The Last Few Days…

…I know I’ve been pretty quiet here. That’s because…last week I was contemplating expanding my selling options by opening an Etsy shop. On Thursday I signed up and on Friday I listed a few items. I will be using the shop to sell hand made textiles, silk scarves, and small pieces of fiber art. People started to visit the shop on Friday. By Friday evening I had two people who “hearted” me. Etsy people will know what that means! That was exciting. So I have been busy with that. See the shop here.

On Saturday, I taught two short classes in Evansvile. The first class was this little bag made by Jill. She was thrilled with it. I also managed to get two of them made at the same time!

The patterns for the other class didn’t make it to the shop…and then I discovered I had forgotten mine! Have you ever “winged it” when teaching a pattern class? Fortunately for me, it was a tote bag and I had just made my class sample in May, but still…I had to think. I teach so many different projects, that I just can’t be expected to know on a whim what is what. I threatened to take the sample apart, but it all came back to me, step by step. Whew! This was a pretty cool bag and the way it was made was pretty cool. It was the Whimsy Bag by Lazy Girl.

I have so many things I am working on and need to work on, I feel like I am running in circles. I have one quilt show in Kentucky lined up for the fall and I am making up a few samples that feature my hand dyes so that I can sell kits. I’ll give you a sneak preview of one sample, but it is not complete as I am still deciding on what the borders will be. This pattern is called Rosa and Friends and it was designed by Betty Blais of Embellishment Village. I think she did a great job.

Have a great week!

Friday This ‘N That

It’s time to blog again and I feel a little bit lost as to topic. This week has mainly been a week of just doing a little of this and that and tying up loose ends on stuff. I can’t say that I have accomplished anything major.

I did manage to get a tote bag sample made up for a class in June so that I could deliver it when I went to Evansville on Thursday. You can see it at the bottom of the page, Classes In Evansville. I like how it turned out, all bright and cheerful. And yesterday I worked on blocks for another class I am planning for the fall, the 4 Patch Posy. You can see those blocks on the Coming Soon page. I have this group of girls from Indiana that are keeping me quite busy. You see, they have full time jobs, and they just love getting out for a day and coming to the shop, taking a class and learning something new. So it’s keeping me hopping, planning classes and making the samples. But they help out quite well. They choose the class and usually the date they can come. I just schedule it and get the sample made if I don’t already have one. Does anyone want to buy samples? I am getting quite a collection! I do schedule the classes several times to maximize the use of my samples.

I did do some playing around with some art earlier in the week. You see, I will be in a group exhibit at the Arts Council gallery in Evansville in August and have been mulling over what I will plan to put in and what I should make before that time for the exhibit. My workroom is full of scraps of cloth. I am such a hoarder. I even have started keeping the plastic tabs from potato bags, because when I look at them I think, I just know something can be done with that in my art! But my room (needs to be cleaned) has a tableload of “stuff” laying around so I played.

See? Discharged cotton, scraps of painted dryer sheet and painted white cotton with writing on it, a scrap of joint tape, black cotton, dyed paper. I must not forget the scrap of plasticized (from heat) onion bag. It was laying around…can’t let it go to waste. It’s too cool for texture. I really love the challenge of using my imagination and the scraps on my table. I think I could do it all day long and use up the scraps, but then I realize they multiply way faster than I can use them.

I am also working on this. I really like the red free motion zig zag stitching and I think I will find other ways to use this technique.

So what artsy things are you doing today?