Fantasy Fish Shimmer

Here's my newest shimmer: Fantasy Fish. It is one of the designs I use for my Pisci Fantasticus except much smaller. This shimmer will make its appearance at the Atlantic Canada Trade Show (ACTS) next week in Halifax.

Still in the embroidery machine hoop

Fantasy Fish Shimmers

Art Card Update

On Wednesday, I showed you the beginning of making art cards with a painted background. Today I finished stitching the grass and stems for the flowers. I used variegated green pearl cotton in the bobbin and free motioned the greenery. In fact, a few flowers were also stitched in place. The art piece is 2 1/4 inches wide. The height sometimes varies.  Hopefully, the cards will be finished this weekend.

I also have a couple of new shimmers in the works. You'll have to wait to see these.

Don't forget to check Grow Your Blog. There are over 400 blogs to visit!

Enjoy!

Newest Fibre Art Pendants

Today I finished my latest Fibre Art Pendants. The background is needle felted wool roving and decorative yarns  I use a combination of machine stitching, hand stitching and beading on the pendants. You can see others HERE and HERE.

Don't forget to check out Grow Your Blog. I have a giveaway!!

Enjoy!

Painting

Today I managed to get a little painting done. I have one art card with flowers left so more are needed for the Trade Show next week in Halifax. My base is the interfacing used to stiffen the top part in making draperies. It can be purchased in rolls that are about 4 inches wide or by the metre / yard. I paint the grass and sky then add stitching. I use bobbin stitching for the stem and leaves and free motion for the flowers. Usually the flowers are either hand stitched or free motioned on organza and then hand stitched to the background. Have a look at a previous post for more samples of these cards. HERE for felted cards and HERE for iceberg cards.

Enjoy!

Lots of painted strips for art cards

Our Prairie in Fibre

Our Prairie in Fibre is an collection of fibre art created by women from across Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. This wonderful collection was curated by Monika Kinner-Whalen. Please take a few minutes to tour this exhibit. Also have a look at Monika's wonderful art pieces.

I've been following Monika's blog for several years and knew this exhibit was coming. I'm glad she let us know the link. Just wish I could see it in person. Thanks Monika.

Now check out some links to quilters and fibre artists from Western Canada (not complete by any stretch of the imagination):

• Manitoba Prairie Quilters (lots of quilts and art quilts)
• Quilt Guilds across the country
• SAQA Western Canada
• Martha Cole
• Anna Hergert
• Fibre Art Network, Western Canada
• Mrs Pickles Garden
• Scraps and Strings (Winnipeg)
• Will Cook for Shoes (Winnipeg)
• Work in Progress (Calgary)
• Jenny Penny Poppy (Saskatchewan)

Sailboat Shimmer

Well, I have another new shimmer to add to my collection - a sailboat. I'm pleased with this one. However, I did have one setback (my own stupidity). I had a whole sheet of sailboats finished. My machine has 10 needles so I can set the colours for each needle, which I did. Started the machine to stitch the sails and left. Went back when the sewing was finished and saw that the sails were green not white! I thought the number three needle had white thread. Lesson learned - wait until I actually see which colour is stitching. As a result, I scrapped those shimmers, at least for the time been.

Here's my largest hoop with a finished sheet of shimmers. These photos were taken in the evening. I prefer to take them in daylight. The background in the last photo should be white. I didn't do any colour balance etc. with it. Also the water is a dark blue. Not sure I like that with a black boat. I will experiment more with thread colours tomorrow.

PS: Don't forget to check out all the participants of Grow Your Blog (from yesterday's post)

Enjoy!

Close-up from hoop 

Finished shimmer ornament

Grow Your Blog & My First Giveaway!!

It's a good thing that Wendy, from The Crafter's Apprentice, reminded me of my participation in this hop! Thanks Wendy, for the reminder. Much appreciated.

This is the 3rd Grow Your Blog hop hosted by Vicki from Two Bags Full.



For those of you visiting for the first time, Welcome to my part of the world. My name is Judy Cooper. I am a retired primary school teacher who now creates one-of-a-kind textile / fibre art. My complete bio can be found HERE and my artist statement HERE.

I have received awards for my work and several pieces belong to the City of St. John's, NL and to the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador. The Greeting Cards on my web site, show images of textile art that I have created. More images of my work can be found HERE.  My latest large piece is pictured below.

At the moment, I am creating fibre art pendants and some new Shimmer Ornaments (scroll to the previous post).

Besides having a place to show my art and some of the techniques I use, I often write about other artist's work and link to their web sites. One of the other things I like to do is find tutorials and patterns for all kinds of textile / fibre art (usually freebies). Since 2009, I have blogged about a lot of interesting 'stuff". Please come back, grab a cup of something and explore my blog. I guarantee, you won't be disappointed ( even if I do say so myself - GRIN )!!

I am also going to have my first Give Away and I will post anywhere in the world! You don't have to be a follower to participate (it would be nice if you did). Just leave a comment on this post. Make sure I can contact you if you win.

My gift to you will be two of my shimmer ornaments. Deadline to enter will be February 14th and the draw will be on the 15th. The winner will be posted on my blog. I will also contact the winner for mailing instructions.

Enjoy the blog hop!

A list of participants can be found HERE just scroll down the page.


Fishermen's Museum, English Harbour West.
Property of the City of St. John's, NL



Shimmers

I've already posted about my new Viking Ship shimmer ornament. The Canadian Flag is the newest one. Here it is with the Viking Ship. This time, the ship has white sails, which I think I prefer.

Searching the Web

I have been working on fibre art pendants this past week. The Atlantic Canada Trade Show, Halifax, is in early February so I have to take some with me.  Photos to follow soon.

However, I did find a few minutes to have some down time to search the web. I like to look at pictures of other artists work. For example: in my search bar, I typed: textile art images. Click to view the wonderful 'stuff ' I found.

These days, my interests are many and I save the links for further exploration. Here's a couple of other places to visit:

• Patchwork Posse. This site has 50 zipper pouch and bag tutorials.
• I also discovered the fine art of Wendy Dolen, Textile Artist, from the UK. 
• A Spoonful of Sugar is another place to check.
• Discover more artists at Itchy Fingers Textiles list of LINKS

Enjoy!

Blogs to Check

It's suppose to be a wintery day here tomorrow. So for anyone of you needing a break, check out some of the following interesting blogs:

• Sew Fresh Quilts
• I Like To Quiltblog (use the translate button)
• Diane Wright Art Quilts
• Michelle Mischkulnig
• Free Quilt Patterns
• Taffy Talk
• Sotak Handmade
• Modern Quilt Guild
• Modern Quilts on Pinterest

The Needle and Thread Network

I joined up with The Needle and Thread Network again this week. Please pay a visit to see what some great Canadian bloggers have created this week!

Enjoy!!

Wild Blooms & Colorful Creatures

Wild Blooms & Colorful Creatures, by Wendy Williams, has also found its way into my collection.
I think I was attracted to the vibrant colours on the cover. When I was teaching, I would tell the students that you can't tell a book by its cover. That is so true in most cases. However, for the applique enthusiasts, this is a nice book to have. The book is filled with fancy flowers and cute animals which are used in the various projects.

Read about new ways to mix wool, cotton, and linen to give a fresh new look to your applique. Continue to have fun by embellishing with both hand and machine quilting as well as hand embroidery. Add a few beads and bobbles for extra embellishment. In fact, use the designs to create your own piece of art. To me, the book is another source of inspiration.

Eye Candy

I had a fairly productive morning. While the embroidery machine stitched out another new shimmer ornament, the Canadian flag, I worked on my fibre art pendants. Photos will be coming soon. So instead of seeing some of my stuff, grab a cup of something and check out the following blogs with lots of Eye Candy!!

• Bonnie at Quiltville's Quips & Snips, has some lovely photos of quilts from 'A Walk Through Sisters'. Free patterns HERE.
• Take a look at Susan Brubaker Knapp's latest art quilt, Look, See. Scroll down to view Sunny. Lots of interesting art work in past posts.
• Sew We Quilt blog hop has interesting Tammy Bags.
• Images from a search for Quilt Show 2014. Click on the first image and then just click the arrow to the right to view the spectacular variety of quilts.
• Cultures in Cloth
• Symbols of Our Culture
• Art Quilt Network
• Tiny Textile Challenge from Quilt Art

I hope you enjoy the above links!

Artfully Embroidered

Artfully Embroidered, Motifs and Patterns for Bags and More by Naoko Shimoda, is one of my newest books. This book combines both traditional Japanese and western motifs to create fresh and modern looking embroidery designs. Step-by-step instructions and templates are provided to create sewn or embroidered projects. The motifs can also be used in original work. This book also includes projects to create handbags, totes, coin purses, and beaded brooches. Each project has coloured photos showing the hand embroidery. Several paper patterns for a few projects in the book, are included.

I may not make any of the projects in this book, but the combination of the various embroidery motifs gives food for thought!

Pattern Darning

The November project at the St. John's Embroidery Guild was Pattern Darning Christmas Trees. The pattern was designed by Elizabeth Fewer for the guild. Since Christmas, I made an effort to start on the trees and hopefully, they will be ready for next Christmas!

The outline of the trees were traced onto 22ct fabric and then stitched around with cotton. I opted to stitch around the outline with my sewing machine instead of doing hand stitching. The edges of the fabric are taped to reduce fraying. When the stitching is completed, the trees will be cut out with a 1/4" edge. This 1/4" will be turned in and a backing stitched on. Cording goes around the edge and looped at the top to hang on a tree.

Here's my stitching so far.

If you are interested, here's a few sites about pattern darning:

• Needlework Tips & Techniques
• Sarah's Hand Embroidery Tutorials
• Royce's Hub (free samplers)
• Mary Corbet's Needle 'n Thread 
• Pattern Darning Charts
• Kogin & Pattern Darning on Pinterest

BOM's

I think I got a little carried away searching for BOMs!! Have fun looking at these sites. I did!!

• Adventurous QuilterQuilt Doodle Doodles
• Justquiltin with Denise Russart
• Quilt Art Designs
• Jenny of Elefantz
• The Quilt Show
• Sew Sweet Simplicity
• Pat Sloan's 2015 Mystery BOM
• Sulky 2015 Pastry Pleasure
• Country Junktion
• Debby Kratovil Quilts
• Santa Rosa Quilt Guild: theme for 2015 "Scraps"
• The Hexie Blog 2015 BOM (check out 2014 BOM on the blog)
• Fandom in Stitches
• Adventurous Quilter
• Dear Jane (2010) thought I'd include this one even though it isn't current
• Angie's Bits 'n Pieces
• Fat Cat Patterns (check out the free patterns link)
• Sycamore Hill Quilts
• Morning Glory Designs
• Soscrappy
• Celtic Thistle Stitches (monthly craft patterns)
• Quilt Play
• Quilter in Motion
• Free BOMs - 2015  (divided by categories, in alphabetical order)
• Marys River Quilt Guild (houses)
• Fun Threads Designs
• Jeanne Rae Crafts: Scrappy Garden
• Lucky Days BOM
• Jenny Beyer free BOM at Craftsy
• Bec Bartell Quilts & Design
• Pat Bonner, Pinterest Board of free quilt BOMs
• Shannon Reyn . . . Pinterest Board of BOMs
• Debbie Mumm BOM
• Collector With A Needle (not free)
• Two Sisters and a Quilt

New Shimmer Design

I have been making shimmer ornaments for several years. These ornaments are very popular because of their unique designs and because they can be placed in an envelope and mailed anywhere in the world for the price of sending a card or letter. Thus a very affordable gift for anyone.
Last year, I was asked if I had ever made a Viking Ship. Well, I now have a Viking Ship shimmer. It is fashioned after the Gokstad ship (below). Check HERE for information about this type of ship.

The Gokstad ship, on display
 at the Viking Ship Museum in Oslo, Norway.

The Viking Ship is a significant part of the history of Newfoundland. Here is a very brief comment about this part of our history:

L'Anse aux Meadows is an archaeological site on the northernmost tip of the island of Newfoundland (my home). 'Discovered in 1960, it is the most famous site of a Norse or Viking settlement in North America outside Greenland. This site dates around the year 1000. In 1978, it was named a World Heritage site by UNESCO.' If you are interested in finding out more about this early settlement, click on the previous link.

Here's my newest shimmer:

WIP - Needle and Thread Network

Today I've linked up with The Needle and Thread Network where you will find Canadian bloggers who are sharing and showing off their work.  I'm showing off my friend's Temari creations. Of course, viewers can also read on about my work too.

It's still early here so check back to The Needle and Thread Network (so far there are two blogs listed), Many more will join before the day is over.



In the meantime, hop on over to Sew We Quilt for another Blog Hop! It's day 4! Oops! I missed the previous three days. You will find some lovely purses this time.

Happy in Quilting has a nifty little Cottage Garden Thread Holder.

I did a search for 'free sewing projects' and came up with photos of lots of projects. Have fun finding just the right one for you. I'll be checking them out later!

Enjoy your day!

Temari Ornaments

Today, I photographed my friend's Temari tree. She is now working on Temari 100! You can see more of her temari balls HERE, HERE and HERE. Verna, these are fantastic! I can't wait to see number 100.

Temari Tree



Note the temari ball fabric table runner

She is just beginning # 100

ACTS, Halifax

I just finished sending off photos to the Atlantic Canada Trade Show (ACTS) in Halifax. All participants were asked to send along some photos of work that can be used in the electronic showcase during the show. I just made the deadline!

Here's a link showing my display at last year's show.

Art Card

Fibre Art Pendant

Wearable Art Pin

Shimmer Ornament

Textile-Link

I thought I'd pass on a little information about a site I just discovered, called Textile-link. As I understand, the idea behind this site is to make 'extraordinary books to inspire, share knowledge and enjoy'. In other words, artists and designers, creating in textile and paper, can subscribe (free of charge) to this site. They can upload images of their work into their own archive space. This space is only available to themselves and the site owners. The subscribers have a chance of getting their work published in one of the textile books published in-house at Textile-link.

I thought this was an interesting concept to pass along to all you creative people out there. No, I have not subscribed, but I was interested in the books that have been published to date.

Have a look!

Enjoy!

 

Mr. Finch

As I was going through some of the recent posts I frequently read, this site popped up: Mr. Finch, a Yorkshire fiber artist. Finch is actually his surname. Thanks to Deborah Schlegel of Art Threads for posting.

Finch's work is amazing. His use of vintage materials to create insects, bugs and small creatures, is definitely a work of art. This photo from his web site, says it all. He also has a new book: Mr. Finch: Living in a Fairy Tale World. Please pay him a visit and see his work for yourself!
Enjoy!

Gelli Plates

One of my new Christmas books was Gelli Plate Printing by Joan Bess. I already have a rectangle shaped plate and a round one (neither of which have been used yet). I intend to experiment by printing on fabric and paper. You can do a lot of interesting images and patterns using this method of printing. .

Check this tutorial about How to use a gelli plate . The two gals present a lot quick ideas.

Here's a link to Gelli Art with Joan Bess.

There's a lot of videos out there. I  did a search for Gelli Plate Printing and got lots of interesting stuff.
Enjoy!

Rock Recipes

Today was a snow day! I spent the morning working in my studio and in the afternoon I baked a Vanilla Cream Cheese Bundt Cake from my Rock Recipes Cook Book. The cake is delicious!
I've been a follower of the Rock Recipes blog (I think since it began). It is full of wonderful recipes and colour photos of all the delightful dishes. I highly recommend you pay a visit.

This is a photo of the Vanilla Cream Cheese Bundt from Rock Recipes. I didn't use the same icing called for in the recipe because I ran out of cream cheese. I mixed up some white icing instead.



Here's a few free patterns to consider (food related, of course!):

• Crochet cupcake key ring
• Cupcake Tea Cosy
• Cupcake Pincushion
• Kitchen Stitching Quilt
• Knitted Food Patterns

Enjoy!

WIP Wednesday

Brrrrrrr! It's cold outdoors. If you are staying inside today, drop by The Needle and Thread Network and check out some great Canadian quilt blogs. I've linked up with them. 

You can also access this network easily by clicking on the link to the right and a bit below this post on my blog page.

Enjoy and stay warm!

Inktense Water Soluble Ink Pencils and Blocks

Are you familiar with the Inktense Water Soluble Ink Pencils and Blocks by Derwent? They are similar to watercolour pencils but with a significant difference. When you add water, Inktense pencils and blocks produces ink and not watercolour paint. Once it has dried, the ink is waterproof instead of remaining water-soluble like the watercolour ones.

As a result you can add layers of different colours to your work, whether it's on paper or fabric. For more information, go HERE. Check HERE for a fabric painting demo using the Inktense pencils.

I have both the pencils and the ink blocks. At the moment, I'm doing a bit of research on them (I've had both for awhile but just did not take the time to do any experimenting). The time has come . . .! The embroidery machine is working away downstairs so something productive is happening.

I just viewed a short video clip on printmaking with Intense Blocks. I can see potential with that method!

Check out these images using the Intense Ink Pencils and Ink Blocks.
Enjoy!

Pincushions!

Back in November, 2014, I blogged about winning a china teacup pincushion from Edith at Inch by Inch Quilting, Calgary, Alberta. It came early in December but with the craft fairs, Christmas shopping and the holidays, I didn't get a chance to blog about it. Many thanks, Edith! Here it is with my other pincushions.

The cosy chair holds some oversize needles. Note the tall upholstery needle. The dark blue rectangle pincushion is decades old. It's made from heavy coat material and has a strip of Velcro on the bottom. This one is attached to the table in front of my sewing machine. I find having a pincushion in front of the machine, works for me. The sashiko stitched pincushion (the newest one ) was this year's Christmas gift from a friend. One can never have too many pincushions.

 

Here's a few patterns to check:

• cupcakes
• 50 + free pincushion patterns
• teapot pincushion

Enjoy!

January Projects

I've been checking out projects for the New Year. I probably won't be doing any of these but I do like collecting them for future reference. One can never have too many potential projects to pour over!

There are lots of free downloads at Free Patterns - this Sashiko-Stitched Bag for example.

You will have to enter your email address to access all the patterns.

Try out some of these free patterns on the Connecting Threads page. I like the partridge and a pear pattern , the bevy of bags and fat quarter gift idea sheet.


Free charts for stitching can be found at Craft Gossip.


The Nostalgic Needleart gals have a Happy New Year Crazy Quilt block for the crazy quilters.




Enjoy! I hope you find something interesting to try.