Open Studios, Day 2

As promised, here are some shots of Cinde's beaded jewelry, and one of some projects she is currently working on:

The project on the left above is a bracelet Cinde is creating on a loom; on the right is a petrified sand dollar she is beading to create a cabachon. She is very talented, and her work was very popular this weekend! All in all, I think this year's Open Studios tour was a great success! I haven't spoken to a lot of the artists yet, but our Coalition president called this morning to say he has heard from several, and the attendance this year was phenomenal! Thanks to all who attended and supported our efforts!

Open Studios, Day 1

Yesterday was the first day of this year's Open Studios tour, and considering that we were at my friend Cinde's house about 5 1/2 miles east of town, we got a pretty good turnout, and some good sales as well! Cinde has a lovely home, and it made a perfect setting to display our work. Here are some shots:

Cinde has a loft above the living room with wonderful railing, just right for displaying my art quilts!

Her spacious living room gave me plenty of room to set up my clothing racks...

She has a great little nook with french doors and a window that let in just the right amount of light for my wall art collection.

I didn't get any shots of Cinde's wonderful beaded jewelry yesterday, so I'll be sure to get some today. She was working on a loom-beaded bracelet yesterday, and a beaded cabachon for a friend... can't wait to see how they turn out!

Sold!

Last night was the opening reception for Prelude Exhibit, the preview of our annual Open Studios tour. As usual, we had a great turnout, in spite of our rainy weather. My friend Cinde, who is a new member of the Artists' Coalition, and I had a nice dinner then attended the reception. We strolled around the exhibit, marvelling at all the beautiful work on display. After completing the circuit, we began to go around again... you can never really take it all in with just one look, right? Well, by the time we started around the second time, I discovered that someone was purchasing my entry, 'Autumn Leaves at Sunset', which I finished last fall just in time for an exhibit I had at a local restaurant. I was thrilled! This is the first Art/Landscape quilt I have sold that wasn't a comission piece! Here I am with the piece before it was purchased:

And below is Cinde, with her lovely beaded necklace, which also sold:

Here is a closeup of the necklace, which is truly beautiful:

Needless to say, we were both very happy campers when we discovered our entries had been purchased, and we are really looking forward to Open Studios, which is August 28-29.

Here are a few more shots of some of the beautiful work on display at Prelude:

Chris Norlin's Stained Glass


Photography, Pottery and Painting

Joan Scott's Quilt

Keith Huling's amazing oil painting

If you happen to be in the Flagstaff area between now and September 11th, do try to stop by and view the exhibit. It is at the Coconino Center for the Arts, 2300 Fort Valley Road. It is well worth the trip!

Pinewood Farmers' Market

I was at Pinewood Farmers' Market in Munds Park yesterday, along with about 19 other vendors... some selling produce, others selling crafts. We had wonderful, sunny weather with just an occasional breeze! Here are a couple of pix of my booth:

I was limited to one rack, so only brought part of my collection. My hats and shirts sold well, and I got a couple of orders for custom dyes as well! All in all, a very good day, and I will be going back on July 3rd as well.

Other news of note: June is looking like a good month to catch up around the house! I have my gradation dyeing class scheduled for June 26, and will have anywhere from 6-20 attending... good thing we will be dyeing in the yard under canopies! My husband will be hiding out in the house for the day, I'm sure!

Flagstaff Open Studios is fast approaching... I need to get cracking! I haven't made one Art Quilt since last fall, and I want to have a new one for the Art Center Exhibit which opens August 7th!

I still want to make some more dyeing videos... I made one and posted it on my other blog hippiewear.blogspot.com for those who want to try their hand at dyeing patterns... I have several other patterns in mind I would like to demonstrate, so that's still on my 'to do' board.

Meanwhile, the other night at Quilters' Guild, we had a supply sale and live auction to raise funds for the guild... I came home with a bag full of goodies and... AND a loom for making rag rugs and placemats! Just what I need... another fiber addiction! But I can use up some of my stash, so that makes it all worthwhile, right? Just as soon as I can find the time... sigh!

So what have I been doing?

Gosh! The time just whizzes by, and my head is spinning with all that has been going on lately! I haven't even posted pictures of my booth at Open Studios, which was the 19th-20th of this month! Here's how it looked:

I had great sales both days, even sold several of my framed pieces! And I've been filling special orders ever since... just about finished with them now, although I need to do another one to replace one that came out different than I was aiming for. I hate when I can't replicate something! A gal saw this shirt and wanted one like it:

I used the same technique, and I thought, the same colors, but I think I added a color that wasn't on the original, and the thickness of the new shirt caused the pattern to come out differently:

So now I have to try again to get one to come out like the first one above.

Meanwhile, I posted awhile back that I am working with a friend to create some caps for my line: Doo-rags, surgical caps and chemo caps. I dyed the fabric and shipped to her, and she will do the sewing. Well, yesterday I bit the bullet and ordered a bolt of muslin that I plan to sew into scrub tops, and dye! Always something, but this has been on my mental list for awhile now. We have a medical center in town, and a lot of doctors' offices, a walk-in clinic, etc. And the place that used to sell medical clothing closed down awhile back. This town loves tie-dye, so I'm thinking I might be able to get a niche market going... why not? The question will be, do I want to do all that sewing myself, or try and find someone local to contract it out to? I would really love to just dye the fabric and hand off to a professional seamstress, but I need to keep the cost down, too! We'll see... I'm going to try a few myself, then see what I think. I'll post pix when I get a few done.

Life in the fast lane...

Whew! Where has the time gone? I have been busy getting ready for this weekend's Open Studios Tour, that's where! And one of the nice things is, I was the subject of an article in our local paper on Wednesday! You can check it out here. And if you're in the Flagstaff area, I hope you stop by and see me!

On another note, I am collaborating on a project with a friend of mine to create some new items for my shop, and dyed 15 yards of fabric for her to sew. I am thinking of adding dyed fabrics to my inventory next year, and this was a great opportunity for me to test dyeing lengths of fabric. Here are pix of 2 of the pieces:

I broke the fabric down to 2 1/2 yard pieces for this project, but I'm thinking I could dye as much as 5 yards at a time with larger bins. This is sooooo easy, and I'm really delighted with my results! I used low water immersion... and I mean very low water. The piece on the left too 4 cups of liquid... 3 of dye and one of plain water, plus 2 cups of soda ash solution. The others only needed 2 cups of dye and one of plain water plus the soda ash. I'm used to dyeing t-shirts, which are very thirsty and require more dye. This was awesome! Can't wait to do more.

Stay tuned, I will post pix next week of my Open Studios setup. I'm sharing space with another artist at her home, and get the garage all to myself!

Prelude Reception

Saturday evening was the Opening reception of the Prelude show at Coconino Center for the Arts. This is a 'sampler' of artwork submitted by artists who are participating in this year's Open Studios, a two day show September 19-20. I am participating for the first time this year. I got there early so I could take some pictures, and I'm including a few here:

This is a beautiful jacket made with hand-dyed and embellished fabric by Sharon Richards.

Tammy Kelly is a local fiber artist who makes beautiful art quilts.

Marrianna Dougherty makes really beautiful one-of-a-kind purses and decorative boxes.

I'm sorry to say I did not make note of the artist who created this beautiful piece, but it is truly a work of art.

I decided to submit my 'Freeform' and I can honestly say that nothing else looked even remotely like it!

There were a great many more beautiful items on display, and if you are in the area between now and September 20, be sure to make time to visit the Coconino Center for the Arts, 2300 N Fort Valley Road in Flagstaff. I will be showing my art quilts and tie-dye at 2127 S Tombaugh Way Sept. 19-20, and would love to have you stop by!