Traveling through Ohio

The Fredericktown Quilters' Market Day was successful for me, if not in cash, definitely in books.  I added six new books to my personal library, along with some magazines and two other books that I already have, but will eventually be door prizes at a future class.  Thank you to those of you who made purchases from me!  I hope that you will find some new skills in this blog, at least you will be entertained by my ramblings.

It looks like I will be a regular presence at the Zanesville First Friday gallery walks through the summer.  Every first Friday of the month in Zanesville, the downtown art galleries open late and have special events from 5 PM to 8 PM.  I will be in the Masonic Temple at 38 North Fourth Street.  I will have mostly finished art work - fabric boxes and small art quilt wall hangings - but I usually bring a small selection of hand dyed fabric too.  Stop by and visit!

Here are two views of my table last month, tucked inside a vacant office:

Images copyright RPS. Please do not copy or repost.

The Masonic Temple was built in 1903, and retains most of its original interior.  This was the view out of my little office-for-a-night:

You'll never see new woodwork like that!

Despite not yet attempting the pirhi eggs I mentioned a few weeks ago, I am working on some flower pounding on fabric, from one of the books I just purchased.  Check back on Thursday to see if it works!

Mark Your Calendars

Rags Paper Stitches will be vending at the Quilters' Market Day, Saturday April 22 in Fredericktown, OH.  I will have a little of everything; it is advertised as a "flea market for quilters."  I'm planning on bringing hand-dyed fabric, Creativity Kits, funky yarn packs, vintage sewing collectibles and textiles, commercial batiks, thread, patterns and more!

Looking ahead to October, I will again be a vendor at the Mutton Hill Quilt Show in Akron, OH, October 13 and 14.  I hope to have a few additions to my usual crop of dyed fabrics and vintage finds by then - perhaps thread, patterns and books.

If you are in Ohio, please come and see me at these shows!

Overwhelmed in October

Eleven days into the month, and I already realize this is going to be one of those months... I am not going to be able to keep up with my normal twice a week posting schedule.  I might, but I'm not going to make it a priority, as there are other things more pressing right now, most of them fabric related.  I'm trying to squeeze out two dye sessions before the Mutton Hill Quilt Show, and it does not help that my new job is providing all sorts of distractions.

The job is in a library, and I have checked out four books already, on top of the two books of my own I started a few weeks ago.  To make matters even worse, the library had their annual book sale this past weekend, and I managed to add ten more volumes to my own personal library.  Keep checking back here over the winter to find out how collage, the songs of Tom Waits, the photographs of Walker Evans, and ice cream all relate to each other... or how they don't connect!  Will I ever finish The Fountainhead?  Will I even start it?

Transitions

Last week was a significant transition for me, and I did not intend to let an entire week go by without posting, but it did.  I have started a part time job, which will provide a little bit of predictable income.  After two years of working for myself, trying to make a go of this art and fabric business, I must do a little restructuring.  I'm not giving up on the business, I still want to keep it up, it just won't be on the scale that I had hoped for someday.  Although, who knows, sometimes amazing things have happened in my life, and I'm sure great things are still waiting for me.

Over the past weekend, I was a vendor at the current venue for the Inspired by the National Parks quilt show.  I was very impressed with the fabric interpretations of our National Parks, the exhibit is a excellent showcase of the versatility of the art quilt and the creativity of the artists.  If it is coming to a location near you, go see it.  I am now inspired to attempt my own pictorial art quilt over the winter.

Thank you to those of you who discovered me and made purchases at the Vendor's Weekend.  I will be at only two more shows this year.  Next up is the Town Square Quilt Lovers' Guild show, Saturday, October 8 (9-6) and Sunday October 9 (10-5) at the Caldwell Elementary School, Fairground Road, Caldwell, Ohio. Admission is $5.

The last show for me this year is the Mutton Hill Quilt Show, Saturday October 22 (10-6) and Sunday, October 23 (10-5) at the John S. Knight Center in downtown Akron Ohio.  Admission is $10, it is a fundraiser for the Summit County Historical Society.  This promises to be a fabulous show, with more than 200 quilts on display and great vendors (including Rags Paper Stitches!).  If you are in Ohio, don't miss it!  Please come out, visit and shop.  I'd always love to see what you've made from my fabric and embellishments.

I promise to have a creative post on Thursday.

Summer Break

I'm taking a bit of a break from the textile art this week for an event that has to do with a nearly lifelong hobby of mine.  So, if you are waiting for something creative from me, you will have to wait until next week, sorry!  However, I will be starting a new project this weekend... in a cemetery.  Yes, it is a textile art project.  Please check back next week for the details.  I'm also negotiating a new vending date for late September, more to follow in the next couple of weeks.

If you are joining this blog after meeting me at the Zanesville quilt show, welcome, and thank you for your purchase.  Please explore my older posts until I get back to my normal posing schedule next week.

Check out that hand dyed fabric underneath the Breyer model horses!  It is one of my dyed vintage damask tablecloths.

RPS Show Schedule

The vegetable garden in pretty much in the ground, at least all the started plants have made it in for the season.  I still have some seeds to plant, but that takes less time.  Now for some rain… 

I have no way of knowing where readers of this blog live.  If you are in Ohio, I’d love it if you could make it out to a show this year to buy my stuff!  Here is a list of the venues to find me so far this year: 

July 9, 10-6 Art on the Hill, Mantua, OH (downtown).  I will have mostly finished art work at this one, but I will have a sampling of hand dyed fabric and some Creative Kits. 

Boxes in progress for Art on the Hill

 

July 16-17 (9-5 Saturday, 11-4 Sunday) Pieceable Quilters Guild, Zanesville, OH; Muskingum County Fairgrounds Veterans Complex, Brighton Blvd & Pershing Rd.  Admission $5 

August 12-14 (10-6 Friday and Saturday, 12-3 Sunday) Coshocton Canal Quilters, Coshocton, OH; Coshocton Presbyterian Church, 4^th and Chestnut Street.  Admission $5. 

Lovely dyed vintage damask tablecloths

Buy them, make beautiful things from them!

 

October 8-9 (9-6 Saturday, 10-5 Sunday) Town Square Quilt Lovers’ Guild, Caldwell, OH; Caldwell Elementary School, 44350 Fairground Road.  Admission $5. 

October 22-23 (10-6 Saturday, 10-5 Sunday) Mutton Hill Quilt Show, Akron Ohio; John S. Knight Center.  Admission $10.

 

That's it for now, I will post more about each one closer to the dates.  Later this week, I will have a review of an art show opening in Southeast Ohio.

 

 

Running behind, again

The next few weeks are going to be a challenge for me; more things demanding my attention.  It is the time of year to get my vegetable garden going. I enjoy growing some of my own food, but it does take planning and a lot of nurturing, much like creating original textile art.  It is hard work, but it all is satisfying work.  I’m also sowing some wildflower seeds that I collected last fall, things that I can use for dyeing.  I want them in places where I may get to them easily, as opposed to trying to harvest flowers growing behind a thick hedge of thorns and poison ivy.   

I am now in possession of a 10x10’ pop-up tent for the upcoming art fair in July.  I also invested in a collapsible cart.  Everything I need for these shows has to fit into a subcompact car.  It is a hatchback, but it still doesn’t hold much.  Packing the car for a show is an amazing feat of creativity.  Tough decisions must be made about what items are absolutely necessary, and what can be done without.  Not a bad life lesson. 

I haven’t done any pictorial art quilts (yet), but I am envisioning a future piece that captures the image of my little car with all sorts of stuff exploding out of the back.  I’m thinking of a somewhat 3-D piece, with the trail of junk coming out towards the viewer.  I’ve got to get this one down in my ever-expanding book of ideas…

Goals, Schedules, Slips and Skips

I've mentioned before that there has been a trend in the art quilting community to create small works monthly, weekly or daily.  The idea is to make time to create and learn new things.  I have had several such projects going, with varying degrees of success in keeping the time frame.  Starting my own textile arts business has mandated that some of these projects get set aside for awhile. 

This blog has been a challenging goal for me.  I have set it with myself to post twice a week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  I don't always make it.  Instead of stressing out over missing a day, I just pick up on the next scheduled day.  If you are trying to schedule time for creativity, take my advice, and just pick it up the next go round.  Just as it can be very difficult to break a habit, the same goes for starting a habit.  Keep at it.

I have been working on a daily project that was supposed to run for one year.  It is now into its third year, but I have not given up on it.  I was making an artist trading card once a day for a year, and some of them were taking far longer than the 30 minutes a day I had planned on.  Some of the ATCs I did not yet have the skill for the technique I wanted to use.  I got farther and farther behind, but I'm still working on it.  Maybe this will be the year I finish it.  I don't worry about it.  This time of year, I have a vegetable garden to get going, adding to the many things I attempt to do each day.  Priorities shift somewhat, but making beautiful things with fabric is still a significant part of each day for me.  Which reminds me, I have some silk flowers to finish, more on those in my next post.