Prayer Flags ... Inspiration Flags

I have been having such fun creating a small set of prayer flags as a class sample for my upcoming workshop at Sorrento Centre!  I just know that it will be an enjoyable class for the participants as they work on a theme that suits them using techniques that I will teach during the workshop.

This is a set of three contemporary prayer flags that are double sided, but have no batting between the layers. Some of the stitching has gone through both layers, but each side is unique.  I will show you the second side of this set next week, but for now I'd like to share side one of the three flags. They are approximately seven inches square.

These flags have been created on a piece of my hand-painted fabric that has been awaiting inspiration for a couple of years.  I wish I had taken a photo of the piece of fabric before I tore it up, but you will notice the variations in colour throughout the flags, including little bits of white showing where I had not painted the entire piece of fabric. 

The hues of watermelon and chartreuse have been continued in the threads I chose for the stitching as I really wanted these to be peaceful and harmonious flags.

I chose "hope" for the first flag and the images of hearts.

The next flag will hang as the centre of the three and I chose "peace" for the theme and included a peace symbol that I created in pointillist style.

The tiny buttons (about 1/4" in size)  that cascade down the flag are symbols of something that holds us all together.

The third flag is "believe" and it is represented by a screen-printed tree that is anchored in the earthy part of the flag.

A sprinkling of seed stitches in a variegated thread drift across the flag and in the lower left corner there are three little patches with beads and hand embroidery.

Here is the link to the workshop where I will be teaching inspirational flags and buntings at Sorrento Centre

WIP - Fibre Art Journal Class Sample

I am working on a new class sample for a workshop I will be teaching this fall ... and condensing it from a four-day workshop into two days!  It has been a bit of a challenge to figure out what I will have time to teach in those two days and to give the participants a vision of how their finished journal will look.

The accordion style journal is such fun to make and I hope that these students will enjoy the process as much as the finished product.

So far, I have created all the fibre art samples that I am going to include and now I am working on the finishing touches ... finishing the outer edge and adding some more embellishments to the pages.

Here is one side of it so far ...

and this is the other side, photographed with some of the threads and beads that I am considering ...

I hope to finish this pretty darn quickly and will post some more photos of it later.

By the way, a WIP is a Work in Progress :)

Fluttering by with a Work in Progress

One of my art quilts has been "stalled" for a couple of years . . . I started out with wonderful ideas of doing a flight of stylized butterflies across a background of hand dyed fabric (the first piece I ever dyed, that I had been saving for years!) . . . but as I approached the critical time of adding those butterflies, I found that they had lost some of their allure.  I couldn't figure out the problem so I finally rolled up the quilt and it sat on a shelf for a year or more.

At some point last year I hauled it out again and pinned it to my design wall so that it would not be too far from my thoughts . . . but, still I did nothing with it.

Yesterday, however, I re-discovered one of my favourite books and the wonderful natural life created in fibre by Annemeike Mein, and I decided to play a little bit with a different style of butterfly.    I don't know exactly how she makes her butterflies but I made up my own version using her photos as inspiration.

Here are the wings I made, created as two units of upper and lower wings, free motion stitched in a variety of threads. They have been created on green silk organza with heavy duty Solvy used as a backing.


I still have to create the body of the butterfly, but I am pleased with this first attempt.

Rhapsody in Blue

 The silk fibres in this silk fusion were hand dyed using kool-aid . . . the blue and purple took beautifully and have resulted in a smooth harmony.  The silk fusion was stitched to a background of black dupioni silk and backed with black quilt batting.  I used free motion machine stitching, hand embroidery, and beading to accentuate portions of the silk fusion and then hand-couched some rich turquoise hand spun yarn to the surface.  The piece was then mounted on a stretched artist's canvas.

On the long dangling ends of the yarn I have added some fibre art beads that I created by hand painting tyvek from some old envelopes and then heat distressing it along with some synthetic organza and tulle in the same turquoise and purple colours.  Additional seed beads and larger beads have been added for more interest. The bead dangles are asymmetrical ... and hang several inches below the bottom of the canvas.

This piece has a picture hanging wire on the back so it hangs from a nail on your wall just like any painting. This piece measures 20" x 16".  It is currently entered in the Shuswap Lake Festival of the Arts and will later be available for sale in my Etsy shop.

PS - On opening night at the Shuswap Lake Festival of the Arts, I found that this piece had received a Juror's Choice Award.

Sorrento is 100 Years Old

I live near the village of Sorrento which is located about half way between Vancouver and Calgary on the Trans Canada Highway.  This year Sorrento is celebrating it's 100th Anniversary and there are lots of celebrations taking place throughout the year.

The Shuswap Lake Festival of the Arts is an art show and sale that takes place in the village every July.  This year I wanted to create something that would speak to the 100th anniversary, and I decided on an art quilt that would represent a bit of the landscape of the area and have some words that would celebrate 100 years.

I was originally going to do a topographical map of the area but started sketching a slightly aerial view looking down the lake and my hubby was so taken with the sketch that he convinced me I should try this image in fabric.  In this image, Sorrento is located in the foreground of the piece (I chose not to include any buildings or highways ... only the land and the lake which have remained the same for 100 years) and looking further east down the lake you can see Copper Island in the middle and the mouth of Blind Bay on the right side (since it really is a blind bay, you can't see that opening when you are just looking east at lake level ... but I wanted to have it more noticeable since that's where I live!).

The dates, 1912 - 2012 and the name, Sorrento BC, have been stencilled onto the asymmetrical borders using Shiva Paintstiks in two colours to give the letters a bit of character. The texture that has been quilted over the landscape portion has been achieved by writing a little story about Sorrento in free motion quilting.  It is my first attempt at writing free motion so I am sure that future art quilts will show some improvement but I am very pleased with the effect that it creates.  Both the stencilling and the quilted writing were something that was covered in a course I took this spring with Catherine Nicholls ... it was a great workshop and I came away with numerous things that I would like to experiment with.

The heart that is quilted into the top left corner of the quilt is there because Sorrento is known as
"The Heart of the Shuswap".

Tree of Life - the finale

It's been a long time since my last blog post so . . . . as I said at that time, this tree of life landscape was commissioned to be used as a book cover so there were some design factors that had to be considered for it to be functional as well as an inspiring piece of art.  After a consultation, we decided to eliminate the roots of the tree and bring in more of the spring garden aspect of the landscape.

I re-worked the lower section of the landscape with a cheery hand dyed green fabric and then added flowers in the garden with hand embroidery.  It is a representation of the memorial garden at Sorrento Centre.

The book cover was then cut down the spine and I inserted another piece of hand dyed fabric that I printed with the name of the centre.  There is a pocket in the front flap to hold pamphlets or papers and it has been tightly fit to the scrapbook sized binder.

Work in Progress - Tree of Life Landscape

It's been ages since I have last posted new work ... but it's certainly not because I have been idle.  The winter has been full of fibre art experiments, workshops and dabblings . . . and now that spring is underway, I feel that I would like to post some photos of a piece that I am working on right now.

This is a small art quilt that will not see life as a wall hanging, but as a book cover ... I will post more on that, and final photos, once it has been presented to the organization that commissioned it.  In order to make this as durable as possible, I had to reject some of the techniques and fibres that I might have liked to use in this piece.  Because it will be handled (although not heavily) I felt that I should use woven fabric and stitching to achieve the look I wanted.  The fabric is all hand-dyed or hand-painted ... some of it by me, some by others.

The background design is a slightly abstract landscape of our beautiful Shuswap Lake and the tree has been created as a tree-of-life, with the roots going down into the ground and the branches and leaves reaching to heaven.  The tree has some limbs that have been cut off at some time, but the other branches are still carrying on and bringing life to the myriad leaves, represented by hand stitching in a variety of green threads.

There is still more work to be done on it, but I am pleased with how it is developing.

Swatch Stitch and Stash

This is the sample for a 4-day workshop that I will be teaching at Sorrento Centre in April. My class is entitled "Swatch, Stitch and Stash" because we will be using stitching up swatches of fabric from your stash to create a fibre art journal of the techniques that you learn during the workshop.

Some of the techniques will include creating your own unique fabric, fibre art beads, silk fusion, a variety of edge finishings, needle felting, accent embroidery stitches, free motion machine stitching, thread painting, original cords and covered sticks, thread lace and beading ... and then the samples will be compiled into a journal format that will be either accordion style(like the one pictured here) or an "infinite journal" using grommets and rings. Click on the photos to zoom in for the details.

This is a workshop that will engage intermediate level art quilters but will also be great for those who are just taking their first steps in this area ... you do, however, need to have a good knowledge of your sewing machine.

This workshop is a retreat format ... delicious meals and accommodation are included in the package price ... Call Sorrento Centre at 250-675-2421 to register.

Daisy a Day

This is a little art quilt that I created as a sample for a class I will be teaching at Pleasant Valley Quilt Shop in Armstrong, BC in April. The main focus of the class will be creating a piece of unique fabric from bits and pieces of fabric, thread, glittery bits and organza and then the participants will use that piece of unique fabric to embellish an art quilt, a purse or a greeting card. It is such a fun "play day" and I thought you might like to see how I translated it into an art quilt.

The centres of the flowers are heavily beaded with additional bead dangles and the dragonfly is adorned with a few tiny seed beads and black sequins for his big eyes ... the wings have been made from Angelina that has been stitched with silver thread.

The grasses blowing in the breeze have been created from organza that has been stitched and then the edges have been left to fray in order to create more wisps.

The stem of the plant has been created by layering two decorative ribbons and yarn and then free motion stitching to give even more texture. The leaves on the plant are made from another piece of unique fabric that I created in green tones.

The background has been stitched in midnight blue thread. The outer edge of the art quilt has been couched with shiny black cord.

This art quilt measures approximately 12" x 20"

Clergy Stole

This is a custom stole that I made recently for someone who will be ordained to the priesthood soon . . . It was created with the theme of the Shuswap (the lake, mountains, trees) but also with predominately green colours as it will be used during "green" liturgical seasons.

After much hunting for the "right" green background fabric, I was delighted to locate the one I used which has an underlying brown thread in the green ... it works really well with the landscape theme that I was using. The landscape itself has been created from pieces of cotton fabric ... both hand painted and commercial ... and, although the two sides of the front of the stole are similar, they are not identical.


At the back of the neck there is an appliqued cross with an arch on each side, reminiscent of St. Francis' Chapel, the outdoor chapel at Sorrento Centre.

Fun Felted Needle Cases

One of the most useful items in my sewing studio is my needle case ... in fact, I have two of them that I use all the time! They are a good place to store needles that are not used very often (think: curved leather needles, big fat embroidery needles, and long thin beading needles) and others that are used frequently but interchangeably.

These little needle cases have been created from pieces of felting that were left over from other projects and they make delightful covers for the little needle books. The interior "pages" are wool Melton which holds the needles very well and helps to keep them polished and smooth from the natural oils that are in the sturdy wool. A little bit of additional hand stitching and beading makes them worthy of gifting to your favourite sewing friend :)

Artsy Little Mug Rug

This past week I was flying back and forth across the country and decided I needed to take along a little stitching project to pass the time on the airplane . . . and these little mug rugs are the result.

If you don't know what a mug rug is, it is an over-sized coaster that is big enough to hold a coffee mug or a glass as well as a spoon to stir with and maybe even a little snack. They vary in size but these three are about six to seven inches square (or almost square) and they have a layer of batting to help protect your table from heat and moisture.

I love to combine machine quilting and hand quilting in my work but, being on a plane meant that I had lots of time to do hand work and no access to a machine, so these are actually hand-quilted as well as having the decorative stitching. It's all done is a primitive style on a fabric that has a real ethnic feel to it and I love the result. I have listed one of them for sale in my Etsy shop to see what the reaction is to them.

Silk Fusion "Turmoil"

This is a piece of silk fusion that I made from gorgeous silk fibres in orange and fuschia. The fibres are used to create a "paper" that can be stitched and embellished just like fabric . . . and in this case I have quilted it onto a base of black cotton so that the free motion stitching creates added texture. It has been further embellished by hand embroidery in some of the sections of the stitching and a drift of clear tangerine beads drifting across the surface.

It is mounted on a 16" x 20" canvas with the edges wrapped with the black cotton so that it will hang like a painting on your wall.

This piece will be entered in the Shuswap Lake Festival of the Arts next month.

Be sure to click on the photos to see more of the details.  SOLD

More Spawning Salmon Art Quilts

It is now late September and fall is really in the air. The leaves on the trees are starting to change their colours and the air is decidedly cooler. The salmon are en route to their spawning grounds and already we are seeing the streams turn red from all the sockeye that are returning. It is so incredible to see how very red their body becomes and how the head is a true olive green. The best time to see them on the Adams River is October 2-24 when there is an abundance of salmon as well as lots of festivities celebrating the salmon. Roderick Haig Brown park, just across the Squilax bridge from the Trans Canada Highway is the place to go.

I couldn't stop at creating one spawning salmon art quilt this year so here are photos of two others.

This is a small art quilt (approximately 23 " x 11.5") with a background that is charcoal and black. The background is also hand stitched and beaded and the salmon has additional hand stitching. It has additional organza ripples and free motion machine stitching. This quilt is SOLD.


The next quilt is approximately 18" x 28" and it has been entirely free-motion machine quilted. It has been quilted quite densely and I am very pleased with the results. Be sure to click on the images to zoom in on the details . . .Many of the free motion designs used in this quilt were inspired by Leah Day (daystyledesigns.com) who has created and blogged over two hundred free motion designs that are posted on her website. What an incredibly talented person she is.

This art quilt won a Juror's Choice award at the Shuswap Lake Festival of the Arts in July 2011. SOLD