2012/365 - Day 242

a jam-packed FULL day of art and art stuff with plenty of pics

Wow.  What a day!

First it was a mobile version of Wednesday Morning at Joan's over at Leann's house. 

Leann on her porch, welcoming me in.

Leann was working on the finishing touches on a really really neat art quilt for the Above and Below show that opens in September.  More about that show when it opens.

I was looking around at all of the wonderful things that you can see from Leann's incredibly fabulous big table at the edge of her kitchen and my eyes stopped at her shrine to George Harrison.

detail

Yep -- my task for the morning was to wrap the Penciled In artpacks in cellophane and pack the box for shipping.

Joan arrived!

As I was wrapping the boxes I realized I had forgotten to write a note for Carol (at AIC) and I also forgot the sheets of placards for the series so I had to stop back at my house...oh well.  

Leann working on another part of her naked mole rat quilt.

Leann was also very keen on sharing the totally marvelous completed prayer flag.  The muslin squares were made by some of the people in the ATC group and they are all just amazing.  Leann put her flag together with ribbons in between the muslin squares.  It really is just amazingly wonderful.

Joan's project for today was some knitting.  This is part two of a two-part long vest (I can't remember what it is called) and she started it eight years ago.  It is very very long and the gauge of the needles/stitches is small and the whole thing looks really great.  It will be really pretty cool when she completes it.

Leann finishing up the back of her quilt -- the hanging part.

Ta- daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!  They are all wrapped and marked and I chose the pieces I am ordering for my machines.

And see...I had the labels and everything...too bad I needed to stop at home for the inserts.

Back at my house to finish packing up the artpacks and this photo op happened.

Awwww...my sleepy boys.

My sleepy boys with the sticky outy legs.  I love it when they reach their arms out like that.  They look so comfortable.

Okay...at this point I am starting to run into a time crunch because I need to go to the post office before getting to the Art House.

This is when Bootsy decides he needs to "help" and give me a few pointers.

See?  I made it to the post office -- and NO lines!!!

One of my jobs today was to put address labels and postage stamps on the new postcards for the upcoming exhibition at the Art House.

I will talk about the show itself as it gets closer, but it is a super super mosaic tile show -- a benefit auction for Doctors Without Borders.

Done!

Another exciting upcoming show at the Art House is a call for art for the holiday season...the fliers arrived today.

More about that tomorrow!

And as if all of that wasn't enough...I went along with Leann and Joan to the meeting of the fiber group Running With Scissors!

 O.M.G.  What a bunch of talented, creative women!  And what a night to just happen to attend!

The show-and-tell items were incredible.  A few of the art quilts were going into the Above and Below show.  I am going to go to that opening with Leann and I will take lots and lots of photos.  But all I can say for now is "WOW!"

Deb Kolar made this fabulous appliqued felted pieces quilt.  I probably have the description wrong, but I don't know what else to call it.

The colors are eye-popping.  The work is incredible.  I really love it!

detail

another detail

Deb also did the demo for the meeting.  Again, not being a fiber artist or sewing person I don't have the right words...but it had to do with jute cording and wrapping the cording with thin strips of scrap fabrics and sewing them on the sewing machine with a #3 zig zag stitch (tearing up here over the mathy elements) and you can make a bowl or coaster or all manner of wonderful things.  

Demos like this make me think sometimes that I would like to get a sewing machine and try these great projects...but that is truly better left to people who have much, much more experience and who have outrageous senses of color and the ability to mix fabrics and textures.  I can do plenty of other things...but not this.  Wow.

And I got to visit with Lynn and I talked to Kate about the possibility of her doing an Art-o-mat series and maybe making something for the Paint Creek Art Center's Holly Dolly silent auction.  And Kat was there, and Patrice...and several of the members took fliers for the Art House's upcoming call for art.

Towards the end of the meeting Jan Waller showed up with a whole bin FULL of her exquisite felted artwork...including her piece that will be in Art Prize in Grand Rapids.  Oh. My. God.  That will be a whole blog entry on its own.  Plus, Jan will be picking up her first-place piece from the Thoughts With Thread show that just closed and then joining Ruth and me tomorrow to go to an opening, so it will all roll together in one blog post.

Wow.  What a day!

2012/365 - Day 43

hand-sewn art quilt class

Today I took a hand-sewn art quilt class given by the incredible Kat Campau. A lot of the other attendees were members of the Running With Scissors group. Man -- what a lot of FUN -- and what a roomful of wonderful artists and unbelievable fabrics!

This is Kat Campau. When you go to her blog you can see examples of her fabulous quilts...including some of the ones she brought to show us for this class -- Secret Life.

Kat also gave us an alternative to the Secret Life theme and that was Affirmations.

Eventually I think I will try a Secret Life...but because this is pretty much my first time with any kind of quilting or sewing on this scale I was in a bit of a trance with trying to take in as much information as possible and get through some steps so I could get to parts where I knew I'd need to be shown things a couple of times. You know? But man -- what a blast!

I am very grateful that Kat is so patient and such a gifted teacher and quilter. She is so inspired and inspirational.





Okay. Here I have chosen a backing fabric, laid the batting on top of it and I am looking for background colors.

Everybody there had scads of fabrics and they were so eager to share everything and also to help with whatever a non-sewing person needed help with. I am so thankful to have so many new friends!



I got the yellow fabric from Janice, I had the green stuff and Ruth donated the pink piece.

Kat suggested the darker blue behind the eye-shaped cut out to make the eye pop more on the yellow fabric.

My quilt will be a nod to the collaborations with the Universe that take place when I work with the plaster cloth. My affirmation will be Feel the Direction(s). And (much to my delight and relief) I discovered that my guides not only engage in plaster cloth, but they sew as well...which is how "I" came up with my affirmation/theme.

The colorful hands are my collaborators and the pale blue hands on top are my hands.




Look at my messy work station...geez!














Okay...I pinned on my pieces.





















SO much to learn...what fabrics work better, why not to choose batik prints, how to work around little problems that pop up...and even different kinds and sizes of safety pins! Man!











This was the table I was working at. Ruth was to my left, across the table was Deb, then Barb, back on my side of the table down at the end by the wall/partition was Leann and then to my right was Jane. Janice started out at our table, sitting to Deb's right but Janice needed to spread her work out a bit more and moved one table forward.




This is an overall shot of the room -- there were at least 20 people sewing.











Jane...one of the three non-sewing people at my table. Me, Ruth and Jane.














Leann















Janice
















Deb













Barb













Jane again...just marvelous.












Deb and her completed quilt. She had started it previous to today's class.













LOOK -- I'm sewing!

This is going to take a while to complete. I might change it a tiny bit...maybe not.

I want to put all of the different types of stitches that I learned into it before I forget how to do them. I will embellish it and then hang it in my studio.




I think this will be a great project to do at the Wednesday Morning at Joan's meetings.

My objective for diving into this new area is to be able to use what I learn to make smaller versions for an Art-o-mat series. I also was thinking that the more I learn how to sew correctly and make actual real life stitches, the more it will help me when I am making another set of Tookies finger puppets, etc. Yep...I always look at everything as a potential Art-o-mat series.

365 Day 313

wow -- big day today

But you wouldn't know it from looking at these photos...LOL.

My sister Sue came over at 11 this morning and we moved these HUGE and very heavy pieces of furniture from the basement to upstairs for use at my upcoming de-stash/clear out/giveaway this Sunday. My basement stairs have a very low ceiling and we had to turn the dressers and the bar cart thing on their sides and keep turning them end over end to get them up the stairs and there is a really sharp turn at the landing to get into the kitchen. We also made several trips from the garage to the house to bring in the white folding tables. We worked pretty much nonstop until shortly after 1:30. I couldn't have done it without Sue's help and I really appreciate it! We also did a bucket brigade-style bringing the drawers upstairs, too. Then Sue got up on the ladder (bless her heart, she is scared of heights) to change two light bulbs on ceiling fixtures.





This little sideboard is heavier than it looks. It is old and well built...solid and heavy.










I wish I could figure out a way to use this blue dresser in my room instead of what is in there now. This came from the house I grew up in. It is also old (duh -- I'm old and I was very young when it came into our house).










This bin has the sections of the 100% wool rug that my Aunt Libby used to work on during plane rides to Europe in the early 70's. All of the pieces are there -- including some of the yarn -- someone just needs to finish off the edges and put it together. It is really nice.









Twink is having a blast running around on all of the surfaces and bouncing from dresser to tables to sideboard. What a nut.








And then tonight I was asked to do another Art-o-mat session for the combined meeting of two Yahoo groups...the ATC Exchange that I belong to and the fabric-based group Running with Scissors. This photo is before everyone arrived and I was waiting for my turn to speak.

I met a lot of really wonderful artists tonight and a few of them got box/block samples (with cellophane) -- I hope they make prototypes. Their quilting (and other) work(s) are just incredible.

And one of the members of Running with Scissors asked if I would be interested in talking with another art group she belongs to in Saline (near Ann Arbor).

I have my friend Leann Meixner to thank for this opportunity -- she suggested me as a speaker for Running with Scissors. Leann is a member of both groups.

Oh -- also last night when I was sorting out stuff for the de-stash/clear out/giveaway -- I uncovered a 'zine from 1994 that has work in it from me and from Leann -- we didn't know each other then but we are in the same 'zine...how cool is that? I will try to remember to post photos of that tomorrow. Right now I am really beat and it is reeeeeally windy and the electricity keeps going out momentarily and coming back on. I want to publish this post before I lose electricity again.