Rainbow of Roving

While I was procrastinating working on my Twelve by Twelve piece I decided to dye up a whole rainbow of roving. Don't you love the colors!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Dreaming of Spring Sprung!

Here are the latest little quilts I whipped up this morning. I spent the weekend working with brown fabric to create the process photos for my Chocolate chapter. It kept reminding me of the bare earth outside and my desire to see green shoots popping up. I had add a few of my own to the rich dirt fabric. I started with the simple little green shoot on the top, but couldn't stop there. I of course wanted more and more color. Most likely these little quilt will travel off to Art-O-Mat some time in the near future. There are exciting happening over there and I'm looking forward to seeing where my work travels.

The Cuff Photo Shoot

After the weekend photo shoot for Twelve by Twelve, I decided it was time to try to get some good photos of what I have been creating. I bought some black velvet for a backdrop and pulled out the tripod. It is amazing what a good set up can do! I don't have any special lighting, so I am still relying on natural daylight. This creates rather dramatic lighting coming through the window. My biggest challenge was getting the right exposure with the black velvet. The camera automatically wanted to over expose everything to make up for the dark background. All detail was lost in the strong contrast. I found that I had to make sure the light was very diffused and crank the exposure way down. With such long exposure times, I never could have done it without the tripod. I did find that I had to wait for the washing machine to finish the spin cycle because even that was causing some vibration that ruined the crispness. All in all, I'm happy with how the photos turned out. Next, I will have to work on staging, but for now I will just stick with the black velvet.

Photo Shoot Day

Photos for the book are done! I wish that I could share the fruits of my long day, but they are top secret until our Twelve by Twelve book is published next spring. Instead I thought I would share my wonderful husband who spent our morning without children help me clean the living and dining rooms so everything would be camera ready. He even washed the windows inside and out. He truly is the most amazing man and I love him with all my heart. I also have my confession photo below. All the things that I didn't know what to do with got put in a spinach box from Costco. I also have a stack of papers that need a place in the file cabinet, but for now live precariously on shelf. During the photo shoot, I just moved them back and forth so it was out of the pictures. Now that I'm finishing some of my big to dos I should be able to put all of it away in a more appropriate place.

This week's to do are just to finalize my chapter and write some short statements about each of the quilts. I can't tell you how good it feels to be almost done! Next week at this time, I should be letting out a big sigh of relief!

Indie Banditas

Come down and check out the new Indie Banditas Shoppe. I'll be hanging out tonight from 6-8pm for the Bainbridge Island First Friday Art Walk. Kate has done an awesome job of filling the store with treasures from Puget Sound Artists. I'm so excited that I received the honor of being her first sale! There will be live music and treats, so make sure to stop by if you are anywhere in the vicinity of Bainbridge.

Reboot

Once again, its time for the Twelve by Twelve reveal. This theme is based on the colors Blue and White with a touch of black. I has a wonderful time playing with the soothing colors. I even managed to create three quilts, even it I still need to do the binding on two. Plus I'm using the same fabrics to create a wall hanging with wire and plus sized inchies. Make sure to hop over to Twelve by Twelve and check out all the wonderful quilts. I created my quilt using a simple disappearing nine patch technique. The results reminds me of a pixelated computer screen trying to reboot. Very fun and wild!

Once again, we have a crazy morning around here. At least, last night we all turned in early-- 9:08 to be exact. After a couple of late nights followed by early mornings, I just couldn't do it. Actually, I never could. In college I was going to bed at 10pm to be ready for those 8:30am classes. Pregnant, I was in bed by 8pm. My bed time has now settled around 10:30. I'm just not productive after that. The kids use it all up. One problem with this set up is I'm not really a morning person either. As I write, it's after 8am and I'm not fully awake. I'm really a middle of the day person--late morning and early afternoon are my most productive times. It seems to work for me at the moment, as long as the chaos and to-do list doesn't become overwhelming. Yesterday was volunteer day at school, so there was no art around here. But Tuesday and Wednesday were a productive days. I pulled out some of the some of the fabrics that I quilted and painted before Christmas and got to work. My newest creations are these Art Quilt Cuffs. They make wonderful, warm bracelets for the winter. I've never been a jewelery person in past, but I'm enjoying exploring the medium. I also made a bunch of Treasure Boxes, both big and small and inchies for cards, tags, and bookmarks.

Ugly Duckling Art Yarn and Time to Just Do It

Good Morning. Another sleepy day at the Wheeler house, but at least this morning the sun is poking through the clouds and the sunrise was gorgeous. I have to admit that, like many people, I have a very hard time with January. It's dark. It's cold. I just feel blah. Pretty much every January it's the same story. Some years I force myself to do a little more, some years less. I know that just getting started always helps. I need to create. I need to exercise. I need to get outside and get some fresh air and sunshine. And most of all I need to not feel guilty about all the things I should be doing and just don't have the umph to do. I guilt will bring me to a sliding halt every time. So this year, I'm just going to do it in the moment and not worry about all the "shoulds." Baby steps! Every moment is new--a chance for a new start, new resolve, new opportunities, new ideas.

My hope is to warm up my writing skills again and get back to blogging. I know that I've been very neglectful over the past year and a half. I'm always so distracted with life. My head is swimming with everything. It's time to add a little clarity and get some of it written down.

I'm finally bringing a little order back to my house after the holidays and have time to create a little. I've played with my birthday toy, a Louet drum carder. Time to use that big box of fiber that I brought home from Art Fiber Fest fall 2008. I spun 10 skeins of what I call "Ugly Duckling" art yarn. I just started throwing everything into the carder. It didn't really matter the fiber, the color, the texture. It all went in. The colors are definitely more muted than I typically work with, but I really like the way they turned out. The little flakes of color are so fun and the combinations a surprise. The majority of the yarns are a soft brown from a large amount of dark, natural fiber. I did concentrate the pink in two batts, creating a brighter base for all the color. I think my favorite is a soft cream with flecks of pink and green and even some bright sparkly green firestar. I spun them very bulky. I noticed it was a little harder to do since I have been spinning thinner and thinner. I had to make a conscience effort to not draft the fiber significantly. Four ounces of fiber yeilded about 50 yards each. They each have their own character and are fun to explore. For now, I'm putting them up in my Etsy shop, but as the perfect project comes along I will steal them for myself.

Pink Explosion

I've been playing the fabrics that I created for my "Pink Refractions" quilt. I had a request from an Etsy customer for a pink treasure box since the red one sold before she could purchase it. The request inspired me to bring out the sewing machine (still my daughter's since mine is waiting for a part on backorder) and get to work. I've made several treasure boxes for the Indie Banditas Valentine's show on Bainbridge next month. I also made some small, individual chocolate sized boxes for gift giving. And I couldn't help making inchies. I've used them on a pile of cards and plan on making some little notebooks also.

I thought I would share my photo shoot set up. Typically I would try to take photos outside, but the weather has not cooperated. The days have been wet and dark. There hasn't even been enough light to charge the solar flashlight. Instead I set up a couple chairs drapped with a sheet on the dining room table. I used the chandelier and added a clip on light. With the six light bulbs I was able to have enough light for an in focus shot. I did need to do a little color correcting from the light bulbs, but I pretty happy with make shift set up.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year, just in case I don't manage to stay awake for the next 54 minutes. December has once again been a whirlwind with a house full of crazy, excited children. After working nonstop to prepare for the two craft shows in November and a flurry of custom orders for Christmas, I have created very little the last two weeks. My sewing machine is in the shop and every flat surface is covered in Legos or board games. I decided to take a break from the toys and cleaning and put together a few little creativity kits to list in my Etsy shop. It gave me a chance to play with my supplies without committing to a project in the mist of Christmas vacation chaos. Very fun for me and hopefully I will be able to inspire someone else to make the jump into fiber and mixed media.

Pink Refractions

Make sure to hop over to Twelve by Twelve and check out all the new pink quilts and our next colorplay theme!

Custom Journal Complete!

Yay! Another thing checked off my list. I've spent the last week working on this custom journal. I'm not typically a warm color, especially brown, person, so this was a bit of a challenge for me. Plus I've been having major sewing machine frustrations. It just doesn't want to do the metallic thread. I need to take it in to be serviced, but just don't have the time for it right now. I really like how the journal turned out. It is filled with watercolor paper so it is ready for the artist to fill. I hope everyone likes it!

Busy, Busy, Busy

What can I say--I, like so many of you, have been crazy busy and have sadly neglected to write. Please forgive me! I had a wonderful time at both the Etsy Rain and Indie Banditas holiday bazaars. I did well with sales and now have my own Christmas budget to spend. Plus, I saved money by having no time to shop. No Black Friday shopping when I'm half asleep and buy things I wouldn't normally just because they are a good deal. I wasn't sucked in this year! Instead I've been creating!

I've been posting lots of new stuff in my etsy shop. I have holiday cards and gift tags featuring fiber art plus sized inchies. Plus bookmarks, treasure boxes and original art. I would love for you all to check it out and let me know what you think!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thank you all for your love and encouragement. I am blessed to have such great friends, both in person and all of you that I have met on the internet!