…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!
June 23, 2008
I just heard on the news this morning that another earthquake occured in this area shortly after midnight this morning. It was measured at 4.5 and the center was 45 minutes away from me at Mt. Carmel. I slept through it, but it woke my husband up. You can check out all the recent earthquake activity at the USGS site here. It is very interesting to read. I never knew that Alaska had so many quakes.
On another, unrelated, topic, I leave for Paducah tomorrow to spend a couple of days with my friends there. Tomorrow we will shop, shop, shop…and on Wednesday, we will probably shop, shop, shop…and see quilts. I don’t think earthquakes will stop us.
I have been spending my weekend installing a new email client and getting it up and running and connecting with my server. Outlook Express has totally fallen apart. I still can’t get one of the email addresses working, but kathy@katherinesands.com is working, hallelujia. My 70 gb hard drive filled up over the weekend, so I bought a 320 gb external hard drive to put all my photos on. (There, that oughta hold me for awhile.) I have so much computer work to do, I can’t see straight. But…first things first…Paducah.
Here is the last photo I saw of my fabric making its way through the Round Robin #1 circle on the complexcloth list. It will be interesting to see the final outcome in person! See ya’.
April 21, 2008
I am back from the Decatur show, my head is full…of thoughts and things to do this week. There is the possibility of some workshops with the quilt guilds ahead. And now I am the proud inheritor of my grandmother’s Singer Featherweight sewing machine! I spent some time with my mother this weekend and she gave me grandma’s machine. I am excited about that. It’s good to be home and today is a “tired” day. I am resting.
Monday ramblings has turned into…Tuesday Ramblings
I did some demos of stenciling with paintstiks at the show which sold my new stencils very well. I oversold the leaves stencil, don’t ya’ know! I have plenty more on order and will be putting them up on my website soon.
Using the 1/2 inch paintstik brush with short bristles made specifically for use with paintstiks, I stenciled these leaves onto a light gray hand dye. After applying one color and leaving the stencil in place, I applied a second color in various places to provide shading and dimension. People were quite impressed with them. Paintstiks are wonderful for stencils and rubbings. The only downside I can see about them is that you can’t be in a hurry with them. They do take some time to dry. After all, it is oil paint. But it doesn’t take the drying time of an oil painting.
Here is what a section of the Southwest stencil looks like. I did repeats of the design. Again, I used more than one color for dimension.
These are available for $3 each plus shipping.
I see several possibilities with these designs. They can be applied to a border and then used as the quilting design; just quilt around them as it’s already marked. One could apply fusible to the back and cut them out to make applique. You could also do some thread painting on them to fill in the vein and stem areas, then cut them out for applique.
April 1, 2008
I am leaving in the a.m to first, drop off a quilt at Rend Lake Artisan’s center for their quilt show. It will run the whole month of April and is planned to coincide with the AQS quilt show in Paducah.
Then I am off to Decatur, IL for the quilt show there. I will be vending and sharing a motel room with my good friend, Betty from the Village Mercantile in Boonville, IN. This is an annual two day quilt show and a pretty well attended one.
If you have not gotten to Evansville to the Women’s Hospital to see the Inspired Women in Art exhibit, you have a little over a week to get there. That show comes down on April 4 and my piece called “Labuk’s Gift” is on display.
I will have our laptop with me this weekend so I can check in on what is going on!
This wonderful quilt was created by my friend, Cynthia, from Greenwood, IN. Enjoy.
March 26, 2008
