My arts gone public!

Library that is!

I just spent a couple of hours this morning trying to get it just so.

(do not look at my big tushie. I SAID DON'T LOOK!)

The kids liked being all alone in the library before opening hours.

I'll take you on a tour.

The display case when you first walk in has some of my bags and quilts large and small.

View as we pass.

Then we walk up to the book return.

Closer view.

Too close.

Then to the other side.

(don't use your cell phone here)

The wall to the left has this small quilt.
It usually hangs in my living room.

The other has my days of the week skulls.

Do any of you remember the days of the week tea towels?

They were these towels that ladies embroidered back in the 50's or so.

A lot of them depicted kittens or Scottie dogs doing the chores.

Well this is my updated twisted quilted version.

They are pieced, appliqued, painted and quilted.

*I have to give credit to my artist friend Keith for the ribbon display. He had done all the work for hanging them this way when these were at the art center. It made hanging them today for me so easy.

These crack me up every time I look at them.

Then above the CD rack is my "Good Morning" quilt.

I used a wavy lined fabric for the roosters tail to depict movement.

And used music note fabric for his body.

Then in the very back corner (our library is huge),

is another tree quilt.

It usually hangs in my den.




Anyway, that was it. Another quilt artist will be hanging her work soon.

We get the whole month of May to show our work.

I'm a mix of nervousness and pride.

Whats new?

I'm in an art show!

This is the postcard that is going out. My quilts are on the right.

I'm so happy and pleased to be paired up with a quilt artist as talented as Margaret.

If you are local, stop by next Friday 7-9 for some amazing food and wine, to chat and look at quilts and bags too!

weekend plans

Yesterday morn I was looking at permanent ink artist markers online, wishing i had more cash. The kids and i went running errands, spent an hour at the DMV to get my son his permit to drive. We stopped at Meijer to get some food for the long weekend and as I was strolling along, I glanced at one of the end caps and saw art supplies ON CLEARANCE!

Then when I rang them up they were even cheaper than the orange sticker claimed, OH HAPPY DAY! My plan is to doodle with them on fabric, so I have something to do during the long grueling hours at the Art Fair.

*

My plan for this long weekend is to give my coop a face lift. I still have that winter run I had slapped together quickly last fall, that is changing too.

Hopefully I'll have lots of impressive shots to show next week.

*

*HAPPY 4TH OF JULY EVERYONE*

What are you doing this weekend?

all work and no (well some) play

I noticed I only had 5 posts on my poor neglected blog this month. With this one its 6, wahoo!
What have I been up to? Well thanks for asking.

I got that job I was shooting for back in January. They originally wanted 10 bags, then 15, now 20! I am thankful they chose me and grateful for the work.

I am also grateful hubby is the bread winner, I'm just the breadcrumb winner but this makes my crumbs a little more substantial.

I also needed to finish a bag for the Circle of Art auction. They need it by Friday so I'm squeaking in just in time.

*

It hasn't been all work. On Fridays, the boy has soccer so I dropped him off and went fishing.

I have been chomping at the bit to re-stock our pond. It's worse than we thought, all the little fish are gone too.

I caught this small large mouth. Ok, that sentence makes sense to fishing people.

(hubbys hands, mine aren't that large)

I'm not sure what exactly this one is, it looks like a bluegill but has a very large mouth. Sort of like a rock bass but it doesn't have the red eye. I caught a couple more that were smaller but beggars cant be choosers right?

I had to go back and pick up the boy, so while I was away I let the girl use my pole and tackle.

AND THIS IS WHAT SHE CAUGHT!! The little shit.

A 22 1/2" striped bass. I guess the important thing is that we are slowly stocking the pond back up, not important which one of us does the catching. It sure would have been fun to reel this one in though. She was grinning from ear to ear when I showed back up. That's my girl!

*


Speaking of the girl, you all know how she likes to take my camera and surprise me with photos.

Here is just a couple of the dozens she took of her troll doll collection.




Cute little baby troll.

Well thats my quick little update. I'll try to do better next month.

Spring Break fun

We had a good week, a break from school and hubby had the week off too!

We did go to the .50 movie and had cousins over to play.

The snow melted by Wednesday.

We got a tiny egg.

(sorry ladies, no weight taken)

We went to the UMMA.

This is the model of the museum.

It was great.

We saw Tiffany glass,

and Picasso,

I love Picasso, but according to the literature, he was quite the perv.

The UMMA had a great mix of old and new.

But the best part of our Museum visit was...

WHERE I LUCKED OUT PARKING!!!

Ann Arbor is not the easiest town to find a place to park, so imagine how thrilled I was to find an open meter right out front! And I was driving the Neon! Parallel parking was a breeze!

Here is my car from the front door.

I'm a cheap thrills kind of gal.

We colored eggs.

Some think you cant dye brown eggs, not true.

We went to 2 Easter Parties, one was a bonfire/egg hunt.

The other was a egg hunt/kite flying day.


Just enough breeze.






Kites and cousins in a corn field.


I didn't get any quilting done but I did pull tons of nails from some slightly used free lumber.
We have a couple of building projects in the near future and this is going to save us $$$.

*

I am STILL SICK! I was hoping to be better by now, at least I'm not bed ridden and I'm hoping the end is near. I'm longing for the day that i can breath properly from my nostrils and not have the cough that brings up things from the deep. At least it has been a few days without a fever.

Other than that it was a great week.

How was yours?

We now are starting tennis (the girl) and Drivers Ed (the boy). Yikes!

Another trashy project.

This time of year I start nesting. The holidays are past, we are still months away from spring planting and my art/craft shows. I may as well take advantage of being cooped up.

Do any of you remember my project from last year to help me be organized in shipping out etsy orders? It worked great, but wasn't perfect. I had too much stuff left on the top that was getting in my way.

Well, do you remember this project? The part where I hung an old dresser on the wall for the girls to nest in (works great btw). I lack the skill of tossing things that may someday be turned into some thing useful. I also lack the skills to stick to one topic without going off on a tangent and rambling it seems.

So I saved the drawers from that project, I did toss the one that fell apart.

I painted one, hung it on the wall and filled it with the practical things for shipping and treasures too.

The den is a mix of practicality and our art.

There are still some blank spaces waiting to be filled.

I can"t explain how happy this one little change makes me.

Art Auction

I had so much fun at the Art Auction.

I talked to so many artists and saw many artist friends.

I also won the bid on a piece I was wanting to get.

The artist is Catherine Thursby, I love her style and she has the most adorable shop in AnnArbor. http://www.redshoeshomegoods.com/ I cant say enough good things about her. I am just thrilled to have one of her original pieces!

The lady who won the bid on the bag I donated, showed up with another bag I made and had bought it from the gallery I used to sell from. She said she is starting a collection! She is officially my new best friend.

Ok, the best thing about the day was this woman I slightly knew from our daughters being in Brownies together years ago, asked if I would like to be in the Ann Arbor Art Fair! This art fair is a 4 day show, one of the biggest in the country, has been going for 49 years and I never even thought I had a chance of being there. I haven't worked out any details yet and don't want to jinx myself, but the thought is making me giddy. {{{{AND NERVOUS}}}}

If I do get in I have less than 2 months to get ready and if I make the inventory I feel I need, I will have to sew a minimum of 5 bags per day, 6 days a week. So if you don't hear from me much, don't worry, I'll be in my basement/sweatshop, neglecting my home, garden and blog, but hopefully not my family.

So this morning I finished two bags I had started and made this patchwork.

Is it bad of me to say that I love it so much? Sometimes I have a hard time selling certain bags and this will be one of them.

Get back to work!