WITH THE WIND

I've been busy......Fall tourists have been good for business.  And that means I've been hard at work creating new pieces.  Hope you enjoy seeing this one.

 WITH THE WIND - 41" x 50" © Mary Stori

                                       Now Available                                                         

Authentic Japanese cottons, pieced, appliqued, quilted with metallic thread. 

Edges bound, hanging sleeve attached.

       

DETAILS

BACKING

READY FOR FALL VISITORS

The reason many folks visit our area is to enjoy the stunning scenery ablaze with fall colors.

Here's a view from our property looking West at about 8:30 AM

And like so many we hop in the car and drive the historic Blue Ridge Parkway.....this trip takes us to Lake Toxaway for our car club's Oktober Fest celebration.

My good pal and booth mate Judy Simmons, at Woolworth Walk Gallery in downtown Asheville, has her booth ready for fall and holiday shoppers....her work is stunning and many pieces feature eco-printed art quilts.  Be sure to check out her large selection of hand dyed silk scarves too. As well as a large selection of handmade cards.  

 I too am prepared for visitors, hoping one of my pieces will get a forever home.  If any of the work you see in our booth catches your eye, you can contact either Judy or myself....or better yet go directly to the friendly staff at Woolworth Walk   828-254-9234 who can provide further info. They are happy to check on availability, send detail photos if needed, and can carefully and efficiently ship any purchased work directly to you.

Thanks for stopping by!!

ESCAPE TO JAPAN

 After appx. 72 hrs. on this piece.....it's finally finished......Way too much time spent tying off thread ends......

ESCAPE TO JAPAN  -  45" x 45" -  Authentic Japanese cottons, pieced, appliqued, and quilted with metallic thread.  Bound edges & hanging sleeve.   DM if interested in giving this piece a forever home.

HOW WE GOT OUR CIVIL WAR CABIN

 Internet pal Robbie asked me to elaborate on our small civil war cabin .....shown in the previous post.

It came about after we moved to NC from a home in WI that had a 4 1/2 car detached garage, and a 2 1/2 car attached garage.  Clearly the now 2 1/2 car garage was not adequate for the lawn tractor, hand mower, plus a zillion other garden and 'boy toy' pieces of equipment.

I had recently visited a Southern Living model home in nearby Sandy Mush, NC.....about 30 mins. as the crow flies, but at least an hr. by car.  (Oh the winding roads through the mountains we have here!!!)  On that property was a stunning shed being errected by a small company that seeks out old log structures.....disassembles them, numbering all the pieces and then sells and reassembles them on customers properties.  This small company was literally about 15 mins. from our house (if you knew where to look).

'The husband' couldn't bring himself to purchase a metal shed or any of the other premade ones available at big box stores and before I knew it....we had bought a disassembled (said to be pre-civil war) small cabin.  The artisan who built it for us was outstanding.  He would not stand for the idea of setting it on concrete blocks.....so he sourced local stones and built the foundation....no motor, all dry stacked.  It was fascintating to watch....like putting odd shaped blocks of a quilt together!!  He even made hinges out of old horse shoes and hung a single rusted mule show upside down over the doors.  He used vintage tin for the roof.   

This is how it looked the day it was finished.....back in 2007.

Note the old piece of leather that covered the hinged door handle!!

This is what our home looked like just after moving in the summer of 2006.  You can see why a log cabin was so appealing to us.  We now wish we'd have found a bigger structure.....though it probabably wouldn't have been afforable as this entire process was very labor intensive.

 

In 2019 we had a complete redo on the front porch/deck/railing and roof.  I had always loved the idea of a log home...though was educated enough by then to know I didn't want a total log home....way tooooo dark inside.  Ours is log sided and that's bad enough.  The amount of maintance & cost is astonishing.  This update was done with material as maintance free as possible.

So there you go Robbie...the tale of our antique log cabin......

MICROWAVE- WAVE ICE DYEING

Oh what a beautiful day ......microwave ice-dyeing with some buddies.......how's that for immediate gratification?

Funny though....I was aiming to create some reds and oranges......guess I have to try again....poor me......

 

FALL CAME OVERNIGHT

Ahhhhh....the beauty of fall.....snapped this photo of our civil war log cabin (used as a garden shed) as I began my afternoon walk with Sooty (our 10+ black lab rescue dog)....who has taken to becoming a statue when she doesn't want to walk any further.   

OH THAT JAPANESE FABRIC!!

 Late summer/early fall had me worried that the economic downturn in this country was affecting the tourist industry in our area. Which of course affects my art quilt sales....selfish as that sounds!

I'm happy to report it seemed to be just a pause because I'm as busy as ever. Though my large Japanese art quilts aren't my favorite projects, they continue to be of interest. My inventory was tapped out so I've been working like crazy to get more underway.....here's a layout of fused to be appliqued blocks.

HARMONY IN NATURE

 

“HARMONY IN NATURE”-  23.5” x 18.5”  © Mary Stori

SOLD

Mono-printed, gradation dyed, indigo dyed cottons, appliquéd, 

embroidered, & densely quilted.  Faced edges, fabric hanging sleeved attached.

WORK CONTINUES

 Other demands have kept me from working on my newest piece as much as I'd like, however it's slowly growing. More motif additions coming..... I'm really liking this one!