Serendipity & Stencils

I love it when unexpected things happen and it all works out fabulously, better than if you'd planned it. To me, that's one of the best things about Art is You retreats: serendipity abounds. You meet people you didn't expect to meet, you learn stuff you didn't know you'd learn, you find things you never would have guessed would make you fall in love. 

To wit: stencils on fabric. 

Oh, sure, I've used stencils on fabric before. Letters, shapes, stuff with fabric paint. But I hadn't ever thought of using them this way, and if I hadn't been in Olive Branch and hadn't gone to the Stencil Girl demo in the evening, I wouldn't have discovered how much I love using more detailed, meant-for-paper-stuff stencils as a base for embroidery. 

My friend Maria McGuire was there, and I fell in love with this stencil she designed for Stencil Girl:

 Go here to see more of Maria's designs.

She let me borrow hers, and I traced it onto the jumper/apron/thing I was working on. I had some fabulous dyed floss, given to me by Linda Twohill, and I started stitching, carrying this with me everywhere.

(I used another of Maria's designs on another part of the garment:)

 Here it is finished:

 Here it is with me wearing the finished (almost) piece:

 which looks like this:

What's cool about this is that Maria encourages people to experiment. I want to do this design again and add on to it: more circles, more lines, maybe some doodling inside some of the circles. Yeah: I want to make myself nuts with the intricacy, but it will be fun!

And, yeah, I bought more of Maria's designs. You betcha: I'm pretty much hooked~~Thanks, Maria! And thanks, Mary Beth, The Queen of Stencil Girl~~XO