Carolyn Manning Designs

Color by COLOURlovers

Color by COLOURlovers

 
Color by COLOURlovers

In sorting photos for a project for school, I ran across a letter my Great Aunt Elvera wrote to me (via typewriter) some 30 years ago. I had asked for her memories of life growing up for she and my Grandma Lorraine. She had carefully typed out three pages and I had tucked them in an envelope and tucked them away.

I read it and was overcome with a feeling of gratefulness for what I have in this life. Grateful for what my grandmother, her sisters and brother, my great-grandma all endured so that I have this life. I thought about how frequently my face might be without smile. After reading the letter a second time, I looked at the old photographs and looked at the smiles and wondered how they managed to find such happiness when things were so often bleak.

I am going to make sure that my smile comes more frequently.  More easily. As those things that might leave me hardened seem so miniscule compared to what those that came before me endured.

I have so much to be thankful for.

***

Snowbugz, The Second Swarm is up on the website.  I am currenly stitching Kenny of the Little Snowballz line. After I finish him, I've another Fern Folk design slated for release.

I have started sketching for 2010, and have some interesting ideas planned for new lines. Will of course be continuing with the Little Snowballz series through the upcoming year, and have some new Snowmen in mind with some exciting twists.

I want to explore color.

Embellishments will make a come back.

Sky's the limit.

Lately I have been fascinated with orts. Those little leftover bits of string and lace (and as an artist, I am taking creative liberty and including little bits of fabric too!)  

I see nests and leaves and twigs, clouds and insects.  I see faery wings and even the little smiling faces of the wee folk peering out from their colorful string hidey-holes.  The blooms of flowers and spindly vines creeping across the forest floor.

I love lil bits.

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A friend of mine recently asked me about my own personal artwork vs. what I design for cross stitch. 

I have discovered, in thinking about it, that I've got two different artistic sides.  I am an illustrator, and that comes through in what I design. I have always loved animation and cartoons, and have always been doodling.  I also have a very abstract side.  When I painted regularly and even now with my art quilting and textile work, I tend to fall more on the abstract side, and my subject matter is very personal to me. I touch my spiritual side. 

Sometimes I wonder if my designing is too commercial, but I think my whimisical side is an important piece of me too, and I do enjoy stitching what I create for others, so I think I am being true to myself as an artist.

I've drawn the conclusion that every artist is made of layers, and each layer is brought to surface when the one creating needs it to be.  I know that there are times when I just need to play with color and times when I need to feel fabric in my hands, or maybe get my fingers dirty with paint and chalk and tubs of dye.  Other times there is nothing more fulfilling then a notebook and a charcoal pencil knocking out odd little faces that smile back at me with that 'I've got a secret' twinkle in their scrunched up eyes.   

I am inspired to create.

Faeryland: The Dryad Tree

I love art quilts.  I have always collected fabrics with an earthy inspiration. Florals and wood, leaves, insects that buzz and flutter. I am finding more time to work on some of the things that stir me besides creating cross stitch and needlework designs, and I recently completed this quilt and had intended to put it on Etsy. However, I hung it on my wall to photograph it, and decided I liked the feel of it too much to send it to a new home. And so now it hangs on one of the walls surrounding garden tub in the master bath.

This is a bit of the detail of The Dryad Tree

The weekend was cold and rainy and would have been the perfect day to hunker down and stitch if not for other commitments that kept me out -in- that cold and rain!  Last Thursday and Friday did, however, grant me some time out with the camera I really need to learn to use more effectively, and the fall colors were amazing. The pictures were taken for a class, but in looking at them again, there has got to be something I can do with  them. 

I had read about a process of manipulating pictures in Photoshop and then printing them to used dryer sheets that had been stabilized on wax paper.  I have played around with the technique a bit with pictures of tree bark I had taken.  Perhaps the autumn leaf pictures would work well for this process. 

I have been playing with the Easter egg dyes and am finding some really neat results with that. 

Here is one lot of the laces I have been dyeing.  The trick it to find cotton laces as the synthetic ones just won't take the dye. It becomes very obvious very quickly what you are dealing with as far as material once you've boiled a bit in a dye pot only to have all of the color rinse out completely.

Creative week to all!

I spent the last four days in Iowa and Illinois with my sister on our "Sisters Weekend Away."  We spent a good amount of time in antique shops and flea markets, and I came away with some jars of buttons that I've yet to go through, some lace, and a big, glorious jar of broken jewelry. Some beautiful bits of heavenly shiney-ness. I can't wait to get down to the studio to see what I can do with some of it!

Last night was spent dyeing old lace and over-dying threads that I hope to have up on Etsy by the end of the week. I have always liked the word Ort and love it's meaning, and have always been of the belief that there is never any bit of thread, fabric or lace that cannot be used for something.  In tossing around a name for the bits I am coloring now, I think I have finally decided on Bubblegum Orts.

Ian of the Little Snowballz line is in backstitching right now, and I think I will continue right on with the next, Jedediah once Little Ian is done. 

I am in the process of creating a second line of Flakey Friends as well. 

I miss my fresh herbs.  All that has survived coming inside is my rosemary.  

Plans are made to get out with the camera and try and catch some of the Mother's color in the trees before all is blanketed in white!

Good week to everyone!

My daughter and I painted this on the wall of our studio.  I spent the better part of the day down there today cleaning out old crafting things, sorting through old paint and markers. Stacking paper, playing with beads and buttons, deciding what deserved another day in the "art pantry" and what really needed to be thrown away.

 My mother was kind enough to "donate" the front room in the upstairs of her home for the purpose of creating. All my life she has been an inspiration where my artwork is concerned, and she has mad skills herself in so many areas.  I am hoping that the work I did upstairs today will inspire her to get creating again.

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I am currently working my way through stitching "Ian" , the next in the Little Snowballz series. This next week I hope to get a few things wrapped up as I will be taking a short vacation with my sister about midweek.

As I sit here with my son watching the Minnesota Twins face off against the Detroit Tigers in a tie-breaker game for a play-off berth, I thought I would swing in here and write for a bit!

It has been raining for days now, and where I might normally be just a smidge grumpy after day two of what seems like never ending drizzle, I am finding that it has left me very focused and finding a myself accomplishing a lot!  I might still grumble over the fact that this rain is accompanied by cold, and so walks in it have been a 'not such a good idea' kind of thing. At least I am channeling what energy I would have expended out in the woods amidst the autumn colors into my art.

I just put up another Little Snowballz. Howie is his name and he is a really quick stitch. He joins Branwyn Berrybottom of the Fern Folk Series as a new release for October. I've started stitching the model for Ian, the next of the Little Snowballz.  Both Branwyn and Howie will be off to Hoffman Distributing by the end of the week.

I am working on these little quilted coin purses now as well, and hope to have a few up on Etsy (finally!) by the weekend. Especially if the rain continues!  Also found the most wonderful box of old junk jewelry that I have taken apart and am going to start putting together some altered jewelry, mixed media pieces and anything else I can think of while up in the studio.

Soon the snow will be coming and there will be even more time to create!

All the herbs have been brought in, and seem to be thriving which makes me happy. I've never had this much luck with fresh herbs before, and it is good to see that there is enough light inside my home for all those new shoots to keep reaching for.

My life has just a little too much chaos in it right now. Normally, that chaos would cause a meltdown and ultimately a shut down. I was on the verge of that emotional collapse last night, but a phone call from a friend smoothed the edges.  He listened. Did not offer solutions as there really are none. But I left the conversation feeling much better and with shoulders lighter for the venting of things that just needed to be said. Thanks, D. 

We had to admit my father to the nursing home, and while we knew it was something that would ultimately happen, it is still a difficult thing to wrap one's head around.  He won't be coming home, and while it is a relief to know that he'll have the supervision and care that he needs, that which we could no longer provide for him at home, I think I am now just realizing just how many things it will impact in the immediate future. How many family traditions will be altered because of it. And, maybe how many new traditions will emerge.  

I have found that my art has been the thing that is pulling the frayed edges together.  I spent a good amount of time at the sewing machine this past weekend and almost finished an art quilt.  I am very pleased with the way it turned out, and had thought to embellish it with beading and hand stitching, but I think it stands alone fairly well on its own. 

I decided on a name for the Berrybottom I am working on. I hope to have him finished by the weekend.  

Off to class!

With a few minutes before class is to start, I thought I would make a quick entry just to get a few things down before I might forget them.

The weekend was a difficult one. My father who has had health issues for some time was admitted to the hospital on Sunday morning. It is the best place for him to be right now as things had become far too difficult for him to care for himself at home or for my mother to take care of him. It would appear that once they've diagnosed and treated some of what is going on with him now that he will be going to a nursing home for therapy, and there is a good chance that he will not be returning home after that. We all knew this was coming, and is probably the best thing that could happen, but it is still a tough idea to wrap your head around. 

***

Both Felix and Gracie are up on the site now.  I have started another Berrybottom fellow, who I am at a loss as to what to name him! He looks sort of like a Horace to me, but then when I look from another angle,  he looks completely different.  

Maybe I should consider putting his sketch up on the site and have the stitchers decide what I should name him, with the winner receiving a chart as a prize! 

I am also going to be running some sort of special on patterns each month. The September 4 for $20 has been a good one so far, with many ordering projects for their stashes. 

The first wall art quilt is almost finished. It's the first in what will be my Fae-Scapes Series of art quilts that I will be putting up on Etsy.  I am also enjoying my time on Indiepublic! What a wonderful, creative bunch of folk over there! It is almost overwhelming to try and see everything the site has to offer.

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Well, time for class.  

Happy Monday!