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!

I started teaching a new class on threadpainting last night at Lynne's shop. I was actually better prepared for this one, having fused shapes onto background fabrics for them to practice beginning stitches on. They did well - they are all very good quilters, so that's no surprise. One of the students is particularly good and very fast. She will need to learn to slow down a bit, but I think next week when we move into making "real" stitches, she'll have to. I think it's a fun class and I think they'll be surprised at how well they will do and how much they will like it.

I finally got to Rocky Mount to see my quilt hanging in the Rocky Mount Arts Center (Imperial Centre). Steve drove and I was so happy that Keri and Abbie wanted to go with us. The building is an old tobacco warehouse that has been updated, but lots of things have been kept, like the old pipes and steam boiler, that give it so much charm. It's a very cool building

This is the sign you see when entering the gallery.

The gallery at the Arts Center is spacious and it was very well done. I was thrilled to see my quilt as one of the first pieces, hanging beside a painting the same size. They just looked so right - hanging there together. Judy Glover, from PAQA-South, also has a piece hanging in the show. Christine Zoller, whose work is fantastic, had a small, private wing to herself. Beautiful work.

This is so cool - mostly because I rarely get to see my work actually hanging in the show. It's a thrill to be juried into one, but then you just roll it up and ship it out and it's gone for a month or even a year, then it comes back. You have no interaction with it during that period. You don't know if it likes where it is hanging, whether the pieces on either side of it are playing nice with it, whether it is tucked away in some hidey hole where no one really notices it, or whether it is in a terribly lit place that makes it feel a bit woozy. You just don't know because you can't see it. It's always such a boon when someone from the Quiltart Digest attends a show and takes a photo for you, like my friend Karen did at the Schweinfurth last year. Speaking of the Schweinfurth, it's just about that time again...


So anyway, I think NC Forests Under Fire likes being next to this lovely painting. Maybe it thinks it's a firetruck. Color is right...

So here is a closeup. This was the second Forest Fire quilt I did. The first was totally practice and terrible, but I learned so much from that. Then I made this one and I learned even more. This was not right, as I saw it in my head. It was okay, but it wasn't just right. I have made the third and I think this one is just right. Unfortunately, I can't post it now because I'm waiting to hear if it is juried into the Journal Art Quilts project for the International Quilt Festival in Houston. I'll get that much anticipated email next week - Friday, I believe. Anxious.

There is a company called Artomat that bought up a bunch of old cigarette machines. They have placed them in very cool places, such as the Rocky Mount Arts Center, and they sell little boxes of art. Actually, you have to buy a token ($5.00) to purchase your little piece of art. Most of it is in a small box the size of a cigarette pack. Some of them have a little description above their slot that gives you a hint of what might be inside. Some of them are just a five dollar crap shoot. I bought a couple of tokens and gave Keri one. She got a cool block of wood (cigarette pack size) that had been painted and had a very simple, but cool, design drawn on it. I got this. I don't know who made it, but it was exactly right. Okay, I could have purchased a plate with the same design from the dollar store, but it wouldn't have come from an old cigarette machine with little boxes of hand-made art. And it wouldn't have been so serendipitously perfect.

We saw this lovely bit of roadside patchwork on the way back to Raleigh from Rocky Mount. I thought it had wonderful potential for an art quilt.

Back at Granny's and we had a lovely afternoon on the patio sipping wine and watching the hummingbirds fight over the feeder. Keri and Abbie and I played Scrabble and by then the wine was so relaxing that my brain went numb. I certainly didn't win. I didn't even come in second. But I really didn't care.

Steve's Mom and Abbie went up to Bridgehampton for Memorial Day and brought back several old quilts. Granny (Steve's mom) is 91 years old. Her grandmother made this quilt. It has some damage and shouldn't be used, but Abbie just wanted to show it to us. I would have told her sooner had I known we would be using it for our blanket. Needless to say, there weren't a lot of queen-sized beds back in the day this was made. We were both "short-sheeted". It's a lovely old piece and should be restored.

I didn't get to see my cutiepatootie Sarah over the weekend. She was with her dad. I really miss that little munchkin.

So - this weekend I have a ton of things to do. Seems August 22nd is the magic day this month. Receive the email from JAQ, get my Abstracts Dancing quilt ready to ship off on Monday to the Threadlines exhibit at the University of Missouri, get some good photos of one of my quilts to submit to the Schweinfurth (only one is the right size), and try to finish my piece for the PAQA-South Member's Show - Reflections. Not sure it's going to work, but I still have the vision, so I'm going to keep trying. Busy busy busy!