FYI, the whole story

I just thought I would let you know, I created one long blog post about making my last quilt, Oh Deer, Look What's Become of Me! over on the Painted Threads Project blog so you can read about the making of it in chronological order.

My sons a cover boy!

My son Ty has just made his first cover by designing an origami cocktail ring for TimeOut Chicago magazine. They even did a little feature of him on their blog.

Apostles of Beauty

Even though I think the group in the photo technically are apostles of beauty, that title actually refers to an exhibit at the Art Institute called “Apostles of Beauty” Arts and Crafts from Britain to Chicago. Its a wonderful exhibit, the arts and crafts period has to be one of my favorites.

A group of us from PAQA/SAQAILWI met this week for a field trip to see the exhibit and lunch. Trish Williams was with us as well but she had to head out before we took a group shot and Frieda Anderson was behind the camera.

A deer in the road

My friend Jamie Fingal, sent me these photos form Road to California this weekend showing my Deer quilt hanging in the Solid Expressions exhibit.

I think it coordinates very nicely with the lovely traditional patchwork next to it.

Thanks Jamie!

Fantastic Art Marketing Retreat with Alyson Stanfield!

Artists: How would you like to sell more art?

If you could use some fresh and practical ideas for marketing your art,
check this out.

Alyson B. Stanfield, author of “I’d Rather Be in the Studio! The
Artist’s No-Excuse Guide to Self-Promotion,” is coming to Wisconsin in
early March to help us get a groove on our marketing.

I’D RATHER BE IN THE STUDIO

A NO-EXCUSES ART MARKETING WORKSHOP

March 9-10, 2010

Siena Center, Racine, WI

**Sign up by February 12 and get a bonus gift from Alyson!

During these two days, you’ll learn

• How to write a better artist statement that connects with your audience

• How to organize and expand your mailing list

• The tragic mistakes artists make on websites and blogs (and how to
fix them)

• Email secrets that produce results

• How to increase traffic to your website and blog

• How to build your online presence with Facebook and Twitter without
becoming a slave to your computer

And it’s only $100! Alyson says this is a crazy low price, so you should
probably grab it while you can.

Two full days of ideas, examples, and motivation to help you get your
art out of the studio and in front of people who can see it and buy it.
AND, you’re going to leave with an action plan.

Get the details and register (by February 12 to get the bonus!)

And help us fill the room by sharing this information with other
artists. We’re already at 2/3 capacity!

The accommodations at the Siena Center are a down right bargain too, so this is an amazing opportunity to fit our tight recession budgets, too.

Pre-order your copy now and have it by the end of the month!

This is so exciting the new Lark book 500 Art Quilts is going to be released sooner than scheduled! It should be hitting store shelves by the end of January.

I am so happy to say that my quilt Moon Garden was juried into this book. This is what the Lark website says about the book:

A beautiful new addition to the successful series 
A vibrant and growing community of crafters has embraced quilting, and this outstanding international collection will inspire and captivate them. Juried by Karey Bresenhan, one of the most prominent figures in quilting, it presents 500 magnificent contemporary art quilts, made in fabric and other media, and showcasing diverse designs, materials, and techniques. From their very inception, these quilts were destined for display rather than practical use, with an extraordinary quality of image, form, line, and composition.   Artists include:Pamela Allen  -  Alice Beasley  -  Eszter Bornemisza  -  Jane Burch Cochran  -  Judith Content  -  Chiaki Dosho  -  Noriko Endo  -  Caryl Bryer Fallert  -  Jamie Fingal  -  Linda Gass  -  Jenny Hearn  -  Judy Coates Perez  -  Yvonne Porcella  -  Susan Shie  -  Jen Swearington  -  and many more!

Oh Deer, Look What's Become of Me! makes it's debut this week

at Road to California in the Robert Kaufman Fabric exhibit "Solid Expressions", these are all quilts using Kona Solid fabrics. This quilt is whole cloth painted on Kona "Ivory". I wish I could be there to see the other quilts in the exhibit too. Anyone who's going please leave me a note about the show I would love to hear all about it.

5 minutes of your time to have a chance to win some great stash!

Visit Lesley Rileys blog for the details and link to her short survey.

Lark Quilt It Contest

So you remember a couple weeks ago I mentioned the  Lark Books Quilt it contest?

Entrants will create an original Quilt of any size that incorporates at least three of the following five required elements

Bird/s
Mountains
Silver fabric, thread, item
Recycled/repurposed material
Beads

I sent in my entry in and got the ok to post it, so here it is

Take These Broken Wings 12" x 12"


It has a background of used tea bags gel mediumed to fabric.

I drew my design on the teabag fabric and painted in highlights with white and the branches with brown before moving on to color.

 I painted the color with transparent washes of textile paint.

After quilting it with wool felt I sewed an embossed metal wing made from a sheet of aluminum layered over a piece of copper and a wing shaped piece of wool felt to give it more stability. A silver brad  pierced through copper creates his shoulder joint.