Question for You

I try to post a reply to all my comments (a big hunkin thank you to all of you who leave a comment) but don't know if you receive my reply post as an email.

If you don't, does anyone know how to make it happen in Blogger? or Wordpress?

The reason I ask about Wordpress is I'm actually thinking seriously about switching over to them. My art group blog, FAB (a wonderful bunch of ladies if I say so myself) is there and everytime I go to use it I find it a more managable thing to use. I like the format, ease of use and the fact that your photos are stored rather that have them floating in space with access only thru the posts.

I know some of you use Typepad (a pay-for-use service), how is that workin for ya? Inquiring minds want to know.

Oh...and hear's a peak at one of the fabs I dyed before the family invasion. Just got around to ironing and photographing them. I'm calling this one "Scrumptious Mud Pie". Wanna take a bite????




See ya next time "In the Hayloft",

Stash Quilt Finished

I've been told that my "blog needs some loving" (podcast by Alison Stanfield ), that I should pay more attention to it and treat it like a baby.

You know the kind...they pee and poop (on automation) but can't really do anything for themselves. Why I would take on another child I don't know but I do enjoy talking to y'all (you'd think I was feeling my southern roots with the "y'all" thing. I don't have any southern roots in me at all......I'm a tropical lady at heart).

Anywho, I was going good for a while then....poof.......it stopped (I know it really was me that I stopped but I gave this baby life I can give it all the blame too).

So today's post is called catch up. I've been getting ready for my daughter's 16th birthday party and preparing for the Sheppard tribe (my family) to decend upon my house. Plus I am hosting my annual Dye Party next week and still have a couple of pieces to finish for deadlines that are looming. Okay, that was catch up, now on to the good stuff....ART.

Here's the lastest pics of one of things that has taken me away from you. I'm still doing the TIF Challenge and did finish my June piece but never posted about it (yes, shame shame you say). If you recall, June was about stashes. I showed the literal pics of my stash and below you'll find my interpretation of it.



My stash started out real large (the bottom stone) because, if you remember correctly, I went thru my "greedy" phase as if the fabrics manufacturers would run out of fabs at any moment. As I climbed this ever fantastic cairn of stones I've created I realize that my stash did not (yes I said "did NOT") have to be THAT big, especially as I've resigned myself to now making smaller pieces. This one is measures 13" square.

I have not yet reached the peak (come on now......you ever think I'll have that little bit of fabs that represent the cairn's peak????). I don't know that I ever will or, for that matter, want to but I'm getting closer to finding the center, MY center, the comfortable place, the reasonable phase where fabric obsession is not necessary any more. I'd say I'm somewhere between the middle red stone and the gold one.

I am okay with having what just what I need instead of what I think I ought to have.

Have you had a stash redo recently or planning one? Have you made a "stash" piece to represent your "rack of fabs"? Leave a comment and let me know where you are in your stash phase or, for that matter, anything else on your mind.



See you next time "In the Hayloft",

Busy but Still Smiling

I've been real busy caught in "catch-up" work and didn't realize until yesterday that I did not post this past Monday. What horror!

Naughty, naughty.

Anyway, to make you smile today I found this blog (excuse the title please) that had me taking some time to chuckle. Hope you do too.

Here is "where's Matt?" .....


Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

Isn't it funny how everybody really gets into it?

See ya next time "In the Hayloft",

And the Winners of the Dyed Fabrics Are....

I'm So Excited!!!!!

Thanks to all of you for leaving a comment on my Dyed Fabrics blog post. I loved what each of you wrote and can't wait to get your little pieces of colour heaven on its way to you.

As I mentioned before I used a random number generator (RNG) to pick the 7 winners of my first dyed fabric give-away.

Each of you were assigned a number and to make it easy I just used the chronilogical order in which you posted, Joyce would be #1; Karoda -#2; Karrin -#3 and so on. Plugging the numbers into the RNG it scrambled your numbers and spit out a list which is (drum roll please).........................

2 - 3 - 9 - 6 - 7 - 10 - 1 - 5 -4 -8.

The 7 winners are Karoda, Karrin, freebird, Karen, Judy, Yetunde and Joyce. Congratulations to all and look for me to have more give aways when I dye more fabrics. (y'all don't know how hooked I am on this now...oh boy, there goes the budget).

(Unfortunately because I got a comment from "Anonymous" I could not put you in the running because I have no way to get in contact with you. Sorry bout that).

I won't tell you which fabric you won because I want it to be a surprise when you get in in the mail so get cracking and email me your mailing address now (see sidebar for my email addy).

Please email me a pic of whatever you decided to make with your winning fat quarter of fabric. I'd love to see them and post them here.

See ya next time "In the Hayloft",

p.s. don't know if you know but I gave each fab a name, click on the individual fabrics in this post and hover over the enlarged pic to find them out.

New Artwork

I was priviledged to take a workshop with Lyric Kinard this past Saturday. We worked on a surface design sampler of techniques including carving stamps, screen printing and beading.

Thanks to a fun time and a great instructor, today I actually finished the project from a workshop for the first time. Yippee!

The technique sampler is a great way to to learn a few things without taking an intense workshop on one technique you're not sure you will use again.

For instance I am so into carving stamps these days and learned some great tips from Lyric AND I've discovered I love, love, love screen printing.

So much so that I'm now trying to find a thermofax machine (old fashioned mimeograph) that someone has hidden somewhere just collecting dust so I can make my own screens.

If you know where I can get one on the cheap, let me know PLEASE. Until then I'll have to send out to Lyric to get them made.

I really like the finished journal. I'm thinking Christmas gifts this year.


journal spine

back cover

stamped/foiled word

inside cover

See ya next time "In the Hayloft",

June TIF Challenge and Stashes

I'm hanging in there folks trying to keep up. I really would like to have the whole year done in TIF challenges but....

Anyway, the concept for this month's TIF challenge is all about stashes. Here's how Sharon B describes it: "Stashes are either purchased or scavenged materials that have accumulated over time and as such they often have a story to tell........So this month, the idea is to think about stories that are, and stories that are possible."

My Stash Story

Because I've been retooling, revamping, revising myself as it pertains to my artwork, my stash (much of it is commercial fabrics I no longer use regularly) just sits there for the most part.

I feel guilty...lordy, lordy yes I do...because I went out and bought all it of, no one else helped me (well maybe a friend or two persuaded me to get more than I thought I would get at the time...no names of course but you all know who you are!!!).

For the most part though, just like the rest of you just starting out (and some of you who've been at it for years) I too went thru a "gotta have it" phase.

So for me, my stash represents my greed phase, the "I CANNOT live w/o that loud red/orange/blue psychedelic number or that it-just-jumped-into-my-bag green to match all the other greens I have. I feel guilty for hoarding all this fabric but I do have some cool ideas on how to use it all up.

My working stash on the other hand includes:

...my hand dyes which are yummy, yummy. I used to belong to a monthly hand dyed club run by Judy Robertson but regretfully had to quit that and it broke my heart.

(Judy produces some of the most beautiful hand dyes around and it was like getting a big box of chocolates every month when that mailer came with the 1 yd cut);

...my batiks in all those drop dead gorgeous prints. I came to batiks later than most because I didn't see what the craze was about. Boy was I wrong. NOW I have a batik stash to die for and funnily enough it's not that large at all. I didn;t go crazy with the buying (mainly because the guilt from all the other fabrics I had was already eating me up);

...and my black and whites. Don't know how I started this collection but now love working with a bl/wh background pallette (bottom shelf above).

Now I do have to confess (yes...here she goes you say). The top picture clearly shows my nicely folded stash of commercial fabrics, the 2nd pic my working fabrics. What I have not told or shown most people is the stuff that I haven't laundered and therefore is not folded as nicely. That's the stuff that really stirs the guilt right up.

This 3rd pic is of that "stash". Those fabs that haven't been touched since I moved to the room I now use as my studio...4 yrs ago (What shock! What horror!)

In a space, off to the side (you can't see it when you enter the room thankfully) is this plastic tub full...and I mean FULL...of the last of my commercial fabric purchases.

I periodically rummage thru it looking for that perfect piece to add but, for the most part....it just sits there......staring me in the face.

So now you know my story. I'm gonna have to think about how to put this into a quilted piece.

What about you?...what's your stash story and what's it tell about you? I would love to hear your stories.

See ya next time "In the Hayloft",

What are YOU Drawn to?

Today is MONDAY!

Time for a post (bet you thought I forgot...HA!).

My FAB group met recently and I posed a question to them. I showed them 4 pieces of work that I had recently finished and asked them to tell me what was the common factor in all of them.

My thinking is that with their input I would get some more feedback on the direction my artwork was taking.

I see myself gravitating in a new direction. Don't misunderstand, I will keep designing quilt patterns because I still love making traditional quilts with a contemporary twist, but I think I'm defining, in a singular way, what kind of artwork really inspires me to create.

I've mentioned here already that I'm drawn to colour, line, shape and, more recently, texture (as opposed to pattern).

These are the art quilts that draw me in, that speak to my core, the ones that can suggest realism but does not convey a specific image; the ones that use colour as it's main tool and informs the piece with line and shape.

It got me to thinking about how each of us defines our art. Have you formerly thought about how and why you produce the things that you do?

What draws you to a textile piece in a show or gallery? What about it speaks to YOU?

Are you a person who prefers realistic images, pieces that tell a story and gives you images to respond to or do you prefer pieces that you interpret as you see it, where you get to inform the piece with your own thoughts and feelings?

BTW, the pomagranite piece at left is unquilted. The design you see is done in a dry erase pen on a piece of plexiglass, my way of auditioning quilting patterns.

I take pictures of each one as I draw them and can then refer back to see which one works best. This is not the pattern I have chosen to machine quilt it with.

If you've been reading my blog you've probably seen some of the things I've been producing . What feedback do you have? Any concise thoughts on the direction you see me taking?

No worries on me being offended. I say if you ask the questions then you must be okay with the answers you get.


See ya next time "In the Hayloft",

Time & MONDAYS

"Time is the quality of nature that keeps events from happening all at once....lately it doesn't seem to be working." --Anonymous


You may have noticed that I haven't posted lately.

It's not that I don't want to cause I do. I regularly make a mental list of the things I want to post about then things....finishing artwork....dealing one or another family "crisis".....feeling ill or just uninspired...any number of things get in the way and, frankly, I don't like that.

So I'm gonna try a new thing (yeh right you say?) I'm gonna try an experiment for the next month--to have one day a week for posts and I'll make that a Monday. Monday is my wash/clean day and now I'm adding blog post day to it.

Let's see how far I get.

Oh no!...another goal to add the never-ending saturated list. I'll need to take pics of the things I've been working on for this coming Monday's post. How's that for staying on task?


See ya next time "In the Hayloft",

Cleaning is Overrated...but necessary

It must be getting near the end of the year because I seem to be in a cleaning frenzy. My mother has this thing about bringing in the new year with a clean house and I guess I've adopted it (don't we become just like our mother's in the end anyway?)

I cleaned my son's room last week and what a major reshuffle that was. Whew!!! Let me explain something to you...he is just six yrs old but happens to be one of the biggest hoarders I know. He wanted to throw away nothing, NOTHING I say! His pile for keep was gi-normous compared to the throw away pile. I must say though that he was generous with his give-away pile (alright so he has outgrown most of those baby toys but still couldn't bear to throw them away, but giving was okay).

He absolutley loves to draw and draws this superhero he made up, KAP * W (pronounced KAP-STAR-W) all the time. HE IS KAP * W, the stongest superhero in the world! So do you know how many pictures there are of this superhero? I'll tell you...a small laundrey basket full and none could find it's way into the largest garbage bag I could find.

I was even told at one point "you're killing me Mum" to which I said...Okay hon, but only KAP* W pictures we are keeping. I know, I was a sap, a sucker and now have to come up with an ingenious way to store all these papers and probably thousands more to come.

So we are sitting there in a clean room where we could finally see the carpet and he tells me "now we need to paint". I might add that it is not even 5 minutes after we finish heave-ho his room! Do you think Santa can handle that job? No, I mean the real Santa, the one that swoops down the chimney and all.

So now I am finished with his room and will start on the next cleaning job, something I've been putting off for a long time................my studio! It needs a complete overhaul-----new storage (yummy), lots of dusting/sweeping (cough cough) and replanning where things go for easier retrieval. Wish me luck!


See ya next time "In the Hayloft",

p.s. will post picture of "before" when I've taken picture of the "after". Will not embarras myself w/o showing the bee-u-tiful results.