A Bit of This ‘N That…

It’s been awhile since I’ve blogged…I have no excuse…just busy doing other things.  Last week it seemed like I spent the whole week working on silk scarves.  I needed to deliver some for consignment on my trip to Evansville, so I was dyeing a few, making a pile for consignment and a few for my stash as well as photographing, then listing my stash on etsy.  I am trying to be regular with etsy since it is the holiday season and sales will be happening.  I sold several scarves last year out of my etsy shop and I would like to be ready for shoppers!

Here is a silk chiffon I dyed.  It is a 44″ square.  I usually do more than one layer on these, but I think it’s beautiful the way it is and I’m not sure I want to add more to it.

I also joined the Visioning project on SAQA this past week.  The project is supposed to help me get organized, aim for goals and hopefully reach them.  At the same time, there are artists more advanced than I that will check my page and give me helpful hints. Yesterday I spent some time writing on my page about my goals just for this week.  While I was soaking in the tub yesterday morning, I had several ideas float through my brain, so writing helped me to get it in print, which helps me focus better. I also didn’t want to forget those ideas, so I write.  I have a solo show in late 2011, and I am hoping that the Visioning project will help me get prepared for that, if for no other reason than I will make commitments and stick to them.

Silk Charmeuse, deconstructed screen printed and thermofax screened

This ‘N That

I have been running around a lot for the last two months solid, so it is nice to finally be at home without having somewhere to be this weekend.  I have been catching up on some cleaning and doing some cooking, for a change of pace, as well as anxiously looking forward to creating some of my own work again.

But in between the cooking and cleaning, under the pretext of  “I need to use up this dye”, I have been creating some cloth.  It is time to clean up the patio workspace and using up the dye is a way of rewarding myself for it. This is two fat quarters in coordinating shibori patterns.

And another coordinated set of fat quarters…

This one I poured several colors on.  The pattern was made by clamping it with small spring clamps that are two inches long.  I was totally surprised and delighted with how the patterning came out on it.  It was a paint rag and I think it has some metallic paint on it too. I will be making more of this pattern.

Farm Progress Show Follow Up

Dear Readers: In my haste to get ready, load up the van and get to breakfast on time yesterday, it never once entered my head to get the camera!  I’m just not in the habit of carrying it with me to meals…yet!  I am going to have to get advice from Gerrie since she always has lovely pictures of food and meals, even when they eat out.

But I can describe it for you…we had a fruit dish of bananas and strawberries, small stack of pancakes, sausage patties, hard fried eggs with a soft white cheese melted on top (never had that before!), juice and coffee.  Yes, it was another wonderful breakfast.  If anyone questions my infatuation with my breakfasts the past few days…let me explain.  My husband goes to work early and we don’t fix breakfast.  Every morning I have a bowl of bran flakes with soy milk and dried cranberries on top…that is it.  Being at the bed and breakfast this week was quite a treat as far as breakfast was concerned!  And someone else was fixing it…and it was way better than the continental breakfasts you get at a motel for the same price.

Anyway, I sold a few more scarves yesterday…that was very encouraging.  Right before I left, I worked on some large square chiffon scarves and was quite pleased with how they turned out.  Every day I draped a new one over my “dummy” to see public reaction.  The third one sold, and it was one I ran out of time on and planned on doing more to it when I got back.  The sale saved me more work!

I still have these two…the one that sold was a bit more reddish than the orange one above.  I discharged it the same way, but didn’t like the color so I overdyed it.  The discharged areas were more muted.  I also used the same screen print on it that the orange one has.  It is a Thermofax print of a picture of tree branches.

I’m back home now and need to re-stock my inventory…next art show is in two weeks.

Today…

Today I am dyeing silk scarves.  I made a couple of shibori scarves and a couple of dyed chiffon scarves that will get discharged and perhaps also printed on in the next couple of days.  Two more are rusting as I write.

Today my camera won’t let me unload the pictures from it and that is frustrating…I have pics of a new bag I want to put in this post.

Today I cut corn off the cobs.  It’s the end of the corn and many of the ears had shriveled kernels.  I threw those away as they would be tough.  I cooked the corn for my hubby’s supper.

Today I dyed out in my patio…what a great place to work and a great day to be there.  Wish I had time to spend to really do some dyeing and printing, but time is at a premium this week…playtime will come later.

Today I found two salamanders in a 5 gallon bucket by the patio…don’t know why they were there. I thought my husband did it, but he said he didn’t.  I think the little one died later this afternoon.  How weird…maybe they were hiding out from the neighborhood cats…

Finished piece of art now showing in a “Green” exhibit at Rend Lake.

Of Stones and Walls

Bags, Bags, and More Bags…

At least I’m having fun!!!!!

What I’ve Been Doing…Part 2

What have I been doing since last week?  Besides planning a short vacation trip in August with my hubby, my mind is trying to make decisions on what shows I will be doing this fall and what needs to be done for each of them.  I am vending at some art fairs and a couple of quilt shows. But first, a retreat coming up in August: I will be teaching free form machine quilting and vending.  I finished a new jacket sample this week, pattern by SuznQuilts. It turned out so cute!

My piece,…But Words Will Never Hurt Me (Sticks and Stones), hanging in the museum exhbit.  The opening was last Saturday and I received an Honorable Mention in the 3D category.  Can anyone tell me why that is?  I entered in the 2D category.  I sure would like to know how they arrived at an award in 3D.  A friend had a lovely huge sculpture in the show…I wondered how that made her feel? I would appreciate hearing any thoughts on this.

A call came from the Indiana Heritage quilt show from Bloomington, IN.  This is a fairly well attended 3 day show next March.  They wanted to know if I was still interested in vending.  I’ll give it a shot, although I’ve never done a 3 day show.  Should be fun, as long as the country isn’t in a spending depression by then!

What I’ve Been Doing…

It’s been awhile again since I’ve blogged…I’m getting so lazy!

Update on the Arts Council show…I got a call last Wednesday that I have been awarded an Honorable Mention award…yeah for fiber! Rayna wrote me a nice note and said that this is extra special because this is recognition in an art show.  Thanks, Rayna.

Update on the Runaround Bag…I decided not to go with those antique buttons.  Instead…I think some fun, funky buttons are called for…

I have been dyeing some fabric to replenish my supply.  The multicolored ones sell pretty well for me.  The striped ones were hung on the clothesline and I poured the dye on them.  That was sorta fun if you can keep the dye off your toes…I may do more, mostly because I would like to use them myself.  I also soda soaked some white cotton and hung on the line…and guess what showed up?  The Japanese beatles swarmed the white cotton…go figure…they must like the soda ash.

Last week I prepared some discharged black sateen pieces to sell and to stitch on.

I will be making more of these…”painting” on black cloth with dishwashing gel is too much fun.

Thursday Goings On….

So sorry I haven’t blogged for awhile.  It’s hard to write two blogs…especially if you want to write something thoughtful yet entertaining.

So, today, after my walk and my visit to my hair girl, photographing silk scarves was on my agenda as well as photographing a new large piece for entry into an area exhibit.  Well, the wind is just a little bit too strong to get much photography done.  I tried.  When I photograph, I like to open up my garage door and set up everything just inside the garage.  It gives me plenty of light, but not too much.  I even had a backdrop set up with my gridwall and a black sheet.  The wind was just too frustrating, but here’s a pic of one of the scarves.

Silk habatoi is the only kind of silk I have dyed that gets this wonderful kind of movement in the dyes.  I guess it’s because of its thinness.  I really like it and these are the scarves that sell the quickest for me.  This scarf is $40 and is 14″ x 72″ before shrinkage.

I was looking at an application for a regional exhibit coming up.  I need to get it  and digital images in really soon.  I see in the rules that purchase award winnners will be asked to relinquish copyrights to their work.  I am wondering if this is a good thing to do or not?  And if you enter you are asked to sign a statement on the application to this effect, so it’s not something I can decide later.  How do others feel about this?

I sold a quilt this weekend at the farmer’s market.  It wasn’t an art quilt, per se.  I had been dragging it around with me for years, using it to cover a table or fill in a space in my quilt show booth.  I’m a bit sorry to see it go since my favorite longarmer who doesn’t quilt any more quilted it.  But I’m really glad to pocket the money!

I also went to visit the gallery I will be showing in…in 2011 (lots can happen between now and then).  I wanted to see how much space I will be  expected to fill.  I have some ideas percolating now for small pieces.

What’s everyone else doing for the summer?

Tuesday This ‘N That…

Awhile back I posted a photo of a stack of hand created fabrics that seems to get increasingly larger all the time.  I decided to try to decrease the stack by creating some small bags.  This morning I worked a while out in my patio adding some layers to pieces of cloth for the bags.  Not only was it a beautiful morning, but I was also witness to some young eastern bluebirds playing in my yard and chattering and fighting in the driveway!  What a treat.

Fabrics I worked on today…

I will be quilting these and then turning them into little bags for sale and gifts.

I am still having trouble with the delayed Write when I hook up the new camera…may have to spend hours doing reasearch to fix that.

What are you doing this summer???

More Breakdown Printing…

Here is a scarf I did last week.  The technique is breakdown printing and the scarf is silk charmeuse, a nice heavy weight to screen on.

…and a nice closeup of the  textures I love…lots of people commented on it, but no one coughed up the cash!

This scarf is for sale for $60.