Happy Easter!

to all those who celebrate this day. Hope it was a day full of family, love, laughter and lots of good food.


See ya next time "In the Hayloft",

Field Trip!

Today I went with my FAB friends to the shop Random Arts in Saluda, NC.

OMG!!!!!!

If you are into any sort of mixed media or want to expand your quilting to the next heights you must visit this tiny gem of a shop. We spent 2 1/2 hours looking over every inch of the shop, gathering things and then finding a little something else in another corner that had to be added to the pile.

We were exhausted! ...and very hungry.

Jane (RA's owner) and Joyce coddled us and spirited us in every different direction. They answered all our questions about any items we needed explanations on, then noticed us wilting. Joyce shoo'd us out the door, with a solemn promise to kept our little piles of gathered items safe, and sent us immediately to a wonderful little cafe down the street, The Purple Onion.

Off we went to enjoy a wonderfully nutritious lunch with Aaron, our tall, cute waitstaff.

Fully satiated we returned to find our piles of items all ready for purchase. I must say...I did not win the largest purchase award today, that title so rightly belongs to DeLane. Whew!!!

Jane has papers and books and ribbons and inking supplies and found objects and tiny letters and charms and rubber stamps and magazines and workshops and........I'm exhausted just thinking about everything again. Instead just head on over to Random Arts, a fantastic little shop hidden in the mountains of western North Carolina and tell Jane Grace sent you!


See ya next time "In the Hayloft",

Tag! I'm It!

My good friend Susan Knapp has tagged little ole me. Susan produces wonderful quilted artwork and applique pieces and is a prolific pattern designer....and, most importantly, a great friend.


When you get tagged you are to post 7 things about yourself that others might not know and tag 7 other bloggers. Being tagged is cool and weird at the same time cause you really have to go to the recesses of the brain to come up with things to list. But it'a also a wonderful way to let the light shine on other great artists out there in bloggerland.



7 things that you may not know about me:

I. My first name is actually Karen (Grace is my middle name) and I was named after Princess Grace of Monaco, whom my father absolutely adored. My mother filled out my birth certificate but....my father first registered me in school, it's been Grace ever since. Don't call me Karen cause I probably won't respond. Isn't she absolutely beautiful?
II. I once attended the Barbizon School of Modeling in the early 80's way back when I lived in New York City (there will be no laughing at this reveal...okay, a teeny tiny giggle is permitted).

III. I am so in love with words that when I was younger I used to keep a vocabulary book handy so I could write down all the words I came upon and their definitions (can you say geek?). It's followed me into adulthood, the top thing on my Christmas list in 2007 was a GOOD Oxford dictionary....and I got it! Now isn't that beautiful!!!!!

IV. I still love to watch Eastenders, that long standing English soap opera that comes on every Sunday night.

V. I now have a new addiction.........Scooby Doo snacks!!! Cinnamon only! Everyone needs to try them at least once. I keep a box in my studio for powerful energy bursts. Well....not really, I just love to munch on them. I even got Susan hooked on them (hee hee). Scooby Dooby Dooooooooo!

VI. According to traditional Chinese lore I was born in the year of the tiger (growl) and my Heavenly Element is water. I am Yang (as opposed to yin). The Chinese believed in five elements--metal, wood, fire, water, and earth. I am metal, gold (although I much prefer silver)and am represented by the planet Venus.

and number 7....

VII. I have never been to the beach in North Carolina although I have lived here for 16 yrs. l Not intentionaly mind you. Just never got there....I'd much rather take a trip to the mountains instead and look at the trees.

So there you have it, a little more about me. I now have to tag 7 others..... I think I'll do that tomorrow.

See ya next time "In the Hayloft",

Smile!

Somebody you'll pass by today needs a pick me up!


--grace

TIF March Update

One of the things I still find most challenging is the final process of making an art quilt. My March TIF piece is a study in the dreaded details of machine quilting. I'm usually not that happy with my stitches and had yet to perfect it (to me at least).

A few weeks ago I attended the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival in Hampton, VA and had the pleasure of taking an advanced quilting class from Linda Feidler. She taught us how to start and stop effectively, what to use in particular areas to enhance the quilt and had us quilt a few of the designs that she regularly uses.

Whatever mojo she put on us as we sewed has worked. GreenPiece is homage to Linda for getting me to step into the light. ..and like machine quilting!!! Who knew I had it in me to get down to the details and get it right.

I used a 40 wt trilobal polyester thread in emerald green (muddy greens are just not my thing) on a dark maroon 12" square of fabric. The next step is beading, not too much but just enough to give it some light and shimmer. Here's a detail of the unfinished piece.


See ya next time "In the Hayloft",

My Website is Complete!

When I first decided to have a website I had the crazy notion of doing it myself, figuring it would only take me a few months to complete a basic site.

Boy was I wrong. There's this thing called hypertext markup language (the code you write websites in) that tolerates no mistakes, like unclosed tags, or it just won't coorporate with you.

I am so pleased that I have finally have a web presence. You can now find me at http://www.redbarn-studios.com/ (don't forget the hyphen). It still needs little tweaking and I have much more to add like more of my artwork and links and such, but wanted to get it up and running. It is a wonderful feeling to know, no matter how simple it is.....I DID IT!

Go on, check it out and let me know what you think.

See ya next time "In the Hayloft"

p.s. I'm sure some of you were wondering why I chose "Barnyard Chatter "for the name of my blog. Well all along I knew that my company name would be RedBarn-Studios so I figure that when you come to visit me we'll be sitting up in the barn's hayloft shooting the breeze talking 'bout this and that or checking out what I've been working on.

Besides, everyone knows I would happily live in a refurbished red barn if Icould .....and ..........I would have to refurbish it myself of course!

Pay It Forward or Spreading the Love

I've been noticing something lately, we humans seem to be on the wrong track, too many selfish acts and not very many selfless actions.

Thoughts and deeds that help others, rather than fill our own tanks all the time, needs to be the order of the day on a more regular basis.

I realise that the only way to make the world a better place is to start with ME and to do something small for someone else. One way I can do that is to use my creative talents to bring a smile to someone else's world. My life is always spinning with blessings of all sorts (no matter the down times) and so in that vein I propose an offer to you.


Gift Giving

I will send a little creative gift to the first 5 people who leave a comment on my blog requesting to join this Pay It Forward gift exchange. I don’t know what that gift will be yet but you'll be getting a little ray of sunshine coming to your post box soon, that's my promise!

The only thing you have to do in return is to pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog. Once you leave your comment, copy and paste the above paragraph on your blog and 5 lucky people will be recipients of your creative work.

While you are doing this small exchange, think of how you can do more to pay it forward and help someone in your community or someone across the world who could definitely use a bit of kindness or your help in standing tall once again.

Let's all Pay it Forward!


See ya next time "In the Hayloft",

p.s. don't forget to leave me your email so we can communicate offline.

March TIF Challenge

Now that I have posted my completed Feb TIF challenge I can safely move on to March.

This month's challenge is all in the details. Here's Sharon B's challenge description:

"Do you ever notice the little things, the small moments, the details in life? This month's challenge is to do just that, pay attention to the tiny details".

Okay, I'm getting better at thinking ideas thru immediately and "details" didn't come across as minutiae or small things. Instead my mind went to the things that we take for granted, the things we see all the time but never really take the time to notice.

Things like how green that new blade of grass can be or the sadness of a passing stranger's face (what turmoil can they be experiencing?) or the intense sensation of oneness you can get from watching your child sleeping. It is in those details that life is lived and what I hope to capture in my piece this month. Stay tuned.


See ya next time "In the Hayloft",

Making the TIF Piece

Here's a short synopsis of how I made this challenge piece.

To make the cloud I fused a piece of Misty Fuse to a square of white tulle and scrunched it up onto itself. It you do it while it is still warm to the touch it will stick to itself and stay fairly well in that position.
Thanks Esterita for that tip.

To get the correct shape as I ironed the fusible side fof the tulle to the blue sky background, I positioned the tulle and pressed with iron over a sheet of parchment paper, can be a bit finicky but works none-the-less.

For the names of each crew member I wanted to be able to see thru their names, giving an almost etheral quality to it. I cut a piece of freezer paper to printer paper size and ironed it lightly to one side of white organza, cut to size as well, then manually fed the sheet thru my ink jet printer.

Be aware that the lead edge of the sheet must be ironed down enough that it lays down flat when feeding through the printer rollers or else it will ravel up and cause havoc with your printer.

I cut apart the names, the time and the date, cut a piece of Misty Fuse the same size then ironed in place. Minimal quilting was in order to finish the piece. I really like this one and realized afterwards that it was more cathartic than I'd originally thought.

See the post below for my feeling as as I put together this challenge piece.


See ya next time "In the Hayloft",

TIF Challenge (Feb) "73 Seconds"

Finally, a moment to post. Life has been busy for me of late but just because I haven't posted doesn't mean that art hasn't been flowing.

I promised to reveal my TIF challenge quilt so here goes. The one thing that kept pushing its way into my brain was the sad occurence in Jan 28th, 1986. The day was beautiful, clear blue skys and wonderful weather predicted all day.

This shuttle launch had been postponed a few times, but this day NASA gave the go ahead for the launch to take place. Seventy-three seconds into the Challenger Space shuttle launch, it blew up....in front of a large crowd gathered to see the special launch. You see, on that flight was the 1st candidate for the TISP Program - Teacher-in-Space Program.

Christa McAuliffe wanted to be an astraunaut but instead found her calling as a teacher. She was getting her wish though and trained hard after she was chosen to fly in space, along with the shuttle crew in their 51st mission into space.

I stood transfixed by the cloud formation that billowed in the sky after the explosion. I remember feeling tears on my face and thinking incredulously that what I just saw happened did not occur, but sadly it did. That event still has the power to make me weep.

I must say this idea for the TIF challenge came to me right away but I thought it was too serious. Why didn't I parody "Who shot JR? or the fight of Crystal and Alexis Carrington on the hit show "Dynasty" or that long ago writing tool that kids can't fathom...the typewriter.

It was good to get this quilt done. It needed to be done but I did not realize this fact until it was completed. Funnily enough, exactly 15 years later to the day, my son was born on January 28th, a beautiful day with clear blue skies.

How do you remember this day? Post your thoughts on how it affected you and those around you.

See you next time "In the Hayloft",