almost there
In process pic…new spirit girl soon to take her first breath.
spray inks : collage : stamps : acrylics : charcoal pencil
Entries Tagged as 'organization'
Today…
i am ensconced in the studio
creating :: purging
finishing :: listening
dancing :: loving
RBS Update
hello spring!
RBS update…on thursday i’ll be doing a class on my newest pattern…the ‘chelsea vintage mini‘…over at donna downey studios.
if you haven’t signed up yet….what you waiting for??? come hang out and have a night just for you, creating and having fun with some new peeps……see you then!
also, just made a new video of what i’m working on in my studio lately. it includes an update on items i’m adding to my etsy shop this week….including some new items.
embedded by Embedded Video
toodles all,
Unearthing Treasures
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!
Marching Forward and Purging
I decided, after writing yesterday’s post, that I need to get back into the swing of things so I finished building the 2nd shelf for my closet and got into the purge mood.
I used to be a wanna-be hoarder but NO MORE! Out goes these taking-up-precious-space items….to others who want to have them or straight in the garbage! So there!
painted metal shelf
Some of the things that were in that closet were so old they’d become fossilized. I mean really….paints from 1995….so 20th century don’t you think? Shook the bottles and nothing moved. Okay….so these things REALLY had to go.
Back in my other life I had clientele I sewed clothes for – no more (thank goodness) so those items needed to be banished forever! I still have decorator and upholstery fabric hanging around (from when I was a home designer) and will keep most of those for mixed media art or for the backs of some quilts.
Okay……….now I’m feeling much better, the purge is done…for now at least….and I can see the floor of my studio again. I think I need to treat myself, so some DSP and flour resist is on the schedule for this afternoon.
In the meantime…enjoy how Spring is showing itself around my house…
Toodles,
Still Kicking
I have been lax of late when it comes to my blog and my Facebook and Twitter pages. Let me give you a heads up on what’s been going on.
Last year in October I made a video of my studio for Cloth Paper Scissors Studios‘ virtual tours (check my studio tour here). I had so much fun taping it and even more laughs trying to put a cohesive video together with all the retakes I did.
Anyway, I knew I needed to clean –REALLY, REALLY, REALLY clean my studio (a 2nd floor bonus room). Of late I’ve had to search high and low for items that were always readily available and that has made working on new art pieces a hit and miss thing at best.
So I mentioned to hubby in February (okay, okay…..I whined about having to CLEAN) and he approached me a few days later about completely revamping/redoing my studio (now that’s what I’m talking bout!)
So he started redesigning use of the space and I started on my closet…figuring that in order to effectively and efficiently redesign the studio I had to tackle the closet first.
Took down the regular wired shelving, bought 2 new heavy duty shelving from local DIY and put those up. I did not, however, like the gun metal gray so I also bought a couple of cans of spray paint to change the colour to white.
Next step is to start on one corner of the studio and work our way around so that I could still work even if I had work around things for a bit. Now that I have the shelving in the closet, a lot of my “stuff” can be housed in there, freeing up some valuable space in the studio itself (are you seeing the BIG picture yet?)
As well, this will give me an opportunity to inventory ALL my supplies for business purposes of course (whooee…getting faint just thinking bout that task)…been a recent conversation on one of my art list about that. So that’s the long reason why there is no artwork to show you.
But there’s more…..
What has kept me from really pushing forward with the studio revamp is my position as Co-Chair for the 2010 NC Quilt Symposium, to be held June 3rd – 6th. This is a big event for our fair state of North Carolina AND, our guild, Charlotte Quilters Guild, is hosting it this year…..in 5 weeks! Yikes!!!!!
As well as being one of 3 co-chairs I am also the Teacher Chair so I’ve been working with a great bunch of teachers who will be teaching at Symposium this year. Look at this line-up (names are clickable):
Charlotte Angotti
Cynthia Corbin
Melody Crust
Patti Culea
Kim Diehl
Karen Eckmeier
Ellen Anne Eddy
Robbi Joy Eklow
Flavin Glover
Bonnie Hunter
Janet Lasher
Susan Purney Mark
Velda Newman
Jenny Raymond
Paula Scaffidi
Pat Sloan
Karen Stone
Carol Taylor
David Taylor
Laura Wasilowski
Elin Waterson
Terry White
We are all racing to get things finalized so that we can put on a fantastic event. We are soooo very excited to have everyone over our way. There’s still space available in some classes so be sure to check out the website.
So now you know…I am officially tired but still keep trucking on. Ideas for art pieces still flood the brain but it has been told to put them on hold…at least till I can catch my breath on June 7th. Ha!
Toodles,
StudioTours
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…to all of you who dropped by to see the video tour of my studio. I have not had as much fun online as that. We all seem to be in a fever pitch to view all the studios that were available. I got some great ideas from some of you and marveled at how darn organized everything is in our studios. I think that really blew me away cause we artist can be a messy bunch sometimes.
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Thanks also to Pokey and her staff for getting us all together. Loads of fun was had by all I’m sure. Now I will sink down in my semi-comfy chair ( according to hubby) and read the magazine issue of Studios that just happens to have my good friend, Susan Brubaker Knapp in it (check out pg 72 me amigos!). We are all so very proud of\’a0 her. Woohoo!!!!\\\\
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See ya next time “In the Hayloft”,
Cloth, Paper Scissors Studios Tour
Okay, I’m going out on a limb here. Cloth, Paper Scissors Studios magazine is doing an online virtual studio tour. I’ll be giving all and sundry a small tour of my lovely studio this weekend, October 3.
There have been a few studios (moving house to house) that have come before like the one where I felt like I was in a dungeon um…the basement. It really wasn’t as bad as that but it was sometimes so cold and damp I had to gear up to go down there.
Or there was the time before that my “stuff” kinda outgrew the small dining room in our 1st house and hubby came home one day to find I had taken over the larger living room next door!
Anyway, I love the studio I’m in now and look forward to showing you MY space. Please hop on over to QA/CPS site this weekend to see other great artist spaces. This should be so much fun!
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See ya next time “In the Hayloft”,
A Special Post for Liz
I love to collect all sorts……there really is no rhyme or reason anymore to my collecting.
I take that back……there is one exception……it was the time I went thru the black and white cow thing…..everybody and his uncle and his mama decided to get me a black and white cow, so I have some strange cow related household items that I’ve……put away……for a very long time.
Needless to say I no longer collect black and white cows (ix nay on cow teapot, sugar bowl and creamer….thank goodness). I now just pick up what catches my eye.
So the other day I was in World Market picking up hubby’s digestive biscuits; plain, milk chocolate and dark chocolate, a veddy, veddy English indulgence (and glad now that we have a local source for them) and ya know….you just can’t help whilst you’re there to look around.
I mean really! Step in and out of that store without taking a look-see? PUH LEESE!
So there I am nosing around my favorite part of the store…the KITCHEN aisles (all right already…I know I don’t like to cook but a girl can look can’t she?).
Anyway I’m a-nosing around and I happen upon these cute little spice jars and I stopped…….and stared….and my mind gets-a-going thinking….. how I can use these little gems……mmmmh?
A friend told me about how she uses her spice jars…but only after the spices are gone…and I think to myself why wait for the different spice smells to disappear besides, I would sniffle every time I opened the darned jars.
These jars come in a set of 4 so I bought 3 sets….that’s 12 spice jars for the price of $3.99 a set.
CAN YOU BEAT THAT PRICE?
And here’s the jolt of colour in my studio that I am so excited by.
My Bead Collection!
…some of you will note that I have gone back to the bead soup way of organizing them, What a colour feast for the eyes!!!
…and you want to know the best thing about them……………I can shake them out in the extra large holes at the top of the screw top lid. How darned cool is that!!!!!
Girl….is….. happy.
It’s the small things that get us to that state of mind.
See Liz….this one’s for you! Happy Reading.
See ya next time, “In the Hayloft”
