In Search Of Broken Glass and Rusty Things

This past Saturday (July 18, 2009) we had our monthly Milwaukee ATC live trade, and our theme was "Found Objects" which normally I would be right on top of, but due to lack of time, I only finished one card in the theme. This was made with broken window glass from my sister's farm, attached to the collage with Diamond Glaze so the images below would show through clearly. I tried to cover up any sharp edges with Scribbles dimensional fabric paint (which isn't the easiest line to control, hence the big green splort). The vintage fellow at the center is from the Ten Two Studios Little Brown Things collage sheet.


On Sunday, I got together with fellow mixed media artists, Gary, Kathi & Don, to walk my sister's pastures picking up trash and rusty things. It's nice to have comrades-in-art who think that poking around in manure-strewn countryside for rusty nails and broken glass is a fun way to spend a Sunday! My sister only asked that she have first dibs on broken china, horseshoe nails, and buried treasure. Since we were carrying what looked like feed buckets, the horses kept following us to see what we were doing and whether we had anything edible. If you don't like fiddling with slideshows, here's the static Flickr set.

Where I've been lately

Life has been busy, and I haven't had as much time on-line as I have in the past. (Right now I'm choosing between blogging and washing dishes/doing laundry/updating the handout for the "Easy Pop-Up Cards" workshop I'm teaching next week. Guess which choice won! But the other tasks will be waiting for me, alas.)

My parents just visited this past week, so I spent time with them up on my sister's farm, which is about 50 miles north of me. Beyond the photo of my dad's quilt from my last post, my family generally refused to pose for me, and what photos I did take, they don't want posted in public, so you're stuck with these portraits of some of my sister's animals. I am now Farm Paparazzi! Shown above is Ginger in mid-yawn. Here she is being pretty and windswept.

The chickens are always a hoot, and by accident I made my first on-line movie since the button on my camera had slipped to video mode while it was in my pocket. It's only 24 seconds, and you can hear me saying "chick, chick, chick" in a vain attempt to get them to come towards the camera.

The little rooster was more intent on jumping up to eat the red flowers growing on the old smokehouse, but I could hear a chicken marching up behind me and turned the camera to find Henrietta, who is the head honcho among the chickens (and has the dogs and cats in awe of her as well). She was quite peeved that I had called her but had no food! So I leave you under her watchful eye.

Dad's Quilt FINALLY Done!

Blogged for Fiber Arts Fridays
I did actually finish this earlier this year, but didn't officially sew the label on and give my dad his very belated multi-year birthday/Christmas present until this week. Thanks goodness my parents are patient (because my mom is still waiting on hers)!

This is a throw quilt, approximately 65x70", pieced & quilted on my Bernina. The pattern is a hexagonal block design from Maxine Rosenthal's book One Block Wonders. I had previously been doing Bethany Reynolds' hexagonal Stack'n'Whack quilts, but those required choosing an accent fabric to coordinate with the main fabric, which was often the most difficult step in the whole process! One Block Wonders can be made with just one main fabric (though I did choose to put an accent stripe around the border because I happened to have some matching solid green cotton). When I started this quilt several years ago, I did write down the name of the fabric line, but don't ask me where that information is now! I think it was from a Tracy Porter line for Joann Fabrics...

The backing is some vaguely Art Nouveau pattern that I bought on clearance some years ago and have been meaning to use for ages. I'm hoping to get Mom's quilt finished a lot faster. Really!

Art For All 2009 Recap

Here's a brief visual summary of the creative excitement that was A4A 2009, the first (North American) meeting of members of the on-line ATC site ATCs For All. Above is the bulk of what I got in trade from other attendees, mostly ATCs and a few charms. There was a 24-hour art room where everyone could chat and play with art supplies around the clock if they wanted (I tended to get to bed before midnight however!)


I also took workshops in Hand-carved Stamps,

Embossed Metal ATCs,

Calligraphy,

Mixed Media Paper Beads,

and Drawing Fun Faces Without Fear (not the official title :D)

I taught a Faux Tintype ATC workshop - here are my students hard at work:

I do wonder what the other hotel guests thought of these crazy people wandering around in tiaras....

Finally we all owe a huge thank you to our fearless organizer Cathy, aka Crazy Cat (above), who volunteered who knows how many hours putting this event together! A whole lot of pix are on my Flickr.

Ten Two Studios 4th Anniversary Giveaway

Lisa's celebrating with a daily giveaway July 1-5, 2009. Leave a lovely comment on her daily eye candy post and be entered for a chance to win a huge package of collage goodies! Plus each day she's giving out one free six-month subscription to the Monthly Muse. Good Luck!