amazing artist and for her to acknowledge my work validated me.  I was accepted in last year AND this year and it was a total blast!  I love that it's the first weekend in October, the weather was perfect and because it's in a park the woodsy smell is just heaven.  

A big huge thank you to everyone that came out and supported me!  I was sad that my cousin Susan couldn't come down from Northern Va to help me out so my dad had to do double time between my mom and me (giving us potty breaks, etc.) 

Here are some pictures from this past weekend:

 On Sunday my creative juices were flowing so I sketched 3 pages of notes!  I am so excited to start my new ideas so stay tuned because next year's NN Fall Festival will be definitely be better than this year's! 

Featured Friday artist: ?? (he or she is even a mystery to me)

I would love to give credit to this artist, and I have searched for weeks to find a name, and although I haven't found the designer I really wanted to share these with you because I find them so interesting!

Last week I was at an antique mall in Virginia Beach, Barrett Street Antiques, and normally when I make it over there (about 1/2 hour drive) I go directly inside.  I have really been in my "creative mode" lately and I LOVE recycling old things.  When I pulled up this time I noticed that there were a lot of garden things outside.  Old statues laying around as well as life preservers and buoys, old wrought iron furniture and the like.  My kinda place! 
So I walk around out there for quite a while and discover these bird houses made out of recycled materials:

As I continued to look I found more and more of these gems!  I quickly went in and asked if I could take some pictures in the garden area, she looked at me like I had 3 heads but said yes I could take pictures.  Here are some more I found:

I found the #8 on a lot of the birdhouses, I wish I
could find the artist to ask him/her about it

After I took my pictures I went back inside to find out more about the artist. When I approached the desk I said "I'm interested in the birdhouses outside." She said "All of them?!" (Like I wanted to buy them all!  They were quite pricey.) I said "Oh no I'm interested in the artist, do you know who made them?"  Again a look of "Are you really interested in those old things??"  Then she gave a curt answer "... one of the sellers owns that part out there, he makes them and tries to sell them here".  She obviously wasn't going to give me any info and didn't want to help him out either. 

I am truly sorry for not giving this artist credit so if you're in the Virginia Beach area and can find out any more about this artist I will be sure to update this post.

Featured Friday Artist: Betsy Youngquist

I am a HUGE Pinterest person (you can find my page here).  I have a board called Art Dolls and Softees because not only do I design art dolls I LOVE looking at other peoples creative imaginations as well.  Be warned, on my Pinterest board I have pinned 579 pictures in this category alone! 

A few months ago I pinned this picture:

My first thought was "How did she do this?!"  I was intrigued by all of the beads and how they all just made sense, the colors, the placement, the sizes, everything.  Then in the winter issue of Where Women Create she is a featured artist!  I was so excited to learn more about this very talented lady, Betsy Youngquist. In the article her work is described as "Betsy's work reflects a fascination with the intersection of humans, animals and mythology.  Stemming from a  lifelong love of all creatures great and small, her work weaves together the human and animal spirit."

Here is a link to her website if you would like to find out more about this very talented artist: Betsy Youngquist.

And here are just a few more of her designs:

She also sells her work on Etsy at: Betsy Youngquist Beaded Mosiac Sculpture

Spring is officially here!

And that means changing my color pallet (just a little).  I had pneumonia this past winter plus my side job of pet sitting that I can't believe I let two months slip away.  I have been working on many more new fabric bowls AND have also been exploring the techniques used in art quilts because I just don't like following patterns.

Here is a look at some of my new spring fabric bowls:

All of these are for sale at Auntie M's American Cottage in Yorktown, VA