December Shipping/Shopping

"Confused"

Well, Black Friday and Cyber Monday are over, but Christmas Shopping is still happening! To celebrate the shopping season, I'm offering FREE SHIPPING on all Art Work and Art Quilts in my Etsy and Art Fire shops. Use Coupon Code ARTWORKFREESHIP in both shops to get the free shipping on these beautiful pieces!

The piece above is called "Confused". It is mixed media on stretched canvas. Painted with textile and acrylic paints, denim, silk, cheesecloth, painted Misty Fuse, papers and beads. It is listed in my Etsy shop.

I have a lot of fabric that isn't posted on either shop (just haven't had time to take the pictures and post them!), so if you are looking for a certain color, color combination, or size, shoot me an email and I'll let you know what I have! The Ice Dyed fabrics are fantastic!

Okay, off to clean up my desk, do much hated paperwork, and clean up the Christmas decorating mess. I've done as much as I can do this year for decorating. What isn't done, is going back in the attic!

Happy Shopping with FREE SHIPPING everyone!

Happy Thanksgiving and Black Friday Free Shipping!

Color Explosion - in my Art Fire Studio

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I just love this day. It is the one day every year that I get to serve my family. Have them in our home and cook big. I love to cook, but don't get the opportunity to cook big very often - aka, empty nest syndrome. I get to spend today visiting with my parents, sister, sister-in-law (brother is working so his plant workers can have the day off - such a good guy!), nephew and Mr. Wonderful.
Cosmo, our precious Maltese, is all dressed up in his Thanksgiving bandanna and ready for the company to arrive.

Tomorrow is Black Friday, so I am offering Free Shipping on everything in my Etsy and Art Fire Shops. If you shop StudioJulesArt on Etsy use the coupon code "BlackFridayFreeShipping" and if you shop StudioJules on Art Fire, the Free Shipping is already taken care of.

I pray each of you have many things to be thankful for this year. Family is on the top of list!

Ice Dyeing, Oh My Goodness, I'm Hooked!!!!!

Okay, in my post day before yesterday I told you about my first day of  "Ice Dyeing". I'm hooked, hook, line and sinker. This is the way I'm going to work for a while. Just look at what happens!

These two are already posted on StudioJulesArt on Etsy.

Colors used: Lilac, Fuchsia, and Clear Yellow

Colors used: Slate Blue, Basic Red and Lemon-Lime Green

Can you believe how beautiful and gorgeous these fabrics are! Here are the other two. They are in my StudioJules Art Fire studio.

Colors used: Lilac, Fuchsia and Clear Yellow

Colors used: Slate Blue, Basic Red and Lemon-Lime Green

11-11-11

Double Tulip Quilt, Quilted by Alma Baugh 1966

As we look back in history, World War I ended, on the 11 hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. When I was checking FaceBook this morning there was a post from The Quilt Index reminding me of the significance of this date in history, along with a post of a quilt made in 1918. I'm reminded the "quiet" way women have played such a strong roll in our history by creating quilts to warm their families, give direction to slaves through the underground railroad, pass on family histories and love, oh, the list goes on. I appreciate this important piece history and how it has played in our lives and how it has evolved into elaborate traditional quilting and art quilts. I give great thanks to the pioneer women who passed down this tradition to their daughters and granddaughters. There is a history of quilters on Mom's side of the family. The picture above is of a quilt on my quilt rack. Two of my grandmothers' cousins made the blocks in the 1920's and then her step-mom (the only great-grandparent I knew) quilted it in 1966. After Mimi finished the quilting, it laid on my bed. My mom kept the quilt until my 40th birthday and then it became mine. Lucky me! I'm so blessed to be able to treasure this piece of family history and know the history of the blocks and quilting. When Mimi was quilting this quilt, the blocks were old enough that the fabric was thin and fragile. Mom asked why she was spending time quilting a quilt that was already in slightly poor condition, and the answer was that it was the best way to spend the day and to pass time.

Today, I treasure getting to spend my days in my studio, passing time, continuing a family tradition of quilting, even though it is in art quilt form, not traditional quilts.Well, I periodically make traditional quilts, just ask my grandkids!

Dye selection

 Yesterday I spent a good part of the day dyeing fabric. In the August/September 2011 issue of Quilting Arts Magazine, there is an article on Ice Dyeing. Oh yum! So yesterday I decided it was a great time to try it. Here are some pictures of the beginning of the process. I selected my dyes and dyed 2 yards per color selection.

Fabric, Ice, Dye

I only had enough ice to dye two color selections, so I'll ice dye the other two tomorrow. Lucky for me, we have a nice under the counter ice maker!

In the instructions it said to cover the fabric, ice and dye with a cover, well I used my favorite fiber, cheesecloth. I also put some cheesecloth at the end of the tray to sit in the dye run off. Can't wait to see how it all comes out in the wash later today.

Cheesecloth over the ice

Here is a picture of the fabric and cheesecloth, the ice has all melted and is ready to start the rinsing and washing process. There will be pictures tomorrow of the completed pieces!

Ice has melted and ready to wash! Love these colors!

Dye Color Decisions

Decisions, Decisions...what's a girl to do. I need to get busy dyeing fabric so I'm not behind come the first of the year when the quilt shows are all gearing up. Last week I made a delightful trip to United Notions/Moda and bought 5 bolts of PFD.

Today, I'm sitting here with my list of dye colors and my color wheel. Trying to decide what new color combos would be pretty and pleasing to the eyes of my customers. 

So, help me out here ya'll, what color combos do you like?

IQF 2011 - It was a wonderful time!

Standing with my Old Alton Bridge quilt

Oh, it was a wonderful time at IQF 2011. The Friday night reception for the quilters in the Lone Stars III book was exciting. I had a wonderful time getting to know some of the quilters, signing each others books and seeing the quilts.

Here I am with my friend Amy Walker

Saturday we have spent the day looking at the quilts with our wonderful friends, and former neighbors, Dale and Amy Walker. Amy is my dear friend who introduced me to appreciating antique quilts, which led to me deciding I could make traditional quilts, which led to me getting board with piecing and discovering art quilting. So to the day with her was icing on the cake for me.

After we looked at all (close to all) the quilts, I reported for my interview with the Alliance of American Quilts. Treat for me, I was able to meet Amy Milne. What a wonderful woman! I have an admiration for her energy and excitement about the "Save our Stories" project and the work they are doing.

Okay, how much shopping did I do at festival? Well, not as much as I usually do! I had my list of dyes to buy from ProChem, the Masters and Masters 2 books from SAQA, my annual splurge on fudge, and Jeff bought me a bracelet. That's it! Believe it or not! This trip was about seeing the quilts with Amy, spending the time with Jeff, the book reception, and the interview...shopping was not too high on my list and I know that is hard for some of my "dye" hard friends to imagine, but it's true.

Saturday we were going to go to the Gala on the Green, but we just couldn't get the energy to go. I had awoken Friday morning with vertigo and it was just about gone, but still teasing me a bit.  Sunday we  drove home, listening to a Nickolas Sparks book and I loads of ideas stitching around in my head. I always have more ideas than I have time to make art quilts, but it is the passion that gets me up in the morning and into the studio each day.

Today I worked on some charity quilts and will finish them up tonight while, hopefully. Tomorrow, well it will be a day to "dye" for and working on the background of a new little quilt I'm testing out.

Happy creating everyone and enjoy your creative brain more than that other side!

And The Winner Is....I mean Are....

Waiting to pick the winners!

Well, Cosmo the Gentleman, (yes, that is his registered name) did his duty this morning. He just wasn't up to it last night, so first thing this morning we came up to the Studio and got to business. Here he is with our wonderful fiber bowl and 13 entries. Now, Cosmo reminded me that I have not just one, but two extra copies of IQF Quilting Scene, so he is going to pick 2 winners! Well, okay then!

 

Picking Winner #1

Winner #1 is Gail! Gail enjoys free motion stitching/quilting and couching instead of satin stitching (I need to try that, I have several couching feet!). Congratulations Gail, I'll email you to get your address.

Picking Winner #2

Winner #2 is Lu Peters! Wonderful! Lu is one of my favorite people and I'm blessed to be the DAFA Show Co-Chair with her this year! Lu has two favorite techniques, variegated quilting threads and adding embellishments.

Congratulations Ladies! I hope you enjoy this magazine as much as I have. I think I have read through it 3 times this past week and there are wonderful articles in it!