a brush with fame!!!

No that isn't ME! It is my friend and soon to be famous singer songwriter Emily Higgins, at her recent video taping for broadcast. She sent the photo to me because she is wearing one of my silk scarves.

I recently went through the jury process at Wholesalecrafts.com so that I can present my scarves to more than 16,000 retailers across the country. Hopefully this will provide the income foundation that allows me to stay home and create my art quilts. By spring you might see some of my scarves in fine craft galleries as you cross the country. If you don't see them.. ask for them by name! "It's a Floozie!". ( The name of my wholesale scarf division is "Floozie Productions")

Progress report on the giant quilt: I am about 50% of the way through the 3rd panel. I might even get through the 4th one before leaving town for the holidays. I am having oodles of fun and have just listened to the final Harry Potter book-- all 21 hours of it. Today I picked up my next book on CD to listen to while quilting. This one is David Baldacci's latest. Sure to add a different flavor to my quilting. Thankfully the librarian at our library has been listening to me beg for more listening material. Over the course of the last few years of traveling plus quilting I had listened to every book on CD they had. Some of you have wondered about the many hours I spend in my studio-- the books on CD are the answer. Like a secret lover they lure me to my studio even if I'm not really in the mood. Next thing I know-- the hours have passed and lots of work got done. And you thought I just had intense enthusiasm or strong work ethic... well I do, but the books on CD sure help!

Visions of Plenty-> progress

At last! I have finished piecing the four sections.

I LOVE the way the color moves across the piece. The redder section becomes the light sourcepoint and all the "imagery" will radiate out from there.
This is the back of the reddish section (section A). I am using freezer paper to act as a stencil for painting on the swirling vortex that surrounds the slip stream. The circles vary in size and are created using several silkscreens and are applied using acrylic paints.
Here are the a & b sections. They are reversed so they correspond to the fronts of similar color. That means the reddish one is on the right.
These are the c & d sections. The freezer paper is still adhered. I figured I'd surprise you with the full effect after I get them quilted. I am currently awaiting paint drying on section A back before I layer and baste before quilting. I'll be initially quilitng from the backside- so have to pin with the back up. First I'll be outlining all those circles in invisible thread and then the swirling vortexes. After that is done I'll flip it over and re-pin and quilt from the front. That way the circles will act as landmarks and I can quilt the design that is on the back from the front. Clear as mud? Feel free to ask questions.

I've been tagged!

This is a blogger version of a chain letter but with no downside.. and no threats. I'm supposed to list 7 things that are odd about myself and pass that along to 7 others. I am picking Mary, Suzi, Pat, Dee, Emmie, and 2 others still to be named ( I don't know that many who have blogs!)

Ok. So 7 odd things about myself.
1) If you have ever heard me speak you'll know I sound much more like Texas than anywhere else. Alas, though I claim to be Texan, I was born in Ontario... as in Canada. My family moved to Texas when I was 3 so I learned to speak from other Texans. That works, eh?
2) My grandmother started doing water color drypoint botanical illustrations when she was over 60 yrs. old. As I understand it, she taught herself while ministering to my grandfather who was sick for a long period. ( I have no idea what was ailing him) As an avid amateur botanist and birder she had a lifelong affection for nature. On our birding outings I got great joy by creating strange bird sounds with the bird whistle. She'd get so excited thinking that she'd heard a new bird for her "life list". Then I'd get the "scowl".
3) at 53 I have been married for more than 2/3 of my life. Jon and I married when I was 17 and he was 18. The first 5 years we stayed together mostly to prove everyone else wrong. After that we learned to communicate.
4) I have delusions of grandeur- I keep thinking that someday my art will be my ticket to the world and I'll be able to glide through.
5) I am a fabulous cook and love to entertain. Someday one of my parties will be featured in Southern Living or some such magazine. If I could just afford the groceries. But I do love the salvege grocery for finding odd ingredients. I'm still trying to figure out how to use coconut vinegar.
6) Until I was an adult, the only "art class" I ever took was after school in 6th grade. I took pastel and oil painting from Mrs. Lipscomb in her garage studio. She usually finished the "hard parts" of my artwork.
7) Though I am left handed and proud of it, my physical strength is in my right hand. I use the left for anything requiring detail and finesse. I use right handed scissiors- the usual way, iron right handed, bat right handed ( or at least I did in school).
There! Now I just have to figure out the blog addresses for those I have tagged myself!

Visions of plenty: slipstream adventure

Here three out of four of the panels have the rows pieced. I wish I knew how to move these photos around. The left side of the second photo is the right side of the first photo.

Overall I am very pleased with the color movement. I should have the fourth panel's rows pieced by tomorrow. Then I'll start the backs- dyeing of same.

For the quilting--I am picturing not only tons of bubbles but for them to be arranged to appear to be flowing out of a slipstream. That means they'll have movement to them and not appear static.

As you can see, the panels shrink as they get pieced. So they are aleady 6 inches shorter and 4.5 inches narrower. They'll get another 6 inches shorter as I piece the rows together.

Magic time! Visions of Plenty

I finally got "Visions of Plenty" on the design wall. It'll be 12 blocks tall and 22 blocks wide. That translates to more or less 7 ft tall and 12+ ft wide. (somehow I wound up with fewer blocks than I estimated I had) It'll be divided into 4 sections of width- which will allow me to maintain good control while quilting this huge sucker. I got the 1st 6 rows of the left most section pieced today. It took about 5 hours just to lay out the blocks on the wall. (That black thing is my rolled up black paper photo backdrop)

I'm excited about this piece. The immense size - done on spec- is insane. I haven't yet decided on how I'll quilt it. But one thing I do know-- I'll be concentrating on lots of variety in the quilting itself. I'm considering doing something somewhat similar to how I handled the quilting on Yikes Stripes-- lots of varying sized, overlapping circles. Like bubbles gone mad! Each bubble would have a unique thread color and quilting pattern. I want the quilting to visually flow from one section to the next.

It is a statement about my frame of mind that I am doing a piece this large with this name. I've had an extraordinary level of losses this year. My father died, our 200 year old post oak died, my dearest friend is moving to Prague next week, and earlier this week I ran over my 17 yr old cat. ugh! So I am conjuring up lots to replace these losses. I'm creating bigger, bolder and happier.

As I get more of it pieced I'll shoot more photos. While still piecing I'll begin dyeing and printing the backs as well. Yes there will be pictures. Please keep your eyes out for an opportunity for me to sell this piece. It would be great going up a big stairwell--because of it being in several sections-- or perhaps a large wall in a conference room or bank lobby, perhaps that airport concourse I've been hoping for. Maybe even a hospital lobby or great room. The final price will be in the $19,000 range.

I love working this large. It gives me a feeling of expanse and grandeur. Since I am not doing the art festivals anymore--yep, decision reached-- I will be focusing on creating work that is either for commission, purely to delight me or for specific exhibitions.

I spent so much time trying to second guess the public while doing art shows that I kinda lost the joy of just creating a piece because it moved me. Hopefully these newer works will reflect that new found joy. I'd love your feedback!

New gallery

Since I last wrote I have been 4800 miles by car to Canada and Maine. With my mother in the car we had to stop every 60 miles for "washroom" breaks. But since I got home I started back dyeing my silk scarves. Here's an early batch hanging for audition. If they had too much white space or were too "tie-dye" looking the chances are they have already been overdyed. Yeah.. that mess is my studio. The table is where I lay out my circles for assembly.
The other major activity this summer has been to turn my otherwise unused front two rooms of my studio into a micro gallery. I've wanted someplace I could sit down with a prosepctive client and show my work in an elegant manner. So these three photos show the inside of my "gallery space".

On the left side you can see some of my scarves.

You can now order scarves directly from me. I'm still trying to figure out how to create an order form. My plan is to focus on wholesale for the scarves plus what I can sell out of my gallery plus online. By the way the size of the scarves is 12" x 60". Most are crepe de chine. Some are habotai. All are over-dyed with black accents. BTW- They have beads on each corner extending about 2.5-3 inches. The added weight of the beads make them very desirable for simply draping around your neck over a sweater, jacket or shirt. The price is $42.

The best sellers are the ones in autumn tones, jewel tones, bright red, & bright blue (Not in the same piece) If you have colors you especially like I can choose one for you based on your tastes. I'll happily guarantee your pleasure or return or exchange for another. Just call me at 417-274-1561. I'll take most credit cards or your check. Wholesale orders--contact me directly as well.

The address of the gallery is 219 Chestnut in Thayer, MO.

Now to round three of my 300 block "Visions of Plenty". Hopefully next week I'll do "magic time" and you'll begin to see where this quilt is going. So far I am planning for 6 panels each 8 feet tall and totalling 18ft wide. Now where can I exhibit this piece?

Visions of plenty

This is the preliminary sketch of my newest quilt. It moves from Turkey red in the top left through eggplant in the mid range to tobacco brown in the lower right. There are flashes of golden yellow throughout. It is going to be QUITE large. The vertical height will be about 8 ft and the width somewhere between 15-18 ft. It'll be broken down into5-6 panels.


This is the stack of cut blocks and circles for applique. Rather daunting, huh? It is over 300 blocks so you are looking at 600+ layers of fabric stacked up-- from bridal silk satin to cotton flannel-- all except a few metallics are hand dyed. That yellow piece is one of the metallic fabrics of the "flash". The first round of stitching took over 5 hours--that's at 1 minute per block-- which is about right. Next step is to cut a smaller circle out of the square from the underside. That in itself will take another 5-6 hours. Then onto round 2.

But before I stack the pieces up for round 2 I will take about 10% of the next group of circles and stamp them with metallic x's. This will add a limited amount of additional texture and interest to an otherwise image free area.

Why am I doing this huge piece? To make sure I have evidence that I can truly work "large."
I hope that I'll be able to find ways to exhibit it as well as eventually sell it. Do you know a venue that needs a really large piece? 8ft x 18ft? Hey! It is still early in the process-- it could be 12 x 12 or 6 ft x 24ft. . We're looking at 144sq ft. Want it bigger? Get hold of me NOW!

My plan is to very tightly quilt the surface with color blends and flashes--many, many different patterns. Oh for a long arm! My plan has been to buy a longarm when I get a commission to do a very large piece. But in the meantime, I'll break it down into about 5-6 panels like I did with my previous triptychs ( Ridgeline: Afterglow & Burning Leaves)

See? Finally, Pictures!