The power of flowers

Don't kid yourself.  Flowers have incredible impact.

The moment must be right, when you are raw and vulnerable to their vibrancy.  They can penetrate your very soul.  When emerging from the monotonous grey of winter, the happy innocent shocks of color are a riotous and welcomed distraction.

Oh spring!

New York images with home town thoughts

The guggenheim, through my daughters camera lense.

I have been really happy since my NY trip.  There has been a lot of art around me.  And the beauty of nature emerging with the warmth of the spring sun is always rejuvenating.

I'm going out into the sunshine today to refresh and renew.

Graphic images in Central Park

New York, Yes!

Times Square during the daytime

Times Square at night

My trip to NYC was fantastic!
I went to Mood Fabrics, The Art Quilt Gallery, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Guggenheim Museum and saw "Wicked" and "Chicago".
I walked Greenwich Village, a lot of Central Park and stopped into a couple thrift stores.
Ooooh Lah!
When can I do all that again?

New York, Here I come!

It's April Vacation for my daughter and we are heading to the Big Apple.  I am getting very excited!  One of the stops I hope to make is at the Art Quilt Gallery, celebrating it's first year anniversary!  Sue Benner is the featured artist.    http://www.artquiltgallerynyc.com
Also, Mood Fabrics, here I come!  I have a gift certificate to use there, Ooooh La LA!
I am so looking forward to the hustle and bustle of it all.  Then returning to my country home to garden!
Life is good.

Last year in the big city!

Recouping from a spill

This T-Shirt had an Indigo dye spill disaster!

"There is something enlivening about expanding our self-definition, and a risk does exactly that. Selecting a challenge and meeting it creates a sense of self empowerment that becomes ground for further successful challenges."~ The Artist's Way

Work on display

For the month of April, I have been given the Hanover League stores Crafts studies display cases.  Yesterday, I put my work on display there.  It is to advertise what I do as a craftsperson /teacher and to drum up interest in my summer camps I will be teaching.  I included some reviews the students gave me after taking my classes.  My work is located in the front door showcase (on the right as you go into the store) and inside a freestanding display case located toward the back of the store!  Check it out!

I also have one quilt in the Coop show, located in the Lebanon foodstore cafe.

working in the studio

I'm getting all my surface design stuff done at the League Studios this week. I have been experimenting with all kinds of things.  This image is spray inks on a number stencil with a top layer of mono-printing. It's yellow on yellow.

I hope to have an array of new work this year.  I'm just getting warmed up!

"The minute one utters a certainty, the opposite comes to mind." ~ May Sarton

Spring 2012

Yup, they are up!

Mono printed T shirt

This is a combination Mono-print with fusible web cutout spirals and dots.

I'm experimenting with T-shirt design. I'm pretty happy with this one!

Happy Spring!

"If you watch how nature deals with adversity, continually renewing itself, you cannot help but learn." ~ Bernie S. Siegel

The simplicity of line

I tend to go "crazy/busy" in my mono-prints.  I like the layered, frenetic look of it all.  But then, on top, I like a simple dark brush stroke, or a bobbin drawn linear circle made with thick metallic thread.

These pictures are of my garden outside my window after the last snowstorm we had.

I am very inspired by nature, shadows and how they interplay.

“Where there is much light, the shadow is deep” ~ Goethe

Studio Stuff

These pictures depict the raw material, straight from the studio. This is the inspiration that sets the art quilting wheels in motion. I had these on my clothes line to look at and I added more mono-printed elements until I was happy with them.

Now, the top two are ready to become full blown quilts. The bottom image is on a pair of sweat pants that will be sewn and manipulated for my summer camp class, "Designer's club",  A wearable art camp I am teaching at the Hanover League this summer.

White sweatpants sprayed with yellow ink

Creating with the camera!

This image is of mono-printed sheer panels attached to a window. The shadow is created by a parking garage. Look close, you can see the cars and shadows. I wish this were permanent. I may need to print this on fabric!

Working in the League Studio

My doll class went really well.  Now, I get to use the space for creating my own stuff.  I rummaged through my studio and brought out some old pieces that I want to move forward with.  This is a T- shirt I did shibori "rock tying" on. I went into it with a micron pen to add fine lines.
Today, I will embellish it more and work on several other cool things.

There is nothing better than working in a large studio with full windows on a bright and sunny day.
I'll crank up the tunes and dive into my artistic reverie.  Sometimes, I hope I never resurface!

‘You create your own universe as you go along. The stronger your imagination, the more variegated your universe. When you leave off dreaming, the universe ceases to exist.’ ~ Winston Churchill

New Stuff to work with.

 It's playtime!  And I just acquired a few new things to enjoy.
Yesterday,  my friend Rose and I went to Manchester, NH shopping.  We stopped at the Fabric Fix, Martin's House of Cloth and A.C. Moore.

The polymer clay buttons were from Fabric Fix.
The doo dads below were from A.C. Moore.
The fabric mostly came from Martin's.

Now, I'm off to the studio to play!

Art Doll

From the book, "making Creative Cloth Dolls" by Marthe Le Van.  Lark Books.
The Pattern is called, "Clarity".

The steps to making a doll can take many paths.  I will be teaching a 3 hour doll making workshop this Saturday and I took time to map out the path I want to take to teach my class.  I look forward to seeing where my students will take the instruction.  Creative people hear the same instruction but interpret it differently (in a vibrant and refreshing way!)  The last photo here shows the doll yet unfinished.  I will be adding a few more elements.  She also will not have a pin in her neck! LOL!

Mixed Media Art Dolls

I am teaching my course: Mixed Media Art Dolls this Saturday at the League of NH Craftsmen and there is still room!

Using a simple doll pattern as a starting point, you will use fabric enhancement technique, embroidery, funky yarns, buttons, and beads to create your own unique art doll. Saturday, 10:00am-1:00pm. March 10 (snow date Mar. 17). 1 session, 3 hrs. Tuition: $45 ($40*). Materials fee: $20

Set Painting!

I have been busy this week helping to paint sets for "the Music Man", a play my daughter is participating in this weekend.  I have learned some new painting techniques!  We used small rollers to achieve incredible results on the large canvas flats.  This piece, I painted at home with brushes.  Primarily I took home a wooden triangle drawn out with circles and I painted it to look like the pool table accessories.  It was an enjoyable project for me.

Publicity

I am currently participating in a group show at the Lyme library, Lyme, NH. The show is called, "Vibrancy, in Fibers". Our opening reception is tomorrow, February 29th from 5 - 6:30 pm.
It's hit or miss to get publicity like this, but if you provide the newspaper with a photo, you have a better chance of them using it! I'm happy!  : )

“Life is constantly providing us with new funds, new resources, even when we are reduced to immobility. In life's ledger there is no such thing as frozen assets.” ~ Henry Miller

Freshly fallen snow

These are early morning images of a freshly fallen snow.  I took these through my window with a low light setting on my camera.
Yesterday, this garden area looked like spring was just around the corner!  I guess, old man winter doesn't want to fade out without a roar!

 "Snow provokes responses that reach right back to childhood." ~ Andy Goldsworthy

 

Natures Texture

Question:
Can you ever take a bad picture of ocean sand?

“Art is the most intense mode of individualism that the world has known.”  

~ Oscar Wilde

Inspirational Textures in Nature

The tide going out on a Cape Cod beach

I constantly find myself fascinated with reoccurring textures in nature.  My favorite is this rippled effect I have captured in this photograph.  The patterns are most noticeable in the water, but I love seeing it on wind drifted snow and in the sky, textured in clouds.

I know that this image is mulling around in my brain.  Someday, I will make artwork reflecting this, I just know it.  Perhaps I already have at some level?

"The power of imagination makes us infinite." ~ John Muir

I have been sewing!

Have You?

Off to the Cape!

It's time for my annual sewing retreat and I cannot wait.  120 ladies take over several ballrooms at a conference style hotel and we just sew, sew, sew!  What am I bringing to work on?  Lots and lots of fabrics!  The sky is the limit on sewing and creativity.  I get to swim, sit in a sauna and sleep late, too!
Oh, I'm ready to replenish the well!

"Year by year we are learning that in this restless, strenuous American life of ours vacations are essential." ~ Ellsworth Huntington

Teaching at Pro Chemical & Dye Company

Mono print with fused fabrics, watercolor pencil and variegated meandering

This image is a sample of some of the simple mono printing techniques I will be teaching at Pro Chemical & Dye Company in April.  The three day workshop will include many easy but very sophisticated techniques that will change the look of your quilts in many dramatic ways.

The great aspects of this user friendly process is that:

We work on plastic, not glass, to transfer the image!

What you see is what you get with color and strokes.

All brush strokes and marks are fresh and uniquely you.

It's easy, satisfying and instant!

Just Imagine!  Three days of creating and playing!  The first two days, you'll warm up and learn the techniques.  The third day is open studio!  You're all set up, warmed up and you can just crank out yards of your own unique fabric with me there to encourage and help!

Immerse Yourself.

Click on the link above my profile picture to register now or get more information!

I look forward to seeing you there!
  

Snow resting on skylights

"In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous." ~ Aristotle

Snow on my skylight separated and gave me a glimpse of tree branches

Little Bag

I will be teaching a three hour workshop, at the League of NH Craftsmen in Hanover, on making a purse.  These images are of the style of purse and some embellishments that can be achieved within a three hour time frame.

I will continue working on this bag, adding the additional colored embroidery threads and some beads.

Upholstery Fabric
Complementary color Lining Fabric
a button
embroidery threads
sewing machine
matching threads

Progressing into the New Year!

Hi All,

"Like a Rock" ~ Bob Seger

It's been a while since I posted.  Well, I hate to say it, but I have taken on a full time job!  Yes, as a single parent, and widow, I would love to be doing art full time, but it just doesn't pay the bills!  I must say though, I have found a wonderful place to work and I am learning a lot of new things on the job and about myself, so it's all good!
I have been requested to post some images of some purses I make (I will be teaching a class on them in March at the League of NH Craftsmen in the Craft Studies Dept of the Hanover NH store.)  Yes, I still have a few finishing touches to make (artists persnickety choice ) and then the photography to do. I'll try to have them up... hopefully by Sunday!
In the meantime, I'm doing my Sketch book challenge as often as I can and will be hanging a show next month at the local library in Lyme NH.  So I'm busy and active, even though I've been silent!
Keep on creating!

Happy New Year!

Boston!
My daughter took these pictures.
It's a very different Boston than I know and I love the new perspective!
Sometimes you just need to see old things through other peoples eyes!  It changes the way you think about things.  I love this!
So, enjoy new viewpoints... enjoy new perspectives, embrace change.
I think that's what I will strive for this year.

"Become a student of change. It is the only thing that will remain constant." ~ Anthony D'Angelo

Snapshots of a Happy Christmas!

Art Quilt Books!  I'm very, very happy!

Bish sleeping under the tissue paper!  

At the end of it all!  Wrapped up in the wrappings!  

Holiday Greetings!

Happy Holidays!

This picture is taken at the top of Black Mountain in North Haverill New Hampshire.  It's looking out at the White Mountains and what I believe is part of the Presidential range(on the right).

Creativity is high.  May it lead you to do great things in 2012.

Enjoy!

It's a busy time of year....

Well, so sorry to drop off the planet for almost a month! but, I got a new job, so I am transitioning into it while juggling my craft shows and being a single mom!  Life is pretty full these days!

My sewing room is a mess right now with ribbons, paper, fabrics, pins, scissors, needles, paint brushes, paints and piles of Christmas stuff.  When will I ever see it again?  Who knows!
I'll need to borrow the snow shovel to dig out, I think!

Have great holidays! if I don't get back here to say so later!

~ Margaret

An old Florida  beach photo I took showing contrasting textures

"A man who works with his hands is a laborer; a man who works with his brain is a craftsman; but a man who works with his hands and his brain and his heart is an artist"  ~ Louis Nizer

Upcoming Crafts Fair

I will be vending at this crafts fair.
Stop by to say hi!