Melanie Testa's Blog, page 28

The funness of being.

I am a lucky woman. I get to lecture and teach on a subject that I love. Making stuff!

This week I gave a lecture to my very first quilt guild! I walked in as a 20 year old, having found a notice about the event in a local newspaper. The lectures I experienced back then really gave me a sense of wonder and awe at what might be had in the world of quilting and quilt art. I remember participating in challenges and worrying my samples were not good enough. I wanted to much to win the challenge ...

What She Says...

Pat gives good advice, so I listen.

She suggested perhaps I make a set of stamps for The 20, a project I have recently begun working on. Perhaps working in stamp form could loosen me up and get my familiar with the shapes and forms I will be working with. As I have mentioned before, I am a bit put off by the Northern Bobwhite. I have never seen this bird before and it seems a silly bird to me. No more.

I think I will try another posture for the bird, they often crane their necks to see...

The time it takes.

I have named this stamp City Queen.

I think the name is apt considering my time and place.

A little more than a year ago, I packed up my spacious, well loved studio with access to water and laundry and moved across country to a tiny Brooklyn apartment. I do not call this space a studio, it is a work space, my living room, actually. I can say I have a sewing room. It is a tiny well kept walk in closet. It serves me well. Check out this post if you would like to see more.

It has been...

New, Challenge, Fun!

I am happy to say that I will be teaching Inspired Journaling, every-single-day!, Soy Wax with Paint and Freezer Paper, Paint Oh MY! at CREATE! this coming August in Rosemont Illinois. This is an Interweave/Cloth Paper Scissors Retreat and I am really excited to be a part of it! I hope you will be able to join in on the fun and come out to play!

You all know that I am in the midst of a Stamp Pox outbreak. It is bad! These are the symptoms: It itches, it's demanding, it makes me stay up late a...

You want to know, right?

Drum Roll Please....

Laura Lea is the lucky winner! Post a comment Laura and I will email privately to get your mailing address! Congrats Laura. And thanks to everyone for embracing this new feature and for commenting. It is the exchange, knowing that you are on the other side of the internet peaking in and commenting that makes keeping a blog so much fun.

And because Arrow is a member of Cuteness Central, he is featured once again.

You know it isn't cat talk all day everyday!

Went to Journal...

This is the final post featuring Lyric and her fabu work...

This is the final post featuring Lyric and her fabu work and personality. If you go to this show, I hope I have proven to you that you really should take a class from Lyric and expand your skill set.

My favorite thing to do is to teach. The back-and-forth that goes on in a learning environment is stimulating and uplifting and my students are so much more cooperative than my children!
I'll be at the American Quilt Festival in Paducah Kentucky next April. This is one of the "Big One's" in the q...

Smitten

I thought these would be in the bag already. They are not.

I thought I would have bought them yesterday when I was in the city with my mother, but no. I found them in an online store that had a brick and mortar in Manhattan, but when we went, they say, "oh no, we only carry that online." I instantly disliked that good for nothing store.

Originally I saw them on my local street, My Man and I walk to the store, I say "I would like to try on the Wolky Strap Cloggy".

The nice lady says," Great...

From stamp, to journal, to postcard art.

I figured we would start with some Arrow Lovings. Doesn't he look yummy in that light? He had had some catnip... He was pretty wiped out. He was pretty.

So you know there has been a lil stamp drama going on over here. I...can't...stop...making...them! I wake up in the morning and instead of surfing the web over coffee... well. You get the idea. This has come to be known as the potato chip conundrum! I can't have just one, I need 50+.

So then I had to see how they would work! I used Tsukineko...

It started out honestly enough.

Then it became and addiction.

Isn't that just the story of my life? Laughing at myself!

My friend Pat is the stamp pimp. I hope she is OK with my calling her that. It is true, though, so I can say it in all honesty.

When I hung with Shirley last week she showed me the project I was supposed to have participated in creating in our last Journal Study Group (I was busy finishing an important project). Yes, I study journals and journaling. Anyway, Pat, a member of our group, gave a tutorial on...

Check Lyric Out! Week 3!

It is another Check Her Out!, Monday. I remain focused on Lyric Kinard. In this spotlight I delve a little deeper into how Lyric chooses to work as an artist, I ask for explaination of a specific work of art and about Lyrics need to work on the go.

Melly: Right now my favorite piece of yours is The Women of God Know This, it gave me chills when I first saw it, read and understood it. Can you tell us more about this piece?

Lyric: Choosing to stay home and have children was not an easy decision ...