Wolf's Den

Managed to come up with a second entry for the Old Church Gallery Quilt Show and the Mountain Comforts XX Quilt Show, both in Oct. Both had been originally started several years ago, one really only needed the binding, then finish quilting to be complete, but like usual , I procrastinated on it. The other, needed everything, except the top made. Heh.



( Quite a few pictures. Large. )

'Indigo Ferns', Sunprinted 100% Stonewashed Crepe De Chine Silk ScarfSOLD

MOST CURRENTLY Listed Items are now 50% OFF.

All Silk Scarves- 50% OFF

All Chainmaille- 50% OFF

All Fabrics- 50% OFF

SELECTED Beadwork- 50% OFF

Everything not mentioned- 50% OFF


Prices have been adjusted already.

Since when do the corners on an ARTQUILT have to be exactly 90 degrees?? They weren't made to have mitered corners. That's not part of the overall design.

Since when does the binding on an ARTQUILT have to be exactly straight?? They weren't made to be perfectly straight, for crying outloud. (On Fire At Dawn, FIRE itself isn't straight, and the design wasn't made to be straight either. Nor was it made to have an overabundance of quilting.)

Since when does there have to be, on an ARTQUILT, tons of quilting?? No one ever heard of less is more???

In otherwords, I just got the critiques from the first of 2 shows, and all of them say the same thing. And yes, I stated in the submission forms all of this. I don't think they read them.

Also, why can't they have an artquilt catagory intead of simply a Miniature catagory. Grr.

Overall, I got 'Satisfactory/Satisfactory+' across the board. Which is better than last year. So I guess that's something.

Oh wait, wrong song. Sorry.

Actually, I have 30 cups of dye in the closet.



See? All lined up in a row, each with a piece of Kona cotton in it. Stewing away. In a few, I'll had a solution of soda ash. No, I'm doing that tomorrow, that way I don't completely exhaust the dye and render it useless before I get every. last. bit.. erm, sorry. That way I can dye up a few silk scarves with some of the colors in there.}:P

The list reads like a grocery list actually- Butterscotch, Mocha, Eggplant, Vanilla Bean, Hollandaise, Harvest Wheat, Curry, Spicey Plum, Sage, Golden Pineapple, Cranberry, Pumpkin Spice, Watermelon and so on. Heh.

Why?, you may ask. Well, I'm auditioning colors for the only 'traditional' quilt I'll ever have a hand in making. This one as a matter of fact-



Cool, huh? I've always wanted to either make a Mariner's Compass or own one. Now I can do both. My friend, Jess, up in Vermont will be doing the actual piecing. See, it'll be a collaborative work. I'm dyeing the fabrics, she's doing the machine piecing and I'm doing the quilting and actual putting together of the quilt.}:P I'm thinking that maybe if I really try, I can get it done in time for next year's quilt shows. Which is why I'm really glad to have that quilt frame now.


Speaking of quilt shows, I went to Alpine Sewing to drop my entries off today. Man, I've been here over 6 years and always thought that place was just a sewing machine store. Not only do they have sewing machines, they have embellishments such as Angelina fibers, books and thread galore. I restrained myself and walked out with a nifty package of Angelina-




This stuff will look awesome on artquilts. Might even do a few FiberArt Postcards with it. Hmm...

Random shot of Dante-



She's got so much grey around her muzzle now. Her mask has faded so much. My beautiful girl. She can'tr get on the bed without help anymore. And has started occassionally having trouble with the stairs. I suspect she'll only be around a few more months at best.

Where were the Boys during all this picture taking?



On the 'storage' side of my design desk. In a rare moment, they were actually sleeping together. Technically, Aries is sleeping, Max is glaring at me. Heh.

Hopefully by Thursday, I'll have a few new scarves to list in the shop. I think I'll run the 10% off chainmaille again next month as well as a 10% off the scarves too. Might take the test Kona in the closet and make up 'grab bags' for artquilters and fiber artists and list them too. We'll see.

I think I'll go back to bed.


Ok, not really. I won't go back to bed. But I did successfully depress myself.

First I have 3 containers of fabric in dye to rinse out. After Aries decides to move off my arms again. Goofy boy is trying to cheer me up, methinks..I pissed Mark off abit. He asked if I was still coming over to Dale and Kat's for dinner...I replied that I never said I was going over for dinner. He gat all pissy and asked if I was going to come over for dinner. I said I hadn't decided yet.

I did say I wasn't going over there anymore. How hard is that to understand? I could careless what she's cooking for dinner. I said I wasn't going over there, I won't go over there. Deal with it.

But that's not what I depressed myself about.

People are always telling me, not so much anymore, that I need to enter quilt shows, I need to join this club, or that group, etc..

But then I look up quilt shows on the net, and what I see depresses the shit out of me. I enter local shows(1 last year, 2 this year) and compared to everyone elses's entries, I feel so damned out of place.

For example- this is one of the B IG quilt shows- check out the quilts along the top there..


I don't do stuff like that. Compared to things like that, my stuff is so damned plain, I'm surprised anyone wants it. Oh wait, outside of my family and the one person who commisioned a piece, NO ONE DOES. (Seriously, outside of GIVING AWAY pieces to my family, and the one commisioned piece, I've yet to sell any on Etsy or anywhere else.)


Another example..

This was last year's Mountain Comforts Quilt Show, in Ferrum, Va-



Mine's the dark blues, greens and yellow one in the center-ish. Want more examples of how much I don't fit in? Here.. a couple more...




(Did I mention that the person who made this piece was FOURTEEN??!?? 14!!!)



And that's just a few. (I'd link the entire album, but I had to make the entire Photobucket account 'private' because PhotoFuckIt is a pain in the ass sometimes about screenshots.)

Then I get this month's issue of QuiltArt in the mail, and it makes me depressed.

And I see stuff like this(second one down), which is so damned similier, in idea and execution to my unfinished piece , that it disgusts me. And certainly doesn't make me want to finish the damned thing now.

But anyway.. I was browsing around the net, looking up quilt shows for next year, that possibly, maybe, don't require me to be a member of SAQA, or any other 'exclusive' club, and I see stuff on the websites , such as this one that only serve to further discourage me, because I don't do quilts or artquilts like that.

Call me insecure, call me a coward and yeah, I'll probably agree with you. But honestly, something like these, is too busy for me. And I realise that alot of people like 'busy', crowded looking quilts. But I don't, and I don't like making things like that.

I prefer simple, letting the fabric tell the tale with the quilting or beading embellishments being a side story, not the main focus. I don't like busy, I CAN'T DO busy, I've tried. Yet, everytime I look at something , it's got myriads of colors, hundreds of embellishments, and the fabric itself is nearly lost in the chaos.


Hel, I can't even do whole cloth quilts like this et alone 'thread painting'. I know, I know, it takes years to get that good. But then Ihear about people who've just started out and are being accepted into big shows, and even sometimes winning, and they look like they've been doing artquilts for fucking years.


So I guess I'll just putz along like I've been doing and keep doing what works for ME, some day, my style will come back around again, I guess.

In the meantime, I have fabric to rinse out.

No hand quilting frame. Not for a few weeks at least.

Seems they are handmade and the nice lady who makes them got backlogged on other things and ran out of ones already made. She said it'd take a couple weeks and took my name and number. So hopefully by the end of the month I'll have one.

And with them being handmade, they are unvarnished and stained, so I can stain and poly it to my taste. Or maybe set it outside and spray dye all over it then poly it.}:P

I caught Max playing with Wanderer's Garden yesterday. After I got stern with him about it, a few minutes later, I caught Aries playing with it! Sheesh, I guess that means they approve at least.

Worked on a beadwork piece last night. Hope to have it finished soon so I can get it listed. THis one is being done in all Delicas with a reall awesome cab centerpiece. Titanium coated Druzy, so it's pretty and SHINEY! Heh.

Saw some really neat 'shaving cream dyeing' photos from one of the members of the DyeHard email group. Haven't tried that technique yet, so that'll be a project for Friday when I buy more shaving cream, because you apparently need quite abit, as well as large garbage bags. Should be fun and interesting. Maybe I'll get some fat quarters out of it.

Not the best photos, but I'm tired. So, this is all you get for now. Detail shots tomorrow.

Got the sleeves sewn on to two of my three quilt show entries. Sewing the edges on the sleeve of the third.

We were going to go to Busch Gardens for HalloScream this year, but when I told Mark that the only open weekends were ther 2nd and 3rd weeks of Oct, that plan went out the window, as the only weekends he has free are the first and last, due to his boss being out of town the middle two weeks. Ah well.

He's been working overtime again, which is cool, as it means the bills get paid off faster and we can toss a little extra on each of the monthly bills.

Since we can't go to Busch Gardens again, of which I need to post a few photos from last weekend's trip, we decided that we'll take a day trip up to HJarrisonburg and hit the farmer's market and the japanimation(anime) store in the Mall there instead.

Still haven't said a word, ICQ, etc, to the Inlaws. Feels good actually, not to have to worry about whether Kat needs a ride anywhere. Means my time is my own again. Have two color scheme ideas for silk scarves to shibori. Plan to start them after I finish this sleeve. Also need to work on 'Darke Sunne' for next year's entry. And to decide what else to create to enter.

Dante's still going strong. Hasn't lost any weight, sleeps alot more lately though.

It's clouding up again, methinks it's going to rain this afternoon.

Beth hasn't been outside in two days. Not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing.

Started yet another Sims2 family *rolls eyes* . This one will be a mother and child legacy. Founder has a daughter by 'ideal plantsim', a NPC char. Heh. Each generation will have exactly one child, unless it's natural twins, and each will be named after a tree or bush. Heh. The other family I was working on is named after herbs, and has 2-3 kids per generation. Might move them to Riverblossom Hills were the tree family is and interbreed them. Hmmm.... I'll post screenshots of them as well later, or tomorrow.


Photos of the quilt show entries after I finish this sleeve, wash them and they dry. Busch Gardens trip photos later this evening.

2 more days left be fore I quit work. Then I can dye my hair again, woohoo!

Making binding for the latest art quilt piece I'm working on.

A piece that should have taken maybe 3 weeks has taken 3 months. Why? Because something happened while I was in Jersey, pertaining to this piece and I hadn't wanted to work on it since.

But I started it with the intentions of entering it into this year's Mountain Comforts Quilt Show. So that means I have to finish it.

The detailing is done. It's been washed and is hanging up to drip dry now. I'm finishing up the binding so tomorrow I can sew it on.

Thought about how many pieces I wanted to enter into the Mountain Comforts show as well as the Floyd Old Church Gallery Quilt Show. I've settled on really tossing it out there and entering 3 pieces- this one I'm finishing up, 'Wanderer's Garden' or 'Languishing at Midnight in the Garden of Rusted Dreams' or possibly 'Chaos' if I finish it in time.  Would love to enter 'Feathers', but there's no sleeve and it wasn't made to have a sleeve either.  'Phoenix Rising' would be a good piece to enter for next year.  It needs to tell me how it wants to be finished first.

Also need to put sleeves on the backs of the pieces for the Floyd show.  Luckily I have until Sept 22nd.

Since I dyed anything new. Been trying to catch up on started projects, trying to whittle down the stash- yeah right, like that really works. Etsy has dried up for me. *shrugs* Been 3 months since I sold anything. Haven't listed anything new in as long. Between their consistant technical problems causing the site to be offline more often than it's up, it seems, lately, and no sales, I don't see the point in listing new things and causing my inventory to become overwhelming. So right now, I'm biding my time, letting what's listed run it's listing timeframe and possibly won't relist it. Who knows, maybe if I start showcasing things here again, I'll pick up a few sales.

So while Mark was bitching at Dell Tech Support for 3.5 days running, I decided to dye some Kona Cotton. I'd gotten an idea from a picture I'd seen, the name of the piece popped itself in my head and said MAKE ME NOW. I spent the next 2 days between testing colors to see which would look best, 'pop' best on the blue, and perfecting exactly how I wanted it to look. What you see above is the result. The purple/orange/blue/muddy piece will be the back. The orange/brown piece is where I was deciding which exactly orangish color I wanted to use (Pumpkin Spice won out over Golden Oak and Curry) on the blue/orange piece which is the front, the blue is actually Baby Blue and Robin's Egg Blue, heavily watered down.



It'll be a smaller piece, roughly 20" long x15"wide, I plan to have some beading on it, but beyond that, it hasn't said. Heh. I'm thinking of entering it in this year's Mountain Comforts Quilt Show, this October. We'll see. After that, most likely offer it up for sale . The orange isn't as bright as it looks wet, it's more muted, which is fine, as I think it works best that way. It'll still stand out, that's for certain.

Random Sims2 screenshot-



The MorgenSterns- Amelia and Aron, with their firstborn (and heir) Bronwyn, and toddler, Blaise. I love FRAPS, and the fact the bro in law's computer isn't acting up like mine is. LOL. This was just after Bronwyn's and Blaise's Birth Days.

Yes, I'm still using Photobucket, currently. My account was/IS paid up through October, so I'll be damned if they get my money for free. They never did respond to my other email though.


Wow. Simply WOW.

Those were MY FAT QUARTERS! MINE! I DYED THAT FABRICS! ME!!

LOL Damn that's beautiful, Jess.}:P

I might have to get you to make me a quilt sometime(I'll supply the fabrics type thing, lol)

Yes I have photos from the Quilt Show, I'm working on them. I also have photos from the overall entire FolkLife Festival.

More than likely, I will have at least 2 seperate posts for the Quilt Show- one public with the photos and one filtered with my overall ... impression...and that's not even the right term for it.

It was a good experiece and yes, I will be entering again next year, as well as seeing if I can enter in the Star Quilters Guild's yearly Quilt Show next July.

I'm thinking of entering Dante's Quilt in the next Mountain Comforts Quilt Show, if I get it finished in time. Otherwise, we'll see. I may come up with an entirely new piece between now and then.

I promise there will be photos. Right now, I'm deciding whether to go to the Inlaws to do laundry or not (they have 'company' that we really don't care for, coming up from Danville today, I'd much rather not be around her).

Right now I have to call home, as my mom called yesterday and it's been nearly (?) a month since I called home. Oops.

In the meantime, check out the current sale starting tomorrow at Dante's Spirit.

Sneak Preview...

_{^{('The Space Between Sunrise and Sunset', ArtQuilt by A.R., 2006
Hand dyed, Hand sewn, Hand beaded, 141/2"W x24 1/2"L,
displayed at the Mountain Comforts Quilt Show XVIII, Oct 2006)}}

Hmm.. do I start with the tormenting of starsong , or do I start with the FiberArt PostCards for FFAC...




Oh and for what it's worth.. 'Kingdom of Heaven' makes absolutely no sense to me. Especially since I missed the first half hour of it. Ah well, I never like the Templars anyway. They got what they deserved.

Of what I'm currently working on...

Ok, so here's the awaited Microfestivus update...

The local quilting guild (Star Quilters Guild) is holding their 2nd Annual Quilt Show today and tomorrow. So I dragged Mark along with me, and went on down today. 

  
( I picked up a copy of their cookbook as well)

( PHOTO HEAVY! )

Those of you on my friends list will know exactly what the proceeds of this sale will  benefit.  For the rest of you, I took in a cat that had been, for lack of better terms, 'evicted' by his former owners.  I can't keep said cat, but he needs to have some surgery on his tail, as nearly half is missing and the 'stub' is , if not already, dangerously close to becoming infected. So to help defray costs of the surgery and antibiotics, etc, I'm holding a 'clear out the inventory sale'!

All scarves will be half price*.  All fabrics- fat quarters, fat eighths, will be free shipping*. 
All chainmaille will be 25%-75% off, including Sterling Silver*.

Here's a few teaser photos...


'Fire Dance' Arashi Shibori Silk Scarf
originally 30.00, now  15.00


Arashi Shibori Silk Scarf
originally 40.00, now 20.00

And several other scarves as well...


Sterling Silver Flower Petal Chainmaille Set
originally 40.00, now  25.00


Copper Mobius Knot Chainmaille Necklace
originally 25.00, now 15.00
SOLD!

And several more chainmaille pieces....


12piece Kona Cotton, hand dyed color wheel, fat quarters
FREE SHIPPING!

And various other fat quarters, fat eighths, yardages, and another color wheel, all FREE SHIPPING...


*When you purchase something, CHECK 'OTHER PAYMENT', in the  Note area, put Cat Sale, and WAIT for me to send you a corrected PayPal invoice that will reflect what your payment should be.

So if there's something you've been holding off on buying, now's the time to do so!

Not only will you be helping a cat get a good home after being doctored, you'll be helping ME thin out some of my inventory and getting something  you really want in return.

For those who have missed it.. The Sun! The Sun!



(Roanoke Valley from Mill Mtn Star Overlook, July 2006, untouched photo)
DyeHard visit...

Sat, a member of the Dyehard email list was heading to Virginia to visit family and friends and came to meet/visit me. WooHoo!

From this...

To this...

To just under halfway there...

121 individual approx 2.5" squares of Kona Cotton and Quilter's Cotton. 11 rows of 11, 5 rows handsewn and handsewn together, the 6th 1/3 of the way together.... not bad after 3 days.