Well, if the President as head of the executive branch can give a State of the Union address, and since as quilters we are ALWAYS a bit curious (OK, almost voyeuristic) about other quilters’ studios, I thought I’d let you see what I’ve been up to this past week.

I have done a TON of paperwork on the book, writing to get permissions to use quotes, and so on, so seriously needed some creative time. Plus, Jan and Dwight P. (Jan is a friend and quilter, Dwight is her hubby and photographer) and I are having a small show at Zoot, the cool coffee house in town. That means I figured I needed to make some pieces for there that are not expensive (as in might actually sell and generate some much-needed income). When I finish one thing I tend to need to have a tidy attack and clear the surfaces so I can function. Then stuff piles up as I work. I guess I’ve been working. Here is the work table:

Here is the overflow (Gramma’s toaster table, immortalized in my Flying Toast quilt):

Here is the sewing machine cabinet:

And the doorknob:

Yes, busy. I have one more 6×6 piece to fuse up and quilt, then I need to paint all the canvases, mount all the pieces, add hanging sleeves to the ones that will not be mounted, add hanging apparatus, label them, take photos, re-size the photos for use on the website, price them (duh!), and be ready to sell them! I’ll blog them here and on my website galleries (think I’ll make a “small works” gallery for most of the ones mounted on canvas which I can then delete once the pieces have mostly sold). Even though they will be for sale at the coffee house, I’m definitely open to purchases that require shipping [grin!].

First off, happy Bastille Day (France’s National Day) to one and all. Now, to our regularly scheduled blogging:

… Oooh boy, has it been a good week! Earlier this week I received in the mail my very first EVER paycheck for writing something: an article for a major quilting magazine! I will be able to tell you more about that in about 2 weeks. Then, yesterday (so much for Friday the 13th…hah! It is good luck Friday this time!), I got another check, this one for two projects that will be in a Lark Books publication that will come out in May 2008! I’ll share more about that next spring when we get publicity stuff, but to say that I am chuffed (to borrow some Aussie-speak, I just love that word) is a major understatement.

The funds are earmarked for paying for a five-day workshop with Carol Soderlund at ProChem, in Fall Rivers, Massachusetts. Long-time readers (thank you!) may remember that I took a 5-day intro dyeing class there with her last summer. Well, I get to take Week 2 this October, and I can’t wait. I haven’t done much dyeing since then (like one yard only!), but will do about 50 t-shirts this coming week and a bunch more in September. And I can say that if you EVER want to learn to dye fabric, take Carol’s class. She earns rave reviews from EVERYone for a reason, and your “color bible” is indeed one of those “grab when the house is on fire” items!

Been working madly on the book….. here is a wicked little tease, a photo to illustrate applique and reverse applique:

and another bit of a tease, since I won’t even tell you what it’s for!

Just a brief note today…. somewhere in catching up on various blogs I came across this link for a man who does graphic designs, book covers, posters and websites.  Honestly, the site is not very intuitive.  You have to wait for a flash opening, then a skinny line with no words or any other hints pops up.  Click on the middle of it, and the line will blink, and then you can mouse over the color bars to see Covers, Books, Web, Type, Posters and Contact.  Little circles will appear on either side of the color bar.  If you click on THOSE you will be rewarded for navigating this not-so-helpful site design with a feast of glorious, and very different designs.

I love this book cover, and this one.   Hmmm…OK, those links may take you to the same page.  Click on the third and fifth dots to the right of the vertical color band!  And the first poster I would order if he still had it…. try clicking here, it is the top dot:  here .

I’m screamingly busy working on my book, so hope to have more quilty and art-y content anon.

The most recent issue of Quilting Arts magazine, had an article by Jane Dunnewold that was for me a KAPOW light bulb moment! I totally encourage you to pick up a copy of the issue (order it from QA Mag directly, or check your neighboring quilt or book store). She referenced a book called Notan: The Dark-Light principle of Design, which is available at Amazon (hotlink below and now on my wish list!). Basically, the idea is that you cut shapes from the sides of a square, then flip them outwards. Of course, I didn’t do it like she said….

I can’t remember the last time I have been so excited by an article that I had to drop everything was going (including getting things ready to mail my Houston entries!) and try it! Of course, I had to tweak the idea, because I thought immediately how cool it would be to make diamonds with positive/negative wave shapes to screenprint onto cloth. Here’s a first attempt…. the white is the paper, set out onto batik… I LIKE IT!

Looking up Notan: The Dark-Light Principle of Design, of course, let me on a merry journey thanks to Amazon’s “other people who bought this book also bought (fill in blank). That in turn led me to Camden Public Library’s online card catalog, through which I ordered up Abstraction in Art and Nature by Nathan Cabot Hale, a sculptor (forgive me, for I am probably a troglodyte and he must be well known). At first I thought I’d add it to my Amazon wish list, but then decided maybe not… Do any of you have favorite books about learning to work abstractly? I liked the recent articles in Quilting Arts, and would love to read more….
And a note about the BLOGROLL on the left:

Because of the new format, the sidebar area had come to look very cluttered. Even worse, Blogrolling is no longer updating links to show you what is “new” (has new posts), so I have switched to something called Bloglines. A very helpful woman on the QuiltArt list posted about it, and I really like it so far. So, I am switching over all of my links to Bloglines (which sends me an alert when any blog has a new post…yeah!), and leaving only a few in my visible Blogroll. All the other folks on my list are still there, it just won’t appear on screen. So my friends who are on the list, I am not abandoning you, I’m just going underground in a way.

And a last note:

Have been madly making samples for the book: you know those in progress shots in books? What a TON of work to make five different steps, all of which have to be send for professional photography so you can’t make one, take a pic, work on it, take a pic, etc…….. but I’m hoping to take decent pictures of my grid pieces and two new pieces and have them up in the next day or three.