A Charming Exchange

I will be part of “Open Studios” at the Long Beach Quilt Show, this weekend,

my demo times will be :
Friday, July 25: 12:40–2:30;
Saturday, July 26: 10:30–12:30;
Sunday, July 27: 10:30–12:30.

With my sewing machine by my side, all three days you will find me creating and giving away mixed media ATC cards along with some jewelry techniques that can be incorporated into your mixed media or quilting art.

I am happy to say that at long last A Charming Exchange is starting to find it ways into homes and bookstores across the land!

If you can make it to the quilt show then you can thumb through A Charming Exchange
and see Jewelry from the book up close.

The pieces that I have decided to bring with me, involve fabric and sewing.
First up is:

"Up In The Sky"
Ruth Rae and Jade Pegler

(You can learn how to create this complete project in the book.)

I am a big fan of Jade's work so when she sent me these fabric orbs I was intrigued with the shapes of the her magical flying machines, I wanted to mimic her soft stuffed forms as I Incorporated the wire work, the lines of Jade's work were my guide as I came up with this design.


(close up detail of hook and eye clasp)

"Garden Of Delight"
Ruth Rae, Judy Scott and Martha Brown


When we were working on the jewelry for this book once all the submission's for a charming exchange arrived at my house, Kelly came over and we started to sort through all of the submissions. Once we got to Judy's box we were completely captivated by these leaves that she created by stitching on a watter soluble fabric then went on to add a layer of crocheted bead work.

(close up detail of bead work and the reverse side of "tree" charms created by Martha on a piece of bark)

Kelly and I tryed to pull all the colors out of these leaves with our stone color pallet... Now I will share a secret with you, this was one of the first pieces that we laid out.

(detail of bead work that is stepped out in the book )

but I will also add that it was also the most challenging piece for me from a construction stand point as with all the projects from this book our main goal was to enhance every ones work.


(toggle clasp detail)

that said, all tho this was the first to be laid it out it remained on a tray for a few months in my studio and ever now and then I would take a peek at it and it was as if every time it would say to me:

"not now, I am not ready to tell you what I want to be when I grow up"

so I would put the tray that held it away once more. Even Kelly would say to me:

"so what are your going to do with Judy's leaves?"

Then one night the bead work pattern came to me in a dream and became one of the last pieces that was created for the book.
and needless to say one of my favorites.

(details of the reverse side of the leave)

The most rewarding part of this book and the part that we hope to share with our readers is the collaborative spirit.

I hope you will pick up a copy of A Charming Exchange and start to create some of your own collaborative jewelry with some of your friends.

Kelly and I have set up a blog just for our book at:
www.acharmingexchange.com

At the charming exchange blog you will find links to all of the people that made this book a reality, and we will soon we will be hosting a swap in the spirit of our book along with a series of online auctions that will be held with many of the pieces from the book, with 100% of the proceeds going to Brest Cancer research. More information on this will soon follow as all the details are still being worked out.

I hope to see some of you this weekend!