My, my how time does fly.

I was reminded of this when my friend Kathy A called inquiring if all was well with me.  And it is.  Just a little busy working on quilts, doing the seemingly never ending paperwork that comes along with teaching and curating and holding a office in a guild, answering the phone, going to lunch with a friend, you know, just generally living. 

It was really great hearing her voice.  Sadly we don't talk as much as I'd like.  But I bent her ear with some tales that I won't report here.  The big part of me doing that and what I still miss is making myself at home in her condo, sloughed in a chair I consider mine, having a cup of coffee as I run my mouth.  sigh....

For the others among you who have checked in to see what I'm up to, I have been working, making class samples for the most part.  As a rule I send class samples ahead to garnish interest in my classes, but that has created a   problem of late.  I've have several teaching engagements  scheduled too  close together to share projects.  Which meant I needed to create a second set of the projects I use to teach the techniques I use. 

I showed you the updated Round Flower project a couple of blog entries ago.  Here is the updated version of my flower on a grand scale.  A class I will be teaching for a group North of Cincinnati in June.

The original one in reds and blues I must admit I was never quite fond of.  This one in yellow I like a lot. It is a little more rectangular whereas the original one was almost a perfect square.  Not the best design/composition. 

Other good news.  I submitted two quilts for consideration for the "Ah Spring" exhibit in Cincinnati AIQA-Quilts Inc. show and "Kissimmee Garden" was selected.  So if you are at the Cincinnati show look for my piece.   I have decided to let it travel.  Maybe you will see it in another venues as well.

So for now I am back to the sewing machine.

A weekend filled with art related activites of every kind

beginning on Friday when Bonnie McCaffery came to shot a vidcast featuring me and my quilts.  What an eye opening experience.  First off let me say that Bonnie is a wonderful interviewer.  She puts you at ease from the first hello.  If you have an opportunity to be part of her video series , JUMP at the chance.  I was a little hesitant at first.  But now that it is all done I am so glad I decided to do it.  I'm not sure when the vidcast will appear on her site, (there's editing to be done) but I will let you know when Bonnie lets me know.
Working with Bonnie has also made me think seriously about producing a CD. 
Saturday morning I worked a few hours on updating the class sample I use to teach my 2 day Flowers on a Grand Scale workshop.  I looked at one she created for Mary Sorensen and I am sold.
  I will be teaching this my Flowers on a Grand Scale class to a group in Ohio in June. As I was quilting the updated version of the project pattern the thought that I should go to the movies popped in my head,  so off I went to see "Safe House" with Denzel Washington.  Not bad, but nothing you have to rush out to see. 
As I was leaving the theater with thoughts of treating myself to lunch at the restaurant on the lake, I saw lots of people walking toward the lake along with me.
There is always something going on at the lake.  Just one of the many reason I like living where I do.  This time what was going on was an art festival.   One that had previously been held in downtown Orlando I learned from one of the artist I stopped to talk to about their art work.   Not sure why it moved to my neck of the woods but I was happy that it did.  I was sorry that I didn't have my camera with me so I could show you some of what drew my eye.  I did collect several business cards with plans to contact the artist in the future with proposals to feature them in the gallery space at Bethune Cookman University.  After treating myself to an ice cream cone instead of lunch it was back to working on the class project.
Sunday Lyn and I made plans to see an art exhibit at the Orlando Museum because she had to write a paper for an art appreciation college course she is taking this semester. The works of Barbara Sorensen were being featured, but I agreed to go along because I was interested in seeing some small works of Georgia O'Keeffe.  To our surprise when we got there, half the gallery space in the museum was filled with antiques.  Antiques are not my thing very high end or not.  The antique show as well attended.  People were jocking for parking spaces and a raise in admission price from the $7.00 students and senior pay normally to $10.00 for every one but if I could have seen a O'Keeffe I would have been happy but there wasn't a Georgia O'Keeffe to be seen anywhere. All of the museum's art work was in storage and I was told that it would be a week or more before the museum would be back to normal.
I got a little ahead of the story...  before we drove to the museum Lyn wanted to spend some time at the art festival on the lake so I met her there and she gifted me with this small painting that I took a fancy to.

And this time I had my camera with me so here is a look at two of the chalk paintings that were being created on the street yesterday while I was there.

I've been on the hunt for something

to disguise the ugly legs of the work tables that I have elevated on bed risers that I use for cutting and ironing. My first though was to get a couple of book shelves  that were  36 inch tall book shelves but no one had them in stock.  I could have ordered them online from several stores but I wanted them now. 7-10 days was too long.  So I let my fingers do some of the searching and Lyn and I drove to IKEA  after she treated me to lunch at PF Chang.  Everything I saw there and wanted was in the children's department.  So happy and bright and white and true colors.  I'm having a second childhood here I feel.  That was the good news part of the trip.

The not so good was the fact that everything that I saw and wanted was too heavy for me to move without help, needed assembly and was also a tad too short.  So off we went to Target and here is what I brought.   I am so happy.    It is so cheery.  I live in one decent size for one person open space with no wall between what was to be the dining area (cut and press and design wall) or computer alcove (studio storage) kitchen and living room.  Now with my modular units there are no more ugly legs to see from where I sit in the living room section. There really isn't anything in the polka dot bins or behind the doors.  They are just for show, but I am sure they will be filled with something studio related in time.  But for now what I like best are the four green bins sitting on top of each section.  They are holding all the stuff that usually clutters the top of the tables.  No more shuffling the clutter around to make room to cut or to press. 

One thing down, many to go

Last night was the official opening for the "Faces of Color" exhibit.  Here are a few candid shots of the gallery space and some of those who came to see the art on exhibit.

 This my friend Grace looking at "Linc: Bennett's collages

 This is one of the artist's mother's standing in front of his wonder, large images.  Artist Colin Quashie. The title of his pieces are "Hugh" "John" and "Ms. Margaret" Oil paint on canvas.

 Valerie White's painted art quilt "Bobbie McFerrin anchors one end of the gallery space.

 Laura Lund's "Ego or Determination" right and Celeste Janey's "What...? anchor the other end of the space.

 Cedric Evans, the facility manager of the Performing Arts Center holding the catalog that was printed for this exhibit and introducing me.

Like all things that you invest a lot of time in, when it all come to be  and looks the way you had planned there is a lot of joy as well as a little bit of a let down.  My let down didn't last long.  This morning I was up and at it.  The next exhibit goes up in just a little over two months from today.  And I have several teaching engagement fast approaching.

Because of both things I have put aside my work with several days worth of quilting left to do on the last piece I showed you... but, I have finished a class sample that I have to get sent off soon. This no named piece Number who knows, I've lot count in my Round Flower" series measures about 22" x 28"

All commercial fabrics were used to make this piece.