December 24, 2013
Season’s Greeting from Shelley’s Studio
To all my friends and family,
A Very Merry Christmas!
1900 Santa with sleeping child etching, digitally enhanced. Enjoy!
November 4, 2013
Composition Book Covers with Vintage Art
It’s been a busy month and I am glad to have some down time. My Composition Books with reusable covers have been very popular and I wanted to share a few of them. I used Vintage images that I collaged in Photoshop then printed on fabric to decorate the covers. When combined with Batik fabric and coordinating felt they came out quite lovely.
Some of the graphics used in the collage process come from online sources. The Cherries and Butterfly came from The Graphics Fairy. The Roses image is from The Old Design Shop and the background writing on the roses came from Mudbay Images. It is a contract from 1792. All other art came from my own collection. One of my favorite sources is a copy of Ben Hur that I picked up at a little book store in Lake Gregory, CA for $20.00. It was published in the 1880’s and was called the General’s Edition. There are illustrations on nearly every page. The wreath is one of them.
It is a favorite pastime of mine to search Antique stores, Old book stores and swap meets for the treasures that I can scan and use in my digital artwork.
The pattern for the Neat & Nifty notebooks is available at my Etsy store as well as a number of prints and when available the finished notebooks. https://www.etsy.com/shop/ShelleysDesignWorks
August 28, 2013
Enchanted Garden Cathedral Window Quilt
“Enchanted Garden” was made around 2000 in the style of the quilts in my first book, “Machine Stitched Cathedral Windows”. It used the templates in the book but the layout is different. It belongs to my daughter, Valerie, so it doesn’t go to lectures. I came across a rare photo of this quilt and wanted to share it. Click on the quilt and it will take you to the hi-resolution version. It has always been one of my favorites.
August 26, 2013
Shelley Swanland has Patterns on Craftsy
Romantic Reflection
I have started to put my patterns on http://www.Craftsy.com . Berries Jubilee, Romantic Reflection, Parchment & Black Lacquer and Sparkling Stars are now available for purchase and download as PDFs at my Craftsy store. I appreciate all the support I have had through the years for my technique and hopefully this will make the technique available to more quilters all over the world. I will be adding more patterns as time goes on so if you have a favorite you’re waiting for just let me know.
May 12, 2013
Happy Mother’s Day, Mom
Wanted to celebrate the mother I lost when I was six on this Mother’s Day.
Happy Mother’s Day Mom, Barbara Jean Cates Andrews, with her mother Rhoda and her Grandmother Georgia in the 1930s.
XOXO
February 10, 2013
Tranquil Flora
Another felted piece, “Tranquil Flora” is my latest Twilt. I’ve been working on the embroidery and beading for a while. Strips of various silks, a little rayon ,cotton organdy and wool yarn with just a touch of metallic mesh were felted onto a piece of white felt with my felting machine. I then added two painted lace motifs with a ribbon and some trim. Silk Ribbon embroidered flowers with additional embroidery and feather stitch in pearl cotton and silk were used to fill in. I finished it off with lots of beads.
Click on the image to go to Flickr.
For more info on the Twilts: Twitter quilts…….Twilts or see all my Twilts :Flickr Twilts Page. Click on the image of the Twilt to go directly to it’s high resolution image.
February 1, 2013
The Art Studio
My latest Digital piece, “The Art Studio”, was taken from a Vintage black and white photograph. It could have been an image of a kitchen or workroom of some sort but I thought…an art studio. I manipulated the image in Photoshop. I will be linking it to Pixel Dust Photo Art – Photo Art Friday. Head on over to see the wonderful site that Bonnie has set up for Digital Artists and aspiring Digital Artists and the Photo Art Friday gallery for this week.
January 18, 2013
A Bird in the Hand…..
My latest Twilt is another felted project, “A Bird in the Hand…”. I am thoroughly enjoying my felting machine. I felted several different colors of scrunch painted silk into a felt background, added felt branches and curly green roving for leaves. This was my first bird and it wasn’t easy. After I mushed it a bit I decided to add embroidery and managed to save the poor little bird. I added some pearl cotton embroidery to the branches and some silk ribbon flowers. The piece is mounted with embroidery stitches to a strip quilted batik base. I am pleased with the results but I think I need some practice making birds.
Enjoy!
For more info on the Twilts: Twitter quilts…….Twilts or see all my Twilts :Flickr Twilts Page. Click on the image of the Twilt to go directly to it’s high resolution image.
January 6, 2013
Cathedral Window Quilt – Layers of Lavender
Woo Hoo!! I just finished this quilt on consignment. I think it looks pretty nice. I used my pattern, Layers of Lavender. It’s a variation of the traditional Cathedral Window in that it is stitched with a diagonal grid and where there would be a singe curve there are two curves. That forms a chain design between the windows. It took 100 hours to make and will be sent off to it’s new owner next week.
January 1, 2013
New Years Wishes
A Happy New Year to Everyone, here’s wishing you all a fabulous 2013!
Snips and Bits from Shelley's Studio 