Last Christmas my oldest son asked me to make some fiber art quilts for his good friends. These are adults I have known since they were kids and I was excited to create some art for them. I thought this would be a good opportunity to review my process for those who would like to attempt it.

First, you need to pick a high-quality image—my son picked this one on the far left. Then, you run the image through an art filter in Adobe Photoshop and get it printed out at the store in the size you wish to ...

A little project I thought would take a few days ended up taking all Summer and into the Fall, but now it’s ready to go into the world.

Update 11-14-24: Limited quantities of finished gloves sewn by me now available at my store!

Here is my “Recovery Glovery”, art gloves for dermatillomaniacs, trichotillomaniacs, and everyone else. They’re lightweight stretchy cotton-spandex, designed for indoor use but can be used outdoors too; I’ve been wearing mine on bike rides.

It's that time of the year again! Dust off your broomsticks and polish your cauldrons, Halloween is just around the corner! Get into the spooky spirit with a quick and easy last-minute witch hat garland project with your little ones. These adorable hats are fun to make with fabric scraps or our Fabric Wonders: 10” Square Packs, and they’re perfect for decorating your Halloween festivities!

We’ve whipped up some spooky magic with our 'Spooky ‘n Witchy' premium quilting cotton collection for these adorable little witch hats! Watch our quick how-to-video and download the Little Witch Hats Garland ...

Calling all quilting enthusiasts! Have you ever wanted to showcase your quilting skills while diving into a fun and creative challenge? Our Astrodelic Quilt Challenge is here to offer you just that! 

The Astrodelic Challenge isn't just about making beautiful quilts; it's also about the excitement of competition and the joy of creativity. Our most popular beginner-friendly pattern uses the strip piecing technique, making it easy to create blocks as a canvas for your imagination. It's perfect for a relaxing weekend project or anytime you want to add your personal style to each stitch and seam. You ...

When I was younger, art skills were meaningful and important.  Filmmaking was too expensive for any but the elite; there was more demand than supply of “media.” Animation was drawn by hand, every frame. Even a short animated film required money in digits that blew my mind, and whole teams of “talent” and managers.

So when I figured out how to make animated movies on my own, I suddenly advanced to elite status. I could do for little money, by myself, what many huge overfunded studios couldn’t achieve. And before that, I drew. When my work made it to ...

Not quite a quarterly update, and I realized that I did not post about my goals here, on my blog. So, let’s start by sharing my goals and how they are going now that we are a third way through the year.

Solo Show Goals:

Overall, my solo show went really well. Two of my three events had great attendance and participation. I loved how all the ...

My time with the Durham Art Guild (DAG), as an artist in residence (AiR) has come to an end. It was bittersweet, excited about the new opportunities in front of me (more to come) but sad I won’t see everyone as often. I can highly recommend this 6-month (ish) artist in residence. I got so much out of it.

I learned a lot about myself through this residence, which could be in part due to the fact I had a lot to learn about being a full-time artist for the first time ...

What does one wear to a $20,000-a-dose drug infusion? At least one person suggested a tiara and evening gown.

One Skyrizi intravenous infusion dose is 600mg, or 2.1164 .21164 ounces. At $20,000 per dose that’s $9,450 $943,333 per ounce.

CORRECTION: my math was off by a factor of 10. Via JO 753 in a comment below:

“There are 28.3 gramz per ounse. 600 milligramz iz .6 gramz, so an ounse iz 47 dosez. Thats 943,333$ an ounse.

No ...

My artist in residence with the Durham Art Guild is nearing an end, and with that is my solo show. The artist in residence is approximately 6 months in length. The show should be new work that you’ve made during the show. There’s a lot to do to fill the space for the show, and a lot of background activities. So here’s my list below.

Space Planning

• Make sure with the event space what insurance is with the space and what additional insurance you may need.
• Think about a contract with the event space so it is ...

“I admire your discipline,” said a friend, referring to my extremely strict, narrow Crohn’s diet. But there’s nothing to admire, because it’s not SELF discipline. It’s being subject to a brutal, sadistic “disciplinarian” that punishes the hell out of me if I make one false move. If you had this taskmaster you’d be “disciplined” too.

(Not a $150 Drawing, but looks like one.)

The post My Disciplinarian appeared first on Nina Paley.

2023 has been a little bit of a whirlwind, from quitting my job to focusing on being an emerging artist, to turning 50, and then to top off the milestones celebrating 10 years of sewing and quilting. I am so thankful for the opportunities and the people I have met and supported me on this journey.

In 2023, I was focused on engaging and learn about the local art communities. It was a year of firsts:

• I was accepted for my first artist in residence and then was offered a 6 month one with the Durham Art Guild.
• Had my ...

Talking about art and animation for a change.

The post Interview with Becky Neiman appeared first on Nina Paley.

McMichael Canadian Art Collection

Tools and supplies (affiliate links):

As you know, requests for my  Hundred Hundred-and-Fifty Dollar Drawings are limited to two words or less.

But on March 11 I found this in my Twitter DMs:

Could you draw this as a picture for me

“it is a prime opportunity to get inside the tent with a goal-line defence, unless a clear upstream threat, accompanied by actionable intelligence, pops its head up”

Normally I’d say no, as that is batshit and impossible. However the request came from Maya Forstater, who explained:

It is a present for Helen Joyce – she has been training military types on how to ...

When a friend recently suggested a deck of playing cards featuring major players in the “gender wars,” I knew I wanted a set. I tried to find other ways to make it happen – photographs? Filters? AI art generator? – but decided the most expedient option was to just do it myself. Which isn’t particularly expedient, as a deck requires 54 designs (if you include 2 Jokers).

I generally suck at caricatures, but decided my limited skills would have to be adequate. I Can Do Hard Things, just not perfectly.

The Carnival of Color quilt pattern free from Free Spirit Fabrics has long been on my bucket list. The pattern shows the quilt made with Kaffe fabrics. Although I have enough of those and love them, I wanted to make this quilt with something different. One day while standing in front of my fabric closet, staring, I had one of those Ah Ha! moments. I pulled all my Anna Maria Horner fabrics and the few Jane Sasamon fabrics from the shelves. The black and while border around the focus blocks and the binding is an Amy Butler fabric. How ...