Long time no see!

And lots to catch up on too. I'm going into my second month in studio space at the MS Craft Center and it's absolutely wonderful. I have the best view from my 'office' window anyone could ever ask for. My fear of hitting a mental block hasn't materialized so far, and it's a wonderful experience to be around other artists to bounce ideas off of.

A few weeks ago I got an email asking me to be one of 15 local artists who have been invited to decorate a heart for the American Cancer Society's silent auction during the Heart and Soul Gala. I gladly accepted and immediately began trying to think of something to do with it. I knew I wanted it mounted on a quilt but I wasn't sure about the size or weight of it until after I actually had it in my hands. They are specially designed unfinished porcelain hearts and only 15 were poured. To be honest, I made 3 iterations of it before going back to my original design. I had initially resisted that one because it meant I had to paint the heart black and I wasn't sure how well that would go over, but I am happy with the result, especially after learning that only 2 of us had done anything with the heart besides just painting them. Ann (my studio mate) caged hers in some of her wire work and mine is mounted on an art quilt. As far as I know, ours are the only ones that hang. I have been assured they will figure out some way to hang them for the auction though, and not just have them lying on the table. The picture I took is of it lying on the table but that's because I forgot to get a picture of it before I delivered it. I frequently forget to take pictures of my work, and even had to run down to the gallery the other day to get photos of the stuff I have hanging there.

Our 3-woman show is still on for June and July at the Craft Center although I've done less than nothing as far as producing work for it. I'm still waiting on inspiration to strike, and if that doesn't happen I have no idea what I'll do, but one thing I'm sure of is that there will be SOMETHING hanging on the walls! I keep thinking if I can just get past this week I'll have the time (and room in my brain) to really think it through and get stuff made. I'm still leaning towards the rust stuff but that's about as far as I've gotten with the thought process. Good thing I work so fast!

The heart itself is about 7" wide. I forgot to measure the finished art quilt though. Maybe 24' wide?

Mardi Bra

As requested, and appropriate for just returning from New Orleans....Mardi Bra!

I can't find a picture of "C Food" with the fish net and seafood, but this is "See Cup", which I had forgotten about.

Shamarr Allen

Finished! 35x29, commercial batiks, organza and rust-stained muslin. Photo printing (all photos and text used by permission) stenciled, stamped, pieced, appliqued, echo quilted and faced. Assorted ribbon and embellishments.

Trunk Show - literally!

We had our Spring gathering for the MQA this past weekend (it went beautifully!) and after it was all over JJ Foley asked to see some of my work since I had neglected to bring anything for show and tell. JJ was our speaker Saturday morning and those of you who are unfamiliar with her work are really missing out on some beautiful stuff! http://drawnink.blogspot.com/ She brought "9 Pages" with her and it's even better up close than it is in photos. Isn't that always the case though? At any rate, after the gathering was over we walked out to my car so she could see some of my own work. We literally had a "trunk show" on the trunk of my car! Or maybe that would be a "trunk turning" perhaps?

Marilyn Dedeaux did a great presentation on her self-portrait quilts she's been doing since taking a Yvonne Porcella class and it was all I could do not to make her an offer on the blue and orange one! Shelley Taylor did a presentation on her memory/signature quilts and I noticed several people who have family weddings coming up gathered around her asking questions after her talk. She may turn into our resident signature quilt expert!

All in all, a great weekend. Good to see the people from around the state that I only see at the gatherings, lots of catching up and shopping and chatting. Very relaxed and no big crises cropped up so I call it a success!



And in other news, as of the first load this morning, I'll be moving into shared studio space at the craft center http://www.mscrafts.org/facility.html to be up and working in the studio by Feb 21. I'm excited and nervous. Excited at the opportunity offered, but nervous that I'll hit a complete mental block about what to do once I get there. I love talking about my work and explaining how I do what I do, and I have no problem with people watching me work, I'm just worried about every design idea I've ever had flying out of my head with no new ones to take their place. I'm also excited at the idea of a real studio with things where they're supposed to be and enforced work time with no phones ringing or people needing something. I can just sit down and concentrate on what I'm doing without the distractions. I'm really looking forward to that aspect of it. Maybe I'll get my crap quota out of the way faster!



That's JJ Foley on the left and her daughter's mother-in-law in the middle. My mind is drawing a total blank on her name and the name of the other woman.

This photo was snapped by Myra Hester, and I should be flogged for neglecting to attribute it to her when I published it!

Quilt Tsushin magazine

The issue of Quilt Tsushin that we're featured in has finally arrived! Well, not arrived at MY house, but everyone else seems to have received their copy. I took pictures of "my" pages yesterday when I got to see Dorinda's copy. My fingers are crossed that mine will arrive shortly. We can't wait to find out what the article actually says either, but for now it's plenty exciting to just see photos of our work in an international magazine. I can't believe it's been so long since they were here doing the interview and photos either. Time flies and all that. It's a huge honor to be included in the same issue as Gwen Magee and I'm still sort of in a fog about that. Maybe after I have my own copy in my hot little hands it will seem more real to me. The colors are way off on a couple of the quilts, but I don't even care!!!

When I get my copy, I'll be able to scan the pages instead of photograph them so the pictures won't have the flash reflection.

New Year

Yesterday was our 25th wedding anniversary. Over half my life! We had a great, relaxing day, my horrible cold and general yuckiness notwithstanding, then out to eat and home in time to watch LSU in a complete blow-out over GA Tech. Nice way to end the evening. I woke up cold about 12:30 this morning, grabbed a quilt and rolled over to go back to sleep, then I realized it was completely silent and dark. No streetlights, no red numbers from the alarm clock, no music, no heat, no power. Also, no corded phone anywhere close to call Entergy with and I wasn't getting out of bed to go get it. My solution of course was to grab another quilt and move closer to my hub and cat pile to get warm and hope the power came back on soon. We finally gave up about 6:30 and decided to go out for breakfast after Entergy told us power would be back on by 7:30. Not. It finally came back on about 9:00 and the house isn't warm yet. I'm still in my coat and my toes and fingers are like icicles. We have a restaurant style Bunn coffee maker that has a reservoir of water that stays hot all the time, and of course the water in the reservoir had cooled overnight so we had a pot of cold coffee when the power did come back on. At least the microwave came back on too.

The way I see it is we're getting the bad luck out of the way first thing and the rest of the year is going to be great!!! Corned beef and cabbage with black-eyed peas and sausage on the menu for later to guarantee it!

The ultimate MS State joke

and unfortunately, it isn't a joke. This is a picture we took of the jumbotron during my oldest daughter's college graduation a couple of weeks ago. Six years of tuition to send her to a school where they can't spell "exercises." Sort of sad, isn't it?

As far as I'm concerned, State deserves every bad joke Ole Miss can come up with.

Gumbo and Jake

Gumbo (coolest cat in the world) and Jake the dog. It's pretty amazing these two get along as well as they do since they were introduced to each other when they were both a couple of years old. We got Gumbo (coolest cat in the world) as a kitten and didn't get Jake until a couple of years later, and he was already about 3 years old when we got him. Gumbo (coolest cat in the world) doesn't make any sound, he just makes the mouth movements that look like he should be meowing. He can also open the front door by himself, which totally wigs people out when they're sitting there and the door flings open and in walks the cat. We're working on teaching him to close it behind him but he's apparently a slow learner. We also have a black lab and 2 other cats. They're all pretty laid back and fight less than the kids ever did. One of the funniest things they do is that (my sweet baby) Boo Radley (kitty) will grab Jake around the snout with his little kitty arms and Jake flips his head up with Boo hanging on. That's great sport for them to do that, at least until they start knocking stuff over wrestling around. Boo is pretty entertaining all by himself, racing through the house and flopping around. He also comes on command, but none of that wussy "here, kitty, kitty" crap for him. I just holler "Boo Radley" at him and he comes flying and talking. If it weren't for the fact that he had long, jet black fur you'd think he had some Siamese in him for all the talking he does. He's very skittish around people, but very affectionate towards me. He also loves being a cat more than any other cat I've ever seen. The whole running and jumping and swatting and playing thing is great fun for him. He races me through the house (skidding on the wood floors) leaping over things on the way from my work room to the kitchen, and when he beats me into the kitchen, he flops (that's not an exaggeration either...you can actually hear him hit the floor) down in front of me like he's accomplished something special. He also spends about half his time on his back legs, like a squirrel. He comes to the side of my chair and sits up to be petted, sits up to swat at stuff, and sits up to play with his fox and rabbit. A real fox and rabbit, both from vintage stoles, that look pretty freaky to see him toting them around like trophies until you get used to it.

Ignore the fact that the rug needs vacuuming too.

Finally!

Some actual fabric-related content. Two finished tops that have to be quilted, but at least the tops are done. No idea what possessed me to make these, since I don't usually do fussy, pieced, precise measurement quilts, but they are what they are.

The one with the red is about 45x45 and uses a variety of commercial prints and a square of an African print on a background of Osnaburg. I'm thinking they'll both have very heavy quilting in a matching color and straight lines. Of course, that may change once I start quilting them, but for right now that's my intention. Lots of straight lines and angles for the quilting. You probably can't see it, but the WIDE borders are mitered at the corners, so at least the borders will probably be channel quilted in squares around the outside.

The one with the shiny insets is the Osnaburg again, with a beautiful gold/black block printed ribbon. Each piece of ribbon is surrounded by small black piping, and the small stripes on the left are more piping. The heavier vertical line is an even thicker piping. Top and left edges will have Osnaburg binding, bottom and right edges will have black binding. This one looks MUCH better in person than it does in the picture. It is about 36x45.

Merry Christmas!

HO HO HO! Or whatever sound flamingos make.

Life is........

"Good" is usually the end of that phrase and for the most part that's true, but occasionally, well, "life" interferes and other adjectives take the place of good. Interesting, expensive (in an emergency-visit-to-the-vet sort of way), funny, expensive (in a truck-that-crapped-out sort of way), exhausting, expensive (in a more-was-wrong-with-the-truck-than-they-originally-thought sort of way), exciting and expensive (in a daughter's-broken-tooth sort of way) are all appropriate adjectives this week.



My oldest daughter (not of aforementioned broken tooth fame) graduated from college Friday night in Starkville. She's not actually through with school, but she walked across the stage in the long black dress and got the empty diploma holder. I have no idea why they "walk" before they actually finish school, but I'm not complaining. I'm definitely pushing for the others to time their graduations for the Dec ceremony rather than the May one. Fewer people parading across the stage, less traffic to fight to get to the auditorium and plenty of seats. We got the obligatory pictures of her holding up the empty diploma folder (to be photoshopped at will later) with the tape measure and shots of full face and profile. Yeah, mugshot was the scenario on those. I'm just hoping my parents or sister got real photos instead of the silly ones we were taking. Not hoping for our sake, we're perfectly happy with the mugshots, but down the road somewhere she'll probably be glad to have nice pics of it too. Or not, knowing her. She wanted to dye her hair fuchsia to graduate but my mom stroked out so I caught the daughter and stopped her. Fortunately, I got to her before application of the neon dye, but unfortunately, I didn't get to her until after she'd already stripped and bleached the front of it preparing to dye it. She didn't look horrible with the bright yellow stripes on the sides of her face. Or maybe it wasn't horrible because the hat covered it up.



If she had decided to get a 3-toed sloth tattoo on her right cheek I'd have been OK with that too. She deserves it after all her hard work over the years. Way to go, baby!!!!!

Let it snow....and sleet, and rain, and get nasty....

Another reason I love the Kroger

This is a wall hanging I made for my mother yesterday. You'll notice that the red burlap backing is a different color in the second picture. Once I got it to her house and we decided where to hang it, the red was way too harsh so I mixed up a concoction of instant coffee and some wine colored Rit liquid dye and just sponged it on the exposed edges. A HUGE improvement on it. Of course, the original picture is pure crap since I just shot it on the way out the door and didn't look at it before leaving.

The piece is made with a paper grocery bag from the Kroger that I wet, wadded up and ironed dry. Then I used acrylics to paint on it, fused interfacing to the back and then sprayed with water, wadded and ironed again. I ironed from the front side this time to get the crackly looking effect on the paint. The whole thing was then painted with a brown poly wood stain and fused to the burlap.

Jute hanger, wooden clothespins at the top and 3 rust-colored bells with a little piece of greenery and a tiny plaid bow finish off the hanging loop.

She loves it and I'm happy with it, so it's all good. And I had so much fun playing with it that I think I'm going to do one for myself. Maybe a snowman so I can work some blue into it.

mystery solved!

The pattern is apparently called "peony" (some slight variations, i.e. pineys, paeony) and it is a variation of a Lemoyne Star block. Thanks to everyone who responded to my plea for help. It set me off on the right path to identify the block.

The Carolina Lily pattern that was suggested is very close, but it lacks the last 2 petals/leaves of a true Lemoyne Star/peony. The setting with the stems and vase are typical of the Carolina Lily, but the piecing is different. The leaves on the antique quilt are also pieced diamonds, not applique as most Carolina Lily patterns seem to be.

Antique quilt

The Craftsmen's guild had three antique (I'm using 'antique' in the generally accepted definition as signifying 100+ years old) quilts donated recently, and I'm trying to identify the specific pattern used on this one. It's obviously a tulip pattern of some description set on point and is hand pieced, with machine applique stems. Those are the tiniest machine stitches I've ever seen, too. Hand quilted in a Baptist fan pattern, and only one small area about 2x4 inches is missing the quilting stitches.

The green has faded a tremendous amount, based on the non-faded seam allowances, but the red shows very little change in color. The single-fold green print binding is completely worn through all the way around, but as a whole the quilt is in surprisingly good condition. The backing is maybe a homespun? So thin, with a such a loose weave, it almost looks like cheesecloth or drapery scrim at this point. There are areas of quilting where green thread was used but the vast majority of it was done with matching off-white. A couple of mends on the backing, a big round applique and a couple of smaller darned areas, but they are quilted with the original quilting so I'm assuming the fabric was repaired before being used. One pretty bad mildew-y looking spot towards the middle of it and some smaller rusty looking stains but all in all, a very pretty quilt. Total size is 78"x82".

Any information on the block pattern or fabrics or anything else about this quilt or time period would be greatly appreciated.

Finally! Pictures!

I finally got around to (finding the camera) (charging the batteries) (getting stuff together) taking some pictures of current stuff. These are 2 postcards and a quilt that I've done in the last few days. The first postcard is thread painting on batik, with tiny little Christmas ornament musical instruments. I love when Christmas rolls around so I can find all the cool music stuff. Miniatures and larger ones, although I don't ever really have a need for harps, lyres and French horns.

The second postcard is commercial print fabric with guitar strings and a pick. Both are 4"x6" and are intended as thank you gifts for friends.

The quilt is 28"x40" and I used a Loni Rossi commercial print and black. I'll win the lottery one day and buy a couple of bolts of the Michael Miller black too. I go through that stuff like toilet paper. You can still see the chalk quilting lines but I haven't washed it yet. This one has a facing rather than a binding because I wasn't happy with any configuration of any color binding showing at all. I'm using the facing more and more on my stuff and it's no longer the last option I consider. I don't like the pillowcase method at all and the facing gives the same effect with a different technique. 'Gye Nyame' got counted off for binding technique at the quilt show the year she won the big honking prize even though she also has a facing. Just one of those confusing comments that make you wonder if the judges are even looking at what they're grading. Or maybe if the scribes are a couple of quilts behind in the notes. My favorite comment this past show was "border needs more quilting." On a quilt that has no border. I've always thought it interesting that judges make comments like that to begin with, since it's a judgement call by the quilter for what effect they want to produce. It's about on a par with "I don't like that color" as far as useful critique. That partly explains why I tend to submit to art shows more and more rather than quilt shows.

Happy Birthday!

To me! Monday was my 49th birthday and I spent 3 absolutely wonderful days in New Orleans with no plans other than to enjoy myself. And I did! Spent some time in the quarter doing pretty much nothing, then ate, then hanging with one of my best friends and catching up on life and stuff. An incredibly relaxing, rejuvenating evening. Got up the next morning and checked out some of the prospect.1 stuff then off to the Rosetree glass blowing studio over in Algiers. Mark (the owner) was working on some large vases so I got to watch him blow glass for an hour or so, then visited with his wife for a while in the showroom. He does the most gorgeous work and I wanted one of each. http://www.rosetreeglass.com/ One of the best things is the studio itself. It's in an old movie theatre and it is so freaking cool. Go read his story (history link on the website) about getting through the storm too.



Katy and I spent the rest of the day screwing around on Magazine street window shopping in the rain, no less, and then a grabbed a bite to eat. Headed out to a bar eventually and avoided a fight with the pool league players then off to Frenchmen st to finish up the evening (morning?) before heading back to her place. I can't remember the last time I laughed that much either.



The weather was perfect, the company was perfect, and my batteries got recharged. Good to know that my muse still lives there. I came home with several ideas for designs and I'll let them sit in the back of my mind until they develop, but the NO inspired pieces are usually some of my favorites when they finally come to fruition. Something about the colors and line and movement really seem to wind up being good pieces. Everyone should have a specific 'trigger' like that for designing. It's my guaranteed cure for artist's block.



Now that I got the minication out of my system, it's time to get some work produced! I have to have new stuff to hang at New Stage in Jan and I mostly have pieces of pieces right now. Maybe getting a plan as to what to do next would help. Cut the fabric for a new piece or finish some of what I've already started, or quilt what I've already finished? Decisions, decisions.

Maybe at least one picture later today of a piece that's almost finished.

And more than 10 days!

I have no idea how time gets away from me like it does. I look back and think "where did the time go, and why don't I have anything to show for it?" I did manage to crank out a bunch of non-fiber Christmas ornaments to put at ARTichoke this week, and I got a quilt top done today, along with 2 more designs in my head. The ornaments were cute and I had fun taking a bunch of light bulbs apart to make them. Other than that, I've been pretty useless. We headed down to see Cassandra Wilson last weekend but after just a couple of hours it got a bit chilly so we headed home. I love her music so I hated wimping out like that.

When I took the quilt over to the casino, I stopped in at the Attic Gallery in Vicksburg and wound up leaving 4 pieces with them. One sold within just a couple of days so that was good. The gallery itself is so very cool too! I could spend hours in there just poking around at all the great art they have. Stacked, piled, leaned, puddled everywhere. I was in heaven for the 2 or so hours I spent just looking. Lots of local and regional artists and folk art, craft, outsider, all kinds of cool stuff.

My oldest child is so sick of the incompetence at MS State that she now says she's ashamed it will even have that name on her degree. For a child who loves learning and is going into the education field, it says a lot that they are so bad she feels that way about them. At least they haven't turned her off of teaching (yet) just student-ing. Who knows how the other 2 are doing. Our usual conversations go something like this:

ME: How are you doing in your classes?

THEM: OK as far as I know

ME: How do you not know what your grades are?

THEM: Well, I had a test a couple of weeks ago and I passed it.

ME: What about the rest of your classes?

THEM: Can you deposit some money in my account please?

Occasionally, there is some variation in the first 5 lines of that conversation, but the 6th always rolls around eventually. I'll just be happy for the day that one of them, any one of them, finally graduates.

If there is anyone in existence with a more mundane life than mine, I'm glad I don't know them. They're probably the most boring person on the planet.

10 days!

Time flies! I've been busy painting fabric and more fabric. I started out doing my own thing and then I was invited to an artist demo at ARTichoke next Saturday. I wanted to do a make it and take it thing so I asked if I could do some fabric painting with the visitors. Of course, that means I have to get a bunch of samples (and small things to sell!) ready. Hence my awakeness at 4:00 am. It takes a while for the paint to dry so I do a piece, set it aside to dry and start on another piece. I have 3 or 4 pieces in varying stages of paint/dry all over the house and as soon as I deem them done, I'll get started on the construction. I'm thinking checkbook covers, placemats, table runners and journal covers. We'll have small pieces of fabric and plenty of house paint available for the visitors to create their own masterpieces on this Saturday. If anyone is in Jackson and wants to come play with us, it's from 10-2 at ARTichoke on Fortification St, between Jitney 14 and New Stage.

I have to deliver 'Piano Tornado' to the casino in Vicksburg tomorrow so it will be hanging when the casino opens. I'm not sure when the grand opening is though. The weather has been so nice the last couple of days I'm sort of looking forward to the short roadtrip. I hope it stays nice through the weekend too, since I'll be working outside for the demo.

Another post!

Can y'all believe it? Two posts in three days! I've been having fun with the fabric painting stuff that (hopefully) will eventually become whole-cloth pieces. Or maybe I'll just keep painting fabric and then have a stack of painted fabric and no quilts. I'm sort of stuck on the graphic stuff right now, but I can feel the Jackson Pollack coming soon. I like the geometrics but I have to restrain myself from getting more and more non-geometric as I'm working on them. When I get to the point that I want to just do it freehand, I stop and call it finished. It's a bit hard to force myself to keep it graphic looking, but I think it's good practice to work on pure abstracts. Line and shape and color are much more important. Maybe another 1 or 2 of these, then it's off to the freeform abstracts. I'm looking forward to the comparison between the 2 styles when I get enough to compare.

I added a little more red to the first one, and did the second one this morning. I like the second one much better.