SWEET DREAMS

 I've been hoarding some small pieces of this rare vintage indigo fabric by Kashmeri.  And......finally decided it shouldn't be hidden away in my stash any longer.  It was printed in England, mainly for the South African market.  Both the right and wrong sides are featured.

SWEET DREAMS - 13" X 13"

AVAILABLE

Genuine Vintage Rare Kashmeri Indigo cotton print. Made in England.

Wool felt, pieced & appliqued. Wrapped on canvas covered frame and secured in white wood frame.

REACHING PEAK COLOR

 Peak color is perhaps one or two nights away.  Again, a totally unedited photo...snapped on our early morning 'forced march'.  Note the famous "smoke" (left) that gives this area the name, The Smoky Mountains! 

It's the trapped moisture coming out of the forested mountains that provide the appearance of smoke.

JAPANESE GARDENS

 

JAPANESE GARDENS - 53" X 53"

 View online my gallery shop for availability

Japanese & hand-dyed cottons, machine pieced and quilted.

Prepared for hanging with fabric sleeve attached.

AS THE SUN COMES OVER THE RIDGE

Our home is located in a mountain valley......shaped sort of like a big oval dutch oven.  Longer than wide, with mountains on all 4 sides.

This photo (without any photo editing) was taken during our morning forced march about 7:45 AM....just as the sun's light was reflecting on the upper forested mountain range to the West.  

The contrast with lights and darks will be a good color study for me as I continue to create small landscape art quilts.

THE EXCITEMENT OF......

 .......the day you begin a new quilt and the day the quilt is finished is the best part of the quilt making process.  In between can be frustrating, exhilarating, satisfying, puzzling, mentally exhausting, or times when a happy dance is required.

And I have begun......so far, so good.....

FALL COLORS NOW SHOWING OFF

 Early this morning during our daily 'forced march', we were rewarded with views of our mountain fall colors.  Yes.....stunning!

MAPLE LEAF - 3 SEASONS

This was my inspiration.....just a simple fall leaf found fluttering about on the ground.  It got me to thinking about how this one simple leaf had transformed from summer green, to fall yellow, and then to the dull  browns of winter.

                           MAPLE LEAF - 3 SEASONS - 18" X 15.5"

Artist's hand & ice-dyed cottons, appliqued, hand and machine embroidered.

 

 

A GOOD FRIEND TO THE RESCUE!

After whimpering to my internet pal Kathy Schmidt, about my continued efforts to make my maple leaf project work.....we entered into a discussion about possibilities.

The newest dilemma I was yammering about was misjudging how much lime green embroidery floss was required for background embroidery on the green section. As you can see, I was short just a little bit.  

Because I live in nowhere land, my only hope to purchase more was Walmart.  You can guess how that would go.  So I started digging in my hand dyed flosses to find some sections of lime green that I could use.  Desperate, I know!  She offered several suggestions such as throwing in an unexpected color....but since it was 95% stitched, it wasn't one I thought would work without removing some I had already sewn.

Then she came up with a totally BRILLIANT idea......check my sewing threads for the right color, double the strand to stitch the remaining area.  WOW, IT WORKED!!!!  

Many, many thanks to Kathy.....check out her blog.......this gal can create quality, well designed art faster than I can blink my eyes.   

PERHAPS NOT WORTH SAVING

SIGHING..... I've already spent a stupid amount of time on this piece.....obviously it's not finished.....hoping I can salvage it. 

Frankly, I'm a bit embarrassed to share it.  However, my years of teaching confirmed my instinct......it's encouraging for others to know that everyone has design struggles from time to time. 

OCTOBER PTA MEETING

It was such a lovely fall day....perfect for a drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway where the Southern Highland Folk Center is located.  Our Professional Textile Artists group met there for our Oct. meeting.  

Show and Tell began the day.....

Barbara made this fantastic crazy Hole In The Barn Door quilt (also known as Shoofly quilt block).  We all loved the use of scraps that with Barbara's skill.....came together in this happy quilt which is a gift for a friend.

Barbara was reunited with this incredible whole cloth cotton trapunto quilt that she had hand quilted.  I can't recall the details of how it came back to her.....but marvel that it did.

Judy shared an incredible stack of silk noil eco printed fabrics done with her heat press.  She's a very detailed person and loves experimenting with different methods, materials, while documenting the results. We can't wait to see how she transforms the pieces into small art quilts.

This piece is especially interesting.....the botton piece it's a stand alone print on silk noil. It's seen here covered with a stunning printed sheer fabric. They happen to marry during the showing of the pile of Judy's fabrics and will certainly become one unit very soon.

Detail of pieced and applique quilt below.

Connie Brown is a great ambassador for the Folk Art Center.  As a certified appraiser, she often demonstrates at various special events the Southern Highland Guild offers.  This quilt top was a dondation via the Asheville Quilt Guild's quilt collection day for folks in need.  She got permission for our group to use a large room at the Center so we could baste the quilt.  In the future it will be set up in the entrance, where visitors will be encouraged to put some quilting stitches in it.  Such a great introduction to the world of quilts!

Cathie brought the couch throw quilt she made during our recent 13th annual PTA 3 day retreat.  Some (like Cathie) actually do a great deal of sewing!

Connie has been growing/marketing indigo plants and uses their leaves to dye/print fabric.  These are handkerchiefs that she creates for sale.

This is a quilt Connie previously offered to visitors to try their hand at hand quilting.  As luck would have it, Judy brought her granddaughter that day to the Folk Art Center.  

Where Connie patiently guided her with a quilting needle and thread to add stitches to the quilt.  This lucky little girl is now featured (along with others) on this year's Heritage Weekend poster.

PCA DRIVE TO CATALOOCHEE

Warning......this isn't a fiber related post......

Our car club had a SUV drive this past week to view the Elk in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.  Detailed info that may interest you about the reintroduction of the Elk to the park and how to view them can be found here:   https://www.nps.gov/grsm/learn/nature/elk.htm

Because the best viewing time is usually early morning or late evening, our group of 14 cars meet at 3:30 PM for the hour+ drive.  We had a picnic lunch and visited for awhile once we arrived.  Next we headed to the various areas where the Elk are known to feed.

Some of our participants were able to get videos of the bulls bugling for a mate....unfortunately we didn't.  However, we enjoyed seeing a lone Elk looking for love as he chased the females around the field.  They wanted nothing to do with him!

Following photos are in no specific order......just a fun look back at the day.

BUSY WITH BOOKS AND BOWLS

 With a positive attitude, I continue to create smaller items for my space at Woolworth Walk Gallery.  Shoppers often like to bring a token of their visit to Asheville back home.  When art quilts don't fit the bill, these items tend to fulfill their wish.

Wet felted wool bowls, two feature beach glass from Lake Michigan, mini notebooks are just the right size to carry into one's purse.

RESTOCKING

My time has been spent working on pieces to restock my Woolworth Walk Gallery space in preparation for what hopefully is an active fall tourist season. 

"Making Spirits Bright"- 15" x 22" - the center began as a sample for one of my beading workshops, featuring methods for beads to highlight the edges of motifs and even quilt bindings.

Detail

I share my space with my pal Judy Simmons.....she was still reorganizing her side when I snapped these pictures.....so I wasn't able to visually brag about her wonderful scarves/notecard and art quilt display...but hope to get photos to share with you soon.

These photos are of my area which are kinda of broken up since it utilizes 3 wall areas of differing sizes. However, I think this makes for a more interesting space. 

If you get a chance to be in downtown Asheville.....stop by Woolworth Walk Gallery.....and stroll down the large open stairway to the lower level to find us.

MOONLIT BAMBOO

Sometimes less is actually more!! 

MOONLIT BAMBOO - 18" X 26.5"

Available in my online gallery.....link on top bar

Japaneses cottons, batik, hand-dyed cotton, appliqued & quilted. Hanging sleeve attached.

A START

Doesn't look like much yet, but hopefully it will soon.  It takes me more time than it should when working with busy prints to find the path to a design I'm happy with....  stay tuned...... 

ECO PRINTING WITH HEAT PRESS

Wow.....a day of inspiration and guidance.  

Several of us from the Mt. Art Quilt Group have been gathering (now monthly....so much to do, so little time) to share our interests.  Both Judy and Kathie have invested in heat presses, used to do eco printing on both paper and cloth.  Here's just some of Kathie's wall of inspiration!

Her studio space is beyond something I dream about.  The area is so ample she has separate spaces for various tasks, including this area for wet work.

Here's one of the three sewing nooks.

And another featuring a vintage singer machine.

Organized bins for fabrics/books/magazines.....

Several large tables to spread out with projects.  This work area  was covered in preparation for layering the teflon/wet felt/prepared foliage design (on paper or fabric)/covered by more wet felt and teflon.  Various solutions of mordants are handy to soak leaves to achieve different apperances.  One surprising mordan is vodka...yes, ordinary drinking vodka....obviously the cheap kind.

Her large heat press has it's own station....protected by plastic and rolled towels to keep the excess moisture at bay.

A design has been arranged on a silk scarve which is getting a second go at the heat press.  Not all foliage and mordants achieve good prints, so reprocessing is sometimes needed.

Here's a beauty....printed on natural color silk noil.

A drying rack on a covered deck allows the work to dry as we work on additional pieces.  The colored fabrics on the right side of the photo were my attempts at printing on wool.  I knew that was going to be iffy and except for a few leaves that printed well....most areas were left with only dull smudges.  A little disappointing but NOT a surprise.....good to get approach out of my system.

As luck would have it.....Jane Dunnewold's newest book about eco printing with a heat press arrived in the mail at our hostesses home.  We were thrilled that one of Kathie's pieces is featured in the Gallery of Inspiration.  It's super stunning in person....yeah Kathie....congratulations!!!!!

LUFT WASSER 2021

Well over a year in the planning after the cancellation of Luft Wasser 2020, the day was finally here.  Luft Wasser Definition:  Water to Air.....which spans both the water cooled and air cooled Porsches.

After a really foggy start at 7:00 AM in Waynesville, NC we lead a line of 11 Porsches over the mountains to Brevard, NC.  We admired the fall color which has already arrived in the higher elevations in the Pisgah National Forest.

As you can see by the view from our lead vehicle this early in the morning, happily there are few cars on the narrow, steep, twisty roads to slow us down!!

Our Porsche Appalachian Region Porsche Club put on this event, displaying 150 Porsches on Main Street in downtown Brevard, NC. Photo provided by Jim Moore.

It's such an honor and pleasure for our club to share our vehicles with the public....There were many rare cars delighted even us die hard Porsche fans.  Photo compliments of Jim Moore.

My pal Dianne spotted this funny ditty on this handsome Carrera GTS. The weather was perfect and it was so great to visit with old and new friends!!