Blog posting explanation

For any of you following my blog – I have just switched to wordpress as the original blog software was quite awkward and very limiting in picture placement and sizing.  That is the reason for the first four postings being reposted.

Laura Cater Woods (originally posted 9/25/08)

On Tuesday and Wednesday of this week I took a 2 day workshop with Laura Cater Woods. I signed up for the workshop last spring, then decided against it in Fall. I have such a limited amount of time that I have to be careful where i select to spend it. You can check out Laura’s website at www.cater-woods.com. Laura was delightful and very giving. My mission was to really get as much professional advise for my grand plan of going National as I possibly could. Laura did not disappoint! I created a piece pictured to the left “The Meek shall inherent the Earth”. I had no pre-planned idea (for a change) I just designed and cut cloth. The final outcome was a pleasing sketch for the possibility of a larger piece. I think I need to dye some fabric soon because I am loving the hand dyes for skys. Laura expressed that she would like to see my “art” quilts being told with more of my voice like the “e-series” I did a while back. (Pictured in my art quilts on my website) Hmmm – I have to think about that for awhile.

I also completed another challenge that I had issued from my Faithful Circle Quilt Guild : Crayon Challenge. Each participant chose a crayon and needed to use that color in a wall quilt. I chose cerise – which is a deep magenta. I made a Hamsa Hand quilt. The Jewish name is the Hand of Miriam, in reference to Miriam, the sister of Moses and Aaron. It is a kind of “protecting hand” or “hand of God”.Some associate the significance of the five fingers to the five books of the Torah for Jews, Hamsas are popular as charms and decorations in Israel and are not considered to have any Islamic connection other than the shared Arabic name (same as the Hebrew). Among Jews, fish are considered to be a symbol of good luck, so many hamsas are also decorated with fish images. Hamsas are incorporated in wall plaques, mobiles, keychains and necklaces. Sometimes they are inscribed with Hebrew prayers, such as the Sh’ma, the Birkat HaBayit (Blessing for the Home), or the Tefilat HaDerech (Traveler’s Prayer). Hamsas may be displayed in either direction, up or down according to the taste or decoration associated with the Hamsa. This will eventually be a pattern. I will have a section of patterns dedicated to “religious icons”. I want to make these patterns universal.

I worked very hard in class to produce and absorb as much information as I could from LCW. It was a good week and today I am going to display my crayon challenge.

My next task is to work on the Philly Stamp and get thinking more about my next big art quilt.

Oh yea – I got accepted to vend at the Pittsburgh Quilt Market. That is a big deal! I look forward to this next challenge!

Maybe if you are reading this you will challenge your self to do something new and spontaneous – it is great for the soul!

Metrothreads (originally posted 9/22/08)

Yesterday the Metrothreads group met in Highland MD. I have to say I was quite disappointed with the low turnout of participants, however we chose to make lemonades out of lemons and we held the meeting with the 8 artists and 2 views who came. It was an incredibly rich session. We decided to let each artist speak in depth about their pieces and ask for feedback from the group. It is a tough thing to do – to coordinate artists. Even with 6 months of advanced notice – only 8 artist’s came to the meeting. It was a beautiful day – maybe that was the trouble. As a group we discussed pushing the Fall meeting back to late October – maybe that would be better. So for now – I am hoping we get a better turn out in March or i fear this too will end up another art group that fades into the sunset. My great hubby posts the pictures with the blog – so when he gets back in town he will add the Metrothreads photo to this entry. So check back!

Meeting in a group is such an important way to replenish your artistic well inside. We have all become so solitary. We used to go to a friends for coffee and conversation. Now we email and text. It has become impersonal and I really think we are at risk of losing rich experiences by continuing to go inward and shut out the world. I really make a big effort to attend guilds and critique groups as well as have occasional outings with girlfriends to museums and art shows. It really does fill up that inner artistic well and lead you as an artist down paths that may have otherwise been passed by!

Tomorrow I have a art quilt workshop with Laura Cater Woods. I am not all that familiar with her work but I guess I will be by tomorrow afternoon. It is an all day workshop. I dread schlepping my machine and supplies to the workspace – but it must be done. I have not taken too many workshops in the past two years as i have been so busy with zebra patterns. I will blog about that experience this week.

Flying Geese (originally posted on 9/17/08)

Monday night I gave a lecture at the Flying Geese Quilt Guild in Fallston, MD. They are a large group of quilters (over 200 members if I recall) that are vey nice and quite talented.  I have given many lectures before to many other MD, VA, PA, and DE guilds, but this one I approached differently.  Usually I bring all of my quilts, samples and patterns, and “make due” with what ever the venue permits. Sometimes the guilds have lots of hanging wall space. Other times guilds may have only tables. Last winter I invested in five quilt hangers so that I could make a booth should I chose to vend at some of the quilt shows.  I brought the quilt hangers and had all of my samples. Prior to the lecture I had made large canvas backdrops in which I tacked all my samples on.  Once I got to the lecture hall I just hung the sleeves and it was less than 10 minutes and all 18 florals, 12 birds and the other 5 samples were up on display. That was a good decision!  The lecture went very well and I stayed overnight in a nice hotel in the area as we had an early workshop the next morning. The workshop was very well attended and those ladies made some beautiful floral quilts. One mistake I made – forgot the camera!!! Now that I am blogging – that needs to me an “always carry” item!
So today it is time to get the Baltimore Stamp and Dc Stamp Patterns reprinted again. They have been ENORMOUSLY popular. I also need to get to the final details on the NYC stamp pattern, and then it will be onto Philly for the next stamp, then maybe Boston!  I think I should go visit the city I make a stamp of each time – don’t you?
On the home front I would like to introduce my family. I have three great boys and a wonderful husband. My boys are Cole 11, Austin 13 and Brooks 16. The older two are really into swimming and the younger one is into baseball and basketball.  They all got off to a great start in school – and I am glad they are back in school!  The oldest one, Brooks, has morphed into this unidentifiable foreign creature – I think they call it a “teenager”.  HELP! – Yesterday at the workshop I asked some experienced moms about how long this ailment will last…their answer was until they are 21! Oh NO! I have two more boys after Brooks! My husband is the VP of Marketing and Sales of a successful packaging business. Gary is my “web guy” and official advisor for all business transactions!  So that is a little family background.
There will be more to come early next week. This Saturday is the Fall Metrothreads meeting.  If you don’t know what Metrothreads is – check out the link on my website. I will for sure be taking notes and pictures!  The work from this group is amazing!
Lastly, everyone say a prayer for St. Francis and Aqua Aurora (my art quilts for 2008) which are in HOUSTON! I really hope IKE did not drown them in flood waters! I have heard there is no power in Houston! YIKES! I hope those quilts are in a tall building on the top floor!

My First Blog Entry! -(originally posted 9/14/08)

My First Blog Entry!

I know some of you have been waiting for my Blog button to start working. It is up now – so here we go …

My intention with my blog is to give you a peek at what I am doing in the way of quilting and pattern making. I hope to share tips and tricks and keep you up to date on my pattern line and National Quilt show submissions.

I have set a plan for myself in the way of professional and artistic goals. In 2003 I was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma which resulted in almost a full year of bed rest, chemo, radiation, and finally a stem cell transplant.  I told myself when and if I get better I am going to pursue my passion with fervor.

What is my passion? My passion is art – especially art with fiber and fabric.  I also love business and marketing.  In late 2004 I set a goal of really making a huge effort to create a line of patterns that would appeal to most quilters.  I hoped to sell the patterns under my company name “Zebra Patterns” locally and as my children grew up – expand my horizons to a national format.  I also wanted to compete nationally in the mixed media art categories at all the top shows in the US.  My ultimate goal is to continue growing Zebra Patterns to a nice sized small business realizing a nice profit through sales, lectures, workshops, and someday books all over the world.

As you continue to read my blog – you will get to know more about me and my art. This first blog is a bit bewildering. I could write for three days! But I will spare you! Let’s just jump right in!

What’s new?
For those of you who know my line of patterns – that answer would be “New York Citystamp” at left.  It is a really fun cityscape of NYC with “the big apple” floating in the Hudson!  I created the design to be the third stamp in the series.  I was at one of my DC customer’s quilt shops and I showed her a picture of the stamp. She really loved it, but commented that the Statue of Liberty was a bit “wee”. She was right!  I redesigned the stamp to make the statue larger. Unfortunately,  I have already made  four samples made with the wee statue.  The pattern will have the bigger statue.  This sparked a thought – I think I will start an online gallery shop of quilts for sale that may have been first editions. I will eventually remake the samples – but not anytime too soon! Keep an eye out for the gallery items for sale. The next stamp will be Philly! All you Philadelphia fans – please send me emails about what should be in a Philly Citystamp. I know DC, Baltimore and NY as I have lived in all of those locations, however – Philly – nope – need help with landmarks there!

Where have I been?
Yesterday I was in Aberdeen MD at Sew and Save owned by Peggy Isaac. If you have not been there – “time for a road trip”!  She has a huge shop with a full room of patterns, another room of just machines, another huge classroom, another room for longarms – and it goes on and on! There is a link to Sew and Save on my site under “shops to get zebra patterns”.  I was at Peggy’s shop to kick off my new line of bird patterns that I designed in spring of 08. Peggy is running a Block of the Month Program. The finished quilt with all 12 monthly birds is pictured at left.  She had a great group of quilters that I presented and did a full demonstration to. The BOM program of Birds is also running at Main Street Quilts in Elkridge and Patches in Mt. Airy.

Where am I going?
Tomorrow I am going back up toward Aberdeen to lecture and give a workshop at the Flying Geese Quilt Guild.  I will blog again to let you know how it went. I will be using my website as visuals through a computer projector.

Through for today: Man have I got a ton of stuff to do! I am happy that I have been able to check off another component of my marketing plan which was “get my blog running”.  Check! More to come…