Several years ago, at a garage sale in my neighborhood, I was fortunate to be able to purchase four Bali design blocks from an interior designer who was moving. Here they are:

Aren’t they marvelous?? Today, I heated some blue foam blocks till they would accept the imprint and then I pressed the blocks down onto the blue foam. The result is two wonderful stamps.

Then, with regular, inexpensive acrylic paints, I stamped on two hand-dyed pieces of fabric. Clear stamp prints are less intriguing, artistically, than the echoed imprints as the paint diminishes on the stamp.

I have two more Bali design blocks to use to imprint this blue foam material. How grand is that??

I am taking a new Joggles class, Postcard as Art, with Maggie Hunt as the instructor. Our first lesson deals with landscapes. I did one experiment, using a photo from the Cosby section of east TN, where my quilt club held its retreat last year.

Here are my first three landscapes. Talk about instant gratification!! All I have to do to complete each one is to finish the edges and my options for that task are many.

This class is going to be great!!

This morning, at John C. Campbell Folk School, I headed out with the Canon camera, to capture some flowers along the path to Orchard House. I tried to photograph the mist but realized that the camera could never focus on such a blurred scene while it was set on Auto Focus, so I shifted to manual and then began to photograph the flowers up close and personal. I’m thrilled with the wonder of nature’s beauty and the power and pleasure of this great camera.

I’m happily felting away at John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, NC. I do love the needle felting “art.” The wool fibers are beautiful in both texture and color, from the washed and uncarded to the finest Merino wool roving, to the sensuous bamboo yarn. And the colors!!

First a charming attempt to recreate a beautiful landscape photo I had seen. I wanted the horizontal line of the sunset against the darkening night sky, with palm tree and quarter moon.

The next photo shows an eyeglass case which began its artistic life as a sampler in color blending: from bright yellow through green/yellow unto green itself. Then we did a stand-alone leaf which we felted on, but then we raised the leaf by feathering around its edges. I needle felted a back and then needled the two sides together.

I’m in week one of “Textural Beading,” a wonderful online beading class marketed through Joggles. I’ve also been taking beading classes at White Fox Bead Studio in Maryville – great place!! I’m showing off two items: one is a pair of earrings – elegant simplicity.

The second is a beaded motif. Part of the charm and texture emerges from the use of stacked beads in the center of the petals.

The Pigeon Forge Mountain Quilt Fest offered me and thousands of other quilters a fabulous week of quilt exhibits, vendors, and fabulous classes. Here’s a photo of the applique on a colorful wall-hanging.

Then, in Terry White’s Artful Embellishment class, I finally learned how to do bobbin work – with heavy, gorgeous, metallic threads. The possibilities are endless!

As I explore textures and patterns in my latest art piece, I am intrigued by the semi-transparency of the dyed cheesecloth and how it ripples across the sky circles. I like the second line of stitching, the heavy, braided line. Difficult thread to work with but worth the trouble. The result is rich and dramatic.

Here’s a close-up of the stitching over the top of the sky. I am very pleased thus far and will continue to explore the aesthetics of texture through thread.