Saturday, December 30, 2006

She Made Her Mark

****Sorry guys, I had to remove my post of my incomplete submission for the She Made Her Mark exhibit. I don't want to jeopardize my entrance in the exhibit. Thanks for looking!***

Hello again,

I had decided that I had run out of time (as of yesterday late afternoon) to get anything ready for the She Made Her Mark exhibit. I had been thinking about doing something with Dorothea Dix as the main focus. If you don't know, she is famous for changing the treatment of the mentally ill is this country. Anyway, I kept trying to come up with some really unique way to show the mentally ill person breaking free from the horrible conditions of the prisons they were sometimes kept in. Well, the deadline approached and all I had so far were a photograph of Dorothea and a quote. So, here it is so far. Hopefully I will finish in the next day or two so that I can get in by the 5th. Let me know what you think.

I've also been working on my piece for the FFAC Reverse Auction. It's coming along but I've hit a frustration point so I've set it aside for a few days while I am working on the Dorothea piece.

I (actually my husband and I) have made super progress on my website and it will really be up very, very shortly.

Hope your holidays are all going well.

Heidi

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Hi again,

I'm trying to get a back log of some of my work up on my blog since the artwork started before my blogging skills caught up. Here are some of my commissioned pieces
this past year. It all began with donating a quilt and tote bag for an auction at my church. From that, I received an order for another wallhanging quilt with UU (Unitarian Universalist) theme, a liturgical stole for a UU minister and a wedding present from a groom (my minister) to his bride to be. I also made many tote bags for sell this last year and will post photos of some the quilted ones soon. Hope you enjoy looking. Website coming soon!!!!!



































Here are some more detailed photos of work on the stole. I included text under netting which included many words from UU principles (inherent worth, dignity, respect, love, justice, etc.),a picture of a famous baseball player (the minister is a big fan), a united states map with a heart going through it connecting dots from Atlanta, North Carolina and California (the minister was moving from Atlanta to North Carolina, originally from California, this was a gift from fellow ministers before his move), and a chalice (UU symbol). I think this was my most fun project ever. I was given freedom to make it any way I wanted as long as it had some blues and it somehow included baseball (tricky in a ministerial stole). I think I did a good job of making it attractive overall from a distance and then the details are small enough to bring you in but they are not distracting.









































This is a picture of the piece I made after taking Laura Cater-Woods class in May.



Works in progress coming soon. Check back. :)

Heidi

P.S. I'm still working on the placement of the photos. Hopefully I'll get better at this soon.

The holidays are upon us

Hi again,

I thought I'd check in and tell you what I've been up to. I had a fantastic time at the last meeting of the Contemporary Quilt and Fiber Arts Alliance (name change may be coming soon). We had a white elephant exchange and I got some lovely hand-dyed batiked fabric and a couple of beautiful artsy tags.

I've been up to my eyeballs lately with refinancing a mortgage, phone calls and appointments for a very sick father (trying to find a nursing home that will take him, he is sort of homeless, long story), Christmas (letters, shopping, gifts, etc.) so there has not been much time for art. When I have found the time here is what I've been doing.

I'm working on a piece for the FiberArt for a cause Reverse Auction (www.virginiaspiegel.com/NewFiles/ACSFundraiser.html). I am soo excited to be an invited artist for this event. I haven't finished it yet and can't post it here, but my piece will most likely be a watercolor pastel nude lady on fabric with some quilting and embellishment.

I did find time to make Model Magic ornaments with my kindergartner. Here is a picture. I think they turned out really cute.












These are not recent, but since taking TWO Laura Cater-Woods classes this year (life-changing!!!) I started drawing and painting. I hadn't done this since grade school and I am having so much fun. Many of the fiberart postcards contain some of my drawings which I scanned and then printed onto fabric. Here are a few of my drawings. The first 3 are on watercolor paper and the landscape is on a small canvas and was my first commission for non-fiber art. Yippeee!!
















I have over 100 drawings and paintings and will hopefully get then all posted to my website (coming very soon! almost ready). I hope to be able to offer prints and notecards as well as the originals.

Well, I've gotta run finish making my cookie mix in a jar gifts for teachers and do some last minute Christmas shopping before I pick up my 2 year old from Mother's Morning Out.

Take care everyone and Happy Holidays,

Heidi

Tuesday, October 03, 2006

My First Post

Hello everyone,

This is my first post and I am sooo excited. I am hoping to primarily use my blog as a place to show a bit of my fiber and other artwork to friends and family.

My most recent work was for FiberArt for A Cause for which I made 23 fiber postcards. Each one raises $30 for cancer research for the American Cancer Society. You can read more about it www.virginia_spiegel.com. It's a fabulous fundraiser. Here are some of postcards I submitted. Sorry they are not arranged very nicely on the page. I'm still figuring this blog photo posting thing out.


Well, hope you are all busy creating!

Heidi