Crazy busy time

Well, spring has sprung in South Georgia, and since our business is at the beach, that means things are getting lively. That means more time working, including this past weekend and less time for sewing and art. And not as many blog posts.

I do have a lot going on, though. A while back I agreed to donate a small quilt to a non-profit in my home town and when I found out they have an event coming up I decided this was a good time. First I was going to pull out one of my recently completed pieces, then I came up with an idea just for the event, but didn't have the time, so it was back to a completed piece. I just printed the label out and will drop it at the post office this afternoon.

Heat-moldable stamp. I cut the design from card stock to produce a
positive stamp.

The out-of-time idea is about half done and I'll finish it up and add it to my stack of completed (or near-completed) pieces. I have about a half-dozen waiting for binding and labels that I need to finish. Those will be the start of inventory for a booth I've signed up for at ARTsFEST, which will be held April 2 at Georgia Southern University in Statesboro.

A requirement to have a booth at the festival is that you demonstrate art techniques, as well as have items to sell. I plan to bring one of my treadle sewing machines and demonstrate thread-sketching/thread-work/free-motion quilting. I got a great reaction to my demos at the quilt show, so I'm sure there will be some interest at the festival. ARTsFEST is directed mainly to children, but I hope there will be a lot of adults there buying things.

Fiber jewelry in progress

Of course a half-dozen art quilts won't be enough for my booth, so I'll bring along a large batch of fabric postcards, and I'm making some fiber jewelry as well. I hope I'll also have time to paint/dye some bandannas and silk handkerchiefs.

I got them in last week in an order from Dharma Trading, along with some Setacolor Transparent paints and Dy-na-flow paints. I also got some of the heat-moldable stamps. They are amazing! All this new stuff has kept me busy every free moment. I've created several stamps, and tested using the Setacolor to tie-dye a couple of samples of cloth.

Tie-dye trial, using diluted Setacolor. I didn't use enough to soak through,
so I painted the rest with a paintbrush.

Time to get back to my To Do list, more later.