Studio Disorganization!

I would love to tell you that I am super organized and in my mind's eye, I am:)  The reality is that I work in a crazy zone most of the time until every now and again my mind tells me to STOP and take charge of the crazy!

For a peek at my old studio, click HERE.

So these pictures made it to this post because my floor is actually clean!!  Usually I am side stepping creative piles of fabrics for future quilts.  These pics are from one of my sane moments because I just couldn't think properly anymore and worse, I had to move 2-3 piles just to get to one thing I needed!! I can live in the mess but I hate having to keep moving things to get what I want.

This is a picture of an adorable Captain's Desk I found in my travels that has tiny little drawers down each side that are perfect for color organizing my bead stash:))))))

 

Pop over to see who else is blogging....
http://muppin.com/wordpress/index.php/the-2016-31-day-blog-writing-challenge/

 

New Art feels great

Making New Art feels so freeing. 
You may remember this piece from my 2009 post.

Tributaries Copyright 2009

I had so much fun creating it and I'm not sure how I became so sidetracked that I didn't do more of them.

Now I am getting excited again about this direction of work.  The above photo is the back of the piece and the below photo is the finished piece mounted to mat board.  It all came together nicely from having just the right sketch to just the right fabric to showcase the sketch to the beads and the mat board.

This will hopefully be going to a gallery in New Hampshire; and, as with all my work, there is a small bit of me that wants to keep it.  I just love it!  Now the hard part of naming it......

Come see what some other artists are working on here.  This is a weekly art blog hop called Off the Wall Fridays.

'Til next time:)

Artrageous Challenge Reveal

ARTRAGEOUS, my art quilt group, revealed our 2010 challenge this past weekend. It is really hard to work on something fun and not share it for a whole year! 'Fabric Gossip' used the Telephone Game as our guide but using a photo vs. a whispered secret.
Since I was the first person in my group, I got to see the photo and I knew immediately that I wanted to use one of Gloria Loughman's techniques in my background. The technique isn't hard but it was very challenging, to me, trying to place the colors the right way so that it would be pleasing to the eye, not too drastic, and be recognizeable.

I started cutting a batch of diamonds in various sunset colors.

Once they were sewn together for the sky, I wanted to portray the water with a different directionality. Kathy Loomis had just posted on her blog about piecing gentle curves. I followed her directions and considering it was my first time doing this, was ok with how it turned out. The sky was then hand appliqued to the water area where the darker orange is.

Here is a cropped photo of the background all pieced with the tree and horizon line fused on. I then added a bit of fabric paint along the horizon line and below the tree to represent the reflection in the water.

Here is the finished piece completely quilted and faced. The moon was portrayed using the small holeless beads that you glue on. I am not quite sure this was the best technique to use since they want to flake off with too much handling. I fear as this piece gets put up in exhibit after exhibit, the beads will continue to wear off. They would be fine to use if you just hung it on the wall and left it alone.

This was so much fun and when you click on the link below, you can see the original photo along with all the other pieces and how the photo changed as each person received their bit of information.

http://artrageousfibreart.blogspot.com/2011/03/2010-challenge-reveal.html

Online Studio Tour

WELCOME to the studio of NESTLINGS by Robin. I have been wanting to do this for quite some time and pairing up with the Quilting Arts community was just the push I needed....as well as some time to get it a bit neater.
For the past 6 years I have been extremely fortunate to have a dedicated space to work and it has allowed me to accomplish so much.

This is my stash of fabric....ok, only part of it:0 The rest is below in a giant pile on the floor and in another bookcase over with the supplies and some under a table-you get the idea, right? I love fabric and it keeps finding ways into little nooks and crannies of my studio, but it just brightens my day when I walk in and need to look for something.

This is my cutting station with my award winning 'Ladybug Invasion' hanging over it. There are 13 hand beaded, movable ladybugs on it that are just too much fun!

This is my sewing station complete with rainbows of thread and beads. Above the bead box is a wonderful painting by an artist friend, Jean Baardsen. It was gifted to me and I love the bright red flowers. Next to it is my little owl that I made when I was 9 or 10 years old. It was the first cross stitch project I ever did and proudly hung in my grandparent's house for 30 years before I received it back. Now it serves as a sweet reminder of how far I have come.

Here are my bookcases full of supplies: books, magazines, threads, paints, more beads, etc. I use UFOs to cover up some of the messy shelves and they inspire me.

For years I worked in the dining room and on the dining room table with the family shoved to one end for meals. I know there are still some of us that do that and it makes me even more appreciative of my space. Even so, don't ever let space or lack of squash the creative spirit within all of us.

I hope you enjoyed this small peek into my world and of the other artists on the list. Have a wonderful weekend!

Beading 101

Saturday I taught a beading class at my local quilt shop. I wanted a project that was fun and small enough that it would get finished someday. The ornament is a great motivator and can definately be accomplished by Christmas. It started as a 3" square that I then stamped in setacolor paint with a holly stamp I made myself using fun foam and a wood base. Bead the holly following the outline, add your vines using DMC floss in a stem stitch, bind, and finish with a beaded hang and tassle. Voila, instant gift made with love.

The class seemed to thoroughly enjoy themselves and I had lots of yummy beaded show and tell for them to ooooh/aaaah over. I think we all know and agree that is the most important part!

Below is another example of how to dress up a simple block for yourself or a gift. A simple 9 patch with each square cut at 3" ends up at 8" square to fit into a purchased 8" square frame. I quilted it with an X design in each of the red squares and then beaded the white squares. Depending on how much beading you choose to do, you could reverse this and have 5 hearts.

Both of these ideas are simple, fun, relatively quick and allow you to take advantage of all the wonderful beads out there that are calorie-free candy!
Enjoy and happy beading.

Crystal Coast Quilt Show 2009

The quilt show was wonderful as usual. We had over 120 entries along with the Alzheimer's:Forgetting Piece by Piece exhibit. I conducted a bead demo on Friday and Saturday with positive turn out and sign ups for a September class.

This is 'Swarley' (long story for a goofy name). 'Swarley' didn't make it to Paducah this year but was juried into the Mancuso Mid Atlantic show in February and won an Honorable Mention at the guild show in the group quilt category. It is all hand appliqued and then long arm quilted by my friend Beth Denmon, Illinois.
This is 'UP UP UP' and my entry for the guild challenge. Our challenge this year was to correspond with the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Innitiative in size only. Requirements were that the piece not be bigger than 9" x 12" to fit a priority envelope, monochromatic, and have a theme of Journey.

I chose a photograph of a balloon from a festival we used to attend every September in St. Louis. As I watched every year I imagined the journeys the participants would have along their path. It won 2nd place for 'Most Unusual Journey' and will eventually be donated to the Alzheimers Innitiative.

Last but not least is 'Wonder Under the Waves' by the Beachrageous group of Susan Hinzman, Lynn Strausbach, Mary Henris, Robin Koehler, and Eileen Williams-respectively.

It really is stunning hanging all together and everyone was impressed.

Hope you enjoyed the mini quilt show.

I am the nose!

"‘Fresh Picked!’ Finalists Announced
We’ve just announced the finalists of the 2010 Quilting Arts Calendar Contest on the Editor’s blog! This year’s finalists were especially hard to pick, as we had to choose from more than 300 luscious depictions of the “Fresh Picked!” theme, including flowers, fruits, vegetables, and one nose. "

I have been so busy that it feels like I lost the month of March and I was having a blast doing so. One of the reasons was working on my entries to Quilting Arts 2010 Calendar contest. The above piece titled "100 Pages to a New You" wasn't chosen but it was fun to make. Learning this morning that I was the only one to enter a nose, just made my day.

When I heard the theme, my husband and I both thought noses--I guess we are a bit twisted. I mulled it over for weeks until a conversation with friends from my art group brought the design around to picking a new nose from a catalog in a plastic surgeon's office. After that the design and layout went very smooth. I don't know what will become of it now unless someone knows a surgeon with a sense of humor that would like to purchase it.

Here is a picture of the other entry titled "Bursting Sweet":

This piece was inspired by an original grape piece with just one cluster in another color way. I used painted Tyvek, free motion quilting, and hand beading. All in all a fun experience.

In the meantime, March brought about enough experiences to blog for a month....now just to do it:) I thought I heard a news story this week that procrastination was healthy for you...I am working on improving my health---Have a fantastic week!

Shop Hop in NC

Here in southeastern North Carolina we are preparing for the annual shop hop called "Romancing Eastern North Carolina". From Wednesday 2/4- Saturday 2/7 come visit 8 shops from Jacksonville, Morehead City, Washington, New Bern, and Kinston.

Again this year I was asked to design a new pattern for The Quilted Butterfly in Morehead City. We decided to go with a small project that is useful, a stashbuster, as well as a doorway to the best addiction of all... beading:) Here is the "Sparkling Scissor Case".

I love the way beading can completely change the look of a fabric. The fabric used for this design was ideal for allowing someone to try their hand at beading by following the design of the fabric. They can embellish as much or as little as they would like. There are two sizes in the pattern for a 10" and a 7" case. You can see the difference in the fabric between the larger embellished case vs. the smaller unembellished case. I can't wait to make more of these.

Happy 2009

Well it has been awhile since I have had a moment to write. The holidays flew by and here we are 3 weeks into a new year already. My daughter has been accepted to a college for next fall, 2009 has begun, and we have a new president.

All of these feelings of 'new beginnings' make us take stock of what we have and what we would like to have as well as who we would like to be. I guess that is why we set new goals and make resolutions every year. We may not achieve them right away but this process keeps us moving forward.

I am still working on what my goals for this new year will be, but I already see some of them in the direction of my art.

This is a detail shot of a new piece I am working on with tremendous inspiration from Larkin Van Horn. I have been working on my free motion quilting skills for some time now and beading has always been a passion. One day everything came together to point me in a direction I really wanted to go. I was at my local wood artists gallery and they were working on some new pieces that I loved. Generously, I was given one to play with. When I came home, the vidcast by Bonnie McCaffery with Larkin was in my email (a definate must see). That was the push I needed.

I am absolutely in love with this piece!

A Mermaid's Playground

This past weekend, the Arts Council that I am involved with hosted a mini show to celebrate the one year mark for our Adopt an Artist program. I wanted to have a new piece to show vs. the 7 in the catalog that the businesses can choose from....she exceeded my vision.

We invited the already existing business representatives along with new businesses that we would like to sign up for the program. The program has been a wonderful experience for me by allowing my art to be shown to audiences that wouldn't normally see it. This cycle I was adopted by the Leon Mann Senior Center in Morehead City. They chose all 7 pieces that will hang through December.

Lorelai, the mermaid, was a lot of fun for me and I am very pleased with how my threadwork turned out for the coral.

Of course, when I start a project around here it somehow becomes a family event with recommendations and ideas flying from every angle. Some I accept and some I don't. Usually the creativity of this family adds hours more work but is worth it in the end.

I knew I wanted beading on her tail but the idea just wasn't coming together quickly enough until my daughter suggested her idea....

I machine quilted a clamshell design and then placed a bead at each point of the stitching, by hand. The beading was a lot of work but the results were just more than I imagined.
So now the mini show is over and she is mine to submit to shows. I am very excited about where she may end up.

New Gallery Showing

This past week I was approached by a local wood studio

to hang a few of my pieces in their gallery. Nice Figures', world renown, artwork is breathtaking, to say the least; and so I was extremely honored that they approached me. The organic nature of both mediums is a wonderful pairing.

They have the most unique and high quality wood I have ever seen. All the artwork is created on site and so the smell of the gallery evokes so many memories for me of my grandpa's workshop. I loved going in amongst the machines and sawdust....miss you grandpa.

The gallery chose Autumn Shores and Frozen Days from my website

A third piece, Marriage, will hang exclusively in their gallery through the holidays.

Help me name this.

A few months ago I started the process of a fiber postcard trade with a fiber artist in South Carolina, Susan Lenz. You can read more about her vision at http://cyberfyberexhibitionpostcards.blogspot.com/ I have completed my postcard to send back to her, and

I would really like to have a name for it since it will be part of a gallery exhibit, but I keep drawing a blank since abstract is not my strength. The colors and the translucency make me think of wispy sunset clouds when the moon is still visible.


Any fabulous ideas?