Art Quest and Other Updates

Well Saturday dawned bright sunny and very warm! It was a good day for an art show though. We got a lot of traffic through the show however I was so busy setting up etc. that I forgot to take pictures. My partner Kevin and I did very well at the show. I sold a lot of my Inspirational Journals that I had brought. Kevin sold some of his CD’s, cards, prints and some journals he had made at www.myskoobi.com.

My partner Kevin Finley is a very talented guy (although he gets embarrassed when I say that). I picked him up for our second date (can’t remember why I was driving that day) but the first thing he did when he got into the car was hand me a CD. I listened to it when I got home from the date and I was blown away with how good it was.  Check out the crazy artwork he did for the album cover. You can check the music out at www.coastcafe.ca/albums.html

The most exciting news is that he sold a painting! Yeah! That was thrilling, although I am not sure who was more excited Kevin or the shows organizer Linda! I don’t have a picture of the piece that sold I will have to post that later.

Has anyone ever used myskoobi.com? It is a company here in Victoria BC that you can upload photos of your artwork and create beautiful journals from them. The quality is fantastic and if you haven’t looked into it I would recommend it.

On other news I finally decided to upgrade my phone! I used to have a BlackBerry Z10 which I loved. I had it for 3 years and it was still going strong! So why did I change you might ask? Well, a number of reasons. Blackberry was slowly getting less and less support from different app makers and although I loved the phone and the operating system now that I am working for myself and I only have the one phone I needed something that allowed me to have access to more apps than the Blackberry was able to support. For instance I want to be able to offer debit and credit card capability to my customers and I was not able to do that with my old phone.

So yesterday I bit the bullet and purchased a Samsung Galaxy S5 Neo. 

Why not an iphone you might ask? Well, the iphones are just too expensive and really the specs on this phone far outperformed the available iphone in the same price range. It has taken me most of last night and some of this morning trying to figure everything out though and getting things set up the way I want it to work. So far so good. I think I am really going to like this phone once I get the hang of it.

On other news I finished quilting a customer quilt today so stayed tuned for some pictures and some info on that quilt tomorrow.

Happy quilting!

 

 

Getting Ready for Art Quest

Well things have been busy around here this week. I have now completed making the Inspiration Journals for the upcoming Art Quest Show and Sale at my church. Here is a picture of more of the journals I have made.

Art Quest Journals

They have all turned out very nicely and I have actually sold 3 of the journals before the sale has even started. These are really fun to make. The only downside is you can’t really sell them for the time involved to make them. My plan is to create a written pattern and also to post some how to videos so people can start to make their own if they want to. I will hopefully have that posted in the next month.

I have another finished quilt (yeah), one that has been sitting in my “to be quilted pile”.

Asian Sampler Quilt-6

This one I have simply called Asian Sampler for lack of inspiration at this moment. A few years ago I had made a Border Creek Mystery quilt and it called for making all of these small 6 inch sampler blocks. The mystery had two sizes queen and a bed runner. Well I turned the bed runner into a lap quilt but I only needed about half of these little 6 inch blocks which meant I had all of these blocks left over. What to do with these blocks? Design and make another quilt! So that is what I did, I love blocks on point so I used mostly fabrics from my stash however I did end up buying fabric for the border.

I had fun quilting this quilt although I have to be honest and am not totally happy with my choices for the border. I used a matching metallic thread and you can’t see it at all. I used the same metallic thread in the green plan squares with a stenciled quilting design and I am very happy how that turned out.

The quilt is Cocoa approved too!Cocoa on Quilt 2

I was sewing on the binding and had to get up to get something so I placed the quilt on the floor for less than 3 minutes. When I came back look who had crawled on it and made himself comfortable. What is it about quilts on the floor that dogs and cats like so much?

This afternoon I am off with my Mom to pick up my Aunt and Uncle from the airport as they are flying in from Kamloops to visit my Mom for a week. It will be good to see them. Tomorrow is helping set up the church for Art Quest and Saturday will be volunteering all day at the show.

Hope to see you at the show on Saturday June 4, 2016, 1600 Cook St, corner of Cook and Mason enter by the garden gate off Mason St. It is from 10 am until 5 pm.

A Special Art Studio Visit

Last Wednesday afternoon I had a very special treat. I got the chance to visit one of my church members art studio along with two of my friends. It was the studio of Alan Thompson who is 90 years old and has been making art for many years. My friends and I were privileged to see a studio filled with wonderful treasures and the walls filled with both Alan’s art and others that he has collected over the years. It was especially wonderful to hear some of the stories that went along with the art and treasures.

Alan Thompson Studio-10

The above is a photo of Alan standing in front of just one of his walls of art. A lifetime of work!.

Alan Thompson Studio

Here is a look at a work in progress. Alan made his living as a draftsman and created art in his spare time. He is still creating art to this day.

Alan Thompson Studio-7

Another corner of the studio.

Alan Thompson Studio-9

Some more of his work. I loved the black, white and red sketch.

Alan will have some of his work available for sale at the Art Quest Show and Sale, Saturday, June 4, 2016 at 166 Cook Street, Victoria BC. This is on the corner of Cook and Mason and the entrance is through the garden gate.

Thank you Alan for opening your home and studio to us. It was a wonderful afternoon and I’m looking forward to seeing your work for sale on Saturday.

 

 

Inspiration Journals

My church is having a fund raising event called Art Quest where they have different artists showcase their work and have items for sale. My partner is a very good artist and musician so he will be showcasing some of his work. It will be held at 1600 Cook St in Victoria BC on June 4, 2016 from 10am until 5:pm.

In light of the above and because I wanted to do something fun I decided to make some journals and have them for sale. I had made one years ago but there wasn’t any pattern just someone showing me how so I had to figure out how to make the journals from scratch. I did manage to figure it out and have started writing down how I did it (so I can remember for next time). I will post the instructions once I have fleshed them out and made them look pretty.

Here is one that I have finished. I thread painted the sunflowers and then quilted around all the flowers in gold metallic thread.

Inspiration Journal

Inspiration Journal-2

This is what they look like once the quilting has been finished. I used Pellon (not sure which one) stiff interfacing so the journal will keep its shape.

Inspiration Journal-3

I don’t quilt these on the long arm these are quilted using my Janome Horizon which I keep set up for free motion quilting smaller projects.

These are a lot of fun to make! I am in the process of making a few more, there will be frogs, and butterflies as well. Those are still works in progress. I will show pictures of them once they are finished.

Happy Quilting