What Not To do

I came across this today on this blog, who found it on yet another blog. So many of us do so many of these things! I know I am especially guilty of #1, #3 and #5, but the others come into play on occasion as well!


How to Feel Miserable as an Artist
(Or what not to do)

1. Constantly compare yourself to other artists.
2. Talk to your family about what you do and expect them to cheer you on.
3. Base the success of your entire career on one project.
4. Stick with what you know.
5. Undervalue your expertise.
6. Let money dictate what you do.
7. Bow to social pressures.
8. Only do work that your family would like.
9. Do whatever the client/customer/gallery owner/patron/investor asks.
10. Set unachievable/overwhelming goals to be accomplished by tomorrow.

More About the Workshop Part 2

So where were we? Oh yes, the zing. Well, at this point I was not happy with any of the blocks I had made as being part of a series. So I woke up the next day with a wonderful idea! I made a larger block (15x20) based on an idea I had in my sketchbook. I used what we had learned about values, using brights in part of the block, moving into med. darks. I was so happy with this block that I ended up making more! By the end of the next day, this is what I had...



I am so happy with this piece! I can hardly wait to get it quilted and finished. I am already moving on to the next piece of this series in my mind -- choosing the colorways and the layout. I think I can explore these curves for quite a while -- they are so sensuous and dramatic...Yea!

After all of this brain work, I took some time to just fool around. I made five or six small pieces (7x9) just for fun. Of these, I am happy with three of them as they are, and there is one that may be the basis for yet another series. No pictures of these yet...but I did take one of them and make it bigger (18x24).



I don't think this is my best piece of the week, but I am not unhappy with it. There is so much to do with what I have learned about myself and my work -- what an exciting time!

More About the Workshop

This was such an awesome group to come together for a workshop. We had a great workshop leader in Melody Johnson -- so funny, so smart, and so willing to help without being critical. She truly created a safe environment for all of us to work in -- Thanks Melody!

And now, on to the art! The very first thing we did, was to create a small piece with some of Melody's Special Edition fabric. This is a half yard piece of fabric that has eight rainbow bright colors in it -- such fun to work with! We each created the same wonky block, and then we each came up with our own ways to lay them out and fill in the empty spots created by the wonkiness! Here is mine...



The next thing we did was to start working with values. We each created a set of at least five fabrics in each of five values; light, med. light, bright, med. dark, dark. These are my fabrics...



It took the rest of the day to iron and apply fusing to each piece. We each designed a simple block and made up the block in each of the five value colorways. Then we got to make a play around block in each value as well. This was much more fun!

Later, we took one of those blocks to make a larger piece which might be the start of a series. I took one of my med. dark blocks and made a few more. However I got bored very quickly with that. Then I started playing around with my scraps and putting them with the blocks I had made. That made things better, but still not very good. I decided that the whole thing was too dark, with no good focal point and really just a mishmash of crap. It needed some zing!



All of the orange and red around the center is the zing! Basically I took my main piece and made it the focal point. Then I added the color as a border, but used different values of the orange to pull your eye out. FUN!

To Be Continued...

Greenville Arms Fiber Art Workshop

Ahhh...what a wonderful workshop week! It was so hard to come back from such a great place, with great people and I can't even describe the food! We will just have to go to the pictures (insert drum roll)



This is the Greenville Arms B&B from the rear...A beautiful old house built by the Vanderbilt family way back when



And this is the building where I stayed, and where the studio is located. The studio is a quilters dream! Each "workstation" has an 8 foot table and two outlets. The outlets for each station are on a separate circuit -- no blown fuses!



This is John, Server Extrordinaire! He would serve us breakfast and dinner each day, always with a smile, and always with many compliments. It was worth going to the workshop just to meet him!



And Mark LaPolla...one of the owners of the Inn, and one of THE most wonderful chef ever! Here he is getting ready to put a kebab on the grill for our dinner. And these are some of his other creations...



This was our dessert on the first night -- yummy! I don't even like cheesecake all that much but it was soooo wonderful. This is when I knew that my diet was totally blown for the week.



And this was our dinner on the last night...stacked fish with sweet potatoe french fries, spinach, sour cream, peppers, etc. and caviar/sour cream blinis. WOW!

I should mention now that these pictures are courtesy of Melody Johnson because I could not be bothered to take my camera with me anywhere other than the studio. I did get lots of pictures of the art created over the week, so more photos are coming!

Workshop Week

I am leaving tomorrow morning for my quilting workshop in New York with Melody Johnson. We are so fortunate to have a small group for the week -- Melody will even be making quilt tops along side of us! So much fun!

Also, tonight is the Artist Reception for our AQA Women in Art exhibit at the Groveport OH Town Hall. Be sure to stop in if you are in the area!

April Horoscope

Courtesy of Crazy Aunt Purl --

LIBRA (Sept. 23 - Oct. 23)Your month is going to really suck. I mean, ya'll, seriously. Just go home right now and start eating the ice cream. Do they make wine ice cream? Oh Libra... ya'll! I'm just kidding! Truth is, this was a learning experience. See? Any old Joe can give you some wrong advice. You might want to re-consider who you're taking prophecies from these days. After all, the last psychic I visited told me I'd be doing charity work involving water... which, had I followed her advice, would put me wading upstream while begging for money for other people. Not a pretty vision, eh? This is a good time to be careful whose advice you heed. You don't want to end up the proverbial creek because of someone's off-the-cuff armchair mentoring this month, no matter how well-intentioned it may be.

Hmmm -- not sure what makes her think I listen to anyone's advice about anything on a normal month! But wine ice cream is sounding pretty good!

Grab Bag Quilts

This photo is my official registration photo for the Grab Bag Quilts Challenge. This is a challenge on the Quilt Arts list. You fill a bag with fabrics, fibers, embellishments, whatever, and it must all fit inside a Priority Mail flat cardboard envelope. In return, you receive someone else's filled bag. The challenge is to create a 20x20 quilt using at least 1/3 of the items in the bag. Then you send the quilt to the person whose materials you were given. You don't know who is making your quilt, and you don't know who you are making a quilt for!



Participants in the challenge will each get a CD with photos of all of the finished quilts. Also, 40 quilts will be chosen for exhibition. Keep in mind that some of the best art quilters around join this challenge, and there will be about 150 participants. So being chosen for the exhibition is really an honor. Regardless, it is a lot of fun, and I am looking forward to receiving a Grab Bag in about one month!

Springing Up

It's official -- Spring has arrived here at Flint Ridge and here are the pictures to prove it!



These are some of the daffodils that we have put on the hill behind our house. Daffodils are my Mom's favorite flowers, and I like them too! In a couple of weeks, the hill will be covered with these beautiful yellow blooms.



These crocus are down near the road, at the bottom of the driveway. Once they bloom, they don't last long because they are very exposed there. We have so many storms come through this time of year, they really take a beating.

Other signs of spring can be seen all over our property. Lots of birds are coming back -- the robins have been back for a couple of weeks but I just saw a male and female cardinal in the yard today. I just love this time of year, with the color coming back to the landscape; green hills and trees budding out and flowers blooming. The crabapples should be starting their show in about three weeks -- I can hardly wait!

Traveling Girl

There is not much I like better than traveling, except maybe planning my travel excursions (and of course chocolate!). And there is a lot of both going on in my life right now. In exactly one week, I will be on my way here to take a week long class with Melody Johnson. I am so excited about this trip. Not only will I be learning from someone whose quilting style I really admire but I will be in a beautiful part of the country, with no husband or children!!

And coming up in May will be a trip with the boys to Hocking Hills, and later to Chicago to visit with family. We really love to spend time in the Hocking Hills, hiking and canoeing and looking for waterfalls. Then in July, it is the girls weekend away here. Activities so far include shopping, Puffing watching, Seal watching, eating lobster and learning to talk like we are locals!

And the new trip just booked and still being planned is a Disney cruise. Activities include not only sailing with the Mouse, but snorkeling in the Bahamas and all the other stuff that goes with a cruise. I just love traveling!