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.

Pick one color

Under my 'Creative Living' post (7/31) there is a black, white, and blue piece. Both that piece and the piece seen here resulted from the work-for-trade (7/21) piece that I made. Once I got going, I really enjoyed working in a series and seeing what else I could do with a limited color palette.

The original piece is named "Pine Knoll Blues" after the beach where the photo was taken. The second piece is named "Which Way to the Beach" since it is an abstract of a traditional quilt block named flying geese. The piece directly below is named "Blue Peacock" because it reminds me of a back view of a peacock tail. There are quilted feathers as well.


I started the original project timidly because I worried that a limited color palette would stifle my thought process. The opposite actually happened and now I am looking at my fabrics for the next color to play with.

Starting to have fun:0

Today I learned how to customize my header. I might actually be starting to have some fun.



The postcard below has been named. Some wonderful names came in--Lunar Lights, Lunar Sunset, Moonbeams and Dancing, and Hazy Daze; but my daughter and I both really liked Noir Breeze. So Noir Breeze was mailed off to complete the trade and anyone in Columbia, SC next winter will be able to see it in person. Thank you for all the wonderful names.

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?

Creative Living

I try very hard to be creative every day of my life. Since I am a quilt pattern designer and fiber artist...creativity comes with the job description.

Recently I met and interviewed with a creativity coach who is awesome and aims for the stars in all that she does. During the interview I was asked some questions that really made me think about what I do, strengths and weaknesses, and could I live without my creativity. There were questions about being emotionally empowered by our art, the fear of putting ourselves 'out there', and who encourages our art. It was a lot to think about and, of course, after the fact I had better answers:)

Mel Edwards is always looking for creative women, wanting to know what makes us tick and how and why we do what we do. Today at http://www.votrevray.blogspot.com/2008/07/go-to-work-every-day.html you can read an excerpt from my interview along with many other talented artists. You can also sign up to be a part of the "Kiss My Art" crowd and her One Woman Show.

I hope you will take a minute or twenty to visit her site. You go Mel.

Work for Trade

Recently I was given an opportunity to do a piece as a 'work for trade'. I personally find this situation awkward since I don't want either party to feel short changed (especially me) and creating a piece without direction, hoping they will feel it's value in the end, is exhausting. Fortunately, the receiver of my work loved it.
I had been working in a series using the same photo (above) lately and thought it could be interesting to use it in this situation. The only direction I was given was to use the logo colors of black/white/sky blue.
Blue isn't really a color I quickly associate with the sun but as you will see, it really looks cool (pun intended) :)

In this 'work for trade' all worked out well but I don't know how quickly I would do it again without some sort of contract in place.
On to my next project....

Don't Go....

Have you ever been in a situation where you are making something for a challenge, swap, etc. and you realize that you absolutely love it and don't really want to send it? That is what happened with the piece you see below. It is a postcard made from a piece of tapestry with some beading...not very intricate but I love it.
It started out as part of a bigger piece that was trimmed down and so it became a leftover. I pulled it out a couple of weeks ago to enter it into a new life and fell in love with it's simplicity, color, and movement. Making this was good practice for the new piece I will eventually submit. I'm not usually worried about keeping something I love because I know another idea and /or design will come to me. This one took it's perfect place above my favorite wrought iron candelabra.