Balsam 'babies'

3"x5" (sold)

I need to take another picture without the glass in the frame, but I have made three of these 'baby balsam' pix so far. I am playing with different colorings to see which 'mood' people like best. 

"Reflections" signed, dated, framed.

This piece is taking a trip to Alaska to see if it can find a good home...
I did two more, all unique. Both sold at Art in the Park 2011! 3rd sold, 3 more completed.

Latest projects, completed, sorta, almost...

      I completed 'Reflections', but now need to find a mat and frame to bring it to 'tadah'!

You see purples and blues behind these projects because I am multi-tasking big time right now. When I do that the design wall becomes a vertical 'pile'!

Shedding light on the Shed

I have shown the before and after pix of the inside of the Quilt Shed, so I thought it might be nice to show some exterior pix. As you can see, the Quilt Shed is named the Quilt Shed, because it was just a shed when I bought the house and 3.68 acres.  You might say the shed was a reason, if not the reason I wanted to buy this place so badly! :?}  The painting took two years...simply because I do not always finish what I begin in a timely manner.  The man of the house took pity on the Shed last summer and completed my painting project. 

The decorations have increased with the years (5) since I moved in. First came the 'Quilt Shed Rules'. 

It has been fun through the years finding yard sticks at yard sales to add to my collection. Many were 'gifts' given by fabric stores to customers as a form of advertising.  This is a give-away regarding my age, as this hasn't been the practice for quite some years now...

     The South Wall has wire 'trees' (post-Christmas sale on these giant card display holders) and flowers (they were decorating dollar store shepherds hooks, but broke off, so onto the wall they went!) And the sun clock was purchased as simple clay pottery (orange, like the clay pots we all have)
     I was afraid the rain would eventually deteriorate it, so I got into a decorate-the-clock mood and painted it up dude-fancy!

     And for the finale, the NW corner sports my childhood favorite, a Bleeding Heart bush, and of course 3 out of 4 corners of the shed have bird feeders. We do love feeding the birds around here!
     In the shade around the corner are 2 small flower beds, 3 colors of trumpet vines climbing a large trellis, a bird house with bird family in it, a bench and a small water fountain. My cool, quiet corner...
     Needless to say, I am spoiled rotten to have my shed and all this beauty and pines and breezes and peacefulness. The ultimate in creative atmosphere and ample space. :?}  I am truly grateful!

While taking a class in design...

I took a class the last two Thursdays. A class in design dilemmas and how to recognize/solve them. Last week I had my flannel on the table, my 4" squares laid out as randomly as I was capable of doing, as per instruction, when I thought, "Hey! I like this! I then folded another square into fourths and placed it on a square of a different color. "What if I..." The instructor kind of had to pull me back into class - I wanted to be home and go at this concept!

When I did get home, I played and played and had so much fun! I didn't have a flannel board for the second class, but, oh well!  Now to finish it, always the most difficult part for my personality!  I am one super-duper starter, but a lousy finisher... I titled this one Dance Studios in honor of its vibrating, exciting colors!

Button, button...

     This morning's surfing, resulting from my daily detour from my email inbox, took me to a scrap booking organizational site. As I wrote a couple weeks ago, I recently gutted my studio and started fresh with massive attempts at organization . Though the studio is looking pretty good, I still cruise different venues for even more cute or efficient ideas.  When I came upon this link's spice rack http://www.scrapbooksetc.com/crafts/gift-ideas/cute-button-projects/?page=15 organization for buttons, by color no less, something in me rebelled...
     The idea of being able to grab a collection of green buttons when needed makes time-saving sense-but what about Grandma' button box?  When my Grandma Wilson passed away years ago, my aunt gave me Grandma's button box-"You are the sewer in the family". The first few years I just ran my hands through that colorful old tin full of plastic and ivory, brass and bone, pearl and wood. I just couldn't bring myself to actually use those buttons. What if I put them on something I later decided to sell or gift to someone? They would be gone!

Grandma's Button Box-old cookie tin.

 

Grandma strung sets of buttons snipped off yard sale clothes.

 

Then I came up with a way to use them and keep them! I made a queen size Christmas tree quilt, surrounded with gift packages, and an angel on top of the tree. The oldest and prettiest of Grandma's buttons became the decorations on my quilt tree.    

The next time I dipped into my precious stash was to use Grandma's stork scissors and thimble on a wall hanging as ornamentation to my poem printed on fabric.  And if you have viewed the last couple months of my blog you will have seen Grandma's buttons on the fabric boxes I make, and as the perfect final touch on my trapunto!
      So, I still treasure her buttons, joyously unorganized.  I am finally using them. Maybe someday I will 'use them up'... without restricting their existence in jars, by color.

Pablo, orange and blue period...

It seems I am so longing for summer I am subconsciously doing a series of art in orange and blue! Last night I watched a Colouriscious tutorial ( http://ow.ly/4Yef6 ) on slashing fabrics and at 10:30 p.m. went out to the Quilt Shed and layered three projects to finish this morning. 

Mounted on artist's canvas, slashed batiks.

Pablo-11x14, Sold

Batik Log Cabin

57"x75" 

Machine quilted, cotton batting. Sold.

Oh, how I LOVE batik!  Something as simple as Log Cabin explodes with color.

Spring Cleaning is Exhilarating!

I know many of you will look at the before and after pictures of my Quilt Shed, and think out loud, "That's an improvement?!"  But trust me, it IS a great improvement, and my creative spirit was giddy with relief when I dug in and dug out!

The before pix of the North and South 'wings' of the Shed. I had just dumped my stuff into the fray when I came home from my first Home and Garden Show. I had started to clean a tad bit, as you can see the two blue boxes on the top shelf with their fabric exteriors and 'garbage can' lace decorations.

My dye supplies are in there somewhere...

 Clutter and chaos!

Well, that was BEFORE.
Here are the AFTER pix.

 Deep, deep piles...

 
I got the ribbon chain idea from a popular scrapbooking site-very festive! :?}

NOW I know what I actually own-there were several moments of surprised discovery, 
"I didn't know I had that!"

The blue boxes are done, filled with blue fabric, of course.

All other boxes are filled with their appointed color, waiting for their 'clothes'. 

My dye supplies! Wahoo! Let the classes begin! I am ready! Note the Alexander Henry jungle ironing board cover hiding in the corner-only the best in the Quilt Shed!

Now I can see what I have for the next show, and what I need more of... oh, and note the stacks and stacks of 'vintage' quilt magazines? I did the math. If and when they all sell for fifty cents each, I will have over $400 in my pocket!

The New north wing. I found the floor!

The New South wing!

p.s. Don't look in my garage. My "too much stuff" from the Quilt Shed had to go somewhere...

Happy, happy quilter am I! My husband oohed and ahhed properly over the transition and said my new students tonight would be impressed. I reminded him they didn't know the before situation, so they would probably still think, "Oh, MY!" when they walk in!

Stained Glass

I am pulling out all my 'old' quilts from the picture files. This isn't a quilt, as its intention is only for wall display at one of our churches. Made from batiks, pieced with black satin. (I am nuts!) Apx. 54" square.