Sunday, September 21, 2008

New projects

Well, after doing all the regular house stuff yesterday, I managed to start something fun that I didn't have to make. It's a house that Jane Davila showed how to make in Quilting Arts magazine. I wanted to try one and it was so cool. I was using copper metallic thread and ran out yesterday. I was pretty bummed about not beign able to finish it, but then thought - "This is practice. I can use other thread." So today I finished it and I plan to make more.
The roof came out a little wonky because I didn't make it exactly the size Jane gave instructions for. But now I know what to do. Also - she didn't suggest zigzagging off the edges - but I did that and I like it better.


I've finished all but one of the birthday cards I need for the remainder of 2008, but can't post most of them here because who knows who might be lurking? But I can post this one that I made for Steve for our anniversary because he's already seen it. It doesn't show up well in this picture, but it has some foil on it. Those blobs on the sides. This is the Chinese character for Love - or as close as I could replicate it.

Our anniversary is Wednesday - the 24th. We'll be married 14 years. Seems so much shorter. We're going out to eat at La Carretta - Mexican restaurant.

Friday we're going to the opening reception of the PAQA-South Member's Show at the Page Walker Arts & History Museum in Cary. We're staying at Granny & Abbie's til Sunday morning so we can visit and not just run in and out. Hopefully we'll get to see Sarah, too. Keri took her to a neighborhood carnival yesterday and she got to ride a pony. I didn't get to join them, but Keri sent me some photos. Looks like she was having a blast!

Hopefully there will be more photos of our Cutie Patootie next week. Can't wait!

Thursday, September 18, 2008

The Cube Gallery

I decided, since I don't hang my quilts at my house (no available wall space) that I would bring them to work and hang them in the cube farm, thus "The Cube Gallery". Also, I am preparing to send 3 of them off to shows, so this has given me an opportunity to see them all hanging around the office.

Here we have the outside of my cubicle, just to the left of the entrance. My "Self Portrait", the "Threadpainted Butterfly", and the "Lichen Tree". Our Deputy Director wants my "Self Portrait" because she says it feels like her. I suggested she give me some adjectives, likes, attitudes, other things and let me make one of/for her. She wants a larger one, anyway. She still likes mine so I will likely make one similar, but larger.


Here is the long wall outside my cube. From left to right we have "The Stories of Women Are Told In Their Hands" (which now 3 people have wanted to buy, but it hasn't even been entered in a show yet!), "Angel of Grief: A New Dawn for the People of New Orleans", my fake mola "Two Ducks, Two Lizards, and the Sun" (or something like that), "Steve's Trout", "Psychedelic Steve", and "Welcome Sarah". Interspersed are some postcards.


This shows the second section of cubes and it holds "Eye of the Gull", "Parrot Head", and "Paradise", which is the other piece the Deputy Director wants. yay! I will take it home and put a sleeve on it so she can hang it when she takes it home.


This is a not-well-known Matisse called "Coffee" that I recreated in fabric in Marilyn Belford's "Artist's Revisited" class several years ago. This is hanging outside Sinthia's cube. Sinthia is one of the people who wants my "Stories of Women" piece, so I suggested to her that she get someone to take photos of the hands/arms of who she wants in it and we will make one of her family. She loves that idea. She also wants me to make a piece for a friend's wedding present. Wow. 2 commissions and 2 sales! And another person was asking about the cards. I think the cards are great and a fabulous value - a little piece of art for next to no investment.


I thought this piece that I made in Lyric's demonstration at the retreat in Charlottesville would brighten up the fax area and give people something to look at while they are waiting to send or receive a fax.



And last, but not least, my fun convergence piece really brightens up my cube. I really like this here.
So, tonight I am taking them all home to put sleeves on those without (we all know how tedious it is to sew the sleeves and put labels on, so we don't do it until we have to). Then they'll be ready for whomever decides they can't live without them.
Terri, the Director, also said she wants two pieces in the hallway by her door - a rotating gallery. We can put slats in the back with that 3M tape that doesn't destroy the walls/paint and if it's on the slat, it won't hurt the quilt, either. What a great opportunity for exposure. I'm feeling very appreciated right now.


This is one of the birthday cards I made last week. I can't say who it's for because she might read this. But the Director also really liked it and said she might have to have it. I can always make one more! 8>)
I'm hoping to have time to make a lot of Christmas cards and that they will sell here. Also, some not-Christmas cards that people might want to give as gifts - those little pieces of art! Gosh - I'd better get to work. I'm taking tomorrow off to get the PAQA-S quilts prepared and shipped and then the JAQ ready to send to Houston. After all they've been through with Hurrican Ike, and to have to worry about getting the International Quilt Festival up and going. Which reminds me, I still haven't got my NC Beaches piece back from last year's JAQ exhibit. I'm sure I will get it soon.
So - here's to another weekend of productivity! and to hoping hubby goes fishing Saturday!

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

PAQA-South & just fun

Had a good and productive period last weekend. I spent 5 1/2 hours cleaning out my studio on Saturday. Whew. I nearly filled the giant trash can that the city provides. But I can now walk in there and look around and breathe - and actually envision or think about beginning something. I managed to make LaTonda's baby card and got 2 Xmas & 2 birthday cards fused.
On Sunday I cleaned out the old raggedy tomato & pepper plants. I also harvested my tarragon and dried that in the food dehydrator. This coming weekend I'll tackle what's left of the basil.


I was pleased to learn last week that two of my pieces, "Welcome Sarah" (only part of which is shown here) and "Psychedelic Steve" , were accepted into this year's PAQA-South's members show. I did the receiving of entries & cataloging and there will be some really spectacular work in this exhibit. The opening reception is Friday night, September 26 and it will run until Wednesday, October 29th. Steve and I are going up for the opening reception and Keri and Abbie will also most likely attend. It will be great to see some of the PAQA-South members again. As well as Abbie, Keri, Sarah & Granny & the new puppy. Now to get them packed up and ready to ship, along with the NC Forests Under Fire II for the IQF in Houston. I haven't received my JAQ piece from last year, although others have posted that they have. I guess it'll be here soon.

The woman who quilted my beautiful bed quilt brought in this twelve-step plan that her husband began and she edited. He calls our classes "Quilters Anonymous", which isn't all that original, but they actually came up with the steps. It's pretty cute and funny.

Quilters Anonymous - For Help With Fabriholism
12 Steps
-
Jennifer Fouke

1. We: admitted we were powerless over fabric - that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could get us to finish our UFO's.
3. made a decision to turn our will, our lives, and our entire paycheck over to the local quilt shop.
4. made a searching and fearless fabric inventory and shopped for more.
5. admitted to ourselves, and to anyone who would listen, the exact nature of our quilting.
6. were entirely ready to buy a bigger house just to have our own quilting room.
7. humbly ask that no one talks about our cut-off star points.
8. made a list of all persons we could give our quilts to, and became willing to give them away...if we ever get around to finishing them.
9. made direct threats, whenever possible, to any husband who touches our quilting shears.
10. continued to take fabric inventory and when we needed more, promptly admitted it.
11. sought through prayer and meditation to improve our understanding of working on 20 projects at once.
12. having had a spiritual quilting awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to other fabriholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

I think it's perfect!

Tomorrow we are having a baby shower for a coworker who is having a girl. I will post photos after I give her the baby quilt. I also got her a crib blanket and beautiful little outfit with cap, top & pants. The top is long-sleeved, but she's not due til October and it could be a lot cooler then. Will post photos later.

Monday, September 1, 2008

Quilts, Family, & fun!

What a busy weekend, and what fun! First - I am totally thrilled that the queen-sized bed quilt top I put together last summer ('07) is finally on our bed! Jennifer - who is taking my Artquilt 101 classes - has a longarm and is an excellent stitchmaven and agreed to quilt it for me. It's absolutely gorgeous and Steve is thrilled. Of course, something had to be wrong and that was that he'd preferred it to be about 6" wider, but he's still very happy with it. So - my first bed-sized quilt top - Turning Twenty! Don't you know I'd choose the very easiest pattern? But the fabrics are sumptuous and the quilting is exquisite. Thanks Jen!


Now "we've" decided to make each of the kids one for Christmas next year ('09). Just have to find out the colors they want. Peter and Jill saw it and Peter said, "I want one!" So that's good.

I had fun one afternoon last week playing with Ricky Timms' Convergence technique. He showed how to do the simple version on one of the recent shows on The Quilt Show and I had a couple of hours to play. He showed using 2 fabrics, but his were hand-dyed with lots of variation in color. I used 3 hand-dyes (dyed by Lyric Kinard) and blended them a little differently than he suggested, but it was fun. It's so unlike anything I do that no one knew what to think of it. Couldn't figure out what it was supposed to be. Well, it's not supposed to be anything - it's just supposed to "be".


I finally got to see my Cutie Patootie Saturday and Sunday. We filled her little pool and put out the Dora sprinkler and she had a blast. She loves to sing and makes up songs about anything. So here she is singing at the Metropolitan Pool Opera:





What a ham. She's only 3, so maybe she will choose a profession in the entertainment field and make her mom rich!

We had our Labor Day cookout yesterday, Sunday, so everyone could go home after lunch and still have a good bit of the weekend left (including us). Granny and Abbie came from Raleigh Sunday morning and brought Katie, the Cockapoo puppy. She's about 14 weeks old and weighs about as much as a minute. Just a little tiny bit of fluff. Sarah totally fell in love with her, as did Keri and I.

We had a black Cockapoo for 13 years and she was such a sweetheart. I'm envious, but we don't have a fenced-in yard and live on a very busy street, with an even busier one one house up the street. Our Sugar got run over chasing a car on Christmas Eve in 1993. I can't do that again. One day maybe Steve and I will have our farm and a fenced in yard for a dog.
But she certainly is a heart-stealer.


And now the end of the holiday weekend draws to an end. Steve said we needed to treat ourselves tonight, so I went out and bought a lobster. Holy Cow! This baby weighs just a hair under 4 lbs! She's a monster, but she's going to be delicious!

So - when's dinner? 8>)