Recently Sold Pieces

I have sold 5 pieces at The Artist's Shop this month and I thought I would share a couple of them here. One of them is a piece I could have kept myself and enjoyed on my own wall. It was one that I did at the very last minute for my earlier show in Hamilton at Art City. I had purchased a stamp with the flowers on it and wanted to use it right away so I made this piece. It come out so lovely that I'm sorry to see it go! This piece is called, “Why, Oh Why Can't I?”. I stamped the flowers and bird onto a linen type fabric then stitched them with black thread. I did some hand embroidery on the sides and in the sky and then finished up with more machine stitching. I love the touch of blue in the sky, and how the floral fabric compliments the piece. This piece was hanging right at the entrance door to the gallery and the person who bought it had to take it right away. Now another piece is suspended there ("Nautilus") and looks almost as nice.

The next piece is one that I made a couple of years ago using the pearls, crystals, and findings from a necklace that broke. I did some thread-painting on the flower at bottom left. This is a little bit out of my usual colorway, but people have always seemed to enjoy it when I have showed it. It is called, “Dreamin' On A Winter's Day”. I made it on a late winter day with the intention of choosing some fabrics that did not reflect the cold, hard winter we were having and make me look forward to warmer summer days.

It was amusing that one small piece that sold off of the back wall (which is the feature wall visible from the front of the gallery) I had replaced with a piece the same size and colorway and it sold three days later! I guess it is either a good spot or people like red pieces that size!
Too bad the 2nd person had to take it as well so again there is a small hole there! Not sure I can turn out another one right now.

All the pieces that sold were taken by the purchasers leaving various empty spaces on the walls. I'm glad for the sales of course, but it would be nice to see the pieces still hanging with the little red dots on them. Just my thing---love those little red dots!

Auction Activity and Art Quilts to Share

The Saqa On-Line Auction is well on its way and my piece was in the first round of bidding. It sold at the $75.00 level to what looks like a collector as she purchased a number of pieces. Obviously someone who appreciates fiber art so I'm glad to see my work go to a good home! Go to http://www.saqa.com/saqa-u.php?ID=1791 to see my piece and many more that you can bid on over the next two weeks.

Speaking of auctions, I just finished a piece for the local Trout Unlimited fundraiser auction and here some pictures...

Going to try to keep my text to a minimum here. Our next "TARTS" project (short for Textile Arts) this month is spraying diluted fabric paint onto silk. I will be doing that tomorrow, but thought I would show a previous paint on silk project that I used in one of my pieces. This project was a layering of various types of silk and applying the paint so that it would seep through the layers. The raw silk piece in the center was at the top of a stack so it has intense color. There are also rusted hand-made Thai silk and rusted cotton fabrics in this as well as hand embroidery and beading.

“Mushroom Habitat” was inspired by my love of hunting for those treasured edible mushrooms such as morels, oyster mushrooms and the occasional puffball. It has mushrooms in the fabrics (which I had been collecting for a while) and in the quilting motifs. I'm not sure this is a very successful piece as it is quite busy and doesn't have enough negative space for eye rest. Love the colors though!

Frost on the Lawn

Not only is summer winding down, but we had some frost on the grass yesterday morning! The last couple of nights have been rather chilly and I'm starting to think we aren't going to get more than one red tomato (which I already picked and ate!). Here in Montana we tend to get an early frost that really slows things down and with the cool nights we have all summer we just don't get the ripe tomatoes like some parts of the country. Back in Illinois where the nights are warm and humid we actually had tomatoes to give away. In this country a ripe tomato from your own garden is a precious thing! We do give away zucchini though!

In my last post I mentioned wishing that I would get an award to help with all the show entry fee/shipping expenses for my work. Well, at the Pacific West Quilt Show last weekend I won second place and a nice cash award in the Innovative-Small category for my piece "Twist of Lime, Pinch of Purple" which uses Log Cabin blocks in a unique way.

The judge's comments were very nice and they really appreciated my quilting which is especially nice since this one was a real problem child when it came to the quilting. I actually started quilting it and couldn't get the stitches to stop skipping so ended up ripping it all out and ripping the backing off the quilt and putting on a different fabric. I still had some problems quilting it so I set it aside for a while. That meant I missed the deadline for the show I had been planning on submitting it for, but when I picked it up again later it seemed to quilt just fine and I finished it with no problem. I guess it just didn't want to go to that show! Anyways, it is a lovely quilt when it is displayed with good lighting and the color combination is very striking.

So, Friday evening at The Artist's Shop show opening in Missoula, Montana, there was a decent crowd but, maybe because it is Labor Day Weekend, there weren't as many as I would have liked. No one was buying, but they did seem to really enjoy my work and I had a lot of good questions and a number of people took business cards. You hear the old, "I really like that one so I might be back..." line, but unfortunately they rarely do come back! That just gives them time to talk themselves out of it! The show will be up the entire month of September so there is still some time for some sales to happen...! Once again, if you are in the area please stop in and see the show. I believe there are 23 pieces there and some are brand new. Let me know what you think if you do go!