My Town and the Gallery

In several of my meanderings I mentioned West Point and the Gallery, so I thought I would show a couple pictures. 

The population cannot be much more than 700.  This "link"  (click on the word "link") will take you to some statistical data on West Point and also some maps of the area. 

This is Main Street

This is the Main Street Artist Gallery

Inside the Gallery - some Wall Art, jewelry, furniture, cards

Some Wall Art and nice basketry

More Wall Art and little stuff

My stuff

More of my stuff

Some more

And more

And more of my stuff

Looks like I was the main contributor for this event.  The owner did a very good job featuring all the display items. 

A Little Crochet

Yesterday I finished the last of the few items for the Artist Gallery and made the delivery to the shop.  Today is Art in the Garden.  The shop owner is hoping for some foot traffic.  We are a teeny, tiny town, West Point, in the Sierra Nevada foothills, so we look for the community events to draw traffic up the mountain road.

I am amazed at the artistic talent in this area of mostly retired individuals who moved up here from the big cities in the Valley and along the Pacific coast.  So, we are not exactly out to make huge profits on our products, but I suppose, like me, most of us like to keep busy working at our little hobbies and crafts and need an outlet to sell what we make and have no plans to gift or donate the items.  My way of contributing to the local economy, helping the shop owner make a living, donate items to local events, and whatever other reasons I choose to do what I do. 

Speaking of donations....I made an obligation to make something for one of the local organizations for their Fall fund drive.  I have some really cute Fall/Halloween type embroidery designs I've been wanting to use in a blanket.  (I'm back to making my blankets again. WOO HOO!!)  I want to make it a pretty generous size, but my quilting skills are not the greatest yet and I really don't want to send it to a professional quilter.  It looks like I will just have to set up a schedule for practicing on my small arm quilting machine set-up.  Good project for this winter.  Can you tell I am somewhat of a procrastinator???

So, back to the baby/toddler/children items.  I have a small sketch journal with several ideas for the smaller items.  I want to incorporate some hand embroidery into these items.  Right now, I am practicing my hand embroidery skills as they are a little rusty.  Updated my library with a few used embroidery books I found at Amazon and even splurged on a new book.  I have also been collecting ideas from various Pinterest boards.  Pretty soon, I will be on an information overload high.

Well, I have a few more pictures to show of a couple crochet baby coverlets I made for the Artist Gallery.  With these I included an ornament from Sonia Showalter Designs.

Baby Boy Crochet Blanket

Baby Boy Ornament from Sonia Showalter Designs

Baby Girl Ornament from Sonia Showalter Designs

Baby Girl Crochet Blanket

Digitizer's Showcase - BFC Creations

It is getting close to the 4th of July and I wanted to do something patriotic for the Artist Gallery.  I found this Liberty lace bowl design at BFC Creations.  Made the small size, but also ordered the medium and large.  This one came out looking very nice, so I think I will be making the other two sizes as well.  Who knows, I might even decide to keep them for myself. 

For the photo, I brought out some of my husband's Navy memorabilia. He spent most of his sea duty assignments on that ship.  Maybe for the next photos I will include some memorabilia from my time in the Navy. 

Liberty Lace Bowl and Doily.   Design by BFC Creations.

Breaking News - New Craft Studio Scheduled

WOW!!!  I just can't believe that after 40 years of sewing and crafting I am finally going to get a larger space!  I guess retirement has some benefits.  All our hard work and saving for the future paid off and I will be able to move from my current 9 foot x 12 foot extra bedroom work area that stretches to the living room and kitchen into a very spacious 18 foot x 18 foot "studio".  We are adding an 18 foot by 38 foot addition to our house.  This will be divided into two rooms.  One for me and one for my husband.

 I guess one could say I've been a DIYer before the acronym became popular.  "Recycle" and "repurpose" were also part of my lifestyle as we were not wealthy by any means and chose not to live on credit and accrue a large debt.  Throwing away usable items was not my habit as it was wasteful.  My working space started getting smaller and smaller with each new tempting hobby or craft activity I wanted to learn.  Needless to say, I acquired quite a stash of working materials, supplies and books from my rug hooking and macrame days, to a fabric stash that still includes material scraps from the 70's on when I was sewing clothes for my daughters and myself.  Add to that yarns used for crocheting and knitting; threads and ribbons for embroidery, sewing, and cross stitch; beads and trinkets for embellishments; laces, even weave fabrics, stabilizers....I think one can catch the drift.  So, things really started to become more cramped when I decided I wanted to include machine embroidery in my activity repertoire and then add quilting to the mix.  Now, I need more storage space on my computer.  It is a good thing there is Pinterest...I can save even more inspirational pictures and "how to's"  without taking up additional personal space!!!

Anyway, for those interested in knowing, here are a few pictures of the way things are now.....

 

This is where the house addition will be.  We will lose 3 windows, but plan to install solar tubes in the laundry room, office, and maybe the garage.  More pictures to follow when the construction begins. 

This is my 9' x 12' space now.  View from the door.

Left side of the room as one enters.  I have projects started in the boxes.  The other side of the closet has another rolling storage cabinet.

My computer and office area on the right side of the room as one enters.

My sewing and embroidery area. I do have a nice window view.

My "temporary" storage space for material in the chair and cutting area on the kitchen counter.

We have a smaller house that also serves as a storage area for more material, photo props, and completed items that I will have for sale.  I also have a small arm quilting machine set-up in the living room and also a couple more sewing machines in the small house.  I will have to devote some time to learning the intricacies of quilting my own projects.  Right now, I just get frustrated, because my working supplies are scattered/stored in various nooks and crannies.

For those visiting my blog, we used to live and work in the city.  Several years ago my husband and I purchased a very nice piece of property in the California Sierra Nevada foothills. This became our get-away from the city life neither of us really enjoyed.  We think the little house was originally an office for the people running the gold mine (our property is a gold mine, not in operation, nor will be).  The house acquired a few "add ons" by previous owners to make it a residence. When we decided we wanted to retire to this property, we built a new house.  When I retired in 2012, we sold our city property and moved up here permanently. 

So, now I have a little business started and it will be oh so nice to have the space in a studio where I can continue on my new adventure.

Digitizer's Showcase - Betty's Original Embroideries

There was one straggler table runner I just didn't know how I wanted to complete.  The seam ripper came in handy on this one as I just did not like the sashing on my first try.  Too much of one color.  Then, this little Carolyn Shores Wright art of birds under an umbrella was calling for a bit of lace.  Looks like I have a couple doilies setting on the table runner, but this is an applique design by Mother Hen Quilts.  Looks more dressed up now and I am pleased with the result.

I have a few more items to make for the Artist Gallery, then it is back to making some more little fancier baby blankets with lace and heirloom stitching, hand and machine embroidery that is more pleasing to me.

Birds Under Umbrella by Betty's Original Embroideries

Birds Under Umbrella Table Runner   Size:  21" x 43"

Closer look at the applique design from Mother Hen Quilts

Vintage Pictures - Day Dreaming

Every once in a while I spend some time looking for vintage pictures.  I always thought I would try copying onto material and incorporating them in a crazy quilt.  I always admire the talents and creativity of textile artists who seem to effortlessly make beautiful items. Every once in a while, I think by happenstance, I manage to create something that is pleasing to the eye with good color and composition.

Anyway, I thought I would share some of my ephemera.

A while ago I came across Benita Skinner's Victoriana Quilt Designs website, Facebook page and Pinterest site.  Benita posts some beautiful sewing related vintage pictures and offers free printables on her website.

I remember having a little toy sewing machine.  I don't think it was a Singer, though.  My mother had a Singer sewing machine and I made many little blankets for my dollies on her machine. 

Click here to go to Victoriana Quilt Designs website.

Here are a few pictures from my personal collection.   I scanned these from small calendar cards.  Takes you back to an era when people were not focused on all the technology of today.  There was time for artful pursuits.

I have many more pictures in my collection, but have to do some research to make sure I can post without any copyright infringements. Of course, there are a ton of websites out there with free images and I prowl those sites.  Many of them I have found through Pinterest.

Quilted Table Runner with Cross Stitch Design

I have been cross stitching for many, many years and I have oodles of finished cross stitch designs on fabric.  I think I got tired of framing the designs or making pillows and just started collecting the designs that ended up in a stash of unfinished projects.  Get a knot in my stomach when I see the stash and often wonder how I can use the designs in a finished product.  Well, I did two vintage looking little designs about the size of a bookmark of a boy and girl.  The colors in the designs matched some material from my stash, so I decided to make a table runner and incorporate these two little pieces.


Here are pictures of the result. 

Table Runner   Size: 21" x 67 1/2"

A little close view of the vintage boy and girl.

Think I will make some unique blankets with more of the cross stitch pieces.  Sounds like a good idea.

Digitizer's Showcase - Kreations by Kara

Keeping with my table linen theme for the local artist gallery offerings during Art in the Garden day on June 22nd, I also made some placemats using Kreations by Kara Woodland Grunge designs.  Kara's designs are also available from Oregon Patchworks. 

I usually use all cotton in my quilted items, but I had some linen look material of cotton/rayon blend with gold metallic that I used for these placemats.

I think these designs would also be nice on a quilted blanket for men or boys.  Since most of my designs are geared more for babies and girls, I may just have to make a blanket for the masculine gender pretty soon.  I do have an order in from my husband, but his will be more hunting related.

Here are the placemats.

Woodland Grunge Placemats   Size:  18" x 13"

A little closer look at the lizard.

Bird in a tree.

Not sure what this one is..salamander or gecko?

Another bird. 

Digitizer's Showcase - Betty's Original Embroideries

Finally, I am getting around to doing some updates in my blog with pictures of Carolyn Shores Wright artwork digitized by Betty Falasca of Betty's Original Embroideries.  These items will be in our West Point local artist gallery as "for sale" items during the Art in the Garden show on June 22nd.  I thought it would be quicker to make some table linens as I was running out of time.  Well, so much for quantity.  I got distracted by hand embroidery projects and my thoughts were running along the line of combining machine embroidery with some Brazilian embroidery to add more dimension.  I digress.....here are the pictures of my table linens.  Just love these little birds with so much character.  I have ideas for other projects using more of the little bird designs in the various sets.

Snack Mats   Size:  16" x 16"

Snack Mats.  Right size for breakfast or cookies and milk.

Close-up of this cute little bird.  Can't you hear the singing?

OOOPS!!!  All Stacked Up.

Don't you just love the expressions?  Love them.

This is such a pretty little bird.

Up, Up and Away Table Topper   Size:  30" x 30"

A beautifully digitized design.