UNBLOCK YOUR FLOW!
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Just log onto www.toginet.com for a brand-new,
LIVE, 2-hour
Creative Mojo with Mark Lipinski!
3 pm -5 pm EST 2 pm – 4 pm CST 1 pm – 3 pm MST 12 pm – 2 pm PST
Call in anytime during the live show with your questions or comments for my guests
(877) 864-4869
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CLICK HERE to follow Mark’s Twitter updates!
CLICK HERE to join Mark’s Pickle Road Studio Posse on Yahoo!
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5 ARTISTS ON: Working Through Being Creatively Stuck
#1:
Artist, Photographer, Songwriter, Textile Designer
Traci Suzanne Marvel
About TRACI…
Traci says, “My photographs and other artworks are inspired by the wonder, simplicity and quietude of every day life. In every photograph,sketch, painting or textile piece, I hope to capture the spirit, the mood, the song of my subjects. I was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. My creative spirit awakened when I moved to Northwest Montana where there was plenty of room to roam with my camera and places to be alone with nature and its inhabitants. All my photographs are professionally printed by acclaimed Bozeman, MT artist/ photographer Rob Outlaw on archival quality fine art paper. My frames are custom built by artist Richard Moore of Wind and Snow Art Gallery in Polson, MT.”
CLICK HERE for Traci’s blog!
Traci’s on TWITTER and ETSY!
#2:
Longarm Quilter, Teacher, Owner of Cowtown Quilts
IDA HOUSTON
About IDA…
CLICK HERE for Ida’s blog!
Ida’s on FACEBOOK and PINTEREST!
#3:
Longarm Quilter, Teacher, Owner of Fat Quilter Quilt Farm
SUSAN ATWELL
About SUSAN…
Susan says, “I am a chronic Fabric Fondler!! It’s in my DNA and comes from both sides of my family. Located in NW,Indiana. My Fat Quarter Quilt Farm Studio is where I spend most of my time. Longarm machine quilting and sewing in the winter, dyeing and various fabric surface design techniques in the summer… I love connecting with other creative people! I am a Sales Rep for APQS Long-Arm Quilting Machines as well as run a Quilting Business which enables me to help people finish their quilt tops. My primary focus is fiber and I enjoy all aspects of it. Quilt history and Art quilts are another interest of mine along with collecting antique and vintage quilt parts. I live with 4 cats, 3 dogs, 8 chickens and my husband who is a Godzilla/gamer/Theater geek.We live on a small farm and enjoy riding our motorcycles as much as we can in the warmer months……even though we should be mowing or gardening!”
CLICK HERE for Susan’s blog!
Susan’s on FACEBOOK, ETSY, and PINTEREST!
#4
Needleworker, Designer, Teacher
TABBI ORR
About TABBI…
Tabbi Orr owns Momtastic Stitchery and Knight Blue Designs in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Tabbi says, “Creating one day at a time. I love to sew and I sew for art and for my sanity!”
CLICK HERE for Tabbi’s website!
Tabbi’s on FACEBOOK, WHIMSEYBOX, ARTFIRE, and TWITTER!
#5
Art Quilter
LISA DODSON
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MEET
Fiber Artist, Quilt Designer, Author, Teacher
ROSE HUGHES
About ROSE…
“As a lover of textiles, always, I was off exploring in the ‘90s when quilting found me. After that first encounter it took merely two months until my darkroom was transformed with a sewing machine. I was a quilter: and just a few years later I began to lecture, teach, and exhibit my quiltworks.
Quilting lets me express my vision of life’s landscapes with stitched\magic. I love using my Fast-Piece Appliqué™ method to transform curved shapes of colorful fabrics, and building my quilt tops layer by layer. I sprinkle these quilt tops of custom fabrics, rich silks, hand-painted and commercial cottons with texture, and add shiny magic with yarns, beads, and wool along with found and handmade embellishments.
For me it is the transformation of the ordinary into the extraordinary that keeps me wanting more. By using the techniques I have shared in my two earlier books, Dream Landscape, and Exploring Embellishments, and my new book Design, Create, Quilt, the stitching remains fast-fun and easy, giving me the gift of time to work on the long list of quilts in my head.
My quilt journey now stretches over 20 years, and I continue to love learning all the fabric magic I can find. On this journey, I have created and exhibited my work nationally and internationally, and back in 1996 I started, Quilts on the Wall: Fiber Artists, a group that continues to be a place where anyone interested in quilt art can come and learn and share.
My work has appeared in books, CD-booklets/videos and patterns where I share methods and ideas, and I am continually delighted by opportunities to share my love of transforming fabric. I have been a contributor to Quilting Arts, Quilters Newsletter, Quilters Home, American Quilter, Quilts Japan, and Generation Q magazines, and I had a blast sharing my techniques and my quilts while appearing on Simply Quilts, The Quilt Show, and the Quilt out Loud quilt programs. At any point you may see my quilts, as they continue to appear in solo exhibits, quilt festivals, galleries.
The passion of creating anew, creating something important to the maker is a joyful experience that I always try to pass on in my presentations and workshops. My lectures and workshops are designed to help quilters and non-quilters alike find innovated ways to express themselves while creatively exploring new techniques and building new skills.
Mostly, I love opportunities to share my love and excitement of all things ‘stitched’.”
Rose creates embellished, magical worlds…
Rose and I are talking about her fab new book!
CLICK HERE for Rose’s website!
Rose blogs HERE!
Buy Rose’s works HERE!
Rose is on FACEBOOK, PINTEREST & TWITTER!
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MEET
Author, Dog Behavior Expert
PAULA SUNDAY
About PAULA. . .
Paula Sunday specializes in offering support to dog owners and teaching them positive training techniques. She offers answers to dog behavior questions, tips on understanding dogs’ needs and communication, and helps humans bond with their pets to keep them in their homes forever.
Paula also teaches volunteers how to train and socialize shelter dogs and puppies before adoption, then evaluates the dogs for compatibility with potential adopters. Paula:
- has a BS in Zoology from Iowa State University (Ames, Iowa).
- worked, until 1980, as a Medical Technician with the Black Hawk Humane Society in Waterloo.
- expanded her knowledge via self-study, other trainers and national seminars
- has worked at the Animal Rescue League of Iowa (ARL) since the early 1990’s.
- is a long-time member of the Board of the Iowa Federation of Humane Societies
- has been a member of the Association of Pet Dog Trainers since 1997.
- does pet behavior spots on local TV and radio stations.
Paula and I are chatting about her awesome new book for dog lovers!
More info about Paula’s book HERE!
Paula and her colleagues blog HERE!
For Love of Dogs is on FACEBOOK!
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MEET
Quilter, Beader, Designer, Author, Teacher
THOM ATKINS
About THOM…
A fifth generation Californian, Thom was born in Palo Alto, raised in Minnesota, and returned to California to earn a BA in Art from San Jose State. Following college, he joined the Navy for four years, during which he taught oil painting while stationed in Japan, completed Medical Illustration School in Bethesda, Maryland, and did illustrations for the Navy at the Smithsonian Institute. After the Navy, Thom settled in Seattle, Washington for a few years, where he did graduate work at an art institute, managed a craft gallery where he was introduced to beads, and eventually started his own business as a landscape designer. This experience contributed to his passion for color, texture and form on a grand scale. From Seattle, Thom went to New York for three years, where he began working with stained glass, making both flat and three-dimensional pieces. He also taught glass art in the public school system as a visiting artist.
Thom returned to Santa Cruz, California in 1980 where he still lives. He continued to create stained glass pieces on a commission basis for a while. Concurrently, to feed his developing interest in less fragile types of sculpture, he returned to school to study welding, forging, silver smithing, and bronze casting. Settling on bronze as his primary medium, Thom soon began working on the “Warrior Suite.” At the same time another powerful influence entered Thom’s life: the “Men’s Movement.” Here he found his artistic voice and subject material – the many aspects of men’s lives, the real core issues that lie beneath the layers of culture, society and politics.
In 2002, Thom was involved in a traffic accident, severely damaging his wrists and thumbs. Since it was clear that pushing clay around was no longer an alternative, he decided to combine a love of beads started in Seattle, with fabric and explore them as a new medium of expression. In time, surgery repaired the damage but the shift had been made and a whole new vista of fabric and beads had opened up. “Bead Embellished Quilts”, less sculptural and more colorful, became the order of the day. Finding the balance between beads and fabric, where each is integrated into the design and both are essential to the overall composition, has provided ample challenges for Thom’s active imagination. He has come to a point where neither “Bead Embellished” nor “Quilt” seem accurate or applicable terms, yet he continues to use them for lack of more precise definitions of what he does. After doing several shows, Thom admits that quilts with beads are a whole lot easier than bronze to pack and carry around. He still sometimes sees images that call out for materials other than fabric and beads, and his fingers still itch for the feel of clay, so it’s likely that bronze and clay are not banished from the work area forever.
Thom imparts density and lustre to his fabric art…
Thom’s new book guides you to bead heaven!
CLICK HERE for Thom’s website!
Take a class with Thom…learn more HERE!
Get Thom’s book HERE!
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And when your MOJO listening’s done. . .
If you’ve never used Auriful Thread. . .
. . . then you haven’t really sewn!
Why not start off with my BASICS ?
Go to my web site to order YOUR collection — CLICK HERE TO GET STARTED.
Been Fly-ing Lately? Your projects will soar with my new fabric line for Andover Fabrics, I CAN FLY!
Magazine Articles:
Lynn explains, “I’m extremely pleased to offer my first online class, The Written Sketchbook. Here’s what the class includes:
Dr. Todd Pittinsky’s research investigates the well-known problems and underestimated potential of diverse communities, with a central focus on positive intergroup relations. This under-studied reality is the common element in his recent work on (a) the educational consequences, in quantitative domains, of positive stereotypes about ethnic minorities, (b) a theory of allophilia in diverse collectives (the Two-Dimensional Model of Intergroup Attitudes), and (c) leadership that bring groups together to reach common goals (intergroup leadership). In all this work, he models intergroup relations in their ecosystems of society, technology, and policy.
Despite being born in Massachusetts, Paula Doyle was raised in Brazil, the daughter of Methodist missionary teachers. Her mother taught her how to use a sewing machine at the age of nine, and she made her first patchwork cushion at the age of ten under instruction from her maternal grandmother. After a career in banking and corporate training, Paula moved to London and married Mark Doyle. Their son, Jonathan, was born in 1990 during a seven-year overseas posting to the United States and Canada, which is when quilting became a passion for Paula.
Paula says, “I love quilts. I have been a full time quilter for over 20 years, and I enjoy all aspects of quiltmaking , from hand piecing to machine quilting to the history of quiltmaking, and I especially enjoy designing quilts. I teach quilting classes, give talks about quilts, and design and make quilts and quilt patterns in my Green Mountain Quilt Studio, in Surrey, England. One of the things I like best is simplifying complex looking techniques to make them achievable and enjoyable to every quilter. I am also the author of Mini Mosaic Quilts ( C&T Publishing 2012), which is all about making small scale quilts and blocks with a fantastic easy piecing technique.”
Since my first quilting class in 1982 I sought every quilting class possible to improve my techniques. In early 1986 my husband was offered an executive position in the Philadelphia area. As an incentive to my agreeing to move from Carlisle, Pennsylvania to a metropolitan area, we decided that I could open a small shop devoted strictly to quilting and quilting instruction. I immediately began to develop a business plan and using my education background, began developing classes and lesson plans.
After finishing a book on beginners quilting during the summer of 1990, I entered into a publishing contract with the American Quilter’s Society, and my first book FROM BASICS TO BINDING: A COMPETE GUIDE TO MAKING QUILTS was published in the Spring of 1992. My second book, ABOVE AND BEYOND BASICS and my third book, LOVE TO QUILT: BEARS, BEARS, BEARS, were released in December, 1996. Along with several other authors, I worked with Rodale Press on a wonderful book called THE ULTIMATE VISUAL GUILD, which was released in the Winter of 1997. I have written several articles for quilting magazine. My fourth book APPLIQUE BASICS: FLOWER WREATHS was released in March, 2000. During the past several years I have self-published several patterns and then my own book called Earthy Delights: The Perfect Finish was released in 2006. At the end of 2008 I released my DVD, Hand and Machine Applique: The Karen Kay Buckley Way. I think it is the best thing I have published. My most recent project has been working with C&T Publishing on a pattern/book called Japanese Garden Quilt. It was released in the fall of 2009.
Griglione is the president of Iowa's largest animal shelter, the Animal Rescue League of Iowa, and is on the board of the Iowa Federation of Humane Societies. She regularly gives presentations on cat behavior, and has a weekly radio show called "Companion Connection" on WHO Radio (Des Moines) to talk about cat behavior and promote spay/neuter and adoption from animal shelters. She co-authored For the Love of Cats: a Hands-on Journey, released in November 2011.
About JUSTIN. . .
Joanna is the owner of Fig Tree & Co, a quilt & sewing pattern company. According to Joanna,”We produce over 150 quilting, sewing and children’s patterns and thematic booklets. We focus our quilting designs on classic patterns with fresh and innovative methods so that they are accessible to every level of sewer. No complicated templates here! Our sewing patterns are made with the beginning and intermediate sewer in mind and focus on using quilting terminology so that quilters do not have to be intimidated to cross over into sewing projects. We compliment our quilting and sewing designs with whimsical and charming accessory and children’s patterns. We love to make little animals and other fun goodies. Think- mice, snails and goldfish! We are addicted to making pincushions as well as purses so you will be able to find something that suits your needs for sure!”
Dear CHA Members,On May 22, 2011a tornado swept across Joplin, Missouri leaving a catastrophic wake of destruction. Schools, businesses, homes were destroyed and many were killed. Since then CHA has learned that even months after the tornado there is still a great need in the area. Several CHA members including Nikki Sivils, Scrapbooker and Kristi Parker Van Doren have been coordinating craft supply drives to help the surviving residents return to some sort-of normalcy through crafting.
Nikki Sivils rallied manufacturers and scrapbookers to help give Joplin crafters their hobby back and on Sunday, July 10, 2011 when she delivered 50 tubs filled with nearly $50,000 worth of scrapbook supplies to crafters who lost everything to the tornado. CHA Members including Bella Blvd, My Little Shoebox LLC, Meredith Corporation, Bazill Basic Paper, Elmer’s Products, Inc, Unity Stamp Co, Graphic 45, Helmar Adhesive, Creative Crafts Group LLC, Jillibean Soup, Jenni Bowlin Studio, Best Creation Inc, Maya Road, Graphic 45, Creating Keepsakes, ProvoCraft, Elle’s Studio, and Spellbinders all responded with generous donations.CHA also learned that member Kristi Parker Van Doren is coordinating an art auction/sale to benefit the City of Joplin where 100% of the proceeds will go to a fund managed by a non-profit organization called the Community Foundation of the Ozarks. Monetary donations can be made directly to 
Any monetary or product donation would be greatly appreciated. The school has a wish list of products including school supplies, adhesives, plastic zipper bags, pom-poms, yarn, crayons, markers, paint, paper, and more that CHA can easily assist with. The list can be found by clicking 
End confusion about the nature of happiness and discover how to lead a life of boundless joy!![[me.jpg]](http://marklipinskisblog.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/me2.jpg?w=208)
