Good Mail

I am totally a "jeans and a t-shirt" kinda gal. I was browsing Etsy, as I am known to do, and I was looking for images of chairs. I like chairs. I found a couple of superfantastic t-shirts with images of chairs. Since my paypal account was padded with sales from my own etsy shop, I had to spend spend spend.

The shirts in the "aMuse" shop really caught my eye. Get it? It's like "amuse" meaning to make laugh, but also "a muse" meaning one who inspires. Genius. And then I read this incredibly witty profile for the shop and the sisters who design and do the screen printing. So, of course I had to order.

Look at the delightful packaging. So fun!

The green shirt is called "to each their own." It's got five figures reaching for wonderful stuff floating about in the air: a bee, a leaf, a paper clip, a mug and an origami crane. Hello?! Love. Love bugs, love nature, love office supplies, love coffee and love paper art!

The black shirt is simply called "chairs." Why is it that I'm drawn to these chair images? I'm not sure.

There were wonderful handmade goodies tucked in with the order: a screen printed notecard, hand sewn fabric and paper tags and a bookmark! I must say, I got size medium shirts and they are a bit slim, but I'll pour myself into them and avoid putting them in a hot dryer.

Anyway, Yeah for handmade stuff and gals starting their own little businesses!

This and That

First
Was it just me, or were the Academy Awards incredibly boring and uneventful? Other than...



hearing the stars of the amazing little indie film, Once, sing their nominated song. You can watch the video of the song here. It's wonderful. And then seeing them win! And then having Jon Stewart bring her back after the commercial break to say her own thank yous! I'm getting goosebumps just writing it. That's the real deal. Just charming.

Second
Luckily, even though the Oscars were uneventful and boring, the eclipse from earlier in the week was EXCITING.


We went out at about 6:50 and it was totally cloudy. But we went out 20 minutes later and the low layer of clouds was drifting quickly enough for us to catch glimpses of the moon with our own shadow creeping across.

You can imagine Claire and Benjamin in the foreground of this picture skipping up and down the sidewalk in their pjs. We went out every 20 minutes until about 9 pm. We talked about how frightening it must have been for people thousands of years ago before they knew the ways of the universe.

Third

I see Joshilyn Jackson's new book The Girl Who Stopped Swimming is now available on Amazon even though it's not supposed to be released until March 4. I just may have to give the local Barnes and Noble a call to see if they have it because it will be quicker to go buy it than to wait for it to be shipped. Her first two books are so outstanding that I won't even hesitate to pay full price even in hardback. That's saying something.

Updates!

Last week was just weird. I was in an odd spot between healthy and sick, winter and spring, interested and bored. I got some things done, but I didn't feel productive. This week must be better.

I did get my website updated. Hooray! The amazing Holly took all my jumbled thoughts, words and pictures and put them all in the right spots. I've added some pieces to my gallery. I've also defined some workshop offerings more clearly. Yes! I'm eager to book a workshop and/or lecture for you and your group. Email me for details.

I also added several pieces to my Etsy shop. My how-to book "Small Art Quilts: Designing a Series" is still there. I'll be doing a third printing soon. There are still copies of the "5 Artists: 5 Views" collection. New pieces included lots of fiber post cards. I think Orange Duck is my favorites.

Quack!

Under the Weather

I am so not 100% this week. I don't know what it is. Just a cold, I suppose. All the "sniffling, sneezing, coughing, achy, stuffy-head, fever" stuff. It means I haven't been blogging. Or making art. Or cooking meals. I have gone on field trips and attended two kids' birthday parties. I promise I washed my hands and really tried not to spread germs. And I didn't even ask to hold the super cute little baby that was in attendance at one of the parties.

So I have nothing new to report. I'll just send you over to my sister's blog so you can see some pictures of me and her when we were kids. Mostly pictures of her, it is her blog after all. There are pictures of her husband too. It should be a good reminder not to give your kids ridiculous haircuts.

You can also visit another newish blog by one of my friends who is a witty writer. Her blog is "Kills Houseplants." She's wondering if anyone is actually reading her blog. You should.

New Work

This piece has been completed for a few weeks. I'm not sure why I haven't posted it yet. I think I just needed to soak it in. So, I guess it's soaked.

It's called Construction: Concrete and Stone. It's 50 x 40." (Gigantic! The biggest work I've done in a long long time other than the long skinny piece which was only big in one direction, so it still felt small in a way.)

You saw some in-progress and detail shots of this piece last month. Here is a finished detail.

The piece came together quickly. I knew what I wanted to do and I kept working until it was done. It came together in about three weeks, I think. I don't work in the studio "full time," so three weeks would be a long time for some artists, but I work in between lots of other responsibilities. (In fact, we had a bunch of house guests during the making of Construction.)

I came across a wonderful quote in D Magazine in a profile about a local painter. Jacques Lamy said, "I believe in speed. If you know where to go, you should not have hesitation." A brilliant statement. Putting it into action: not so easy.

Part of the reason Construction came together quickly is that I used a composition from an earlier work.
This is Branch Out #1. It's just 11 x 10." I created it in a workshop with Melody Johnson in 2005. The concept of the workshop was creating small, medium and large elements and then putting them together in various compositions. You can see the rest of the Branch Out series here. Melody also suggested that if a piece was particularly successful in a small size, it should be made larger. I scoffed. "I like to work small." Ahem. Three years later, the concept came rushing back to me as a genius solution.

I took out the tree icons and just used the very basic, rectangular shapes and the idea of layering to create the new piece.

Here are some random wide shots so you can really see the difference in size in these two pieces. Here's my terribly ghetto photo set up for Construction.
And here is Branch Out #1 hanging in my studio. (The tiny one on the top in the center.) You recognize Sonji's icons on the bottom?

I have sent off my images and paperwork for Tactile Architecture 2008. I don't enter to many shows, so it feels like an accomplishment to complete the work, feel confident in its execution and send it off into the world.

Construction was inspired by the experience of having our homes built here in Texas and in Maine. The cobblestone section in the middle is all Maine. In fact, the purply fabric under the stones was a Christmas gift from my Maine friend, Sarah. The other sections make me think of piles of 2 by 4s, wide slabs of concrete and contractors wearing jeans and listening to Spanish radio stations. I had to put that all into words for my artist's statement. For this show, it seems they jury heavily on both the work and the statement. It really has to be about "architecture." Of course, jurors have their own vision and I'm not sure my work will inspire them. That's fine.

I've got to sew sleeves on several quilts in the next couple of weeks. This quilt will get a sleeve and go right up on the wall in my studio. I hope you'll come visit.

Happy Valentine's Day

We had a lovely day. It was special... but not too far out of the ordinary, which is just fine with me.
After the kids left for school, I made cookies while chatting on the phone. I suppose you could say they are "linzer hearts," really, they are just Pillsbury sugar cookie dough, strawberry jam and powered sugar. Surprisingly, I was able to find two sizes of heart-shaped cookie cutters in the box of Play Do tools. They were delish (even though they aren't chocolate).

Dinner started with a little "hugs and kisses" tea sandwich appetizer.

I was making good use of that cookie cutter yesterday!

Flank steak, dilly bread and green beans with almonds for dinner. (You can probably enter dilly bread into the search at the top of this page for a recipe. I'm sure I've blogged about it before. Yum.) We toasted with wine glasses filled with milk and finished with hand-made cards, a new necklace, new books and a pile of dirty dishes.

Not all bad.

My efforts to plow through my "to do" list did not begin very well. Even my orange tennis shoes didn't help.
My landscape guy was supposed to show up at 9 am. I was folding laundry while waiting for him... and waiting and waiting. And then I was reviewing in my mind our phone conversation and I heard myself saying "9 am, Monday, Februray 18." Wait a minute!? 18? That's next week. No wonder he's not here yet. When I was speaking with him, I had my calendar open to next week, I was thinking Monday -- and I just disconnected on the date. Sigh. Anyway, I called him and we rescheduled for the afternoon.

So then I gathered my stuff to run errands including picking up the mugs. I looked at receipt and discovered that they are closed on Mondays. Grumble. Apparently, Mondays are all wrong for me. Cross that off the list.

Then I went to return library books and pick up a book I had on hold. I couldn't find it on the hold shelf. I asked the library to help me out and she told me it was reserved at the other branch location. Jeez!

I did find success at the post office. I'm stumbling on the Tactile Architecture artist's statement. I had a good run at the grocery store and I even remembered my canvas tote bags. The birthday party location will be fine. Now I just have to get Benjamin to make a good guest list. The Lent Dinner Theater was also quite nice.

I also squeezed in a trip to the bookstore to buy Valentine's gifts for the kids. Look what I found!

Zen Ties. A sequel to the brillant, award-winning, Zen Shorts! I haven't actually read it yet. I think I bought it more for myself than for the kids. (I bought Valentine's themed Scooby Doo and Nancy Drew books for them.)

I also set the table for our family candle light dinner to celebrate Valentine's day.
I'm hoping to be equally productive today. But I've already gotten sucked into reading tons of blogs, so it's not starting off too well. Maybe I should try different shoes.

Today

I am telling myself that I will have a productive day if I complete all the mundane items on my to do list.

Fold a mountain of laundry
Work on the paper work for my Tactile Architecture entry
Take the kids to get hair cuts
Pick up the mugs that we painted for my birthday
Mail an international order from my Etsy shop
Meet with a landscaping guy about doing something fabulous in the back yard
Return library books
Pick up a few neccessities from the grocery store
Check out a possible location for Benjamin's birthday party
Go to the Lent Dinner Theater at church tonight

Hopefully there will be something good to listen to on the radio while I'm driving all around town.

You were so right.

A few weeks ago I asked for suggestions on how to finish my small coffee cup art quilts. Many of you mentioned steam! Stitched steam? Steam with words in it? Tulle? I considered lots of options. I also wanted to add some words and I thought I'd try something new... rub ons!

I found a sweet little package of rub-on words in the tiny scrapbook section at the grocery store. Everything was marked way way down because they were eliminating the scrapbook section. I wonder who thought it was a good idea to sell that stuff right next to the cereal anyway. Odd.

Here is the little quilt, scissors, the rub-on and the rubbing tool (popsicle stick).
Earlier I was wiring some beads. That's why the pliers are there.

It worked pretty well. I'm not sure if it will stay forever, or if it's truly "archival," but I don't care. It's just a little piece of art to hang above the coffee maker, or wherever.And then the steam. I just cut a random piece of organza and stitch it down incorporating folds, curves and layers. I let the top hang over the edge of the border of the quilt.I like it. It's a lot sweeter than my usual style. But that's good sometimes, yes?
Here is another piece in the same style. I added a small metal embellishment to this one. And lots of steam. Wow. It must be really hot, be sure to blow on it before you take a sip lest you burn your tongue. These both were sent off as birthday gifts to two special people. I wish we could share a cuppa in person.

Conference

I went to a fabulous conference last weekend. The Texas Federation of Fiber Artists has a get-together every other year. It moves around the state. Dallas hosted this year.


The weekend kicked off with a fantastic gallery opening. The sign says "New Horizens in Fiber 2008." The piece on the far left is an amazing felted piece hung from a dramic metal frame. That's by Rhonda Douglass. And then there is Lu's ginko quilt. I'm not sure who made the third piece, but don't they all look amazing together?!
Fantastic flowers too, yes?


Another example of the gallery doing a beautiful job hanging works that really complement each other. The piece in the middle is Susie Monday's. I'm a big fan. (Susie blogged about the conference here.)

My Encrusted Cobblestones was in the show. I am really proud of this little quilt. (In fact, I'm working on developing a workshop using the techniques and design idea from this project. I used the same ideas for the chocolate piece. Scroll down to see that. I think it will be called "Layered Grid Fabric Collage." Email me if you're interested.)

If you're in the area, don't miss seeing the show. It's a wonderful collection of fiber art.

ArtCentre of Plano
New Horizons in Fiber
Through March 1
1039 East 15th St., Plano
Tuesday through Saturday 10 am to 5 pm

On Saturday we had two workshops! I took a silk dying and shibori class from Carol Lane Saber. It was just a three hour class, so really just a taste of the process.

We used large plastic cups in place of pvc pipe (er... bamboo) for our shibori.

Here is my silk in the dye.And here is the wet finished piece. Nice. It has potential, I think.Lu and Pam enjoyed the workshop too!I did try some clip dying too. Results: not great. But the clips are lovely.
My afternoon class was silk screening with Dawn Zero Erickson. (Dawn doesn't have a website?!) Here she is doing an example.

I've never done silk screening and I really enjoyed it. I tried lots of images on lots of different fabrics, including some of the silk I dyed in the morning. I guess I was so busy that I forgot to take pictures.

On Saturday evening we had a banquet with Joan Shulze as our keynote speaker. Joan is a quilter and a poet. I was really drawn to her idea of making visual haikus. She made a series of small collages using only what was on the work surface, or the floor, kept the design very spare and mounted the pieces with frayed edges and raw finishing. Lovely.

It was great to hang out with a bunch of other fiber artists and explore new ideas and techniques. It was good motivation to continue to develop some workshops and find opportunities to spend more time with such fun people!

Hope

Yes we can.