Rainy Day Retrospect

Here in California we prayed for rain and boy are we getting it!  And wind, yes the trees are bending like toothpicks.  Not weather to be out and about in so I spent most of the day in my studio puttering around.  A little stitching, some botanical dye printing, daydreaming, and watching HGTV.

Some of these dye prints were done with my sister Jan when she visited last week and some today.

I've been putting packets together of rust and botanical dyed fabrics and ribbon that I have listed for sale in my Etsy shop.  I have more to list as the days go by.

Hope you are safe and dry in your part of the world.

Pajaro Valley Quilt Association Annual Show

I'm a vendor this year at the Pajaro Valley Quilt Association annual show.  I'm sharing a double booth with Chris Flynn who creates marvelous books and cards made from vintage laces, photos, and other goodies along with her Spirit Dolls. It's happening next weekend!

The last few days have found me making a huge mess in the studio to dye fabrics, scarves and ribbon to sell.

The aftermath of botanical and rust dye printing 

that become this

And then I bundle and wrap on cards, bits and pieces and ribbon

This is what I'll be selling along with some of my upcycled garments including the vintage "shoot like a girl" sharpshooter vests.

I'm hoping to see some familiar faces that I haven't seen in a long time as well as meeting new friends!

"Storytelling with Collage"

So honored to be included in the book that Roxanne Evans Stout has had published.  She received her advance copy in the mail and I was able to see it for a short while when we were together in Redding, Ca. for our workshop "Gathering Grace on Altered Wings" at Altered Wing Studio.  The book is listed at Amazon for pre-order here.  It is fabulous and I can not wait for my copy to arrive in the mail!

When you think of collage the first thing that comes to mind might be cutting pictures out of magazines and glueing them onto a poster board or piece of construction paper?  Well collage is so much more.  There are many talented artists included in the book with a variety of categories. My piece in the magazine is of course fabric collage.  I was able to find a fabulous linen swing coat at a thrift store and I have used that as my background to collage my hand dyed and printed fabrics, with a bit of lace added, using hand stitching.

On Jan. 9 & 10 I got to teach a class with Roxanne  at Altered Wind Studio in Redding, CA.  I got to meet a wonderful and diverse group of woman as we used botanicals and rust to dye print paper and fabrics to be used in collage work.  Here are some photo's from that weekend.

Kimberly's Rust Print

Roxanne and me with our gracious hosts Kimberly and Ginger

(We are wearing necklaces created by Ginger)

Day One

Day Two

Thank you to all those who were in the class and took photos, many of which I have used here on the post!