Preparations

I'm spending this week getting ready to head to SpringDaze on Saturday, trying to get some additional things made so I have more than just my bottle cap stuff in my booth.

I pulled out some of the mint tins that I've saved up and made trinket boxes out of them. I'm pleased with how they turned out, and hope they will be well received.

This one ended up being my favorite, even though I almost talked myself out of this color scheme in the beginning. All the boxes have "feet" on them so they stand up off the table.

Here are all the boxes. Pretty much they are covered in scraps and recycled materials. It was good to go through my paper box, though I still didn't make a dent in it!

Here are a couple of them opened up. I lined the bottom with wool felt and the tops with various papers. The one on the right is lined with a wrapper from a chocolate bar!

This week, I have also made a sign for my booth (still have to finish the edges and photograph it), some magnet holders/coasters from large canning jar lids, and I am currently working on collage magnets made from freebie advertising magnets that I didn't want or need. I hope to finish those today. The week is flying by, that's for sure!

Flower Shower

At the March Designers Downtown Market, my booth neighbor was Amanda of Oh Sew Cute Designs. She makes all sorts of great baby gear, and since I was in need of a shower gift for twin girls, I had to take a look. I fell in love with this fabric and bought two car seat arm pads from her (a really great idea ... wish someone had thought of it 14 years ago!!!). The fabric is by Michael Miller and is called "Flower Shower".
I absolutely love the aqua, coral, and pale lime green. A great girlie fabric without the pink and purple. Amanda was kind enough to hook me up with some yardage as well, and I made two small (24" square) coordinating quilts to go along in the carseat or stroller.

I used hand dyed fabrics and the "Bento Box" pattern by Tracey Brookshire. I modified the pattern by turning every other unit 180 degrees to give it a more random appearance. Then I created my own pattern for some flowers and raw-edge machine appliqued them onto the quilts.

To give the quilts some individuality, I made the centers of the flowers different colors. I free motion quilted them, bound (and backed) the in the Flower Shower fabric and then machine washed and dried them. I love doing this, especially with baby quilts. The batting shrinks up just enough to give the quilts a soft hand and a slightly "worn" feel. The effect of the raw edge applique (intentional) was to fray the edges of the flowers.

I had trouble getting a closeup, but I think you can see the effect. I love these quilts and I hope my neices-to-be will love them as well.

~Michelle

Those Little Things

The leaves are back on the trees (though we need a good rain to wash the yellow coat of pollen away) and the sun is filtering through the leaves and sparkling on my kitchen table. I'd almost forgotten how much I love sunny mornings in my kitchen when the trees are leafed out. :)

Remember those "little things" I said I was working on in my last post? No? Sorry, yeah it's been a long time, but here they are ...

I have two art fairs coming up ... April 24 and May 1 (local friends, see left side bar for details - come say hi!). I made a batch of coffee cuffs using my stash of painted dryer sheets. They are so bright and cheerful!

I made these 1.5" gift cubes back in February and two of them have already sold. They really are cute. I changed the button on the one on the right (which is the one I still have) and made a few more.

Most of them were cut from postcard bases that I had made a while back but had never developed into anything. I just think they're so cute and plan to make them in different sizes. They are all made from dryer sheets, except the one on the bottom left which is paper towels.

This is an ATP (artist's trading pin) that I made for a trade. It is about 1.25x2.25 or so (I don't remember exactly) and is made from silver and purple silk that came from a drapery sample book. I'm working on my hand beading!

A new product for my art fairs and eventually for my etsy shop are bottle cap pins! I also plan to make barettes in this same style. I made some with words, and some (these) without. They are fun to make and have been well received.

And in an effort to actually finish some projects, I strung together the pennants that I traded last fall on Fiber Art Traders. The ones I made were the fish skeleton and the jelly fish. I thought it was interesting that the ones I received all stayed within the same colors. I think they look great together. I tied them with raffia and found seashells. They're hanging up in my studio now.

I am working on two small quilts, which I hope to finish this week. I am still not quite done with taxes, but should have them done today. That will be a relief! I have been very absent from blogland, but I know that my friends will forgive me.

Thanks for stopping by ~ I am off to see what YOU are up to!

~Michelle

Impromptu Art

The kids have been off school for the last few weeks. We recently took the dog to a local park for a walk around the lake. We spied this bit of impromptu art along the way. Someone took some discards and made this sculpture. We loved it! I hope you can see it, it is hard to capture the depth in a photo.
Spring is in full swing here in the Piedmont of North Carolina, but just two weeks ago the signs were just emerging. I loved these fallen logs. The life cycle at work.

And the first hint of maple leaves. Love how they are red and stand out so nicely against the gray. Yes, it is finally spring.

And how could you be any happier than a dog allowed to romp through the creek and then roll in the sand. What's a little dirt in the mouth when you've got spring fever to contend with???

I have been working on a few little things, which I hope to share with you shortly. I still need to do my taxes and when it is sunny and 75 outside it is difficult to accomplish much of anything! I hope you are seeing signs of the changing seasons where you are. We should learn to celebrate each one.

~Michelle

Matters of Art

This is a new piece I made recently and couldn't wait to share it with you. It will be on display at Eye of the Eagle Art in Clayton, NC, in August. The piece is 12 inches square and I call it "Matters of Art".

I challenged myself to create a piece using only recycled/trash materials. I largely succeeded in that there are around 40 distinct items that comprise the surface of this little quilt, and nearly all would have been destined for the bin. I think the only things I used that don't qualify are a few eyelets and brads, the mirror that is in the center of the bottom central piece, the interfacing, backing fabric, paint and thread.

Each of the 9 smaller vignettes are 3 inches square, created as separate, complete pieces, and stitched to the background (which happens to be covered with dryer sheets). In the one above, I used a brown paper bag, a puzzle piece covered by a napkin, part of a wrapper from chopsticks, some beads from a broken necklace, the metal center of a floppy disk, the calendar dial from an old watch, and the foil top from a bottle of wine.

This is the piece that inspired Jenny's turtle in my previous post. Cut up CD pieces on a piece from an old map.

How many things can you find? Take a close look! You might be surprised.

I haven't had much time in my studio due to the sudden death of my VAN. I have been car shopping for the past week. We are getting close to a decision. I hope we will have something by the weekend. But ... it is still early, no one is open for business yet, and I am going to go upstairs and DO something. ~ Michelle

All sweetness and such ...

I had hoped to post this yesterday and wish you all a Happy Valentines Day, so please accept the wishes a day late.
This is the postcard I submitted to Fiber Arts for their annual Valentines event. I sent it to myself! It travelled nicely through the mail and arrived right on time. Fiber Arts has their offices located in Loveland Colorado, and each year you can send them your Valentines postcards and they put a special Loveland cancellation stamp on them. Sometime soon they should have all the entries posted on their website. It is always fun to view the collection! A few even end up in their magazine.

We made Red Velvet cupcakes a few weeks ago. They were yummy. I wish I could send one to each and every one of you!

mmmmmm..... Happy Valentine's Day! ~ Michelle

Artists Unite for Haiti

I just realized yesterday was the three year anniversary of starting this blog. Wow. That's hard to believe!

This weekend is the "Artists Unite for Haiti" art sale at the LoDi Project here in Raleigh. I just got home from dropping off some artwork - mine, my daughter's, and a stack from my daughter's middle school (she share the info with the art teacher and it kind of took off).

It's an "anonymous" sale, in that the pieces are not to be signed on the front. If you purchase a piece, you won't know who the artist is until after the purchase. I am going to give you a sneak peek of our pieces! All art is $25 and all proceeds will be donated to the Mercy Corps to help in Haiti.

This first piece is 5x7. It is an older dryer sheet piece, matted to 8x10. I call it "me encanta".

This is a larger piece (12x16) and also made from recycled dryer sheets. The background is new, I made it this week. The three panels on top were made as one 8x10 piece a few years ago. I split it into three, and finished off the edges. I call it "harlequin triptych". A detail of the piece is below.

The next photo is a portion of a piece I completed last week. I can't share the whole thing just yet as I am waiting to hear if it is accepted into a show. My daughter saw this, though, and it inspired her idea for the piece that she donated to "Artists Unite for Haiti" ...

And here she is with "turtle love". I thought it was such a great idea ... I told her I wish I had thought of it!

The background is an acrylic wash, the turtle is built up layers of tissue paper, and the shell is made from recycled CDs. I just love it!

We are both hopeful that our pieces will sell, and that the sale is a great success. They had hundreds of pieces of artwork there when we dropped off our things. It was humbling to see such a tremendous outpouring from the artistic community throughout the world. If you are on facebook, you can become a fan of "Artists Unite for Haiti" and follow the progress!