the upside of just doing the work

 

earlier this year I finished this piece which is titled "Out to Pasture" 

it seemed a natural to enter in a show titled "Pieces of the Past"

 this popped up in my email yesterday --- at some point in the future a picture of this piece may show up in a quilting magazine

how cool is that!?

 

 clearly I'm on a bit of a roll here --- this piece, which is titled "Caribou Porch" had been entered in a local art association's annual show

over the weekend, it was awarded an Artistic Achievement ribbon, which also included a small check

woo hoo!

 

I am always pleased when the pieces speak well at a show or competition

 

yesterday I received the annual call for entries from the Loveland Library district (where I have had several of my smaller pieces on exhibit in the past)

my plan this year is to enter several pieces from the "Women's Work" series -- maybe these three

I do have two more pieces for this series in process, and I do have until the end of October before the entry is due, I might have a couple more to enter as well

we'll see

moving along in the studio on pieces that were already in the planning is helping me find a new sense of purpose

meantime --- more tomatoes got put up

last weekend I stripped the garden because we were going from 90 degree heat to snow within about 36 hours, and I didn't spend all summer tending those plants to loose those tomatoes!!

these 8 pints bring the count for the season to 25, and there are still 3 baskets full ripening on the counter that I will either can or turn into basic pasta sauce that I can put in the freezer 

tomorrow will be a day off --- I will have my grandson here while his mother takes care of some things in her office that can't be handled from home, so I will be "supervising" his school work in the morning then we can do a project or two in the afternoon --- should be fun

yup, I'm still here!

somehow the entire month of August slipped away without any posting here --- YIKES!

it was a busy month

we are approaching the Christmas crazy phase of the year, so some of what I'm working on can't be shown just now, but I am working on things every day

and here's what else is happening in the studio (in no particular order!)

this piece, which was the very first in the Parched Earth series, has gone to a gallery in Webster Groves, MO for a show titled "Green"

I have just finished the quilting on this piece -- and I hope to enter it in a show titled "Landscape:  Real and Imagined" -- that particular theme is a perfect fit for a lot of my Parched Earth series, so I will probably enter three pieces there

this piece was started while I was at Caribou in July, and I'm pretty pleased with how it is progressing

it was fun to pull out the InkTense pencils and do the graffiti  on the water tower!

this piece is being done specifically for a SAQA show titled "Forced to Flee"

the deadline is the end of October, but I am already working on the quilting

when finished, it will be three individual panels that will be hung together in this order (but with a little more space between them)

I made a few changes in the design of this piece -- adding a certain bridge at the top right hand corner that will add a bit of color -- time to start the fusing

I have until mid December to get my piece finished for Caribou, and I have finally decided what it will be

this is Charlie, posing behind the wild grass

my plan is to make this 16"x20" and to mount in on a canvas for hanging

time to get the pattern drawn!!

of course there have been other things happening here too

with a little bit of assistance from me, the DH has finished this end table for our daughter's house

it is made of oak and was intended to replace a small round table she was using in her living room

big success!

in the middle of the month we had a big hail storm that trashed our garden

these were the tomatoes that I picked up off the ground the next morning, and since then I've been picking tomatoes off the damaged vines as they've started to turn orange

seems like the grasshoppers moved in right after the hail stripped most of the leaves off the plants

we won't get as much production as we hoped for, but I'm not letting what we have go to waste

so far it's been either made into pasta sauce which has gone into the freezer, or tomato sauce

my sister brought me some peaches right after that hail storm, so the canning kitchen has been busy with that too --- lovely peach jam for the winter
 
over the Labor Day weekend, we had our kids, grand kids and great grand kids all together to celebrate my husband's 80th birthday

the girls

the grand kids

the great grand kids

the cousins

we did this at my daughter's house as she has more space to let this fun group romp and play together

it was warm enough for water play and the basement became the "war zone" for Nerf gun play (each kid supplied with safety glasses for that activity!!)

Mr Benson did not get to go to the birthday party, but he got lots of extra attention afterward

time to get back to work

 

May Days

and here we are, already more than half way through the "merry, merry month of May"!

a little utilitarian stitching!

this was originally a t-shirt style top, and my daughter loved the print (I can see why!), but even though it was a size that should have fit her quite well, it was just too snug to be comfortable

so she asked me if I could cut it down the front and make it into a "jacket"

yup, I still can do that!  I even had a piece of an old orange t-shirt that I could cut pieces to neatly face that opening

yeah!

work on the commission continues

after I took this photo, we decided that the bottom edge looked a little stark, so I've added some little bits of grass along there

the binding is on now, so all that is left is a sleeve, a slat and a presentation bag

this will be done well ahead of my deadline

this piece is titled "View from the Farm House Window"

it is a 12"x12" piece that is my donation to the annual SAQA fund raising auction

it will be going in the mail tomorrow morning -- the auction is in September

in among other things, I have been working on the garden

I've added the wind chimes, put some pale shadows of the arbor at the bottom and painted some lighter areas in that very dark green in the background

I think I'm ready to quilt this (I know, that's what I said before, and I may change it some more, but it is getting closer!)

sometimes when I start a piece, I decide that it is going the wrong direction

I originally started doing the barn for the next piece I'm working on in brown tones and very narrow "planks"

which did nothing but frustrate

it has been redesigned, and I'm cruising along on the new barn in weathered gray "wood"

much better!

and since I am now quilting on the last fused piece, I'm now working on the design for the next one

this is titled "Sailor Boy", and I will be doing the entire piece in blues -- like an old cyanotype

looking forward to getting started putting fabric on it

of course there is more going on than just what I'm doing in the studio

back on April 18, we had a big wind storm (70 mph gusts!) that resulted in some significant damage to our roof, so we will be having a new one put on

just waiting to be "next in line" on the roofer's schedule to have this done

 

from time to time when Mr. Cute has a day off from school, he gets to come and play at gramma's

I introduced him to the concept of weaving -- every kid need to have some experience with those plastic frames and loops of fabric!

if he wants to do more complex stuff, there is a 4 harness loom in my studio he can work on!!!

and of course there was a bit of playing around with the dog

and it's gardening season again

this year I basically have a "salsa garden" --- lots of tomatoes, peppers/chilis and red onions --- but I do have two zucchinis and two cucumbers out there too

now we just hope for no hail!!

a taste of winter

it snowed here yesterday

which means that soon this beautiful maple tree that I've been enjoying from my office window will  be dropping all it's leaves

most of the snow is gone already, even though it is cold this morning (our first real freeze followed the snow)

fortunately, we knew the cold was coming, and I went out and pulled every tomato that looked like it might possibly ripen -- a pretty good haul for the last picking

we'll be putting up some as whole tomatoes and some as sauce

I've been working in the studio on making pieces better

this piece, the second in the Parched Earth series had a narrow binding, but it wasn't quite straight, and in places the tree limbs just blended into the sky

I took the binding and the sleeve off, did some additional quilting in the sky, outlined the tree with a dark thread and put a facing on instead of the binding

much better!

some new pieces are finished too

this one is titled Parched Earth:  The Mail Boxes

it was actually the first piece that used the sunrise/sunset sky idea, and I like the way this one looks (I've already entered it in a gallery show that I hope it will get in to)

this piece is done too

part of my on going Portraits of Objects series, this one is based on a photo shared with me by a friend -- love the look of the weathered wood on the Ice Cream Maker

this piece is the next one being quilted -- a challenge to work with the machine between and around all those little openings in the wheels!

and while this doesn't look like much, it is the last big piece of the garden piece I've been working on for a while now

I'm hoping to start putting all the layers together by the end of the week

this photograph will be the basis for the next Portraits of Objects piece -- this coffee grinder was my grandmother's and I remember turning the crank when I was a little girl and the smell of freshly ground coffee

I recently decided to enter this piece in a gallery show in Portland, Oregon. 

the show is titled "Chasing Ghosts", and I though Tsalagi (Cherokee) Trail of Tears fit that category

so did they!  I'll be shipping this piece off to them the end of this week

in keeping with a long standing tradition, I'm working on my grandson's Halloween costume

over Labor Day weekend we took a trip to the fabric store and got the materials to make Mr. Cute into The Hulk

this has been a fun costume to make, and despite not having a picture showing the progress, I'm nearly done with it

Mr Benson of course has plenty to say about everything that goes on here in the studio

and he had a grand time playing in the snow yesterday -- the deck looked like I had a whole pack of dogs that had been out there tromping around making footprints

thinking about turning points

I've had a lot of time this summer to sit still and think about things

and now that one of the on line artist groups that I have been a member of for a long time is "reinventing" itself and changing a lot of their "rules" to belong to the group -- including asking all of us to "reapply for membership"

this was not necessarily a decision I wanted to make right now, but I have been thinking that it may be time soon to make this choice anyway

and here's why --- this is the last piece of beaded jewelry I finished -- last October -- almost a year ago --

and even though I've been keeping up with reading the challenges, etc., from the bead group since then, I have simply not felt inspired to create anything for them

to a large extent, my tastes and style in this art medium seem to no longer be valid -- certainly the total lack of sales and very low number of views on my Etsy page for this medium indicate that --

part of that may also be that I have not been willing to make a piece like this one and practically give it away in terms of the price I charge for it -- my time is worth something, and I'd rather spend it in working on something that at least makes my soul happy!

like this piece, for example

I made it for my daughter in 2013, and I recently "recalled" it to do some updating

so now it has a lot clearer definition of the individual pumpkins and a lot better shadow

and I enjoyed doing that

there is the fact that all seven of these pieces are currently on display in shows or galleries right now which feels a lot more rewarding!

and there is the human factor

the community of fiber artists that I can actually be an active part of in this area is large and very rewarding

it may well be time to hold a giant sale in my Etsy store to clear things out (and maybe actually make a little money) and then to seriously consider revamping and re branding it --- or creating a freestanding website again --- or both

in the meantime, while I'm thinking about that, I'm still working on the big garden piece

the deck and the planter boxes are done, and I've started on the gate that goes at the far right edge of the decking

and I've started on the fusing of the ice cream freezer -- working on a piece of parchment paper over the line drawing lets me see what the pieces look like, and to move them around or change the colors until I'm happy with how it looks

meantime, I finished this reflection study, and I'm really happy with how it looks

this piece is about 13" x 13", and originally I was going to cut it down to 12"x12" and donate it for next year's SAQA auction

but I don't want to cut it

and I want it to have enough "presence" when hung that it looks like a piece of art, not just a big potholder

my solution to that is that I'm going to mount it on a canvas -- of course you can't get a 13"x13" canvas -- but I was able to get a 14"x14" one, so now I need to think about what color that 1" border all around it will be

my garden is starting to be more productive

I'm picking tomatoes and cucumbers and zucchinis about every other day now, and I should have green beans soon

YEAH!

the big deal here this week was the eclipse

we had heard that animals are impacted by this kind of solar phenomena

apparently Mr Benson didn't hear that

this was his "I'm watching the eclipse" pose --- sound asleep on the couch!

onward!