Monday, June 29, 2015

After the Ball

If you follow my blog you know that this past Saturday was the opening reception for my solo show at the Brookfield Craft Center. It was such an exciting day for me.  I had relatives coming from Baltimore, New Jersey, and Long Island. They came to my house first for lunch and then we went over to the show in caravan. They brought me beautiful flowers and made me feel like Queen for a Day.
All of my publicity paid off and the reception was very crowded.  For the first hour and a half it was wall to wall people.  I was losing my voice from talking so much, meeting old and new friends, explaining pieces and techniques.



Beautiful arrangements gracing my home thanks to out of town relatives.













I did not get pictures of everything.  I took the above after hanging the show on Thursday, but before the fine tuning. Any stray wires dangling from the bottom of the quilts were rolled up out of sight before the show.
I had my phone in my hand for the first half hour and never took a picture because I was so busy greeting people so I finally put it away. My sister took a few and the director took a lot, but they are on a CD that I have to pick up later this week.


Out of town relatives.




                              Part of the crowd scene.


                               Explaining how I did it.


 My Garden Studies were displayed on little easels and they were very popular.  I sold 12 out of 18  that night.





My framed landscapes were also popular.  Four out of six sold.




They had a nice selection of food and drink. This is just part of the table that ran through the center of the room.


When we were hanging the show on Thursday they asked me to give a brief description of each quilt and its techniques to put on a sheet of paper to be handed out if guests wanted them.  I was pleasantly surprised to see that they had put them in this pamphlet in a nice acrylic display box. This is one of the quilts that was in the show.

I didn't sell any of the pieces on the wall and I didn't expect to.  The show will be up until July 18, so you never know, but I deemed the show a big success.  I think a lot of people learned a lot about art quilts.

Now I have to get busy in my studio again.  I have 4 pieces due in September. One is pieced and has to be quilted and the other three are still in my head. And the Craft Center wants some more Garden Studies.


Sunday, June 21, 2015

You Are Invited



My one woman show opens this coming Saturday and these are the postcards that I had made up.  I auditioned a lot of quilts but finally settled on this detail of one of my small fractured quilts.  I wanted something that would show my quilting and that would be colorful and eye-catching.  Hopefully they won't get tossed into the recycle bin when they come in the mail.


If you are in the area, I hope you will stop by.  I will only be there for the opening, but the show will be there on weekends through July 18.

I'm linking up with Off the Wall Fridays.

Friday, June 19, 2015

Note Cards

Taking yet another tip from my friend, Donna, who had a very successful show a few weeks ago, I made up sets of note cards to sell at my show.  Donna sold over 60 sets, but I am not that optimistic and only had 20 made up.  I had then done through Vista Prints and they were quite easy to do.



I chose quilts that were colorful and looked good in this orientation.  Some of my favorites weren't successful, but I was pleased with this assortment.




I had the name of the quilt on the back each card.





This paper with thumbnails of each quilt goes in the back of the package.  I put them in archival clear plastic bags that I bought at Michaels and they are a perfect fit.

I'm linking up with Off the Wall Friday.

Thursday, June 18, 2015

Happy Flowers


I am very fond of Pansies. They remind me of my mother, who always had them in her garden and they are one of the first harbingers of spring. They are the only plants that you can safely plant in April here in CT and not have to worry about frost.  I always have a pot or two on my front porch and I'm usually the first one in my neighborhood to do so. Unfortunately they don't last forever and they really don't like the heat. Around the middle of June they start to get very leggy and that's when I pull them out of the pot and replace then with annuals that will bloom until frost in the fall.  However, there were enough flowers on them to make a few little bouquets to put on my kitchen windowsill.  Happy flowers!

Monday, June 15, 2015

Bye-bye Birdie

This week has been the end of an era for me.  I sold my 2002 Thunderbird. This car has a bit of a story, so bear with me.  My late husband was a Ford dealer and I never lacked for a nice car to drive, yet cars never excited me.  When he passed away in 2000 I sold my big house and moved to a smaller house in the next town.  I had to pass the Ford dealership to get to my new home.  Abut a year after I moved I saw this car parked on the lot, right next to the driveway and I fell in love.  I thought it was the prettiest car I had ever seen, but did I really need two cars???  It was just a two seater with a tiny trunk and very impractical.  It could never be my only car. I drove by it every day for two weeks and drooled.  Then it was gone. Whew!  Temptation over.  About two weeks later they put in another one, so one Sunday when the dealership was closed I drove onto the lot and looked inside. Not only was the exterior this luscious color of Robin's-Egg-Blue (one of my favorite colors) but the interior had the same colored leather.  The next day I went into the dealer, took a test drive and bought it.




I had taken photos of it when it was new, but I couldn't find them and had to settle for this picture taken at the dealership.  I had so much fun with this car and it attracted a lot of attention.  I did get used to coming back to my car in the grocery store parking lot or anywhere else and have people standing and admiring it.  Most people didn't know what was, being a reproduction of sorts of the original 1958 T-bird.You could take the hard top off and there is a soft top underneath.  I've never been a convertible type person so I never had the hard top off. 

I said I was going to keep it forever or until it started to be a money pit.  And that's what was starting to happen.  Although I had less than 35,000 miles on it, it was 13 years old and things started to go and I was getting pricey repair bills. I also had trouble fitting the two cars in my garage.  It was time to let go. I truly will miss it. 




Here is the beautiful interior.  You can see why I was hooked.



I never had vanity plates before, but this car called for them.  As a kid I never had a pet except for gold fish and one turquoise parakeet, who said "Pretty Bird".  You're only allowed 6 digits in Connecticut so this was as close as I could get.

 I sold it to the dealership and they will put it on their lot.  I just hope that whoever buys it loves it as much as I did and takes as good care of it. It was in mint condition.

Friday, June 5, 2015

More Small works

I've been busy all week making more small pieces for my upcoming show.  I'm only showing you a few.  You'll have to come to my show to see the rest.





The above two are part of series I showed last week, using photos I have taken, transformed in Photoshop Element, printed on fabric and stitched.  I have been thrilled with the vibrant colors that I am getting with my Epson printer. I remember the bad old days when printing on fabric gave you a pale imitation of the real thing. These are every bit as bright as if I had printed them on glossy photo paper. They are 6" square on 8" x 10" canvases. I will be displaying them on these little black easels.







The three above are 4" x 6" put in a frame with a mat behind glass.  My son, who lives in Portland, OR, is an avid hiker and amateur photographer and these were made with his photos. He knows that I like a picture with something interesting in the foreground (usually flowers) and an equally interesting background and since it's the northwest, that usually means mountains. I did not alter them in Photoshop, but just printed them the way they were and then did a lot of stitching.

Click on any picture for a bigger view of all and since it's Friday, I've linked up with Nina Marie's Off the Wall Friday.

Tuesday, June 2, 2015

Invite


I was surprised when the Craft Center sent me an email showing me the flier that is being sent out to promote my show. I really like the design.  She had asked me for a few pictures of my quilts a few weeks ago and she chose my Itajime Surprise.  She also  put a very similar article on their FaceBook page and I put it up on mine, too.

I have also had postcards made, a very different design, and I'll show you those later.