scrap quilt

playing with some old scraps i have from various projects over the last 20 years. it's kind of fun to work with what i have, instead of needing to start or buy something new...and even more fun to have the time to do it! can't wait to hand stitch this one.

letting go

here is a little drawing of ME. i am at a bit of a crossroads with school and career and not sure which way to go. i recently lost my job at the art center. the opus school of textile arts, where i was a BA (hons) student, closed a few months ago. i can't even give a link to that anymore, as they have virtually disappeared, after taking our course money. another program has opened in its place, named after the creative and inspiring late julia caprara but i have been hesitant to join, as i am not sure that distance learning was to my advantage. so i applied to and was ACCEPTED to an MFA program at the great and wonderful maine college of art, except now i am trying to figure out how to pay for it. anyway, i have been meditating everyday and writing my gratitude list and letting go. xo to all!

sowebohemian festival

our local sowebohemian arts and music festival was this weekend - great fun, good food and lots of local bands. one of the events that supports the festival is a poster silent auction which will be held on june 7. here are the posters i made:

more community arts

i have been volunteering with an artist-in-residency program at an elementary school with black cherry puppet theater, a local baltimore arts group. we worked with the students to teach them how to make paper mache hand and rod puppets, how to manipulate the puppets, how to make scenery and props, how to block out a show. we will put on a performance for families later this week. sooo much fun...and exhausting. this is all new territory for me. many thanks to b'more's fabulous black cherry puppet theater for letting me tag along for the past two weeks and apprentice with their enormous and hilarious puppet talents. and a shout out to local artist and puppeteer, jen strunge aka cotton monster who is on staff at black cherry and who taught me some good tricks of the trade.

baltimore's kinetic sculpture race

a rite of spring every year here in baltimore is the kinetic sculpture race. this year i had the prestigious job of judging the sock creatures on each vehicle. here i am in all my sock creature regalia. and here are some photos of the fabo sock creatures that were competing. great day!

crocheted sculpture

inspired by the work of liz grobler, i am working with the folks at the local senior center to make a crocheted sculpture. these women are the hardest working, most enthusiastic artists i have ever worked with. we are hoping that our sculpture, called 'warm welcome' will grace some of the local art venues in the coming year.

as you can see, being out of work is giving me lots of good community art time!

doodling

in my last post i mentioned that i had lost my job and decided to make a gratitude list. i have gotten so many good responses from others who like the idea that i am posting our lists on a new blog.

my doodling here is not because i am idle. somehow i seem to be busier in the last few weeks. anyway, just showing some doodles, since they look kind of like quilts. and i will keep you up with my new and exciting adventures in the next posts.

story about losing my job...

so along with lots of other people in this current economy, i recently lost my job. "don't worry," i think to myself, "something better will come along, it always does." here i am knocking on lots of (metaphorical) doors, and nothing yet...

what's a girl to do? write a gratitude list. so that's what i did (along with some collaging, and sewing and painting)... more of the story to come.

collage face

here is what i do when i am supposed to be doing something else - i play with scissors and glue and colorful paper. not a bad way to procrastinate.

i like having my sketchbooks covered with fun stuff. so here are three sketchbooks - all ready to be used for drawing or glueing or thinking out loud.

many of my collage ideas, originated from a workshop with anne marie grgich. great stuff!

doodles and quirky things

doodling about quirky things. guess i'll turn this into stitch one day.

booklie, the sock monkey

i haven't shown a sock monkey post in a while! here is booklie. i don't know where his book is, but he does love to read as you can see by the tatoo on his back. yes, booklie does wear glasses - my stereotype of a reader, and true for me.

painted portraits

last year i practiced painting self portraits. it was good practice for me. now i am working on...i don't know. are these portraits of anyone you know? mostly i am just working on how to mix and lay on color to make paintings pop.

important philosophy...

felted apartment numbers

old sweaters make great felted works! this one is a house number for the door on our apartment. fun to do and keeps me out of trouble:)

embroidered text messages

in keeping with my love of keeping diaries, i have decided to stitch text messages i receive. i can't keep all of them in my phone and they are such a great snapshot of my life and the lives of those i love. another life-long project, that i will probably never finish, but will have a great time working on!

illustrated comics of everyday life

i have been playing with the idea of doing comics in stitch. so lately i have been drawing a picture, in comic form, of things that come to my mind. i need to develop the characters a little, but i like the idea of transferring these images into stitch.

hand stitching is BEEEAUTIFULL!

been working on alot of older, unfinished projects...must be something about a new beginning or cleaning up the past - who knows? anyway, it's fun. i love the way spiritcloth takes close up shots of her hand stitching. so i decided to do the same. hand stitching is so beautiful to me. i have loved that look since i saw my first hand-stitched quilt when i was a kid. i like the unevenness of hand stitching and the uniqueness of each stitch. i remember back in the day when i used to strive for 14 stitches per inch - ha. st. quilta cured me of trying to make small even stitches.

mrs. daisy sallow's crocheted diary

while spending lots of time in airports and on planes recently, i had plenty of time to stitch. i have added some entries to my
stitched diary.

i like remembering how white lipstick was so vital to my daily existence. and how, even when i was 14, i loved to spend my money on fabric (material, as we called it).

the taylor porkroll can be seen here. it used to be one of my favorite foods. now that i am a vegetarian, i still think about taylor porkroll from time to time...like thinking of an old boyfriend.

this is what our german shephard puppy looked like. also funny that we named him 'snow!' he really did eat our couch.

why is this entry called 'mrs. daisy sallow's crocheted diary?' why not? do you know who daisy sallow is? many thanks to edward gorey for introducing me to mrs. sallow...a muse!

jumping in museums

where has maggie been? i have been jumping in museums...or rather jumping outside of museums. inspired by one of my favorite
blogs
i went to paris with
bh and i was so excited to be around all of the art that i actually forgot to jump once i got into the museum. bh and i had a romantic time and ate delicious patisserie. it's good to be back. i cleaned my studio and am ready for the new year!

'tis the season...

LOVe to all in bloggerland today!

small packages: the LAST MINUTE MAUL

this is what i do in my day job. i work at a local art center in baltimore and was asked to put together a craft event this year. so...what could i do that would be different from all of the other myriad of excellent craft events in our city? i came up with 'Small Packages: the LAST MINUTE MAUL. Locally crafted art no bigger than a fruitcake.' we will see how it goes tomorrow. i can't wait! lots of good local crafters will be there.

scrap crochet scarves for christmas

i have been having a great time using up the yarn in my stash...making scarves for everyone, including me! i HEART crochet.

portland and baltimore in stitch

for my level 1 opus personal specialism i was working in the theme of cities and combined my two favorite cities - portland maine and baltimore maryland. this piece has wrapped wire, stitched bicycle tubes and a background of maps and a painted cereal box!

contrived work?

i am exploring the idea of contrived work...when is my work contrived and when is it me? here is a piece i just submitted to a show called GATHERING. i was very excited about the work as i was planning and working on it, but the final product is kind of 'so-so.' i am not too wild about it. i guess that 'so-so' work is ok if i am just making a sample for a course, but wondering what happens to my work when it is planned vs when i am doing it just for fun and experimentation? my work that is done just-for-fun seems so much more me and more spontaneous... what do you think? is there a difference between your spontaneous work and your planned work?

a veggie happy thanksgiving

where have i been? i am not sure what has kept me so busy...opus work, for sure. also been busy planning and organizing my new and very fun event at work the LAST MINUTE MAUL.

if you live in the states, thanksgiving is on the way...the annual carnivore fest. it's a hard time to be a vegetarian. thought i'd play along, by showing you one of my altered thrift store sweaters.

xo!