Painting time

Part of the ongoing construction in the house includes fixing cracked plaster (from the house getting leveled!) and finally getting new paint. This is the fun part.

bye bye, charms.

Just as information for those of you out there who are Libby Dibby charm wearers... As of today, I will no longer be selling the handstamped sterling silver charms.

I'm sorry for the inconvenience this may be for some people who wish for more.

Habitat Challenge quilt (WIP)

This is nothing like I envisioned it! And that is the fun of improvising something and letting the fabrics tell me what they want to be. I almost gave up... But instead the project sat in pieces for a few days and took shape all in one night.
I cheated for the back!!! Used Denyse Schmidt's county fair cheater print... Been saving it for a while for the perfect project...

House collage

I was asked by my friend, Sarah, to donate a collage for a local charity auction. She's a close friend with whom I took my collage class at Art Center last spring (and I hope to join her again in it when life settles a little?).
Anyhow - there are a few of us who are friends who are collage artists that all attend church together. It's a funny thing to know other collage artists anyway, but I love that these other women are really incredible people, too. They are also mothers and one of them is also an entertainment industry wife, so we have lots to share about.
Anyhow - Sarah and I put up for auction a special luncheon at her house where we will do a collage workshop with 8 attendees.  Ironically, one of the 8 who signed up is a far more accomplished collage artist than Sarah or I - but it's going to be so much fun to do art together.

Sarah thought that putting collages up for auction right next to the Workshop bid sheet would be fun, so I whipped this one up in the last 2 days. We went to the auction last night and I literally had to have someone come pick it up from my house while the glaze was still drying. It looked good by bid time and actually ended up in the hands and home of some more fun friends.  So now I get to see it when I visit their house!

(yay)
On a side funny note, my husband ran into a college classmate of his at the auction (he never forgets a face) and when we were introduced to each other, she said, "wait? You're Liberty Worth, ... the charms and skirt girl? I've ordered from your website, years ago..." so random.
In spite of being in business for 7 years, I am still always amazed when people have heard of my stuff.... and even more when they've bought from me, not knowing me!

Bee Happy baby quilt pic

You saw it en route, but here's our Bee Happy quilt we made for baby Emma. And she kind of outshines it.

Though I love pictures of the quilts I've made and have a hand in, it's even more fun to see them being loved.

Now that I write that, I realize that in addition to the 20-something quilts I've made in the past 3 years... I also have had a hand in making portions of (let me count...) around 30 other quilts because of my bees, too, this one included.

Taken by sewgirly! http://www.flickr.com/photos/37825389@N05/6201557316

Liberty

Sent from my trusty little iPhone

SENT

My church is doing a really fun art project this month - our pastor's wife is an amazing collage artist who specializes in recycled materials. (You know I love her artwork and her in general!)
So this month we gave out postcards to people with postage on them and asked them to design the backs with a representation of where they feel they've been "SENT"
And then when the piece is done, they just pop it in the mail to be a part of our group exhibit. I was finally able to do mine last night (last chance to do it, of course, as it had to go in the mail today!!!!)...

and of course, I wasn't able to stop at just one, so I made two.

Mimi's birthday gift

I've been dying to give this gift to Mimi. Today was her 7th birthday, but I have had this Hello Kitty Janome sewing machine (it's a legit machine!) for her for months.
You can see how excited I was to give it to her. She is super excited and also a little bit scared in a healthy way... she totally realizes this is serious. You can see that on her face too.
This pic says it all, doesn't it?

From Mimi's bday

Catching up on crafting.

After my kitchen remodel, the beginning of school, having Princess move in, and making my "voice" quilt, barfy kids.... I'm so behind on so many projects... Including Mimi's birthday party prep which is this Saturday. (oh did the wheels fall off the wagon there... Some invites never even made it out. Sigh)
Anyhow, I'm trying to catch up and today's chance involved making yarn Rapunzel braids (in every hair color!) while watching tball practice at the park.

Project Modern "Find Your Voice" challenge COMPLETED!

Wow. I finished. Here is my entry for the "find your voice" Project Modern Challenge. It took a little over a week and came so naturally to me, the whole thing felt right. Granted, there were months of sketches (they looked nothing like this) and nights and days spent with teachers and friends teaching me new techniques. (Hello, no straight lines, no rulers, quilting based on the composition...)
But when it came down to making this, no sewing has ever been more of a good fit. There were spontaneous decisions to be made the entire time (LOVE THAT).. and though it is a competition I am submitting it for, the winning is nit the point. I've been quilting for almost 3 years now. The entire time, I've been looking to find my personal "voice.". When I learned the purpose of this challenge, I knew I had to join the ranks and embrace the deadline as an impetus to search harder to find my style and especially to bridge the gap (finally) between my sewing and my artwork.
I'm so happy. If you look at the collage I used for inspiration, you can see, I've been able to combine my own artwork along with the passion I have for the quilts of Gee's Bend... And found a new groove.
Hooray!

WIP - project modern challenge. Almost done!

So between juggling 4 kids, a new school schedule, 3 birthday parties a weekend and one of our own to plan this coming weekend... I'm dealing with lots of foster stuff (each new placement requires extra, weekly social worker visits and inspections, and dr appts...). That should explain a little why I haven't written much of interest this past week.
But I LOVE deadlines. And my self-imposed deadline of having an entry to submit on Sept 30 for the Project Modern Challenge "FIND YOUR VOICE" contest has been so good for me.
To be honest, this quilt has only taken me about a week of sewing at night plus one full 5-hour LAMQG "weekend sew" day. Jay has been watching it come together, saying "this has come so naturally for you. It's hardly taken any time at all". He's right. And it's also been fun.
My art professor last semester told me that you know you've got your groove when you can look at a finished project and envision making another 100 in it's wake. And I'm suddenly bursting with composition ideas... Something I've NEVER had before.
It wasn't winning that motivated me to enter this competition... But the push it would be to do something I've been trying to do all along. And i truly believe i accomplished my goal. Which thrills me to no end.
So now all that is left is the binding. Three days of hand sewing edges and I'll get to show you the final product.