It's baby central here at the church with my second grandchild due to arrive next month. Tiny things are so satisfying to make, same amount of achievement with 1/4 of the work and materials. Here are some things I've been busy with in the last month.
The quilt I made was inspired by a mini Flying in Formation quilt by Jaybird Quilts and can be found here. Julie Herman, the designer and quilter helped me find fabric online in the same color range she used. My friend and client John Kubiniec from Big Rig Quilting was kind enough to help scale the quilt pattern to a crib size.
Folkware Patterns, my favorite when my children were little for sweet little shirts and dresses is still around and has an amazing array of authentic historic and ethnic patterns. So the Mexican baby shirts I made have been created for 100's of years by Mexican mamas and grandmothers. I went with flannel and my own embroidery.
Lastly the baby shoe tutorial, so quick and easy you can make 2-3 pair in an evening, came from Heather Bailey. She has a flickr site you can upload your finished product to. She just asks you use it for personal use only.
I can't seem to get enough of Maricor/Maricar. Twin sisters from Australia that make letterforms especially cozy. Thanks Grace, nice posting.
While editing some piles for the new year, I came across a basket of old sweaters. I got inspired to repurpose them and I've made a little gang of squishy, soft, cashmere, marino wool toys. With a new grand child on the way, it's been a nice sit by the fire project. So much fun, I can't stop. And yes, I went a little nuts with the embroidery.
And everything in its place. It's true. If there isn't a good storage spot for my things they don't get put away. And this time of year the piles are high. It's time to visit Saver's curbside, drop off and make a fast getaway. I have spotted some fun ways to make storage work in a better, more beautiful way and may reward myself with one or two, but only after I make the drop off. I promise.
www.klauserandcarpenter.com
www.j1studio.com
via ikea blog, binder clips with storage boxes.
I recently discovered the Portland based South Street Linen and instantly fell for their bold and playful scarves. I'm a sucker for anything linen and never thought of it as material for a scarf, but it makes sense. It feels nice against your skin, softens with age and any color sings on it. These three mid career artists, painters and print makers Mary Ruth Hedstrom, Jane Ryan and Lynn Krauss find their inspiration from some of my favorites- all things Japanese and Scandinavian. And you know how I feel about anything from Maine.
I've posted about my friend Roanne's magic in the garden before. If you're looking for a beautiful, inspiring and informative book on seasonal container gardens, her book Continuous Container Gardens, is the one to pick up. The book is full of projects that are manageable for the weekend gardener, using and reusing your favorite vessels through each season.
But this winter Roanne has focussed her impeccable eye and palette on her kitchen. Using the organic harvest from her newly established HoneyField Flowers based in Harvard Mass, she's put together a gift box of treats that will make you very popular with both your gardening and gourmand friends.
She dropped off a little sample box for me and well, it was very hard to share. But I am now and this is the gift a few of my lucky friends are finding under their tree. You can purchase the HoneyField Box of garden/kitchen treats on etsy, here. Continuous Container Gardens here. Be warned, I may have to start a support group just to stay away from her lavender brittle.
As you can guess with all the directions I go in, arranging my stuff in a linear fashion isn't a high priority for me. Especially when I'm finishing up a long term project like the catalogue I send to the printer Monday. But I love with a virgo's passion when I stop to do it. Why is there so much comfort in looking around at everything in it's place? Haven't I discovered that to make art we must make a mess? I was recently raving about the neat and tidy home envy I have for an artist I admire. My friend Jim responded with "Have you seen the blog Things Organized Neatly?" Looking at it confirms for me how obsessed we are with repetition, grids, patterns... we see it emerging in art constantly. I'm drawn to it in my own work too. All the little water color bubbles I can paint for hours?
Here's my theory. As artists we have to be a little OCD to make art right? And we can all admit there is way too much information at our fingertips. Exhausting. So how do we deal and react as artists? Grouping, collecting, making colors in rainbow order, repeating dots, zentangles, charts and graphs, making patterns. I'm attracted to it but it can wear me down. Tired. The answer for me? Making art and designing in a no-tech zone, free of seductive information portals. Walking, smelling, listening, tasting, turning pages in a book, far from all the devices helps a lot. I'm walking away from this computer now to go do some cleaning then I'll make a mess in my studio, which I won't clean up. But do check out the blog below. A lot of fun. Just maybe you shouldn't let it influence your art too much?
To see some of my own obsession with repeat in nature you can go here.
To check out Things Organized Neatly go here.
Ever wish you could get your hands on some of those beautiful shades you see on museum walls? Or just borrow that lovely palette Modigliani used for his nudes? The Guggenheim figured you did and now offers a selection of interior paints they've used for exhibit walls and colors found in their modern masterpiece collection. Offered by Fine Paints of Europe, you can order the fandecks here. Wouldn't it be great when someone falls in love with your living room wall hue to say that Frank Lloyd Wright picked it out for you?
As the leaves fall away I've been seeing more and more of the skeleton of the earth. I love the relief we finally get from masses of green. Tiny details are emerging. Blades of broken dried grass, twigs, the feathers around the coop. Nigel Peake the Irish illustrator and maker finds the same joy in nature's details and paints about it. More of his work can be found at Needles and Pins Gallery in San Francisco, here. He also has a blog which is nigel-peake.blogspot.com
The quilt I made was inspired by a mini Flying in Formation quilt by Jaybird Quilts and can be found here. Julie Herman, the designer and quilter helped me find fabric online in the same color range she used. My friend and client John Kubiniec from Big Rig Quilting was kind enough to help scale the quilt pattern to a crib size.
Lastly the baby shoe tutorial, so quick and easy you can make 2-3 pair in an evening, came from Heather Bailey. She has a flickr site you can upload your finished product to. She just asks you use it for personal use only. 
