Hand Stitching - Can You Believe It

Sherry is hostessing an amulet bag trade on FAT. I can't believe I am actually doing handwork. But here is the proof. It's not finished yet. But as you can see I have used the blanket stitch and french knots. Boy, the french knots are not working for me. Wonder what I am doing wrong. I did get 5 on the little flower.

I wish I could get the true blue color of the embroidery thread.

FIRES BURNING

The Dismal Swamp wildfire is only about 10% contained. The smoke has worked its way all the way to our home area. Oh my does it stink, even in the house its beginning to smell of smoke.

I pray for all the firefighters on the line and the aircraft crew trying to get the fire under control.

I watched on tv all the overflowing rivers in Iowa and all the homes under water. The newscasters were commenting on the grains/wheat and how this will effect our food prices. Between gas prices and food prices I can't imagine how people will make ends meet?

Joseph - the boy with a coat of many colors

That reminds me of Joseph being placed in the number 2 position in Egypt during a time of famine. God had it planned all along. Joseph was able to take care of his father, all his brothers and their families and all the animals they owned. Can you imagine being positioned to take on that kind of power? He was given so much wisdom by God that before the famine came he had stored up food for the nation.

What famine are you up against in your life. What is draining the life out of you and seems if you just gave up would overtake you? I'm learning to trust God at all times. I want to be found trust-worthy by God in all areas of my life.

Joseph had been thrown into a pit by his brothers, sold into slavery by his brothers, falsely accused by his employers wife and thrown into prison again. His father had been told by his siblings that an animal killed him. He had interpreted 2 dreams for the Pharoah's butler and cook and after being promised they would tell about his false imprisonment, left in prison and forgotten.

By man he may have been forgotten, but God never forgot Joseph.

God had a plan for Joseph and it was bigger than he could have ever imagined.

Actually he had imagined it, he had seen it in his dreams as a young boy.

What dreams are you holding on to; waiting to be fulfilled?

Don't give up just hang on and prepare yourself!!

Busy Day Cleaning

Velvet Discharged

I am discharging on black fabric and velvet using bleach. I used all kinds of stamps, but here is a cherry stamp on the velvet using the liquid bleach. To stop the discharge you can use anti-chlor or vinegar/water.




I had to post two more pics of my "Out of The Blue" trade. One is the little denim pocket holders for encouragement tags and the other is the side of the box. You can see where I glued the hand-dyed yarn on the side to keep the lid up. I really enjoyed working on this project.


BUSY CLEANING

I have been really busy cleaning my room again. It doesn't take long for me to rip through my stuff and actually it looks like a cyclone came through and whipped everything around. I am rearranging the room again too. I'm making room for an elliptical glider for my hubby to work out on that way it will be less impact on his knees and back yet he can get a workout. I hope it will fit where I have made the room.

Confident to Reach For the Stars and The Courage To Influence

I want to share the story of Lydia in the Bible found in Acts 16: 14-15

She owned a business and sold expensive purple cloth made from the shells of mollusks

and she was a worshipper of God.

She was a great example of a Christian businesswoman with great influence.

She was successful, intelligent, perceptive and persuasive.

More and more women are feeling the passion rising up within them to become entrepreneurs.

To all those women I say, "Follow Lydia bc you are already a woman of influence.

Go, go, go God!!

Out Of The Blue Comes Sunshine

FAT is having a trade called "Out of the Blue" and this is the Altoids box I did for the trade. I missed Leilani's Altoids tin book trade so I had to do one. This little box has 3 faces in/on it. I love the fabric I used for the top. It reminds me of a famous artist's painting. At present can't remember the artist's name. I padded the top before trimming it out in hand-dyed fiber. When I opened the lid up it fell all the way back and I didn't like that. So I glued some of the fiber on the side attached it to the lid, now it stays half-way open. On the inside lid I placed jewels and made another blue face centered in the middle of my flower.

I had a piece of denim I had played with trying to fold, it turned into a 2 pocket holder. My little tags inside say "Be Glad", "Happy" and "Love". Then I made another little happy flower with a yellow sunshine face in the center. I edged around the bottom sides with more hand-dyed yarns. I even covered the bottom with more of the top fabric for a perfect finish. I used a calligraphy marker on the top in blue to write the words "Out of the blue came Sunshine."

So here's the question?

When You're in the midst of The Blue Times

Do You Look For or See the Sunshine/Silver Lining

Come out of those Blue Times?

I hope whoever receives this little treasure box will place it on their desk and when they feel overwhelmed with blue days they will pull out the holder, read the tags,

and Remember. Life Is Good!!

Powerful DisCharged Words

COLOR BE GONE

I am doing a workshop using bleach to discharge on velvet and black fabric. I used all my bleach and couldn't find the item at Walmart to stop the discharging. But I improvised using Clorox Disinfectant, two cheap rubber stamps and deep burgundy velvet. Here are the results. And it funny that the velvet is so deep it looks like a black/white photo, but it's not!

DO WORDS HAVE COLOR?

Have you ever watched online an audio only of voice waves? I find them very interesting and have wanted to come up with an idea to produce them on fabric. The above discharge along with neocolor or fabric markers may be the very thing I have been waiting to try it on. That's not included in the workshop but I did see an example that looked like bones and a single-color discharge that resembled sound waves, at least that's what it looked like to me.

A friend sent me an encouragement GIG from Sharon Jaynes. When I explored her site a little further, she has a book out called "The Power of A Woman's Words". I believe I will order that book. It seems like something I need to read and dig a bit more into. She says,

"Your Words Become the Mirror In Which Others See Themselves."

Now that's pretty powerful, don't you think?

oh and while i'm at it i think i'll discharge some words, that should make for an interesting art piece. Maybe I shall call it "Mouth Piece".

Dots

The very first postcard exchange group I was ever in took a quarter off and now are back with a theme: Dots. Here are two I received so far. The blue one represents morse code with dots and dashes. The second one is bubble wrap over top of fabric. This group comes up with some interesting interpretations. Now I must get to work on mine. I have an idea but can I get it fleshed out onto a card?
We'll see!!

MY THOUGHTS

I've been really contemplating my thought life and how it affects me.

Is It True?

Stop and catch your thought. What are you thinking right now?

If it is true that your thoughts shape your life,

would you want what you were just thinking right now to become true for you?

If it's a thought of worry or anger, or hurt or revenge or fear,

how do you think this thought will come back to you?

First Day On Job - What Rules

Here is a canvas in progress. When I was painting my fabrics last week I pulled out this canvas to play. I am really enjoying the colors. I painted the background and added two shapes. I'm not sure where this is leading. The camera makes the background shiny and appear to still be wet.

What RuleS?

Well Sunday evening was my first day on the summer job. It proved to be interesting. Hubby keeps saying if it cuts too much into his time off and being with me, he would rather I quit. To him its not worth the inconvenience. We'll see how it plays out. I know I at least want two days off during each week. The days of straight eight hours a day and forty hours are I guess a thing of the past. Shorter hours mean no lunch and only quick bathroom breaks. I do know one thing: it seems no one wants to be bothered with rules, unless it pertains to the other person.

AB Workshop

AB WORKSHOP

This is an unusual "book" I am making in a workshop. I am enjoying this bc it is different. Krissie was gracious enough to oblige us in doing this AB workshop. Its amazing what AB artists can do with a page. I am using a beautiful old calendar I kept. Nothing wasted here. The yellow is duct tape. What do you think of the bottom? I just loved this dog pic bc it looks like my chocolate lab. There is a book name for this but I won't post it yet. It will be a surprise. I haven't ask Krissie how she came up with this unusual name.

What do you see out my front dining room window? Can you see the bird on the feeder? My hubby loves all the birds that congregate in our yard to feed and bathe. And here is where my doggie sits too, but he never barks at them, even though they are right outside the window. He just watches them and I believe enjoys them as much as we do.

Life Changes

Today I will begin to contribute monetarily to my home. I am working a little summer job to help with a financial situation. My hubby has been stressed out over an agreement between our son and him. But in the agreement it was stated "mom will go back to work if the obligation is not met." So here I go. I wonder how being out til 11pm will feel? Any way life's lessons are never about what you think they will be. God always seems to surprise us with a bigger picture.

I am very apprehensive about this but I must trust God for this one. After being out of the workforce for 23 years it seems odd to be going back in. But I know many people are struggling to make ends meet. Wow! here we go on the adventure of a new phase in my life.

Roller coaster!!