Mouth Watering Colors

 Years in the making and now minutes in the purging. Yes, I am starting to work my way through my fabric stash. This is a set of 70 pieces of name brand 100% cotton, cut into long quarters, 9 inches by the with of fabric, like 43-45". Seventeen and a half yards. Sorry there are no browns in the bunch. $100 plus shipping. Email me. SOLD

When I began my career I made a decision to only use my own hand dyed fabrics for my quilts. After retiring I decided to make a bunch of pieced quilts, mostly because I had plenty of time and beds to cover. Now that I have a chewing doggie, all beds are covered with holey covers. Bad doggie. Adorable but destructive. My pillows all have chewed corners too. arrgh.

So, I am looking at my fabric stash with the full knowledge that I will probably not make anymore bed quilts and so why not share (unload) this stash of beauties with y'all.
In anticipation of my move, it seems to be the right thing to do. The foundation walls are in! With this sunny warm weather (60's today) they are framing today. eeeeeeee!
OK, but wait. This doesn't mean I won't be quilting or sewing clothes. I am a committed fuser and am keeping all my hand dyes for my art quilts, and all my clothes fabrics for sewing.
I just am clearing the shelves and organizing the remaining stash. Stay tuned for more offerings.

DIY Art

 For about a year I have been presenting my quilts and paintings on wood panels and loving the DIY nature of framing the art. Recently, as I am clearing out my storage closet, I found two paintings I made about 10 years ago. They were done on watercolor paper and would have to be framed to be finished. That wasn't gonna happen, so they sat in a drawer. Now I realized ( Duh!) that I could paint some wood panels and mount these paintings with acrylic medium and have ready-to-hang art for my new house. Weeeeeee! So happy. They are 16x20" panels and only cost about $9 plus shipping from Cheap Joes Art Supply. I just used some leftover wall paint for the panels themselves, but craft paint works just as well.

Here is one hanging against a very white wall. (same paint). 

On another note; I have been dinkin' around with paint again and have always loved this painting, Main Squeeze, by Robert Langford. I couldn't buy it but could maybe make a similar, smaller version of the 3'x4' original. Mine is only 18" square. We learn by copying...

 

PS: In our recent blizzard we only received a tiny sprinkle of snow. Yay!

Deaccessioning Continues

Dearest Reader,
This weekend I have been having a wonderful time unpacking stored quilts, then photographing them and posting them to Etsy to find a new home. Thanks so much to everyone who has helped me downsize my collection. I am so encouraged by your enthusiasm.
I really hope I have found all the containers of my quilts stored in all the places I stashed them in the house. I will continue to post more quilts in the coming week. 35 years worth of quilting! eek!
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They have finally broken ground on our future house and we are giddy over the poured concrete footings. ha! I am imagining where everything will go in the new house and I further imagine myself standing in my all white kitchen looking at new art on the walls.
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My washing machine had a shock absorber problem and I was unable to do laundry for 10 days. It finally got fixed yesterday and imagine my delight in now being able to wash clothes. Sigh. What a blessing.

Deaccessioning

1. to remove (an object) from the permanent collections of a museum, library, or similar repository, usu. through a sale or trade.
2. to clear out some of my work in order to prepare for downsizing to a smaller studio/storage closet.

I've been very busy working through the quilts I have been storing, moving, storing and moving, storing and moving for years. Some have been given to my sister, and others were given to some other folks, but the mountain of quilts still seems overwhelming. So today, as a start, I bit off a small chunk and put 21 pieces in my  Etsy shop.
I will be deaccessioning even more work in the coming weeks. I am more interested in finding new homes for these pieces, than making a profit. If I am not storing so many quilts I feel that I'll have renewed enthusiasm to make more work, and of course I won't have to store them anymore!

Layerings #4

Layerings #4

Hand dyed cottons, fused, machine quilted and mounted on painted wood panel, 12x12". $100+ shipping, email me. SOLD

With all the brown, gray and straw colors outdoors, no wonder I am drawn to green. They say our eyes see more shades of green than any other color. Must be true, because I can't pass up a piece of green fabric.

Marguerites

Marguerites 

Hand dyed cottons (except for the white), fused and machine quilted. Mounted on painted wood panel. 9x12" $100 + shipping. Email me. SOLD

White is a color I so rarely use, but what a great contrast it makes with the rich greens. To follow through on that idea, I painted the panel a glossy white. 

 

Collections?

My dear sister Brooke, who works at Joann's, gave me this set of containers, saying, "On Sale!!".

 Okay...but really, what will I use them for? I have lots of drawers filled with stuff, so I don't really need another place to put things. So what am I always scrambling to find? Hmm, I began to consider one or two items that could fill them.

 Rotary blades. I found these scattered in several places, which really surprised me. I had no idea I had so many multiple sets.

 Scissors...Wow!
 All those rotary cutters! Gee Whiz!

Straight pins,  T-pins, safety pins, gee whiz.

Sewing machine needles, of all kinds, sizes and double, triple, ball point, embroidery, quilting. When was the last time I put a new needle in my machine? I keep thinking I must buy some new needles. Now I see I have plenty.

Double needles and triple needles are leftover from the days I taught machine embroidery. Can't say how long ago that was.

 Now I have everything all in one place and I am aware that I have more than enough of all these notions. Whoda thunk it?