Friday, December 23, 2011

Ice Dyeing Again!

Even in the midst of Christmas shopping and making Christmas presents, I had to spend a few minutes in the dye studio yesterday and ice dye some fabric. I needed some fabric therapy. This piece (one yard) is Strongest Red and Clear Yellow. I also dyed a half yard and four fat quarters. I don't have time to load them online yet, but if you are interested, drop me an email and I'll make time to take pics and send them to you.

While these beautiful pieces of fabric were washing and drying I got to work in the studio and made this precious tool belt for my grandson (he's pretty precious too). I already had this in the plan when our son asked me to make Hudson two tool belts. One for their house and one for ours, that way he can help Paw Paw in the workshop. I used fabrics out of my stash. Faux suede  and Building Blocks by American Jane Patterns. I found an online tutorial for the pattern. One-Hip-Mom has a great blog with the tutorial. The tool belt went together quick and easy. She has some other great tutorials on her site too. Check it out!



Okay, time to get back to work on the next little Christmas surprises!

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

One Christmas Project Down, Time for the Rest!

One Christmas project has been completed and I'm ready to clean up my studio and get on with planning the next! My studio is in chaos, well, chaos for me. You all know how I like my studio organized and straightened up, I just can't create with piles for fabric on the floor, on the worktable, and sitting on different stools and counter tops.

Last night I had a great time at the Dallas Area Fiber Artists covered dish and Christmas Silent Auction. I was able to win a beautiful necklace made by my dear friend, JoAnn Musso, and a black and white original painting by Flo Barry. Both are wonderful women and I am so blessed to have handmade creations from both of them. I try to get one of Flo's black and white paintings every year for Jeff's office. I have decorated it with black and white photos and art work.

Next on my " "To Do List" is cleaning up the studio and planning the next Christmas surprises. I have a couple in mind, but I can't tell you, because then it may spoil Christmas for someone. Sorry. I am going to create my plan of action for dyeing fabric, planning out shows to enter, new creations that are in my brain, (some I've pulled fabric for already), plus planning out the creation of our new master bedroom quilt. I've dyed most of the fabric already, thought I had dyed it all, but after I ice dyed a yard to add in, I've decided that I may need another yard. Just love the ice dyed fabrics!


I hope all you have a productive and beautiful day!




Thursday, December 15, 2011

Christmas Creativity!


I'm still busy working on my Christmas creative list. These little notebook cases are darling! I am streamlining the process of cutting, quilting, stitching together. I'm almost done with all the quilting, but I need to take a break and stitch some of these together today. I'm seeing my BFF tomorrow and want to let her pick one out! Today is going to be hit and miss on the stitching because we are having rain storms. One wave has already gone through and another one is on its way. I have great surge protectors on my machines, but I still hate to be sewing along and the power surge. When I have the machine off I'm going to plan out my next project or two.

Since I'm making so many notebook covers, I have been using quilting stitches from The Free Motion Quilting Project. Leah has great quilting patterns and tutorials on her site. I truly appreciate the hard work and time she has spent on this project! This has been a great time for me to be able to try out new quilting patterns and expand my mind and not stay with the same quilting designs that I usually use.
Okay, need to get busy before the next wave of thunder storms!
Create and be Happy!

Sunday, December 11, 2011

Getting Organized

I know I talk a lot about organization in my studio and here I am again and this time I'm promoting a friend of mine who has written a book on organization. Kathy Wright is a dear friend of mine and has written a wonderful book on being a busy mom and being organized.  The book is named appropriately The "Wright" Way to Get Organized. I'm telling you about this book now, because it would be the perfect gift for someone on your Christmas list, or download it for yourself! Kathy had the book published on Blurb, so downloading or ordering the soft or hard cover books are simple!
Enjoy!

Saturday, December 10, 2011

I am up to my ears with projects and things to do. With getting ready for Christmas, taking care of household things and celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary, I don't know if/when I will see the light at the end of the tunnel. Today I've been working on my website, Studio Jules Art. My step-son has taken care of it inthe past years for me and the time has come that I needed to take it over and off of his busy plate. I truly appreciate the hard work and time he spent on my website in the past years. I decided to move it to the blogger site and use it as my gallery and categorize my art work and art quilts by year of creation with links to Etsy and Art Fire for the ones that are for sale. Plus it links back and forth to my blog easily.
Take a peek and let me know what you think here on my blog post.


Yesterday I started on Christmas projects for the Dallas Area Fiber Artists Silent Auction and as Christmas presents for some well deserving fiber friends. The other day I bought Simple Quilts and Sewing magazine because it has some great projects and ideas in it. One that really caught my organized eye is the notepad project by Betty Berginski. This is a great project to use fat quarters and/or scrap fabric in your stash. I've really enjoyed cutting out and making several of these as gifts!

Notepad Case

Inside of Notepad Case