When you are in your creative mood, do you listen to music, watch tv or do you prefer a quiet spot? If it is music, what types do you listen to? If watching tv, what kinds of shows?

I always have TV on in the background..the usuals are HGTV and the cooking channel. I judge the people remodeling and wonder what I would do in their shoes and when listening to the cooking shows I wonder what it would be like to actually cook!!

Close-up of eye detail of RGB embroidery

Spotlight: Amy Frazer, Embroidery Artist

With stitch as a metaphor for building community, embroidery artist Amy Frazer hopes that her work encourages other women to take that first stitch, as well as take the steps…
Day Lily

Spotlight: Ann Shaw, Art Quilter

With her unexpected use of printed fabrics as her palette, Ann Shaw begins with photographs, then abstracts design lines for the pictorial quilts she creates. Careful planning of stitching lines…
Pottery ringed incense holder

Spotlight: Francesca Stone, DIY Blogger

Always looking for new things to make and new ways to make them, blogger Francesca Stone shares her love for on-trend crafting with an ever-growing audience. She is as likely…
Best Bead Embroidery Tools

Best Bead Embroidery Tools

Bead embroidery adds spark to your fiber art’s surface design as well as taking center stage in bead embroidered jewelry. No matter the end game for your bead embroidery, you…
Hope art quilt

Spotlight: Michelle Jackson, Fiber Artist

When you see fiber artist Michelle Jackson's work, it will come as no surprise that she has much to say and that she speaks fluent color and value. Her experience…
Showing the finishing of a neckline

Spotlight: Sonya Philip, Garment Designer

Born in the Philippines to creative parents, Sonya Philip has explored the world of art with a multicultural perspective. In addition to the Philippines, her family has lived in San…
Stitch detail

Spotlight: Shelley Rhodes, Mixed Media Artist

Shelley Rhodes has always found joy in making art. Inspired by her world at hand, Shelley's contemporary mixed media art includes fragments, scraps and objects observed in her environment that…
Maggie's Song

Spotlight: Barbara James, Textile Artist

As a professor with the Ohio State University Extension, Barbara James enjoyed a career of teaching family and consumer sciences and community development, focused on local community issues. So she…
Urban Rhythym

Spotlight: Dianne Koppisch Hricko, Fiber Artist

Delighted by surprises, lifelong artist Dianne Koppisch Hricko finds the fluidity and endless possibilities of applying dyes to silk opens more than enough creative doors to inspire her next fiber…
Bead Embroidery Picot Edge Finished

Picot Stitch Edge Bead Embroidery

When you learn picot edge stitch bead embroidery to your bead embroidery projects, your decorative finish hides most of the thread. Your beads shine just a little brighter, and the…
Bead Embroidery Back Stitch on Fabric-9-When Finished Tie Off on Back

Beaded Back Stitch on Fabric

Add color, dimension and maybe a little bling to your fabric with beads! With the beaded back stitch, you can embellish a straight or curved line and keep your beads…
Bead Embroidery Cabochon Bezel-22-Weave Thread to Base to Add Embellishment

How to Bezel a Cabochon

A cabochon - flat-backed gemstone or other element - makes a stunning focal point on any piece of bead embroidery. It can be anything that you bead around to secure…
Zanzibar Beach

Spotlight: Linda Seward, Quilter and Author

A needleworker all her life, Linda Seward has fed her passion for needlework on two continents. When she discovered quilting, she found her creative passion and not only created for…
One block wonder quilt in progress

Spotlight: Maxine Rosenthal, Quilter

Few people are lucky enough to discover something that feeds their creativity so much that it becomes a specialty with endless options. Maxine Rosenthal is that lucky. An idea from…