Day Three at the Crow Barn

I was raring to go on the second day of class because I was so happy to have kept up with the projects -- and I had found a Starbucks close to the hotel for my morning latte!

So that day started out like the first one, the assignment was posted on the wall, we all copied it down, Nancy explained it, and away we went.

Today's assignment was to use the fabrics we created yesterday afternoon to create two compositions. One of them was to be big, bold, and dramatic! The other was to be small and intensely busy.

I thought that this was going to be a piece of cake because this time I remembered to create strip-pieced fabrics that had "lines" (thin strips) on the outer edges. Wrong!

This is where the gnashing of teeth and hair tearing started. I started with the big and bold design because in order to be dramatic, I'd need large pieces of solid color and if I started to cut them up for a small busy piece, I may not have the right thing for the larger piece.

I think I must have pinned a design on the wall and then taken it completely apart at least 3 times. I was really wishing for that flannel sheet for the wall now. And even though Nancy thought my color choices were fantastic, the same could not be said about my design! Arrgh. The time went by so quickly. We had to have the two compositions completely sewn together by 9:00am the next morning because then we'd have a critique.

I finally settled on a design that I liked reasonably well and set to sew it together. Hmm . . not as easy as I thought, but I just tackled it bit by bit until I had it done. Whew.

But then, egads, now I had to create the small busy piece and I was running out of time. So I threw something together and hoped it would do. I think I left the barn at 9:00pm that night. (The Shaw Inn locks their door at 9:30pm so I had to get back before that.)

So here are the two pieces I ended up with. I do like the large one but the small one you can tell was just thrown together.



One of the questions we had to answer during the critique was if we were satisfied with the composition of the small piece or was it something that we just threw together to get it done! Obviously, I was not the only one who had problems with time.

For the critique we all moved around the room to each person's work area where that person had to stand by their work and be photographed (Nancy encouraged everyone to take pictures of the work of everyone else for reference -- but NOT for posting on blogs). Then the person had to answer the questions that Nancy posed in an articulate and thoughtful manner! I don't remember the specific questions but they were generally about explaining how we met the assignment requirements and how we interpreted them. I'm not sure I was too articulate, but I survived it. ;-)

I was happy to head back down the driveway to the inn at the end of the day. Ready to fall into bed.

Addendum to Day Two

Yes, indeed, anonymous commenter, there was much gnashing of teeth and tearing of hair but that was yet to come! Day Two had only a bit of eye rolling and sighing as I tried to create a connected composition with fabric that had mostly lines in between shapes. I'll know better next time -- I hope!

As I said, I left the barn at 8:30pm, which was a lot earlier that others. I was relieved to have actually kept up with the assignments at that point. The first class I took with Nancy I had to leave and go home each day at 5:00pm because I had taken the class locally and had my family to contend with in the evenings. So I got so far behind in the assignments that I don't even want to think about it. So this time I just put my head down and focused on getting it done!

I was so happy to have a good selection of fabrics, the appropriate solids, to choose from so that I didn't have to spend time agonizing over making the wrong fabrics work together!

And since I am writer who agonizes over saying the right thing, I am going to spead out the blogging about the workshop over several days. ;-) But I won't let it go for weeks this time.

Day Two at the Crow Barn

I'm doing two posts on the same day because I know some of you want to get down to what actually happened in the workshop!

But first a word about the environment of the Crow property. The minute I arrived at the property I knew that I would enjoying being there just for the magnificence of the property. First off I love old barns but they were surrounded by flowering trees and shrubs. Every morning as I walked from my car to the barn studio I would take deep breaths of the heavenly scents of the lilacs.



And I loved the whimsical sculptures created by Nancy's husband, John, that could be found throughout the property. I'd love to show more pictures, but Nancy is very opposed to photos taken of her workshop to be posted on blogs and I'm not sure how far this extends - whether includes photos of her property or not. So I'll mostly be showing only photos of my own work. But I took lots of pictures! ;-)

So class started promptly at 9:00am and the first assignment was put on the wall. We all feverishly copied down the instructions because once they were removed from the wall, they would not be put back up! Then Nancy explained the assignment and sent us off to our workstations.

The first assignment was to work with just black fabric and white fabric. We had to choose one color to be the "Lines" and one color to be the "Shapes". We cut the fabric in the strips of various widths and then sewed them together in different configurations to create new fabric. Then we had to cut up this resulting fabric into units and create an interested composition featuring the lines.

This is my result still in the design stage. (Note: I should have paid attention the suggestion to bring a batting sheet or flannel to put on the design wall. I was forever pinning and unpinning pieces to the wall. Of course, the design walls were wonderfully pinnable anyway.)



I struggled with the design until Nancy stopped by to explain that to make the lines into a composition, they needed to connect in someway. Duh, I think I finally got it.
Below is my finished piece. I'm not sure I like it -- it looks like a floor plan to me, but it at least looks like a composition. I think I needed to have more "Lines" on the edges of my made fabrics to make the composition come together. I had trouble getting the lines to connect.

We did a similar exercise in the first workshop I took with Nancy. I don't have a picture and don't know where it is (I might still have it), but believe me the result in this 2008 workshop is much better!



It is an interesting exercise and I'm anxious to try it again at home (maybe in the winter!)

That was the morning assignment. After lunch (also made wonderfully by Margaret), we were given the afternoon/evening assignment.

The second assignment was to choose two solid color fabrics and create new fabrics in the same manner as the Black and White assignment, but this time we would do two sets of created fabrics - one using color A as the lines and one using color A as the shapes. We were suppose to pick one "favorite" outstanding color and then a contrasting color. I choose a brilliant blue and a soft brown.



Nancy stayed in the studio in the afternoon from 2:00 to 5:00, but then left us to our own devices in the studio until they kicked everyone out at 10:00pm. (Dinner is served at 6:00pm and of course, can't forget snack time at 3:00.)

Sewing strips of fabric together may not seem like a lot of work but everyone was cutting and sewing like crazy and still it took all evening and then some to get everything done. The strips are all cut selvage to selvage, so these are lots of long seams. We had to have all of our made fabrics complete because the next morning we'd be getting the assignment that would use these fabrics. I think I left at 8:30pm that evening feeling very tired.

Still, when I got back to my room at the Shaw, I broke out my bottle of Mumm DVX Champagne and popped that cork. A glass of champagne and a nice piece of chocolate. What a great way to end the day.

Day One at the Crow Barn

I'm finally getting moment to blog about my experience at the Nancy Crow workshop! I was reminded to hurry up by an Anonymous reader (and you know who you are. ;-) because people are waiting! I know my mother has been bugging me about it.

Anyway, my plans to blog daily were very quickly thrown out the window due to the bad internet connection at the hotel, but more importantly by the fact that I was too exhausted at the end of the day to do anything other than read and respond to the millions of emails sent by my husband (and I thought I would be able to get away from work by driving to Ohio, right).

So what happened? Well, here's the deal:

On Sunday morning I left my comfy room at the Bedford Resort...



And drove off towards Ohio in my fabric packed car . . .



I arrive in Lancaster, OH at around 3:00pm and checked into my room at the Shaw Inn and Restaurant. While it was not quite the Bedford, it was clean and comfortable.

Next stop -- The Barn! They were well prepared for the needs of people bearing loads of fabric. There was a drive way that looped around the barn so you could pull up right next to the doorway to unload. It all went very quickly with the help of Nathan, Nancy's son, who made it look easy carrying in all the heavy stuff for me.



I was one of the last ones to arrive, but I quickly set up my studio away from home - setting my sewing machine and fabric stash in my little corner.

After set up time, the dinner bell rang and we all followed the call. A lovely dinner, created by chef Margaret Wolf, was set out buffet-style in the dining room area. With both workshops (the other workshop was taught by Fran Skiles) there was almost 40 people there.

After dinner, we were given a brief overview of the workshop plan and rules of the barn. Then one by one we stood up and introduced ourselves. There were quite a few people from New York and there was also another innkeeper! I think the furthest anyone had come was from Hawaii. It was a wonderfully deverse group of talent and professions. But what was also amazing was that two women who had been in the first Nancy Crow workshop that I took in the early 1990's in Mountain View, CA were there, too! They were both in the Fran Skiles workshop that week and were staying around for the following week for the Master's class with Nancy.

The class was to start the next morning at 9:00am sharp, so we all went home to our respective hotels to get a good nights sleep.

Off to a Nancy Crow Workshop!

I'm finally on my way to the workshop at Nancy Crow's Barn in Ohio. I am so excited about taking my first away workshop! I'll finally get to experience what everyone does when they come to our workshops.

I thought I'd never get on the road yesterday. I had not even packed anything until that morning, as we have been so busy at the inn, with the workshop, and the chocolates. Gads, it is always something!

Here is a shot of the "Fabric Beast", as Mark called it. It's all of the new solid color fabric out of the washer/dryer and waiting to be ironed. Will I get it done in time?



The answer is No. But what could I do when I ran out of time -- I just stuffed the wadded fabric into a plastic bin and loaded up the car.



Anyway, already it is marvelous to wake up this morning with no breakfast to make and no calls to answer, no bills to pay (those will come later for sure!), and no toilets to fix!

I decided to start off with an "attitude adjustment" by staying my first night away at a posh resort in Bedford, PA - the Bedford Springs Resort. I hadn't actually planned to do this, but I had had no time to make reservations for a place mid-way between home and Ohio. Also because I had no idea where I'd be when I was ready to stop for the night because I had no idea when I'd actually get on the road yesterday morning. Plus I had some stops at some stores a long the way to drop off some chocolate samples.

So at 7:00pm yesterday, when I had had enough driving I told myself that the next town I came to that had reasonable sounding lodging advertised along the highway, I'd stop. So I came to Bedford and there were several lodging possibilities, but I also noticed a sign for Bedford Springs Resort - "history restored". Sounded like an interesting place to check out. So I followed the signs and discovered this huge posh resort out of the pages of the elegant past!


I was not exactly elegant looking after 7 hours on the road, especially with a car packed to the gills with wads of unironed fabric. But I put on a brave face and left my car with the valet and went into the check-in desk. I only flinched a bit when the nightly rate was quoted -- I figured, what the heck, I really deserve and need this break/holiday and it would be my Mother's Day treat! So I said just give me a room on the low end of the rate scale!

So this is my "low end" room! I think I've died and gone to heaven. I think I danced around the room in glee for at least a couple of minutes.



It was late already so no time or desire for a regular dinner (not to mention that I had nothing suitable for wearing in the high class resort dining room), so I ordered a cheese plate thru room service. Lovely.



Then I thought of Sherry B, who was a student at one of our workshops last year. Every day after the workshop was done, she ordered a glass of champagne and sat on the porch to relax before dinner. So decadent, so deserving, and what a great way to treat yourself. I remembered making a vow that if I ever got the opportunity to go away to a workshop, that that is exactly what I would do! So here's to you Sherry!

Winter Leaves

Here is my latest creation. It is called Winter Leaves. I made it for the NY SAQA trunk show and for the SAQA auction that will be held later this year. It is 12" square.



I have a companion piece started but it may be a while before I get to work on it. I've be distracted with other things.

For the first time I got to join in the fun at one of our workshops. The instructor was Rosemary Eichorn, who I have always wanted to take a workshop from and never had the chance even though I use to live not that far from her in California. We collaged and played with tyvek, expanding paints, melting felt with a heat gun, and other cool stuff - like painting and melting potato chip bags!

Rosemary also showed us how to add piping on the edge and a facing finished border. Nice. I'm not quite finished with the piece that I created and as usual I'm not quite sure if I like at this moment. I think it needs something still.

Then the other distracting, but exciting news is that I am finally going to get to escape to a workshop myself! We had a free week in May and so I looking around the web just to see if perhaps a workshop that I'd like to take happened to be during that week and I found one -- Improvisations with Nancy Crow at her barn in OH! Yipeee! The class was full, but I put my name on the waiting list and crossed my fingers.

In the beginning of April I got an email from The Barn saying that the class was still full and would I like a refund of my deposit or did I want to wait and see if they got a last minute cancellation. What the heck, I told them to let it ride. So 2 weeks ago I got the good news! I got in! But now I had to face the reality of the infamous Supply List.

The first thing I did was post a query to the QuiltArt list about which was the best online fabric shop for quick and cheap stash building. The QuiltArt folk know everything! But, wow, I was totally overwhemed. Not only did I get a great bunch of suggestions for online shops, but a number of generous women actually sent me some fabric from their personal stash. Nancy Hinds, Sue Hill, Diane Pigg, Pam Morris -- Thank you so much! You're my heros.

The issue of course is that Nancy requires solid color fabrics and I rarely get such a thing. Below you see the entire extent of my solid fabric collection. I have some "near solids" but I know that Nancy frowns on that. Oh well, I'm taking my "non-solids" anyway, but I did just put in an order for some of the Kona solids. (I got mixed reviews on the quality of Kona solids, but as they were also the cheapest, I decided to get them anyway, as one person on quiltart wisely said, I'll be using them for class work and if they are cheap I won't be afraid to use them!)



I'll be taking my laptop with me to the workshop and hopefully won't be too exhausted to post my progress.

A Neater Studio - For the Moment!

My studio is neat and organized -- or at least for the moment. I thought I better snap a few pictures before everything goes to heck again.

All my fabric is neatly arranged and I can easily see that I need more lights and darks!



In this pictures you can see the new Elfa drawer units that I bought. Lots more storage and I can finally have all of my threads and UFOs in easy reach. (You can also see that the clutter is starting to collect again!)



And speaking of UFOs, I'm finally finishing this Crazy By Design sign that I started when I was in California and selling my work at art festivals. I wanted to create a booth sign and thought it would be nice to have an art quilt sign rather than a painted or printed sign.



I have it bound but will now add a finishing touch of beads around the color patches under the C and the D.

This past Saturday I also worked on a landscape/townscape that I'm creating in hopes of entering it in some big show. I've already missed the deadline for the exhibit that I originally intended it for (this is starting to be my new MO) and the next is fast approaching and I have yet to start the quilting. If I miss all the deadlines I'll have to post pictures here. I hate not be able to post pictures just because some venues will only accept work that has been totally hidden from view. What if the piece you enter doesn't make it in the exhibit? Then you've had to keep something your proud of hidden away (like hiding your feelings) and by the time you can bring it out into the light, you are already onto the next several projects and the elation of finishing it is long gone. Oh, well. I have no time to worry about this at the moment.

I have also been working on a redesign of my website: www.CrazyByDesign.com. It is way over due. I had been hoping to hire a web designer to do this, but after getting several estimates, I had to accept that it just wasn't in my budget for now. So I am going through the labor intensive process of doing the thing myself. I know that the prices that professional web designers charge is worth every penny because it requires lot of work and knowledge and graphic design abilities. Unfortunately, I more time than pennies and even the time is in pitiful supply. I designed my current site and I'm hoping to get the new version up in the next couple of weeks.

I still have had only minimal time in my studio because it seems like I'm working around the clock on not only our workshop and inn business, but now it is Life By Chocolate. I am glad of the business, but exhausted by the end of the day (if not sooner).

In my studio I am currently working on a piece that I will hopefully have ready to enter into one of the Quilts, Inc exhibits but because of their strict rules, I can't show you progress pictures! But picture this -- because my studio is small and has no large table space, I'm having to use my floor space (all of about 4 x 6 feet) as my design area. I sit on the floor and cut and design. I'm under the ironing board, so when I have to iron a piece, I must scoot out from under the board, then slowly scramble to my feet, trying not to step on the design, the scissors, or rotary cutter (closed, of course!). I'm making progress, but slowly!

I have finished another knitting project - a wonderfully fuzzy and soft sweater made from Dakota yarn by Tahki. The pattern is from Knitting Pure and Simple. Knitting I have time to do because I can do a little bit each day right before my eyes refuse to stay open any longer while sitting in bed with the dogs playing like wild banshees all around me. (Focuses the concentration to have to work in these conditions and not drop stitches! LOL.)




I'm standing in front of our Valentines chocolates display at the inn. We now have our chocolates in 3 local co-op or health food stores, so it is going fast, but there is still some there for the last minute Valentines gift or the "oh, no I forgot to get anything for you for Valentines" gift after the fact.

We had a tiny ice storm the other day which dressed the shrubs and trees in the most wonderfully glistening glaze.




We are lucky to be on roads that are kept very clear of ice and snow, which is why I can still be in love with the winter! Although, there hasn't really been much of anything to keep clear of. There is currently just a minimal dusting of snow and the sunny is shining this morning. The weather report is predicting snow this afternoon, but we'll have to wait and see. We are in an area that these storms somehow shift away from at the last minute.

Well, better finish up with the blogging and get to work this a.m. I have chocolate bars to wrap for a new order, and Mark just created a new variety of chocolate bar and needs a new wrapper designed.

My First Solo Exhibit

Yesterday we hung my first solo exhibit! It is really gratifying to see a selection of your work all hung together, especially at times when you are feeling like you haven't done anything worth while it such a long time. LOL.

The exhibit is at the Massry Residence, 180 Washington Ave Extension, Albany, New York. I am the featured artist on their lobby wall for the months of February and March. I was invited after a student at one of our workshops recommended me to the director at the residence.





I'm looking a little disheveled because we drove up to Albany as a "nice" little ice storm was just picking up steam and so I was dressed for mushy weather and the result was some wonderful hoodie hair!






Other exciting news is that our online store for Life By Chocolate is live! Check out the chocolate bars that feature images of some of my quilts.

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!

Finally a Day in My Studio

Today is suppose to be my day in the studio. I'll let you know how it turns out because it is also Mark's birthday and he wants to set up an area to photograph his chocolates (to start setting up the online store for Life By Chocolates.)

I'll have to accept some of the blame for not spending more time in my studio because I've been having a serious "Jones-ing" for yarn. First I had to finish the gifts I was making (socks for Zeke and Mark) and then I finished a sweater for me.



(Good models are so hard to find, so I had to crop off the head. LOL)

This sweater is made from a Jo Sharp pattern (Sommerset) with RYC Soft Lux yarn (recommended by Adina). It is wonderfully soft and nice to work with AND because Webs Yarn now has it on sale I had to finish the sweater to see if I liked it enough to buy more for another!

But now I'm trying to stop myself from buying more yarn because I know I have enough to keep me busy for the rest of the year, but so many sales and so many fabulous fibers. Somebody slap my hands before I click through to the Webs site again!

Well hopefully my day in the studio will take my mind off of the yarn! I'm planning on finishing off some lingering projects and then I start putting together my teaching plan for my first workshop! I'm teaching a 3-day workshop at Hudson River Valley Art Workshops in Dec. 4 - 7, 2008. We'll working postcard-sized, exploring various materials and elements of design. Plus, as an added bonus the studio will be open to the public so that people can stop by to see the work and purchase it for holiday gift giving. I'm really excited about this workshop - should be lots of fun!

Frosty the Pumpkins

Here is the picture of the frosted pumpkins that I tried to put up early. Unfortunately, they no longer look so fairy-tale-ish. They are turning to mush and I'll have to get a big shovel to transport them to the forest compost heap.

I have nothing new to show for myself, as I have not been in my studio for about a month. I have the sleeve and label to sew on the Dwelling piece and then I'll have to figure out what I'm doing next. I've printed out the information about several calls for entry, but I may just ignore them and let my muse lead me where it will.

Is WordPress the Next Step

There is a discussion going on on QuiltArt about the relative merits of the various blogging options. If I had had the time, I would have chimed in and said that I've been using Blogger for about 2 years and haven't had any trouble with it. But then what happens when I try to add a picture to this post -- Error Message. Sheesh. And yesterday, there was a point when the pictures in previous posts weren't showing up. Double Sheesh.

So no pictures for you this time. I was just going to post a picture of the frost on the pumpkins. I had heard of this happening to pumpkins but had never actually seen a frosted pumpkin -- they are very cool. The entire pumpkins was frosted. It sparkled in the early morning light. Looked like something you'd see in a fairy tale.

I had no pictures of the Dwelling piece that I finished on Saturday because as usual, I forgot to bring the camera with me to my studio. Camera on the first floor -- studio on the 3rd floor. And on my studio day, I dare not show my face outside of my studio or be in danger of being dragged into some other "5 minutes" task that takes the rest of the day.

Laura Cater-Woods is teaching at here this week. It is always wonderful to have Laura here. She is like a breath of fresh air - always makes you feel upbeat and eager.

I love it here, even when the driveway and all of the walkways are like blocks of ice! I was out this morning at 6:30 am sprinkling snow melt on all of the walkways and luckily our snow plow and salt service arrived in time to prevent my having to salt a path across the driveway from the Carriage house to the Main Inn. I love how everything is crunchy and sparkling, and my Yak-Traks did a good job of keeping me from slipping.

I'm returning to California on Friday. My daughter is graduating from the Monterey Institute with a Masters Degree in International Security and Conflict Resolution. I am so proud of her. She is amazing. We will be in CA for just 5 days but it be enough time to have Christmas as Adina's house, dinner with friends, a mother-daughter day out, and a celebratory dinner at the French Laundry in Yountville.

Gaffitti

Wow. Two posts in one month. It must mean the workshop season is winding down and I actually have a moment or two to do something other than work!

Carol Taylor is starting her second of two workshops today. Seeing her work and watching what they are doing in her workshop sure makes me itch to get in my studio to start strip piecing!



But what did I do with my couple hours of studio time -- cleaned my studio! This is one of my favorite procrastination techniques (besides knitting). But sometimes the studio just really needs it - stuff gets everywhere in stacks and stacks until you can barely move without upsetting a stack.

Just two more weeks to go before I can move my studio to the Carriage House studio for the winter! I'll be able to stay out there until the end of February. It will be wonderful to have so much space.

Here is another piece I created for the Deconstruction/Reconstruction exhibit. It is called Graffiti and is made from Spanish rice sacks. I use acrylic paint on the sacks and then stitch it with Aurifil 12wt thread (which makes a nice thick line). When taking the train into NYC I enjoy checking out all the graffiti that you see along the way. So this is my interpretation of graffiti. I used the "traditional" paint, but then used thread as a "quilter's graffiti."



This my current project for the California Fiber Artist's Dwellings collection. It is at the phase where I'm about ready to start stitching, but I still have a few more details to ad - like the yellow dashed line for the roads between the rows of houses.



Fall is finally here and the leaves are falling! Fall is a beautiful time of year up here. The weather is perfect - not too hot and not too cold.

New Blog Title

I changed the title of my blog from "Crazy By Design - Day By Day" because who am I kidding . . . I'll never have the time to blog daily! I consider myself very lucky to blog quarterly. So now it is "Artist Interrupted" as that is how I feel my life is at the moment -- constant interruptions from whatever I'm doing.

Last Saturday when it was suppose to be my day to work in my studio, I don't think I was ever in there for more than half an hour before I would be called downstairs for some reason or another other. We had a lot of inn guest checking in that day, and while Mark is suppose to be handling this, he always picks Saturday as the day to do chocolates - a task that often cannot be interrupted without bad results. So guests are arriving and Mark is no where to be seen and he can't hear them from the kitchen. This means that because I happen to be the one seen first I'm suddenly pulled into checking in the flow of guests and showing them to their rooms and helping with luggage, and then while I'm down there I may as well take care of the dogs and make coffee, etc. Sigh.

Well, enough of my whining.

This week is our Retreat week and we have a wonderful mix of fiber artists and painters. I think the painters are getting a real kick out of watching what the fiber artists are creating. Kris Moss and Patti Turi are the fiber artists. They are doing really cool stuff. I'll have to take some pictures today.

But what have I been doing, you ask. Well, I'm working on my Dwellings piece and a lecture that I'm giving next week at the Bethlhem Art Association. It will just be a slide show lecture, but I want to show pictures of the Dwellings piece in process. I hope I have the time to get the process finished!

Below is an image of one of the pieces I did for the Recycled exhibit with CFA. It is titled Fashion Crossroads. It is made with old suit swatches and strips from one of Mark's shirts.

New Fiber Art in August

I finally got around to prepping a couple of photos of my recent work and that is only because we had a few days between workshops! I'm usually so busy during workshops that I barely have time to work on any of my own fiber art, let alone blog about it.

This is a picture of my very latest. It is called Rabbits in the Grass and it is going to be displayed in an exhibit by the California Fiber Artists at the Pacific International Quilt Festival this October. It's so funny that while I lived in California I never had a quilt in this show, but now I'm in it quite frequently.



Here is another one that is going to the PQIF exhibit. It is called Oh, Sunny Day III.



I have a folder of other pictures prepared for this blog, but I think I'll hold on to them for the next time I post, in case I don't have much to say -- like this time.

Finally Some Light on the Situation

I finally have the start to a reasonable set up for taking pictures of my work. I followed the recommendations of Holly Knott, who has a great little write up on her website about photographing your art quilts. I still have to play with the set up a bit because there doesn't seem to be enough light with just the trumpet bulbs (maybe I need more than two).

So yesterday I took a bunch of photos of both my new work and some of the older work for which I never had good photos.

Here is a nice detail shot of Angry Rabbit.



I'll post more pictures later because some of my new work is on the way to its new home and I don't want to spoil the surprize for those receiving them, and also some I may submit for exhibitions and I need to read the rules before showing them in public!

Katie Pasquini Masopust

I just had the pleasure of watching and listening to Katie's slide lecture about her career as a quilt artist. I am just in awe. I took a workshop from Katie way back in 1993 (or there about) when I was just starting with art quilting. I still use the techniques I learned in this class today in some of my work.

But seeing the progression of her work and learning that she still uses the same basic construction techniques as she has always used makes me think why do I worry about keeping up with everything that is new in fiber art? Why do I make myself crazy trying to master all of these techniques when I already have quite a few in my repertoire that I am happy with?

I'm thinking I should be spending more time learning color, composition, and creativity (the title of Katie's workshop here).

Well, in any case the group of people in this workshop are having a blast and I wish I were a participant! I definitely recommend a workshop with Katie, no matter where she is teaching. But she will be back at the Hudson River Valley Art Workshops in the Fall of 2009! We'll be posting pictures of this current workshop on our inn blog, probably early next week.

Too Late For a Sunny Day

My first invitational and I blew it. I was invited to submit a piece for jurying to the Sky's the Limit exhibit which will be shown at the Houston Festival this year and I missed the deadline. Such a bummer. Usually I'm the queen of just slipping in at the last moment, but with the preparations for vending at the Chicago International Quilt Festival and the on going workshops, I just was not able to complete the piece I had planned. Oh, so I did actually get the originally planned piece quilted in time, but then 2 days to go and I realized that the piece was lifeless - blah, just no pazazz.


Oh, well. I did finish it yesterday, though, and now I'm happy with it. I'll just have to look for another venue to show it. I'll post pictures after I get the edging on and find a wall large enough to hang it and take pictures.


This picture is of a smaller version of quilt. I had several other deadlines to meet and decided a series would work. The series is called Oh, Sunny Day and this piece is on its way to Finland for a California Fiber Artist exhibit. I like this arrangement in this small piece (20" x 18") but in the large piece I as making for the invitational, it just wasn't right. I have another small piece still in the works.



This small piece, Flight, was created as a thank you gift to the sponsor of the CFA exhibit that was held at the Huntsville, AL Museum of Art recently. It references the two pieces that I had in that exhibit.



Here is another recently completed piece that I call Alpha. Represents another missed deadline! I think I should stick to making the pieces and then looking for venues. That way I avoid getting depressed about missing deadlines.



We have a workshop checking in today. Katie Pasquini Masopust is the instructor. I took a workshop from Katie over 10 years ago and loved it. I still use the techniques she taught and the piece I started in the workshop was one of the first large pieces I sold. I'd post a picture, but this was back in the ice age, before digital camera and I'd have to search out the original photograph and scan it. (One of those "someday" projects.)