Supporting My Support Group?

Beginning April 29, artwork donated by members of the Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA) goes up for auction. (See the 2022 Spotlight Auction.) These are small pieces measuring 8″ x 6″ in a variety of styles, colors, and techniques.

My piece, Flying Home #3, is among those available for bid. Hand embroidered and using wool, felt, and my hand dyed threads, Flying Home depicts the birds who live in my backyard and in my imagination. Birds are magnificent creatures. They are flying acrobats, daredevils that sing, and sprites that fill my garden and heart with activity and life.

There are several reasons to collect artwork. We collect art to support an organization like SAQA or to support the artist. Collecting art also gives you, the collector, the benefit of surrounding yourself with what you love. Art gives us a sense of beauty and what is good in the world. So check out the SAQA 2022 Spotlight Auction and treat yourself to something good.

FrankenStitch: Epilogue

It was a dark and stormy night when the embroiderer walked into her basement studio and the lightbulb in her brain finally lit up. At last! A way to finish her FrankenStitch design!

She centered the embroidery onto a piece of her hand-dyed fabric that was fused to a rectangle of wool batting. As she admired the pickle color of the cloth, she decided that her choice of color was a really big dill.

After attaching the embroidery to the cotton border fabric with hand stitching, she rushed to her sewing machine. (Ok, maybe she didn’t rush.) The embroiderer casually sauntered to her sewing machine.

Dropping the feed dogs on the machine, she casually added free-motion stitching to the green fabric. She chose the famous curlicues and bananas pattern of stitching to surround the embroidery thinking it added a bit of festivity.

As she completed the project, the embroiderer sighed and glanced around the studio. Suddenly she felt at loose ends.

But wait! Was that a small unfinished embroidery peeking out from under a stack of fabric. Was another FrankenStitch project lurking in the wings? Perhaps a Daughter of FrankenStitch? Stay tuned!

Read the entire FrankenStitch Story here.

The FrankenStitch Story #9: It’s Alive!

Wherein the Embroiderer Completes the Creation

The embroiderer nestles into her comfy chair and takes up her FrankenStitch design. The artwork resembles its sibling called Natural Gardening (left) from Playful Free-Form Embroidery but with a flair for the dramatic. Just a few more stitches and it too will be complete.

And none too soon, for she is almost out of cookies

She adds blooms made with French knots to soften the horizon line. A size 12 Prinky Phlox from the now infamous Artfabrik dyers does the job.

Then she contemplates the sky. Can she transform the formidable black fabric with curved lines of stem stitches? Having no better ideas, she renders the lines on the sky with a size 12 Ocean thread. She likens the undulating lines to a crisp spring breeze or perhaps a bizarre cloud formation. Cumulus FrankenStitchius?

All that is left are a few stitches on the sun to perk it up. The embroiderer contemplates her handiwork. The FrankenStitch, a design born from unwanted step-outs, is finished. She sets it aside and grabs one last cookie. It is time to return to her real garden and the weeds that await.

The End