Art-o-mat at the Smithsonian

I'm so excited to learn that Art-o-mat has installed a machine at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Work has the chance of being in another famous museum! I really wish that I could travel as much as these little pieces of art. One of these days I'm going to make it to Washington DC and New York City, one of these days. Maybe we'll need to take a grand road trip around the country in the Airstream. For now I will be content that a piece of me is seeing the world.

Check out the news on the Art-0-mat website: http://news.artomat.org/

Summer

Have I told you how much I like summer. The sun does me well. I love the warmth, but like a true Pacific Northwestern, I love a cool breeze. I'm a wimp when it comes to hot. I really do try not to complain. I simply hide in the shade and not move or head to the water. These two art quilts, Summer Heat and Summer Reprieve, are my interpretations of summer and I love them both. Give me the heat to warm my soul and a cool breeze on the water as a reprieve.

Beautiful Summer Day at the Bluegrass Festival

Saturday was a perfect summer day, sunny and 80 with a gentle breeze. We couldn't ask for better weather. I had fun at the Bluegrass Festival on Bainbridge even though there weren't many shoppers. Everyone who was spending money was there on vacation. I think us locals were used to the heat and chose to just sit and not move. Regardless, it was a wonderful day to be out at the park. I remembered for the first time to bring my camera and take a picture of the booth. Usually I have so many things on my mind and in my hands that I forget the camera. The sun was pretty bright and I couldn't even see what I was focusing on. I'm happy that I now have a record of how I set up the booth so I don't have to think as hard the next time.

I wouldn't exactly say the show was profitable, but at least I more than recovered my costs and had a good time. Sometimes I wonder why I do the shows. I'm sure I'm not attending the most popular shows. This is the first year that I have done it so I really don't know what I'm doing. I don't know which ones have the best traffic, most eager buyers or fit my work the best. Those I have chose have been easy. I didn't have to do a lot of research or travel very far. I'm a little intimidated by a three day show two hours from home. I think I need a little help if I am going to bite the bullet and go for a big show. For now, I'm learning. I'm figuring out what works for my display and what to look for in a show. Any advise would be appreciated. And then I know that I need to update my Etsy shop. I have a lot of new work and different things that I haven't listed. The to do list can get so long and I'm trying to enjoy the summer, my family and friends. Trying to give myself time to figure out what it is I really want and where I want to go. Life is so grand and there are so many options. I really want them all. For now, I will try not to pressure myself, but remember to take baby steps towards my goals.

Purple and Gold

In preparation for tomorrow...

New Art Cards for Father's Day

Here's a few of the Fiber Art Cards that I've created for Father's Day. I know I'm a little behind on listing them in the Etsy shop, but I've decided that I need to give myself a break. I would love to take my art career more seriously, but I just don't have the time at the moment. Instead of making it fun, I'm just putting too much pressure on myself and sapping out the joy. For now I'll do what I can. I hope you enjoy the cards!

Bits and Pieces for Art-O-Mat

The final Bits and Pieces are labelled, boxed and ready to ship. Time to head out to FedEx. Keep an eye out for an Art-O-Mat machine near you!

I Felt ... again

Here's the next batch of "I Felt..." I'm getting closer to checking off my list.

Pile of Dreams

I thought I would share with you the pile of "Dreams" that I've been working on for Art-O-Mat. I've spent the day labelling and now I'm on to boxing everything and getting ready to send it off to Winston Salem, NC.

Check out our Kilauea inspired quilts over at Twelve by Twelve!

Rainbow of Roving

While I was procrastinating working on my Twelve by Twelve piece I decided to dye up a whole rainbow of roving. Don't you love the colors!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Dreaming of Spring Sprung!

Here are the latest little quilts I whipped up this morning. I spent the weekend working with brown fabric to create the process photos for my Chocolate chapter. It kept reminding me of the bare earth outside and my desire to see green shoots popping up. I had add a few of my own to the rich dirt fabric. I started with the simple little green shoot on the top, but couldn't stop there. I of course wanted more and more color. Most likely these little quilt will travel off to Art-O-Mat some time in the near future. There are exciting happening over there and I'm looking forward to seeing where my work travels.

The Cuff Photo Shoot

After the weekend photo shoot for Twelve by Twelve, I decided it was time to try to get some good photos of what I have been creating. I bought some black velvet for a backdrop and pulled out the tripod. It is amazing what a good set up can do! I don't have any special lighting, so I am still relying on natural daylight. This creates rather dramatic lighting coming through the window. My biggest challenge was getting the right exposure with the black velvet. The camera automatically wanted to over expose everything to make up for the dark background. All detail was lost in the strong contrast. I found that I had to make sure the light was very diffused and crank the exposure way down. With such long exposure times, I never could have done it without the tripod. I did find that I had to wait for the washing machine to finish the spin cycle because even that was causing some vibration that ruined the crispness. All in all, I'm happy with how the photos turned out. Next, I will have to work on staging, but for now I will just stick with the black velvet.

Photo Shoot Day

Photos for the book are done! I wish that I could share the fruits of my long day, but they are top secret until our Twelve by Twelve book is published next spring. Instead I thought I would share my wonderful husband who spent our morning without children help me clean the living and dining rooms so everything would be camera ready. He even washed the windows inside and out. He truly is the most amazing man and I love him with all my heart. I also have my confession photo below. All the things that I didn't know what to do with got put in a spinach box from Costco. I also have a stack of papers that need a place in the file cabinet, but for now live precariously on shelf. During the photo shoot, I just moved them back and forth so it was out of the pictures. Now that I'm finishing some of my big to dos I should be able to put all of it away in a more appropriate place.

This week's to do are just to finalize my chapter and write some short statements about each of the quilts. I can't tell you how good it feels to be almost done! Next week at this time, I should be letting out a big sigh of relief!

Indie Banditas

Come down and check out the new Indie Banditas Shoppe. I'll be hanging out tonight from 6-8pm for the Bainbridge Island First Friday Art Walk. Kate has done an awesome job of filling the store with treasures from Puget Sound Artists. I'm so excited that I received the honor of being her first sale! There will be live music and treats, so make sure to stop by if you are anywhere in the vicinity of Bainbridge.