We have a wonderful Quilt museum here in Colorado and I support it every year by donating sewing related supplies to their annual garage sale as well as donating one of my original, one-of-a-kind fiber art pieces to their annual fundraiser "Fabric & Friends".  This is the donated piece that will be auctioned off during their event.

There will be an online auction from April 10-21, 2023.  All the items up for auction will be on display in the museum gallery.  There should be a good selection of miniature quilts available to bid on as well as gift baskets and certificates.

The live auction will occur at the Friday night GALA on April 21st from 6-9pm at the museum.  Advance tickets to this event are $30 and $55 at the door.

Hope you can support this worthwhile charity and ensure that future generations can have access to the wonderful collection they have accumulated over so many years.

This is my last post about paper weaving since I'm about to move on to another adventure.
Several years ago, I made one of my mixed media pieces into wrapping paper.  So I thought this would be a good way to make a completely unique weaving.  I also found some black screen material in my studio so this is the combination of both.  

Weaving can be so relaxing!  I really enjoyed exploring this type of art making.

But now, I am looking forward to the 2023 Sketchbook Revival event.  I took this free course last year and picked up some fun creative ideas so I joined again this year (new instructors and new projects) and am looking forward to 10 days of stretching my creative mind.  I MIGHT even post to the private Facebook group but I'm not promising! 

This is the last paper weaving I made in Helen Hiebert's online class.  And it's probably my favorite.  this has been a fun month of learning different weaving techniques as well as seeing other student's work.
As with any art,  working with contrast is so important and this piece satisfies that requirement.  I love how the black and orange play off each other and yet, enhanses those colors in the background of this photo.
My month of paper weaving has ended and now, I will move on to other artistic adventures.  Who know what I will create next!
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I never thought of including paper weaving inside a book  But here are some pages I will be sewing into a notebook today.  I love the Japanese papers and the instant feeling of creating an art book instead of a blank journal.  So easy and so fun!

I'm still taking the class on paper weaving and really having a good time exploring all the different options.  Several of my friends are weavers (making cloth using threads and a loom) and I was always amazed st their patience and how many hours they works to create a small piece of fabric.  So I find paper weaving less intensive and something I can create more quickly.  Of course, the result is less practical (no scarves or shawls) but equally artistic in it's own way.  I don't know what I will do with all the weavings I am making this month but again, it's about the process, not the outcome.  

Helen Hiebert is a well-know paper artist in Colorado.  I decided to enroll in her "Weaving in Winter" online class this year. I have never done paper weaving so thought it would be fun to attempt to learn this paper art throughout February.  Committing to making art every day is always a challenge.

This is a photo I selected from a book called Silk Roads.  It's full of fascinating photos of places I've never been.

It's only day 4 of the class and I really love this process.  It's very calming and takes some careful placement of the papers.  It reminds me of my quilt background where piecing together bits of fabric, makes an overall design.  If you didn't know this was paper, this could have been made from a printed fabric panel.  

By the end of February when the course sends, I will definitely try weaving with fabric and probably adding some stitches.  Just because!

Last night was the opening reception for Artmore.  Michael Burnett, owner of Space Gallery, selected three artists to exhibit a few pieces in his beautiful and prestigious art gallery in the Santa Fe Art District in Denver and I was one of the lucky ones.

The Fiber Paintings behind me started as white cotton fabric. I than used deconstructed screen printing with thickened dye to create the background.  I added paint, stencils and stamps to create different layers.  I finished them off with free motion machine stitching.  You can see more of these in my gallery on this website.

The event was well attended and I met lots of art lovers.  I had forgotten how much fun it is to exhibit my work since its been over 4 years since I had done so because of Covid.  It was also fun to put on some make-up and get dressed up for a change!

Took a Paste Paper Making workshop at Inter-Ocean Studios with Rhiannon Alpers and Alicia Bailey today.  I've always wanted to try this technique but never got around to it so when I saw this workshop, I jumped at the chance to learn from the experts.

I can never create good art in a workshop and today was no different.  But I learned a lot on things to try in my studio and seeing other student's results was informative.  I always love seeing artists create and the demos were wonderful.  As we learn new techniques, it is obvious that to become proficient, we need to spend a lot of time practicing.  

Making Paste Paper involves a lot of combinations:  the type and quality of the paper, the various paste recipes, the different ways to color the paste, and the tools used to make patterns or marks.  Not to mention layering everything over and over to achieve different results.

Tomorrow, I will look at the papers I created in the workshop and see what worked and didn't work.  And then, I will try to create more Paste Papers using stuff in my stash.  Another thing to explore!

I couldn't resist adding another bird to my scroll.  And I had fun adding some birds flying in the sky along with some grasses in the ground and a weird tree that you would never find in nature!  I also glued on some small flowers that I had in my sari stash and those are actually beaded.  So now my scroll has pieces in it that were contributed by people who live in India — a world away.  I like this idea and if I make another one, I will expand on it. 

I highly recommend this intuitive embroidery art making.  It's very freeing and fun!

I forgot how much fun it is to create on the fly.  Making this embroidery scroll has given me permission to just play with fabric and thread.  The more I work on this piece, the more it reminds me of folk art.  It's almost done so I need to think about my next scroll and think about incorporating new stitches.  Luckily, my friend Gay gave me two of her embroidery books so I'll have plenty of inspiration!