Putting it in Reverse

I've come to the conclusion that working in the Carriage House studio is just not going to work this year. Already it is almost January and I haven't picked up a rotary cutter or taken a stitch all month. I did get my fabric sorted (a very satisfying task - it's a amazing to discover things you didn't know you had!) and I have set up a new set of shelves in my upstairs studio and purchased a set of elfa drawers that I'm hoping to set up today. Then the great reverse action will commence - moving all the fabric and stuff back to my third floor studio. Well, I need the exercise.

I will do my best to create something worthy of photographing for my blog in February!

So what have I been "frittering" my time away on in January? It seems that there is more art workshop business in this "off time" than ever. I'm in the process of finalizing the schedule for 2009 (if any readers have any recommendations for teachers now it the time to tell me!). I have all of the painting workshops scheduled and have just a few more fiber art workshop spots to fill. Then comes all of the associated stuff that it takes to get ready for the current year of workshops that start March 2nd.

Another winter task that has been consuming vast amounts of my time is our new chocolates business, Life By Chocolate. I am the main business and marketing person. I designed the new online store website layout (going live soon) and I also designed the wrappers for a new line of chocolate bars. It was my idea to use images of my quilts on the wrappers and so most of the names of the bars have been created to work with one of my quilts! The picture below is of the Wild Rabbit bar and it has a portion of my quilt "Rabbits in the Grass" on the side. The bar is made of a fabulous Fair Trade 70% cacoa South American chocolate and has a hint of Turkish chili.



Well, I better quit this blogging and get back to printing more bar wrappers. I'm also the chief bar wrapper and packaging expert. LOL.

Fabric Sort Has Begun

I have moved all of my fabric stash out to the carriage house studio and I started the great sorting project today. I've had no time to actually create any artwork yet, but I've at least gotten some good exercise! My regular studio is on the 3rd floor of the Main Inn, so moving all this fabric (Man, it is heavy) down the stairs and over to the Carriage house took quite a while. (Who needs a Stairmaster!)



One thing I have noticed is that I just don't have enough fabric in light and dark values. Most of it is in the middle range of values. Darn - I guess I need to go shopping. LOL.



I hope I get something more out of the studio move than sorted fabric, but I guess that isn't a bad thing either. We have been really busy getting the Life By Chocolate website and online store up in time for Valentines Day. I'm doing the web page layouts in PhotoShop and Mark is taking the photos and entering all of the info in the online store database. My brother, who is our website host (Blue Cliff Hosting) will convert my PhotoShop designs into web pages. Mark will soon be creating a line of chocolate bars and the wrappers will feature my quilts! (I'll be designing the wrappers, too.)

I have been invited to hang a solo exhibit of my work in Albany! I'm hoping to check out the site tomorrow (when I take 2 of our vacumm cleaners in for repairs). I'm not sure of the space so I need to find out what size pieces can be hung and then hope I have enough that will work!