Bubbles and Ribbons and Finishes, oh my!

Well! The gas bubble in my eye is finally completely gone. I’ve watched it get smaller and smaller until this morning I realized that it was actually gone! Hurray!

And then this hurray… I’d like to announce that my piece “Take Me to Church” entered into Woodlawn’s annual needlework show has won first place in its division of counted threads along with being awarded Best in Show! I’m delighted and humbled by the selections of the judges! I look forward to entering and seeing all the amazing entries next year!

To continue on with the hurrays, I finished my most recent black work (that has taken a ridiculous amount of time) I’m calling First Friday. Next is cleaning it up, stretching it and mounting it then framing!

Overall this week has been a good one. Busy, but the good kind of busy. Currently I’m taking a break from the studio, I have focaccia in the oven, Tophouse on the radio and sleeping dogs next to me. I don’t know how it could get any better.

I wish you all a wonderful weekend and thank you for stopping by! I’ll see you next week!

A pretty good week…

So this week was pretty good! Got a finish, got my black work piece within hours of finishing, did plenty of reading and research for upcoming shows, and managed to keep the studio in order! Go me!

I’ve been reading “The Complete Smartest” by Ekaterina Popova and Alicia Puig. It is incredibly rich in encouragement, ideas, and plans for an emerging artist. It is homework heavy tho and is taking me longer than I expected. That’s not a bad thing as I’m learning so muchI

Meanwhile I’m working on a little natural hoop piece inspired by what I’m pretty sure were the leavings of a squirrel’s breakfast. It’s coming along nicely but there is a butt-tonne of beading! Lolz!

I do have a show coming up next month at Canal Quarter Arts (CQA) with a nature theme, Easy! But… not so easy to decide what to submit! We’ll see what I have at the end of the month and decide then.

I MUST put aside some of these projects and work on goodies for the Renn Faire as that is fast approaching, It begins Mother’s Day Weekend! Eep! I got so distracted with this book and with working on my collection of rusty bits and I completely forgot… how can I forget something with a 5 week run… that I need to work on more bits and bobs for the faire! Eep!

So that is pretty much a good wrap up of the week! Thanks for joining me! I hope you come back again, and when you do, take a moment to drop me a note and say hi! A simple comment means the world to me!

Busy, busy bee!

Welcome to my least favorite month! Three guesses why, the first two guesses don’t count!

Starting this month I have 4 weeks to prepare for the Virginia Renn Fair and in July I will be the featured artist at Canal Quarter Arts in Fredericksburg so I’ve begun to get my rear in gear to make sure I have enough goodies for both. Renn Fair prep sees me working on fairy rings and other whimsies while for the July featuring I’m working on building a collection of works with rust. It’s nice moving between the two different styles. Kinda keeps it all fresh. We’ll see how I feel at the end of the month!

Life itself is going well. My eye continues to heal. The gas bubble is much smaller now, it IS dissipating but it is taking its own sweet time! Much to my consternation… I keep telling myself to have patience but meanwhile I am unable to focus on the small stitches involved in my black work.

To prep for a busy couple of months I took the time to clean and organize my studio, adding a new shelf to house all the finished pieces that had been hanging around on the floor, leaning up against the bookshelves…. definitely not the best place to keep them. I have to say I am much more happy in this space than I have been in a while. I had gotten so cluttered.

Now. I have a question for you… what would you like to see on this website? How-to’s? Videos? Patterns? Let me know what what you think!

Right! That’s it for now! Thanks for stopping by!

And yet another hot minute…

Things have been busy, preparing for the Virginia Renaissance Festival… well… would be busy, but I had a bit of a set back in regards to being able to do detailed stitching. While we were at Mythicon I experienced a blurry spot In my vision that quickly grew into a bubble that went from clear to black. Off to the Emergency Room! Turns out I had a detached retina. Surgery happened and now I’m struggling with blurry, partially obstructed vision while the gas bubble injected into my eye to help the retina reattach dissipates. Needless to say (but I’m gonna say it anyway) I cannot do any detailed stitch work. I have been relegated to slow stitching and projects that aren’t too detailed. What I found to make was protection pockets and pocket altars. They are lovely little things that are useful and fun.

Now that I have most of my vision, and the blurriness has cleared up, I am venturing back into the world of rust and moss and grass. I have bee thoroughly enjoying the process, taking my time and building a lovley little series I am calling “Playing With Rust”. I look forward to revealing them all as a group in July when I will be the featured artist at Canal Quarter Arts!

Also! I entered my blackwork piece “Take Me to Church” into The Woodlawn Pope-Leahy house annual needlework show. I entered with a little hope but no real expectations as there are always hundreds of entries only to discover that I was awarded Best in Show! How wonderful is that?

So, that’s about all the news for now. I will do my utmost to update you sooner than the last couple of times!

Another hot minute…

Yeah. It’s been a crazy, couple of months…. We’ll just leave it at that, shall we?

There have been some fun things Like GoblinCon in Gettysburg PA which was a hoot!

I also set up solo at a local artisan market, which was an interesting experiment, I’m very thankful to have had John as a helper that day because that tent is not a one person set up! It turned out to be a very nice day with lovely conversations with very nice people. A good day even if there were no sales.

Most recently I set up at a pop up market put on by a local coffee truck! It was cold but there was coffee to keep the insides warm. My art was well received, and I sold quite a few pieces! Hooray!

Today I had a lovely finish on a project I am very proud of. It’s stitched with rusty nails I found on my deck after it was reconstructed once the plumbing issue was dealt with.

I’m going to stop at this short update and strive to update you again next week!

Set up at Hurkamp Park in Downtown Federicksburg VA

Set up at Witches Brew Fall Market

Today’s finish…. Nailed

So…it’s been a hot minute

So yeah, I dropped the ball on this didn’t I? Lolz! Ahh well, keep on swimming, right?

So Popcon was good! The word of the day was puppets! Three of them found new homes! Hooray!

So yeah, got home, rested up a bit, did the things and worked on the house some then got into the studio and wondered how the goblins got in. What a mess!

So I waded in and made a start! Then my kids needed me and off I go to help them, bonus… grandson time!… but it took longer than anyone expected…. more grandson time!… Finally issue was dealt with and I headed home.

So THEN I got to get into the studio, in which I sit, surrounded by neat order and tidy work surfaces! Hooray! Now I can stitch!

So I did, and finished this lovely piece I’m calling “Lost Buttons” If you are interested in giving it a home, hit me up and we can talk details!

Next week looks sunny with multiple chances of stit

Let the event anxiety commence!

This week has been a whole lot of crazy, and not really the good kind. But! It’s almost Friday when I’ll be heading to West Virginia for the WV Pop Con! With The Underbridge Society I will be vending over the weekend at a lovely convention in the hopes of having some fun and making some money!

The new found object piece is coming along slowly. Today was spent at Canal Quarter Arts slow stitching a leaf stitch in some lovely hand dyed thread, while the blackwork gets no love until next week. Mostly I’ve been busy making puppets and dealing with my inventory in preparations for the weekend. Now I’ve done what I can do and it’s time to load it up and head out!

Once Pop Con is finished I’ve got three weeks before the Grassroots Festival at Hurkamp Park downtown Fredericksburg. :-D. Busy! Busy! Busy! I’m looking forward to this event. It will be back to our roots as The Underbridge Society with just John and I displaying and attending. I’m hoping it will be a lovely evening in good company with good music and lovely people.

On the non studio front I’ve started strength training and pilates under a personal trainer. I had my first sessions this week and found that I love pilates! Even if the reforemer machine made me sea sick! I’m hoping this will be the boost and initiative to get back on the trails. I miss walking. I know my dogs do. Speaking of dogs… Echo and I will be taking an obedience class together with 2speakdog, We love their approach and were the only trainers I could find that did group classes and didn’t want to take your dog and board them while they trained them… and don’t use any prong or electric collars.

Well. That’s all the gnews that is gnews as Gary Gnu used to say!

P.S. Picture of Echo as pa

Sleepy stitches and puppets galore…

Hello friends!

Last week was full of slow stitching, puppet making, puttering, and staring off into space. Not the best of progress, but needed I think.

This week is prep for WV Pop Con the 23-24. Inventory has been checked, tagged and packed. Now to put finishing touches on a few projects and puppets! Moar puppets!

I decided that the mushrooms were a lost cause, putting them in the bad boy box to be revisited at a later date. A new blackwork piece has been started and I’m well pleased so far, keep your fingers crossed.

A new puppet is in the works with an extra pair of arms found at the bottom of the puppet bin. He has a working name of Slim Jim (don’t ask me where THAT came from, cuz I couldn’t tell you!) I am trying posable fingers again, only this time I have a tutorial from Project Puppet to help! Hopefully I will have a video to share with you next week! There will also be a handful of glorified sock puppets to take along to WV PopCon.

Tomorrow is docent day at Canal Quarter Arts where I believe I will take the blackwork and pretend to be productive…. or possibly Slim Jim to work on… we’ll see how I feel in the morning, but something will be worked on tomorrow. :-D

That’s it for tonight folks! I hope you all have a lovely week! Thank you for coming along on this journey!

Blogs gotta start somewhere…

Nothing like having your day hijacked by a hubby who needs rescuing from DC! Instead of house maintenance in the morning like planned, I’m putting aside some of it so I can spend the afternoon doing the maintenance this website needs. Hopefully to reach those people out there that like puppets, rusty bits and bobs, and little faces peeking out to say hello!

I’ve got the rest of my checklist taken care of (to a point) so here I sit with puppets on the brain! Ever had that problem? It’s not a bad problem to have, really. If I’m honest I probably have puppets on my brain 90% of the time! I’m currently putting the finishing touches on one that developed a Creature of the Black Lagoon look… I’m not mad at it. : D

The Underbridge Society has an event coming up the weekend of August 23-24 At the West Virgina Pop Con in Morgantown. It will be our first time vending at this event so we really don’t know what to expect, but we are looking forward to the adventure! If you are so inclined you should come check it out! I’m told it is loads of fun!

Also, I will be displaying two pieces in the “Song Titles” show at Canal Quarter Arts in Fredericksburg VA August 21-24! Come down and see all the art on display! Maybe you’ll find one to take home!

Whelp! That about wraps it up for the week… see you next week!… and thanks for stopping by!