Wednesday, March 31, 2010

New Takes on Old Favorites

This is a detail of my Claddagh pattern that was co-designed with my mother, Ellen. I have loved this design from the beginning and yet the colors always seemed too light to me. Except for the red and the green, two of my favorite colors, I tend to like colors a bit darker. As my quilt design skills have grown, I have learned about myself, likes and dislikes, color schemes that make my heart sing.
I eventually made a second colorway for ME. This version makes the hands stand out better. I also used a 12 wt thread for the wording vs. having it blend into the background like the original. The only thing missing is the beadwork which gives it a different feel. Even without the beads, it is my favorite of the two and may need to be on the pattern cover for the next printing.

In the last couple of years with the growth of the variegated thread selections, I have learned that I truly enjoy redwork....I just don't always want to work in RED:) Sulky 12wt varieagated threads are just wonderful for this type of work. I am now going back through my patterns and seeing which ones I can turn into redwork.
This being one of my favorites, it became the guinea pig. So much fun and I can't wait to add the borders for this. I only used 2 different colors since the green was so wonderfully colored.
It is important for me to keep pushing myself in terms of ideas, techniques, and value. I want people who purchase from me to see the value in what they have spent their money on. There are more ideas than I have time for and not all of them make it to the pattern at the time of print so I hope my dear customers will come back often to see what is new.
Here is the original Claddagh with matching pillow (another way to use a pattern). For more about the history of the Claddagh you can read my post from March 2009.
I hope ideas are bouncing around in your head of a design that would look great in a new colorway or technique.






Friday, March 19, 2010

My Sunshine Award

Imagine my surprise one day when I was awarded the Sunshine Award by a fellow artist. Thank you, Delilah.
The Sunshine Award is an award given to blogs that have positive and creative blogging. The Rules for receiving the award are:
1. Post the Logo in a blog or on the sidebar.
2. Pass the award on to 12 bloggers that you follow.
3. Link the nominees with in your post.
4. Let the nominees know they have received the award by leaving a comment on their blog.
5. Share the love and link to the person who gave you the award.
Now I get to pass this Sunshine on to 12 Creative Bloggers and bring sunshine into their day.
I have selected the following blogs and hope you enjoy them as much as I do:
Ok, I cheated and added 2 extras but it is so so hard to just pick 12... my creative friends are like Lays potato chips :) and I still had to leave some behind.
Thank you to all of you and the others I couldn't list for sharing so freely with your knowledge and humor.

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Texture Tuesday

While at the Mancuso Mid-Atlantic show this year, I attended a workshop with Esterita Austin. I chose her all day class on working with sheers called Sheers to You! which is fun since the quilt show's theme this year was Cheers! :)
In the first photo you can see the wine glass that I created only using sheer fabrics. I wasn't sure what to expect and the class might take some getting used to if you are a very structured person. I can go either way and really enjoyed that I took a 'technique' based class versus a 'project' based class. If you enjoy playing, then this is the class for you. Esterita was very generous with her supplies and once the basic instructions were given, we spent the day just playing. There was a pattern to follow if that appealed to you or you could just go your own direction. I used the basic outline for the glass and then in the afternoon became much braver.
These two photos show what I created in the afternoon with a mixture of paint and sheers. The rose turned out lovely and I already have a design planned using my rose along with the 2 wine goblets. I am very excited to get started...does anyone have an extra 3-5 hours they can donate to me? HA:)
One look at Esterita's website will show you how very imaginative and talented she is. If you ever have an opportunity to attend one of her classes, do so.
Thank you, Esterita for opening my mind to a new direction.
The added bonus to this class was that I was able to take it with my mother and a friend from my Artrageous group....Hello Katherine. It was so much more fun sharing the experience along with seeing all the creativity in the class. Everyone's work looked so different and that is one of the best reasons to take a class...it really opens your mind to all the possibilities of color and composition.






Monday, March 8, 2010

Marvel Monday

Last fall we had so much rain in our backyard that Egrets started hanging out. It was fun to watch but hard to capture since they were very skittish and flew as soon as the sliding door started to move.
I had to be "vewy qwiet hunting my Egwets"