Journal

Random Musings on Art and LIfe

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Folklorio Dancer 3: All Dressed Up With Stunning Stitches

April 23, 2015

At the beginning of my art residency here in Chapala, I created a stencil from an image of a dancer, and then painted her up using my extreme stenciling technique. She was quite lovely in the shimmering iridescent Paintstik colors, but I wanted to give her dress a bit of pizzazz. So, I dug into…

Blue Fingers Are Happy Fingers!

November 20, 2014

by Shelly Stokes, Founder and Creative Mentor No, I have not totally lost my mind. Blue fingers really are happy fingers. And if you must know, it’s because Susan Cleveland says so — and she’s right! Susan Cleveland (another crazy lady from Minnesota) and I had a little confab in my hotel room during Quilt…

Slow Stitching Adds Life To Painted Fabric

October 30, 2014

If you have been with me for a while, you know that I’m working on a major project. Yes, this baby will be a Show Quilt. It is the first big art quilt that I have tackled in about 10 years. It’s a big undertaking, but I’m loving it! The first big steps in this…

Create A Thread Tracking System

October 23, 2014

After last week’s column on Choosing a Thread Palette from a bunch of autumn colored flowers, reader Bret Adams asked a really good question, “How do you keep track of your threads so that you know what you need to buy when you are shopping with vendors?” Bret noted that it is much too easy…

Pick A Palette From Fall Flowers

October 16, 2014

When Jack surprised me with a beautiful bunch of fall-colored flowers last week, I knew I wanted to capture the colors for a future stitching project. I took some photos, of course, but those are much too easily “out of sight — out of mind.” As the flowers started looking a little bit droopy, I…

How Does Your Garden Glow?

April 10, 2014

by Shelly Stokes, Founder and Creative Mentor A couple of years ago, I got bit by the hand-stitching bug. Hard. I am not saying it was a bad thing – just that it totally changed the way I think about painted fabric. It started with just a little bit of embellishment for a handbag. Then…