Art Show this Weekend!!!

A quick post to show you a new piece and remind those of you living in Abaco to come out to the Art Show this weekend.

Tonight is the opening night, and is invitation only.  I hear the Prime Minister will be there!!!

Saturday the hours are 10am to 5pm and Sunday 12noon to 5pm.

There will be a children's craft area, and speciality food booths also.

Anyway, have to go pack my car and set up for a great weekend.....see you there :)

Sneak Peak at New Ideas

Yesterday was a busy day....painting, sewing, flameworking, beading.....scattered, but busy.  I had to find something to do while paint dried!  Eventually the puzzle pieces in the picture will become a piece of fun and funky artwork to hang in my booth for the Art for the Parks Show.

Are there other artists like me?......when you should be concentrating on a show there are other creative things calling your name, begging for you to work on them, when they have nothing to do with the upcoming show or order.

One of my new years resolutions was to learn how to knit.  I knew how to cast on, knit and pearl, so on Sunday my Mom showed me and a friend how to do the cable stitch.  It takes quite a bit of concentration, but I am pleased with my results.  Guess what?.....its going to be a scarf :)

I hope to post more snippets as they are created.

New Year......New Work

The first three weeks of 2010 have been crazy-busy!!! I started out the new year taking a plein air painting workshop from Walt Bartman of Yellow Barn Studio.
It was an amazing experience! I hadn't painted with oils since high school, so I learned (or re-learned) alot!  Here are the paintings that I did during that workshop.
Hopefully I can take what I learned in this workshop and apply it to my art quilts.  I plan on doing this workshop again in 2011 to continue to learn from a great teacher.

In my last post I showed a small piece of  a quilt I was working on that had been ordered for a Christmas gift.  When I first got the call about the quilt, the lady told me she wanted a pink, lavender, butterflies, very girly design.  This is what popped into my head and she loved it.
I am actually surprised at myself and how the actual quilt came out like the drawing.
This design has sparked a whole new set of ideas for quilts which I will be showing at the Art for the Parks Show, here in Marsh Harbour Abaco, the weekend of January 29th.

So here is the final quilt.  It measures about 3 feet by 4 feet and I hope that it is something that Sarah treasures for a long time.

So now its time to get to work and get some quilts and jewelry and "other stuff" finished for the Art for the Parks show.  Below are a few beads that I made with the torch yesterday.  Hopefully they will turn into a piece of artwork that someone can wear on their neck.

  

Back to work I go!

Silver, Butterflies and Flowers for Christmas.

SO......one of my New Year's resolutions is to post more to my blog.....really!!!
As usual, over the last month or so I have kept really busy.  One thing I have been doing is learning about metalsmithing, bezelling and jewelry.  Here is a picture of my second piece.  I am practising combining the silver with my flameworking to create some usual jewelry pieces in 2010.

I thought I would post my latest creation that a customer ordered as a Christmas gift for her niece.  I can only show a small part of it since it is a gift for Christmas and I don't want to spoil the surprise.

Above is the palette of fabrics that I used , and below is the thread palette.

And here is a picture of a little piece of the quilt to let you see what it is all about.

The quilt has a light pink, pieced background with butterflies, ladybugs and fun flowers appliqued on.

I really hope they like it as much as I do!  I love it when my drawing and the final quilt turn out like the picture in my head.

Merry Christmas!!!!

Art Shows and Life Lately

WOW! It has been waaaaaay too long since I posted on my blog, but as the photo about shows, I was busy, busy, busy getting ready for an art show.  It was Bahamas National Trust's Wine and Art Show, in Nassau.  I took framed art quilts, fabric collages and mixed media collages.  I was happy with my sales at the show and it was a great opportunity to meet new artists, make some new friends, catch up with friends I hadnt seen in a long time, and pick up some new stores to sell to.

Then when I returned back home I had a pumpkin carving party :)  I have never seen "grown-ups" have so much fun.  As a child I didnt enjoy halloween that much, but as an adult I enjoy it more and more every year.  The photo about shows all the pumpkins that were carved, and their proud artist sitting underneath them.  Not everyone carved a pumpkin, but had fun anyway.

So now I am getting back to life as "normal", getting ready for Christmas (my favourite time of year), filling orders and finishing up some new ideas that I will be posting soon ( I hope).

a day of cutting, stitching and a new style

My thread box and drawer of scraps became a mess quickly.

Below is one in a series of framed quilts, Bahamian Architecture, that I have been working on, but today i felt like trying something fun and whimsical....not so traditional..........

There is still ALOT of stitching left to do on the pieces that I started today, but all the pieces are cut and fused on.  This is a scene that happens in my house all the time....no space left on the couch!  It is hard to tell in these pictures but they are dogs on the couch that still need alot of detail added to them.  I have several sketches done of quilt ideas with potcakes (a Bahamian mutt) so today I feel like I was off to a good start on this new series.

I will post pictures of this quilt when it is done, and framed.

Back to stitching for me!

....even my studio is a work in progress.....

I am a bit late in posting pictures of my studio, but the small town where we live, in Abaco, Bahamas, the hardware stores (and many other stores) close at noon on Saturday. So my husband and I spent our morning searching for items for the many do-it-yourself projects we have going on.......my studio is one of them........

On the table in the middle I do everything from sewing to quilting to painting fabric to flameworking. And of course, Tesi the cat, has to inspect everything I am doing. Cat hair is just like batting right? She was very intrigued by all the pictures i was taking and managed to get in as many as possible.

Over to the side is an antique dresser where I store supplies for jewelry and some favorite vintage fabrics that are extra special. Next to this dresser is my grandmothers rocking chair .

In this corner is a neat little window seat where i can look out at the birds and browse thru some of my favourite books. On the wall on the right i hope to one day put shelves, for more storage, and a cork board with loads of inspiring pictures. The picture on the easel is a mixed media self portrait i did several years ago.


On the shelves on the back wall are my collection of Blythe dolls and a collection of vintage mason jars with different ribbons and trims in them. There is a website called http://www.ribbonjar.com/ that used to mail out a jar every month filled with ribbons and trims that all followed a certain theme. They haven't done this in a while and i really miss it!

Another shot of my messy work table from the sewing side with an art quilt, in progress, at my Bernina. The wall behind the table has two closets for losts of storage.

Down a flight of stairs from that workroom is my quilting room where 'daisy" lives....my long arm quilting machine.....everyone names their long arm machines don't they? Also, down here are many bolts of fabric, batting, and quilts waiting to be quilted. Tesi, deserved one last shot since she can be quite the muse....actually she probably considers herself more of an instructor :)