Art Show Submissions - Juried Member Show

Today was jury day for our upcoming Juried Member Show at the Art Gallery.

I dropped these three entries this morning and I did not get a phone call to pick up any rejected entries. Very good.

Title: Art Detritus

Size: 10 x10 inches

Frame: Beech Wood Frame

Mat: Single White Mat

Photograph: 5x5 inches matte print

This is a close up photo of pencil sharpener wood shavings.  Typical of working on art projects with drawing pencils, colored pencils, or watercolor pencils.

Title: Bulrushes

Size: 8x10 inches

Frame: Silver Brushed Metal

Mat: Double Black and White Archival Mat

Image: Watercolor with black marker

This is a painting of the bulrushes I see along the lake as I walk in the mornings.  Beautiful green leaves with deep brown seed heads in the middle of summer.  A wonderful blue sky.  An absolute joy to have this nature in our urban setting.

This is a textile entry art quilt which I was not sure would be juried in.

Title: The Solar System

Size: 19 x 19 inches

The sun, planets, orbits, stars, asteroid belt and Kuiper belt are hand stitched unto a printed galaxy cotton fabric. 

The orange frame was machine stitched onto the piece.  I then added a facing which allowed for a dowel to have it hang. 

Ermine Stitch for stars, Seed Stitch on the Sun, Back stitch for the Orbits, French Knots for the tiny stars.  Running Stitch on the planets. Rock like beads in the Asteroid Belt and Blue E-Beads in the Kuiper Belt on the outer edge of the system.

The show will be on display on Tuesday, March 10th and the reception will be held on Saturday, March 14, 2026, 1-3 p.m. at the Spruce Grove Art Gallery in Heavy Metal Place. You are welcome to enjoy over 90 pieces of art submitted by members of the Allied Arts Council.

I did a lot of research and watched a lot of scientific videos to educate myself about our Solar System.  It was very interesting. Some of the information informed my choices for the fabric I chose for the planets.  

Of course, the distances between planets and the their sizes are not accurately represented. I did my best given the size of the fabric I was working with.

I prepared this bit of information and printed it onto fabric and stitched to the back so it would always stay with the art piece.

Fabric Flower Bouquet - O2

I chose to make a yellow flower for this fabric vase wrap because I like the color combo and one of the strips of fabric had yellow in it.  That helps marry the 2 pieces together. 

I wanted to cover the inner parts in the bottle so cut a 5 inch circle of teal fabric. I placed a hole in the center of the water circle and passed the wire stem through it then the stem also through the hole in the metal lid.  It will sit on the lid the bottle.  Then I wrapped the wire stem around a wooden skewer which is cut to the height of the bottle and now provides stability to the flower. The skewer is then placed inside the bottle and the lid is screwed onto the bottle.  

The wrap is then placed onto the bottle from the bottom and the water circle is tucked into the vase wrap.

The fabric flower can be removed and real flowers can be placed in the bottle vase.

Fabric Flower Bouquet - 01

After weeks of working on this idea I finally have something I am happy with.

It has brought together a Fabric Collage Vase Wrap which uses scraps of fabric into something pretty, an empty sauce bottle that was headed to the recycle bin, and scrap fabric to make the Fabric Flower on bendable wire stem.

The challenges were:

1. Make the flower proportional to the vase.

2. Make a stem strong enough to hold the flower.

3. Will I build adjustability into the wrap?  I decide in the end no.

4. Will I have a strip extend from the body? Yes, this makes sewing the flat piece into a tube much easier.

5. How deep will I make the strip? Do I want to make it a feature?  If it is a feature then you need to put a piece of fabric on the lining side or chose your lining fabric carefully.

6. How do I hide the jar lid?  Put a piece of blue fabric to represent water.

I plan on make some of these bouquet for the gift shop at the Art Gallery.  They will all be unique which will make a perfect gift for a special person.

The fabric flower can be removed and real flowers placed in the bottle vase.

Slow Stitching - Door Decor - First Robin

With more light these days, at least till Sunday, I have been inspired to update my Door Decor.

I created a slow stitch piece of art for spring.  The first robin reminds of my walks around the lake in the city.  The apple blossoms are out and the birds are singing and the sun is shining.  Definition of a great morning walk.

I chose a turquoise piece of the sky and deeper blue for the lake.  I created a tree trunk and branch for the apple blossom and a place for the robin to perch.

A bit of cloud in the sky and the sun in the upper right hand corner.  

I added running stitch to the water which represents simmer on the light. I put cattails/bulrushes in the bottom right hand corner. The path around the lake in tan.  Spring flowers in pink and yellow all over the grass area. The robin has several layers light grey body, dark grey wing and orange breast covered with running stitch.  A black bead for the eye. The flowers are French Knots, the cloud is a bit of cheesecloth, the sun stitched with concentric circles of running stitch.

I added a green backer with was brought to the front and stitched with the sewing machine. I added a twill tape hanger on the back which was stitched on by hand.

I am feeling hopeful today as the sun shines and the temperatures is above 0C.

Sewing Project - Fabric Vase Wrap -The Blues

On this vase wrap I used blue printed fabric scraps.  For a change I sewed them on the diagonal to my flannel foundation fabric using the Quilt As You Go method.  This takes more fabric so I had to find longer strips of fabric. 

I trimmed the piece to 8.5" T x 11"W to allow more of a flap extending from the body of the wrap.  I added a teal cotton poly fabric as the lining which is visible behind the lace.  I sewed the collage piece and the lining right sides together leaving an opening, trimmed the corners and turned it right side out. I then used a curvy decorative stitch to top stitch all around the edge closing the opening at the same time.

Then, it was time to consider how to embellish this piece. I stitched a piece of lace on the lining edge folding the ends top and bottom and used the same curvy decorative stitch.  I then place the wrap around the bottle vase, pinned it and then stitched it closed.

2026 Slow Stitching Project - Page 9 - E1

I am following K3N Cloth Tales' slow stitch project for 2026.  Her prompt this week prompt was Earth, English Paper Piecing and Ermine Stitch.

I loved the Earth and skipped the EPP. 

I prepared a navy blue piece to fit my book (7"T x 8"W) and invisible basted to my foundation layer.

I did some research and decide to loosely represent the land mass of the continents. I then drew a circle with space to expand.  I divided the circle based on land mass.  Cut the paper apart and dug into my scrap bin to find colors that represented the continents. 

The orange top left is Asia, top right is Africa, the next green is tropical South America, the purple is Australia, the blue is North America, the paisley is Europe and the blue ellipse at the bottom is Antarctica.  I stitched my pieces down with running stitch in coordinated thread. I spread the piece apart because the continents are all surrounded by water. I liked the white stitched row around the earth for atmosphere that K3N used.  I put my stars beyond the line in space using the Ermine Stitch. 

Fabric Flower - Yellow Fluffy

I am trying different techniques to ensure all my flowers are unique.

For this flower I used yellow cotton fabric which I ripped into .5 inch strips.  I cut the strips to 4.5 inches long and wrapped them onto a metal ring that measured 1.75 inches in diameter. I used 25 strips to fill the flower. 

Once, I had that done, I cut a piece of cotton in yellow gingham about 2 inches square double and added a bit of batting in between the layers and a 2 inch circle of card stock to provide support. I placed it on the back of the flower and stitched all the way around through the yellow cotton petals. I then secured the metal wire (4 lengths of 24 gauge wire twisted together) stem through its circle at the top to the center of the flower back. I cut a 2.5 inch circle from the same yellow fabric and hand stitched over the wire to hide that connection.

Fabric Flower - Red and White

Now that I had a vase maybe I needed a fabric flower to go into it.  Well, that was a rabbit hole.

There are all types of tutorials on line.

There have been 4 versions to get to this final flower. 

I have combined a die cut flower which was proportionally too small for the vase.  I am lucky to have a sister who attended design school who gives me feedback.

Okay, back to the drawing board.  The large flower is made with 12 circles of fabric. Four 4.5" circles red, four 4.00 circles in cream, and four 3.75" circles in red again.  These are folded in quarters and adhered to a base circle which measures about 3.75 inches.  They recommended hot glue which I followed but would not do it again. I will stitch the next ones.  I then made a hole through the large one and inserted the gold wire which attached the smaller flower's layers together through it.  I used a pop can tab to provide leverage to tighten the wire to the large flower.  I then stitched a backer piece of matching red fabric to cover the ugly bits.

The wire is four lengths of 24 gauge wire measuring 20" all twisted together to a final length of about 13 inches.  You can see how in this Wire Twisting video.