It’s been a while…

February 20, 2016 by Leave a Comment

It has been a while since I posted here, but wow! I didn’t know it had been THIS long.

Life at the newspaper has been keeping me very busy. I actually picked up more work there, which leaves me much less time to play in my studio and write here….sigh….all my creativity goes into the job, leaving little for anywhere else!

BUT, a couple of months ago, I got an inspiration. The inspiration was the upcoming (at the time) deadline for Form, Not Function. I said, yes, I would like to enter that show again. Some ideas came, I sketched them out and the first of January was here before I knew it, with absolutely nothing done through the holidays on the project. Quilt retreat came in late January. I knew by then I wouldn’t make the Feb. 1 deadline. Sigh. But there’s always next year! I am still inspired to create a new series and I am plodding in that direction. I think I can! I think I can! I think I can finish this for next year’s deadline.

Today, I started cutting up fabrics and stitching. Finally! I had already done some sketching of where this is going (unusual for me to be planning), and had worked up a small prototype at the retreat. Abstract still life. That’s where I’m going.

strips web

In other news, there has been a sale! Compositions #2 will be going to a new home in Columbia, Mo. in the very near future. What can I say? If someone loves it, it must become theirs. I love it when someone else loves my art and wants to take it home. You can see Compositions #2 in the Gallery on my website.

Filed Under: art sale, art shows, artist's thoughts

Not Much News, But a Little

September 11, 2013 by 2 Comments

I haven’t posted for quite a while. My father-in-law reminded me this past weekend at our family reunion. He said he checks in from time to time to see what I’m up to! Well, I work a lot now and get very little done creatively.

A couple of weeks ago I stopped at a yard sale and purchased 14 old t-shirts for cheap because I want to make this. It just looks like fun.

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Isn’t it the cutest? Can’t wait to wear one, but it’s too hot here right now.

I entered this is in a show and it was rejected. 🙁

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Still a Collage

TriState Artisans will have a new name this year and a new brochure for our studio tour in December. We are losing a few artisans on the Illinois side and adding a couple of new ones. You won’t want to miss it! Here is a photo of my work that will be featured in the new brochure.

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More news: I am working on moving into a REAL studio space! A 20 x 80 foot building has come open across the street from where I work. The biggest portion of it will be my workspace and classroom for teaching. I am planning to put a small shop in the front part. Although I can’t be open every day, the shop will have my art for sale as well as consigned items by other artists/artisans. I am looking forward to getting in and getting some work done!

Another piece of good news…I was going to order another Square swiper yesterday because the one they sent me didn’t seem to work in my Android tablet. On a lark, I thought I would stick the one I had back in and check it. Lo, and behold, it worked! I could actually SWIPE the card, so I made two $1 payments to myself. Besides, I need to practice so I know how to use the darn thing. I guess the fees I paid were worth it! I think I’m going to love this little tool.

Filed Under: art shows, collage, Contemporary Art, hand dyed silk scarves Tagged With: , , ,

The Month of May

May 30, 2012 by 2 Comments

May has been a busy month here at my house.  The farmer’s and artisans market in New Harmony started much earlier this year on April 21st and has continued.  Normally we don’t start til mid-June.  The artist festival, Arts In Harmony, was the first weekend of May.  The heat was pretty bad that weekend, but I was indoors in the air-conditioned gymnasium, even though they did leave the doors open!  It was much cooler inside than it was outside.  Sold some scarves, some note cards, some art.

Then came the highlight of my month.  I traveled to Tan-Tara resort in the Ozarks of MO for the Missouri Fiber Artists conference and exhibit.  The reception for the exhibit was on Friday night and juror Bob Adams chose my piece, Compositions #2, for the Surface Design award.  That was a wonderful surprise.

Compositions #2 Mixed Media and stitch

I took a glass fusing class Friday afternoon and learned a little bit about that process.  I made some pendants and earrings.

Saturday was an all day class with Bob Adams on building images.  That was fun.

Some of Bob Adams’ samples

This is the paper mock up I did in class. My bottle turned out looking too much like a milk bottle for my taste. That was not my intention!

Saturday night was a barbecue with everyone together.

Sunday morning was the final day…we had a delicious buffet brunch, short business meeting and a speaker, Annie Helmrichs-Louder, who shared her journey and her work.  She is one of the featured artists in the new Portfolio book out by Martha Sielman, The Natural World.  It can be purchased here. You can read my review of the book here.  Her work is wonderful.

That’s Annie facing this direction and chatting with some MoFA members.

To be continued….

Filed Under: Art Exhibits, art shows, collage, Contemporary Art Tagged With: , , , ,

Paducah

April 26, 2012 by 6 Comments

So I went to Paducah this week.  I changed things up a bit this year.  I only went for one day and it was Tuesday! (The quilt show starts on Wednesday.) But Tuesday is the day to go downtown and see Fantastic Fibers at the Yeiser Art Center….and visit the downtown stores and see friends…

That looks like a realty sign up there on the roof of the gray building.  I wonder who that is up there for?  People flying overhead?

I recently made a new online friend named Deborah Bein who somehow managed to get three pieces of her fiber work juried into Fantastic Fibers.  Three is quite an accomplishment for this show!  She asked me to take some photos of her work for her, and I don’t think she would mind if I shared one here.

"Broken Promises" by Deborah Bein

I took photos for a Facebook friend, Marijke van Welzen, of her artwork that was in the show too.

"Green" by Marijke van Welzen, Netherlands

Isn’t this gorgeous?!

I don’t usually visit the quilt museum when I go to Paducah, but this year, there was an exhibit from the U.K. called ACCENT that I wanted to see especially since I wasn’t staying for the quilt show.  I made notes of ideas and compositions that I liked.  I like to study the pieces that interest me and jot down things I like about them.  Get information and see photos of the exhibit here.  ACCENT is on display until June 12.

My friend Julia went with me.  We had a wonderful Mexican lunch at Los Amigos and in the afternoon spent time drinking iced coffee at McDonald’s while we critiqued all the quilts in a book that Julia bought.  Fun day and I didn’t spend too much!

Filed Under: Art Exhibits, art shows, Paducah, quilt shows Tagged With: , , , ,

Quilt Festival

April 26, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Yeh, I know it’s two weeks after the fact.  I do have a few photos of our trip to Ohio.  We went to the spring quilt festival on Friday, April 13.

The entrance to Duke Energy Convention Center.

The aisles.

Show goers learning something new at a class.

A 3-D village in fiber.

Fellow bus travelers.

And the twins.

Filed Under: art shows Tagged With: ,

Innovations in Textiles

October 8, 2011 by 14 Comments

I had the blessing of being able to take a day off from my work and go to St. Louis this week to see some of the exhibits of Innovations in Textiles.  This is a biannual event that takes place in the area.  Every two years for a two month period of time, galleries and exhibits major in textiles and fibers; there are also lectures and workshops offered by major textile and fiber artists.  Quilt National travels from Athens, Ohio to the Foundry Art Center in St. Charles, MO.   If I lived closer, I’d be majorly involved!

But I wouldn’t miss Quilt National at the Foundry.  And this year, I had two pieces in an exhibit at Maryville University.  The exhibit is called Speaking of Fibers and was put on by the Missouri Fiber Artists (www.missourifiberartists.com).

I took photos at Art St. Louis of some of the interesting fiber works in Fiber Focus.  Here’s one by Suzy Farren, a MoFA member.  I love what she did with paper and various fibers.  I have her permission to share it here.

I Could Fear That Too

To get to Art St. Louis, we had to pass a building under construction…looks like it will be the National Blues Museum when it is finished.

Interesting and very tall building in Art Deco style at 6th and Washington…

Two fiber buddies who spent the day, Julia Sermersheim and Susan Spineto…Susan Marth met up with us in St. Charles, but I didn’t get any photos of her….This quilt didn’t have a center in it, so I had them get in the “frame”…

Julia Sermersheim and Susan Spineto

No photos of Quilt National, of course.  We ate at Picasso’s Coffeehouse in St. Charles…wonderful place with great coffee…I didn’t take photos of that either.

Third Degree Glass Factory on Delmar had marvelously creative sinks and fixtures….

Bathroom sinks and faucets in the Third Degree Glass Factory bathroom

We thought these were the bomb! (unless I can’t say bomb anymore)

I also found an interesting wall to photograph…

It sort of goes with this…which was hanging in the MoFA exhibit…

Weathered Places

Best of show winner, Janet (don’t know last name) with juror Victoria Crowder Payne and Barb Zapulla, who, I think did most of the work of pulling off this exhibit…Pat Owoc’s work is in the background…

More from the reception…I only know a few of these people!

Here’s my other piece in the show…

Fragments of a Life 5b

Here’s another piece from the show by Rosemary Claus-Gray.

Beach Reflections

Well, I’m going to wrap this up…it was a fabulous day…now back to working on my exhibit which is less than 3 weeks away!

Filed Under: Art Exhibits, art shows, collage, Contemporary Art, creativity, hand dyed fabrics, Quilt National Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Need Help Please

May 13, 2011 by 13 Comments

I went to the SAQA website today to post a plea on my Visioning page and while I’m there I am currently deleting 478 emails in my inbox.  Do you know how long that takes doing 20 at a time?  It’s taking a while.  So I decided while I’m doing that I will post a blog post here and ask for YOUR help too!

I have my first solo show in October this year.  I have a series of small (5″ x 7″-ish) works I will be mounting on deep 12″ x 12″ canvases.  I will be painting the canvases before I mount the fiber work.  I personally did not wish to paint the canvases a solid, flat color, but rather wanted to  do swipes of color that had movement, feeling that this was more in line with the fiber work.  But now my question is: what are others going to like?  I really want to sell at this show and am now wondering which method will make the work more sell-able.  Here is how the canvas looks at this point.  Sort of wispy, worn, like the side of an old barn.  But is this what people will want? Eeek!  I really need help with this.  And I know people can only give me their opinion and in the end, I still have to make the choice.  But I still want to hear from you.  And I will ponder any suggestions anyone has to make too.

And if you need a little distance….

Filed Under: art shows, artist's thoughts, Contemporary Art, creativity, new art, paint Tagged With: , , ,

My Life in Pictures…

April 9, 2010 by 3 Comments

I’ve been so busy and have not posted for awhile…shame on me!  I think I will show you what I have been up to rather than tell you….

Decatur, IL – Tree Huggers Exhibit in front of the Decatur Arts Council–On my way to the quilt show one morning, I shot these pictures.. this was interesting  to see!

Back home….loading new stencils from the Crafter’s Workshop  in my etsy shop...these are totally fun to pattern cloth with…

Tea dying and color dyeing silk ribbon for a doll show….

…and dyeing doggie hoodies….

…and working on some artistic silk scarves for upcoming art fair…these have been dyed a base color, then stamped with soy wax, then painted with dye paint and are batching…

Silk scarves are my “practice” work…not only do I get to know the different types of silks, but I get to “play” and practice with designs and colors.  Still have lots of different things to do and I will show you as I go along while I get ready for the art fair.  But…today I think I want to make some paper/cloth…after I go to town and run some errands…later!

Filed Under: art shows, creativity, dyeing, hand dyed silk scarves, New Harmony Tagged With: , , , , ,

Christmas Sales…

December 8, 2009 by Leave a Comment

I made these little cell phone/credit card pouches last week.

I had 6 of them…before a nice new Facebook friend purchased 4 of them.  Then I went to  the New Harmony fair and sold 1.  The other one sold yesterday in my Etsy shop.  So last night I was scrambling around trying to make a few more.  You see, these bags came out of playtime in my sewing room last week just using the scraps from the other bags I made.  The scrap pieces were already layered and stitched; they just needed to be pieced together and then sew the bags.  That made it easy.  To make more, I have to layer and quilt a piece of cloth, maybe add more stuff to the cloth, then make the bag.  I was scrounging around through my unfinished pile last night to see if I could find something already quilted…and I did.  These were made from a collage that just never did work for me.  I loved the cloth, but never could get it to come together so I cut it up last night and made these…

The bottom one is sold and I am awaiting her buttons to sew on it.  The other two are in my etsy shop. One has a cool dark green antique button on it and the other has a dark brown one.

The Artisan’s Fair at New Harmony was better than last year in sales.  Maybe everyone was really scared last year and they aren’t so much this year.  The crowd wasn’t massive, but there was a fairly steady flow of people and they were buying.  I sold several scarves each day.  Although not blockbuster, I am pleased with my sales.

To purchase one of the two bags in the last picture, click here.

Filed Under: art shows, collage, creativity, hand dyed fabrics, holidays, New Harmony Tagged With: ,

Christmas Stockings…

December 1, 2009 by Leave a Comment

…for everyone!  This is a kitty Christmas stocking.  A friend from church posted a picture on Facebook of these, but got them a long time ago.  Therefore, she could not tell us where to get them.  So I went and made my own version, using red fleece and some furry white felt (I forgot the name of it). Joann’s didn’t have fur in white; that would have been nice.

Got new glasses this past weekend.

The piece of artwork I was working on has fallen by the wayside.  Maybe I will just paint over the whole thing and start over.  Geesh, I hate it when I get lost on work…seems like it takes forever to come back to it and get somewhere.

Yesterday, I trimmed out the fleece and cut the edges of a blanket for my niece.  It’s two layers of fleece and the edges are tied.  I only tied three sides and I think I will stitch one end instead.  That will be the top of the blanket.

Art fair coming up this weekend and studio tour the next weekend, but I’m not getting any more art done…however I am getting all my Christmas shopping and birthday shopping done, so that’s good.  Today I may piddle around with some small ideas for handmade gifts.  And I have one more rag quilt to make. Next week I will prepare my entry for Form Not Function for shipping…and perhaps ship it as well!

The December/January issue of Quilting Arts is chock full of exciting articles (at least they are for me).  I can’t wait to dive in to them and try some new things.

Filed Under: art shows, creativity, holidays, New Harmony Tagged With: , , ,
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