Wearable Art

Maybe it's the cold weather, but my Flirty Fedora hat pattern has sure gotten a lot of attention lately! The same week we made ours in the wearable arts group in China Grove, 2 quilt shops also ordered patterns for hat classes of their own. One of the shop's teachers, Katherine P. of Sneeds Sew & Vac in Charleston, WV, was kind enough to let me share her gorgeous hat photo with you, shown below left; I love the lace and feathers Katherine used to embellish her hat, the textures work together beautifully, especially with the herringbone wool. Thanks so much, Katherine!

I myself have been working on some of my own wearable art for a certain quilt show coming up at the end of Feb. and submitted photos and application this week - yay! Can't divulge the actual ensemble yet, but I sure enjoyed gathering up the fabrics 'n fibers in shades of apricot, pinks and desert rose. Amazingly, the fibers I dyed during our fiber workshop in Greesnboro last Nov. with Wilton icing gels were the perfect harmonizing colors to blend with the 6 silk textiles and various cottons and blends I used to create my design (see photo below left.) Maybe I'll see you in Hampton this year where hopefully my art will be on display!

Hat Class

Our Wearable Arts Group (WAG) started our year off with a bang with today's "Flirty Fedora" hat workshop, taught by yours truly. We had a great time, and the girls really did a super job with their hats, especially considering we're not exactly milliners! Most everyone got about half-way done and I demo'd techniques on how to finish them up, I can't wait to see their finished product! Hopefully they'll bring them to the next meeting, when we make our velvet flowers to embellish them with. For those who wanted something different, one gal brought in colored feathers for accent, so cute! Of course we had the usual wonderful food and fellowship, we always have fun. Such a talented group, one of the ladies Carolyn Sweet sent me photos of her purse from our Needle-felt Sweater Purse class we had last fall, I'm posting it on the left. Carolyn's sweater was unique not only in its wonderful use of color (don't you love the teal and gold?) but also in the fact that it was a button-front sweater with grosgrain ribbon trim. When Carolyn felted (shrank) the wool sweater, of course the ribbon did not shrink but instead made this wonderful somewhat ruched effect...I love it! A true work of art, Carolyn, thanks for sharing.

Sanford Show

What a great time we had at the Sanford show! I ran into so many folks I knew, some I hadn't seen in years...including a girl I graduated from high school, still as sweet and beautiful as she was then. And I made lots of new felting friends, so many creative souls yearning to unleash their inner visions through fiber art! I totally understand, being a felting fanatic myself. I love to sew, but there's something so therapeutic about stabbing those fibers into a needle-felted work of art, or coaxing them into a different form with soap, water and a little "elbow grease".

I was also able to coordinate a couple of nuno-felting classes, so many gals want to learn to do this! And I bought some gorgeous silk scarves for my classes from my friend Lorin Fields who does incredible hand-dyeing, I'm so excited about the possibilites of these new colorways! It'll be fun to see how my students express themselves with these new palettes.