After a few months of intensive "Get 'er done" pace getting ready for my show in Colorado, the upcoming show in Houston, and getting a couple pieces done to submit to Quilt National, I have been having a few weeks of "putzing" around. There is a real adrenaline drop off after FedEx sweeps away my work, and I need something different to regain my mojo. So it has been play time!

One of the fun things I do between projects is make earrings (and sometimes other things) from the little left over pieces of fabric and yarns. They are light, affordable, and fun and I have sold many through the McGuffey Art Center Gift shop. Now they are also available in the gift shop of the Visions Art Museum in San Jose, CA. So I have made a bunch of new ones for the upcoming Holiday gift-giving season!

Then it was time for a "remake". Early this year, I was in a show with two other McGuffey artists. We made many collaborative pieces with our three different mediums fiber, clay and wood. You can see the pieces, as they were exhibited here. The large wood and fiber wall piece was separated after the show, but I couldn't "give up" on the fiber part. so I added a few more elements to it to make it a totally fiber piece.

Here is one that I did, not sure it will ever see the light of day as a finished piecee, but I did have fun with all the hand stitching.

Finally, my last dabble, is with upcycling. I walk to the studio everyday, and have noticed a wonderful variety of things in the gutters and sidewalks. Another McGuffey artist, Brielle Duflon has done some fabulous work with trash and inspired me to try. So I am making an ongoing project of recycled work. The backing for each piece is leftover felt or batting from my work, the top "fabric" is various plastic bags. and the found objects are embellished with hand stitching.  I hope to make the squares for three months.

O am assembling the rows with embroidery stitches, and have yet to figure out how I will connect the sashing (or what the sashing will be!) between the rows. It is about time to get back to "real" work though!

So it has been about five months since my last feeble effort, but now that fall approaches and life gets a bit slower and more cozy, maybe  I can do this blog thing!

The little rascal above has been part of my distraction. This is Kettu, my constant companion for the last two years. For those of you who may have a dog, you realize that those first two years are kind of busy - not unlike the first two years of having a kid! She is wonderful and is with me at my studio, so she will show up in here often I am sure.

I have been getting ready for a number of shows lately.  I had two solo shows and a shared show to send out in the last couple of months.

Jill Jensen, a fellow Virginia fiber artist and print maker had a joint show in Lynchburg . The Academy of Arts is a great venue and our work showed well there.

Then I sent our a couple dozed of my piece to Golden Colorado. Last year I was awarded "Best of Show" in the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum's annual show, and as a consequence I was awarded a solo show there this year. The show was in 3 parts; one wall were pieces from my "Walk in the Park" series, one wall was my "Studio" series, and the third wall was quilts from my "General Gallery".

The museum has two galleries, and in the second gallery was a show of quilts from Russia. (examples below)They were absolutely wonderful and a great counter part to my show. They had all the bright colors and traditional quilting that mine work usually does not, so together, they made a full look at the possibilities of quilting!

While this was happening I also was getting another couple dozen quilts ready to ship to Houston for this fall's Quilt Festival!

They contacted me and asked me to be one of the "Rising Star" artists at this year's show. Of course I said yes. The exciting part, is they didn't want all new quilts. They wanted to make sure that I included a range of quilts that I have done over the years. This means that some of my work that has never been "on the road" before will be in Houston. I have also made a couple of brand spanking new quilts for the show. 

This image on the right, is one of the early Excel spreadsheets that I used to try and visualize what the show will look like.

I hope that if you are at the show this November 8-11, that you will stop by and say hello. I would love to talk fiber with you!