Senior Art Show - Submissions

These are my submissions to the Senior Art Show at the Spruce Grove Art Gallery in Heavy Metal Place. I am part of the Allied Arts Council.

Title: Flowers in Blue Vase

Medium: Watercolor on Mixed Media Paper

Size: 8 x 10 inches

Frame: Gold Metal Matte Frame

Mat: Double Warm White Mat

Art: 5x7 inches

This piece is one I made for Inktober 2024.  It is watercolor on Fluid Mixed Media paper featuring a blue vase with a variety of flowers and twigs set on a table.

Outlined with a Micron Acid Free fine black permanent marker.

This art piece is made with felted wool and entirely hand stitched.  

Title: Hoot the Owl

Medium: Felted Wool 

Size: 10 x 15 inches plus the hanger

Hanger: A stick which has been sanded and finished with Tung Oil

I cut the wool in a shape. You can see that some bands did not shrink evenly which added texture to the piece.

I stitched it's wings first on both sides with wool yarn in a light brown shade.  I use an ivory wool yarn in the center to create it's breast.  I layered ivory and deep yellow wool for this eyes with buttons in the centers. A small triangle of yellow for his bill and for his feet.

I put a piece of small branch at the top of the body to represent it's ears.  It was finished and then stitched on with dark brown wool yarn.  I crocheted deep yellow wool yarn to make a hanger and attached it to the back of the head. 

I created an art piece with bees as the focal element.

Title: Save the Bees  SOLD

Medium: Mixed Media

Size: 8 x 8 inches

Frame: Wooden Cradle Board

Frame: Gold Brushed Resin Frame

Photo: 4x4 inches

The wooden cradle board was primed in white then painted with a light yellow artist grade acrylic paint. I cut a hexagon stencil and then added them to the piece with darker yellow acrylic paint.  I brushed some of the gold acrylic paint used on the small frame on the cradle board. To connect the color in photo with the board I spattered it with a deep rose red acrylic paint by tapping a wet brush on a butterknife. I placed the photo behind the square frame and used Bling Zots to hold it in place. Once it was dry I adhered the small square frame with glue dots to ensure no damage to the wood surface.

The show is currently hung at the gallery.

Our reception being held on is 

Saturday, May 30th, 2026

1:00 pm – 3:00 pm

Awards will be presented.

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.

Slow Stitching - No. 038 - Nature's Textures

 K3N Cloth Tales Slow Stitching Challenge 2024

Week 38 - Nature's Textures - Free Form Embroidery - Textile Textures

I chose the polka dot fabric as my inspiration then chose colors from there. Pink bright and paler, grey light and dark and white.

There is cotton, yarn, felt, lace, cheesecloth, and gauzy material included in this piece.

Free form embroidery includes couching, French Knots, running stitch to fill in space in places, seed stitches for finer fabric, and top stitches on the felt heart.

The thread alternated from pink to grey depending on the fabric I was working on.

"Save the Bees" Textile Project

This is the project I am submitting to the AAC "Uncommon Threads" show.   I am delivering it today.  It is a piece which speaks to the need to save our bees.  We would have nothing to eat if we did not have bees as pollinators.

Plant Flowers

Provide Water

Build Beehouses

Save the Bees

It took me over 2 weeks in January to make it.  The background is handpainted, the flowers are all hand stitched and the layers are held together with a blanket stitch edge. 

The materials are fleece and felt.  Fleece was used for the background.  The flowers and house are felt. I used sequins and e-beads to enhance the flowers.

The thread is embroidery thread split in half and the edge is all six strands.

 

Color Experiments

I spent some time figuring out if I could color the fleece and the felt the way I wanted. 

Some colors were not permanent and others worked really well.   I sprayed a small tab of white fleece with diluted color from each bottle.  They were allowed to dry over night.  I then rinsed each of them to see if the color was permanent.

The Rotring and Dayler Rowney FW Acrylic were permanent.  The Radiant Rain sprays were not permanent though stained the fiber.

 

 

 Colors Chosen and the Process

I chose liquid acrylic ink to color the white fleece background.  The colors are Raw Umber Hue, Sap Green, Olive Green, and Indian Yellow.
Nature has lots of shades so I tried to reproduce that with the colors I had in my stash.

I cut 2 pieces of white fleece larger than the 12x12 piece of chipboard. 

I placed the fleece on a large piece of glass. I used a spray bottle to apply the color.  It allows even color and specific placement of different colors as I needed.

I placed it over rods to allow the most exposure to air to assist in the drying of the fleece.

Again, drying overnight.

Laminating the Layers

I cut the fleece layers down to a generous 12x12 inches with a rotary cutter.

I placed a piece of interfacing in the zigzag stitching to prevent stretching of the fleece.

I stitched the 2 layers of fleece together before I stitched the elements to the front.  I did put a zigzag border all the way around and then I chose to apply organic lines in the center rather than evenly spaced lines.  Most will not show.

I love the color!

Elements

I created the BeeHouse from black felt.  I stitched pieces of wood for the roof along the angled top edges.   I used round donut beads which mimic pieces of bamboo which creates holes for the bees to live in.  These houses provide shelter solitary bees which do not in hives.

The bees on the piece are buttons.  They are a great color and just the right size.

I cut rain drops to which I added blue sequins and beads to represent providing water for the bees. 

The water should be moving or regularly changed.

The flowers were cut with dies.

1) Sizzix Flower Layers & Leaves
2) Flower Layers #10
3) Flower Layers #7

I chose turquoise, purple, pink, grey, yellow, white felt for the flowers. 

Flower sequins in small pink and medium sized in silver.  Round sequins in several colors.  E-Beads in blue, white, pink and black to coordinate. 

The thread was chosen to coordinate with the felt in the flowers.  The flowers were stitched to the background with many stitches to ensure they stayed in place and did not droop.

 

Finishing the Edges & Hanging the Textile Art

I chose a coordinating piece of fabric in purple for the back which covers the knots and stitching done the front (flowers, raindrops, bees, and house).  I cut it 13x13 and folded the edges over. 

I sewed 2 tabs at the top of the piece to allow a skewer to be placed into them which will provide support when the piece is hung. 

I then used green embroidery thread to place a blanket stitch around the edge of the piece. This was very difficult as there was 3 layers of fabric and the interfacing to be punched through.  I used a thimble but my fingers and hand on my right hand were very sore when I was done.

I printed details and the small instructions on a piece of fabric and stitched that to the piece.

I added the instructions card stock hanging below the bee house so they will be visible when on display. I added a turquoise glass bead below the details.

This was an extreme reach from my regular paper crafting experience.  I learned a lot and some of the tools from paper crafting came in handy.  

I hope it strikes a cord with the folks who visit the gallery.

Recently

I have tried a couple versions of this drink.  

I read about tea infused hot chocolate here.  I decided to try it as it is 2 of my favorite drinks.

LuAnn suggested making the hot chocolate mixture from scratch but I just used what i had on hand.

This sample is Jasmine Green Tea with the off the shelf hot chocolate mix.   It does a different flavor dimension to the hot chocolate.  For me, it is adding caffeine to caffeine so it may not be an evening drink.  

I have tried it with Earl Grey Tea which was very good.

My textile project is complete but I will not reveal it in full until it is submitted to the show in April. 

It was a lot of work and an interesting exercise in using different skills.  Lot of needle work and my right hand was very sore at the end.

Check back here April 13th to see the finished piece.

I picked up this book in early December but only recently finished reading it. 

It is written by my aunt.  She worked on the research, the writing and publishing over an 8 year period.  My aunt inherited my grandmother's journals when she passed away. 

This provides good historical information regarding the ancestry of my grand parents.  It documents the birth of the fourteen siblings in my aunt's family, some of the moves which took place in my grandmother's life and some excerpts from the journals. 

I provided some insight into the family life of my mother and her siblings.  I will have a few questions for my Mom when I see her next.  I am sure she has read her copy by now as well.

My niece has organized a bit of a luncheon before we meet at the book launch in early February.  I am looking forward to see family and speaking to many of those personalities in the book.

Recently

I bought this glass ball at the thrift store recently.  I love the colors in it as they are cooler than in the one I already had.

I have hung it in the east window so the morning light hits and provides splashes of color into my space.  I love the blurred background of the trees outside.

It is bigger than the other one at four inches and it required a sturdy hanger.










This is an experiment I did last night.  I am considering entering a show for art made from textiles. 

I took some pieces of white felt and applied some liquid acrylic and let them dry over night.  I was not sure what would happen.   I am very happy with the results. 

I am going to move ahead with the project and keep you posted here.

I just love glass.

These are a few glass ornaments I found at thrift stores in recent weeks.  They were not Christmas ornaments so I waited till now to show them. 

I love the texture on the largest one which is a peachy pink color.  The other with the star etching is similar in color.  They work well with the pink bowl.

The gold glass ones are nice as well.  Not sure where they will come in handy but for sure it will happen.

I am working on photographs for cards. 

I thought that watercolors would be appropriate for the art gallery. 

I sprayed the palette and the brush with a bit of water to add interest to the composition.

I love the variety of colors.

I attended a presentation on Golden Paints last Thursday as a member meeting of the Allied Art Council.

It was presented by Samantha Williams-Chapelsky who is a Golden Artist Educator.

The presentation was filled with lots of information on all the Golden Products.  I was very interested in the High Flow Acrylic which is the hot pink bottle in the photo.

AB Royal Museum - Western Threads

I visited the Alberta Royal Museum recently specifically to see one of their feature exhibits called Western Threads. This exhibition brings together the remarkable work by members of the Focus on Fibre Art Association, the Heritage Rug Hookers of Saskatoon and the Studio Art Quilt Associates, Western Canadian Branch.
Over 100 fibre art pieces are featured in the Western Threads: Contemporary Fibre Art exhibition.


One of the arts presented were Fabric Postcards.  There were quite a few of them and I chose 3 of them to show here.  They say we can get involved!
Here`s a link to how we as Albertans can make a fabric postcards and mail it to the museum and they will put it on display!  Here`s more details.

Here`s a sampling from each of the groups participating.  The quilt in the top left is called `Not so black and white`by Cathy Tomm - Leduc.  The Grain Elevator rug on the top right is called `Winter Solitude`by Ian Hague Regina Saskatchewan, and the bottom right hand is `Roundabout`by Dianne Kyrs.  The picture to the left of this one is a close up of a acrylic flower she had put on one of the circles. It had all kinds of  embellishments.  Very cool!

A great afternoon!  I enjoyed myself thoroughly. Check it out if you have a couple hours. On this display till August 4 2014.

Christmas Card Challenge - May - Textiles

Working on Christmas cards again this month.  The challenge for May was textiles - Fabric, Felt, Velvet, Ribbon, Tulle, Lace. I'm sure there something else you can think of.
I chose this red felt die cut ribbon.  I wanted something simple and elegant.  I stuck with a mostly white on white design.  I chose a white card and then layered a white layer embossed with the Cuttlebug Swiss Dots folder.  I cut the straight edges of the ribbon and trimmed the cut ends to make then prettier.  I layered a white silk flower onto a white poinsettia held in place with a blue brad.  I used another blue brad to hold down the other half of the ribbon.  The greeting is a SU Modern Label punchie in navy with a color printed greeting punched with the SU Word Window.  The greeting is raised with 3D foam tape.