SHIIPS SAILING MY WAY

I'm beyond excited to to receive these two precious works of art from

 Handstories blogger Hazel (Cindy) Monte.

They are in the mail as you see this post.

Hazel is one of my favorite fiber artists.

I adore her designs and her delicate way with stitch & thread.

One day I hope to meet her

and watch her work.

I plan on framing these as sister ships

and cannot wait to share them with my students,

especially Hapshiba  hee hee.

Appliquilt Journal - My Work

One of the many peaks of my job is to get to be able to create right along with the kids, only I have to keep one day ahead of them so I have a piece to demo. on.  This is the Appliquilt Journal I got to build this year, and it was a blast.  I got to start with two tye-dye pieces for the out and inside foundations that I thought looked really good together.  I also forced myself to work in colors that I wouldn't normally choose, I find it's good to push yourself every now and then.  I bought the great butterfly button years ago, knowing that one day I'd find a place for it.

I'm loving cheesecloth right now so I incorporated a bit on it on the front and back side.  And I wanted to balance the butterfly on the front with one on the back so I found a handmade piece of paper that I ripped into butterfly shaped pieces and collaged them onto a piece of posterboard to strengthen them so I could sew it on onto the backside.  That beautiful paper bead was a gift from mixed media artist Kelli Nina Perkins, again, a special piece I've been saving for the perfect art piece.  I put in a lot of quilting stitches for additional interest...

and added a bit of donated lace to extend the journal edges because I accidentally made the journal pages too wide :)  I added a lace pocket on the inside jacket and slipped in an older picture of my daughter and her best friend Hope when they were 5 years old, something else I've been saving forever.  A little hand tie to keep the journal pages organized.

Then on the inside back jacket I cut off and saved pieces from each of this years 3-D students tye-dye pieces so that they could be together in my journal, a piece of each of them.  I like that. They were a very special group of kids with great chemistry.  A remembrance.

Appliquilt Journals - Student Work

Boy oh boy, did my Beginning 3-D class learn how to stitch, quilt, applique, tye-dye and embellish this year, and use those skills in putting together these journals.

The inside and outside foundations are from their tye-dye unit.  We put batting between the 2 foundations so it became quilty. They had to applique and stitch designs onto front and back covers, work text into their designs, and they needed to embellish with charms, beads, etc.   And then they learned how to book bind using the Long Stitich.  I believe we spent about 3 weeks on this assignment.

This first gorgeous book was built by senior Jessica Barnett, and it flows so well from front to back.

This next piece by senior Kasie Le-Nguyen is so earthy and rich, really reminds me of Fall and the Harvest Moon.

I've lost track just a bit of who made this heart-felt beauty, it's either senior Priyanka Shah or Eugenia Jacob.  Sorry girls, get back to me so I can make the correction  :)

"Colors of the Wind" was done by senior Michelle Yoshimoto, and the colors she has used in this work are really lovely and appealing to the senses.

Senior May Luong, whose work we've seen a lot lately in both this class and the Beginning 2-D class, gives us this sweet piece about love.  Look closely at all the applique May has worked into her design, hours and hours of time spent. 

And senior Leah Huang is another who put so much effort and time into hers themed "Country Roads Take Me Home".  Did John Denver or James Taylor write that tune and record it first?

And then there is sophomore Laarnie Barcelon who goes completely wild, and puts so much cool stuff into her works.  Below is the interior cover page which makes hers very special.

Junior Kaya Quarles is another who did a sensitive and beautiful job with her front and back covers as well as the interior.  So, so pretty Kaya.  I just knew yours was gonna be good!  :)

And just look at the impeccable workmanship on "Free as a Bird" by junior Ashley Duru.  Ashley is one of the students who can talk constantly while she works and still pull off one of the most beautiful pieces in the class.  Huh, Ashley?  LOL  Yeah, yeah, I know, you aren't the only one who talks a lot  :)

Love you!  Should I tell who the others are???

And this adorable "When Pigs Fly" piece by 8th grader Jenna De La Paz was one of everyone's favorites.  Jenna is such a superstar.  Notice her very sweet interior cover page below. 

And one of my personal favorites came from sophomore Reis Misaka in his "Counting Sheep" journal.  Just look at all that hand stitching he worked into the background  Wow!

Tons of effort and time from all of you, thank you!

Ragamuffin Scrap Animals - My Work

Currently I'm enrolled in at least half a dozen different online art classes.  This work is step one in Carla Sonheim's Ragamuffin Scrap Animal class and I'm really having fun with it.  This is a new way to use up lots of your smaller pieces of scrap fabric.  She had us lay them out in a pleasing way with lots of overlapping, then stitch them down onto a piece of muslin.    

 I used my one of my favorite sewing machines that has a lot of different stitches to choose from and went to town as you can see above and below.

Next I will use this piece to put together a whimsical creature  :)

Dee Mallon - Professional Fiber Artist

Inspired by the "Blue Moon" on August 31st, and her extensive rabbit population explosion, fiber art Dee Mallon created this whimsical quilt.  She has used some of her indigo dyed fabric and hand quilted this wonderful piece.  I fell in love with it at first sight and asked her if it was for sale.

A week later it arrived in the mail and now it hangs in my home.  I really admire how quickly Dee can put a work of art together.

Here is the back side and her label.  Thank you Dee for agreeing to part with this sweet , playful piece.  It makes me smile every time I walk by it, and reminds me of when I was a child and my mom would hang our clothes out on the line to dry.  Such heartfelt memories.    

Appliquilt Journals - Part II - Student Work

Here we go, more incredible journals for you to see from my Beginning 3-D students.  

This lovely piece "Leaves you Breathless" was made by junior Angela Wan.  Check out her echo stitching around all the major pieces, it really ties the work together

This top piece was done by senior Daniel Ho, who has some of the most beautiful craftsmanship in the class.  

Here we have junior Sara Shams.  Sara was inspired by junior Nikki Shah, who was inspired by my good friend, lawyer turned fiber artist Lori Lawson's eco-dyed cloths that Nikki saw on my blog under Artist's I Follow.  Lori does a lot of dyeing on silk so first Nikki asked me if she could try Lori's technique for her foundation cloths.  I was thrilled so I had Nikki get in contact with Lori. who shared her secrets. Well Sara saw  what Nikki had done and also gave it a try.  So both Sara and Nikki's foundation cloths are done on silk rather then the cotton that all the other kids used.  They were actually easier to needle thru.  You can see the eco-dyeing results below, how pretty and subtle they can be.  I also like how Sara tied her multi-colored pages together. 

 

Junior Hannah Park, with her theme "To be Beautiful is to be Yourself", has done an exceptional job with this assignment.  So many details to delight the eye, with lots of layering of fabrics and laces.  I adore your piece Hannah!

And check out her multi-colored papers inside.

Junior Alice Zhang,  with her signature greens and oranges, and her "Home and Family" theme, has created a very delicate, sweet piece with arms as closures.  Clever girl!

And I especially love how she wrapped her papers in lace.  What a nice touch.

"You are my Sunshine" was made by junior Julia Chanco.  It features she and her sister when they were younger.  So sweet Julia.  I'm wondering if this is going to be a gift for her?  Notice how many of the kids have thin waxed linen strings with beads on the end.  Many of them did this to be a bookmark.  It's another nice touch.

Below is the backside of junior Sheila San Agustin's journal "Light It Up".  I wanted you to see the special closure that she knit, as well as the piece of netting that she applied over top her foundation cloth.  Very cool Sheila.

Here is junior Nikki Shah's journal that I was talking about earlier.  She is the one that eco-dyed on silk using coffee grounds for her top piece and blueberries and blackberies for back piece.  Her "Memories" journal is exquistite with a beautiful complimentary color scheme, dimensional flowers, echo stitching, and a sweet bookmark.

She even embroidered her initials on the inside flap.

Senior Aparna Vancheswaran made this lovely little journal.  I really like how she rooshed (sp?), means to gather, the leaves as well as making her flower very dimensional with very pretty pearl and bead embellishments.

Junior Stella Park went all out on her "Explore" journal.  Lots of sensory colors, stitching and overlapping fabrics, with cheesecloth, beads and charms.  The close-up below shows my favorite part, the numerous strings that she pulled from various fabric edges that she then couched down.  They create a very dimensional effect.  

And then there is junior Tiffany Lee, superstar extraordinaire, who time after time pushes herself way beyond the limits of the assignment and sets the bar so very high for next years group of children.  Thank you Tiffany, I love that!  It's why I get such incredible pieces year after year because of students like you.

To begin, Tiffany didn't like how her tye-dye fabric looked so she went out and bought printed cotton and tye-dyed over top it.  That's why her fabric is stamped.  

Secondly,  her top cover is highly dimensional with the big fishes teeth and fin coming towards the viewer.  Then there is that cute little fish inside the big one's mouth looking very sad. 

When you open the top flap, you see a sweet little pocket...

And then when you completely open it you see a very dimensional tail on the back side.  But even better, Tiffany painted a special liquid on the fabric so that when you bring it to a darkened room it actually glows in the dark!!!!

For EXTRA CREDIT, on any colored piece paper folded in half like a journal, put your name on the inside of the book, then flip it over to the backside and put the name of the person whose journal you liked the best.  Please browse thru Parts I & II before you make your decision.  Hand to me when you walk in the door tomorrow.