Sending in the Clowns

As promised, the clowns are here. My friend Sara needs to have a medical procedure today and what better way to cheer up her day than to send in the clowns. Now as I may have mentioned, Sara hates clowns. So once I know something like this about a friend, as a sign of affection, I cannot resist bombarding my friend with dumb images. It is a wonder I have any friends.I have been sending Sara clowns for years ever since we lived across the street from each other. That was 15 years ago. It is amazing how much bad clown art there is in the world. To me, of course, all clown art is bad even the Red Skelton paintings which, believe it or not, some people collect. I always find at least 1-2 pieces of bad clown art in any flea market or antique mall I go to. My friend Robin posts on Facebook oddities she sees when she goes out junking and there is always clown art in the group of images. Thanks to Robin for several of the following images.

Sara has the warmest heart and a most generous spirit. The day we left to go to China to pick up Annie she got up at 4:00 AM with a plate of cookies for us to eat on our long plane trip. So Sara this is for you. I’m sending in the clowns. 

Timeless Treasures Projects With My Fabric

Emily Cohen at Timeless Treasures wrote me to ask if I could design and make a couple of projects using my new fabric line.Timeless Treasures wanted to put the projects in their booth at the Quilt Market to show the cute things you could make with my fabric. Also they planned to offer free patterns for the projects on their blog and website. Sheila, my rep,thought this was a wonderful idea...of course she did not have to think up an idea and then figure out how to do it. But really I do love to think up these kinds of projects so I set about planning what I would make.I knew I wanted one of the projects to be a plush of some sort and maybe a pillow. I needed a project where I could combine all of my fabrics into one item. So I came up with two house pillows and a Best Buddies plush. You can go to the Timeless Treasures blog to see an article about me and find the patterns.

http://www.sewtimeless.net/?p=384

Here are the projects.

I decided to to do two friends using a rabbit and a cat. My friend Joyce helped me figure out how to make the pattern for this. It was she who suggested I link the arms together which I think really made the piece. I am so proud of it....I loved making the clothes and especially love the little purse.

The house pillow patterns were easier to design and make. I piece quilts so I worked from a house quilt pattern. I loved filling the window boxes with all different kinds of flower embellishments all of which I have in bins in my studio

Hope you like my patterns and you will make one of my projects for your home.

On The Road Again

I needed to go down to the Ozarks this weekend to do some work at my mom’s condo and I needed someone to go along with me. Gary and Annie were busy so I asked my friend Joyce if she was up for a little adventure. I tried to convince her to go saying we could shop at the outlet mall but that did not work. Joyce hates all big box stores...remember she is the friend that sits in the car while I shop IKEA... and it turns out she hates outlets as well. So I convinced her to go by saying we could swing up to Columbia MO, see some galleries and fabric stores and then go down to the lake. Joyce went to Mizzou for college and she loves to relive her college days haunting her old stomping grounds. So she agreed to go and drive to boot.

So off we went. We saw some great art in la dee da galleries and we were both hungry so we stopped for ice cream at a place called Sparky’s. What a lucky break that we chose this ice cream parlor. Not only did we get a treat for our stomachs we got a treat for our eyes. The parlor was decorated with all kinds of lovely paintings....just like a gallery. So I snapped some photos of the best paintings so you could enjoy them too...frankly I do not understand why these are not in a real gallery.

First up, it is not easy to shoot paintings on a wall while you are holding an ice cream cone. I cropped all of the following photos but I am going to include this one to show you how most of my images looked before I cropped them.

Bet you’re whistlin’ the Magnum PI themesong

This is some wrasslin’ huh?

Did Hulk really make an appearance at the Bluth’s Banana Stand?

This is for Jana, I think of you when I see a picture of Loretta.

I am not sure what to make of this.

The question is is this a lion, monkey, Chewbacca or 
a Planet of the Apes extra?

So I was unaware that there might be gay wrestlers 
in Mexico...must be okay because the Madonna seems happy.

Miss Sophia Loren

Hurry boaters...The Apocalypse is coming!

The magic of music...it can make a piano rise off the floor.

This piece of artwork reminds me of the beautiful painting that was hanging across from my rep Sheila’s bed at the Cheshire Inn when she last visited me in St. Louis. Imagine this looking at you all night long.

This painter is in advertising...great product placement.

Hawaii is a beautiful place to visit and meet aliens.

And last but not least the what the heck is going on in this painting. I think that might be George Wallace or George W...it that Scarlet O’Hara... comment on what you think is going on and the best answer will get a little surprise from me.

 

Now I know you are all thinking that any collection of paintings which are this spectacular should have some clowns in it and you would be right...there were lots of clowns. But that is going to be another blog post dedicated to the lover of everything clowns, my friend Sara. So check back for that post...you will not want to miss it!

Can you do a shrimp baby card?

Recently my rep emailed me with a request from Calipso cards asking if I could design a shrimp baby card.  Now if you follow trends you know that sea life like octopuses and squids are gaining popularity but a shrimp? I said I would give it a go although I had no clue what I would do. So I went to Google and looked at shrimp images...and I made the connection...I could curve them like a heart and put the baby in the middle. So once I had the design in mind actually doing the artwork was a snap. The design was well received and when I showed it to my colleague DB Dowd he said “Damn you made the shrimps look like a male and a female...now that is something. So here is the card with my new ladybug card.

My New Fabric Line Is Now in the Stores

When I first started working with my rep Sheila Meehan, she asked me what type of products I would like to see my artwork on. One of the first things that came to mind was fabric. My grandmother taught me to sew when I was 12...thank you Grandma Helen....I fell in love with sewing and have been making all sorts of things with fabric since then. Right now I like to make quilts and plushes. I love to just buy fabric for the beautiful patterns and colors...of course like all sewers and quilters I  have drawers of fabric just waiting for me to use. My favorite fabric is always Marimekko...if only it did not cost so much.

When Sheila told me that the fabric company Timeless Treasures was interested in me and my artwork for fabric my heart skipped a beat...could I be the next Amy Butler, one of my idols? I have met Amy Butler, in fact I got to sit next to her at a dinner last year. Both of us participated in Mary Engelbreit’s Home Companion Workshop Weekend May 2010...I was a craft instructor and she was a speaker.
She is just the nicest person and I am so happy to have met her.

So here it is my first fabric line. It is called Flutter. I am so proud of it and just tickled pink to have a line of fabric. I want to give a huge thanks to my rep Sheila and Alice, Ruby, Emily and Celeste at Timeless Treasure for believing in me and my work and for making my artwork come alive on fabric.  My friend Joyce loves to look at my name on the selvage...she thinks it is so cool!

I do not know where you can buy the fabric in St. Louis...not sure if any stores carry it but you can get it online from Timeless Treasures. Here is the link:

http://www.ttfabrics.com/index.shtml

So go out and make me a star.