Soul's Delight

My Meditation day and night,

May it be pleasant in Thy sight,
For Thou art all my soul's delight.

(Soul's Delight "Poetry Dress" 24 inches by 18 inches)

(detail of hem line)

May this new year bring you all of your soul's delight!
Happy New Year and best wishes for 2009!

(my signature on the back of the neck)

bursting with joy

My head is bursting
with the joy of the unknown.
My heart is expanding a thousand fold.
Every cell,
taking wings,
flies about the world.
All seek separately
the many faces of my Beloved.

I had a vision for a series of art pieces and here is a peek of the starting point.
I am very existed about this new work and I will share more of it soon!

The Book Of Ruth

If I create from the heart, nearly everything works;

if from the head almost nothing.

-Marc Chagall

(The ring on the glove was my grandmother ring and is used to keep the book closed)

I made this "Legacy keepsake Album" last week for a workshop proposal for artfiberfest.
The photos are of my grandmother Ruth whom I was named after.
(when I was little they would call her Big Ruthie and me Little Ruthie)

My premise for this book is to combine your personal or found photos along with small tokens, mementos and Paper Ephemera to create pages to tell a story (personal or fictional)
The use of combined text is symbolic to my grandmother, I used the the book of Ruth passage from the bible as I have memories of her reading her bible daily. The Japanese text represents my grandfather. The child in the photos is my Mother.

This is a interactive book as the mementos and hand written letters come out of the pockets.

pockets are used to house mementos or various small art work.
machine stitching combined with hand stitching adds delicate texture to the pages.

A album much like this one will be in my book:

Layered, Tattered and Stitched: A Fabric Art Workshop
(due out fall 2009)


I have been very busy working on the words for this book the last few weeks, as the deadline for the words are just a few short weeks away! (word to the wise, never have a major deadline, two weeks after Christmas if at all possible!)


I am pleased to report that I am 90% done with the writing.

(thanks to Kristen Robinson who has made me
red velvet cup cakes along the way to keep
me motivated to write and has gifted me
with her keen wit and eyes as she
has been editing my words along the way!)

I am now working on the intro to the book,
I have chosen to write a “walk down memory lane”
and share how it was that I found my way to fabric art.
It’s almost therapeutic in many ways to look back and reflect on why we make choices
that lead us to our passions.

so why do I still struggle with calling my self a artist
and when I refer to my work space as a "studio" I almost laugh every time?

It makes me think about this quoit:

The reason angels can fly is that they take themselves so lightly.  --G.K. Chesterton 

The other day I was reading out loud an email some one had written
expressing how much my work touches them...
to my husband and kids.
Bronson my 15 year old nephew who has just recently moved in with us
declared to me after I read the note that he did not think it was good for me to read
all the nice things that people write about me because
then I will start to think that I am to good and not try as hard.

I laughed and told him:
“Oh no Bronson! It’s the opposite;
I worry that I may never come up with another good idea!
If anything it makes me try harder!”

I believe the only thing that must keep us creative types creating
has to be the love of the process combined with the delightful playfulness
that fills us as we create.

(binding of book)

The hallmark of creative people is their mental
flexibility... Sometimes they are open and probing, at others they're playful
and off-the-wall. At still other times, they're critical and faultfinding.
And finally they're doggedly persistent in striving to reach their goals.
From this I've concluded that the creative process consists of our adopting
four main roles, each which embodies a different type of thinking... These
roles are: Explorer, Artist, Judge and Warrior.
~Roger von Oech 

mer mag

Merrilee's is hosting a fantastic Christmas portrait drawing giveaway. So head on over to her blog to join!

Grace To Grow

Obtaining personal, spiritual or artist growth is not always an easy road. We know its necessary to grow but oftentimes we need encouragement to find the courage to take the steeps that lead to change.

(this dress is for sale here)

I am part of a delightful 12 days of Christmas swap organized by Deryn Mentock. Over the last 9 days I have been treated to a vast array of stunning ornaments created by 12 stunning artists.
you can see all the wounderment over at
Kelly, Joanna, Maija,Pilar, Danita and Deryn's blogs as they have been posting as they have opened there gifts.

Each of us had to create 12 ornaments and were assigned a day that we marked on our warped gift. then mail them off to the girls in the swap. we started to open our gifts on December first.

I had a few ideas in my head as to what I would create but in the end these little angel dresses won out. I wanted the dress's to share words of encouragement as they made there way around the united states, so I chose to use the words "grace to grow" The words on the dress's have been stitched on with free motion sewing onto each of the 12 dress.

wings were constructed out of layers of organza, hymnal paper, muslin and lace, alongside machine stitching to emulate feathers, were created and carved out of the layers.


The little “art dress” made out of muslin that I hand dyed was machine stitched together with decorative strings left hanging all about. the heart is heat altered felt, hand sewn to the dress.


The wings were then attached with a small mother of pearl button onto the back side of the dress.

Tiny hangers were made out of steel wire.

Then each dress was hung and here you have eleven completed dress's all in a row!

I was quite please with my self when I came up with the garment bags that I made for them to travel in!
each had the receivers name written below the heart.

And on the back I wrote the words that are sewn on to the dress, along with my day to open gift: Day 10


And on the reverse of the dress it reads:


"Thy gift is joy"
because joy is after all the gift we receive once we have taken the steps to grow!

affordable art

"appreciate the heart"

I was over looking at Lisa Calls blog and she is talking about affordable art.

"importance influences"

There is a small art showcase (fine art / small format / $25 - $500) its A collection of fine artists who are making their work accessible and affordable to art lovers and collectors.

"be true"

I think this is a really great premise to make affordable art, so I just posted these "art cards" for $20.00 at my etsy shop

"knowledge"

brave heart "art dress"

I have been working on different types of "art dresses" over the past year (there will be a "art dress" step out and patterns in my fabric art book) the dress's started out quite small but over the last week they have started to grow.

Brave Heart "art dress" measures 13 inches by 14 inches.

(Brave heart for sale here)

I fashioned the pattern from this dress that hangs in my studio that dates to the late 1800's

(pined to the dress is a piece that I am working on)

the dress is all threadbare but made with such love, with all the tiny hand stitches. this little dress has somehow became my muse and acts as
a reminder to me to put heart in what I do.

I intentionally made rips in my fabric when I was making this dress then stitched them up to emulate the old dress that inspired this piece.

around the seams I stitched in a half hazard way around the seams to give the appearance of lace. my sewn signature is stitched in the bottom right hand corner.

the words "my heart strings" are on the back of the dress along side the neckline.

and here is brave heat all stitched and mended and ready to save the world of love.
(oh, I am one silly blogger this morning!)

Just posted on the web over at stampington and company is a cover artist interview with me that you can view here and here.


happy creating!