Painted Threads

These are the finished stitched panels, before I stitched them into a house form.


I decided my house would be a bird house and sewed and stuffed a bird to paint and put inside.



I can't show a finished photo of the whole house until the project gets submitted, but here's a little detail.

As I sit here with a cup of hot tea, I give thanks to making it through another rough year in this economy and still having a roof over our heads, for all the fantastic opportunities I have had traveling to new places and old while teaching and making new friends in the process. I am blessed to have so many wonderful and supportive friends all over the country and a few places beyond, I love ya!

Today I am also grateful that I finished knitting my handwarmers because they are keeping me toasty on this cold overcast morning. The problem with living in 100 year old brick buildings with big windows and high ceilings on overcast days is it can be pretty chilly inside.


These are knit from possum wool that I bought in New Zealand in April. They are fuzzy, soft and warm, the pattern is free on Ravelry.

In my conversation with Lesley I mentioned that I used to do pottery when I lived in Austin. I love working in ceramics, making the basic form and then carving the surface. Much like when I make an art quilt, I paint the fabric and then quilt the surface. I love that extra layer of visual texture. I found that each art form often influenced the other. Lesley asked me to post some pics on my blog, so here goes...

I eventually stopped making pottery, as much as I loved it, I had to make a choice, art quilts or pottery, there just wasn't enough time in the day to do both.

Monday night, I am going to be on Lesley Riley's blog talk radio program. It airs 7 pm eastern. If you don't catch it monday, you can also listen to it anytime after that by visiting the website. Or after it airs download the podcast on itunes at Art & Soul radio.

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Well I havent fallen off the earth, but it has sort of felt that way. I came back from Houston and promptly got sick. I know a lot of us are dealing with this cold. I keep thinking I am going to be over it in another day and yet it lingers. Ugh. I have too much to do.

I am tackling a project that is long over due, my friend Kathy York is curating a village of artist houses for an exhibit. I have known about this project for over 6 months and am only now getting around to starting it and the deadline is just a couple weeks away, with Thanksgiving next week, sigh.


I am trying something a little new for making my house. I found out that abaca paper is often used to make tea bags (and money). Abaca is also used to make unryu tissue which I have used in my collages before. Unryu is the tissue paper that has little fibers visible in it. You can buy plain abaca here or here.

I created several black and white collages, combining text and imagery in photoshop, cut some heavier weight abaca paper to 8 1/2" x 11" and stuck it in my toner printer and printed out the collages. Next I painted the paper with textile paints and fused it to Peltex (heavy weight interfacing). Although the fuse did not stick that great, it did hold well enough for stitching.

I have more stitching to do and then pieces to cut and assemble. This is as far as I have gotten so you will have to stay tuned for what comes next.

While channeling Tim Gunn, our job is to pass out supplies to participants for creating their wearable item, assist in challenges and design consultation.

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