quilt update

My quilting is really coming along. I have somewhere around 30 of these small squares. I still haven't made my mind up about a solid color to alternate with them yet. This is for Quinn, and he gets so excited when I finish one and he loves counting them to see how many I have done. He also loves putting all of the little squares together to make the design. He is becoming quite the maker and designer. I am loving this quilt that I am making. The colors, the feel of it and all of he hand work that I am doing (which is all of it). It is great to do as you watch tv or sit outside. I'll keep you posted on the solid color choice I make.
Happy Making,
Liesl

Pickles!!!!

Now I know that this doesn't have anything to do with making, but I am just so excited about this I have to share.
Yesterday we went for a drive and found this amazing little thrift/antique store in Connecticut great store and great people run it. Anyways I have an obsession and a great love for vintage dishes, mostly pyrex but I also love odd things, I have a spoon rest that is a radish and one that is a stack of celery and now I have this fabulous pickle dish!! You just don't see them anymore. I love it. We I was growing up my grandmother had a dish of sweet gherkin pickles out on the table at every meal. Now here dish was not as cool as mine but it still made me think of her. As she is a rather an amazing women. Anywho, here is my pickle dish!!

One shot with no pickles

One a shot with pickles

How great is this dish? I just love it and I only paid three dollars! It just made my day. And what a great day it was out yesterday. I feel like it has taken me a wicked long time to get over that horrible winter we had. But I have, a little in the game but I am here. Thanks for reading about my dish. 

Liesl

 

The studio

It has been a very rough year for us. And because of that I have been finding a hard time to get in the studio and work and also finding inspiration has been hard for me this year. I am taking some time to clean out my studio and re-organize it. I am hoping that will help my juices flowing again. I have started with my bench I think this is the most clean it has been since we moved into this space.

  I still have a lot of work to do in cleaning out my studio. I have the habit of collecting things that I really will never use. All this cleaning out and re-organizing will be like a fresh start. I am hoping to make room for my other mediums that I have not had the space to do. It will take a little bit of work.  

On a different note. One who has no problem with his creative juices is my son. He is always wanting to go into the studio and work. I get mommy can we make some jewelry all the time. It is fabulous!! He has been picking out tools that he would like to get and is asking for his own flex shaft!!! How amazing!!

Here he is working hard on his fathers day project. I need to work on his bench so he make more there. It a much smaller bench, and he likes to work on his painting projects there, I think we might have to find him a bigger bench. It is crazy how fast they grow. He continues to amaze me each and every day. Thanks for always reading and I will be posting a quilting update very soon.
Liesl

A quick break from Art All State

Here are a bunch of us sitting and chatting at Art All State. It was great being submerged in art for the two days.
Lisa Montanaro, Lauren Savoia, Rosa Ibarra, Emily Sandagata, Rob Sandagata, Me and Elaine Smollin
It was fabulous talking with all of these great artist. Thanks for making it a great event.
Photo taken by Dori Latman

Art All State - 2014

This past weekend I was an artist mentor at Art All State at the Worcester Art Museum  This was my third year doing it and as always I had a blast. I had a fantastic partner Dori Latman.
We had a fabulous group of kids (15) who took the challenge of AAS and made the most wonderful piece of work. Their challenge was to take the empty room below and transform it (inspired by works with in the museum) using only three materials fabric, yarn, and the liners from hanging plants.

 This is what they had created in the two days of the event. Is it not amazing? I was blown away by what they created. They all worked really well together. And keep in mind that they did not know each other before hand. They came from all of the state of Massachusetts.

 Here is a close up.

 At the end we had some time left and did a exquisite corpse drawing. That is were we had the kids sit down and draw for two minutes and then move to the right till got back to their original space. That was also a lot of fun. I had a lot of fun as did the kids.  

 Thanks everyone for making Art All State 2014 a fantastic one!! Studio 102!!!