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.

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:

Katherine Sands

Susan Brubaker Knapp

Sarah Ann Smith

Lyric Kinard

Celine Perkins

Jane Davila

Lisa Call

Joanie Gagnon San Chirico

Nancy G Cook

Wen Redmond

Pepper Cory

Pati Fried

Susan Sorrell

Leah Day

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.

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.

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"

Can "Majestic" be a feeling?

"Majestic"

Cape Lookout Lighthouse, NC

SOLD

This week, my "Majestic" piece sold during the local art show, Art from the Heart. I was stunned and elated and wondered if the word, majestic, can be a feeling? It can't, but it sure felt 'majestic' to sell a piece of my work.

I am not good at selling my art- I am too close to it and always feel awkward talking about myself for that purpose. In a moment of 'it was out of my mouth before I could take it back', I made a comment about my lighthouse to a woman whose husband was purchasing a lighthouse piece of another artist. She prompted me to show her my work and they came back the next morning to purchase mine and a 3rd artist's work. These are the very generous and art loving people artists hope to meet in their careers. This couple appreciate art and local artists and have made the conscious decision to support local artists.

I am still at the stage where selling a piece is a rollercoaster of emotions: YIPPEE, oh I'll never see it again, can you believe it?, the fantasy of this being a regular event, YIPPEE again, etc. I am proud to educate others about textile art and what time and work goes into a piece of art....sometimes many more hours than some painters. I addressed the process of "Majestic" in an earlier post.

Thank you to all the collectors of my work, wherever you may be. To all the artists out there, keep on working and promoting and being the most professional you can be for you just never know where that next sale may lie!

Dream Rocket Panel-"Dreams Take Flight"

Last fall I came across the newest project of the International Fiber Coalition which was to cover a Saturn V rocket in Huntsville, AL. with fiber panels. I immediately wanted to be a part of this to honor my grandfather who worked for Grumman in the 60's and was able to work on the LEM (Lunar Excursion Module). The entry fee was $100 and a bit steep for me....
Chris Gilman to the rescue! She suggested that a two foot square panel could be 4 individual 12" blocks and only price out at $25 per person. If I was game, we would only need 2 more people and within an hour we had 2 more adventurous souls in Cathy Winter and Katherine McNeese. These women graciously let me have the name LEM4 for our group in honor of grandpa and use the space theme I had wanted to do.

Using the space theme, ideas were thrown out in reference to 'Dreams' (which is the theme of the project) and everyone chose what part of flight they wanted to do....all without arguing :) Chris did a vibrant Hot Air Balloon and Katherine did the Wright Brothers proud with her First Flight.

I did a rendition of the LEM for grandpa, complete with a shamrock on the door panel-GO IRISH!! Charles "Bud" McAuliffe was very proud of all the work he accomplished while at Grumman. In our family we always chuckle a bit at some of his fashion choices since he didn't mind mixing stripes with plaids, etc. Imagine that and then add that he would brag about his name being on the moon....Yeah, sure you kooky old man. His name is on the moon though. All the workers signed a poster and a photo of that was shrunk down onto a microchip and included on the LEM. You go Grandpa!!

Rounding out our space dreams, is Cathy Winter's terrific textural rendition of the Space Shuttle. Thank you to these 3 very talented women for making my small dream come true. This panel is a wonderful work of art and representative of the creative powers of us and all that have come before us. Their dreams keep the rest of us striving for our dreams.

Texture Tuesday

This year I will be doing more experimenting with surface design and will be sharing the results with you:)

The first experiment of the year is flour paste resist. A friend and I were talking one day about the various Quilting Arts magazine articles that we have dog earred for 'someday'. Why not today? If you have it and want to follow along, I used issue Feb/Mar 2008 (#31), pg 61: Flour Paste Resist: It's Irresistable by Jane Dunnewold.

Easy to follow instructions, inexpensive supplies we all have, and fun surprise results. The top photo shows the paste with some etching. The middle photo shows the paste after it dried and was painted. I used regular acrylic paint with a textile medium added.

This last photo shows the green resist in my new project. The upper right has some light green watercolor crayon to fill in the white area. Lower left shows watercolor crayon used to draw tulips over top of the green resist crackle.

I learned that I love this technique but not the white background. Next time I will try pasting over a different color background and maybe making my paste a bit thicker. I will also check back after the paste has started to set up to see if I can etch in other designs without the paste closing in on itself.

It is time for all of us to drag out those issues and ideas just sitting there and see if one of them will take you in a new direction with your art. Go Crazy and don't forget to share with the rest of us!