The (not so) Secret Confessions of a Stitch Chick

Be the CEO! of your Life, CraftyChica Style!

Last night I watched the wonderful Canadian actor Michael J Fox and his special, the Incurable Optimist. He traveled the world with the question what makes an optimist. We all know people who seem to have an optimistic outlet on life no matter what happens. Being around them automatically makes you feel better. What I took away from the show was looking outward, sharing with enthusiasm, creating the best life possible and being grateful for each day are the life of an optimist. People who know me I think consider me an optimist and most of the time I am always believing in the joy of life. I am the CEO of my life Creative Eternal Optimist!!!

The past two years I have been working on my latest book, through it I had major water and mold damage in my studio, took on care of my Mom and found myself in a serious creative personal slump at one point. I was trying to come up with some designs for the book and a glittery fairy godmother appeared. I have admired Kathy Cano-Murillo, the Crafty Chica for a long time, her fun enthusiasm, crafty passion and generosity always bring a smile and loads of inspiration! It has been more than a year ago she posted one day about heading out to an event wanting something different and new to wear so she took scissors to a T-shirt and restyled it! I at the time was sitting looking at a plain sweatshirt thinking what am I going to do with this. I read her post, hauled out some wild fabric pieces, grabbed some scissors and cut up not only one sweatshirt but two creating a bright fun design Chic Chica! Vest. This vest is also the chapter header photo and on the back cover! The book Sweatshirt Remix is being released next week at Spring Quilt Market. I am doing a presentation to retailers and the vest is the one chosen for the handout. I wrote Kathy to thank her for her continual inspiration, she responded so generously and sweetly!

Optimism is all around us so when you need to fill up look for inspiration from friends, people you admire, smile at the world and do something for someone else, do it for yourself. Be a CEO of your life!

Debra CEO! Creative Eternal Optimist!!!

Inspired or Insane? walking the creative tightrope!

Back on the fast track of my job or the creative circus some may call it. Working till 2am several nights in a row before a show or deadline is the norm around here and for many other creative night owls I know. Enthusiasm for work is such that even after a show playtime and relaxing involves trying out a new product or technique. Misunderstood by some which often includes other members of the household (not the four legged variety of course) as we burn the so called midnight oil, scatter glitter, glue and bits everywhere, wear ourselves out, stress over displays, bemoan rejections and yet...the moment a project comes together, a new published piece arrives or a new book is released, the happy dance rocks the house! It is not a dull life, it is a life which is as rich in experience as it is in product and the performers who share this circus with us, amazing generous incredible talents and friends! Here's to the creative circus!

Next week I am off to Quilt Market in Pittsburgh along with several other talented designer friends. My new book Sweatshirt Remix is being released and I get to do a Schoolhouse presentation to retailers. This will involve my pulling something entertaining out of my hat literally well actually my suitcase,,,hmm maybe it could look like a hat. The book has a CD with it that contains patterns, shopping lists, garment labels and graphics for applique. Upcycling thrift store finds into some of the piece, even a tea towel makes an appearance in a cute cropped jacket. Techniques are given to add more shape and style detail to the twenty designs from winter wear to a cozy seashell robe! So if you got sweatshirts and can stitch a straight line you can make yourself a wearable in just a few hours or less!

Debra  An Inspired Stitch CHick!

Celebrating the Heart in art & eartH!

Today is Earth Day andlike most other special days is a reminder to pause and really think about the day. The earth is the only home we have got and it has been kind to us even with all of our blunders neglecting often what is right under our feet the rich earth, the ticklish grass, the scents, the feel, the joy to the senses and peace of spirit when time is spent in a green space. This past year in writing my column for Creative Homearts, Make it Green, I have been honored to interview and feature many creative companies who respect the earth's resources and manufacture products in a eco friendly way. This is a salute to all those companies, Hankettes, Beacon Adhesives, Walnut Hollow, Polyform, Fairfield, SWTC, Pizza Fusion, Piggy Tales, KUNIN Felt and to everyone who keeps a reverence for this earth in their daily practices.

Debra-Celebrating the Heart in art & eartH!

Love Story, A Legacy of Love

My Mom passed away peacefully on March 30, 2009 at age 79,the day after my Dad's birthday March 29th, he passed away thirty years ago in 1979. He was only fifty-one but was a hemophiliac so he felt very fortunate to have lived as long as he did. Their marriage of almost thirty years together was a true love story. Their legacy is one of true love.

My parents met at a dance on August 5th, 1949 and it was love at first sight. Three weeks later on August 27th they were engaged. My Mom wrote in her journal "it was the happiest day of her life." They were married in a quiet ceremony on December 8th, 1950 after my Mom finished teaching school for the afternoon and my Dad was done work. In a box my Mom still had the receipt from their hotel for their weekend honeymoon.  I did not arrive until three years later and those first years, summers spent at the ocean were the happiest of my Mom's life.

Even though my Dad was in and out of hospital they were always together. My Mom would just move into the hospital with him. They played cards, talked, laughed, kissed and held each other's hand, the nurses always thought they were newlyweds. My parents loved being together, they played cards every night after supper at the dining room table. My Dad would often come home for lunch to spend it with my Mom alone.

As a teenager I remember my Mom running through the living room grabbing the paper out my Dad's hand giggling and him chasing her down the hall laughing. I grew up knowing my parents were very much in love, that my brother and I were testaments to that deep abiding love they shared each and everyday, never taking for granted any of it. They lived and loved with great JOY through all of their life together.

We are so blessed and deeply grateful to my parents for giving us the gift of love, for living life never forgetting what truly mattered above all. Living & Loving. Now they are together once more forever. With love & JOY their grateful daughter Debra.

Butterflies of the HeART!

I am sitting in my hotel room working before the next leg of my journey, the scenic ferry ride to Victoria on Vancouver Island where I will be teaching at the BC Sewing & Crafts Show on Thursday and Friday. One of my classes is needle felting and I have been designing different kits for the show. One of them is a butterfly kit. Butterflies are magical winged creatures and symbolize beauty, hope, freedom. The Butterfly project at the Holocaust Museum Houston is to honor and remember the 1.5 million children who perished in the Holocaust. The inspiration of the butterflies is the poem by Pavel Friedman "I Never Saw another Butterfly." Many groups are getting involved in this worthwhile project and creating handmade butterflies. The display is to open in 2012. At the bottom of my kit I have included all the information knowing many will create a butterfly from my pattern and send it on a message of hope and remembrance to Houston. In the booth anyone who stops by can learn how to needle felt and make a butterfly. I will collect and send them on to Houston with their name.  If you are on Facebook join our artist's group "Butterflies for the Children" created by a good friend whose father is a Holocaust survivor. 

HeART, the strongest force we have is our heart to bring love and peace to this world and in this word is ART a creative positive force to make life all it is meant to be. Switch the H and it becomes eARTh so to live from the Heart is to be one with the creative loving natural forces of this life. To Butterflies, remembering what can never be again and to the hope of life respected and celebrated. ---Stitched from the HeART--- Debra

Whimsy & Whatnot!

My youngest Kate was studying for a spelling test last night and Amanda was helping her. Kate had to write definitions for the words, one of them being whimsical. Amanda replied something to the effect of just use Mum in a sentence. My daughters have grown up with a mom whose studio space holds garden gloves with chicks peeking out, bears cuddled in a chair and happy faced bugs crawling across the wall. Always in progress is the next cute character. I have always loved creating fun little creatures with happy personalities and sharing them through my books, magazine and fabric designs.

So today's whimsy is dedicated to my darling daughters, the cute chicks who rock my world everyday. So here is the wee whimsical needle felted foam chick who peeks out of the garden gloves on my studio wall over the bright blue watering can with the stuffed wiggly worm peeking out! Oops, perhaps I have gone too far into the land of whimsy & whatnot......oh well my daughters will retrieve me I am sure, throw me a rope of rainbows or something!

Looking to create your own whimsy, several of my designs with how-tos are on the Creative Homearts website!

Woolfelt is from National Nonwovens  and they have a great new site for needle felting and whimsy enthusiasts!

The glowing globe high in the blueberry sky sings spring, melting mud puddly adventures await for JOYful spring flings! To a whimsical flavored kind of day!---Debra----

 

Sweet Spring Things!

With my trip out west only a week away I am busily putting class kits together and other fun little needle felting kits. The weekend's jaunt into whimsy resulted in a duo of cuteness, a fuzzy bunny peeking out of an Easter egg and a little yellow bird. The magnetic ceramic back makes them ideal for either wearing without making the dreaded pin holes or using as a fridge magnet when not wearing them. I came upstairs wearing them both, love my daughters' reactions to things I conjure up and the oldest's boyfriend cooking in the kitchen wisely says nothing just smiles. So ta dah for today! cute and fuzzy creations.

March is National Craft month or I am thinking it should be International Craft month! The creative adventure, frees the mind to wander through mountains of colorful materials, wade in deeply through a sea of paints, finishes and glues and emerge spirit fulfilled from the journey with a creation to enjoy and share!

The latest issue of Creative Homearts just arrived in my mail! Spring is blossoming all over in this issue! On the website lots of project extras for a creative spring fling! So to crafting, soaking up the sunshine of creativity enjoy, indulge you only live once! Debra---Inspiring the JOY of Creativity---1 GREEN Stitch at a Time!

 

Needle & Heart Felt Friday!

In two weeks I will be in lovely Victoria BC teaching Needle Felting at the Sewing & Crafts Show. BC is on the Pacific Ocean and I am in NB Canada sixty miles from the Atlantic Ocean so it is across the country I go leaving behind the snow. (Yes it is still snowing here but spring will come!) Needle felting is an easy craft using soft wool felt and roving, a barbed needle to create designs from wearables to sculptured pieces. In the class I will be teaching how using simple shapes many different designs can be created. A simple teardrop shape becomes a flower petal, leaf or birds wing. Simple wool beads are used as a closure and I will be showing how to make a few different styles of beads. The class is meant to teach some technique, offer patterns and inspiration. The wrist cuff we are doing in class is fun and easy. The class kit contains my own "cute as a button"needle (designed by the marvelous Marie Browning) with a sparkly pink button top easy to grip, wool felt cuff, patterns and a luscious selection of wool some of which is shown in the second photo of another wrist cuff pattern in the kit. The charming yellow bird sits among tear drop shape leaves and circle flowers. A few embroidery stitches accent the wool and both of these wool bracelets could be embellished further with beading and hot fix crystals. 

 HEART Felt Friday!

I HEART all the women who have gone before who have stood up for women's rights and honor them on International Women's Day,March 8th. From its first celebration in 1909 till now women have been champions of rights and justice for all. Today celebrations take place in 60 countries around the world! For my daughters I see a world continuing to recognize them with greater value and that must continue. So to all the marvelous women I know Happy International Women's Day!!! With JOY & Gratitude! Debra

Sassy Spring Style!

So thinking spring, it may be still snowing but I am thinking spring so throwing open the windows, brushing the gathering snow on the window ledge back out the window. In spring my mind turns to thoughts of spring cleaning. Necessary for the task is the right attire so a sassy little apron number fits the bill!  My youngest agreed to model only if she (oops) remained anonymous and was not associated with spring cleaning in any way.  Aprons, my Mom always wore one so it brings back memories of her in spike heels, big skirt and a cute apron while getting ready for her weekly bridge club. Plainer larger aprons were for through the week doing the everyday household chores.

The apron which comes from a french word which meant small tablecloth were worn first by men in the 12th century for a variety of occupations. It was closer to the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries that they became a more feminine attire. With the nineteen hundreds the apron began to blossom into many different styles and fabrics. Half aprons, crocheted, cross stitched, full aprons, plastic aprons and the resurgence in popularity the apron has become a fashionable accessory.

So here is to spring and aprons and to warm spring breezes or I may need to make a fur trimmed one!

Remember to post a comment for this weeks give away. To celebrate the change in seasons to come I have a give away compliments of Creative Homearts Club a booklet of 13 Seasonal Creations, Crafting Through the Seasons with a couple goodies thrown in! Two of the projects are mine, a winter one big surprise! and a recycled sewing project, ok so I am predictable what can I say. The question is...What do you love about Spring? Random drawing for this but lucky me I get to read all the wonderful responses. Next Monday 9th winner announced!

A Whimsical Winter Farewell

March roars in wildly and snow swirls through the air yet March brings with it the promise that Spring is to come. So my official farewell to winter is my Noah inspired needle felted snowman joined by his two reindeer. In the background is the view from one of my living room windows. I am teaching needle felting in a couple weeks at the Sewing & Craft show in lovely Victoria BC where there will be definitely no snow and delicious signs of spring everywhere.  

The reindeer are cut from foam from a simple pattern I made. Covered in National Nonwoven's natural wool roving and needle felted. Use a snowflake Clover template to needle felt pink snowflakes. What can I say I have an affinity to pink always! The snowflakes remind me of filling recycled detergent bottles with food colored water so the girls could paint the snow. It was like having a yard full of sherbet! (had to avoid yellow though dog took care of that color)

To celebrate the change in seasons to come I have a give away compliments of Creative Homearts Club a booklet of 13 Seasonal Creations, Crafting Through the Seasons with a couple goodies thrown in! Two of the projects are mine, a winter one big surprise! and a recycled sewing project, ok so I am predictable what can I say. The question is...What do you love about Spring? Random drawing for this but lucky me I get to read all the wonderful responses. Next Monday 9th winner announced!

Hearting these Links!
Kiva A good friend Michelle brought me this site where you can make small loans and help individuals all over the world help themselves, building and expanding  small businesses. Once the loan is paid back you can reinvest in someone else.
Adopt Shoppe Being the Mum of two darling daughters who came through the wonderful gift of adoption, this is the place to find those special books, cards that speak to the heart of all involved, birth families, adoptive families.

So with Spring in the air and a reality check involved as to full weeks ahead, blog posts will be Sun, Mon, Wed & Fri. JOY and Gratitude to all who stop by! Debra-----