Virginia A. Spiegel

I love Blurb books for a variety of reasons, not the least because they offer specials periodically. If you have been thinking about ordering my book, Wild at the Edges: Inspiration from a Creative Life, now is the time.  Blurb is donating Free Ground/Economy shipping on all orders placed by March 22.

Just enter the promo code below at checkout and your book will be in your hands in about a week. Be sure to use the appropriate currency, based on your location.

USD $ promo code: WESHIP
GBP £ promo code: WESHIP2
EUR € promo code: WESHIP3

Here are the caveats: Offer valid through March 22, 2010 (11:59 p.m. PST). Offer covers Ground/Economy shipping costs for up to $7.99, £3.99, or €5.99 up to five books in one order, shipped to one address. This offer is good for one-time use and cannot be combined with other promotional codes or used for adjustments on previous orders.

Need MORE reasons to click over and check out my book?
1.  Check out the price.  Since I retired FFAC, I have reduced the price on Wild at the Edges as I donate to the ACS in other ways now. Wild at the Edges is offered in both soft and hardcover. If you can do the hardcover, it is well worth it.
2.  RAVE REVIEWS!
3.  Self-publishing is great for a book like Wild at the Edges.  NO projects, but a quirky, personal sensibility. I choose each photo and placed it to enhance each essay or poem. Reading Wild at the Edges is meant to be a journey, one that you can savor, study and enjoy in small moments of time.
4.  I have heard from many readers that Wild at the Edges is a great gift for artists of all types.  Many of the essays focus on what it means to be an artist –  the disappointments and the triumphs.

Jamie and Holly in the Stitch Shed

Talking Threads is a ten-part series about British textiles featuring Jamie Malden and Holly Pulsford of Colouricious.   Textiles – great!  British textiles – oh, the joys of being an Anglophile.  You can watch the show online on Country Channel.tv.

(Some hints to access the series on Country Channel.tv:  You must accept cookies — which I do and then turn my regular setting in Preferences for internet security back on later — and you may have to download a different media player than you are currently using. Flash didn’t work for me, but SilverLight did.)

The first two shows are available and feature Jill Kennedy (silk painting) and Gilda Baron (creating multi-layered texiles with paint and stitch). The first half of each half-hour show is a personal interview and the second half is a very useful demonstration of a technique.

And check out their Stitch Shed. Who wouldn’t want one of those in their backyard?

But don’t stop there, search for textiles and the Inspiration series comes up. This is a series of interviews with five very well-known British textile artists.  Three of the wonderfully personal talks with textile artists are now available: the late Julia Caprara (link is to her book with an interview link on the side), Jan Beaney and Michael Brennand-Wood. I especially enjoyed learning about the genesis of Brennand-Wood’s mixed-media artwork that takes stitching into the third dimension.

I have to say that once I started looking at the content of Country Channel.tc – Beth Chattos garden, fungi, native breed horses – I realized that I had to set limits or I would be watching for WAY too long.

A Sense of Place II, curated by Peg Keeney, is an invitational exhibit for artists working in a series with landscape as their inspiration.  Three artworks are required and they must be vertical in orientation.  That’s always a tough one for me as I love the horizontal, due to, I believe, the Midwestern horizon line.

I knew I needed to choose as inspiration something that in itself was vertical in nature.  Of course, inspiration would come from the Boundary Waters and the three artworks would be Boundary Waters 45 – 47.

I chose for inspiration a photo of the cliffs in the Boundary Waters with Fall color beginning to show (photo above) and laid it next to my sewing machine on hand-dyed cheesecloth and silk in greens and oranges.

I then pulled from my seemingly endless storehouse of scraps and pieces this palette of green, blue-green, orange and brown.

This is one of the three works in progress.  I cropped it to not show the background, so the VERY irregular edges do not show.  I’m going for organic and the pieces are not flat, not square, and pretty darn exuberant.  I’ll be sharing more after I finish them up.

Wood Heart by Ann S. Miller
In honor of Judy, friend and survivor

Regular Collage Mania opens today at 10 a.m. CDT (see clock on the first page of collages).  If you are worried that your favorite collage may be acquired later today, you can still shop at the $80 minimum donation level until 9:59 a.m. CDT this morning.  All collages then become available for a minimum $40 donation at 10 a.m. CDT today through 5 p.m. CDT tomorrow (Thursday, May 7).

Collage Mania has already raised more than $10,000 for the American Cancer Society in one day and there are still hundred of collages available donated by generous artists from around the world. 

Prairie Potholes – Harvest No. 5 by Kimberly Baxter Packwood

Patrons have been MOST generous and I thank them.  I am also thankful that everyone is reading the DIRECTIONS and making my life so much easier. It’s great having Karen Stiehl Osborn riding shotgun this year and helping keep track of patrons.  I know sometimes it is frustrating when servers haven’t yet uploaded the newest pages showing Acquired collages or I haven’t had time to mark the Acquired ones for awhile, but you can always send me a note if you have a question.  

Thank you for your continued support, good humor and patience. It should be another GREAT day today!

Coneflower I by Heidi Miracle-McMahill
In honor and Memory of Carmen Rodriquez

Collage Mania, a Fiberart For A Cause fundraiser for the American Cancer Society, opens today, May 5, at 10:00 a.m. CDT.  Check out the official clock on the first page of the collages if you are wondering what time that might be in your time zone. 

Remember it’s first come/first serve, not highest bidder.  Today’s minimum donation to the ACS is $80.  If you are able to add even an extra $1, it will make a difference in how much we raise.  All the directions of how to acquire collages during Collage Mania are here.  

Create Art by Jamie Fingal

All of the activities of Fiberart For A Cause during the last four years have been a labor of love for me as they are done in honor of my Dad, Bob Spiegel.  He is a fifteen-year a colon cancer survivor. Fiberart For A Cause is part of the Forest Lake, MN Relay For Life, a grassroots fundraiser for the ACS, chaired in admirable style by my sister, Nancy Spiegel Rosman.  

I thank Karen Stiehl Osborn for making the Collage Mania pages (all 39!) happen and many other selfless tasks, our Honorary Chair Karey Bresenhan, and most of all, the 161 artists who donated their artwork to Collage Mania and you, the patrons, who support both fundraising and the fiberarts.  Today promises to be a fun and exciting day!