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!

Summer is Winding Down...

August is almost over and so is the family art show at River's Mist Gallery. It was a nice show and lots of people came to see it, but not too many sales. I sold two small pieces, my mom sold one, my sister sold one (to my mom!), and my son sold 6. It would have been nice if everyone would have sold something, but I guess it just isn't too be! The show will be up until Tuesday next week (August 30) so you have a couple of days to see it if you are in the area.

My next show (postcard image above):

The Artist's Shop

N. Higgins Avenue

Missoula, MT

406-543-6393

Opening Reception: First Friday, September 2, from 5pm-8pm.

I've got some brand new work for this show so please come and see it!

Once I get this show hung I will be working on a piece for the Trout Unlimited Banquet auction fundraiser later in September. I have been sketching out some ideas and thinking about this for some time now. I'm leaning towards a representation of a stream with shadowy fish swimming through it. I would include either cutouts or sheers for the construction. Another idea I had would incorporate the swooping line of a fly rod with a fly on the end. I love the gentle looping back and forth of the line and the graceful arch that allows the fly to drop gently on the surface of the water. This might also include the rings of water moving outward from the point where the fly lands---quilted in of course. As soon as I get this next show off and running I'll get to work on this piece and decide exactly what I'm going to do. Still thinking....!

I have two pieces in the Pacific West Quilt Show this weekend and just sent one quilt to the SAQA Sense of Adventure exhibition which will premier at International Quilt Festival in Houston. I'm waiting to hear from a couple of shows that I sent entries to and I'm going to be submitting a couple more entries in the next week or two. Keeping my work out there is a challenge---an expensive one. It would be helpful if I would win an award or two and get some funds to help with the entry fees and shipping costs for all these shows. I'm honored to be accepted to them, but it all adds up. The sales I have made in the last few months have all been small pieces. I'm grateful that, unlike many artists, I'm selling work on a regular basis, but the small pieces just don't get me too far!

Some images of newer work....

The first is called "Tulip Skies", and the second image is one that I believe I published on this blog in October of 2008 when I was initially working on this piece! I had met with irreconcilable difficulties and wasn't able to move forward with it at that time. When I pulled it out a few months ago I was able to work through the design issues and finish the piece for my August family show! It has received lots of positive comments and is a very bold and dramatic piece.

This next one is called "Tapestry Strutting". I used a small section of pin weaving that I had made over a year ago to create the body of the pheasant. I challenged my family members to all create a pheasant piece of some sort. Four of us participated and it was a beautiful display. The sculptural effect of the quilting over the pin weaving was very successful.

Triggering New Ideas for Art

When I am trying to determine what is going to be my next project I have several ways of triggering ideas. Most often I go to my fabric stash and look for that certain fabric that will inspire an entire piece. Once I even built a quilt around a fabric and then eliminated that fabric because it didn't work well in the final design! Choosing the fabrics from my stash to go with the inspiration fabric is one of my favorite parts of the whole process!

Another way to figure out what to do next is to look in my sketchbooks and see what ideas I have had that I've probably forgotten. Everytime I look through my books I see the value of making little sketches or notes about ideas that pop into your head at odd times. The recording of those thoughts is a great jumping off point and many of my pieces have started there.

A third way I trigger ideas is by looking at my design wall where I often pin up unusual items I have acquired---a piece of beaded trim, some dyed gauze, a hank of nubby hand-dyed yarn, or a new strand of particularly stunning beads. The reason I put them there was so they would be in the forefront and not forgotten when I am looking for ideas. Sometimes unusual combinations arise because of what happens to be pinned up next to what. The trick for this technique is not to cover up so much of your design wall that you can't work on it!

Recently I created a couple of quilts that started with rubber stamps that had an inspiring images on them. Both of these pieces turned out very interesting and seem to be well received. The simple black printing on simple/solid fabrics can then be quilted and embellished to create a interesting piece. Here is one of my new ones that will be in my family's show opening on Friday:

Violet Shadows - $250.00

In a previous post I showed you some detail images of two pieces I was working on. One was inspired by the simple idea to quilt with white thread on black fabric, and the other was inspired by the round copper beads that are dangling at the bottom. Neither of these are masterpieces, but interesting I think. They are both going to be in the show opening on Friday.

Nautilus - $220.00

Zen Copper - $90.00

One more way I get inspiration for a design is from a technique I'm playing around with. The quilt below is one that arose from a fabric weaving technique my mom showed me using those wonderful ombre fabrics that fade from one color to another or from light to dark.

You never know where your next quilt idea will come from. Keep a sketchbook for those ideas that come when you aren't ready for them yet. Keep some key items out where you can see them to help trigger that next design idea. Run your fingers through your stash once in a while to see what gorgeous fabric you had forgotten you bought knowing it would be just perfect for building a showpiece around! Then get in your studio/sewing room and design that fiber art!!

Frog Pond - (Sold)

Unusual Embellishments

I love to embellish my art quilts with all kinds of things. I most often use beads but I use more than the usual seed beads and bugle beads. I love to combine stone, glass, and metal beads with the fiber because they compliment it so well and add great texture.

Here is a piece that I made recently which is currently hanging in my solo exhibition at Art City Gallery in Hamilton, Montana. The piece is called "Indian Summer" and the dangling leaves at the bottom are made with shrink plastic. I colored the plastic with Sharpie markers, punched a hole in the top of each leaf, cut them out, and shrunk them on a baking sheet covered with foil in the oven. They are strung from the quilt on beaded strands and when they happen to knock together they make a very nice sound. The color is vivid and permanent (a little difficult to see on the detail picture because they are shiny and reflective). A very fun and easy embellishment. Shrink plastic (yes, the same as those Shrinky Dinks you used to make when you were a kid!), is available at Joann's and probably lots of other places. The hanging cord is a strip of suede and the rod is a stick I found early this spring when I was out hunting for morels along a stream.

Another piece I made recently (also in my Art City show), uses little butterflies purchased from a local drugstore that has a craft section. They are made from feathers that are painted to look like butterfly wings. I glued them onto the quilt using E6000 adhesive. They are somewhat fragile, but isn't it amazing how well they match the fabric they are perched on? It was purely by accident that I had picked them up just a few days before making this quilt. I did not buy them for anything in particular, just liked the colors. I made the quilt and only then remembered the butterflies and wondered if they would go with it. Serendipity!

You never know where an embellishment or an idea for an embellishment might come from. The quilt I am currently working on is a pheasant and I went outside to pick some tall grasses so I could lay them out on the quilt, position them attractively, mark the placement with chalk, and quilt them into the quilt. Worked great! And I had them there next to me so I could quilt the tops of the grasses fairly realistically.

I am finishing two pieces up for my family show that will open on Friday, August 5 at River's Mist Gallery in Stevensville, Montana. I gave the gallery several collaged images for the postcard and I think the one below is the one they used. You can see there will be a nice variety of art in our show, although my sister wasn't able to get me images of her wearable art for the postcard. Anyone in the area is invited to attend the opening reception Friday evening from 6-9pm, or visit the gallery anytime in the month of August.

Detail Images of New Pieces

I just finished a very small piece inspired by some round copper beads that I just recently purchased. They are dangling at the bottom of the piece. I used copper thread for some of the quilting and an interesting long skinny copper bead as well to carry through the copper inspiration. Not my best work but an interesting little piece.

I recently experimented with Artist Transfer Paper and the following quilt utilized an image that I colored onto the transfer paper with regular Sharpie markers. I would not usually use these on fabric since they tend to spread and you cannot do this small detail that I was able to do on the transfer paper. I also used some pastel crayons for some of the color and they also worked well. You can paint, draw, stamp, print, almost anything onto this paper and then transfer it to fabric or almost anything else. It is really fun stuff to experiment with.

Here are some detail images of the current piece I am working on. It has a section of nearly black fabric that I am quilting on with white rayon threadwork. I will likely do some beading here as well.


As you can see, I am still busy getting ready for my next shows opening in August and September!