introducing.....

everyone: meet bert. this is the face of my new quilt venture.

nerdy bert designs will be providing unique handmade children's quilts. they will be appropriately sized for babies and toddlers.

the designs will be fun, colorful and modern. stay tuned. pictures will be posted to this blog very soon and the etsy site will be up and running hopefully by the end of the week. thanks to spring break this week, i have a small window of time to get crackin'!

thanks for visiting.

the latest and greatest....

my latest project for fibers....


i pieced 420 squares together to create a watercolor effect with a border. i added some embroidery stitches and displayed it with the seams on the outside.







pretty excited with how it turned out. it's to honor the creative spirit and the artist within.

now on to the looms.....

i have returned....

i've been feeling a bit like nothing significant enough has been happening to warrant a post. such silliness! so i return to the world of blogging....

i am now in the fiber arts program at CSU. it's been fun, interesting and challenging. some stuff i'm learning is new and some is not, but it's all been good.

...on a side note, i might have found a new hobby in hand applique. like i need a new hobby. ha. more on that later....

here is my first project from my fiber class.


i started with a solid black piece of cotton homespun fabric. then i did a binding technique called arashi shibori. with this technique you wrap the fabric around a pole of some sort, then wrap string around as tight as possible. it helps to use lots of it. then, you scrunch the fabric down to one end of the pole, so it's all in a bunch. once this is done you can dye it or bleach it, etc. i dipped it in bleach. it was awesome. it created the really cool crocodile skin type pattern.

our project required us to then add to the process in some way either with overdyeing or stitching or something. i added some chain stitching in the upper right corner...


and then some red machine stitching at the bottom.


and now it's hanging in the fiber department display case in the visual arts building. i'm quite proud that my piece was selected to grace the walls at CSU for a short time.

the wonderful world of trade....

my fabulous color theory class has included several painting projects. i now appreciate anyone who can successfully work with paint, and i am fascinated by everybody's individual style. i have a classmate who is already a painter so she showed superior skills to the rest of us who had never played around with the stuff. i fell in love with one of her paintings......

and i asked her if she would be willing to let me have it. she suggested a trade. i was flattered. i am always excited when i find people who enjoy and support my craftiness. i quilt and she crochets (and she often includes it in her artwork) and we are both looking at exploring womens 'craft' and how it can/will overlap the art world. what a great exploration!

here is the quilt i made for her.

it's about 38" x 45" and it was super fun (and quick) to make.

here's the back:

i hand quilted it and love, love, love the way it turned out. it was my first experience handquilting, and i am a convert. i am now excited to handquilt everything. i feel like it gives me more creative control.

i'm always excited to have great pieces of art from people i know. thanks for trading with me allyson.

the pressure is on.....

this is my final week before finals so there is a huge push to finish projects and get papers written. what better time to post. apparently procrastinating brings out the inspiration. lol.

the least stressful of my classes has been color theory. very fun, very mellow and lots of room for creative expression. i love that.

for the latest project i chose to recolor 'jacqueline with flowers' by pablo picasso. this was the result....

i had a lot of fun with this and am pretty happy with the result. i might consider doing this again, just to see what wacky color combos i can create.

my teacher suggested making this into a quilt..... i might take that on.

stay tuned.

space frames

here's the latest and greatest....

this was an assignment for my 3 dimensional design class. the object was to make a 3-d form out of balsa wood with at least one side covered by a translucent membrane of some sort. then that form needed to be repeated 20 or more times. we were allowed one color (i used 2. what a rebel) and there could be slight variation in size. we then had to choose a place to install our project.

my cubes are interlocking. the yellow one has one leg that locks around a leg of the pink one. otherwise, they are not attached so they are able to be arranged in different ways depending on which corner they are hung from. i used two colors to differentiate the two cubes from each other.

the intention of our project was an 'architectural intervention', meaning it should cause the viewer to percieve the space in a new and different way. i chose this stairwell (in central classroom on auraria campus in denver) because it is very uninteresting. it is concrete and railing with no color. everytime i've ever used these stairs i don't give any attention to the space. it's just a place i have to go through in order to get where i am going. because of this i wanted to create something interesting and bright to add to the space. the frames also have a delicate look that contrasts the strong utlilitarian stairs.

i had some difficulty in the beginning trying to create some sort of genius work, with a terrific abstract shape and some profound meaning or interpretation. mostly this just lead to me procrastinating. a lot.

i found that sometimes simpler is better, and creating things/shapes that i relate to. once i gave up having to be spectacular, the process became really easy, and i found that i really loved the outcome.

i've never dealt with installation art before but it was a fun experience and i'm proud to walk by my work when i'm at school.

love yourself

this little sign is taped to the outside of someone's locker. i walk by it everyday and everyday it makes me smile.

it's great to have little reminders posted throughout my day....sometimes i need redirected out of my own funk.

"I now discover how wonderful I am. I choose to love and enjoy myself."

- Louise Hay