The Hollyhocks are done,

at least the quilting part as well as working back in with some additional paint to darken the centers.  Not sure if I am done yet  as far as painting and cropping.  For now I will live with it on the design wall for a couple of days to see if it needs some more tweaking. 
     I'm a few days past my self imposed dead line so if I still like the way it looks  on Thursday I should be able to get the sleeves and facing sewn in place this Friday while I am visiting with the Friday Fabs at one of the members home.
     Next week is all work/work.  I think of my painting and quilting as fun/work.  Dyeing is work and I plan to dye about 100 yards of fabric, get it ironed and folded as well as checking my vendor booth supplies and pricing quilts.  I bit the bullet and decided to be a vendor at the Mancuso World Quilt Show/Florida in West Palm Beach in January.  It is a three day show and the longest in days and hours that I have participated in thus far. 
     So if you are in the area come to the show and say hello. I'm in booth 222.    Of course while you are there you can buy one of my quilts or watch me demo my technique for painting on silk with watercolor pigment and soy milk.  Maybe I can get you hooked on the process/technique.
     In the mean time, Merry Christmas from sunny  70 degrees Central Florida where is does not in the least little bit look any where like the Holiday is upon us.

Last night my every other month group of eight

that meets on the third Wednesday met at Kate's home for the grand opening of her home studio.  The addition to her home was a gift from her husband and allowed her to move from a bedroom into this much larger and well lit space.  She has not moved everything in yet but she cut the ribbon, tada!
And we all oohed and aah-ed.


Kate cutting the ribbon

Sink for mixed media work, there was also a large elevated table on wheels with a granite top that I forgot to take a picture of that was made with too base cabinets for added storage of mixed media supplies.  The room has windows on three sides, with  East, North and South exposure, the west wall is for her 8' x 8' design wall.

Here we are ogling her over sized custom sewing table with a drop leaf extension on the back.  Loved her flooring which was bamboo.  She plans to get everything moved into the space next week after the finial electrical inspection is done. 



  

Here is a look at her walk in studio closet.  Everything labeled and ORGANIZED. 

 

Of course when quilters gather around meal time, there is food, in our case it was a pot luck affair with ham, layered salad, beef and potato casserole, bread, there was even some for me without wheat, cheese cake and baklava for dessert as well as other munchies.

 

   Since some of us were missing at our October meeting and we couldn't  exchange with everyone then, we got it done last night.    Here's a look at what I would call  small works instead of  ATC's (Artist trading cards).  

   I got my wish for weather that felt a little more like the season.   It was a rather nippy 51 degrees with a breeze last night here in central Florida.  Brrrr!!!!  But one night was enough.  It can return to normal now, thank you.

 

   I'm wishing all a  Merry Christmas  now just in case  I don't get back to blogging before the 25th.

The Christmas season begins for me

when the annual ornament from my Louisville, KY friend Kathy Loomis arrives as it did this week.  I smiled when I  saw the return address on the envelope.  But this  year its arrival was bitter sweet in that I wasn't sure just how much jolliness I was would be able to talk myself into this year.  With that said, I had decided that I would not put up a tree nor hang a wreath on the front door, so the best  thing about my gift from Kathy  this year is  it really does not say oh joy, oh joy and since it doesn't  this years ornament will survive the Holiday Season to hang on a wall in my studio space all year round.  That way I will think of Kathy  every time I see it.

 Front and back views of this years ornament.  Thanks Kathy.

The Friday Fabs group had our annual holiday meeting that was held at one of the members home.  Twenty five were present for the pot-luck and show and tell of one finished UFO.  Not everyone participated but we had a good time guessing who the quilts belonged to in that there was two people designated to open the pillow cases or bags to hold up the pieces while the maker kept quiet as the rest of us tried to guess who it belonged to.  That was fun.  Of course I guessed wrong 90% of the time.
There was lots of assorted eats for the pot luck meal.  I didn't take a picture of the food, but here are a
few candid shots of the day.  The blue poppies is what I took for show and tell so I had to finish it, facing and sleeves.  Shhhh... it is signed on the front but there is no label on the back yet.

We lunched on the screened in patio area.  Only in Florida in mid December.  I loving it!!!!

       Art our hostess is in the center in the orange shirt.  She did a great job of decking her halls.  Holly, trees, Santas and all were all around the house.

A before and after

look at my latest piece.  What a difference the addition of the blue black acrylic paint made to the look of the piece as well as some additional working back into the greens to add some subtle shading.
The piece is still hanging on the design wall because It still needs the facing, sleeves and a label.

     The hollyhock piece is under the needle of the HQ16.   I hope to have it done , at least the quilting, by this time next week.

Last week I also changed the placement of some of the stuff in my studio space to take  advantage of the lower level of  light that comes through the windows,  which is far less than the light  that came through the windows  in the spring, perfect and the summer too bright.  Sigh. 
The light in this space is proving to be a lot like Goldie Locks and her bears.  Too much, too little, just right.  The just right is March to May.  June to September is too much.  October started the decline and I will have to see how long this period last.   I didn't see this condo  and contemplate buying it until the end of February.  At the first viewing I thought the light was great.  When I moved in in March it was wonderful. 
Now the north light and east light that comes into the space doesn't last long enough for me.  But neither does the daylight in general since it is Winter.  These shorter days are making me long for the Summer days several months back when I was complaining about too much light and having to install plantation shutters to control the brightness. 

 These days I never close the shutters.

It seems like a long long time

since I blogged and even longer  when I began this piece.  Yesterday I finished quilting this piece, blocked it (steam pressed) and cropped it down to this.  I still have to add the stamens (a lot of black dots) to the centers and of course the facing, sleeves and label. Will let you see it when that is done.

 

     But before that, I am returning to a piece that was painted in July.   The hollyhocks painting was suppose to be the first piece I planned to quilt using the HQ 16.   As it turned out, I got really frustrated with the machine.  I couldn't get in sync with it.  I was not happy so  I set this piece aside.  Worked on several other pieces until I worked through the learning process need for the HQ16.     It is a rare thing for me to have a UFO in my studio and this piece was not going to be so classified for too long even though I  folded it up and placed it in a  "I'll get back to it later" bin. 

 

    Well a lot of pieces have gone under the needle  in the HQ since that day.  But the time was well spent because I have bonded with the HQ now and the frequent changing of the thread top and bottom no longer take much thought to do which quilting this piece requires. Will let you know when it is finished.

 

Hope all had a good Thanksgiving Day.