After Christmas, we all drove south to Brunswick to Clay Play—one of those paint-it-yourself clay cafe places. The boys did the annual handprint on plate and a little figurine each (Eli picked a lizard, Joshua picked a monkey). Paul read a book (sigh) and I made a mug. This is definitely a morning mug–very happy! Herewit
h, two more shots (other side and inside):
Earth and Turquoise is nearly DONE! Here are three levels of detail for you. First, the entire piece, with sticks, stones, wire, feathers, etc. My main question is…the feathers. Too big? I really like the idea of feathers on it, though. Maybe smaller feathers? Or are they OK? These came from Kathy Daniels (Studio in the woods), and are either turkey or hawk, not sure which, but she said there were lots and, alas, bones, too, where she found them.
The second photo I tweaked the color in Photoshop Elements so you can see it better on the web. The color in the first and third photos is actually more true.
Finally, here are two detail shots. I am SO thrilled with how this one turned out, that for once I’m not going to put it up for sale. Definitely not ready to part with it. The problem? No wall space to hang it here….hmmm….what can I move?
There are hotlinks in the earlier post on the names of the various Frayed Edges, but maybe I should tell you a bit about them on-line. Deborah Boschert many of you probably know well from Deborah’s Journal. Deborah’s work would fit well in Quilting Arts…sometimes I get irked at the “too much stuff” on the surface of QA, but Deborah’s work fits in with the best of QA. She always does the embellishments “just right”…not too much, not too little, and just the right touch. Of course, that extends to her home and her life, too….she always has just the right touch or thing to say. Her hubby is recently resigned from the Navy (he’s a pilot) after many, many years, and they and their two kids are moving to Dallas (booo hoooo hoooo again…I’m resigned, but I really will miss her here) for his dream job. Deborah’s work is for sale on her other website, Deborah’s Art–don’t miss it!
Kate Cutko moved to Maine shortly after college, and is (I think, if as a newbie “from away” I can say this) now truly a Mainer. She works with adoptions and placing kids with adopting families, doing home studies and all that. She and her friend from college, Katie, started up a business last year called Kitchen Table Cards (guess where the idea for the business originated..yep, at the kitchen table), aimed at adopting parents. She’s even getting orders from Europe!!!! hooray for the internet and the tight adoption community. Best of all, many of the cards and posters and calendar, can be used by folks who haven’t adopted. Kate has two kids (I guess I shouldn’t put their names, even though they have cool names, eh?)….anyway, son is 7, daughter is a big younger and from the Ukraine.
Kathy Daniels is one of those people who, when you see her quilts, you just shake your head in awe. No envy, nothing negative…that’s not possible because she’s so nice! She has, hoooray!, just joined the blogging world at a Studio in the Woods. She’s a Mainer all her life, so whenever those of us from away are mystified by something “Maine,” we ask her! She recently made these totally wonderful advent calendars (was it nine of them Kathy?)..at any rate a whole LOT of them for nieces and nephews, each with a cloth portrait of said child at the top. I hope she’ll blog about them soon, and all her amazing pieces, too. One hard thing about seeing her work on the web is that there are so many wonderful details all around, and you won’t get to pick up and pore over and touch and look like we get to do.
Hmm…methinks you all need photos. Well, it is get the kids on the bus time (well, it was when I wrote this…a day and a half ago…and now it is crash on the sofa in a vegetative heap time), so not now, but later today or tomorrow I’ll take pictures of the pages they did for me in the “books” we worked on, and post them for you…..
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?!!!!!
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!
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