A Few More Views

We did find a little spot for some of my mini trees on top of the magazine rack.  I'm going to make more of these...and instead of a button I'm going to add a tiny fabric moon.  

I gave it a try and it's very doable....the moon is a little smaller than a dime.

On down the hallway on the right is a little spot for a few things including my fabric mirror and two of the 12 pieces from my Folt Bolt collage project.  It was one of those "Project Runway" kind of moments having to "make it work" as a collection. The other pieces just didn't fit in anywhere.

What that means is I have 10 of my little fabric collages that I brought back home....some may end up as gifts. And in the end I may come home with the others too....and that would be OK.

"The Full Monty" and the "Mini Monty" sold along with another "Birch Moon."  So far so good!

Lime Green

I embraced the bare trees against the winter sky this past year...

...but I'm in love with the lime green leaves against the brilliant blue spring sky! Thank goodness for seasons....I love them all.

The massive ginkgo tree in my front yard is coming to life!

Day One

I'm pretty excited that two of my quilt series pieces have sold...

but they'll stay up until the end of the show. Not bad for day one.

The "I Had To Try" accordion piece may be odd....but it's visually interesting and goes well with these two little colorful landscapes.  It hangs on an angled wall as you go down the hall which works well with the two sidedness of it.                     

              

Here's a view of the "Birch Moon" pieces....and one has sold. I'm likely going to make more of these...they're kind of fun.

JOY!

Many many years ago I auditioned some of my work for a craft show in Maine called Designing Women. It won't surprise you that I submitted things using several different media....it's just my way. Unfortunately they turned me down saying I went in too many directions and my work lacked focus. It didn't slow me down.

I continued to be "unfocused" crafting in a million directions making things for our church fairs and gifts for family and friends. I also started a long working relationship with Astrid at Folly 101 in Portland who embraced the variety and quirkiness of my work. To this day I still cover little match boxes for her.

The one thing that has remained true through all my years of randomly creating is the JOY I get from sitting at my sewing machine, picking glue off my fingers, and making a big colorful mess.

I decided to call this little show "JOY" and here is my artist statement.

A huge thank you to  Joyce and Dr. Adams for helping me out this morning.  I'll share more pictures soon...but for now here's a little peak.

Mini....or Half?

The lilacs are starting to bloom...and these particular bushes behind our church are especially lovely with their medium dark purple color. 

I made a little "Mini Monte"....or is a smaller version of "The Full Monty" a "Half Monte?" A few more rows of stitching to go when I took the photo....I changed the thread color about 6 or 7 times.

Tweaking

I've spent time the last few days finishing and tweaking a few of my projects that were abandoned for one reason or another.

This fused fabric mirror, for example, felt a little flat and lacking so I didn't think I would hang it in the show.  But with the extra time I had it's now good enough and ready to hang.

This is the before....and the photo looks better than it did up close in person....it's usually the opposite. After I made it I wished the lines weren't so straight so the transitions were a little softer.

After auditioning several things between the colors including small strips of solid hand dyed fabrics and various fibers I decided to go with a thin black accent using pearl cotton thread. I thought it gave it a sort of a stitched outline look or even a stained glass effect. And it made the straight(ish) lines look a little more intentional.

When I was in Maine I cut lengths of the pearl cotton that would wrap around....carefully dipped them in matte medium and laid them on each seam pressing them down to make good contact.  

                   

Once it was good and dry I did the same thing to the sides wrapping the threads to the back...this time applying the medium with a toothpick.  I finished the back and attached the mirror today and had to take it outside this evening to get enough light to get a decent picture. There you have it....a tweaked mirror...I'm calling it "Rainbow Connection."                                                                                                              

Spring Scheme

Paul and I were in Maine a few short days and when I got home I walked the yard. It was fun to see how many blooms there were and this spring scheme matches the mini 5x7 landscape I just finished. I'm going to add just a little beading...or something along the horizon. 

                                                                   

I'm quite fond of  the flowering almond at the edge of my yard and the viburnum shrubs that smell so good.                                                                                  

And to continue with the pink theme....what's not to love about delicate meadow rue. 

When I turned the calendar page in my studio yesterday I found pink!

A Little More....

...yellow.

I love it when Paul comes home from a walk with a little something in his hand for me....he knows how I love found objects.  Today it was 3 tiny yellow bingo balls.

For now they'll sit in this little shell in the bowl on the dining room table.  We've been in Maine for a few days and I don't have a designated "found object jar" up here yet. But that's going to change.

Yellow

Yellow was a bit of a theme today....not only blooms but pretty new pipes waiting to go in along the street.

The yellow roses in my birthday bouquet are starting to dry....they're wabi-sabi beautiful!

Stuck Between.....

...a rock and a hard place....and thriving!

One of the things I did with my gift of time yesterday was help with garden and landscaping clean-up at the church.  It was nice catching up with friends while we worked...but the highlight of the morning was this little gem.

How can you not admire its determination.

 And....you never know where you're going to find a little "Love." Do you see it?

Splash of Color

Here's my splash of color project or
"The Full Monty" as I'm calling it. It's 14" by 29" so fairly good size.  I wanted to use a couple of the bright Kaffe stripes I hadn't used yet....as well as some I had to tie it into the other pieces. Some of the solids were also used in the other pieces. The excessive top stitching gives it a lot of texture. 

I found out this morning that I'll be putting my things up next Tuesday morning the 8th. 

I used white fabric with little lavender pin dots for the back....I love the look of all the stitching lines. And again....I'll put a piece of dowel in the triangles for hanging.

The Full Monty?

My "last minute" full spectrum piece is done....but I'm out of steam to write about it.  It involved hundreds of topstitching lines. It's a bright colorful piece and it just dawned on me that I might call it "The Full Monty!"

I learned late tonight that Dr. Adams has been ill....so hanging things up in her office will be delayed until at least next week. I'm not sure if this is good or bad for me....I was ready to get it all off my table. But in the mean time I'll keep sewing....and maybe I'll even clean the kitchen!

In the middle of the day I got a birthday box from my sister Nancy....and along with some other fun things there was chocolate! Just what I needed! Thank goodness pieces were individually wrapped so I was able to limit myself to just one. That hint of chili was interesting and awesome!  Thanks Nancy!

Last Minute

"Nothing makes a person more productive than the last minute."  author unknown

I still have a lot of little details to take care of before I can hang things this week....partly because silly me started something new today that I've been thinking about for a long time.

It's very colorful and I'm making it for a particular spot in Dr. Adam's office.  I couldn't stop thinking about it so I just had to stop and do it.  Hopefully I can finish it tomorrow and I'll share it then.


I am happy to report that after a lot of pondering I finally came up with a way to mount and hang my accordion piece.  It's kind of odd....and at the very least it will be a conversation piece. 

Using very stiff batting I made an under quilt of sorts and tacked the valleys of the accordion to it. I made it a bit smaller so it wouldn't show.  It was tricky trying to get the pleats even and it turned out just a bit wonky....but it's all part of the home made charm.  I will insert a dowel into the blue triangles at the corners to give it something to hang from.

My Sweet Sam

I got to spend a good chunk of the day with my son Sam.....and that brings me joy!   

He's such a sweetheart and super thoughtful and creative and came bearing gifts.  He bought a birthday card....but made it into a box.  How clever is that! He knows me well.

And inside that box was another box with an interesting little fidget toy. It has something to play with on all six sides like a spinner, a switch and buttons to push.  It's tiny and totally awesome. Thanks Sam!

                          

The Quilt Series

My ever evolving quilt series has been sitting out on the dining room table for a while now and I'm getting increasingly OK with it. It has the effect I wanted of working through the color spectrum and the cohesive elements help make it work as a whole. The only two not glued down are the red one...and the star...I'm still mulling those over.

The design of my first green/orange just didn't seem quite right...so like I mentioned a few days ago I started over. I started with the basic formula....a polka dot, my favorite batik, and three Kaffe stripes.

I wanted the green polka dot at the top, the striped fabrics separated by solids...and I wanted an uneven horizon line. 

I decided I had to slice up the green and add it to the top of each bottom piece to get the uneven horizon line.  

I was a little worried how the polka dot would look chopped up and sewed back together....but in the end I liked the piecey effect.

This is where I ended up. As always there are a few things I would have done differently....but I'm going with it.