Colors of Madison

I just got back from a really fun trip visiting my son and his wife, Keith and Rachel, in Madison, WI. They have a huge vegetable and flower garden bursting with tomatoes, pumpkins, sunflowers, herbs and vegetables. The sunflowers are 14 feet tall and seeded themselves from last year!

The pumpkins are starting to bring in fall and the last of the tomatoes are kissing summer good-bye.

We had delicious sandwiches with thick slabs of homegrown tomatoes, basil and mozzarella, with one of Keith's crispy homemade dill pickles on the side. Later, mint from the garden went into mojitos.

And the chickens tried their best to get into the garden.

My first full day there we hiked along the Ice Age National Scenic Trail, but that was the last hike because the rest of the visit was unusually hot and humid. The trail winds for more than 1,000 miles throughout the state, following the edge of the last continental glacier in Wisconsin.

 

It took us through woods and along the edges of prairies, past colorful wildflowers and leafy green trees.

When it was too hot to hike, I went to my favorite quilt shop in the area, Blue Bar Quilts.

Here's my haul. I almost bought the "Boro & Sashiko" book but talked myself out of it because I already have two books on that subject.

There were wonderfully colorful prints ...

... felted wool and hand-dyes.

The store has a rotating gallery of quilts. The current exhibit honors the late Nancy Zieman of the "Sewing With Nancy" television show.

In the same shopping strip as Blue Bar is a store whose name I forget, but it had a great card selection where I bought this postcard:

The sunset painted the sky in swathes of orange. The morning I left the prairie was blanketed with low fog at the beginning of another hot and steamy day. 

Have a colorful day

Flagstaff Open Studios, stitching and gelato

 

If you're in the Flagstaff area, check out my friend Judy's fabulous dyed clothing and rope bowls at the Open Studios Tour this weekend! Every time I wear her beautiful hand-dyed dresses and tops I get compliments. She'll be in Studio 11 with a group of other great artists. I can't go because I'll be visiting my son and his wife in Madison, WI. Info: www.flagstaff-arts.org

I'm getting some stitching ready to take on my trip to work on during down time. I stamped some petroglyph figures, above, and I'll embroider them like the one below that I made ages ago. I made the stamp by using a pen to indent the lines on a styrofoam food tray, then I sponged on gold paint.

I've also been going through the pieces I made this summer and adding more touches ...

.

... some beads

... a stick that I painted gold

... more mesh and big stitches.

 

And I'm pulling out more fabric from my painted stash for the next pieces. I'm on a roll!

And then there's the gelato! Barb and I went to a Frida Kahlo themed art opening last weekend (it was too crowded to get pictures), and afterward we went to Frost for gelato. Half the fun there is looking at how beautifully the gelato is displayed. I got hazelnut chocolate and peanut crunch, and that was dinner. 

Have a colorful day

Summer Tucson color

But first, doesn't this bus loop sound perfect? It goes to all the places I like to visit with my friends and hits everything I look for on a vacation!

Barrel cactus flower

Even though it's been triple-digit sizzling outside, I've been getting out to walk early and enjoying the colorful flowers that thrive in our desert heat.

Texas ranger bush

Purple Texas ranger with red Mexican bird of paradise

Desert willow tree

Mexican bird of paradise

Butterfly on lantana in my front yard

Early morning walk, above, and sunset walk below

Most of the day I'm in my AC stitching on colors that I love. I'm still working on small pieces to stretch around frames. Instead of quilting, I'm embellishing with big stitches and beading. I've painted all of the fabric, which started out white.

I pulled out the cool blues for my next piece because I'm craving the cool water of a pool, lake, or the ocean. I painted these swatches about 20 years ago. I know that because they're left over from a quilt I sold at a museum fund-raiser way back when I lived in Illinois.

My parting shot is this little guy who blends perfectly in color and texture with the stucco by my front door! That spot faces west and soaks up the sun, so I'm sure he was basking in its heat.

Have a colorful day

Size matters!

So, after asking a couple of non-artist friends who buy art to give me an idea of how I should price my collages, I decided I needed to make them bigger. I've pulled out fabric from my painted stash to use as borders to add that size.

My original plan was to stretch them over 8x10 frames, which would make this little guy look like the top photo. But if I added more borders I could put it on an 11x14 frame and it would look like this with hardly any extra work:

Note that the border seams will be straight after they're stretched instead of wonky like in the photos.

Here's another one -- 8x10 above and 11x14 below. I think the "breathing room" in the bigger versions helps. The spider webs were done by putting a rubbing plate under the painted fabric and gently rubbing over it with Paintstiks, which are oil paint in stick form.

As you artists know, an incredible amount of work goes into painting, stamping, stitching and beading even a small piece. But when one friend suggested $50 for an 8x10 -- with me getting only half that from the gallery, as is typical -- I said there's no way I would do all that work for $25! They agreed that I could get a better price if I made them bigger, and that the bigger size would highlight the center collages better. I'll also try to sell some on my own so I can get the full price.

Your comments on this are welcome!

The buyers wouldn't know that every stab of the needle and tugging that thick thread through gives me excruciating pain in my poor arthritic thumbs! But once I start stitching it becomes addictive and I can ignore the pain.

I'm going to add some gold bugle beads radiating from the gold circle. Beading doesn't hurt nearly as much.

I still haven't decided how much to charge, given that I would only get 50% of the selling price. But the gallery owner where I sell my spirit dolls said she'd love to carry my collages, so that's encouraged me to make more. She lets the artists set their price and she's VERY supportive of us.

I've been walking in the evenings lately instead of getting out early in the morning. Even when it's 90 degrees, it's fairly pleasant when the sun is going down.

Have a colorful day

Back to wool applique

I took a break from my little collages to finish this wool appliqué block from Sue Spargo's Fresh Cut book. She puts 13 blocks together into one wall hanging, but I'm finishing each block as its own little hanging. So I finished this one yesterday. It has batting, but I didn't quilt it because it's so small and because I wanted to do a pillowcase turn instead of binding it.

Last night's sunset was moody, with a sliver of moon suspended high above virga -- streams of rain that didn't reach the ground. That might make a good collage!

I believe this quote is true! When I'm feeling down, I can always lift my mood by pulling out colorful fabric and doing some stitching.

 Have a colorful day

Art and weather

I finally wrapped up my challenge collage with a little more stitching and one more feather before wrapping it around a frame.

 

 

The pretty pink staple gun I ordered from Amazon wouldn't put the staples into the wood frame, so I bought a bigger more serious one at Home Depot and it still wouldn't work. The staples just went off to the side. It could be operator error, but I tried a lot before giving up. So I attached the piece with gorilla tape and hope it holds.

Meanwhile, we continue to have regular monsoon storms in the late afternoons to early evenings. The morning after the latest storm I walked through the park near my home and everything sparkled in the sun, but there were a lot of giant tree limbs down from the night before.

Have a colorful day