A New Year's Resolution

The end of year reckoning is upon us and it's time to look back at what I've accomplished over the past year. Which I will do real soon, but first I want to introduce my new blog site

fiberstudio Art for Sale

I have resolved to be more proactive in selling my work. Letting the world discover me has just not worked out all that well and it's very hit or miss. I need to get out there, at least figuratively, and make myself better known.

I've made small works that just never seemed to be eligible for the shows I enter but it's a shame to let them languish in the closet. So, following the lead of others, like Lisa Call and Jeanne Williamson I'm putting up small works at affordable prices. I've started with 5 pieces that are the beginnings of my Ventanas/Windows series and will be adding more works in the coming weeks.

It's time to get moving!

The Lull

The week between Christmas and New Year's has always been a time to relax. If it hasn't been done for Christmas, it's too late now. We can just kick back, sit in front of the fire and work crossword puzzles. Of course, now it's time to get back into the art mode, and it's not easy. I just finished a piece and was not very happy with it. Took it to one of my groups, and they were quite underwhelmed by it also (although it was expressed much more nicely than that.) So the question is, what to do with it? I might try adding some paint to lighten it up. Or maybe cut it into pieces and have a bunch of small works. In any case, I've put it aside and started on something else.

Yesterday was the first day of the Studio Sale on The Artful Home. Somebody was shopping early because I've already sold a piece.



This is titled 'Ode to a Stove' and is one of my favorites, even though it's sort of old. I made it in honor of my old Jenn-Aire stove that worked for 15 years before it gave up. I stood on the counter top with a camera and aimed it straight down at the stove to take a picture that I could use as a template. I used the curved seam technique I learned in a Nancy Crow class and abstracted the stove image. I entered it into the Quilter's Heritage Celebration show one year in the Pictorial Category (even though it was a real stretch to classify it as pictorial, at least by that show's standards.) Not only did it not win anything, but I received several scathing remarks from the judges: "Not pictorial enough for category" and "wavy edges." The wavy edges comment really made me laugh because the edges are supposed to be wavy. She is a very traditional judge and obviously didn't get it.

So that makes a nice start to the new year. And let's hope for more sales!

Africa Journal

While on our safari in Tanzania I kept a daily journal. I'm really glad I did that because we did so much it would have been difficult to remember it all and to remember what we did when. I transcribed it and added pictures and uploaded it to lulu.com, which is a print-on-demand site.



Several days ago I received the latest copy of American Style magazine. This issue is showcasing fiber with several fiber artists highlighted. I put in a display ad along with lots of other Surface Design Association members, so I have a small part of a full page. Many other members took advantage of the same deal, so it may be lost in there. I hope at least a few people take the time to cruise all the links. Anyhow, the interesting thing to me is that the art quilt on the cover is a piece by Marianne Burr, the artist that captured my attention at Quilts=Art=Quilts and who I wrote about in my previous post. I love her take on circles.

Carol Larson nominated me for the Kreativ Blogger Award. Thanks, Carol, I haven't won many things lately, having received at least 2 or maybe 3 rejections since my Quilt National acceptance. I'm happy that somebody likes what I'm doing. Carol and I share opinions on many things and are of about the same age. We live on opposite coasts and see the world from different heights. If I were to follow her blog naming convention, this would be Short Girl Tales.

For the rest of this reward, here's what I'm to do:
1. Put the logo on my blog.
2. Link to the person who nominated me.
3. Nominate 5 blogs.
4. Put links to those blogs here.
5. Leave a message for my nominees.

I've done the first two but will have to work on the other 3. That post will come soon.

This past weekend my husband and I drove up to Syracuse for a weekend with my sister and a visit to the Schweinfurth to see Quilts=Art=Quilts. They don't allow pictures but you can download a pdf file of the show.

My piece was in the last room we came to (by that time my sister was asking if I was sure I was in the show.) Standing right in front of my quilt were two couples and they were discussing what they saw in the piece. Not wanting to miss an opportunity, I introduced myself and offered to answer any questions. We talked about my piece for a minute and then they were interested in hearing what I thought about other pieces in the show. I talked about surface design, explaining to them what that was by pointing out Helene's Davis' works. In addition to winning the Surface Design Award at this show, one of Helene's entries had been sold.

I was fascinated by the work of Marianne Burr. I don't remember ever hearing of her before, but her work uses circles, hundreds of circles, which have always attracted me. Doing a little googling on her name, it appears that my head has been in the sand because Marianne is an award winner. She is in the current Visions show, and is also in Quilt National, so I hope I can meet her at the opening.

Another artist whose work captures me is Terry Jarrad-Dimond I first saw her work at ArtQuilts Elements last spring. She has two pieces in Q=A=Q. They are very simple, large color blocks of her hand dyed fabrics. It is her use of thread that makes the work so special. She quilts the piece heavily in closely spaced parallel lines, but uses the thread to change the underlying color of the fabric. So a piece of red fabric might be quilted with an area of red, another area in white, and a third area in purple. Each thread change subtly changes the fabric color. It's the kind of work that merits close inspection to see the threadwork, but also merits viewing from a distance to see the subtle changes.