Fibervision Art show at the Elverhoj Museum

I was juried into the current fiber art show at the Elverhoj Museum in Solvang, CA called “Redefining a Material World”.  It runs from now through January 24, 2010, and it’s gorgeous!  The Fibervision artists have really outdone themselves, and with all the beautiful and inspiring work to choose from, I am honored to have a piece in the show.

Esther Jacobson Bates, the museum’s artistic director, did a marvelous job hanging the show, and I really appreciate the fact that she went out of her way to arrange for my wearable art piece to be displayed, along with the wall art.

Here’s the invitation, along with all pertinent facts.  If you’re in the area, do stop by for some eye candy:

Food in Long Beach

The weeks before I left for the quilt show I refer to as “Houston in Long Beach” were marked by a flurry of emails between my traveling buddies and myself. For example, there were several worried posts regarding the erratic weather in Long Beach. One day, the forecast called for sunny and 81. The next, clear and 83. How is a girl supposed to pack lightly for weather that unpredictable?

Once we got the clothing issue sorted out, we turned our attention to the food dilemma, as in: what if Long Beach has no food? We handily solved this crisis in the making; each one of us shopped our way through various grocery stores and stocked up. Way up.

Please keep in mind that the following photos show provisions brought by only 2 of our 4 companions. The amount of food doubled on Friday when the rest of our troupe got to the show.

Here is our snack drawer:

Of course, an artist needs morning fuel, so we also have a coffee bar. Uh, yes, I brought an espresso machine:

And then, on an evening, we might need a glass of wine:

The fridge was stocked, too (more wine!):

Luckily, due to our supreme forethought, we survived the week without starving to death. Now, it’s back to laundry and getting the kids ready for the return of SCHOOL!! Hey! Didn’t summer vacation just start a minute ago?

Home again, home again, jiggity jig

Well, Houston in Long Beach was great fun, and now it’s time to tell you about it! Disclaimer: I have a policy of not posting other artist’s work unless I have their personal permission. There’s photos of my own stuff, but not of quilts by other artists!

The show truly was Houston in Long Beach! Most of the quilts on display were exhibits from the show in Houston (except a couple of exhibits special to California). The quilts were all of such high quality– the creativity was mind-boggling! I was a bit disappointed that there was no wearable display, although, of course, some of the wearables from the Bernina Fashion Show were on display, and there was some informal modeling… while I was in a class, darn it!

Before the show officially opened, there was a day of classes offered. Mary Norton, from Fibervisions, and I took Robin Atkins’ stupendous class called Woven Treasures. It was an all day class and it was exactly what I was hoping it would be! I love when your class expectations are met; in this case, my expectations were exceeded. Robin is a very logical, thorough teacher; I always appreciate learning how to fix mistakes, and Robin gently explained how to navigate any boo-boo’s! Beads that cause you to tear out your hair were named “character building beads”– isn’t that a nice way to put it? If you are ever offered a class with Robin, I highly recommend jumping at the chance (assuming you want to learn to bead!

I got very close to finished with the tassel in class, and after dinner and a glass of wine, Mary and I were excited to finish our various beading projects. You know the teacher is good when your class learning project is so interesting that you are compelled to push through your exhaustion to finish!

Here is the tassel I freeform beaded:

Martha is Ranell Hanson’s friend– we hear about Martha from time to time, although she doesn’t live in CA. Mary and I bumped into Martha and Ranell the morning after our bead-a-thon. They were waiting for the show to open, so we entertained them with our bead show. Martha decided that my tassel would look great with her outfit, and I agreed! I loaned it to her for the day, and she looked happy to show it off for the day.

I plan to string some beads as a “chain” for the tassel, and I’ll wear it as a necklace.

Next post: Fashion shows!

The frenzy continues

I am in a tizzy of excitement– it’s one short week until I get to go to Houston in Long Beach! I am thrilled to see this show– quilts, thread, mixed media, wearable art! It has also been pointed out to me that I might be a tad excited to have adult conversation for 5 days… yes, Lora, you’re right!! Pack your earplugs, ’cause I’m revving up to chat!

I stayed pretty focused today. Here’s the to-do list from yesterday:

1. finish Melody’s quilt
2. bind Melody’s quilt DONE!!
3. shorten blinds in DH’s room hanging up, all nice and short
4. dye some fabric– not yet– ***see below
5. check on my rusting fabric– is it ready to overdye??? This is still “cooking”. It’s really taking a long time. It may not make it to the show. Darn!
6. keep my hands off of the applique I only looked at it, promise!

In addition, I bought my seed beads. There’s a lovely shop in town with all kinds of art supplies.  They had a nice selection of seed beads– I bought 2 packs.  A burgundy-ish pack, and a green pack… because you never know which color you’ll feel like on class day!

Last night, as I was stuffing more patterns (while watching “Flipping Out”– love that one!) I  realized that I was short 100 instruction sheets for my Wild Onion Jacket pattern. I admit that I tossed and turned over this. Until I realized that I could probably get the extra sheets printed here in town. I did just that–today! They even folded them for me for an extra $3. A well spent $3, I might add! So tonight, while I watch Kathy Griffin (I think she’s the world’s funniest human being, although I realize she’s got a major potty mouth and her humor is definitely not for everyone! But– I loves her, I do!) I will finish stuffing these last 100 patterns.

And, because I seem to be bordering on manic (although if you talk to Lynn, Carla, Suzanne, or Sherry, they will tell you that I am always like this.  And they are all sworn to secrecy about what my brain does at shows… which spills over to my hotel room… which impacts my roomies….Lora? Mary? Linda? Quit reading this!) Ahem. Because I had a tad bit of free time after dinner, I also started a new purse for the show.

**** Ok, about the hand-dyed fabric. I have been doing some dyeing in 4 yard increments, for people who want to make a wholecloth Wild Onion Jacket using my hand dyed fabric. I dye fairly complex fabrics; there is a lot of texture and many colors involved. I have a warm brown, a turquoise/brown/grey (think April Cornell/Amy Butler),  a colorway I call peacock– turquoise, blue, green, purple– and a green length.  I think I’d like to do 2 more 4-yard colorways, but I thought I’d put it to you all to give me some color shout-outs.  If you were to wear hand-dyed fabric, what colorway would you wear?  Pinks?  Oranges?  Blues?

Now. These posts have been a bit dreary, so I’ll leave you with some eye candy. My friend Nancy Hepp of Sew Slip (very cool product that you put down on your sewing machine bed to assist your machine quilting!) emailed me yesterday.  She had read my to-do list, and was concerned that I had to make two jackets for my demonstration.   She actually offered to loan me HER Wild Onion Jacket so that I wouldn’t have to make two for the show–isn’t she a doll?!!  She let me know that she will be vending at the show, and her beautiful embroidered quilt will be hanging in her Sew Slip booth! I haven’t seen it since it left my studio, and I can’t wait to see what it looks like with binding on! Here it is, quilted and trapunto’ed but unbound:

This is all embroidered on silk.  Her work is very yummy, and I had a lot of fun quilting for her.  See you next week, Nancy!

And now, to bed!  Good night!!

Long Beach to-do list

I never did get in the habit of posting my to -do lists. It seemed to make me more nervous and manic to have it posted online for everyone to see (and for everyone to note my failing if I didn’t get it finished!). I am such a goal oriented person, and I sweated bullets making sure I completed each task so that you all wouldn’t think I was a loser!

However.

I have so very much to accomplish between now and the IQA Long Beach show (which I may have finally stopped calling “Houston in Long Beach”), that I think the extra angst that accompanies a very public posting of a to-do list might keep me on task!

So….

1. make 2 demo Wild Onion Jackets for Cranberry Quiltwork’s vendor booth
2. stuff patterns into bags then box them up for the show
3. buy beads and a brayer for classes(ooo, tough– go shopping!)
4. dye more fabric
5. finish rusting fabric
6. make rusted fabric Wild Onion Jacket (not necessary– might get put on the back burner)
7. load disolvable film and make trapped fiber appliques
8. create groovy sample using trapped fiber appliques– a bag? a tee shirt or sweater?
9. kit fibers and film
10. finish postcard to hand out
11. load/quilt Melody’s quilt
12. make blue bag for show
13. buy food/wine for show

Of course, this is in addition to my regular “Mommy” duties! And I have to pack.

Packing is so interesting to me; although I have plenty of clothing that I love, whenever I pack for a trip, my closet always seems so deficient! I think it may have something to do with my wanting every item of clothing to work with every other item. I don’t like to bring a lot, so each piece needs to pull its weight! Plus, as a wearable artist, I like to express myself with my clothing…. oh brother, I think I just need to admit that I hate to pack!

OK. My day is mapped out. I need to get cranking with this:

so that I can get cranking with the list! Wish me luck! I’ll check in and check off later tonight.

——————————————————————————

Well, it’s time for me to turn in, and I’m feeling pretty good about all that I accomplished tonight.

1. make 2 demo Wild Onion Jackets for Cranberry Quiltwork’s vendor booth I was able to finish both demo jackets.  They are very pretty, and I’ll show you photos tomorrow.  I didn’t complete them, as I need them somewhat un-finished in order to demonstrate my technique.  But still– TWO jackets!  woo hoo!!
2. stuff patterns into bags then box them up for the show My boys had science camp this morning.  By noon, they were back home.  I bribed promised them I’d take them to the library and let them play on the computers there if they would let me work for a few hours.  No fighting, no silly interruptions (blood or guts only, boys.)  Instead of just sitting around reading (sigh.  how heavenly THAT sounds….sigh.) I packed up a bunch of pattern parts and took over a library table.  I stuffed 135 jacket patterns, and all the while, I was practicing my demonstration patter.  Quietly, of course.  Shhhh.  We’re in the library!  This was a definite stroke of genius, and I’ll be doing this again.  It’s much easier on my back to stuff pattern envelopes on a big table than on the floor!
3. buy beads and a brayer for classes(ooo, tough– go shopping!)  Bead store in town isn’t open until Wednesday, but our art store was open, and had 4 different brayers to choose from.  Hah!  Who says Ojai is a one horse town?!
4. dye more fabric
5. finish rusting fabric I can’t really cross this off.  But I did get close to finished with this particular piece.  For some reason, the new, old rusty wheelbarrow doesn’t rust fabric as easily as the old rusty wheelbarrow I was using.  I might have to steal the old one back from DH.  What difference does it make to him?  They are both RUSTY!!
6. make rusted fabric Wild Onion Jacket (not necessary– might get put on the back burner)
7. load disolvable film and make trapped fiber appliques
8. create groovy sample using trapped fiber appliques– a bag? a tee shirt or sweater?
9. kit fibers and film
10. finish postcard to hand out Oh yeah.  Oh yeah.  I finished.  I finished.  I hope it looks as eye catching in person as it does on my computer monitor.  You never know about these things.  And I couldn’t get a color sample, which helps enormously when you are printing this type of thing.  It’ll be great!  Yup!  I got 300.  Want one?
11. load/quilt Melody’s quilt.  This will happen tomorrow.
12. make blue bag for show
13. buy food/wine for show
14. load/quilt Susan’s quilt (no, not me Susan, another Susan.  I know, you’re shocked.  There’s another Susan?!)  This is a not a new thing to do– I just forgot to mark it down this morning.  But Susan, if you’re reading this, I didn’t forget about your quilt!  I got the batting in the mail today, and the template is on its way, too.

OK.  Time for me to turn in.  I got a lot done today, but I have a lot more to do.  Shoot.  I need to find out what time my demo is!  Guess that makes #15 for tomorrow…

Night!