Would you believe . . . ?

My art quilts are on their way to a new home!

"'Crusaders broke into this mound', Maes-Howe Orkney Scotland"

"Older than Stonehenge, Castlerigg, Lakes District, England"

When I returned from quilt retreat and checked Etsy I noticed that I had sold the above quilts and two pieces of jewelry. I did a little happy dance and scared the dogs . . . and startled the heck out of my husband too.

I cannot wait to tell my quilting buddies. They have been so encouraging and supportive.

In My Shop Now

I wrote about these two wall-hanging in this post a couple of days ago. Once again the local gallery has decided to overlooked my artistic endeavors. However, I have posted these two art quilts in my Etsy shop and will sell individually or together. I see a few more of these pieces in the future.

If you have not already, sign up for my birthday giveaway {HERE}. It is going on all week, so come back at the end of the party to see who won. It could be you!! -- (I will do a Random Drawing on June 30th, that way, if you are slow at reading all these wonderful blogs, you will still have a chance to win.)

Art Quilts and Last Call for Bead Soup! Day#8

I got a late start on the Bead Soup today because I was working on another art project. I have spent a lot of time lately on beading and jewelry making, but I am also an Art Quilter/Fiber Artist.

At quilt retreat a few months ago, I worked up two small quilt-tops (approx. 25"x15"). They were inspired by my travels and my interest in Art History. For the last few days, I quilted and finished these little wall-hangings just in time to submit them (this afternoon, whew!) for an art show at a local gallery with the theme "Great Escapes -- landscapes and travels". I will not hear until Tuesday to know if they will be in the show, but I thought I would REVEAL them here for you.

This one is called "Older than Stonehenge". It is my interpretation of a relatively complete, small stone circle called Castlerigg in the northwest of England near the Lakes District. My husband and I visited it with two dear friends who were living in England at the time. There it was in the middle of a farmer's field surrounded by a simple wire fence. No guard hut, no gift shop, just out there -- in the natural surroundings. It was very magical.
The next piece is called "Crusaders broke into this mound"-- Maeshowe, Okney, Scotland. The name of this piece comes from one of the many Viking rune graffiti left in the mound in about 1153.

I stitched a plan of the interior of the mound in gold thread . . .

and the Viking rune graffiti (the title) is stitched out in gold thread as well.

I am fascinated by Maeshowe, not just because it is in a breathtakingly beautiful natural setting, but because thousands of years ago, a group of people constructed it over a long period of time and with exact alignment to the setting of the sun on the shortest day of the year, the winter solstice. As a matter of fact, this little quilt shows the two sunsets one sees behind the Hill of Hoy (to the far left).

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The sun sets and then pops out again for a minute or two in the lower crook of the hill. All the while, the light is traveling down the tiny passage to strike a stone in the center of the chamber with a momentary flash of light in the darkness. Maeshowe have may signified the death of the old year and the birth of a new one with the days growing increasingly longer. The mound reminds me of the pregnant womb of Mother-Earth.

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Anyway, here is the last list of the Bead Soup Artists. Please visit them and post comments on their blogs. They have waited a LONG TIME to REVEAL their masterpieces.

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June 26th

85. Melissa, One-Eared Pig Beads

86. Rebecca, 2SistersBeadwork

87. Karyn, Releases by Rufydoof

88. Denise, Bling on the Blog

89. Doris, Glaszwerg

90. Megan, Churchy & Her Sailor

91. Jo, Daisychain Designs

92. Jen, VanBeads Jewelry and Design

93. Kristie, Artisan Clay

94. Jess, Vintaj

95. Suzann, Beadphoria

96. Sharon, Sharon's Jewelry Garden

97. Michelle, bMichelle

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If you have not already, sign up for my birthday giveaway {HERE}. It is going on all week, so come back at the end of the party to see who won. It could be you!! -- (I will do a Random Drawing on June 30th, that way, if you are slow at reading all these wonderful blogs, you will still have a chance to win.)

On Retreat

This is post #88 (in my run up to 100) and I am going to be away from my computer for the next four days. I will return Sunday night.

Where am I going? Just down the road a piece to a little retreat center with 60 of my closest quilting buddies for four days of laughing, sewing, eating and laughing some more.

Do not forget the Pass It On challenge. Rules are HERE

See you Sunday evening!

WooHoo! What a Great Day

Look what I found in my mailbox this afternoon:

Cindy Gimbrone sent me the promised bronze pendant but also added an extra special set of her lampwork beads. What a surprise! She is known as the Lampwork Diva and here you can see why. I am just itching to see what I can create to do them justice. Thank you Cindy!

Next, I went by the printer’s and picked up the patterns for some tiny art quilts.

When I brought them home, I could hardly wait to pull some fabrics from my stash. What do you think?

And finally, thanks to everyone who has visited my blog.

The counter is about to rollover to 1,000. (Granted, quite a few of that number records me checking in before I knew how to exclude my count.)

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU. And to thank you properly, I will host a giveaway. Details on Saturday, August 1st. You don’t want to miss this.

Color, Colour,

If you have been reading along the last few posts, you will know I am about to jump into the artistic abyss – with glee!

Color has been on my mind lately. I love color, I could not really tell you which color is my favorite one, I love them all. Part of this thing with color comes from a presentation at our local quilt guild. The speaker gave us a basic talk on color the other day but I know there is a lot more to it. She spoke about how the printers of fabric help us match fabric colors with the little colored dots in the selvedges and she spoke briefly about the color wheel.

I have another method for squeezing out the color from an image. I open the images in “Paint” and then I “select all” and grab a corner and manipulate it until the image is pixilated into large blocks.

I plan on using these rendered pairs to create interesting textural pieces. Exactly how they will look once I have finished, I will be as surprised to know as you. Now, I have to get in the studio and let the muse guide my hand. I am really looking forward to that!

Rollin', rollin' rollin' like a river

There is a spiritual side to creativity. Sometimes we have to step into the stream and flow with it to see where it will lead. But you can’t just step in, you have to be ready for it, you need to be open to it. I am not quite sure where it will lead, but I think I am just about ready to follow that creative stream.

In this first week “without a job” several wonderful, helpful, thoughtful friends and family members have made suggestions. Some of these suggestions have been way out in left field, but now I feel like I can recognize the direction I need to take. A dear friend asked me to join with her in a co-op gallery. She is a watercolorist, and I make small art quilts as well as jewelry. When she made this suggestion, it felt right. Now I have all these wonderful ideas swirling in my head and I can hardly wait to get to my quilt studio. Stay tuned!

Now, I would like to introduce you to an amazing artist who is just joining the blog-o-sphere: Catherine Davies Paetz. She works in precious metal clay and enamels. Her first blog-post is about mandalas and meditation. Check out her blog and website and give her a warm welcome. It was Cathy who reminded me of the spiritual side of creativity – I will certainly be following her blog.

Today is the first day of the rest of my life . . . ?

I have stepped off the precipice into the great unknown. Definitely not the best time to be looking for a job. What I will be doing in the next six months is anyone’s guess. This is at the same time exciting and terrifying.

I have been teaching the intro class to the visual arts (art appreciation) at the college level for about 14 years. It is a class that none of the full-time faculty wants to teach, but I have grown to love it. I get to see the light-bulb go on over students’ heads when they begin to make connections. But adjunct faculty are expendable and don’t even get unemployment benefits. And who knows, there may be a class to teach in the distant future, but it is not something I can count on.

I keep waiting for the heavens to open and a great booming voice to tell me what I am supposed to do next.

Times change, and so must I. But it is getting more and more difficult to morph into something else, I have done it four or five times already. Will I be a jewelry designer? Or a quilt artist? Or will I be flipping burgers with my highly prestigious Masters degree in Art History?

If you have any insight or encouraging words, I’d love hear them.

Proving Myself

Friday we had our Taxes done and it was a harrowing experience.

I know, I know . . . everyone hates to do their taxes. Well, let me tell you that as a clergy household and with me working part-time teaching at University and part-time being an artist, and this year also being an author, this was the worst ever. A bunch of the expenses I was hoping to deduct didn't pan out and we ended up having to pay a pretty penny . . . money we had set aside to pay for our trip in May to Amsterdam.

What's more, I felt I had to justify myself. The preparer asked about my art quilts saying with a smile, "Are you sure you don't make blanket-type quilts?" Fortunately, I had my laptop with me and fired it up to showed her all my art I had recorded there. I showed her my Reluctant Accomplice quilt . . .
I showed her my presentation quilt . . . (to which she said, "that's -- interesting.")

I showed her two of my larger quilts (48"x72"), one a contest quilt in an international competition (finalist out of 900) . . .and the other, a commission . . .

and a published piece (Quilters Newsletter Magazine December 2004) . . .

and what was most lost on her was the direction my art is taking now -- art jewelry. Hopefully it will be better next year. In the meantime, I'm proud of my portfolio. My question for you is, "Have you ever had to justify yourself or your art?" Tell me about it, I want to know.