Studio Tour 2012

 My studio only looks like this during the studio tour. Visit any other time of year and it looks as if a fabric and yarn store exploded. The dogs trail bits of fabric to the rest of the house, mostly on their feet, occasionally on their backs if they walk by my cutting table at just the right time. And, never walk through barefoot, as I drop pins all the time. A swipe over the floor with a magnetic pincushions picks them up easily. Just not often.

This is my fourth year on the Skagit Artists Together annual studio tour. Beautiful weather brought a lot of people out to explore the art of 23 artists spread out through the county. And, having a deadline for garden improvements means they actually happen, like adding a new patio. (right) The floor is made from the garage floor that a neighbor was replacing. I worked on inventory, my husband worked on lugging 8" thick pieces of concrete into place. (thank you, Brian)

Last weekend was Art by the Bay art festival in Stanwood-Camano Island. After lightning hit a tree at the edge of the field and knocked out power, I figured we were in for a dramatic weekend. Fortunately, it was a good weekend, without more drama. There is a canopy over everything, but it was such gloriously bright day - once the thunderstorms rolled on by - that it looks as if it's open. My friend Mary Quintrall  - www.maryquintrall.com - was my neighbor again. (We lived three houses apart for about ten years.) This weekend is the studio tour. I'll post images of that soon.

Threadwork from MargotBianca fabrics

 These scarves are made with bits from margotbianca.etsy.com Beautiful handdyed fabric items.

How can it be April already?

So, my plan to blog more often hasn't helped me actually do that. Thanks for waiting!

Since February, I've been busy in the studio, as always, really. In March, was the MoNA Style show. This is always a bright spot before spring arrives in the Skagit Valley. (www.museumofnwart.org) Coming up is the Pleasant Ridge art show at the Rexville Grange. (http://pleasantridgegalleryatrexville.com/) This is a long running show of local artists, but my first time joining them. April 6-22, 11-6 every day. Take a drive through the tulips and stop for some art as well.

Plenty of Plaid

this is a newish series.

This is from a new crop of evening bags, using a type of feather stitch. The satin is such fun to work with in jewel tones. These are Night on the Town - Martinique, Dubrovnik and Antiqua.

The last couple of months have had a couple of events and the next is in March. In the meantime, I've offered a couple of classes in my studio and I'm planning more, again for March probably.

Stitched scarves

Recently, I shared a booth at the Best of the Northwest juried art show in Seattle. It was quite an event with 250 artists of all types of media. Lots of people coming through to explore and shop. Above are some of the scarves I've been making with strips of strips of silk, yarn and lots and lots of thread to create one of a kind fabrics, some solid and some lacy. My last order of thread had enough miles to stretch to about 130 miles. Yes, I did the math.

One of the great things about doing these shows is meeting other artists. And making trades. The woman I shared a booth with makes wonderful felted wool hats. (www.waterscolors.com) I now have a snazzy charcoal hat, a bit upscaled from my myriad baseball caps. I also traded for an original painting from Karen Watson ( www.karenpwatson.blogspot.com )

Sweater Renewal

A new batch of bags! I've been exploring upcycling sweaters. Cutting the sweaters to get the largest useable fabric, I layer the top with yarn and stitch roundy roundy round. The green one is made using only the sleeves and measures 13 x 12 x 4 1/2. The straps are made by trimming the waist ribbing, then folding and stitching it so that it doesn't stretch.

Schacktoberfest

Schacktoberfest is next weekend! (www.schack.org) This is the Schack Art Center's fall festival. The hot shop is making 300 glass pumpkins for the Urban Pumpkin Patch. You can go see them for free and, for $45, you can design, make and take home your very own pumpkin.

There is also a 3 day exhibit of fall themed art work. Six of my pieces will be hanging in the gallery. This is an image of

Northside. Three layers of free motion lace, separated by cotton and batting spacers, with lace leaves drifting on each layer. The background is cotton quilted with curved lines and more leaves.

The leaves are falling and the apples are ready!

New outlets

In the last couple of months, I've joined two more stores, and, a couple of weeks ago, juried into an online wholesale company.

The Schack Art Center, in Everett, WA, has a beautiful new space, including hot shop (for blowing glass), gallery space and retail gift store. Coming up is "Schack-toberfest", an evening with art, music, beer & brats, with an urban pumpkin patch of glass pumpkins to purchase. I'm hoping to have some pieces on display. http://www.schack.org

I met the Kellys of Riverclay in Mount Vernon, during the Skagit Artist Together Studio tour this summer. They have created a welcoming gallery in downton MV, mostly pottery - and now, some of my work.

http://www.wholesalecrafts.com is a wholesale company, meaning artists sell the work directly to the retailer. I'm brand new to the process, but I'm hopeful that this will expand my base.

Back to sewing!

LQTM Quilt Festival

This coming weekend is the Quilt Festival at La Conner Quilt & Textile Museum. (www.laconnerquilts.com) There will be 180 quilts on display in Maple Hall, as well as many quilts throughout town on the Quilt Walk. The museum itself has three exhibits, including "Spirit of the West", with work from the Association of Pacific West Quilters. I will be there helping with admissions and answering questions at the Board booth. This is the first year the show will be juried and judged. I have two pieces, shown here. A detail of Leaves on the Dawn and Abundance (messenger bag).

glass collaboration - quilt like

The Museum of Northwest Art in La Conner, WA, has an annual auction of work from invited artists. Lin McJunkin, an artist who works in glass, was asked to put together a glass collaboration of artists who work in anything but glass. Several of us gathered at Lin's to do our pieces and others met at the auction preview to create their pieces "live". We actually each did two squares so Lin had a bit to choose from in composing the final piece. It was such a hit at the auction, that she was asked to combine the 2nd squares into another piece for sale. Lin created the back piece to the platter, about 12", I think.

Mine is the center square.

Anacortes Art Festival and Art at the Port

A few months ago, a committee with the Anacortes Arts Festival (Washington state) asked several textile artists in the Skagit Valley community to each create a piece of art that would be displayed together as a banner. The banner welcomes people to the Art at the Port fine art exhibition of the three day festival, one of the largest in the Pacific Northwest. Each year more pieces will be added. My piece is on the far left banner, in the middle. I have a close up picture...hiding somewhere in my virtual file folder.

beautiful weekend

The Fresh Paint Festival in Everett was terrific! We had an actual summer weekend here in the Pacific Northwest. Monday was a downpour, but the weekend was perfect.

Lots of people came into the booth and said "You're the bag lady!" Several people said that my work was the reason they came to the festival and I didn't have five minutes without someone visiting me, for the entire weekend. I'll be riding this ego boost for awhile.

The image is a detail of "Leaves on a Creek", one of the wall pieces I sold. A larger image is on my website - www.andishannon.com

My first interview

A new experience for me - I was interviewed last week for the Everett Herald in connection with the Fresh Paint Festival. What a weird - and fun - feeling. If you click on the arrows under the picture, it will lead to a couple more pictures. My son took the photo of me holding the spools of thread.

http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20110818/ENT/708199973

Fresh Paint Festival 2011

This coming weekend is Everett's annual Fresh Paint Festival. 90 artists will be demonstrating their what they do and selling the results fresh off the easel - or the sewing machine, in my case. The event runs right along the marina. Last year was such fun! I brought my little Singer and heard people on the boardwalk saying, "I hear a sewing machine!" People don't quite believe I do all of the stitching freehand - no computer program - unless I use the Singer. It was made in Scotland in 1956. I have another of the same era that my grandmother where my grandmother stitched clothes, linens, even canvas tents! I still use that, too. Especially a couple of years ago when my modern machines were both in the shop and I had deadlines!

I will have new work for the walls, handbags, journals, scarves and more. I'm trying out a couple of new things that I'll blog about in the next few days. If you'll be in the area, come find me in Booth #45.

“Unveiling Climate Change ~ Artful Messages”

This show has just opened at WA State's Department of Ecology. I was invited to participate in the juried selection and two of my pieces are now hanging in the lobby. Above is "Floating in a Kelp Forest" and Leafless. The reception for work from the twenty seven artists is June 3 and the show continues through Aug. 12.

Renewal & Nebula

I submitted two art quilts for the next juried CQA show. http://www.contemporaryquiltart.com Both were accepted! The show will be this summer at the Lynnwood, WA library. One is Renewal, shown in the last post. The other is Nebula, a detail shown here.

Last week, I took a two day workshop on art and business. With a wide spectrum of presenters and attendees, I have lots to review.

The tulips in the Skagit Valley are done for the year. The fields glow with thousands and thousands of tulips, then the farmers chop the tops to let the bulbs develop. For few days, the rows between plants looks as if they've been sprinkled with confetti. Another sign of spring. And I have a spring crop of handbags to send off to Confluence Gallery in Twisp, WA. http://www.confluencegallery.com

This is a series I'm playing with involving free standing lace and free motion quilting. I draw the leaves with stitching over whole cloth. The one in the image is hand dyed fabric from another artist. http://www.marbled-arts.com/shopping.htm For the lace leaves, I do the same drawing stitch over a heavy stabilizer instead of fabric. I cut the leaves out

and add them to the quilt. The stabilizer washes out and the leaves add texture and dimension to the piece.

MoNA style coming up

This show is a one day event - 27th year running - at the Museum of Northwest Art in La Conner, WA. The whole museum is transformed into 35 booths for hand picked artists. The evening bag on the publicity card is one of mine - Night on the Town - Budapest. This is the second year I'll be doing this show. The staff and volunteers are terrific. They actually help schlep stuff in, provide lunch, etc. This, from what I've heard and seen, is highly unusual in the world of art festivals. Last time I did this one, the director of the museum was on a stepladder adjusting lights to better show my display. Models will stroll through town and have informal shows in four of La Conner's restaurants. Two of them are among my favorites in the Skagit Valley. http://nellthorn.com/ and http://www.insidelaconner.com/LaBrew.html. Both conveniently just steps from the museum. For more information on the show, including the artists involved, see http://www.museumofnwart.org.