Soggy Sewing

Saturday, October 6th is the 16^th Annual Friends of Pets Quilts and Creations Quilt Auction!  This popular auction features animal themed fiber arts of all types and benefits the community spay/neuter assistance program . Friends of Pets provides vital animal welfare and protective services for abandoned animals with respect, compassion and integrity and is staffed entirely by volunteers and supported by donations. For the last couple of years I have wanted to donate a piece for the auction but always missed the deadline –but not this year! Thankfully, Ruth Q. reminded me via email it was that time of year and I was able to make two pieces. “Pets are a Girls Best Friend” is 20” w x 14” h and “Dog Breath and Friend” is 22” w x 25” h. Both are original designs that I used the applique, fusible web method of quilting. Each piece is embellished with fun, free-motion stitching and is ready to hang.

 Should you find yourself in Anchorage bid high and bid often at the Friends of Pets Quilts and Creations Quilt Auction!

Saturday, October 2, 2012

University Center Mall

It’s been easy to be in the nice, dry studio working on projects since it’s been RAINING outside most of the week (month). Between record high destructive winds and now flooding throughout most of Southcentral Alaska it’s made for a soggy, blustery fall. These photos below are from our friend Carol P. on the Kenai River and showing the flooding where we would normally be fishing this week… the entire dock which normally is about 3’ – 4’ ABOVE the river is now under water along with the fire pit area. The good news is that the lodge sits on much higher ground above where these photos were taken but still there is a lot of damage across the state. 

Our thoughts are with our friends in Seward, the Kenai Peninsula and Talkeetna, all who have experienced property damage due to the increased rainfall.

The inset photos were from Labor Day weekend where the dock sits high above the river with the boats tied up below. With the flooding the river is up and over the dock into the fire pit area. That's A LOT of RIVER!

Personalizing

I ordered some woven labels from “It’s Mine!” to sew to the back of my art quilts. I had been using a fine point sharpie to write the title of the quilt along with my name but wanted to add a more professional touch. Sometimes the sharpie was hard to see against the darker fabrics and feel that these labels, once sewn on, will also last a bit longer with the work. “It’s Mine!” offers a number of different styles and it was hard to choose which style would be the most versatile. Before I ordered I looked through my growing stack of small art quilts and settled on the white stitching on navy, simple, horizontal design. The labels arrived as promised and even earlier than stated! Just in time for a couple of special gift-giving projects I’ve finished. With the large selection of styles and sizes, these labels are also perfect for artisans working in fiber arts, sew in clothing for kids going to day care, camp or for an elder person's belongings in an assisted living facility.

The last couple of weeks I’ve had loyal customers call and request gift certificates for Holiday gift-giving. If customers were not able to find what they wanted at the Gallery, or wanted something specially created, a gift certificate works great. I need to take care and stash the money I receive from the certificates so I’ve not spent it before the work is completed –not so easily done, especially during the Holidays! I purchased some cool paper and larger presentation folders at the office supply store to use for the certificates (printed up in word using a fancy-italic font, Sterling, along with my logo) and added my new gold foil labels for a touch of sparkle. I feel the added touches make for better gift giving instead of just an ordinary white envelope. For a finishing touch, I’m going to tie a lovely sheer purple ribbon around the outside of the folders after the customer views the certificate –and double checks my spelling!

"hiBEARnation" art quilt detail. I had fun free-motion stitching the den grass in gold and brown threads and the ice and snows in aqua and blue threads.

And speaking of finished –the bear in a den quilt is finished. I’m thinking of turning him into a pattern because it was so much fun to make! I enjoyed cutting the swirling browns of the den, the blues and whites of the ice and snow. I was thinking he could even be a brown bear if somebody chose. Oh, and before I forget, here is a wonderful link to some FREE Holiday Gift Tags! “How About Orange” one of my favorite creative Blogs is offering these downloadable and very cool labels for FREE! I was thinking of printing them onto whole sheet label paper and tah-daa they are ready to address and stick on your gifts (you are finished with your shopping-right?)! Here is the link to the cool, FREE GIFT TAGS!

Completed "hiBEARnation" art quilt, 14" x 14".

As If Moving Wasn't Enough

Spoiler alert –if you don’t like to read Blogs that have TMI (especially girly TMI), just look at the pictures today. I should also share that I feel by reading other people’s Blogs I usually learn something or by reading about similar life situations of other people I find comfort in knowing we're not so alone in this crazy world –which prompted me to share the events of the last couple weeks completely unrelated to the big move.

This is Speedy-Carve rubber blocks that
I carved into with the tools. I then used
metallic acrylic paints to "stamp"
onto the fabric.

First off, before I launch into my mammogram story everything is fine. In October I went to get my annual mammogram (which I hadn’t managed to make time for in the last three years…) and got a call back that they wanted to “take a closer look(!!)” at something in my right breast. Well, as you can imagine this threw me into a total panic –especially since we were right in the middle of the house sale/purchase. I don’t do cancer threats very well and was at times paralyzed by fear and finding that I had to “talk myself down” on several occasions. I went back to the imaging center for my “closer look” scan, then got ANOTHER CALL that they now wanted to do a biopsy, B-I-O-P-S-Y…holy crap. What a horrible word, B-I-O-P-S-Y, not crap. I wasn’t able to schedule the biopsy until last last week because after the procedure you aren’t supposed to move your arm, lift anything heavier that a gallon of milk etc. Yeah right! Like I would be able to sit still while my house was FULL of boxes needing to get unpacked. Soooo, I finally was able to have the B-I-O-P-S-Y early last week and at the end of last week and got word that all was fine –just some “calcifications” which are perfectly normal for a woman “of my age.” I don’t mind saying that it hurt like hell and is still really tender. I did get some good “medicine” to help me through the procedure and my sister was with me, both of which helped a lot. I also don’t mind saying that I wasn’t real quick to answer the phone the last couple of weeks either. I did make this cool mini art quilt though. I used ink jet printer transfers, stamping, hand beading and free motion sewing. It doesn’t have any booby art (sorry guys) but I did use imagery that expressed how I’ve been feeling.

The finished quilted fiber art piece is about 9" wide x 16" tall.
I used colored pencils to hand color and embellish the heart, body, moon and butterflies because the transfers had enough "tooth" to take the coloring. 

Back To School -Already?!

Not only have the birds been practicing flying in V formations but I made my first school lunch of the year yesterday morning as Daddy-O turned into a pumpkin because the teachers had to return to school. When Gus goes back to school (next Tuesday) I do the "It's the Most Wonderful Time of Year" dance but when Derek goes back I’m lonely for the first couple of weeks and have to recreate my daily routine and schedule making for a much more productive work schedule. Before the school year routine set in we were able to get in a fishing trip to Whittier last week. We did more fishing than catching –but that’s OK, in our house there is no such thing as a bad day of fishing! PLUS my friend Margaret D. turned me onto these WONDERFUL little treats called “Sofia Champagne” in a can!! Technically it's sparkling wine -but who cares when you can toss a lovely octagon, foil quad-pack in the cooler!

My latest art quilt was inspired by some FAB fabric I picked up at the Quilted Raven. Jana has the most beautiful collection of batik fabrics. A series of deep blues inspired me to want to make a flying crane with the contrast of the bird against this series of blues. I may turn it into another pattern to help fill out my line of art quilt patterns. Currently my designs have more Pacific Northwest

themed designs and I’d like to offer a wider variety of designs to larger markets. I’m finally feeling a bit more comfortable with my sewing machine and the back of the quilt looked much better after the free motion stitching. I’d been having a hell of a time with the correct tension setting and the thread would tangle up and frustrate the cr@p out of me. It’s been total operator learning curve errors, sprinkled with immediate high expectations and extreme impatience.

My approach to this quilt was a bit different as I created the design as I made it with no pattern before hand. Normally I start out with a drawn design in hand. I also learned that I need a deeper stash of colors in my fabric inventory. I had no whites whatsoever and not enough contrasting colors for the crane’s wing shadows and had to do a bit of shopping right in the middle of my piecing.

To make a pattern based on my finished design, I knew it would be tough to see my piecing details after I did my free motion sewing so I made a black and white copy of the crane after it was cut, pieced and ironed into place on the quilt backing. The black and white copy did a good job of highlighting the areas that I need more contrast and provided me a great base design that I can scan and drop into Adobe Illustrator to digitally create a pattern.

Happy Birthday to Gus-Gus who turned 14(!) on Sunday.

xOx

Shrunken Heads

Before my little break to Sequim, WA to visit my parents and to attend the Lavender Festival, I think my head was feeling like Kristen’s shrunken Styrofoam tests! Usually she and the crew would bring a decorated beautician Styrofoam head for the test but Kristen forgot hers at home this time. She was able to use a couple of cups and a Styrofoam block and e-mailed us these pictures and wrote; “today we did a cast to ~2000 m in the Beaufort Sea, and got to "shrink" styrofoam cups. Here's the pix of my two items- a styrofoam cup and a square styro test tube rack.” She is on the USCGC Healy with the NASA ICESCAPE 2011.

With my brain back to near normal size, I came back and have been ready to work. The welder gets plugged back in today and my new sewing machine will have to wait a few more days until I get some pieces welded up for Saturday's Spenard Farmer's Market. My latest pattern “Husky & Friends” is ready for distribution and I already have orders to fill. I followed up on inquiries, answered requests, filled orders, sent out a few e-mail cold calls for my patterns and was pleasantly surprised at the positive responses. Amazing what happens when you make the time to take care of business! I’m actually a bit embarrassed that I let a few administrative sales things slip this summer. What inspired me to jump back on that business pony was visiting several Quilt Shops in WA and talking with reps at the Sequim Quilt Show. After seeing what’s out

there and the wonderful selection of fabrics and patterns I felt I had something to offer them and my confidence was up a bit more. For my needle felting this winter, I also purchased a huge bag of wool in a variety of colors form Olga’s Yurt of Fiber. Island Quilter from Vashon, WA had the most amazing selection of vibrant cotton fabrics. The polka dot fat quarters were irresistible and even the packaging was cool. So, just like the Styrofoam, I stuffed it all in our carry-on luggage for the trip home to my studio!

My latest Art Quilt Pattern "Husky & Friends!" The finished size is 10" x 26". My plan was to have it ready for sale with this year's Iditarod (back in March!) oh well, it's ready now, just in time for the 2012 race!

Is discombobulated even a word?

My art making has felt discombobulated the last few weeks. I’ll have short bouts of inspiration and productivity but the duration is lacking –now that I write those words, they sound like a commercial for older adult males… After 30 plus years of art making it’s frustrating to feel the need to change up the way I’m used to working. I’d love for my productivity to be at it’s peak when opportunities for earning potential are also at their peak. I’ve never been able to switch the art making on and off or turn the art making dial to HIGH output. To try and find my groove usually means I need to get back to basics –in my case that includes drawing and sketching. I even pulled out some of my

favorite "artist self help” books like “Creative Time and Space,” “Creative Awakenings” and “Kaleidoscope –ideas and projects to spark your creativity.” Mainly, I like these books for the pictures and reading about other artists and their processes. These books tend to get me out of my “creating safely” zone. I’m feeling the need to be dangerous with my art making –doesn’t that sound fun? Not sure how I will get there though. I did unpack my new sewing machine and finally got the new bobbins wound and the machine threaded. That would go under the category of being productive NOT being dangerous. The piece I decided to give my new Janome a test drive on was unfortunately a very SAFE piece –I had a much more dangerous fiber art piece in my mind but was surprised how average the sunflower mini-quilt came out. On the upside, my stitches are soooo much easier to make and I didn’t need to adjust the tension

once or untangle one thread snarl ball! WOW, what a difference the new machine made. I even used the TAP (Transfer Artist Paper) with much more success when transferring to fabric instead of metal. I created some sunflower centers in Photoshop and printed them onto the TAP sub straight using the ink the HP printer.

We went to the downtown Anchorage 4^th of July parade this weekend. Normally, we are at the Girdwood Forest Fair but with the Farmer’s Market on Saturday we decided to stay off of the highway and hang out in town. What a treat both the weather and parade were! We are lucky to be able to walk downtown from our house and Daddy-O even packed snacks, 4^th of July flags and our camp chairs in his new Technica ski backpack!