FRIDAY PHOTO | Meet INTO THE LIGHT



© FabricWorks Studio

Into the Light is my "peace be still" quilted tapestry. It reminds me of the grounds in the back of my house at daybreak. It's precisely the time when the mist of nighttime wears off of the trees and the sunlight starts peering through the bush. Every time I view it, it puts life into perspective for me. My love of nature and of the ongoing rhythm and calm of our beautiful planet is celebrated in this piece.

You can view more details and information about this piece on my website, http://www.fabricworksstudio.com/into-the-light-tapestry/.

FRIDAY PHOTO | MEET BOHEMIA BLUE



Bohemia Blue is the second in the Bohemia quilt series. The first one, Bohemia, was released in March of 2015. It has a really cool, Missoni-like pattern in this sea of turquoise blue, slate blue, light blue, yellow, black and white.

KNITTING | Simple Coffee Table Mat

I just finished a knitted mat for my coffee table. It came out great and didn't take too long to do. I used 6.5mm Bamboo knitting needles to knit with a purl stitch of 65 stitches across and 67 rows of some of my favorite colors. Then, I finished it off with 2 rows of a single crochet stitches. These tighter stitches gave the overall piece a little more structure. 

DSDLAB | Project: Creating Cherry Blossoms Gift Wrap Paper


I recently wrote about my love of cherry blossoms in a previous post on cherry blossoms. I loved the cherry blossoms image so much that I decided to work it in PhotoShop and turn it into a gift wrap paper!  

My idea was that a line drawing of the cherry blossoms would give me an image that was light, airy and very stylish.


I then used Photoshop to convert the image into a gift wrap pattern that I uploaded and repeated in my account in Spoonflower. See how I went from the above image to these repeat patterns - 

DESIGN | MAKING OF THE QUILT: The Helix Tango

The Helix Tango was a quilt I completed in 2008. It was my first wholecloth piece that was inspired by my love of the tango. My vision for The Helix Tango is "life, love, and passion" - actually what the Tango dance embodies. 

First, I started by researching some images of dancers doing the Tango. I traced the basic shapes to arrive at the set of drawings below. 

DSDLAB | Tutorial - How to Create Mosaic Textures in Photoshop


Mosaic textures are a great way to add a gridded, 3D effect onto your digital designs. I recently tried this effect on an image of a sunflower that I silk painted and subsequently printed as fabric. I'll write about this project soon!



DESIGN | INSPIRATION: Cherry Blossoms


While late March is technically the beginning of Spring, April is the beginning of blooming season for many flowers. In my cul-de-sac, I have several cherry blossom trees that start to reveal their beautiful white and pink colors.

QUILTING | Making Doodle Quilts

I've been really doodling a lot lately.  Webster's dictionary defines doodle as a "scribble, sketch, or design on paper often while thinking about something else".

In any given afternoon, I can probably doodle up to eight 5 x 7 drawings. They are fun and easy to do. I use my Strathmore sketchbook
to draw out a repetitive set of curves and shapes.

FRIDAY PHOTO | Meet Traces of Red



Meet Traces of Red. 

This little piece (12" by 12") is a quilted fabric art made of red satin, red cotton and red Dupioni silk fabric. The pieces of fabric were randomly torn, fused onto a piece of Pellon interfacing and then attached to a piece of muslin. The satin stitching in gold metallic and red cotton threads adds depth and outline to the piece. 

The finished piece was mounted to a black matboard and framed. This piece was sold at an auction.         

DESIGN | INSPIRATION: The MOMA

Back in the days when I was a photography student in New York, I was honored and privileged to take photos of the Metropolitan Museum of Art or MOMA. The front lobby is by far one of the most exquisitely designed I've ever experienced. For some reason, I've always felt most at peace in The Met. The architectural design of this place truly moves my spirit.

FRIDAY PHOTO | SEEING BROWN



I love brown...chocolate brown or espresso (a bit darker) are my favorites. Most of my fabric projects are contemporary pieces so the brown and its tones actually fit right in.  If you think about it, brown goes with just about everything! 

SURFACE DESIGN | About Fabricscapes

Fabricscape in the Tutti Frutti Series

I "officially" discovered fabricscapes in 2006 after dyeing 2 colorful cloths (one of them is shown to the left). They were among a batch of fabric that I dyed that weekend and were the only ones that had a consistent pattern. 

FRIDAY PHOTO | Japanese Kimono Fabric


In my fabric closet, I have this lovely piece of fabric is a yard of vintage hand-dyed indigo cotton that was used as an kimono obi. A kimono is a traditional T-shaped garment worn by Japanese people. The word kimono in Japanese translates to "thing to wear" – "ki" (wear) and "mono" (thing). The garment is full length and falls below the ankles. It crosses the body from left to right and is held in place by a sash or "obi".

I am greatly inspired by fabrics from previous eras and also by fabrics from different cultures. Like many other pieces of ethnic fabric, this piece of fabric holds the culture of another land and thus is a learning experience.

DSDLAB | Tutorial - Creating a Simple Artistic Abstract Background Using Fonts


Digital surface designers are always looking for ways to create antique looking digital images that can be printed on fabric. Here's just one of the many ways that you can create an antique image with an old world feel.


DESIGN | INSPIRATION: Vera Neumann (1907 - 1993)


I love Vera Neumann!!!!!

Vera Neumann (1907-1993) was an American-born artist who started a design company from her kitchen table in 1947. She is best known for her extensive, prolific designs for home décor, fine art and industrial products. Her designs are full of rich, vibrant colors and expressive symbols. Her logo is recognized all over the world for its simply "Vera" title next to the distinctive, colorful ladybug.

FRIDAY PHOTO | Creating Space Under Your Desk





These Sterilite 3-drawer taborets are fabulous. The BEST purchase yet. They actually come with wheels that are detachable (I use them this way). They are stackable, lightweight.


* Tips: When moving with these units:

1) Place each drawer content in a plastic bag. Put the bag back into the drawer.
2) Tape the sides of the drawer with shipping tape.
3) Stack the units vertically in your truck OR lay the entire drawer on its side in your car.


Check out more of my favorite organization products in my store, HERE.




FRIDAY PHOTO | Great Idea for Organizing My Fabric Closet






I just reorganized the fabric in my studio closet this past summer. Check out the white Sterilite baskets. The holes in the side allow the fabric to breathe. The size is perfect for the shelving in the closet. Finally, the price for each of the baskets is quite reasonable. I got a 6-pack of the Sterilite baskets for roughly $25. 


Check out more of my favorite organization products in my store, HERE.


FRIDAY PHOTO | Interesting Design







Designs are everywhere around us! There is never a shortage of good design patterns. Here is a picture of the top of my wrought iron headboard! 

PHOTOSHOP | Digitizing Weaved Textures






While taking a break from creating my 2016 digital collection of surface designs, I've been playing around with digitizing weaved textures in Photoshop. This weave is from a "cardboard" loom that I made. I weaved purple, green, and aqua blue yarns together to get an attractive weave pattern.  (Please check out the yarns at the bottom of this post.)




PHOTOSHOP | Creative Brushstrokes from Found Patterns


I love observing patterns around the house. I noticed this one of the sunlight on my studio window. When I turned it horizontally, I noticed the "squiggly lines" that are seen in many designs.
I took the left side of the image into Photoshop Elements. I chose a small brush from the calligraphy brush set.  The calligraphy brushes have a hard edge and the brushstrokes can be created with a thin, angled edge that goes into a wide one.

FRIDAY PHOTO: Reign of Fire Art Quilt




SUMMER STUDIO | Finished Knitting My Skinny Scarves (Part 5)

So, here's a recap of what I've done:
So I started this series to document my experience learning how to knit this summer. I learned two basic stitches - the knit stitch and the purl stitch. I decided to make (3) skinny scarves based on the purl stitch for my mom, mom-in-law and myself.

Finishing my scarves

PHOTOSHOP | 3 Photoshop Features for Surface Designers





Adobe Photoshop is one of the essential tools in any designers toolbox. It is a fully-loaded graphics editing program that works primarily with pixel-based images and photos. For surface designers, Photoshop has a collection of features that are must-haves in that they make life easy everyday. 

Photoshop features that I use in my surface designs:

SUMMER STUDIO (Knitting 101) | My Skinny Scarves (Part 4)


For the past few weeks, I've been posting on my experience of learning how to knit.  So far, I've learned to do a knit stitch and the purl stitch. I like the purl stitch so much that I wanted to make a few scarves for my mom and mom-in-law.  Although there are tons of websites out there, many do not work for me because I am a REAL beginner to knitting and that I'm a leftie. Although, there are MANY of the videos out there, I've found some sites online to help me in my journey.

Here's where I am now:

SUMMER STUDIO (Knitting 101) | Learning to Purl (Part 3)


Okay, so it's been a few weeks since my last post on learning to knit. I set out to learn a few things about knitting for this summer. I'm really enjoying this art form. Mainly because it is relaxing and keeps me from eating at night. 

In this post, I summarize learning the purl stitch.

SUMMER STUDIO (Knitting 101) | Learning the Knit Stitch (Part 2)



Okay, so it's been a few weeks since my last post on learning to knit. I set out to learn a few things about knitting for this summer. I'm really enjoying this art form. Mainly because it is relaxing and keeps me from eating at night.
Here's a recap of what I've done so far...

SUMMER STUDIO (Knitting 101) | My first skein of yarn arrived !!! (Part 1)



Just got my first skein of yarn. I want to make a simple scarf and so wanted to use a variegated yarn with multiple colors. The yarn is soft and made of 100% acrylic. I figure I would stay away from cashmeres or wools for now.


SUMMER STUDIO (Knitting 101) : Learning to KNIT !!!

I'm so excited to blog about my summer studio plans!!! I'm super-psyched about it. For those of you who may not know, I suffer from Carpal Tunnel in my left hand.

This is what brought me to sewing and then to quilting.

EVENT | GOOD NEWS: Honorable Mention Nod for MIXED ART quilt !






My MIXED ART quilt snagged an honorable mention in the Art Quilt category at this year's Charlotte Quilt show. Yeah!






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