March check-in

So many things going on that I hardly know where to begin. I’ve been working on cleaning and sorting in my studio. I know that’s not anything new, but I feel that I have purpose right now because the Ujamaa Grandma annual sale is coming and I want to round up lots of donations. Mostly I’ve been working on books because I have an enormous collection which I obviously need to edit. I started with the largest studio bookcase – 6 shelves, each about 4 ½’ long. Trust me – that’s a lot of books. I flipped through each and every one of them, deciding which ones I didn’t need any more. Some books are out dated, some topics are no longer relevant to my work, and some just seemed redundant. These are just a few of the donations:

The best part of the process was finding books that I’d forgotten about – information and inspiration I can use right here at my fingertips! I totally re-organized all the books that I’m keeping. You can tell because I have post-it notes stuck on all the shelves, reminding me of the new arrangement. You can read about the Ujamaa Grandma sale here. I’ve covered a past sale here and here. This year the sale takes place April 15th and 16th at Woodcliff United Church, Calgary.

Another project I’ve been working on is a small art quilt for an upcoming exhibition of SAQA – Studio Art Quilt Associates. This exhibition includes work by local members of this international organization. The theme for the show is “Road Trip”. I’ve seen a few of the submissions and it’s going to be a great show. We’re opening with a “meet the artist” event on April 17 from 2 till 4 at the Fish Creek Library. My submission is called “Side View” for obvious reasons.

This piece was a lot of fun to make, though of course it took loads more time than I’d imagined. Story of my life.

Part of my cleaning process involves reclaiming the studio counter tops. I’m sure I’ve seen them before, just not for a really long time. Some piles of stuff keep getting moved around, but now I’m trying to deal with various items making up these piles. My oldest daughter had asked me to make napkins out of the linen table runner that I had printed for her wedding (almost 2 years ago…) and I did it!

My other time consuming project is the design and stitching of the perfect “printer’s apron”. Sounds simple enough, right? An apron is an apron after all. But for a printer to be happy, the apron must meet several criteria, and I want mine to be perfect. No photos on this project yet, as I want it finished before I share. Let’s just say that if I were to sell the one I’m working on right now, it would have to be priced over $5oo to cover my time and materials. Guess I’ll have to get that trimmed down a bit. I don’t intend to mass produce the aprons, but I would like to find a happy medium – something special for those who appreciate the best.

I just realized that I can preview my post in various formats – computer, tablet and phone. I must research how to adjust it for the smaller formats… but not today. That’s it for March as I’m heading off to my studio to do some printing. Hope I haven’t forgotten how!