All the Little Lovelies

Our fiber art group swap of 4 x 4 inch squares took place on Thursday evening and I can finally reveal the results. What fun it was to see all the beautiful creations! It's amazing and wonderful how 28 people can make such different art. Here's a picture of all the little lovelies I received in the swap:


The artists (with advance apologies for typos and misprints):
Top row L to R: Kathryn Lange; M. Buhl; S. Rieber; Gail Ellspermann; Micki Teceschi; Kendell Storm; Margaret Phillips
Second row L to R: Nancy Mirman; Carole Hoffman; Norma Schlager; Cindy Green; Joyce Sullivan; Melanie Hulse; Natalya Aikens
Third row L to R: Kathi Jahnke; Judy Gegiesi; Barbara Sfina; Joanne Lubchenko; Lynda Long; Mary Ann Healy; Mayann Weinberg
Bottom row L to R: Ann Louise Lyman; Jamie Horikawa; Susan Schrott; Jane Davila; Carrie Vollrath; Cecelia Leiseroff; Carolyn Cooney

And just FYI, here's a picture of most of the cards I made. (Somehow, I managed to cut off the bottom row of squares when I took the picture. I didn't notice until now and alas, I can't recreate the photo since the pieces are all off in new homes.) As you can see, I used the X stamps I made this summer as the cohesive element throughout. What did differ was how I created the Xs. Some of the Xs were stamped directly onto the background fabric (most of which was hand painted), while other Xs were foiled. Some were stamped onto another surface, cut out, then attached to the background. I added a bit of hand stitching to a good portion of the squares for texture and dimension.

When I started the project I was a bit flummoxed as to what to do, but this became a fun experiment in trying to make each piece different while keeping some flow amongst them all. Certainly, this is very different than most of what I create, but there's something fun (and occasionally frightening) about stepping beyond what you -- and others -- expect from your art. There were a few techniques I discovered along the way that I think I'm going to explore further. This was well worth it!

Comments

Beena said…
What a great collection of little lovelies you now have! I'm envious! And I like the little lovelies you made, as well!
Norma Schlager said…
Thanks for posting them, Vivien. I should have done, that, too. It was fun to see them all together.