RedBarn Studios

for the past few weeks i’ve been busy cutting and stitching new coptic bound journals for the shop.  these new designs, so bright and cheery, are a limited edition that i’m calling “The Lauren Collection“.

each journal is made using a section of one my favorite hand dyed fabrics, one i call the ‘melody fab’ after one of my fav quit artists Melody Johnson.  she uses the bright, pure colours that i especially love myself.

hand dyed before

and after

i know, you’re thinking how the heck can she cut that up and look at the mess she’s got left!

nah…i dyed this piece last year so i had a long time to admire it, caress it and fall in love with the gorgeous colour over and over again.  i came across it in my fabric closet recently (yes i have that much fabric…don’t hate!) as i was looking for some inspiration and, when i spied it, I immediately knew what it had to become.

if you check my etsy store with the cut out pic above you can see the exact sections each journal was cut from.  i love, love love that! (why??? i haven’t the foggiest but am going with the happy place it puts me in)  i’ve finished four of the 7 i can get from this piece of fabric (plus another {“be the light“} that pulled me into finishing it before I completed the others).

i’m also working on some vintage-like christmas journals/albums that i’ll be adding to my shop in a couple of weeks — waiting for the paper to arrive –  these will be december daily journals that i think are such a fantastic idea!

omg….the creative juices are flowing and can’t get ideas outta my head and made fast enough.

toodles all,

G

Tags: Art, artful creations, hand dyed, journals, paper art by grace
1 Comment »

In cleaning out the closet in my studio I unearthed (and I don’t use that term lightly) a large quilt I made when we first moved back to North Carolina from our short stint in New Jersey.

We were living in a temporary apartment, our “stuff” had not been delivered yet (boy did that end up being a 4 month nightmare) and I NEEDED to get my hands into something creative.

So hubby convinced me to go buy a cheapy sewing machine. It was a good decision cause I could occupy my mind while waiting for the contents of our household to arrive.

I located the closest fabric store, stocked up on some fabrics, set up my space and sat down to sew. It was a tight squeeze….five us us in a 2 bedroom apartment…(Yikes!) but everyone was good about me taking up some space to calm down and stitch to my heart’s content.

I didn’t have a plan in mind so just kept sewing. Using 3 primary colours I strip pieced, cut into triangles then pieced into squares. I added a large 9″ black border but don’t have a clue why. Looks a lot like stained glass huh?

So anyway, the other day while cleaning out, I happened upon this quilt that hadn’t seen the light of day since 2004!! In the mindset to purge as much as I can as I clear out my studio, I immediately put it in the give-away pile.

But later I had a rethink. The quilt I made for our couch in our family room, oh sooooo long ago, is falling apart as a write this, so instead I’ll have this found treasure quilted and will drape it over the back of the couch.

Hopefully the things I do give/throw away I won’t find I need at a later date but …oh well! It’s now been handed over to my favorite long armer…Judy Whitehead of Goneaway Quilter. Judy is such a prolific long armer. I don’t tell what to quilt, she just instinctly knows what my quilts need and gets on with it.

Can’t wait to see what she’s done, especially on that large border. Then it’s on to the binding (not my favorite quilting activity by far) and a new colourful quilt ready to wrap around someone, will be finished.

Nice!

Tags: artful creations, In My Studio, this 'n that by grace
2 Comments »

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For my recent zine, “The Inner Eye“ I had to include an interview. Since my zine is an inspirational art zine I, of course,\’a0 chose to interview an artist.
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The only thing with that was that after I came up with the questions I was nosy enough to want to know how other artists would answer these same questions.
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So I came up with a plan and chose to pose the questions to a few artist friends and include all their answers in the zine. Over the next few weeks I will post some of the answers from these individual artists. Since yesterday’s post was about Nancy, I’ll start there.
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I’ve known Nancy for a few years and was invited by her this year to join Fiberart Options, a fiber art group. In the last few months I have gotten a better chance to get to know her.
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She is a wonderfully warm, engaging and inspirational artist, who is always willing to answer any questions we might have about our art in order to help us succeed. And…she loves to laugh, which is always good for the soul.
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Her recent work is very much nature inspired. She paints her beautiful art pieces with Tsukineko inks on sumptuous hand dyed fabrics, then expertly enhances them with her quilting stitches.
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Inner Eye: What informs your artwork?
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Nancy Cook: My work is informed by the traditions of botanical illustrations and quilting mediums.
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IE: Why fabric/thread/paint as a means of expression?
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NC: I love the textures that result from the quilted line, it is a way that I connect with my past and women from many cultures and across time.
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IE: Who continually inspires you?
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NC: Women artists, especially fiber artists, women politicians and role models like Oprah Winfrey.
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IE: What, if anything, precedes the full blow idea for a piece of art?
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NC: Sometimes I wake up with an idea that is pretty close to full blown and that is a gift from the gods or muse.\’a0 Other times it is looking, really looking, at a tree seed specimen.\’a0 It takes time, perhaps a magnifying glass and, often, sketching the piece multiple times, before the full blown idea emerges.
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IE: What matters most to you about the work that you do?
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NC: That it satisfies me in terms of concept realized, quality of the production.
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IE: What do you ask of yourself in terms of your art in the next 5 yrs?
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NC: Have sufficient recognition that it will not be rapidly consigned to a garage sale upon my death.
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This last question I thought was the best answer an artist can give…
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IE: If you could not pursue your art, what other way would you spend your time?
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NC: I haven’t the slightest idea.
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I loved her answer especially because I believe that in in order to produce the best art we can, whatever medium we choose, our art should consume our souls. Nancy’s answer (to me) shows exactly this. You can find Nancy’s work on her website and more about her on her blog.
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Be on the lookout for upcoming inner-view posts, including nationally known quilt artist and designer Sarah Ann Smith and one of our own local artists, PJ Howard.
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NOTE: **you can purchase a copy of the first issue of my zine “The Inner Eye” in my Etsy shop.**
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See ya next time “In the Hayloft”,

Tags: artful creations, community, defining one's art, FAO, pay it forward by k grace howes
7 Comments »

This past Saturday wrapped up our guild show. What a hoot we had! We are a small group (about 55 members) and did we put on a show!\’a0 And to boot…I won a few awards.
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Here’s the wrap up….
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This was our regular group picture taken just after the show closed and before we do Take Down. Michele Sheets (reclining in front) was our Show Chair so we gave her a special space in the pic. These are some of the best bunch of ladies and am so happy to be in this guild with them. We have way too much fun together.
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My group, Pandoras, won 1st place in the Group category, and below as we accept our ribbon. From L – R: DeLane Rosenau, me and Susan Brubaker Kanpp (missing is Lushorn Millsaps).
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I won Best Innovative Quilt for Red Moon (below). What a nice surprise!
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Here I am accepting my ribbon for it. Liz always cracks me up with her hilarious stories but, for the life of me, I can’t remember what she said here that had us giggling so much. Considering that this happened only 2 days ago, one would think I was having an early senior moment.
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“At Odds” won a 3rd place award in the Art Quilt category. Yay!
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A couple of pics of the quilts hanging….
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Donna Loebs looking at the “Roots”Challenge pieces,
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DeLane and her\’a0 “Birds of a Feather” jacket that won an Honorble Mention in the Wearable category,
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Here’s our ribbon table. The smaller ribbons below the large ones are yo-yos that Jean Newman made as a new thing this year. Each winner got one that corresponded with the ribbon they won. We pinned them on our name tages so that show attendees could easily see who the ribbon winners were.
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My husband brought my youngest son to see the show. He walked around really looking at all the quilts and came back and literally pulled me from my duty at the admin table to show me his favorite quilts.
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This next quilt by Jeane Knick won Viewers Choice Award and a 2nd place prize for large bed quilt. This was one of the ones he pulled me to. He was so very animated as he told me how he loved how the colours moved in this Bargello pattern. It was really a beautiful quilt.
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Sandy Palmer’s quilt “Shake Your Tail Feathers” was picked as Judge’s Choice by judge Scott Murkin. He absolutley loved it because he thought it was “ridiculously cute”.
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“Till He’s Cute” by Joyce Mullis won a 2nd place ribbon in the Art Quilt Category. We all had a good laugh when we saw this one with the martini glass.
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Towards the end of the show I realized I hadn’t gotten many pics of our guild members working the show so at one point I turned to see Liz (on right) and Jean checking out some quilts.
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I couldn’t get a clear picture to I snuck around to the back of the quilt they were looking at and poked the camera thru. I surprised them and they both burst out laughing but, I got the perfect picture.
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One of the new things we tried this year was a thing called “Playpen Frenzy”. We loaded a playpen (quite a few times too) with lots and lots of fabric (books, magazines and ribbons too).
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Quilt show attendees got to fill a gallon size bag for $3…BUT…. it had to zip completely closed to count. This was a giant hit! Guild members got to recycle some of their stash and some lucky quilters got some “new” fabrics.
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The Flight of Fantasy Doll Club set up a table at the show. I wish I had taken more pics of them but I just had to get the Witche’s trio. Look at how innocent they look.
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…and what about this little elf popping out of the tree stump…he was way tooooo cute. (I apologize for not recording the names of the makers though).
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and because the last day of our show fell on Halloween we had people walking around in costume (check our our one Charlotte Sloop as Reggedy Ann in the group pic at the top of the post). My son decided to dress as a “cool” vampire. Here is in full make up and in character…
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Cool huh!
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See ya next time “In the Hayloft”,

Tags: artful creations, community, monday posts by k grace howes
9 Comments »

Back in May I was privileged to be asked to join a new art group, Fiber Art Options.

We are 7 fiber artists working together to promote and support each other. I had not had a chance to post and entry on our blog but now you can visit and read my first post.

I had a chance to play with soy wax again and created a few new fabrics for my stash. Like….big time!!

Remember in a previous  post about attending AQS in Knoxville a few weeks back…..well guess what….I bought not a stitch of fabric!

Yes, you heard me right. There was nothing out there I desparately needed because I am soooo much into creating my own pieces to use in my artwork. How cool is that piece above!!!!

In the post over at FAO I described the soy wax process I used to create the 3 pieces of fabric. Nice….even if I say so myself!

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See ya next time “In the Hayloft”,

Tags: artful creations, FAO, surface design by k grace howes
4 Comments »

Do you remember that I created some artwork for Fiberart for Cause….4 pieces, 8×10 for Virginia Spiegel‘s last Collage Mania back in May.

Faith

Trust

Well one of the purchasers, Sarah Ann Smith, who  snagged these 2 pieces, posted about them on her blog recently. She bought them to give as a gift for her hubby. What a nice way to say to someone “thanks and love ya”.

And thank you again Sarah for liking my work enough to buy it. How way cool!

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See ya next time “In the Hayloft”,

Tags: artful creations, fiber art, mixed media, working small by k grace howes
7 Comments »

You ever get to a point where you just have to make something yourself to get what you want?

Well that happened with my latest pattern. I was forever taking notes in meetings on little bits of notebook paper….then I started carrying around a notepad but that got messy cause the pages get ripping out or folded in all sorted of ways just hanging around in one of my gi-normous bags.

So one Sunday I took out the notepad, sat at my cutting table and didn’t get up till I designed a cover for it.

As those who design patterns know….it can take a lot of different prototypes till you get it right but it’s such satisfaction at the end. I asked a friend to test the pattern for me and can now let you guys see the finished product.

New Pattern

I introduce to you….the PadfOliO Notebook, a stylish way to carry around paper.

I knew I wanted to have a place to tuck notes so a slip pocket is available. Also, what’s the sense of taking notes if you have no pen to write with…so a pen holder was part of the design.

I also wanted a place to put business cards (to hand out as needed) but this pocket is also a convenient way to identify the owner of this stylish piece of artwork.

I will be adding this pattern to my website where you can conveniently pay for the pattern through Paypal.

I have to tell you that making this PadfOliO Notebook is very addictive. I’ve made 6 so far…2 have been commandeered by family (okay, truth be told….1 of them by me, it’s the blue one above) and the other four, ready to start taking notes, are listed for sale in my Etsy shop.

Let me know what you think. I really like ‘um.

See ya next time “In the Hayloft”,

Tags: Art, artful creations, journals, mixed media, paper art, patterns by k grace howes
3 Comments »

At my retreat this past weekend I got to completely finished a new journal that I’ve added to my Etsy shop.

It seems every time I make a painted suede journal it gets sold so quickly I can’t quite keep them in stock in the shop.

So here’s another …better act quickly!

I love the feel of the suede and but always feel I need to add some oomph to it so I painted a design this time in bold, RED splendor.

I added a large folding pocket in the back cover for all those notes and ephemera we all like to keep handy and of course, it’s filled with wonderful text weight paper wrapped in beautiful scrap papers that’s delicious to draw or write on.

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Go on………indulge in one for yourself!

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See ya next time “In the Haylfot”,

Tags: artful creations, journals, paper art by k grace howes
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Charms and Cloth, Paper, Scissors

Today was a wonderful Pandoras day. We met at Susan‘s to make charms, an idea she got from Elin Waterston’s article in the Jan/Feb issue of Cloth, Paper, Scissors (CPS) magazine.

Alison, DeLane, Susan DL, Michele

The six of us (Michele, Alison, Susan DL,  DeLane, Susan & me) played all day creating, laughing, talking and being together. First up was “shrinky dinks”.

Do any of you remember working with this when you were younger?

We each made a few and watched in fascination, with lots of hooting and hollering, when they shrank up in seconds in the toaster oven (sorry, no good pics of those).

Next we painted some wooden disks (at right) with Lumiere paints….some of us glued down small pieces of fabric but I decided to stamp an organic design.

The last type of charm Susan had us try was painting and stamping on clay. This I had a ball with!

I stamped the black clay (above)  then rubbed copper pearl ex powder on the raised surface.

Think I will set this on a square of copper metal to use as an embellishment for one of my journals.

The one that really got me going was the piece on the left. I stamped it, rubbed on the powder then scrunched the top to create a fan like effect.

Before I baked it, I inserted a toothpick to create a hanging hole for the black cording I will insert later.

The colour of the clay is actually black with a minty green Peal Ex powder rubbed on. The photo just doesn’t do it justice.

One surprise Susan had in store for us was the book “The Sneetches” by Dr. Suess.

She read from the actual book she had when she was a little girl and we were tickled to have her read it to us as we worked. Isn’t that a cool idea?

What a wonderful story it was and one that I had never even heard of before. And here it was I thought I had read all the old Dr Suess stories.

Don’t know if I’ll be participating in the CPS swap but I definitley will be using the pieces I made today.

And……another day of fun was had by all.

See ya next time “In the Hayloft”,

Tags: artful creations, monday posts, pandoras by k grace howes
5 Comments »

My “Rich Flame“ hand dye has been included in mojoindigo’s etsy treasury. What a thrill. Check it out here.

Not been selling on etsy for any long length of time and still have to find out about all the thrills, extras and things to do there. Seems like I’m missing out on stuff…sniff sniff.

Maybe I need to schedule in some me time to play .

See a next time “In the Hayloft”,

Tags: artful creations, hand dyed, pay it forward, tagged by k grace howes
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