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When one door closes, another opens….

Tuesday, January 24th, 2006

Wooohooo! Just a bit of gloating here….. I was totally bummed when, just before Christmas, I learned that virtually overnight the store where I had been teaching was closing / relocating, and the schedule of ten classes we had set up for January to April was out the window. So much for income. Then…drum roll and the sound of a door opening, please,…..I got a small check from the Ducktrap Bay Trading Company, a gallery here in Camden for the sale of a fabric postcard. Last summer, I approached the gallery and the owner, who has in the past been an embroiderer and likes cool stuff like scrimshaw and carved duck decoys (that cost $2000!) as well as traditional media, took a chance and agreed to hang some of my works. The little check had a note…another check would be coming. I was flabbergasted today to receive a check for my cut of these three pieces, all of which sold just before Christmas:

Lone Bitterroot (roughly journal / paper sized):

May 2004 Journal (8.5 x 11 inches):

And best of all, Brooks and Branches, 10″ wide by 56″ long, with detail photo:

May I invite you all to join me in the happy dance?!!!!!

Decorative Stitch Sampler

Tuesday, January 24th, 2006

And now (drum roll) for some quilt related content! I’m going to be teaching a class on decorative stitch applique because, gee whiz and guess what, we have these expensive machines with fancy stitches, and usually use only straight or maybe zig-zag. Guess what…you can use the other ones too!

Studio in the Woods

Monday, January 23rd, 2006

Just wanted to let you know that my friend and fellow Frayed Edge, Kathy Daniels, has started a blog! Every time I see her work I think, gee…why didn’t I think of that? And how does *she* think of that? Her style is SO different from mine, and I totally love everything she makes…it is Kathy, and so wonderful. Visit her at Studio in the Woods. And yes, she always smiles like that!

More about this later!

About that vest….

Monday, January 23rd, 2006

Deb R aka Red Shoe Ramblings wrote to compliment me on the vest I’m wearing in the picture in the last entry. Thank you! I thought others might like to know that the vest is my “Frayed Edges” vest. The Frayed Edges began last January as a mini-group with Deborah Boshert, Kathy Daniels, Kate Cutko and me; recently Deborah met Hannah Beattie, another kindred spirit, and it looks like (yeah!) we’ll be growing by one, even as Deborah becomes a long-distance FE off in Dallas.

About the vest….. The first time we got together, Deborah gave us some cloth “beads” she had made. Then Kate went to the southwest, and brought home a fat quarter of the green gingko fabric for each of us. Then Kathy took an on-line QU dyeing class, and shared bits of her fabric with us…the entire color run. So I made the vest! I adapted a pattern from Making Your Own Japanese Clothing…measured out size, drew some lines on it, and used just about every square centimeter of the green and 90-95 percent of the hand-dyeds! And I totally love my vest, and especially that I am literally wrapped in my friends handiwork .

AQM (Art Quilts Maine) and b-day with Deborah B.

Sunday, January 22nd, 2006

Well…it seems my computer snarking of the morning is to continue into the *next* part of the day…sigh! I spent THREE hours just trying to crop 10 photos and burn them to a CD. Snarl. I hate leaving for the day and coming home to find out the kids have managed to re-name the CD burner / drive and delete 80 percent of my bookmarks in Firefox –BIG snarl! On to happier things:

Had a fun day yesterday with Kate, Deborah, Hannah and others from Art Quilts Maine. Alas, Kathy was having a bout with the tummy flu. I’m sure we all would have preferred her well and with us! After the AQM sit and sew day (in which Kate rode to the rescue after our first venue went kablooey and got us space at the Bowdoinham library!), Kate, Deborah, Hannah and I went to celebrate Deborah’s birthday at…where else….Starbucks!

Kate, at our last Frayed Edges get together, had told us about scoring a rusted-shut-tin at the recycling center, with an intriguing rattle. Inside she had found keys! OLD keys. Well….some of them turned into her gift for Deborah, which reads You hold the KEY:

I ran out of time (as usual), was feeling very un-imaginative, and decided to splurge and buy a gift instead of making one. Since this is likely Deborah’s last b-day in Maine for a loooonnngggg time, since she’s moving to Dallas (booo hooooo again!) in a month (less actually), I got her my favorite “Maine” gift, a loon chowdah (please note Maine spelling…pronounced as written) mug. Which is also good for posies from the garden, since I suspect there will not be so many days conducive to soup and chowder and stew in Dallas as here in Maine! My conclusion for the day: I don’t look as heavy as I did six months ago, but I gotta do something about my hair!