The Fiber Art Connection is open for Registration!!!

I am so excited to finally reveal something that I have been working on for almost a year. It has had its ups and downs but today it is really happening and I am so excited!! I couldn't wait to share it with all of you! 

The Fiber Art Connection is Here!!

Today the official registration opens and classes start on March 15th! This is a program so dear to my heart, a way to connect teachers and students that might not have the opportunity to travel for classes. I was one of those, many years ago, struggling to build my art quilting tool box and I had no one I could ask for help. Due to a family tragedy I was unable to travel and so wanted to have some connection with other  artists and creatives. It was my hearts desire to never let others be left out, we now have a place to connect, to learn, to ask questions, to get the answers and help from those who are leading our industry! I also had a dream of artists working together to create a unique artist community, working together in each session.

In The Fiber Art Connection Artists work together to provide students a session that has a full series of classes to offer everyone. There are 8 Artists, 10 weeks filled with creative joy! Come over and meet the artists, learn about their classes! It is that community feel I want for The Fiber Art Connection not just a static classroom environment! I want a feeling of family, community as we all work together to share talents, strengths and our expertise with others out their that desire the same. A place where Fiber Artists can learn how to move their art forward into shows, a business, or just for fun. I hope you will take a moment and check out the website and see if this is the perfect fit for you! This is Session 1 and we are all so excited to share stitching, painting, collage, layering, colored pencils, design and composition, how to enter shows and more. This is a whole new experience, a new vision for Fiber Art.  Share this with your friends and join us in this special place filled with talent, friendship and community.

The Fiber Art Connection!

See you there!

7 Tips to Reignite your Creative Mojo! - Tip #2

So when I find myself in a place where I have run out of creative ideas it usually means I just need to play and explore my art supplies again. One of the best places for me to get ideas, see tutorials and organize me thoughts is on Pinterest! I love Pinterest! If I find something on there that I love I can categorize it and keep it safe. I can create visual boards for helping me come up with ideas, I have color boards, I have tutorials, I have all sorts of boards of things I love. You can also make private boards where you can collect thoughts, quotes, secret ideas for projects, the options are unlimited.

Pinterest is also a wonderful place to pin photos of your work for sale off of your website, blog or Etsy site. When you pin directly from those places the photo actually will become a link back to the source and they can purchase also! A great marketing tool.

So if you not on Pinterest, get on, its easy. You set up boards, kind of like bulletin boards to pin things you love. People can follow you and you can follow them. If you love art or quilting there are tons of sites that are available to follow, just do a search. I hope you will follow me too! Find me under Desiree Habicht! You can see my art, my fiber art, my sketches, my fabrics, my patterns! Hope to see you there!

Day Two of abstract design class with Katie Paquini

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Originally uploaded by ddhabicht

Day Two of abstract design class with Katie Pasquini
Today we got back our blown up versions of the tiny macro drawing we did the day before with our tiny view finders. My eyes feeling like sandpaper still struggled with all the drawing we did today, but I think today went much better. We moved into more of the designing aspect of art quilting and how to crop paintings to get many good possibilities for quilts. We went over many different aspects of how to approach getting a good design also. Many of the women were just loving the class and I know some were a bit surprised by it. I think that most of the women were excited in some of the possibilities for quilts that they produced painting! I think I would have liked to take something home, some small project, instead I have lots of cut up paintings, which I may or may not use. It made me think about watercolor paintings I have at the house that were unsuccessful, now I will cut them up and re look at them for quilts. I loved the frame that we cut in half and could slide up or down to adjust the size of our crop. Its an old trick I had totally forgotten about. I think that most of our time was spent helping people get comfortable with painting and creating. I am already there, so hoped for more design input. It was a ton of information and exercises to do in two days. One of the women in class was so excited about her design that during lunch she went down and bought all the fabric to make it! That's what a class is supposed to do, inspire us. I do love her work, I appreciate her strict work ethic and the amazingly beautiful quilts she produces, its a testimony to her methods. I learn something new and exciting in every class I take and I did take some new ideas away with me from this class too. I think the possibilities for some very unique quilt options my be in my bag of cut up paintings. Thanks Marilyn for reminding me that sometimes we just need time to digest the information and make it our own before we can put it to use! Thanks Katie! She even signed my books.

After two intense days a few of us signed up for the pincushion class! It was from 7pm to 10pm! I don't know what I was thinking, probably that a fun class would be a perfect finish to all that design. I forgot the fact that we might just be plum tired! We ran over to the hotel to shove a hamburger in our faces before running back to make our class. Oh did I mention that we ran through the quilt show, tried to quickly shop, see the quilts we had entered before eating? We made it to class right at 7 and saw that it was a very full class. We all found our seats and were pleasantly surprised by what the next three hours held. The class was called Pin cushion Party, and it was! Debbie Busby, the owner of the wooden spool in Oregon taught the class and had made up the cutest bags of already cut and in some cases sewn pincushions for us to sew. We received thread, buttons, felt, wool, stuffing, bags, etc, etc. The gifts kept coming and she did a drawing for a free pattern. Although it was a bit expensive I loved it. I think because it was fun, it was easy, it was doable in the three hours and we all left with 5, yes 5, pincushions. I finished 3 of them there, started the fourth and took home number 5. Plus we got all the patterns to make more. Thanks Debbie for making it a great evening, and my eyes could handle this!

500 Art Quilts, Two of my quilts will be in this book!

Two of my quilts were selected for this book coming out in March of 2010. My quilt "Transformations and Crepe Paper Poppies" will be featured in the book!

An inspiring collection of contemporary work by Ray Hemachandra and Karey Bresenhan

500 Art Quilts

A beautiful new addition to the successful series.

A vibrant growing communtity of crafters has embraced quilting, and this outstanding international collection will inspire and captivate them. Juried by Karey Bresenhan, one of the most promonent figures in quilting, it presents
500 contemporary art quilts, made in fabric and other media, and showing diverse design,materials and techniques.

From their very inception, these quilts were destined for display rather than practical use,with an extrodinary quality of image, form, line and compostition.