Berene, from Happy Sew Lucky was the first person I had approached about my stash drawing project. It was very trusting of her to let me walk away with a pile of her fabric as we had just met. I met Berene when she came to give a talk to our guild. Shortly before that we were in an inter-guild pot holder swap where I made her pot holders (and a mug sleeve). Actually, we ended up in a couple of swaps after that too. I feel pretty tickled to have swapped with her so many times because Berene is uber talented. Sadly, she has recently moved away from Vancouver to Toronto and is in the midst of settling into her new life. I didn’t see her everyday but I feel sad knowing she isn’t on the North Shore anymore. Luckily she’s is a huge Instagram user and I do get to visit with her there. When she gets a chance I’ll post her answers to my five interview questions. Until then how about I tell you a little about each drawing.

Berene’s fabric stash was in her office. As we entered she made me promise to put blinders on and not to look at her mess. Mess? What Mess? Her office radiated with creativity, as it should!

In getting to know Berene I discovered that she collects goldlfish. Not real goldfish but plastic toy ones. Her collection was quite impressive. Whenever I see one it reminds me of her office, stacked with books and bits of inspiration everywhere… and her impressive fabric stash!

While Berene let me dig away at her stash for fabric to draw, I found some owl patterns for a needle book stuffed in the middle of a stack.

“Hey’what’s this?” I asked.

“Oh, it’s just a pattern I whipped up that I did a while ago. I haven’t posted about it yet. I guess I should do that. You can have one!” She replied.

“Um… Okay, sure Thanks!” (meanwhile I was doing a happy dance inside!)

Promptly, I went home sewed it up and featured it in this drawing!

I not only fell in love with Berene’s fabric stash but I also fell in love with the cabinet that she held her stash in. It almost reached the ceiling and was chock full of fabric from the very top to the very bottom! I wonder what her stash will look like in her new place? I’m sure it will be stunning!

For my drawings, photo credit goes to the fabulous Raeanne Schachter!

You may or may not know this about me but I am a book addict. It’s been 6 days since I bought my last book (for real!). So of course you know I love seeing other people who have the same addiction. I already knew Berene had the same fabric addiction as me, so it was a treat to see she might have the same book addiction as well.

…And her office had plenty of books, I didn’t really get a chance to look at them. I didn’t want to be rude, “here, let me look through all your things, you won’t mind right?”

… and seeing I was already in love with her fabric stash I’m pretty sure the books wouldn’t have been a let down.

This drawing is a bit larger than the other one’s in this collection. It’s 20″ high, 16″wide and 1″deep.

Drawn on wood canvas with coloured pencils… and sticking with my belief that the backside has to be as thoughtful as the front!

Photo Credit goes to the fabulous Reaenne Schachter

Have you ever walked into a person’s creative space and felt in awe? That’s what it was like looking into Berene’s office where her fabric stash was… and it’s why I had to (had to!) title this piece “Organized Chaos”. (Drawn in March 2012 measures 12″high. 24″ deep-1″. Drawn on a wood canvas with coloured pencils.)

Berene made me swear to use blinders when I entered the room, however being a sprawler myself, I really didn’t think it was all that bad. If anything I found it inspirational. Books… tid bits of collections… the room oozed of creativity.

Unfortunately, Berene has since moved from that wonderful North Vancouver home… BUT she is now in the midst of setting up a new studio (with a very lovely view, I might add!).

Actually, that reminds me of a link my friend Esmari sent me… 40 inspiring Workspaces of the Famously Creative. I particularly relish the messy, chaotic ones, although I aim for a Georgia O’keefe kind of space (in my dreams!).

Photo credit goes to the fabulous Reaenne Schachter

Wow! Time has just been swimming by (see, what I did there, wink-wink) I realized the other day. There is so much work that I’ve never shown you. Time to correct that. This piece “Just Swimmingly” (drawn in March of 2012) was the first drawing I did in my Fabric Stash Drawing Project. Just like the pieces that were to follow, it was drawn on a wood canvas with coloured pencils (a fancy way of saying pencil crayons). This piece is 14″ high and 11″ wide, 1″ deep, to give you some scale.

Berene was kind enough to indulge me on raiding her (impressive) fabric stash to draw. In hindsight it was a huge leap of faith on her part, seeing that we hardly knew each other. True, we had just finished a inter-guild swap but still… Funny, I remember when I was given her name for the swap, I think I had blurted out, “Hey! I know her!” I had seen her work online and was impressed.

Eventually we met (actually we ended up doing a few other swaps together, such a treat), however in the beginning,  it was so nice when I realized she was as awesome as her work.

Photo credit goes to the fabulous Reaenne Schachter