This Morning

!!!Congratulations!!! must go first to Kay who gave birth to lovely little "?" last night. Can't wait till I hear what name they choose. Cousin number 9 for my little ones who insisted on painting this morning. I've been determined to keep the TV off, which means I'm not getting things done because I have to pay attention to my real job. That's a good thing.

While they did this...

I did this.


not for sale - a gift for a friend

I have really appreciated the kind comments from several international posters. I would love to know how you found my blog. The broad scope of the internet never ceases to amaze me.

What Is It?

4" x 6" matted at 5" x 7"

$25.00 each

I have no idea.

Two More Before Dinner

I wanted to get these scanned before I sent one off to my wonderful sister who rose to the challenge we set each other last week. I think I might be seeing some fun and funky quilts come out of these doodles. Eventually.

4" x 6" matted at 5" x 7"

$25.00 each

Now time to make some rice, salad, and grill some yummy teriyaki chicken. Super easy with Soy Vay's yummy sauce.

Time To Stop Procrastinating

I'm actually quite productive when I'm procrastinating. I get everything done except the thing I really should be working on. This week I need to work really hard on my second offering for Quilt University. This one, Screen Printing, isn't quite as easy to translate into an on-line class.

So instead of working on that necessary thing last week I doodled some more.

4" x 6" matted at 5" x 7"

$25.00 each

And read some blogs. And made my way through another couple anatomy lessons from "The Structure of Man."

Doodles Again

I think I'll keep doing these every time the TV is on.


Or while talking on the phone.

4" x 6" matted at 5" x 7"

$25.00 each

A few of my favorite things

A little collection of things I love... frogs and toads. There are a number of them out in the gardens too but these little guys are right where I can see them as I sew. Each one has a wonderful memory. The glass green guy in the front from an open market in Florence. The Netsuke I picked up in Houston at the International Quilt Festival. He's a sumo toad... I think sometimes he talks to me while I'm sewing. He needs a name. Any ideas? A few glass frogs from local artists. The chirping frog was a gift from our Korean exchange student. Every frog has a story. Do you have a collection with a story?

Procrastinating

What do you do when you are procrastinating a deadline? When you don't want to do what you know you really need to get on with doing!?

My website links to my blog by saying something about only posting "when I have time... which is only when I'm avoiding a deadline." Like today. I need to make a couple of quilts for a show and I just want to do something else.

So I made another sketchbook cover.


And here is another doodle. From a few weeks ago. All the doodles I've made recently turned out ugly. That's fine. Doodles aren't meant to be your masterpiece... they're just doodles.

4" x 6" matted at 5" x 7"

$25.00 each

Now I really need to get into the studio and force myself to work. I'm having discipline problems.

Really, I'd love to hear what your favorite thing to do is when you are "procrastinating."

More Doodles

It's so much fun to make a few marks then see where my imagination takes me. I've never doodled with ink before and find the medium very pleasurable with it's dark, permanent line. Something about not having an eraser frees me from worry. No hope of changing it so I go with whatever happens.

4" x 6" matted at 5" x 7"

$25.00 each

Play With Your Food

What happens when you play with your food? This!

A printed and painted sketchbook cover. 4" x 6"

I've just completed and sent off a new course for Quilt University titled "Play With Paint." Of course I looked at my course samples from the live class I've been teaching for several years and didn't think any of them were punchy enough for the web so I had to spend several days making and photographing new samples.

Can you guess what food I used to print these roses?

In the process I did what I always seem to do and got a bit carried away with food prints. Yes... actual food. It's amazing what you can print with if you slice it and let it sit face down on a paper towel long enough to absorb excess moisture. Food printing also gets in the way of feeding the family. I'll be in the middle of slicing up a salad and take a look at the mushroom in my hand and suddenly dinner is half an hour later than expected. Just gotta go make some prints!

It's been a long time

It's been a long time since I've entered a quilt show. I took a couple of years off to have my last kidlet and get him up on his feet. I've recently pulled out my show entry book and gotten it up do date. It's amazing what you can do sitting at a child's practice/lesson/concert.

I do have to figure out what I want to do now. It's so tempting when you've been rewarded in the past to go the quilt show route again. The accolades are wonderful. You don't get a "good job" ribbon very often in the world of motherhood.

Before my "sabbatical" I was spending a lot of time filling out entry forms and shipping quilts around the country. It was fun and my goal was to break even which I did. It costs on average $60.00 per show to enter when you include a jury fee and shipping too and from the venue. I won just enough awards and made just enough sales to keep my work in circulation. I'm not sure that's enough for me any more. It would be nice to make a profit.

I think that is why I'm going to back off from entering quilt shows for the time being. I'll concentrate on getting more local showings where I can hang more of my work in one place and not have to ship it. Hopefully sales will happen. One of my small pieces, my favorite Daisy sold last week from Cindy's House Cafe. Didn't cost a thing to hang that show.



All the same, it was nice when I was getting ribbons. They look so pretty lining the walls. I'd love to hear any experiences you all have had with local art venues. What price point sells the most? What have been your best experiences? What have been your most successful venues?

And The Winners Are....

The gold circle which will now be named "Sickle Moon" thanks to Allison Brown-Cestero who said she couldn't think of a name but did. (45 votes)
and
the red circle which will be called "Red Sun Rising" thanks to Betsy True. (31 votes)

Tomorrow morning I'll send in the application as well as FOUR sets of note cards to my name givers and the two winning voters chosen randomly by my daughter:


Carol McFee from North Wales over the pond in the UK (her foil techniques have me salivating!) and Sylvia Wier. You must check out Sylvia's figurative work, especially "Sweet Land Of liberty." I've popped over to many of your blogs and websites and must say I am inspired by your work. What lovely company to be in!


I added up the e-mails and comments I received (58 in all). Wow. Thanks!

Now to see if the entries are juried in. I've been involved in enough juries that I know it's entirely up in the air. I'm closely examining my high res. pics to see if I think I can take better ones. I do know poor images knock you out of the running instantly and I'm thinking that not every speck is as sharp as I'd like it to be.

The Learning Curve

Just a quick thanks to those of you who give me gentle hints about how this blog "thang" works. I've changed the settings so you don't have to have a google account to comment as well as moved the comments to a pop-up window so that you can see what you are commentatering on.

Decision Time

New Year... new goals, new projects. What do I want to be and do this year. Aside from the first priority which is of course wife and mother. So long as those relationships are running well what do I do as Lyric the "Artist?" I'd like to concentrate more on entering my work into the local fine arts market rather than nationally juried art/quilt shows. I'll still do a few of those if I have work that suits but the shipping is a killer.

So... by Friday I need to decide which pieces to enter into the Raleigh Fine Arts Society show. A very nice juried show at a very high end venue... Meymandi Hall at the Progress Energy Center for the Performing Arts. And good grief I just don't know what to enter. It's always tough when they don't have an "other" or "mixed media" category. Just painting/sculpture/graphic arts.
Want to help? Here are your choices... vote for your top two and the winners will each get a set of three note cards featuring the An Apple A Day. I'll tally the votes Tomorrow around 5pm.

I also don't have titles for the last four. So name suggestions for the circle pieces would be great.
1-An Apple A Day (triptych)
2-Fundasies (triptych)
3-Circle (pink background)
4-Circle (brown and gold)

Doodles

Spending too much time on the computer of course but I've enjoyed finding and being inspired by other bloggers who post their artwork. I was inspired to spend a little time doodling in my sketchbook by Kathleen Marie's artwork. Especially her doodle, "Birds In The Air." She just let the pen go where it wanted to. Thought I'd try it and enjoyed the process immensely. It was interesting to try the mindless wandering and then watch the brain kick in and control where every texture and line wanted to be.