My latest embroidery project.

I have started embroidering on black and white photos.  The possibilities are endless...

Annie's Studio

THIS IS A MAGICAL PLACE. 

It is the studio of my friend Annie who lives in the Santa Cruz Mountains of California.  We met online two years ago and have been keeping an art journal together ever since then.  We usually send it back and forth to each other through the mail, but this time I visited her and got to pick it up in person!  We spent many hours working on all sorts of projects together and talked nonstop about our lives, our passions, and our dreams.  Here are some photos of a few of the pages in our journal.

 

  

Visit Annie's Etsy shop here:  oblations.etsy.com

Today's creation.

Today I made this watchband for my new watch by sewing buttons onto a piece of elastic.  One button is shaped like a little pocketbook, another one is from a girl scout uniform, and  there are rhinestone buttons throughout to add sparkle.  For once, I started and finished a project in one sitting.  It was just the right activity for a rainy day. 

But this is how my work table looked when I was finished.  Its hard to believe that anything cohesive came out of such a mess.  I guess it's all part of the creative process. Cleaning up will have to wait until tomorrow, though.  I will just switch to knitting for the rest of the evening!

Embroidered Gloves

This is becoming a signature design of mine; a curving, continuous, meandering line with lots of color.  It reminds me of a dance improvisation that I taught in my classes for many years.  Students were instructed to walk in curving pathways around the space without any sharp turns or stops.  The challenge was always to keep moving and cross each others paths smoothly, without bumping into each other.  It is an exercise to increase kinesthetic awareness and can be surprisingly difficult even though the only required movement is plain walking.  It is wonderful to be able to translate my dance experience into embroidery.

Greening the kitchen for the New Year.

I decided that our kitchen needed some reorganization in honor of the new year and wanted some shelf paper to add to the inside of the cabinets.  My goal this year, as it has been for a long time, is to make as many things as I can instead of buying them.  I had already been collecting brown paper grocery bags to use as wrapping paper for Christmas presents so I  had the supplies handy.  After I cut them open, I ironed them with steam so that they would lie flat.  Then I measured and cut them to fit the shelves.

 

I used pinking shears for a decorative edge.  I kept the first piece as a template and slipped the next one that I cut onto a shelf.  It fit perfectly!  Clean glasses were in the dishwasher awaiting their new home, so in they went.

There's only one problem.  There are more than 25 shelves to go before I finish the job!  Is that really how I want to spend my New Year's Day?

I've decided that I will take a nap and think about it later.  Maybe instead of doing it all at once I could do a little bit all year long.  I'll let you know next New Year's how its going!