New Small Works

My friend, Donna's, show was very successful and she sold almost everything.  First of all her work is beautiful, but her works were mostly small and priced to sell.  Most of my pieces are much bigger, so I decided to make some small pieces with reasonable prices.

I love to take photos of close-ups of flowers and leaves.  I took them into Photoshop Elements, put a Posterize filter on them, printed them on fabric, spray basted them to batting, stitched on them with free-motion quilting, fused them to Pelltex squares cut to 6" square and machine button hole stitched all around the edges. Then they were mounted to 8" x !0' canvases. I've showed them to a few friends and they were well received.  I am madly sewing away and hope to make a bunch.

Here are a few lined up on my book shelves and below close-ups show the quilting.

I'm calling them "Garden Studies".  What do you think?

Since it's Friday, I'm linking up with "Off the Wall Friday".

Wordless Wednesday

Baby Quilt

Now here's something I haven't made in a long time, but the couple whose magical wedding I attended two years ago is expecting a baby, so Aunt Norma made a quilt.  The baby shower is in Baltimore the weekend before my solo show, so I won't be attending.  That would be three days out of the studio, and I can't afford that time. I'm pretty sure they don't read my blog, so I should be safe.

My niece, the mother of the daddy-to-be sent me photo of the rug in the baby's room, so that's what I went with.

Since we no longer have any quilts shops nearby (there used to be three within a half hour's drive) I had to buy my fabric online. I fell in love with the Dr. Seuss collection and there were a ton of fabrics from which to choose. It is bright, very bright and I hope baby and Mom like it.

 I call this very simple pattern "popcorn quilts" because they are so easy to do, sort of like eating popcorn. It's hard to stop.  I've made many of them.

It's all machine quilted, using a wavy line on the straight seams and a straight line on the diagonals.

Using this pattern gives you an extra strip that I take apart to make a simple nine patch pillow.

I am sending along an indelible pen to fill in the blanks and also a few Dr. Seuss books.

We've Been Framed!

That is the name of the show that is currently hanging at the third floor gallery at the Mahopac Library in Mahopac, NY.  It is put on by FANE, of which I am a member.  The parameters were a little unusual.  We were to pick a frame that did not exceed 18 inches in width and could be any dimension in length and paint it a glossy navy blue (we all used the same brand and color).  Then were were to make a piece that would hang within the frame,  but have no less than1 1/2 inches  between the art and the frame.  You'll understand better when you see the pictures.

The reception was this past Sunday and it was a spectacular Spring day, which might account for the smaller crowd than we usually get for our openings.  It was a glorious day for golf or gardening, but those in attendance had a great time anyway.  Wonderful company, fabulous art and good food and wine.

I took a lot of pictures, but am only showing a few here.  Hopefully I'll get them all up on the FANE blog soon, but right now I am so busy trying to get some new small art made for my show at the end of June.

This was my piece, Fractured IV.  I wanted to have a very abstract piece inside an ornate frame.  The walls were very fine cork and here you can see how the art is suspended within the frame.

The view looking down the hall showing just part of the show.

 And a few more.  The diversity was amazing, since there was no theme.  The piece just had to fit within the frame. The show is up until June 5, so please stop by if you can.

Please hop over to Cindy's blog where she shows pictures of them all.

I'm linking up with Off the Wall Friday.

Exciting News

I just found out a few days ago that I am invited to have a solo show at the Brookfield Craft Center's gallery.  There will be an opening on June 27 and the show will run through July 18. I am very exciting about this, my first solo show.  Now when I should be outside gardening (I've already done some), I will be inside in my studio working away.  I couldn't possibly make enough new work in this short amount of time, but I hope to have a few new pieces.

There will be more news to follow, so save the date and stay tuned.

I'm linking up with Nina Marie's Off the Wall Friday.  Go check it out.

Wordless Wednesday

Visit to Portland

I just returned from five days in Portland, OR.  My trip was two-fold, to partake in the SAQA International Conference and to visit my son, who lives there.  The conference was terrific, many inspirational talks and break-out sessions and a great walking tour of part of Portland with members who lived there. I got to meet a few of my "blog buddies", whom I had never met in person and that was a lot of fun. Of course it's always good to meet up with old friends and there was a lot of that going on, too.

 On Saturday my group toured part of downtown Portland where we visited interesting shops selling hand made items, a yarn shop, a button and trim shop, a funky clothing shop (where I bought a great Shibori shirt), and the Pioneer Place Mall where we went directly to the third floor to see its very impressive gallery currently showing The Oregon SAQA group show, " Layers".  I loved the show and the space, but I'm only going to show a few of my favorites.

Exploring Layers by Amanda Miler

Rivets 2 by Sidnee Snell

Aspen Lea by Catherine Beard

My son is a foodie and Portland is a wonderful place for that and we went to three restaurants with the most incredible, unusual, and delicious food.  I hope my waistline didn't suffer.  All in all it was a super trip and I am inspired to get going in my studio