Chary Sprouts

Happy New Year!

2012-01-24T16:51:00.000-05:00

Here's to a prosper, healthy, restorative New Year!

A quirky colorful sunburst mirror

2012-01-06T20:53:00.001-05:00

UPDATE: I was invited to share this project in an upcoming issue of Modern Patchwork from Interweave so I removed the how-to part of this post. Look for complete directions and photos in this special magazine this spring!

My over-the-dresser project involved a plain round mirror from Ikea, a "jelly roll" of pretty fabric strips, a tester jar of paint and two bundles of wooden shims. I admire classic sunburst mirrors, but the "classic" part is just not us so I decided to put my own contemporary, quirky spin on it.

How cool is that? And no sewing involved!!

Hanging it up the next morning was pretty exciting! It's colorful and quirky and unexpected. And it makes me happy every time I walk by it. :)

Dresser revealed

2012-01-02T11:36:00.000-05:00

I am so pleased with the way the dresser turned out. It makes me smile every time I go in or out of the vestibule and I find myself peeking in there multiple times during the day.

It's a little hard to photograph because the outside glass doors let in a lot of light and it causes reflections on the sheen of the paint, which is a satin finish. The knobs look like jewels and the scale is so much better than the original dark wooden knobs.

As a reminder, this is where I started, with the tired, dark nondescript dresser:

I added modern, clear, slightly larger wheels, replacing the small, dark wooden wheels that didn't work very well and kept trying to scratch the floor.

Next up is completing the project that will hang over the dresser. You can see the mounting clips already in place. The mirror is another example of practicing patience, this time waiting for glue to dry. Hopefully tomorrow it will be ready to show off. I'm really excited, it is turning out really well!

Watching paint dry...

2011-12-28T18:09:00.000-05:00

The paint is dry (well dry-ish, it takes 3-5 days before you can place anything on top of it and a full 30 days to fully cure for maximum hardness and durability), the knobs are installed and the dresser is back in the hallway. I'm going to wait another few days before I style it with a pretty dish and some accessories and then I'll take official photos of it in place. This photo will have to serve as a teaser until then. Isn't that color delicious? I have to say, I really enjoyed using the paint - Benjamin Moore's Advance - the finished product looks very professional and smooth, and the soap and water clean-up was a dream. And look at how pretty those mercury glass knobs are.

Next up is a project to fill the blank space above the dresser. We are very fortunate to live in a house with 9.5 foot ceilings so there's quite a bit of blank wall in that little hallway. My project involves a bundle of strips,

but no sewing! I will tell you that it will be my twist on a popular interior design trend. I've been working on proportions and prototypes and will be diving in with the power tools tonight.

I also finished another series of fiber postcards, this one in the theme of Houses. Another task I can cross off my list. Yippee! I'm trying to move in to the new year with as much of this year's tasks crossed off as I can.

Progress - on several fronts

2011-12-26T17:28:00.000-05:00

I have made a little progress on my painted dresser project since the last time I posted. A few things, and the holidays, derailed my timeline, but I'm moving forward again.

Each drawer in the dresser has a lovely brass keyhole and I wanted to preserve those when I painted the drawer fronts.

I covered the keyhole with painter's tape, pressing along the contours.

Then I carefully cut around the outside edge with a sharp blade.

Lifted up the excess and voila! Ready to go.

Repeat 3 more times and break out the paintbrush.

The paint, Advantage by Benjamin Moore, went on like a dream. I was little nervous when I first opened the can because the color is SO much lighter than I remembered it, but it's drying to a deeper, richer shade. Phew! The sheen is perfect too. The instructions recommend waiting at least 16 hours between coats and I'm fighting my impatience but winning so far. You can tell that I'm going to have to address the insides of the drawers. They're kind of icky. I've been browsing online for pretty drawer liner paper today and found an excellent one at The Container Store (cucumber scented even!) but they're out of stock online and the nearest store is 45 minutes away. Decisions, decisions...

On the art front, I finished some fruit-themed postcards and mailed them off. In my head they were supposed to be sliced tangerines, but after I made them I sliced a tangerine and the actuality didn't match the imagination. Now they are mystery fruit. Or tomatoes, as Carlos helpfully pointed out. I am still really pleased with the finished cards.

I'll have an update on the finished dresser in a day or so, depending on how my patience holds out. Now I'm planning the project that will hang over the dresser. Hopefully the result, unlike the tangerines, it will more closely match what's in my head, hahaha.

The Artistic Life

2011-12-06T21:59:00.000-05:00

I think that artists infuse every aspect of their lives with art, every choice affecting design and color is informed by an artist's eye and aesthetic - from furniture to clothing to the dishes on the dinner table. I'm endlessly fascinated with design, in all its many permutations. I follow lots of design blogs, am addicted to HGTV and am an unrepentant DIY-er. How about you?

I decided to start posting some of my home dec projects and before-and-afters here from time to time and I'd like to begin with this one. So far, I'm only on the "before" (yet eagerly anticipating the "after"). We have a small vestibule at the front of our house between the double glass doors that open onto the front porch and the interior door that opens into the front hall. I've been on the lookout for a small table or dresser for this space since we moved in late last year. Nearly every Sunday all spring, summer and fall, Sam and I scoured the Elephant's Trunk Flea Market in New Milford CT looking for such a creature. The criteria was that it had to have good lines, be solid, sturdy and in reasonably good shape, and most importantly, be cheap (er, affordable). Over the months we saw a few that were too big, too small or perfect but way too expensive. In September we finally hit the jackpot. And look at how well it fits the space! There's about 2" clearance on each side.

It's a solid oak 1920s dresser with a couple of minor defects. The top is ever-so-slightly warped in one spot, which I think is fixable with wood glue and a strong clamp, and one of the drawers doesn't close perfectly, which you can only notice from a certain angle so I decided it doesn't bother me, since the angle involves some contortions.

My plan is to paint it a fun color. Gasp! I know that is upsetting to some people, but that's what I've wanted to do with a piece of furniture for eons and this isn't an heirloom, so I'm going for it. I love the juxtaposition between a fairly classic looking piece of furniture and unexpected color and modern touches.

I ordered some mercury glass melon knobs from Anthropologie to replace the too-small wooden knobs currently on the dresser.

I had a quart of Benjamin Moore's Advance paint mixed in a lovely tealy blue shade called Seaside (which I think will go really well with the red tile floor). I've heard so many good things about this paint - in particular that it has leveling properties that makes it ideal for painting furniture and cabinets.

Today I took advantage of the last warm day for a while (60 degrees in December, in New England - crazy!) and dragged the dresser out onto the porch and sanded that puppy down. Now it's ready for color. Or maybe I need to prime it first? I also need to look for some gorgeous paper to line the drawers. Any suggestions of places to search?

Anyway, stay tuned for part two!

The store is now open!

2011-12-05T11:33:00.000-05:00

At long last, and after some much appreciated nagging from my daughter Sam, my etsy store is once again fully stocked and ready for shopping. I added some gyotaku fish prints (which come matted and ready to frame) and some collage jewelry. I have a few more items to add this week and then I can cross something big off my ToDo list.

Please head over to Etsy and check me out!

Quilting Arts In Stitches blog tour

2011-10-19T12:32:00.000-04:00

Thanks for visiting the last stop on the In Stitches Volume 5 blog tour! I am SO excited about this issue - there is an abundance of beautiful, intriguing, strong work and creative, innovative techniques.

One of the best parts of my job as editor is getting to know and to work with the artists in each issue. I am grateful to all of them for sharing their art and talent and time with all of us.

Some highlights from this issue:

Carol Ann Waugh has an interesting take on combining hand and machine stitching. I seriously want to explore the decorative stitches on my machine now! (Many thanks to my friend Vivien Zepf for telling about Carol and her work!)

Therese May shares her abundance quilts and inspires a challenge for our readers! Make sure you check it out - I think you'll be tempted to enter.

Barb Forrister makes the most beautiful, artistic three-dimensional flowers and her video is super informative. If you've never tried this, Barb is the perfect person to show you how.

Alma Stoller's fabric beads are fun and colorful and there are definitely some of these in my future too! I need to justify my bead-buying habit and her fabric beads are just the ticket.

Larkin Van Horn has inspired me to create a fabric reliquary. I'm thinking these embellished boxes would make fantastic containers for presents this holiday season as well as special containers for treasured items.

Cheryl Sleboda is on the cutting edge of technology as she introduces us to electroluminescent wire that lights up your quilts. You have to see this to believe it! There are light switches next to each of her quilts in the article so that you can see what the quilts look like with the wire on and off.

Amanda McCavour creates the most sublime drawings in thread using just thread. Seriously, only thread! They're suspended in air and are Line in its most pure form. And she's so appealing in her video - I just want to hang out with her in her studio!

I hope you check out this latest In Stitches for your Mac or PC.

http://www.interweavestore.com/Quilting/Magazines/eMags.html

I'm super excited to announce that it's now available for your iPad too! Just head to the App store and search for Interweave or Quilting Arts.

In case you missed any of the other stops on the blog tour, here's the complete line-up. I encourage you to see what else these talented artists are up to!

Monday 10/10 Lindsey Murray http://quiltingdaily.com

Tuesday 10/11 Larkin Van Horn http://blog.larkinart.com

Wednesday 10/12 Cheryl Sleboda http://blog.muppin.com

Thursday 10/13 Alma Stoller http://almastoller.blogspot.com

Friday 10/14 Therese May http://theresemay.blogspot.com

Monday 10/17 Barb Forrister http://barbforrister.com/category/blog

Tuesday 10/18 Carol Ann Waugh http://carolannwaugh.com/blog/

Wednesday 10/19 Jane Davila http://janedavila.blogspot.com

If you have an idea for In Stitches and would like to be in our emagazine, please visit the submissions page and send us your thoughts!

Natural Solvent Transfers

2011-10-06T15:56:00.001-04:00

Oh how I love Citrasolv natural cleaner and degreaser! Not only is it an awesome cleaner (you know, if we had time for cleaning!) but it is also a perfect solvent for transferring laser-printed images or photo-copied images to fabric or paper.

Supplies:

CitraSolv orange-based natural cleaner and degreaser

Toner-based laser print or photocopy (either black and white or color) printed onto plain copy paper, in reverse

Foam brush

Scissors

An old spoon or a burnisher

Paper or Prewashed fabric (the smoother the surface, the sharper the print)

Scissors

1. Cut the printed sheet apart into separate images, if you’ve printed more than one on the page. Make sure that the image is printed in reverse or mirrored as the transfer process reverses the printed image, This is especially important for text!

2. Place the image face down on the desired fabric or paper and hold firmly.

3. Moisten the foam brush with a small amount of CitraSolv. Be judicious, a little bit goes a long way.

4. Rub the moistened foam brush onto the back of the printed image, being careful not to shift or wiggle the paper which will result in a blurry transfer.

5. Once the paper is saturated you will see the image start to show through the back of the paper. At this point, vigorously rub the back of the paper with an old spoon or a burnisher.

Tip: It can be helpful to work on a slightly padded surface. I often place a scrap piece of batting or an old mouse pad under everything.

6. Lift up one corner of your printed page to peek and see if the image is transfering. If it isn’t, let go of the corner and resume burnishing. If it has transfered, remove the printed paper.

Tip: Printed images can only be transfered once, so discard the saturated paper after you’ve completed the transfer.

7. If you allow the transferred image to sit out the CitraSolv will evaporate in a few hours. If you are in a hurry, cover the transfered image with parchment paper and lightly press with a warm iron. Make sure your work area is adequately ventilated as the odor will be concentrated and more intense with the heat of the iron.

Finished piece with CitraSolv image transfer.

There are many different ways to transfer images and photos to fabrics and other surfaces. Using a solvent and a laser-printed copy is one of them. I prefer a natural, orange-oil-based solvent like Citra Solv for its non-toxic properties and its great smell. It’s essential that the image is printed on a toner-based laser printer or photocopy machine as an inkjet printer or solid ink laser printer won’t work.

Jump Start Your Art Career!

2011-06-13T21:29:00.002-04:00

It's back, just in time to get your art career started or moving along! Sign up for my 6-week online workshop starting Monday July 25. The online format is ideal for this type of information and boy, do I have a LOT of information for you! More details below:

Jump Start your Art Career

What do you want out of your art career? Do you want to exhibit more often? Sell more art? Teach workshops? Get published? Create a polished, professional online prescence? This practical, hands-on class will guide you through an individualized course of study to attain these aspirations & more. Start by defining and setting your specific goals, create your brand, come up with a marketing plan and put it into action, all with step-by-step guidance from an industry expert.

Learn how to -

create a brand that will help you stand out from the crowd
outline a marketing plan to help you reach your goals
put together a professional portfolio
find, research and approach art galleries
start an etsy store and promote it
build up a mailing list and use it effectively
analyze the success of your marketing plan
get published - start small and think big

With interactive lessons, homework, brainstorming, critiques and more you will be well on your way to realizing your art career goals.

On each of the six Mondays you will receive an email with the PDF lesson and worksheet for the week. The interactive part of the class will mainly be run from a private blog where everyone registered for class will have the opportunity to see the lessons in visual form, anyone comfortable with having the work they're doing for class will have it posted, and comments on each lesson will be highly encouraged to foster discussion, brainstorming and feedback.

The blog will have updates from me, relevant to that week's lesson, every weekday and I will be available for email consultation and help during the entire 6 weeks. The blog will remain available for three weeks after class has finished.

The PDFs and worksheets will help you focus on your own specific goals and the steps you will be taking to attain them, while the blog will help you track your progress, and your fellow students', with our real-life examples.

6 online lessons beginning Monday July 25 $75.00

the workshop includes pdf handouts, worksheets, resources and references plus a forum for sharing questions, answers and progress all in a supportive, encouraging and empowering environment.

This class is only run about every 15 months so jump if you're interested. It'll be a while before it's back again!

Please contact me if you have any questions. I hope to see you in class!

Housing Starts

2011-05-09T07:38:00.000-04:00

Last year, the uber-talented and enthusiastic Kathy York got a brainstorm to gather a group of artists to create a village of Fiber Houses. The resulting village is so vibrant and interesting, isn't it?

I built three houses for the project and at the time I thought they were on the large side, but looking at the village now I can tell they're not. My houses are in the center right in the village above.

First side of my pointy house

Second side of my pointy house

Side one of my squatty house

Side two of my squatty house

Side one of my tall house

Side two of my tall house

I had a lot of fun playing with roof lines and proportion. Maybe it's my frustrated architectural tendencies?
Each of my houses is composed of both fabric and art/found papers and incorporates some printmaking.

Following along on the rest of the blog tour to learn more about the houses and their artists.

Susan Else (website) May 2 http://www.susanelse.com/

Frances Holliday Alford May 3 http://www.franceshollidayalford.com/weblog/

Pamela Allen (website) May 4 http://pamelart.homestead.com/titlepage.html

Frieda Anderson May 5 http://friestyle.blogspot.com/

Lisa Call May 6 http://blog.lisacall.com/

Jane Davila May 9 http://janedavila.blogspot.com/

Naomi Adams May 10 http://killerbeedesigns.com/blog1/

Jamie Fingal May 11 http://jamiefingaldesigns.blogspot.com/

Barb Forrister May 12 http://www.freespiritartstudio.blogspot.com/

Vickie Hallmark May 13 http://fiberartglass.blogspot.com/

Connie Hudson May 16 http://beyondtherail2010.blogspot.com/

Leslie Jenison May 17 http://leslietuckerjenison.blogspot.com/

Sherri McCauley May 18 http://sherrilipmanmccauley.blogspot.com/

Judy Perez May 19 http://judyperez.blogspot.com/

Melanie Testa May 20 http://www.melanietesta.com/mtype/

Laura Wasilowski May 23 http://artfabrik.blogspot.com/

Kathy York May 24 http://aquamoonartquilts.blogspot.com/

PS: Sorry about the wonky formatting in this post. Blogger is being a pain in the patootie and won't bend to my will this morning...

Sisters Oregon & A Quilter's Affair

2011-05-08T07:04:00.000-04:00

This summer I will once again be teaching at the phenomenal Quilter's Affair conference in Sisters, Oregon. I am so looking forward to it! This event is really well-organized and the week is topped off by the most amazing outdoor quilt show.

This year I'll be teaching two sessions of my workshop, Project Patchwork. I love this class and I get to be Tim Gunn to all of the designers in the room. I issue three challenges throughout the day and participants create 3 small quilts using their favorite techniques. It's a tremendous amount of fun and very inspiring for all!

I'll also be teaching a Nature Printing workshop (with, among other goodies, rubber fishies!) and a nifty Stampmaking for Quilters workshop, plus an intense day I call Outer Limits where you'll learn more than 20 non-traditional ways to finish off the edges of your art quilts. Look Ma, No Binding!

I hope you can join me - the setting is glorious and the entire week is delightful.

Surface Design Fun!

2011-03-21T21:57:00.000-04:00

Today the C&T Publishing blog is featuring an easy pattern I designed. It's a simple, graphic tablerunner to showcase fabric that's been painted or stamped (or painted and stamped) or otherwise surface designed. Check it out here!

There are tons of ideas in my Surface Design Essentials book to add surface design to your fabric. It's a super handy book with a lay-flat spiral binding and wipe-off pages for those unexpected Jackson Pollock moments.

Quilting Arts In Stitches - the magical mystery blog tour!

2011-02-27T21:58:00.000-05:00

I'm so excited to be part of a super fabulous blog tour for the latest edition of the eMag, Quilting Arts In Stitches. If you missed the first issue, you'll want to go back and check it out and you'll definitely want to take a look at this second one as well! This is an entirely new and innovative product from the talented folks at Quilting Arts and, just like their print magazines, it's very high quality and jam-packed with both inspiration and useful information. There are videos to go along with the articles, so if, like me, you're a visual learner, then the videos of the artists you know and love working on hand and machine stitching techniques will be absolutely invaluable. Instead of just telling you how to do something, they'll show you how to do it! It's like having a team of experts right in your studio, ready to pause if you get interrupted, and replay over and over to catch every word.

If you read Quilting Arts and Cloth Paper Scissors magazines with your nose pressed against the page, trying to see more details and wishing that you could hold all those gorgeous quilts and projects in your hot little hands, then the high resolution slideshows of In Stitches are for you! Zoom in on each photo until you can see every tiny stitch. Get super up close and personal with the beautiful art like you never could before.

And! Dum-da-dum!! I have super exciting news to share!! I am the new free-lance editor of In Stitches starting with the next issue. We're already hard at work on it and there are so many lovely, talented artists contributing. If you have something you'd like to see in a future issue, or if you'd like to propose an article to write - send in an email. :)

Since Pokey is having a fun give-away on her blog, I decided to do one too! Leave a comment here and on Friday I'll draw a random winner for the February/March issue of Quilting Arts.

Don't forget to follow along on the blog tour and learn more about In Stitches

Tuesday: Lynn Krawczyk (March 1): http://www.fibraartysta.blogspot.com/
Wednesday: Jackie Cardy(March 2): http://dogdaisychains.blogspot.com/
Thursday: Deb Bates (March 3): http://stitchtress.wordpress.com/
Friday: Deborah Boschert (March 4): http://deborahsjournal.blogspot.com/
Saturday: Michelle Allen (March 5): http://allendesigns.typepad.com/
Sunday: Liz Kettle (March 6): http://textileevolution.com/?option=com_wordpress&Itemid=203
Monday: Lyric Kinard (March 7): http://lyrickinard.blogspot.com/
Tuesday (March 8): A surprise guest on Lindsey’s blog will be the final stop of this tour

ONE hundred collages

2011-02-08T21:54:00.000-05:00

I am so honored to be taking part in Virginia Spiegel's latest fundraiser for the American Cancer Society. The plan is to sell ONE hundred collages on ONE Wednesday for ONE great cause. I made three collages and I'm excited to show you one below. You can see a preview of the fundraiser and read about how it works on this site.

The all-star team of contributing artists:
Natalya Aikens, Pamela Allen, Laura Ann Beehler, Liz Berg, Pokey Bolton, Laura Cater-Woods, Jette Clover, Jane Davila, Jane Dunnewold, Jamie Fingal, Gloria Hansen, Leslie Tucker Jenison, Lyric Kinard, Jeanelle McCall, Linda Teddlie Minton, Karen Stiehl Osborn, BJ Parady, Judy Coates Perez, Wen Redmond, Cynthia St Charles and Virginia A Spiegel

The big day is next Wednesday, February 16th. Please check out the work, it's all extraordinary and 100% of the proceeds go to ACS.

Back to the Studio

2011-02-08T21:38:00.000-05:00

De las Lineas de Nasca, ink on fabric

Finally settling (sort of) into a new studio and I made some fabric postcards for a long overdue swap. The theme for the swap was Petroglyphs and while mine is technically inspired by geoglyphs, I think it's close enough. It feels good to be making again. Now if I could just find everything...

Art on Exhibit!

2010-09-22T14:40:00.000-04:00

I spent the morning hanging my solo show. I have been working all summer to get ready for this exhibit -- making new work, and matting, framing and mounting existing work. It was fantastic to see it all hanging together on big white walls!

The opening reception is tomorrow night, Thursday September 23rd from 7 - 8:30 pm. The exhibition is held at the Edward J Duffy Art Gallery at the Canterbury School in New Milford CT. The show runs through October 14 and the gallery is open to the public weekdays from 8 -3 and Saturdays from 8-12 or by appt (860-210-3800).

On exhibit are over 50 pieces, including the first public showing of the first half of the Loteria series and many other new works. I've discovered one drawback to working on a small scale - it takes a LOT of work to fill a gallery!

Many of the Loteria series are on display, as well as an assortment of gyotaku fiber and paper collages, insect work in a variety of formats, some new pieces inspired by cell phone photography and a few three-dimensional fiber houses.

I hope you can stop by!

El Cotorro

2010-09-21T18:11:00.001-04:00

Lotería Collage Project

24 - El Cotorro (the parrot)

La Luna

2010-09-21T18:08:00.001-04:00

Lotería Collage Project

23 - La Luna (the moon)

Finally! A few new pieces in the Loteria series. I'm nearly halfway there at this point and have started matting and framing the finished pieces.

Join me at Art-Is-You

2010-09-05T20:05:00.000-04:00

Take a class here on the East Coast! Art-Is-You, the hippest mixed-media conference on the right coast, is around the corner and registration closes tomorrow. I hope you can join me (and a slew of other talented mixed-media artists including my uber-cool co-author, Elin Waterston) for a fun roster of classes in Danbury, Connecticut over Columbus Day weekend this October.

I'll be teaching a Bricolage workshop on Saturday, Oct 9. We'll be starting with paint, illustration board, stamps and a pile of found objects and will create unique, personal shadow boxes, a la Joseph Cornell but with a modern edge.

On Monday, October 11 we'll be constructing 3-dimensional Fiber Art Houses. These clever houses incorporate all sorts of imagery and can tell a story, pay homage to a favorite artist, express an idea or feeling, or be a neat way to show off all of your favorite things. I'm working on a whole village right now and am having so much fun!

If you want in on all the hip happenings, don't delay! Registration closes on Monday, Sept 6 at midnight.

Rubber Fish Chronicles

2010-07-14T10:40:00.000-04:00

Have a hankering to paint some rubber fish? Holy mackerel! You'll have your chance in Chicago this August with me at the Cloth Paper Scissors Create conference. I'll be bringing all of my fishy friends for a day of gyotaku painting fun!

One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish - big fish, small fish and a seahorse and starfish too. Don't let this one get away. :)

I'll also be teaching a 3D fiber house plus a workshop on Jump Starting Your Art Career - now's the time to get serious about your art and I can help you. This is an evening workshop with lots of hands-on activities to help you develop your personal marketing plan for your career. Tons of useful, practical information about branding, dreaming big, approaching galleries, selling more art and much more.

Bricolage revisited

2010-07-13T22:33:00.001-04:00

Remember the bricolage shadow boxes I made last July? Well, if you have a hankering to make one of your own, come join me at the Art-Is-You east coast art retreat in Danbury CT this October. I'll be teaching three different classes over the weekend and know that we'll have a rollicking good time.

The theme this year is Art Is... Wickedly Good and you can adapt your bricolage to that theme - oh the possibilities!

This retreat is about 15 minutes from my studio and I'll be able to bring tons of goodies to show and share. I'm so excited!

Colliding passions

2010-05-27T19:51:00.000-04:00

I'm working on a new series of fiber art postcards and am exploring something different this time. I purchased an absolutely spectacular assortment of 60 jacquard batik squares from Lisa Shepard Stewart of Cultured Expressions a couple of weeks ago at a quilt show in Warwick NY and decided that they'd make gorgeous backgrounds for the postcards.

The fabrics are from Ghana and the colors are so luscious and vibrant -- very different from my usual more muted palette. I don't know if it's the season or the weather or my mood, but I'm going with it.

I'm thinking about adding some photo transfers of the images I've been snapping with my iPhone using one of the several apps that give lomographic effects to photos. I've been noodling around with Camera Bag, Toy Camera, and Plastic Bullet but my very favorite is Hipstamatic.

I LOVE these hands. They're antique glove forms that we found in Judy Gula's booth at the Art Opera in NJ in April. They live on a shelf in my office and wave happily at me every day.

Stay tuned to see what happens next!

Recently I signed up for the Art Sketchbook Project from the Brooklyn Art Library and I got word today that my sketchbook has shipped. I picked the inside/outside theme and I can't wait to get started. It's not too late to sign up if you're looking for an inspirational and creative project.

On the Radio

2010-05-10T14:31:00.000-04:00

Creative Talk Radio - Live today!!

I'm so excited to be a guest on Pat Sloan's radio show at 4 EDT this afternoon. You can listen in live here: http://toginet.com/shows/creativetalkradio or you can catch it in the archived version later at the same address - click on the 05/10/10 show in the Recent Shows sidebar or download on iTunes.

We'll be giving away a copy of my new book, Jane Davila's Surface Design Essentials, on Pat's blog. Go to her blog to enter until this Friday for a chance to win.

Workshop opportunity in New Jersey

2010-04-06T16:24:00.000-04:00

There are a few spaces left in the Sketches from Nature workshop I'm teaching at the Garden State Quilters' Guild next Tuesday, April 13 in Chatham NJ. If you're interested please contact Becky at the guild to sign up. You don't need to be a member to take the class.

We'll be free-motion quilting with black thread and then adding acrylic ink to create the look of pen-and-ink drawings with watercolor effects. A really creative and easy process that looks more difficult than it is, this technique is from my new book, Jane Davila's Surface Design Essentials. The supply list is minimal and I provide all of the inks for use in class. I hope you can join me!

La Bota

2010-03-25T07:23:00.000-04:00

Lotería Collage Project

22 - La Bota (the boot)

I'm making progress on this series, slowly but steadily. I have been collecting some wonderful square frames in Ikea to frame the whole collection (with an eye toward a potential show) and yesterday discovered that I'll have to recut all of the mats. The openings on the mats included with the frames are about 1/2" too small. Bummer.

La Mano

2010-03-24T21:24:00.000-04:00

Lotería Collage Project

21 - La Mano (the hand)

I love this one. The card is cool and these are some of my favorite colors.

Jump Start Your Art Career

2010-02-28T17:11:00.005-05:00

I'm very excited to announce the first of my online classes. This is a topic near and dear to my heart and I'm thrilled to share the knowledge I've gained over the last 20 years as a professional fine artist, author and teacher.

Jump Start your Art Career

What do you want to get out of your art career? Do you want to exhibit more often? Sell more art? Teach workshops? Get published? Create a polished, professional online presence? This practical, hands-on class will guide you through an individualized course of study to attain these aspirations and more. Start by defining and setting your specific goals, create your brand, come up with a marketing plan and put it into action, all with step-by-step guidance from an industry expert.

Learn how to -
     create a brand that will help you stand out from the crowd
     outline a marketing plan to help you reach your goals
     put together a professional portfolio
     find, research and approach art galleries
     start an etsy store and promote it
     build up a mailing list and use it effectively
     analyze the success of your marketing plan
     get published - start small and think big

With interactive lessons, homework, brainstorming, critiques and more you will be well on your way to realizing your art career goals.

6 online lessons beginning Monday April 5 $60.00

the workshop includes pdf handouts, worksheets, resources and references plus a forum for sharing questions, answers and progress all in a supportive, encouraging and empowering environment.

A surface design tote for the American Cancer Society

2010-02-19T10:07:00.000-05:00

Tote Tuesday is a fundraiser held to benefit the American Cancer Society dreamed up by the incomparable and indefatiguable Virginia Spiegel. I'm so pleased to be able to help out again, this time by donating a tote for the auction. I've included a copy of my new book, Surface Design Essentials, 5 bottles of Liquitex soft-body acrylic paints, 3 bottles of Liquitex acrylic ink, 3 different Liquitex acrylic mediums - fabric, matte gel and, my favorite, iridescent - 6 Derwent Inktense water-soluble ink pencils and a small piece of art made with these yummy colors. With this tote full of goodies, you can dive right in and start creating!

For all the details about this auction that will be held next Tuesday, February 23, head over to Virginia's blog. There are lots of fun totes up for bidding and it's for such a good cause!

Loteria - first 20

2010-02-14T21:23:00.001-05:00

Lotería Collage Project

This is what the first 20 lotería blocks look like next to each other. Progress is being made and things are happening!

This weekend, among other things, I've been working on my first offering of online classes. Stay tuned for the full descriptions and sign-up information. There will be a project class, a process class and a class focused on how to jump start your art career. Whee!

El Pajaro

2010-02-14T20:28:00.000-05:00

Lotería Collage Project

20 El Pajaro (the bird)

It feels good to get back into this project. The first 20 of the total 54 are done. I've collected 10 frames from various trips to Ikea and will start matting and framing some of these little blocks.

An update on La Garza from yesterday: I had not heat set the ink on the letters I had erroneously stamped and this morning I tried blotting them with a damp paper towel. Wouldn't you know, they came off, completely and totally! Project save. I stamped some innocuous flower shapes where the letters were, as the space still needed something.

19 La Garza (the heron) revised

Workshop in the Hudson Valley

2010-02-14T12:13:00.000-05:00

I hope you can join me for a workshop at the beautiful Hudson River Valley Art Workshops in March in Greenville, New York.

I'll be teaching Layers of Meaning, a workshop where you'll make a series of small art quilts incorporating a variety of techniques.

The official description:

Working within a theme, Jane Davila guides you to create a series of small art quilts. Develop your theme using techniques such as direct and indirect inkjet photo transfers, block printing and found object printing. Explore the concept of personal imagery by creating your own motifs to incorporate into your work. Layer your compositions with collage and printing, use quilting as the element of line, and end with a wide assortment of very unusual edge-finishing techniques.

Jane will be bringing an Epson Durabright all-in-one printer with her so that you will be learning and practicing the image transfer techniques hands-on with your own photos. She will also be bringing a number of interesting supplies that are for the use of the students, so it's a great opportunity to experiment with things you may not be familiar with without having to invest in those supplies before you're sure if you like them.

And... they have chocolate! Amazing, handmade chocolate. Really, what else do we need?

La Garza

2010-02-13T18:50:00.002-05:00

Lotería Collage Project

19 La Garza (the heron)

I was all excited to get back to my loteria project and I laid out this block and stitched and stamped away and stepped back happily only to realize that La Garza means the heron in English, not Flamingo, like I stamped along the lower edge. So here's my conundrum: do I re-do the block because, although a flamingo is a type heron (I think), the translation of the Spanish word is not technically correct or do I leave it alone and risk looking silly? Oof.

Playing with Paint

2010-01-23T18:03:00.004-05:00

Some artist trading cards made by playing with paint and matte medium and stamps and fabric on watercolor paper using techniques found in my new book Surface Design Essentials.

Art Quilt Studio Workshops

2009-12-26T19:28:00.007-05:00

Four new workshops offered this Winter in Fairfield County, Connecticut. Treat yourself to a relaxing, educational and artistic day. Class sizes are limited, so don't delay!

Playing with Paint
Learn a wide assortment of ways to apply acrylic paint to create unique and original fabric and effects. A great introduction to Jane's new book, coming in January, 2010.

Thursday January 28 or Wednesday March 17
10 am - 4 pm $75.00

Surface Design Sampler
Come to play with a large variety of materials and supplies - paintstiks, neocolor pastels, assorted inks, mediums, paints, stamp pads, glitter, foil, smooch, angelina fibers and films, and more.

Thursday February 4 or Saturday March 20
10 am - 4 pm $95.00
most supplies included in the class fee

Introduction to Image Transfers
Learn direct and indirect transfer methods to add images to your projects. TAP, acrylic paint and medium transfers, and direct printing on a variety of fabrics and surfaces will be covered.

Saturday January 23, Wednesday February 10 or Thursday March 11
10 am - 2 pm $75.00
most supplies included in the class fee

Sketches from Nature
Create a free-motion thread sketch and then apply acrylic ink to complete a small quilt with a hand-drawn and hand-painted watercolor effect.
Wednesday January 20 or Saturday February 13
10 am - 4pm $75.00

Workshops are held in Fairfield County, Connecticut with a limited class size for individual attention. For more information email me at info @ janedavila (dot) com

Live Chat

2009-12-26T19:11:00.003-05:00

I hope you can join me for a live chat on Susan Sorrell's Fiber Art/Mixed Media site tomorrow, Sunday December 27 at 5PM EST (22:00 GMT) where we'll discuss Art Quilts at Play, the second book I wrote with Elin Waterston, and other fun artful things!

A Surface Design give-away

2009-12-24T16:52:00.003-05:00

Head on over to the C&T Publishing blog and leave a comment on this post. They will be picking one lucky winner on the 29th for a copy of my brand-spanking-new book, Surface Design Essentials, and a kit of surface design goodies.

Good luck!

AED - rediscovery

2009-11-24T11:03:00.002-05:00

While cleaning my studio yesterday, I found some photos of earlier work. While technically not new work created this month, I haven't seen these in so long that they look new to me, lol, and I know that none of you have seen them! It's a little frightening to think that I made these over 20 years ago. Yikes.

I used to work exclusively in paper, mainly printmaking, but also casting paper.

These are part of a series of hand-colored paper casts and they're BIG (for me anyway), about 22" x 30".

My daughter told me recently that one of her strongest childhood smell memories is of paper pulp. Could be worse!

AED - reboot

2009-11-22T20:47:00.002-05:00

So now that I'm getting over the over-thinking and subsequent self-sabotage from a week ago, I'm back to posting again. And no longer worried about the relative importance of the output, just the doing.

A fun little collage with a fun little Indonesian stamp I picked up on a jaunt today that also included a Wolf Kahn exhibit and excellent chocolate gelato (not all at the same time).

AED - collages

2009-11-15T20:32:00.004-05:00

Okay, here on the 15th day of this project it's time for a little self-evaluation. Notwithstanding the fact that I've missed a couple of days (argh), I'm now struggling with an internal debate of "trivial" vs "important". Although I have created art since the beginning of the month, I do feel like nearly everything I've made is fairly trivial. I may be overthinking things (quel surprise), but it's bugging me and I'm going to try something different.

Soooooo, saying that, here is the first step of a series of collages. I'm working on 8" x 10" bristol board with a mixture of Liquitex fluid medium and acrylic paint.

I'm not sure whether I'll work on one at a time until it's done or on one layer on all of them at once - I guess I'll have to see what tomorrow brings!

If you're doing the AEDM project, how do you feel about your progress so far?

AED - gifts

2009-11-13T20:34:00.003-05:00

The stomach bug that I haven't been able to shake since mid-October knocked me out again yesterday and I missed making art and posting. Grrr. Today I worked on some fun, pretty bracelets so I can start populating my Etsy store again, just in time for the holidays.

I also did some writing today and plan on a lot more of that tomorrow. I honestly feel like, if the days were longer or the business work shorter, that more art would be happening. It's certainly not from a lack of ideas, although the disastrous mess in my studio is certainly hampering my enthusiasm at the moment. Can cleaning/orgainzing/sorting/putting-away count as creativity?

AED - pile o' postcards

2009-11-11T21:18:00.004-05:00

Today I finished up a pile of postcards that's been mostly done for a couple of weeks now. Finally. Tomorrow they go out in the mail. Finally.

AED - backgrounds

2009-11-10T22:15:00.001-05:00

Background layers for Artist Trading Cards. Yummy.

AED - photo effects

2009-11-09T22:13:00.004-05:00

Today was a paperwork catch-up day (still not caught up, but a dent was made). My creativity consisted of playing with a fun application on my iPhone. Have I mentioned how much I adore my iPhone? Love, love, love it. The app is called ToyCamera and it has a variety of cool effects that you can apply to photos snapped on your phone.

What's your favorite creative app?

AED - impatient stamping

2009-11-08T20:16:00.004-05:00

Today I learned what happens if you don't wait for your background to dry before you stamp on top of it.

The stamped images blur and sink into the damp background. This is useful information for those times when that is the effect I'm seeking, as well as a beneficial learning experience. And I did wait until everything was completely dry before I transfered the bee.

Good thing this project is Art Every Day and not Successful Art Every Day...

Surface Design Essentials

2009-11-08T10:58:00.007-05:00

I'm so excited to show you a sneak peak of my newest book. Surface Design Essentials will hit the stores in January 2010!

A smaller format book with a covered spiral binding, Surface Design Essentials explores the use of acrylic paints, mediums, acrylic inks and water soluble pencils on fabric and some unusual, mixed-media surfaces. In addition to the 15 techniques covered, there are 7 projects to help you get started playing and creating. I think it will be a handy reference tool for any artist working with paints, inks and mediums.

Some of my very favorite artists generously contributed work for the gallery section of the book. You're going to love to see what they've created!

Judy Coates Perez
Virginia Spiegel
Terry Grant
Jane LaFazio
Natalya Aikens
Elin Waterston
and Lynn Koolish

The book will be available in bookstores and quilt stores worldwide in mid-January. If you'd like to order an autographed copy, please contact me.

Paired with the release of this book will be C&T and Liquitex's new Surface Design Center to quilt shops near you. The Surface Design Center features:

24 Liquitex Soft Body Acrylic colors
4 Liquitex Professional Acrylic Ink colors
Liquitex Fabric Medium
Liquitex Matte Gel Medium
& Winsor & Newton Brushes

I had the great pleasure to be in on the development of this center and it was so much fun to test out the products and give input as to what art quilters and mixed-media artists would find most valuable and useful in it. We debuted the center at Quilt Festival in Houston last month and invited everyone walking by to sit and paint and play with the mediums. We had such a fantastic response!

I'm delighted that it will be much easier for art quilters to find these products in their local quilt stores. I'm equally delighted that this means that more and more people will be experimenting with making art quilts and trying things they haven't yet tried. The Force is strong in those of us who play with paint and we welcome more people to join us!!

AED - creative in other ways

2009-11-06T23:13:00.003-05:00

Today I was vending at the Brownstone Quilters Guild show in Allendale NJ and my creativity for the day involved setting up my booth. The show was open for 10 hours today and with the commute back and forth it didn't leave any other time for art. Believe me, it took plenty of creativity to get all that fun stuff in the booth, displayed attractively and appealingly!

AED - more sketching

2009-11-05T22:16:00.001-05:00

Another thread sketch awaiting ink. Creative, but quick today...

AED - screenprinting

2009-11-04T21:14:00.002-05:00

Why yes, that is a plaster fish head on my kitchen counter.

Today was much more about process than a finished project. I was working on fabric postcards - I snapped this photo just before I screenprinted some insects onto the painted and stamped backgrounds.

And I did pack the car rather creatively in preparation for vending at the Brownstone Quilter's Guild show in Allendale, NJ this weekend.

AED - sketching

2009-11-03T22:35:00.003-05:00

When I was in Houston for International Quilt Festival demonstrating in the Open Studios of the Make It University section of the show, I started some thread sketches. I worked on a few of them today.

First I doodle on a sandwich of fabric and thin batting with a sewing machine and black thread to give the impression of a pen and ink drawing.

Then I add a diluted mix of Liquitex liquid acrylic inks to achieve a watercolor paint effect.

I play this weird game where I try to make the thread sketch with one continuous line of stitching - one start, one stop.

Sort of like doing a drawing and not lifting your pencil off the paper.

Since I'm so bad at regular watercolor painting on paper, I'm surprised at how much I like these and how much they look like I wanted them to look.

Okay, except for that one, which needs more pressing...

AED - Day Two

2009-11-02T21:36:00.003-05:00

Day two of Art Every Day Month - and no, I won't be putting a number on each of these pieces *big grin*. There just happened to be a postage stamp, the perfect color and size, in my collection that had a 2 on it. Or my subconscious is really pushy...

This one is ATC-sized (2.5" x 3.5") and the base is Strathmore paper with a canvas texture. You won't believe the HUGE mess I made making this tiny thing! My studio is such a disaster right now that I've been reduced to putting a cutting mat on the floor and slicing and dicing on my hands and knees. And my camera got lost less than five minutes after I set it down and took me fifteen to find again. Ugh. I need a couple of days to devote to sorting and cleaning and organizing. Maybe next week...

Art Every Day Kick-off

2009-11-01T21:30:00.006-05:00

I've been struggling lately trying to chisel out enough time for art. Almost everything I've made for the last yearish has been for a Purpose - for a book, magazine, class or some other obligation. I heard about the Art Every Day Month project on Twitter from Fi Bowman and immediately signed up. The "rules" are very loose and, in keeping with that, I'm not adding anything to it. As long as I've created something every day in November, I'm good. Some days it could be an interesting photograph, some days it might be a small collage, who knows? I'm open to anything and happy to be creating.

Today's entry is a 1.5" square collage on illustration board with fabric, paper, watch gears, stamping, and painting. Whee! Art for no reason at all. Fun!

PS: I used a scrap of newspaper from India in the collage. If anyone knows what it says, please let me know!

4" square challenge

2009-09-16T13:28:00.005-04:00

I showed you the beginnings of my 4" square challenge pieces here and now that the art is swapped I can reveal more of the process and the finished results.

After I had fused on the prepared-for-dyeing fabric to the 4" squares of fast2fuse interfacing, I applied a wash of acrylic paint diluted with water, mixing colors as I went.

Even after they dried they were a little too bright for me so I added another wash over all of them, this time in a diluted off-white color.

Then I added pattern with designs from stamps I made, applied with more of the off-white color, undiluted this time.

And finally, I screen-printed thermofax images of insects with black acrylic paint randomly to each of the squares. After the paint was dry, I trimmed the squares and topstitched around the edges. I added labels on the back and headed off to the meeting for the grand swap. 28 artists traded 4" squares and a good time was had by all! I found a cool box (meant to store ATCs) that I need to alter to store them all in.

At the meeting it was really interesting to hear how varied all of our approaches to this project were. Some people started out planning to make 29 similar pieces and got bored after 10 so switched to making groups of similar pieces. A few people began intentionally by making definite groups. Several people made all completely different pieces, some within themes, and some not. A couple of people made large backgrounds and cut them down into 4" squares and proceeded with more design. There were a lot of different edge-finishing techniques. Many people chose to work entirely or mostly by hand due to the project's portability. So many different ways to get to the same place!

I find that the assembly-line process works best for me, as you can see from my pictures above. As a printmaker, I'm used to work in editions and this is very much the same thing - all originals, but absolutely an edition or series.

Of course, as soon as we had swapped and discussed and admired, we jumped right into a new challenge - stay tuned!

Website Re-Design

2009-09-13T13:13:00.004-04:00

I finally have Carlos' website re-designed and updated. What's that saying about the shoemaker's children? It definitely applies here...

We spent quite a bit time with the new camera shooting and re-shooting all of his paintings and then getting the photos ready for print and web. There are still a few early prints to shoot and more older photos of sculpture to scan, but all of the current work is up and ready for viewing.

Please let me know what you think!

24 years ago today

2009-09-08T16:52:00.005-04:00

...my favorite child arrived here on earth. Happy, happy birthday, baby. Nothing will ever surpass the moment when I first saw her and held her in my arms. I can't believe it's been 24 years. I feel like I was 24 just yesterday. Or last week. It's been an amazing adventure so far.

This may be my most favorite photo of the two of us together. She was about 7 months old and I had just turned 22. Carlos and I had space in an old schoolhouse converted into artist studios. I printed my intaglios nearly everyday with her in that backpack, singing to me and peeking over my shoulder to see the colors I was rolling out on the table.

I used the paper that I block-printed yesterday to wrap her presents. The cupcakes just came out of the oven and are awaiting frosting and decorating. Tonight we celebrate!

Gettin' messy

2009-09-07T16:44:00.006-04:00

Today was a rare free day in the studio with nothing more pressing to work on than some 4" squares for a swap for my art group on Thursday evening.

First though, I played with printing on big sheets of white paper. Anyone who knows me knows how "all out" I go when wrapping presents. I love to use beautiful paper, make unique gift tags and add sumptious, funky or unusual ribbons. A special someone has a birthday coming up this week and I couldn't resist making my own wrapping paper this time. I used stamps that I had made and acrylic paint to print designs all over the paper. Delicious! Wouldn't this make a pretty fabric?

That done and drying, I started on the 4" squares. I can't show you how far I've gotten but I can say that I'm using some of the same layering techniques that I used on my bricolages, on fabric this time. Here's my assembly line all set up and ready for the first painting step.

I realized AFTER I had cut all of the fast2fuse squares and ironed on all the little pieces of fabric that I could have ironed a big piece of fabric to a big piece of fast2fuse, painted it and then cut it into 4" squares. Oy.

An intrepid group of about 35 art quilters and fiber artists meets each month and we discuss all sorts of topics of professional interest to artists, we have challenges and creativity prompts, we mount a group exhibit, and we learn from each other and laugh a lot. Over the summer 29 of us have been working on 4" squares to trade with each other. We agreed to keep our work secret until the due date and after everything's swapped on Thursday night we can all reveal the art on our blogs, Facebook and websites. I'm so looking forward to seeing what everyone else has made!

Based on a few of my fellow swappers' blogs (Melanie has help with hers, scroll down to the bottom here) and Facebook status updates (I'm looking at you, Natalya and Vivien, lol!), I'm not the only one working on these today...

As seen in...

2009-09-05T20:07:00.003-04:00

Back to blogging after a month plagued with computer problems and too-much-to-do-itis. But back, so that's what counts, right?

I have three projects in the new Cupcakes! book by Lynn Koolish for C&T Publishing. This is a fun book full of all sorts of ideas and recipes for that hottest of confectionary treats - cupcakes, so trendy and so tasty. Yum!

I also am delighted to be a contributor again this year to the Quilting Arts Gifts special issue. I made fast, easy and gorgeous "sugared" pears with fabric and glitter. This issue is jam-packed (get it?) with fantastic ideas for the holidays and more.

And hopefully you've been reading the "Minding Your Business" column I've been writing for each issue of Quilting Arts magazine. I enjoy writing those tremendously and if there's a topic you'd like to see tackled, please drop me a note.

Walking on sunshine!

2009-07-20T18:49:00.005-04:00

Today was a good day to do some sunprinting in the backyard. I set myself up on a corner of the deck and went to town with acrylic paint and pfd cotton.

The sky was clear, the sun was warm and bright, and the leaf prints were crisp.

Delicious colors and patterns. I chose to make more intense colors this go round, usually I make very washed pale backgrounds. Sun printing is fast, fun, easy and looks spectacular.

I don't like to wear gloves and for this reason especially try extremely hard to avoid any toxic or harmful chemicals - which is why I love to work with acrylics. And almost all of this washed off with a little soap when I was done.

A lovely way to spend the afternoon!

Bricolages - part deux

2009-07-11T14:30:00.008-04:00

The bricolage assemblages are done! I'm not certain what they "mean" or what they're "saying" yet. I tend to work very subconsciously and all of that needs to filter up before I can figure it out.

I made small shelves with balsa wood, painted them and then distressed them before attaching them to the illustration board. I used both glue and small screws to attach the shelves.

I auditioned a number of found objects for the shelves. In the end I used found chess pieces that I bought from Judy Gula in Houston last year.

The empty morphine vials came from a Facebook friend's etsy store.

The cardboard letters and vintage Japanese card came from another Facebook friend's etsy store. Etsy is the best. So is Facebook.

It's very tricky to photograph framed art because of the reflections on the glass and harder still to photograph shadow boxes because of the depth of the frames and the shadows they throw. These difficulties were compounded by having to use just one photoflood, since the other blew during a marathon photo shoot recently. B&H will be delivering new bulbs on Tuesday, so I'll set up and shoot again next week.

Printmaking Workshop - July

2009-07-10T20:35:00.005-04:00

Friday and Saturday, July 17 & 18, is the next session of my Printmaking for Art Quilters workshop. There are still a couple of spaces if you hurry!

collagraph with acrylic paint on pfd cotton

More details can be found on my website. We'll be working on a variety of printmaking techniques, adapted for printing on fabric with acrylic paints and mediums, with a good mix of hand and press printing processes. Come join us!

Bricolages

2009-07-10T10:09:00.008-04:00

One of the online collage groups that I belong to had been discussing the various terms that describe what we do and the word bricolage came up. I love this word!

Bricolage: [bree-kuh‑lahzh] a construction made of whatever materials are at hand; something created from a variety of available things.

I just happened to have three small IKEA shadowbox frames lying around the studio. I buy frames "on spec" when they're pretty and interesing (and inexpensive!) The frame opening is only 5 1/2" square and is about 1 1/4" deep. I've been wanting to work on three-dimensional assemblages (Joseph Cornell's work has inspired me) and layering colors and textures. So, cool new word in hand, I jumped in.

I had scraps of illustration board leftover from making collagraph plates, so I cut those down to fit the frames. I painted layers of washes of paint on the illustration board (and forgot to take a picture) and then tore and glued down pieces from an Italian newspaper.

After the glue was dry, I painted a wash of cream acrylic paint over each board and then stamped designs over everything with more of the same diluted paint.

The cream wash toned everything down and the stamps added visual texture and interest. Next I glued on a few paper mesh squares and strips, and found object papers and letters.

Right now I'm waiting for the paint to dry on the little shelf supports that I cut to fit in each frame. I'll take more pictures when the shelves are attached to the boards and I start auditioning found objects to place on them.

Oh, and a person who makes bricolages is a bricoleur - wouldn't that look great on a business card?

Quilters TV

2009-06-24T08:38:00.003-04:00

Ellen Lumpkin Brown caught up with Elin and me at the C&T Publishing booth at Spring Quilt Market in Pittsburgh in May. She taped us doing a couple of demos from our book, Art Quilts at Play and the interview is now playing on Quilters TV.

Art in the Studio

2009-06-13T12:22:00.004-04:00

I can't post anything that I've made lately (top secret and all that jazz), so I thought I'd show you some of the beautiful pieces I've been fortunate enough to acquire lately. I love how wonderful they look matted and framed, I love how well they work together, and I love how simpatico they all are with the string of birds Elin gave me years ago. A bright happy corner in my studio.

The piece on the top is an ACEO by Lisa Call - you have to see one of these in person, the detail and workmanship are astonishing. The middle piece is by the delightful and lovely Mati McDonough, I adore its positive, fresh, fun and bubbly vibe. And the bottom piece is by the incomparable Liz Berg. I've been hankering after one of hers for eons and was fortunate enough to get this during the recent Collage Mania.

Back to work, and as soon as I can, I'll show you what I've been up to!

Postcards from the edge

2009-06-09T22:28:00.005-04:00

Okay, maybe not from the edge, but some days are more interesting than others. Still transitioning into a whole new life, still trying to find structure and organization in the midst of change and still trying to get caught up, but I'm getting there.

I'm knocking things off my list and working toward some big deadlines. I have a wonderful group of people signed up for the June Printmaking for Art Quilters workshop next weekend.

And I've nearly finished the postcards that I owe to some very patient people. Postmark'd Art, the fantastic postcard group that I've belonged to for the past 4-5 years, had a theme of mixed media this spring and I used Loteria cards to create mine. Of course, I couldn't just mixed the media, I mixed the cultures too. The red stamp is one that my brother brought back for me from a trip to China. It's really beautiful, I love the scale of it with the Mexican loteria cards.

And to mix more culture in here, I finished a really good book last night, Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah, about his youth in Sierra Leone during the civil war. It was hard to read because of the subject matter but the honesty of the author made it very worthwhile. I highly recommend it.

Summer Workshops

2009-05-20T21:44:00.004-04:00

I'm excited to announce that I'll be offering workshops in our barn this summer. We're located about an hour north of NYC in Fairfield County, Connecticut. I have a list of local hotels, including a couple of charming B&Bs on or near our completely authentic New England Main Street, if you're coming from a distance and need to stay overnight (and one hotel to warn you away from, lol).

Each two-day workshop is offered on a Friday and Saturday, in June, July and August. We'll be working on a variety of printmaking techniques, both by hand and with printing equipment (hello, etching press!) You'll create a lot of fabric that you can incorporate into future art quilts and you'll have a fantastic time doing it! We'll even feed you lunch and snacks each day. I hope you can join me!

This summer's sessions are: June 19 & 20, July 17 & 18 or Aug 14 & 15. If you need more info, please email me.

PS: The June session is filling fast -- just so's ya knows.

Pittsburgh and back again

2009-05-18T10:41:00.006-04:00

Life has been a little busy lately! I've been madly dashing from one event/signing/class/show/something to the next since the store closed on March 31. Last week was International Quilt Market in Pittsburgh. I was there at the behest of C&T Publishing for the release of Art Quilts at Play. My co-author, Elin Waterston, and I signed books (at the Checker Distributors and United Notions booths), spoke to scads of people about it, taught a workshop on one of the techniques, demonstrated a few more in the C&T booth, taped a demo and an interview plus I had a booth as the Country Quilter. My mom and I had four new patterns between us and were busy connecting with old and new customers.

at the C&T booth

at the United Notions booth

Of all of the convention centers I've been to (quite a few), my favorite architecturally is the David L Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh. The food there was really awful, the hotel was terrible (Sheraton Station Square), but the convention center was gorgeous.

Country Quilter booth

I met a lot of internet friends - from different lists and from Facebook - isn't that the best? It was a wonderful week, although it's really good to be home! No more traveling or running for a while, time to catch up to myself.

Fern magic

2009-04-24T21:47:00.003-04:00

The ferns are coming up in the woods and garden, unfurling and uncurling. Can't you just imagine magical little creatures living under them?

I've done several series of quilts based on ferns and feel another one coming on. I'm waiting for some of the chaos to subside and my head to be quieter and then I'll hit the studio. The forced inaction is frustrating, but I'm looking forward to a hyper-productive period this summer. June, she chants, June.

April flowers

2009-04-15T22:11:00.005-04:00

Spring has sprung, the bulbs I planted last fall are up and most are blooming. There's a whole patch of "surprise" bulbs (I forgot what I planted, gotta write it down next time, oof).

Even in the midst of nutso packing for Quilt Festival in Chicago, I did a little decorating for Easter dinner. A couple of bouquets of flowers, a pretty floral fabric...

... and small sparkly chicks!

Upcoming...

2009-04-10T10:52:00.005-04:00

Coming up - lots of events and traveling and teaching!

Next week I'll be in Chicago for International Quilt Festival. I'll be vending in the mixed-media section as Flourish-Country Quilter. I'll be teaching a Make It University workshop on Friday afternoon (1:30 - 2:30) on collage pendant necklaces and then demonstrating in the Open Studios section both Friday and Saturday from 2:45 to 4:45. Please stop by and say hi!

Saturday, April 25th from 12 - 3 pm will find both me and Elin at Elm Street Books in New Canaan CT for a book signing and talk about art quilts. We'll be signing both Art Quilt Workbook and Art Quilts at Play. Elm Street Books is a gem of a bookstore, one of the last great independent booksellers in our area. They bring in lots of authors for signings and host lots of interesting events. I'd love to have a really big turnout for our signing - we aren't as mainstream as Calvin Trillin (a recent author there), but I like to think that our readers are just as dedicated.

Saturday and Sunday, May 2-3 is the quilt show in Somers, put on by the Northern Star Quilter's Guild. I'll be vending all weekend and demoing on Saturday afternoon. This is a fantastic show with something for everyone. It's on the train line from Manhattan and an easy drive from anywhere in the tri-state area (NY-NJ-CT).

And Saturday, May 23, I'll be at the City Quilter in NYC teaching a workshop on self-expression quilts. You'll learn a variety of direct and indirect photo-transfer techniques and lots about composition and design as you make a small art quilt that expresses you.

A busy, busy spring!

Sew Fetching

2009-04-07T21:35:00.006-04:00

So I'm going to be a proud mama for a minute and tell you about my daughter, Samantha. She just posted photos to her etsy store and has been working her tail off on adorable products for your furry friends. She makes gorgeous pet collars, toys and bedding for dogs, cats and ferrets. She's started stocking her store and has much more to come. She makes the cutest things -- fun, colorful and happy!

I love that she loves to sew and make and create. It's fun hanging out in the studio with her, each working on our own things with a convivial, creative hum and banter. Sometimes while we're making stuff we watch dvds and try to get caught up with "our" shows (Lost marathon, anyone?), other times we watch chick flicks, but mostly we tease and talk and chat and giggle and laugh. The best of times!

She's been sewing on a machine since she was five, knew how to use Wonder Under at four, and designed her own stuffed critters from age six on. She jumps in to everything with enthusiasm and verve, confident that she can realize her vision.

We applied for a really cool indie craft show in June and just found out that we didn't get in (boo), so now we'll look around for somewhere else to hawk our wares this summer. Can't pass up the idea of showing and selling together.

Simple Arts Podcast

2009-03-30T10:41:00.006-04:00

When I was teaching in Asilomar at the Empty Spools seminar a couple of weeks ago, I had the great pleasure of meeting Annie Smith, podcaster extraordinaire. She interviewed me one evening and we really hit it off. You can head to her website to listen to the podcast and hear us chatting about art and quilting and life and everything. Please leave a comment for me here - I'll be giving away a copy of my new book, Art Quilts at Play, on Wednesday, April 1st (no fooling!)

So you can follow along, in the podcast I talk about the books I've written with Elin Waterston, the shop that my mom and I opened in 1990 (that will continue as an internet store) and my husband's artwork.

UPDATE: The winner of the free book is "sewjoe"! Please contact me with your mailing address and I'll get an autographed copy of Art Quilts at Play right out to you. Thank you everyone for your very kind comments! And thank you Annie for the opportunity to talk to your listeners!

Workshop at Sew Inspired

2009-03-20T08:26:00.003-04:00

Elin Waterston and I will each be teaching a workshop at Sew Inspired Quilt Shop in Simsbury CT on Saturday April 4th. We'll also be signing copies of our new book, Art Quilts at Play from 1-2 pm.

Elin is teaching Artist Trading Cards with Angelina fibers, painted fusibles and Shiva Paintstiks from 10am - 1pm and I'll be teaching Fiber Art Postcards with Tsukineko inks, metallic foil and gel medium transfers from 2-5 pm.

Hope to see you there!

Auspicious beginnings and endings

2009-03-13T07:29:00.004-04:00

Happy Friday the 13th to me! The picture above is of me as a mere babe (of course, I'd like to think I'm still a babe, lol) and my mom outside of the house of one set of grandparents in Queens NY. Today we're both a number of years older, but no less cute than we were then. I think it's auspicious that, on the cusp of re-inventing myself for the next phase of my life, my birthday once again falls on a Friday.

Mom and I have worked together for the last 18 1/2 years at the shop we opened in 1990, The Country Quilter. What a ride it has been! We've seen trends and fads come and go, we started our own pattern design business, we've taught hundreds and hundreds of quilters and we've a blast doing it all. We've never had an argument or serious disagreement - which, if you had seen us doing my teenage years, you wouldn't believe. My mom is an inspiration and it's a joy to work with her. She and my dad are now retiring and planning to spend a lot of time at their house on the lake in the Adirondacks, traveling, and enjoying each other and the family. Richly deserved and highly anticipated!

So, this left me at a crossroads and I decided to take the path less traveled, the journey less certain. The shop closes in two weeks and I start a new chapter in my life. I will be expanding our online business of art quilting supplies, continuing our pattern business and exploring new avenues in teaching, writing and designing. Very exciting and a little bit scary all at once.

I am looking forward to being at home on Saturdays, not having had weekends off in nearly two decades. I'm also looking forward to having more time for art, family and friends, and to being open to whatever comes next. Stay tuned!

An afternoon at the aquarium

2009-03-08T11:35:00.005-04:00

As a special treat, Tracey Brookshier took me to the Monterey Bay Aquarium after we finished teaching on Friday. What a feast for the eyes! The aquarium is famous for its jellyfish exhibits and rightly so. I need to go back with my good camera, the jellies are hard to photograph with a point-and-shoot.

I found myself completely captivated with a tank of sea anemone. The colors were amazing. I feel a new series coming on...

Some of the pictures I took were disappointingly blurry - the leafy sea dragons (unbelievably cool and surreal-looking), the river and sea otters, and the sand dollars (we stared at these a long time while they moved in s l o w motion) so I'll need to try again next time. We bumped into some of my students who were practicing their observational skills at the aquarium before their flight home.

After we had our fill of the fishies, we headed to Cha-ya, a Japanese tea, art and antique store in an old part of Monterey, where I found origami paper, small dragonfly dishes, a couple of pretty chirimen bags and a tiny metal jizō statue (that caused my luggage to be searched at security the next day, I guess it looked more menacing in the x-ray machine than it does in real life!) Then on to an art supply store for a paper fix, gorgeous handmade paper with Thai writing on it, a vintage-looking map and more handmade paper with newspaper inclusions. And finally back to Tracey's house for a home-cooked meal with her family. All in all, a fantastic ending to a fantastic week.

A week in paradise

2009-03-08T11:05:00.005-04:00

Last week I taught at the Empty Spools Seminar in Asilomar, California. Despite the chilly, rainy weather, it's a magical place. The ocean is a very short walk from the conference center, is visible from many vantage points and the sound of the surf is omnipresent. It was a very inspiring setting for a very creative week.

The dining hall where everyone on campus gathered for meals. The speed with which they feed hundreds and hundreds of people is astounding.

Just beyond the dining hall is the boardwalk to the dunes and trails. Beautiful even in the grey drizzle.

There are warning signs along the trail to watch out for mountain lions and advice about what to do if confronted with one. I memorized the sign but didn't need to use the advice, phew. There were a lot of crows and racoons, and many almost tame deer wandering about.

My classroom was a cosy building standing by itself, filled with courageous, talented women. We had a wonderful week filled with art and laughter.

It didn't rain the entire week, one morning there was a gorgeous rainbow above the dunes.

The first day I was there my friend, Franki Kohler, and I went to Pacific Grove for lunch and shopping. This is the town where the monarch butterflies gathered by the tens of thousands every year during their migration. A sculpture in front of the post office:

Walking back from an exhibit at the art center I spied these gulls hanging out on top of a car and it struck me as funny.

Wednesday night a bunch of the teachers went to dinner on Cannery Row - Tracey Brookshier, Lura Schwarz Smith and Kerby Smith, Reynola Pakusich, Marcia Stein, Annie Smith and I feasted on seafood and cheesecake.

I'll be back next year during the July session and I'm really looking forward to it!

A group exhibition - in the truest sense

2009-03-01T13:32:00.004-05:00

FIBER + THREAD = ART

If you like art quilts and you find yourself in the NY metropolitan area next weekend, there's a marvelous show opening at the Mahopac Library. The group of art quilters who meet at the Country Quilter are putting on a group exhibtion that has truly been a group project. Together the group decided on a title for the show, the size range of the pieces, cohesive mounting of the art, specific pieces for the postcard and much more. We had a discussion about writing artist statements, a digital photography demonstration, and a mass attachment of art to canvas and application of screw eyes and wire for hanging. It's been a very rewarding experience and everyone has gotten to see firsthand what goes into mounting an exhibition - from contacting a gallery, to sending out press releases, to organizing the reception. We hope you can come!

Let's get this party started!

2009-02-20T06:58:00.005-05:00

Tomorrow is the big release party and book signing for Art Quilts at Play, the new book that Elin Waterston and I have written for C&T Publishing.

Please join us at the Country Quilter in Somers, NY from 1-4 pm for the celebration!

If you can't make it and you'd like to have your own party, you can order an autographed copy here.

We'll have an exhibit of a lot of the quilts from the book, great snacks, good music and as a bonus, the retirement sale is in full swing at the shop. A number of the contributing artists will be there and, of course, your favorite Most Inspirational authors - me and Elin!

Almost...

2009-02-18T19:14:00.006-05:00

The new office area in the barn studio is nearly complete. Sometimes I think I should have been an interior designer, the decorating part of any project really floats my boat (bad metaphor, I get seasick really easily, but you know what I mean). Or, putting my reno and carpentry skills together with the decorating, a contestant on one of those reality shows where you get two days, $100, half a sheet of plywood, six old planks of knotty pine, two rubber bands and one copy of the Sunday New York Times to make over a room. I would totally rock that.

This project did involve trips to Ikea, Home Depot, Lowe's and an office supply store, and didn't involve any rubber bands, but it still looks hot. The shelves on the other side of the room are getting containers and labels. I need another trip to Ikea to finish it up.

And yeah, it's snowing again. Even with the snow, the view is better with the window.

More art, another collage made in December:

pescados musicales

Ch-ch-ch-changes

2009-02-15T20:16:00.005-05:00

Lots of stuff going on, lots of changes happening and lots of time being eaten by said stuff and changes, which leaves little time for art. So, I'm going to distract you from the fact that I haven't posted a new Loteria collage in a while with some art I haven't shown yet.

las peras verdes

This is a mixed-media collage mounted on bristol board, using more of the mini-pear prints from last summer.

And this is a quick peek at one of the distractions in my life right now - another reno project, this time in Carlos' studio.

We decided that the shed attached to his studio would benefit from the addition of a window, among other things. Of course, there's always more to a project than that.

First I needed to clean everything out of the room and paint. I like to visualize things in advance (and I'm impatient), hence the blue tape to see where the window will go.

A quick trip to Ikea with a very focused list netted us some extra-tall shelves to create an impressive amount of storage along one wall of the room. I love Ikea.

Today we put in the new window and tomorrow, after the foamy, squirty insulation is dry and shaved down and the moulding is added, I'll take photos from inside. This is a picture from outside and in looking at it closely, I'd better add "paint the barn" to my To Do list for the Spring. Ignore the air conditioner lounging on the shed roof. It's a long story involving two ladders, a long rope, colorful words in several languages, rodent offspring and a slight miscommunication...

Have you noticed that when life-changing events are taking place that you have difficulty producing art? I certainly do. It isn't even a matter of having the time or desire, but rather the mental, emotional and creative energy necessary. So, a fallow and frustrating time.

El Violoncello

2009-01-29T08:11:00.002-05:00

Lotería Collage Project

18 El Violoncello (the cello)

My project got slightly derailed by a weekend away and an overload at work, but I'm getting back on track now. Next week I hope to start the matting and framing of some of the pieces, after a trip to Ikea. They have a marvelous 10" square frame that will be perfect.

News about books

2009-01-23T07:50:00.010-05:00

Art Quilts at Play, my new book written with Elin Waterston for C&T Publishing is now available. If you'd like an autographed copy you can order one from me here. The book is gorgeous, the designer and all of the folks at C&T did a knock-out job. I've been furiously packing up all of the books for people who pre-ordered a copy and should be caught up soon.

In other news, our first book, Art Quilt Workbook, was voted the Most Inspirational Book by the readers of Quilters Newsletter magazine in the latest issue. What an honor!

Sam's cool project

2009-01-19T22:43:00.004-05:00

So the big project that Sam started on Thanksgiving is finally finished. It's actually been done for a while and I didn't get around to posting the pictures. It's really remarkable!

She found a really neat pattern for a cat bed and decided to make it for her ferret, Paisley (good name, right?) It was quite an adventure, starting with an egregious error on the supply list. It called for 12 feet of 24" wide by 1" thick upholstery foam. There are places in the construction where you would be sewing five layers of this foam together. Wasn't gonna happen. Of course we didn't discover this until we had spent nearly $80 on the foam and she cut out all the pieces. Headliner fabric worked perfectly though. Anyone want a whole bunch of weird shapes cut out of 1" foam? We can hook you up...

She picked fabric from my stash and made hers a Rainbow Trout. I think it looks amazing. The mouth is the opening to the bed, the whole inside of the fish is hollow (and lined), the fins are quilted and the eyes are styrofoam balls cut in half with pupils painted on.

It's huge - nearly 30" from pouty lips to flirty tail. And Paisley loves it.

El Bandolon

2009-01-19T22:35:00.005-05:00

Lotería Collage Project

17 El Bandolon (the mandolin)

La Bandera

2009-01-18T20:28:00.003-05:00

Lotería Collage Project

16 La Bandera (the flag)

The weather is not cooperating with this project. It's too cold in my studio to work most evenings. Not fun on so many levels, at home and at the store. The pipes froze at the shop on Saturday and burst in two places (it was minus 15 without a windchill in the morning). Plumbers are in short supply because everyone's having the same problem.

I'm very wearily starting a countdown - 61 days until Spring.

La Pera

2009-01-16T08:16:00.002-05:00

Lotería Collage Project

15 La Pera (the pear)

La Muerte

2009-01-14T19:03:00.003-05:00

Lotería Collage Project

14 La Muerte (death)

El Gorrito

2009-01-13T21:39:00.003-05:00

Lotería Collage Project

13 El Gorrito (the bonnet)

El Valiente

2009-01-12T20:39:00.003-05:00

Lotería Collage Project

12 El Valiente (the hero)

Not sure what he's warding off, and look, he dropped his hat!

El Melon

2009-01-11T19:11:00.003-05:00

Lotería Collage Project

11 El Melon (like it says...)

El Arbol

2009-01-10T20:32:00.002-05:00

Lotería Collage Project

10 El Arbol (the tree)

The fact that it's been less than 50 degrees in my studio when I get home from work at night is wreaking havoc with my best-laid plans to post a new piece every day. I probably should have started this when the weather was warmer, but there's something so symmetrical about starting a new project on the first of the year. Tonight I sewed with a parka, scarf and hat on and baby, that machine was COLD to the touch. Brrrr. (Couldn't sew with my mittens on, though I tried.)

El Barril

2009-01-10T20:30:00.004-05:00

Lotería Collage Project

09 El Barril (the barrel)

Refrigerator Art Online

2009-01-09T08:14:00.005-05:00

Dorian Price at the super-cool website Refrigerator Art Online interviewed me the other day. Check it out here.

Dorian's site is a fantastic resource for artists and art lovers with reviews of galleries and shows, art news, interviews, calls for entry. Head on over for a visit, she has all sorts of goodies!

La Botella

2009-01-08T22:12:00.002-05:00

Lotería Collage Project

08 La Botella (the bottle)

La Escalera

2009-01-07T21:09:00.003-05:00

Lotería Collage Project

07 La Escalera (the ladder)

La Sirena

2009-01-07T19:33:00.003-05:00

Lotería Collage Project

06 La Sirena (the mermaid)

Oooo, I was doing so well and then last night when I got home from work it was 47 degrees in my studio. And the power's been going on and off all day today from the ice storm. Good thing I committed to Nearly Every Day.

El Paraguas

2009-01-05T22:16:00.003-05:00

Lotería Collage Project

05 El Paraguas (the umbrella)

El Catrin

2009-01-04T18:34:00.002-05:00

Lotería Collage Project

04 El Catrin (the dandy)

Illustration Friday - resolve

2009-01-03T22:42:00.004-05:00

cotton fabric, cotton batting, cotton thread, metallic foil and acrylic ink on 6" x 6" stretched canvas

This little guy is full of steely resolve. The bigger birds had better not mess with him.

It's hard to tell from the photo, but the three small dark squares on the upper left are metallic foil -- steel colored. I don't know where all of these birds are coming from. Every week when I read the IF word, a bird pops into my head.

La Dama

2009-01-03T21:29:00.001-05:00

Lotería Collage Project

03 La Dama (the lady)

El Diablito

2009-01-02T20:52:00.002-05:00

Lotería Collage Project

02 El Diablito (the little devil)

So far, so good...