Fans are Friends Too!

Downtown Anchorage was hopping yesterday! The sunshine had the visitors from near and far happily shopping, eating and sightseeing. The new Batik fabric I designed for Jana’s Quilted Raven store arrived in time for the summer season and has enjoyed positive sales and comments. I wanted to get a peek at the new bolts and color ways of the finished product and decided to pop into the store yesterday. When I walked in several shoppers were happily picking out fabric gifts for quilting friends at home and for their personal stashes. Tracy M. from Louisville, Kentucky was impressed with the selection and even more happy to meet “the designer” of some of the art quilt patterns

and the Raven fabric. I was greeted with hugs and photo opportunities! What a boost for any artist’s ego! Tracy’s husband Nat was the ultimate gentleman and a very PATIENT shopping partner while all of us laughed, shared stories, iPhone photos, perused and talked all things fabric and quilting! You’ve got a keeper Tracy! As we said in the shop yesterday “we HEART Kentucky!” The success of the fabric is due to the colors Jana selected just as much as the design. The “Ravens on Branches” has been selling as fat quarters as well as by the entire bolt! The design process was a bit longer than I’m used to as we waited months for the first strike offs to arrive then another few months for the actual fabric to arrive in the store. With the success of this design, Jana and I have several

others in the works. Jana has one of the nicest collections of quality batik fabric found anywhere and this was echoed by the customers yesterday!

Visitors to the Quilted Raven, Nat and Tracy M. from Louisville, Kentucky

Bravery Wheel

I’ve been able to take a break from welding this week and focus on an on-going fabric design project. This past spring, working on a collaborative project with my friend Jana for her quilt shop, The Quilted Raven, we designed some Raven themed fabric that is being custom screen printed on batik fabric. Jana also owns the very cool gift shop Cabin Fever -both shops are in downtown Anchorage. We also decided to produce my popular Raven Garden Flags. In Jana’s quilt shop she sold the flags in kits and at the Market I sold the flags already assembled. Both versions were a success and we are on our second silk screening of that project. For some time I have wanted to design quilted wall hanging patterns using Raven and other fun designs. The design part for me is fun and comes much easier to me than planning the fabric colors and print combinations. I’ve said before that I’m not very color brave and on my to-do list list this winter is Judy's on-line Color Theory class, but until then I'm on my own. You’d think that all artists should have an eye for color but just as all artists can’t draw, not all artists (ME) know how to use color! UNTIL I found this handy color wheel called the Rainbow Color Selector at a fabric shop. This wheel helps you select colors that “guarantees (I like the word guarantee) your color choices will be based on proven principles of balance and harmony.” The printed mini companion piece that came with the wheel is very educational and informative.

I’m sure a lot of this color knowledge may be obvious to some, but it wasn’t to me. I know I should have paid closer attention to Color Theory in school –but I didn’t and there is not a whole lot of color variations in steel -well there is various patina's of rust and I've got those down pat! What I like best is the wheel actually inspires me to try other color combinations I normally wouldn’t consider, especially when I look at combining 4 different color combinations –all done by pointing the “Rectangle Tetrad.” By turning the wheel there is even a complementary, triad and split complement stars to better help me with color selections. There are also Square Tetrad, Analogous, Monochromatic,

Counterpoint and Multi-color color combinations the wheel can suggest. My first 3 pattern designs are done and now I’m working on all of the packaging and printed pieces that will accompany the design. I also still need to double check my measurements and proof the sewing instructions, but that stuff is easy compared to selecting the various fabrics and colors that you hope inspires the customers!

These are my first two quilted wall hanging patterns that will be for sale at the Quilt store. "Raven Says Hello!" is approx. 15" x 15" and "Raven and Friends" is approx. 13" x 33"

I Wanna

Spoiler alert- I’m (not) complaining. Are any of you finding it hard to make the time to follow all the Blogs you normally do in the winter? How can it be JULY

ALREADY?! I miss my slower winter routine, I miss reading all of the Clay Blogs and even a couple of cranky-chicky-complainer Blogs I secretly follow. I want to make more time for clay, encaustics, lounging on the deck reading trashy chick-lit, hiking up Mt. Alyeska, fly fishing, or even going to a mid-day movie with Gus…waaah, waah, waa. There are so many fun things we’re packing into our summer days that it leaves little time for me to do my other routine fun stuff! We finally got the fabric screened and cut for the cool, new Raven Garden Flag project I’ve been

collaborating with Jana at The Quilted Raven! Wow, this has been more of a project than both of us anticipated. The goal is to have kits at her quilt shop and finished sets for sale at my Spenard Farmers Market booth. The very talented Judy Walyer sewed up a fantastic sample set for the quilt shop and now I need to design the full color insert for the retail kits. My summer schedule has left very little time for being at my computer and combine that with the fact that my graphic designer brain has been on hiatus, this project is what I needed for a good kick-start.

Nimbus has been adjusting beautifully to his new home and schedule –though it’s meant some MAJOR changes in our family routine. More exercise for Daddy-O and I, a new jog-bra for me(!) and keeping the Bunny in his cage more… Bunny

Foo-Foo used to free-range in the studio but for his sake, no more unlimited free-ranging. This is working out good for everyone including bunny. He has started to get a little kooky in his senior moments and has been doing weird things so a little more kennel time is good. Our crazy rabbit is over 11 years old, which is considered geriatric by bunny standards and he’s still going strong. Derek says it’s because of all the organic veggies I feed him… We’re just saying his new arrangement is like spending more time safely in “his retirement condo.” When we run Nimbus outside, Bunny Foo-Foo gets his inside exercise too, I’ve just had to make myself a little reminder that the rabbit bait is loose in the studio before Nimbus heads inside…