Virginia A. Spiegel

August Morning

I always love to see the oat fields waving in the wind, but these giant straw bales are equally beautiful in their own way.  They make me think of giant toys rolling around or perhaps mammoths lumbering down the hill.

Haiku count since July 14: 150  

Off on the garbage trail today (with a small Farmers’ Market detour) on The Garbage Day Report.

Jeanelle McCall of Five Spoon Gallery has done it again with another wonderful pro bono design for Fiberart For A Cause’s online shop.  

Relay For Life is the American Cancer Society’s largest grassroots fundraiser.  Learn more here.  Wear this design to show your support year round and, as always, all the profit ($5 per item) goes to the ACS through FFAC.

Don’t Relay?  Not to worry, Fiberart For A Cause’s online shop offers other designs by Jeanelle and Karen Stiehl Osborn focusing on art quilts, friendship, hope and the Boundary Waters.

It is not too late to share what’s good in the world through an entry to Lynn Krawczyk’s Breaking Traditions: With One Voice art quilt exhibit.

The deadline is August 30, but the required size is only 12″ x 12.”

The $10 entry fee goes to the American Cancer Society through Fiberart For A Cause.

Did I mention prizes? And it will be a traveling exhibit after its premier at the American Sewing Expo in Novi, MI from September 26-28.

For complete exhibit and entry informations, click here.

If you have questions, please contact Lynn at
FibraArtysta@earthlink.net

Nature

Early morning hawk stopped
To pluck its feathered breakfast
On my driveway.

Haiku count since July 14: 120

Of course, there is a new post in The Garbage Day Project with the mystery of the disappearing garbage solved.

If you read The Garbage Day Project blog, you know my niece, Jenny, visited last week.

We came straight from our family’s American Cancer Society Relay For Life in Minnesota where she donated seven 10″ ponytails for Locks of Love.

Jen started coming to visit for a week in the summer when she was 13 and now she is 20. A perfect age as we are as happy sitting on the deck reading or drinking mochas while playing backgammon at the local coffee shop as doing art projects. But it wouldn’t be Fun Week without art projects.

To warm up, we made our butterflies for the Butterfly Project for the Holocaust Museum Houston. You know how I love collaborative projects and this noteworthy project is seeking 1.5 million handmade butterflies to remember the children who perished in the Holocaust.

Then we turned our attention to fabric paper. We followed the directions by Beryl Taylor is Issue 1 of Cloth Paper Scissors magazine. (You can also read my article, Lutradur: The Miracle Material with my Portage art book in the same issue).

Here’s my paper collage on fabric in progress

And Jen’s.

But after we added the tissue paper, we were both bummed as it does mute the colors considerably. We also used a lot of materials from a book and that paper was probably too thick. So we ended up with two very stiff sheets of fabric paper which I will probably use in the future in collage. But Jenny’s goal was pillows for her futon. Hmmm.

Technology saves the day! Jen sent me photos from her computer, I Photoshopped them to size and printed them on fabric.

She peeled them off the full-sheet labels, fused Mistyfuse to the back, trimmed, and then fused them to some of my hand-dyes.

Mission complete. Two personalized pillow covers for when she goes back to school.

Fun Week is always fun and I am energized to return to my studio with a spirit of playfulness and experimentation.