Silk Ribbon Dragon

This is a dragon I created for "The New Ribbon Embroidery". Found this piece while continuing the never-ending job of cleaning out the studio. I collect books on Chinese Embroidery. The dragon was adapted from an illustration stitched onto a purse. The dragon is 5"x8". I sketched the dragon onto an orange shot silk fabric. Outlined, over the pencil sketch, with couched gold thread. The inside of the dragon body was filled in with Ribbon Stitches and French Knots,and finished with gold beads.

Hand-dyed Velvet Ribbon

The sheen on this velvet ribbon simply speaks "Victorian". I dyed the ribbon yesterday along with some silk ribbon, using RibbonSmyth Rainbow Dyes. The velvet is Japanese rayon single-face velvet. Velvet instantly grabs the dye. I will keep some yardage for a metal card deck we will be creating next week. And the rest of the yardage will be sold on my Etsy site. The colors are used straight out of the bottle using Victorian Rose, with Olivine and touches of Antique Gold and applied with a pipette. I dye fibers outdoors and let the ribbons air-dry. Then they are heat-set with an iron. I think dyeing ribbon and fibers is intuitive and blissfully relaxing! I'm keeping the spool of ribbon in a basket next to my office computer, that is surrounded with my favorite things, and protected by a 24"x32" photograph of Paul McCartney! A photographer friend sent me the print from a 2003 photo shoot in New York, and "Paul" lives in my office!

Silk Ribbon Embroidery Bouquet in Vase

This is a 3-day workshop that I offer. The ribbon embroidered piece features a variety of techniques using a variety of ribbons, trims and silk charmeuse fabric, hand-dyed for the container. And at the end of the workshop, you do have a completed piece!

Silk Ribbon Heart Ringerbearer Pillow

This is a Ringbearer pillow that I designed for my book "The New Ribbon Embroidery". I have the full-size pattern in the book. The pillow was designed to be used after the wedding. The satin streamers are tacked on each corner and they were meant to be removed. I display several silk ribbon pillows in a guest bedroom to be enjoyed every day.

Metal Doll Bed Plant Stand in my Garden

This is a doll bed that I found at a thrift store. I've placed it in a garden that was named "Moonlight Garden" by a friend that put in the garden. The garden is beneath old trees. Maureen added plants that would offer white flowers. When I'm working in that garden, I think of her. When she finished the garden, she added a poem written on a large flat rock, about moonlight, and placed a small crystal moon-shape piece on the rock. The old buckets are filled with vinca. Coming from West Texas, where nothing grows, due to lack of rain; there will always be much to learn about gardening. I am grateful when our plants thrive.

Ladder Trellis in my Garden

Summer in the Northeast is never long enough. Wish that season could "steal" several months of winter. I am grateful for each day I can be outdoors. There is so much work to be done. This is a little area in my vegetable garden. We took apart an old ladder and built a trellis. I have a wine bottle and spoon windchime hanging beneath the trellis. There is a small metal armadillo, I found in Texas, "sunning" on the rocks. The old milk pails come from local dairies.

This is the April Block created for the CQJP ~ Crazy Quilt Journal Project. Each block begins with a focal using Japanese brocade fabrics, gathered over the years. The finished wall-hanging will have 12 to 16 blocks and will be exhibited at the Pearl S Buck Foundation 2013 Fiber Exhibition.

Black Edwardian crazy quilt block

This is one of the finished Edwardian blocks, that is a part of a 3-block wall-hanging. The blocks will be finished with a velvet edge and backed in a rust Scalamandre brocade. I used an Austrian vintage image for the focal and pulled colors out of the image for the fabric choices. My goal was to work in all black embellishments, but I simply can't do it! I found some small velvet pods at a millinery store in New York and now I want to use those on everything!Torn black lace from a Victorian bodice, given to me by a friend in Virginia, was used around the vintage image. Next, vintage metallic wire ribbon, from Tinsel Trading, was laid on top of the lace. This piece was done while I was travelling. Always a challenge to work out of a zip lock bag of trims. I separate all my trims and lay them on a tray; then work off of the tray.

Velvet Bird Cuff

This is a cuff I made over the week-end using one of our new embossed velvet birds. This piece is a sample of wearing your crazy quilting on your wrist! We sell the aluminum cuff blanks on the OldElements etsy site. Endless possibilities with these cuff blanks. I pieced 5 doupioni scraps together with the width of the stitched piece one-inch wider than the aluminum blank. I glued hot pink wool on top and underneath the cuff. I dyed a rayon motif to match the colors of the silk pieces. Tinted the velvet bird to match and stitched the bird on top of the rayon motif, with tack stitches on either side of the body. I wanted the dimension of the bird to stand off the cuff. I added ab vintage sequin scraps from a flapper gown, on either side of the bird body. Stitched a pearl, from an old necklace, to the ground and added vintage beads and sequins, near the head of the bird. Finished by whip-stitching the silk hem to the wool. Added a beaded picot stitch with yellow ab seed beads. This would make a great, easy class with ready-to-wear results!

Homage to Van Gogh

The Philadelphia Museum of Art presents Van Gogh Up Close. The exhibit is in its final weeks. If you are in the area; an exhibit not to be missed. The exhibit featured "up close" Van Gogh paintings. Paintings of blades of grass, wheat, grapes or his famous sunflowers, all in brilliant colors with movement and dimension. His use of lavender and lilac oils for tree trunks or stone walls, set against a turquoise sky with his famous horizons, perched in the top quadrant of the canvas, dotted with yellow ochre houses; offers a glimpse of his brilliance. For those interested in textile design, Van Gogh's work is abundant in perspective and spatial design. Time could be spent interpreting his style in blocking a canvas. Using adjectives to describe his work, seems trite. Next at the Philadelphia Museum...the Rembrandt Exhibit. A trip to New York this week for the preview exhibit of "Conversations with Schiaparelli and Prada" at the Metropolitain Museum of Art. Next to Coco Chanel, Elsa Schiaparelli's work, during the 1930's, was the "rage"; lush with surreal details. And following that exhibit, a trip next week-end to the James A. Michener Museum in Doylestown, PA to see the Angel exhibit - "Treasures from the Uffizi". Each of these exhibits offer inspiration in color and design; more than the mind can absorb. Vincent van Gogh died at 37 having accomplished 2,000 works in 9 years, many of those created while in the mental asylum at Saint Remy. He painted "Starry, Starry Night" in 45 minutes. He failed at every job he undertook. He was friendless, penniless and survived by the support and love of his younger brother. Some of his oil paintings were painted with transparent, thin, pale lines of paint; thought to have been painted when Vincent was painfully low on supplies, while waiting for his brother to send more paint. And yet his work has been viewed by billions who acknoweledge and appreciate his genius. Vincent, as you watch us view your art, awestruck....our endless gratitude...