Progress of a kind.

I seem to have galloped ahead with finishing the throw and think it will be a present for some unsuspecting person come Christmas.

I write with this little room in utter chaos as a BT engineer is due to arrive at the end of the week to upgrade our Broadband. I live in hope but not expectation of great things. My room is packed to the smallest corners with very useful bits and pieces which in no way can be thrown away and in the midst of this is the cabling for the computer, so I will leave the picture to your imagination. Its rather like an archaeological dig, going back in time with all the levels of  'experiments'. I even found a half finished 'knot garden' and marvelled at my tiny stitches.

If you would like to know how to tie a square knot properly, something which I think I have done incorrectly for years, and also why you should make the effort to get it right – then follow this link and if you are like me spend quite a bit of time until you get the satisfaction of getting it perfect. You will feel so proud of yourself! The whole site is worth a look and you can listen to Susan Mills book artist talk about her work.

Sketchbook Challenge - The Book.

Sue Bleiweiss



'my book!

I’m calling it my book but it really wouldn’t be a book without the generous and gifted artists who contributed their time and artwork to it. You could say that I’m excited about seeing the cover out on Amazon but that would be a pretty big understatement…


 I owe a huge debt of gratitude to Jill Berry,Jackie Bowcutt,Laura Cater-Woods,Violette Clark,Jane Davies,Jamie Fingal,Judi Hurwitt,Tracie Lyn Huskamp,Susan Brubaker Knapp,Lynn Krawczyk,Leslie Tucker Jenison,Lyric Kinard,Jane LaFazio,Kim Rae Nugent,Kelli Perkins, Carol Sloan,Carla Sonheim,Kathy Sperino,Diana Trout,and Kathyanne White. Their contributions to the pages of this book make it a work of art. The book has a publication date of June of 2012 (hopefully it will come out a little sooner than that) but you can preorder on Amazon .'

So sometime in 2012 I'll be in print!

On with the Throw.

I am continuing with finishing the throw along the lines of Alisa Burke’s Free Motion
Graffiti class. It now has a blue backing, which was nearly fleece but then I found quite a heavy suiting material which feels like wool but is a polyester blend.

 I decided that the best way forward was to ‘tie’ the three layers together; which I have now done and am sewing on the binding. So this week it could be finished. I could have gone on with the free machining for weeks but decided enough was probably enough.

I have just bought some jewellery as presents from an Etsy seller in Holland. I can’t tell you more about it as I don’t want to spoil the Christmas surprise for the recipients, but I want to tell you that not only is it unique and lovely, but also thoughtfully and beautifully packaged. I found out about http://www.etsy.com/shop/jmsstudio    from another blog but can’t unfortunately remember whose.

If I have not got back to new followers or people who kindly left comments it is most likely down to the vagaries of Blogger.

Stitch Interval.

A little bit of hand stitch for a change.

Variegated thread is so useful.

I want to share a link to Noela Mills' blog. She is a visual artist working in Queensland, Australia and her blog entitled WABISABIART features her interest in Wabisabi, finding beauty in the old, worn, rusted and patched. I am paticularly taken by her artists' books, as I think you will be,paticularly if you have not seen them before. It is also worth following some of her links to some of the interesting work being done by Australian artists.

More Free Motion Graffiti

A few pictures of the Free Motion Graffiti throw as it progresses, slightly interrupted by an exciting project this week. I’ll tell you about that in weeks to come, enough to say that I have been working away very hard on it.

There is now a catalogue to go with the ‘Crop’ exhibition which you can get from the previous link. MagCloud also offer a digital catalogue for a few dollars which is a bargain I think if you are interested in artists’ books.