Month: April 2008

Wednesday This N’ That

Ahhh…..it feels good to be home and working in the, ahem, “studio” (aka the 9’x 9′ shrinking spare bedroom). The Arts In Harmony art festival is this coming weekend. I have been experimenting with some ideas, altering fabric, and going back to some pieces that have been started, but somewhere along the way I had gotten lost and did not finish it. First, the cloth, because it led to what I did with an unfinished piece.

I took this rather dark clean-the-brush-cloth….

….and turned it into this….

…took this fabric….

…and turned it into this.

See my new stamps in there?

I started this piece back in the winter (not so long ago). It is mostly painted dryer sheets, but there is some cheesecloth and scrim and painted fusible web in it too. I got to a place where I was not satisfied, but lost interest or got busy with other things. It needed more….more depth…more something.

Yesterday, I gave it a go using the same technique I did on the cloth. When you are a week away from a show, starting new work is not an option because of the time factor, but pulling out unfinished pieces and finishing them is! A show is a great motivator for getting stuff done.

I am much happier with it. I’m not sure it is done, but it sure is better!

More Earthquakes?

I was eating lunch with a friend today and I thought I felt something. No one in the restaurant seemed to notice, so I dismissed it. My husband came home tonight and said we had another one. I checked the USGS site here and found that, indeed we had another one, a 3.7 today at 12:31 p.m. As I continued checking the stats at the website, I see there was another one yesterday also, a 2.6 at 6:44 a.m.  This is a lot of activity for this area, which hardly ever sees this kind of activity. There is a “whole lotta shakin’ goin’ on”.

Paducah…

I’m back from Paducah…and it was a great trip. ! saw friends from other places, did lots of walking and shopping, and spent too much. I ran into Kathy Arnett again working for Embellishment Village. The last time I posted about meeting her, I didn’t know that she had a fabulous website that tells about the retreat she organizes every year, so here it is…www.fabricationsretreat.com. Be sure to check it out!

I purchased all the fun stuff…ceramic beads, dyes, paints, etc. I did buy some commercial fabrics that I thought I would cut the motifs from and use in something and some stripes. I also got some great cinnamon colored solids that I will put some surface design on. I also found some newsprint fabric and tape measure fabric.

There were new vendors on ParkAvenue across from Bluegrass Honda—good stuff there! A really great hand dyer with wonderful shibori pieces. A wonderful “black/white and one other color” challenge was hung in there as well as two solo quilt exhibits. Of course, the quilts at the show were great as usual. It was interesting listening to people comment about certain ones. One comment was that one person “cheated” by painting ovals on her quilt instead of appliqueing them. (Of course, I loved it.) Others were surprised at the choice of Best of Show. There were several whole cloth quilted pieces that had been painted or inked after the quilting, and I thought they were quite stunning.

I was hoping I would find some Adirondack Dabbers for sale there, but was unable to locate them. I did find some Adirondack paints in these yummy colors…Butterscotch, Raisin, Denim, Terra Cotta, Eggplant and Bottie..and the price was VERY good. I have some little wooden daubers I can use with them.

I probably can’t say enough about our stay at the Drury Inn and Suites. They provided a wonderful dinner and breakfast for us. It was awesome. And of course, to get to spend the time with good friends from back home is totally awesome too. Now that all of my running around is done, I can get back to “normal life”. I have a baby quilt waiting for me to finish quilting, then I have an art festival next weekend. I am looking forward to that and hoping it won’t be hot or rainy. I’m not asking for much, eh?

Another One?…..And off to Paducah We Go

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’.

Earthquake

I just want to let people know who may be trying to reach me or who read my blog that we are just fine here outside of Carmi. We did feel the earthquake in West Salem and there have been aftershocks, but there is no damage at our house. I have had several phone calls this morning. They said at first it was a 5.4 quake, but have since changed it to 5.2. Email me for any more information!

Thursday Night Playtime

I have been doing some playing tonight. The stamps are made from Pentel erasers as well as the erasers that Dick Blick sells. Some of the stamps are EZ cut block and MasterCarve. You all should be surprised that I have a partially finished piece to show, because I sure am! After doing surface design, sometimes it takes me a long time to put a piece together. My brain is, like, satisfied to just create cloth. But my husband is gone for the evening and I have kept working. Also, this is small. I have lately been wanting to do some more journal pieces. I stamped white cloth with several layers and colors. Boy do I love the new Adirondack dabbers. Talk about convenience. Ya’ gotta try them. I think I will be getting more colors. The flowers, for now, are paper. I printed the photo on silk but the colors didn’t come out as vivid as the paper. This will give you an idea of where I’m going with this. Not sure about a name yet, but I am thinking garden something. The background definitely reminds me of a greenhouse or floral shop…or someone’s garden. I used pigment inks, acrylic paint (the dabbers), and colored pencils on cotton to create the background cloth. Ciao!

I’m Baaaaack…….

Chicago Festival was wonderful as usual.  It was also tiring because I was working a booth, but then there are the perks.  I spent too much at one particular booth….thanks for all your stuff, Betty!  Embellishment Village is where I spent quality time.  I got to meet Kathy Arnett, Patty Van Huis-Cox, Judy Coates-Perez, Julaine Lofquist-Birch (hope I’m spelling that one ok), Mary Jo Lawrence, Jane Aldoretta, Gail Tyler and Mary Bajcz.  I met Peg Keeney and Desi Vaughn and they talked me into joining SAQA, which I had been thinking about anyway.  Some people I met at that booth where I spent so much money, some I met at the Quiltart/SAQA reception and some I met in the Make It and Take It University area where everyone was having so much fun learning something new. I met up with Virginia Spiegel again and Barb Parady.  I met new people while I was eating lunch.  I even chatted a bit with Laura Murray while she was on a much deserved break.  What a nice lady.  Everyone is quite nice.

But it’s good to be home.  I have been gone a week.  When we got back from Festival, I had a lecture/slideshow and workshop scheduled with the Heartland Quilt guild in Wood River, IL.  That went well and now I am back home with tons of things to do.

But first things first!!…Virginia showed me the correct way to use the linoleum cutter to make stamps.  I could not WAIT to get home and start making stamps.  So here is what I have been up to in the wee hours this morning.  Too much FUN!!!!

I like organic shapes, leaves, bushes, stems, trees, and geometric patterns like grids, but I like them a bit funky.  I am using my new acrylic paint dabbers by Adirondack in Lettuce and Espresso (yumm…) as well as some distress ink and my new Cat’s Eye ink stacks.

To close…the sunshine on a red bush in my neighbor’s yard caught my eye this morning.  View from my back patio door…hasta luego (see ya’ later)!

Busy, Busy…

I feel like I am set on “run” all the time these days. I got home from the Decatur show in time to get ready to leave again! In between I have picked up some more dyeing work that needs to be done pronto. I had a class last Saturday in Evansville and now I’m getting things packed and another class planned so that I can leave again. I am leaving early in the morning for Chicago. We have a stop to make on the way and then will be setting up the booth for SuznQuilts, Booth #1844 at Festival. I will be attending the Quiltart/SAQA reception on Friday evening. If anyone recognizes me, please say hi and introduce yourself. I don’t know many of you.

This is NOT me at the moment.

We will arrive back in the Edwardsville area on Sunday night, but I will be staying over a couple of days. I am giving my lecture/slideshow, “Metamorphosis: From Traditional Quilter to Art Quilter”, to the Heartland Quilt Guild in Wood River on Monday night. On Tuesday for the same guild, I will be teaching a Machine Quilting workshop. Then I will come home and stare at the wall for a day or so! I am usually very tired when I get home from one of my “excursions”. It’s like it sucks all the energy out of me! My brain is overloaded too.

Metamorphosis:

From Traditional Quilter

to Art Quilter

And of course, there is no time to be in the “studio” (a.k.a. the 9’x9′ shrinking sewing room) with all of this coming and going. I did manage to carve a couple of stamps and bought some new stamp pads, one of those cat’s eye stacks. They do have some ink on them! Then I stamped a piece of paper and played a bit. Then I decided to color in some of the spaces. Just playing. I need it. That’s how I make new discoveries and new work comes about. When my husband accuses me of playing around…he’s right…but I’m playing with a purpose!

The first weekend of May I have the Arts In Harmony festival to set up for. I am hoping to have some new pieces completed for that. There are a couple of pieces that have been sitting on the “design wall” (a.k.a. the flannel backed tablecloth, flannel side out), and I plan to finish them; they have been there long enough. Time for a change of view!