Two New Artsy Purchases

After not spending much $$$ on my fabric and art supply and book addictions lately, I splurged on not only the Lyric Kinard DVD (check out her comment on my blog) but two new books that arrived yesterday from Barnes and Noble.

The first, Stitched Collage by Sherrill Kahn, provides even more inspiration to create beautiful painted and stamped fabric and embellished art quilts.
The colors on these projects make me drool. Sherrill manufactures a line of rubber stamps called "Impress Me" and uses them to create background fabrics and papers for collage, as well as embellished buttons and and jewelry. Her stamp sets are expensive- $25.00- but you get quite a few designs per set. Of course, Lyric teaches how to carve your own stamps from white vinyl erasers. Sherrill also has designed fabric lines that mimic the design elements of her collaged works. Between these two fabulous artists, I have so much inspiration.

But wait...if that is not enough, I decided to splurge on a new book by Violette, of the whimsically painted house and painted, glittered, winged van. She has been inspiring me for several years now through her blog, U-Tube videos, and magazine articles. If you search my blog for Violette, you will see an art quilt that I made from a line drawing she created for a Cloth, Paper, Scissors challenge. Not to mention the blogiversary package I won from her, or the little "house-head" I purchased from her etsy shop.

Violette's book is an idea-starter for journaling, Journal Bliss: Creative Prompts to Unleash Your Inner Eccentric.


What a fun collection of artwork and techniques! This book would be a godsend for those who are a little bit afraid to think of themselves as artists, or even as "creative." Although you may not be into "journaling," these ideas would translate easily to art quilts or even scrapbooking. Here are some of the chapter titles: Fanciful Lettering, Bodacious Borders, Doodling, Groovy Backgrounds, Funky Envelope Art. Okay, so maybe "groovy" went out with the hippies, but those of us who remember the wild colors and free expression of the sixties and seventies (beautifully recreated in the movie Across the Universe) know that groovy can be a good thing.

After all this, I will have no excuse for anything I create to be boring or ordinary.

I still want to be groovy.

Etsy Art Purchases

By now, many of you are familiar with the big online auction site e-Bay, or a similar site serving as a yard sale for the whole world. But do you know about Etsy? It is e-Bay for artists! Everything for sale on Etsy is handmade.

I have never put any items for sale on Etsy, and until yesterday, had never purchased anything. But two of my favorite bloggers posted pictures of some of their creations, and I decided to claim them for chez McBrayer.

First, the delightful Fannie of Imagine, Create, Inspire posted this Rose Art Quilt on her July 25 blog post. The last sentence of the post was "This Rose is for you." I took her literally! The fact that my new sewing room is painted in peach and yellow may have influenced this purchase. But you know I love flowers, and I am also wanting to explore the use of Neocolor pastels.

The second Etsy purchase was from Violette Clark, who I have mentioned in this blog several times. Just use the "Search Blog" text box at the top of my blog and type in her name. I have been a fan since I first saw her artwork and funky home in Cloth, Paper, Scissors magazine. I started visiting her website and blog after that, and saw these little head houses which she featured on her blog on July 23. Had to have one! I purchased the smaller one with the happier face.

My home features a lot of artwork, mainly consisting of my quilts and my father's paintings or prints and some pottery pieces. But why not become a collector? Now I have a good start. Don't forget this lovely piece that I just won from Wanda Hanson at Exuberant Color.
Now, have I started you on another way to procrastinate while you scope out some eye candy?

Gifts from Violette

I mentioned in a post last week that I was the lucky winner of the three year "blogiversary" prize from Violette Clark, a free spirit of the art world whose blog I enjoy. Yesterday, my prize package arrived, and I had fun looking through all the whimsical artsy gifts she sent to me.

Some of the prints are posted online: Creative Wings, and Blurt Factor.

Gratitude is an altered CD cover with fun fur, glitter, and some Violette artwork.

Imagine is so cool- a sort of motivational scrapbook page.

Thanks, Violette, for all your inspiration!

A Glittery New Day

I got some great news this morning. Remember my blogs about my whimsical quilt, A-Muse-ing Violette? I found out about the free-spirited artist Violette in Cloth, Paper, Scissors Magazine. Anyway, I have been reading her blog since then, and recently signed up for a give-away contest honoring her three-year blog anniversary. And just found out that I won! How cool is that! The gift package is described on Violette's blog on October 13. I will take pictures when my glittery package arrives. Here is a picture of the hanging sleeve on my Violette quilt, which features gold and silver foil, inks, and of course, glitter!

Back to the Piedmont Quilters Show. There was an absolutely stunning Latte quilt made by Martha Jackson. The quilting was exquisite, and won the Best Longarm Quilting award.

Click the pictures to see them in a larger size.

There was another quilt from the latte pattern made by Chris Bowen, titled My Version of the Latte Quilt. It looked totally different in pastels!

Here is a lovely art quilt that I greatly admired, Iris Garden by Priscilla Hair. It is listed in the professional category.

Another art quilt I liked is Simply Autumn, by Kim Frisk. The judges must have liked it, too, as it won first place in the Small Wallhanging category.

And one more...this landscape quilt reminds me of Ashe County, my North Carolina mountain home. It is Cherry Valley, NY, made by Julia C. Davis.

Thanks to the Piedmont Quilt Guild for a great show!

Introducing Violette

Yesterday I almost finished quilting my current project, a bed quilt for my granddaughter Lily's room. I am kind of proud of myself for sticking with this to get it done. I hope to finish the last three borders today. I just got an e-mail coupon for a fabric discount at my LQS, Quilts Like Crazy, so I will probably head over there tomorrow for some binding fabric. Quilts Like Crazy is owned by my friend and founder of our quilt bee, Nancy Pease, who is a very artistic person and fabulous quilter and teacher.

Speaking of artistic people, I have added links to Violette's website and blog. I found her through an article in Cloth, Paper, Scissors magazine. Remember my little art quilt, named A-Muse-ing Violette? That quilt was inspired by a line drawing by Violette Clark of British Columbia. Check out her website for lots of colorful inspiration, including her painted house which was featured on a Canadian TV program. Too bad they did not feature her painted and glittered van, as well!