Need a quick-to-make last-minute gift? These padfolios are perfect as a hostess gift, exchange, or for a special arty friend who like to keep notes wherever (s)he goes! Once the surface design is done, it takes less than an hour to finish one of these beauties.

These are began with rust-dyed fabric. Some have Earth Safe Finishes Colorants applied, some are stamped with ESF Colorant as a rubber-stamp ink, and some are touch-printed with ESF Opaque Shimmers.

The fabric for this one was sprayed with ESF moss + Fabric Magic while the rusted fabric was damp. The polymer clay pendant picks up the green nicely.

This surface treatment is ESF Colorants + Fabric Magic drizzled on a shaving cream printing plate and swirled for a faux marbled effect.

Bottle caps and paper-towel cores were used as touch-print shapes. The flaps are cut freehand with a rotary cutter and the edges are finished with satin stitches.

This is what the outside surface of the padfolio looks like spread out flat.

Inside there is a pocket for a pencil or pen, calculator, or anything else you want to keep close to the notepad in the center panel.

Directions for the padfolio may be downloaded as a pdf from the margin. Make sure you have the version with the measurement correction! I made a mistake in the first version.

Enjoy!

As promised, here are a couple of photos from the workshop with Hands All Around Quilters in Bloomington, Illinois last Friday.

Becky took a photo of a beautiful poppy she grew, the kind that produces seeds used in baking and cooking. The detail in the center is remarkable, even after altering. Becky jumped right in a did scads of free-motion stitching to outline the petals and detail the center—then proceeded to add borders and stretch the piece and mount it herself! Didn't she do a fabulous job?

Sue’s piece is very different. She took this photo at a hot-air balloon festival earlier in the year and was intrigued by the image of the sun and clouds on the balloon. After altering, she added texture and detail with free-motion work.

Sometimes altering a non-floral image can be challenging, but Sue’s piece is exceptionally lovely. It has not yet fulfilled it’s destiny (it hasn’t yet been mounted or finished). I’m hoping Sue will send another photo once it is bound or framed.

These are just two examples from the group of 16 diverse compositions in the Friday class. Additional photos will be shared as they are available.

If your quilt or art guild would like to have a program and workshop, please contact me. There are a couple of openings in 2010.

A great big thank you goes out to the Hands All Around Quilt Guild in Bloomington, Illinois for a fabulous trunk show and two days of workshops! What an enthusiastic, friendly group they are. It's always fascinating to see how others perceive the Altered Photo Quilt technique and how they each add their own voice to it.

Can't wait to share photos with you!

In the meantime, here is an amusing little Creature Comforts video about “What is art?” It always makes me chuckle, especially the printmaker. He is so serious about his work! LOL!

You’ve heard of a Fish Named Wanda? Well this is a fish in Paula’s on Main in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Paula’s is a well-known seafood restaurant that is now the site of Indiana’s first indoor cold-weather market.


Lori is setting up the rust-dyed silk wraps and T-shirts next to the table of jewelry.


There was live music. This lady is a lovely folk singer who sang traditional Christmas carols with a folk spin.


Vanilla Bean is one of several food vendors in the market. They have a line of yummy cookies and soft biscotti. My favorite is the Chilean Chocolate Biscotti—chocolate with a little zing. Yum!


There were several food vendors, including Chris’ display of holiday baskets.


Paula’s had fresh bread, frittatas, salads, and crab cakes that made my mouth water just looking at them—even at 8:00 am!

There are many artisan markets at this time of year. I encourage you to seek them out and support “handmade” this holiday season!

BTW: Lori and I will be doing a live demo at Artworks Gallery at Jefferson Pointe this afternoon from 1:00–4:00. Stop by and say hello!

This is another wonderful (finished) Threadography piece from the Naperville, Illinois group. This colorful hibiscus was completed by Kathleen Herbach.

After stitching, she added borders around the panel, stretched, and mounted it herself! Excellent job, Kathleen!


The detail shot shows some of the textural stitching she did in the center of the piece.

Holiday Mail For Heroes

I just received a lovely thank you note from Frank McDade the project manager of Holiday Mail for Heroes at Pitney Bowes! Isn't that amazing? This project involved more than one million pieces of holiday mail for servicemen and women, veterans, and their families in 2008—and he took the time to thank me. I'm speechless.

Pitney Bowes and the American Red Cross are working together again this year to spread holiday cheer to our armed forces around the globe and their families. Would you like to help? Here is a link to the Red Cross website with instructions. I'm thinking fabric postcards and quilted greeting cards!! http://www.redcross.org/holidaymail

Can't believe I didn't take any photos of the cards from last year! They are probably on my hard drive and the files still have the camera number on them, rather than an appropriate label. Sigh! My new year's resolution for 2009 was to do a better job of updating photo files to faciliate a search on the title. I've done much better this year, but still need to remember the resolution each time I retrieve photos from the camera!

The opening reception for the holiday gallery Artworks in Fort Wayne, Indiana was held last Sunday evening.

This is the second year for the gallery and represents the work of 20-some artists in the Fort Wayne area. The work is diverse: beaded jewelry, metalsmithing, fused glass, watercolor paintings, acrylics, oils, digital photographic art—and the fiberart of Two Sipsters (that's Lori and I).


The sassy redhead is Santa Brink. She and artist friend Karen Moriarity put the project together and found a temporary home for Artworks in the lovely Jefferson Pointe shopping village.



Two Sipsters has rust-dyed silk scarves, cotton T-shirts and sweatshirts, and a few Threadography pieces. Since we are the new kids this year, our wall space is limited—but we hope to expand as the season progresses!


Sisters Alice Martin and Lisa Chiddister collaborate on digital photography, which captured our attention, of course!



Alice (left) describes a Photoshop effect to Lori (right) at the reception.


Finally, we would like to recognize the contribution of the artist's spouses. They welcomed guests, poured the wine, and kept the holiday music going. Thanks!

Artworks gallery is open 10:00am-9:00pm Monday through Saturday and Noon-5:00 pm on Sunday throughout November and December. If you're in the area, please stop by and say hello!