Sold Two Pieces over the Holidays

"Mates"

"The Early Bird gets the Worm"

I just found out this week that I sold two small framed fiber art pieces over the holidays. I actually had these in different galleries in different towns. I'm delighted with the sell as it once again validates that someone likes my art. However, at this point I'm really trying to decide how I can get my work out to a wider audience.

The area in which I live is small town so there aren't many venues here. I've actually sold two large pieces and two smaller pieces this year. One sell came when I had my one woman show, one through IQA in Houston and the two smaller ones at local galleries.

We have a co-op gallery that I want to look into, but again I'm talking small town. I've been thinking about investigating Itsy. I really don't know anything about how the site works and would really like to talk to someone who has a shop on the site. If any of you can help me I'd appreciate an email from you.

Dolls and Their Owners

Well the dolls were finally opened last night when we got all three girls together. Rather than post words I will let the photos tell the story.

Our son, Gary and his daughter Ellington had the fortune of taking a two week trip to Bali this Summer. They brought back some beautiful silk batik scarfs. The girls had fun trying different ways to wear them.

Wordless Monday

Merry Christmas

WISHING YOU PEACE, JOY AND LOVE

The Dolls are Done!

These are my five grandchildren. I am making a doll for each of them for Christmas. The two who live in CA. will not get theirs until we fly out there in Feb. I'm not concerned about them seeing these since I'm almost sure they do not look at my blog.

For each one I chose something about them that I thought would capture their personality or something they really liked to do.

The first one is Sydney. She lives in CA. and loves, loves, loves her dog Clyde. Sydney also wants to be an Entomologist when she grows up, hence the butterfly. When we were in Costa Rica this Summer, Sydney was besieged by butterflies while we were near a waterfall.

Next is Connor, Connor also lives in CA. and loves the ocean, he takes life guard classes each Summer, he also plays water polo. When we were in Costa Rica we had the great privilege of seeing a Green Sea Turtle lay her eggs on the beach at night. The guides were wonderful and told a story about riding the turtles back out to sea when they were children. They emphasised that they did not know that it was dangerous to the turtles at that time and in no way should this be done today.

Connor was so enraptured with the turtle laying its eggs. He was laying on the sand almost at eye level with the turtles eggs. That with his love of the ocean is why I chose this way to represent Connor.

Aubrey is the blue haired doll walking her dogs. Aubrey is our artist and loves her dogs. I wanted to show her independence when it come to being her own self. She loves to wear her black knee-high boots so those were a last minute addition. The dogs were quite a challenge for me. Little is harder than big, believe me. I had to make the patterns up as I went. I'm sure someone does it much better, but they are cute.

Ellington is a reader and loves her cats. She also has her way of dressing and I wanted to show that with the doll. This girls reads LOTS so I wanted to show her reading. She is really into the fantasy books, this one is Warrior #2. Don't know if it show on the photo or not but the book is about a cat.

To make the book I copied the front of the book and one of the inside pages. I then went to Word and pasted the photo of the cover and the pages. I then printed the page on fabric and cut each the pages out with two pages. I placed Steam-A-Seam behind the page before I cut them out and fused another page over that so the pages would be two sided. I then placed them together and sewed down the center to make the book.

Hannah is the oldest of our grandchildren and is really into cheer leading. The school colors of the school she will be going to next year are red and black. Red and black are also the colors of USC her Dad's Alma mater. She has the most beautiful hair and almost always pulls it over into a side pony tail.

My husband made a megaphone to place beside her and I found a funky football at Hobby Lobby for a neat prop.

I have had the best time making these for the kids. It is truly addictive but even more so when you are making them for someone you love.

Working on Christmas

I decided that I am going to wait until after the Holidays to finish posting on our trip to Paducah to see the Everchanging River Exhibit at NQM.

We are spending the holidays with our family and I have been busy today baking. I made a buttermilk pound cake a family favorite, cranberry-orange bread, lemon poppy seed bread, and pumpkin chocolate chip bread. Then after dinner I made a batch of Chex Mix.

One of our daughters is doing the Christmas cookie thing and our son will most likely bake something. We will not be without sweet things to eat.

I hope to get the dolls, I am making as gifts, finished in time to post them before I have to wrap them.

I made the large Santa, in the photograph, when we lived in Tuscaloosa, Ala. Several friends and I got together and worked up a pattern for clothing. Each of us made a different themed Santa. One of my friends made a garden themed Santa and ended up selling it for quite a tidy sum.

Mine, as most projects I do in my life, had to have a quilt on it somewhere. This was an old cutter quilt that someone had donate to our guild. It was offered up for auction and though I bid on it someone else won the bid.

I had written an article about a quilt, the woman who won the bid had made in memory of her niece who had died in a car accident. Her niece had been a frequent baby sitter for the lead singer of the country music group "Alabama". Randy Owens wrote a song about her being an angel and Judy used angels as the theme for her quilt. She then presented it to the Owens' family.

The article and a photo of the quilt was published in a magazine called "Quilting or Quilter's Gallery". Don't know if it is still published or not, I haven't seen it in a while. After the article came out Judy brought the cutter quilt into the meeting one month and gave it to me. She remembered that I had bid against her and wanted me to have the quilt.

I had no idea I would be writing about that tonight but remembering is what happens when I get my Christmas things out.

I do hope to get a post in before everyone gets together but just in case I miss you next time. Happy Holidays

Visit to the Everchanging River Exhibit at NQM

Last Saturday morning thirteen of the thirty-one artist who participated in the Everchanging River Exhibit visited the exhibit at NQA in Paducah, KY. Judy Schewender, cureator at the museum took us on a tour of the museum. Judy allowed us to take photos of our exhibit but nothing else.

After Judy secured our exhibit she decided that she would fill the gallery with quilts that have to do with a river. Wish I could have photographed those because her choices really complimented our exhibit.

I recognized many of the artist who Judy had chosen for the exhibit. Sue Reno, Betty Busby, Elizabeth Ziebreth and Ann Harwell and many more. I hope that you will be able to visit before the exhibits are taken down March 7.

Judy treated our group so well, more about that in a later post. Six of us stayed with Caryl Bryer Fallert in her Bed and Coffee establishment. We could not have been treated better if we had been royalty. After the holidays I will post on Caryl's place and her gracious hospitality.

The whole experience was a once in a life time occasion and one that we will never forget. Marge Edie and Husband Dan, Barbara Tenneyson, Janet Ginn, Dixie Haywood, Diana Pickens, Veronica Moriarty and myself from the Focus group was there. Judy Rapelje, Bonnie Ouellette, Heidi Wolko and her husband Manfred from the Thread Heads, JoAnn Amidone, Dee Dobler and Sandra Baker were there from the Fringe Sister.

I will post more about the experience later.

Everchanging River Exhibit Opens Today at the National Quilt Museum in Paducah, KY

The Everchanging River Exhibit opens today at the National Quilt Museum in Paducah, KY.
Fifteen of the thirty-one artist who participated in the making of the Exhibit will travel to Paducah for a personal tour of the museum this week.

Several of us are staying at the B & B operated by Caryl Bryer Fallert. The studios in Paducah have an open house every first Friday of the month. Caryl emailed us that she was hosting a, meet the artist of the Everchanging River Exhibit, during her open house. How exciting is that?

Prepare to be bombarded with photos of the exhibit and all the happenings when I return.

Something else finished

I have wanted a red and white toile bedspread for years and years. I decided a couple of months ago that it was now or never. I couldn't find what I wanted in the stores or on line so I decided I would make it myself. I visited our local fabric store and they had Waverly red and white toile. Along with their help I figured out how much fabric I needed and purchased 9 plus yards of the toile along with the same amount of red and white ticking for the backing and binding of the bedspread.

I had a local long arm quilter do the quilting. I decided to use Warm and Natural batting as that is what I used in my quilts. I now have a bedspread that will keep us warm in the coldest weather. The shams are made with the toile in the center and the ticking around the edging.

I moved an oriental rug from my great room into the bedroom and placed it under the bed and that adds to the warmth of the room.

I love it!

I have a special post tomorrow. Tune in.

Wordless Monday

It Pays to Plan

A few days ago I posted that I had many projects going and that I had to decide the order in which to proceed. I decided that the quilting of Uncle Dave would take a back burner so that I could get some gifts done that I wanted to do before Christmas.

The portrait that I posted was started months ago but I hit a snag on the clothing of the little boy on the left. I had planned to give this to a friend for Christmas but had put off working on it because I didn't know what to do. After putting my projects in order of priority I finally pulled the portrait out day before yesterday. Seeing it again after being away from it for a while gave me new perspective and I was able to fix the problem.

I took a photo of the finished project with the photo under it for reference. I think it looks pretty much like the original.

I also finished another doll for one of my granddaughters. I am trying to add their personality to the dolls. This one loves cats and does a lot of reading. I hope to make a small book for her to be holding before I give it to her at Christmas.

I've also been working on a journal but it's not quite ready to show yet. I finished a stocking for our guild and hope to start quilting on a comfort quilt tomorrow.

More later

Teaching under the auspice of Southeastern Quilt and Textile Museum

Fabricating Nature
Workshop by Marilyn Wall
Sponsored by the "Art Tarts" of the West Georgia Quilters Guild and
The Southeastern Quilt and Textile Museum

When: January 10-12, 2011, 9:00 am-4:00 pm (Some optional sewing sessions will be held during evenings.)

Where: Carroll County Agriculture-Education Center, Conference Room B

Cost of workshop: $200.00 each, --$50.00 deposit at registration, balance due December 12.

Participants: Open to all quilters and sewers of all levels. Limit 15.



There are still a few openings in this class. If you are interested you can check Qwiltz http://quiltsuppliesonline.com/ Scroll down until you see the information about my class and click on information.

One of the exciting things about teaching this class is that it is under the auspice of the Southeastern Quilt and Textile Museum. This museum will be located in Carrollton, Ga. They are actively seeking funding for renovation of an old textile building that has been donated to them by the city of Carrollton.

One of their goals is to become the leading Quilt and Fiber art center in the Southeastern United States.

The Southeastern Quilt and Textile Museum will house a collection of quilts and fabrics to represent the Southern Heritage of the region. Through a rich array of engaging activities and workshops, the museum is the perfect place to explore, create and discover while learning about quilting and textile art. The museum will be hosting an array of classes for all levels, while hosting nationally know quilters to teach advanced to master level classes.

I am honored to be the first of these teachers. Hope you can join me.

Fast Friday Fabric Challenge

The challenge for FFFC this month is issued by Wendy Wenzel, of Flagstaff, AZ. Her challenge is as follows: "you can use one shape in different sizes, overlap, whatever speaks to you."
I think Wendy was hoping to get a little abstract work out of this group when she issued this challenge.

I for one, tried. I just wonder if it's in me? I love to look at abstract, even took a class from Terry Jerrard-Diamond but it's painful for me to get anything that I think looks right.

I started out this project by choosing a shape. While working at the Arts Center, in Clemson, last week I had time on my hands and started doodling with the idea in mind of coming up with a shape for this project.

Terry taught us to take paper and cut it into shapes and place them on a background until we came up with something pleasing. I cut out a lot of the same shape brought it up to my great room and laid it out on my ottoman. I started out with the first shapes you see in the photos.

The next morning I took them down to my studio and started working again. You can see what happened. I tried to post the photos in order or progression. Realism won out. What can I say.

I have so much to do right now as most of us do. I'm making gifts, have Uncle Dave ready to quilt. Wanted to have him done in time to enter Paducah but don't want to rush it.

Sunday I decided that I must make a decision on what was more important for me to get done. I was going to wait on the FFFC but I couldn't let it go so decided to get at least the top done.

It's important for me to get the gifts done, I want to make stockings for our quilt guild. I have a comfort quilt top ready to quilt for our guild as well but don't know if that will happen. So I decided that Uncle Dave will have to wait. If I get it done by Jan. 1 so be it, some how I don't think that's going to happen.

So yesterday I spent all day making gifts, make that gift, and boy did I have fun. More on that when I finish.

Any comments on what you see would be appreciated.