A New Week…

It’s Monday.  SuperBowl is over. Yeh. I haven’t been doing all that much and I don’t really know all that much either.  I am in the process of reading Art and Fear, a present from my friend, Robin Koehler.  You can tell I’m reading it because I posted a quote I liked from it in my sidebar.  I have also been perusing the new Quilting Arts and the recent Cloth Paper Scissors magazines.

I guess the reason I don’t have much to report is because I am doing all the “boring” stuff, since I am preparing to vend at the Indiana Heritage Quilt Show in Bloomington, IN.  This requires thinking and planning.  I do well to write notes to myself on a piece of paper about what I’m thinking, let along write it on a blog.  You probably wouldn’t want to read about it anyway. Planning what to stock and placing the orders…see it’s the boring stuff.

But this week I plan on dyeing some fabrics.  Even though it’s still cold here, I am going to crank up the heater in the garage because I just can’t wait til it warms up.  When I have a free week, I need to get cracking on dyeing.  I guess there’s enough snow here, I could try snow dyeing.  It seems to be all the rage right now on the quiltart list.  And we are supposed to get more this week…

Today…

I had to go to town today to pick up election supplies.  I am an election judge and will be serving Illinois voters tomorrow all day for the primary elections in.  It’s a long day, but worth it being part of the process and seeing how it works.

I made a pot of chili for tomorrow.  This recipe is from the CrockPot Blog that I joined on FB.  It’s excellent with cumin, garlic, chili powder, oregano, and a bit of red pepper.  The weather has warmed up here to about 35 degrees and the snow is melting…all that wonderful 3-5 inches we got this past weekend.  Now I have to get some handwork ready to take with me…it will be a long day and probably slow since it is a primary, so to stay awake, I must have something to do and reading makes me sleepy!

To everyone living in Illinois:

Vote February 2

It’s a privilege AND a duty.

I guess the only picture I have for today is FOOD!

Back From Retreat…

Well, I’m back at home this week and getting the rest I missed getting (!) at retreat. I got the quilt finished and put the binding on (see photo from prior post). I got a new jacket model finished.

I finished stitching up 5 new bags. Here are a couple of them.  These two are now posted in my etsy shop.

I had taken some layered cloth for backgrounds for new art that I did the machine quilting on.  These are pieces in a series like “Flow” on my sidebar.

Some may remember some shibori dyed pieces I did awhile back with the circles on them.  I played around with them with an idea I had…here’s where it is so far…

Getting away from home is helpful…like…a quilting marathon…no cooking, no cleaning, no laundry, just sewing and quilting. Everyone should do it once in a while!

Yesterday was spent in an endless round of picture taking while I tried to get good photos for jurying. I used the shots taken in the photographer’s studio as a gauge, since this particular piece didn’t get photographed there.  Now I think I’m finally done with that process!

Getting ready for Indiana Heritage show in Bloomington, IN.  Planning, preparation and putting in orders.  It will be a bigger show than I usually do…but that will be good.

Retreat Time Again…

I am gathering projects together and preparing to leave for retreat with my friends from back home.  This has become an annual event and is now our 4th? or 5th?  Can’t quite remember!  All I know is we hang out and sew and quilt for 2 1/2 days at a quilt shop.  I can get LOTS done when I am away from home and routine and can just concentrate on my projects.  I usually try to take things that need to be finished that have just been sitting here like…a stack and slash crazy quilt.  The top was made in 1999 when I first joined guild, then I finally got it quilted (I may have finished the machine quilting at last year’s retreat).  Now I will complete some hand quilting with perle cotton in the outer border, put the binding on and it will be finished! Yeh!

I  have  fabrics printed and layered to make more little bags, so I plan to finish those.  I am working on a new little jacket by SuznQuilts to sell patterns from at quilt shows. In 2011 I have my first solo show, so I have some small pieces layered and ready to stitch…nothing like starting early! I am looking forward to a fun time with friends and getting projects finished.

Form Not Function

The title of this post is the name of a contemporary art quilt show in New Albany, IN. It is held every year at the Carnegie Center of Art and History.

After my shopping spree and a short visit with friends who were attending a quilt retreat in Newburgh IN, I met up with my husband and we were off to New Albany.  The weather and the cold was not near as bad as had been predicted and anticipated.  I’m glad I didn’t let it stop me.  It was a wonderful experience.  316 entries were submitted to the show and the three jurors chose 31.  I was fortunate to have a piece juried in and this was my first time entering this show.  I haven’t entered a lot of quilt shows…well actually maybe none, come to think of it!  For the last couple of years I have been entering Arts Council shows and hanging out with the local art crowd.  This was a step out of the box and I felt “nudged” to enter something I had put in the Arts Council show last year.  Anyway, the reception was fun, I met some fun people, and I’m very glad I was there.  My friend Cynthia, along with her husband, drove down from the Indianapolis area.  They were brave too, to get out on the roads,  but I think she wanted to be there for me.  We ate at a pretty good Mexican restaurant before the reception.

So here I am with my piece, Weathered Places (and a shiny forehead!). Although I didn’t win a monetary award, I heard lots of good things about my work.

Shopping, Shopping…

It’s January, the typical month when retail sales slow down because everyone has spent for Christmas and now the credit card bills are coming due….but a girl still needs things…

I ventured out in the cold yesterday to go do some errands in Evansville (namely shopping).  Dick Blick…I need paints and a little stock up on some screenprinting inks I’ve been trying out.  Then I need to stock up on batting as I just might start layering and stitching some pieces that are laying around here.  Off to Bernina to pick up a new free form embroidery foot I ordered.  I feel like I need a back up foot since the plastic quilting foot I have now already has a slight crack in it…it could go any time because I free form stitch so fast.  Then to Sew Tech to deliver a class sample and supply list. (Yes, I will get it listed on the class page soon).  While there I purchased something to help me organize.  This is usually what my side table space looks like…bobbins and loose strings everywhere, some in the drawer, some laying out.

Enter Clover to the rescue with the Stack ‘n Store Bobbin Tower.  The box says “Neatly organizes 30 bobbins”.  We’ll see.  Here is what it looks like.

And yes, it will hold 30 bobbins…I have now loaded it with 29!  It will hold plastic or the metal ones.  My bobbins are the wider metal ones.  And no strings hanging everywhere.  This is a pretty clever tool. Leave it to Clover to come up with it; they ARE the gadget people!

You ever notice what the sales are in January?  They are on item to help you organize  your life…big plastic totes, under the bed totes to store all your Christmas stuff, organizing bins for your tax records, etc.  I’m starting the year off right by buying this little bobbin tower…! I feel so organized right now.

Ham And Bean Soup

This is my favorite bean soup recipe.  It has turnips (substituted for the parsnips the recipe calls for), onions, carrots, great northern beans, garlic and some hot pepper. I put a ham bone in it as well as some chunked ham.  Tomorrow I will fix some cornbread to go with it…too tired tonight.

Yum, we like it.

January This ‘N That

Here it is January 5th of the new year and I’m just now blogging.  Been sick all through the holidays, tired and still had to do all the festivities stuff.  Now I’m just tired!  I am better though and thankful for that.

In my last blog post I said I would share a picture of a pattern that caught my eye.  I was too busy to do art during the holidays, but it’s interesting how my attention was taken by a pattern made by the dipped pretzels on the wax paper!  I may use this for something. That’s a plaid dishtowel laying beneath it so that I could photograph the pattern. I wonder what India ink would do?  Would it go around the outlines of the patterns?  I may have to try that tomorrow.

Today I “autographed” a couple of my art pieces in stitch.  I recently heard a horror story about someone being denied their art because their name wasn’t stitched on it….I am not going to have that happen to me!  I am taking these two quilts to a photographer’s studio to be photographed next week and wanted to get my name on them before that. I am considering entering these in an exhibit and want to get some really good pictures as I don’t think mine are that great.

And now my playtime event…a piece of screened cloth from a long time ago with lots of white spaces in it because I used torn paper…I decided to paint those white areas and then maybe I can finally do something with it.  This also gave me ideas for doing a larger piece of cloth.  I ‘m really loving the colors, but not sure where this goes from here.  When I screened it, I used screenprinting inks which made the cloth kind of stiff.  The inks are very thick.  I came back in with fabric paints and liquid acrylics to paint the white areas.

Well, I guess it will sit again until I get an urge to do something with it.  I am really wanting to do some free form piecing….maybe on the retreat I’m going to later this month….

Bye Bye 2009

I planned to blog on both of my blogs today, since it is the last day of 2009.  I am actually doing that (in a way), but I have run out of time to say anything significant.  I have been preparing for company coming tonight, which means I’ve been cleaning and cooking…sooo here’s wishing all my readers a wonderful, creative New Year.  In  the midst of all my activities today, I did see a pattern emerge on the wax paper after I pulled all my chocolate dipped pretzels off of it.  I had to take a picture.  I’ll post a pic later…gotta go…good bye 2009…you  have been a very full year.  Hello 2010, I am looking forward to what you will bring…

December 18, 2009

That’s my birthday.  I took a total break from all the have-to-do things of the holidays and celebrated the day to my choosing.  I have pictures to share of what I managed to accomplish!

First is my left hand warm up drawing from the morning…

Then because I was searching for something, that ended up with hours of cleaning in my sewing room…not that it needed it or something. lol!  I soon gave my attention to a piece of “paper cloth” I had made some time ago.  I found it in the piles I was looking through.  It’s called paper cloth because you  make it by adhering papers to cloth.  This particular piece I adhered papers to a product called do-sew (I think that’s what it’s called).  It’s used to cut dress patterns from.  It’s a thin woven product.  Because it was thin is why I wanted to use it as the base to make the paper cloth rather than muslin. My paper cloth actually ended up being quite sturdy.  I cut it in a 5 inch strip and layered it with batting and started stitching vines on it; when I got tired of that I threw some hearts in…then with a fabric marker, I “painted” the leaves and the hearts…

This folds in thirds and, after adding a felt strip on the inside, is now a needle holder.  Keeping track of needles can be daunting, but now with this very cute case, I think I can manage it.

There was enough paper cloth to make a…you guessed it…a cell phone pouch to hang from your neck!

The more I feel this “paper cloth” the more I am impressed with the sturdiness and feel of it.  I think there’s enough left that I could make a wallet if I wanted…yes, it’s that sturdy…almost feels like leather…

Even though I didn’t get any world-altering artwork done, I am pleased with the experiment with paper cloth…now I want to create more of it!

…And I did have shrimp and wine…