Lately...

I'm back, on Blogger that is. I've been "here" all along but until lately, silent and behind the scenes. Our group, Fine Arts and Crafts Entrepreneurs, FAACE is up and running strong. At the beginning of this month we had our second annual Art With Heart show and it was a great success - we raised $500 for St. Andrews in the Pines Episcopal Church and $1500 for Children's Village at Christian City. Twenty five artists participated and our membership now stands at 32 members strong!

Since Art With Heart was at the beginning of February, I spent all of January creating for that. You can see some examples of what I made here in my Etsy shop.

Covered Journal

Blackbird Conversation

At Dusk

Life Unscripted

Besides that Claudia Wood (http://claudiawood.com) and I are creating and teaching workshops every month at her Rosewood Cottage Studio. Unfortunately February caught us off guard with illness, so we've had to postpone our February Fiber Collage classes until the third week in March. But here is a sneak peek at one option for the projects.

I'm Back and I have an ETSY shop!

It's been months. I'm trying to get more comfortable with this concept of social networking. I'd rather be "doing" my art, but keeping in touch and having an Etsy shop are important too! I spent hours today setting up my Etsy account and creating my first listings. I hope it will be easier from now on. It's really pretty user-friendly -- I just possess this inner resistance to technology sometimes. At the same time I'm still learning Adobe Photoshop Elements. Today I learned how to optimize my photos for posting to the web. This is a necessary skill for listing on Etsy. So all is well and I'm definitely making progress. Whew! I'm worn out, lol. My Etsy shop is called TextileKathARTic! What do you think? It's a little crazy, but there are thousands of sellers out there and just when I thought I'd come up with a clever, catchy name for myself, it was already taken. So ArtKathARTic is what I settled on.

I found this awesome wool sweater embellished with embroidery at the Clothes Less Traveled thrift shop earlier this week. I threw it in the washing machine on heavy duty cycle with hot water. Then to the dryer on high heat. Yesterday, I cut up the fulled (felted) wool and created this great bucket back and matching wallet. Isn't it awesome! This is  my first Etsy listing.

This one's adorable too! I bought this vest a couple of years ago at Goodwill. I loved it and always knew I'd turn it into a bag. But it took me until now to come up with a great design. I made this one yesterday too! Feedback please!

Of the dominos I have remaining in stock, these are a few of my favs. I listed these on Etsy too!
Thanks friends for indulging me. Have a great weekend.

Mom's Quilt is Finished!

I've dubbed this one Queen of Queens Quilt because it is SO LARGE. Mom loves it and I am so happy.

And some  pictures.

What's New!

I finally finished the Color and Form piece. I like the finished product. What do you think?

Art of Green, Senoia GA, April 17, 2010

http://thecitizen.com/galleries/04-19-2010/photo-gallery-art-green-hit-senoia

MY STUDIO

I always wonder about other artists' creative environments. I love my space! I work in the "sun-room." The light is awesome. The exposure to nature and the elements is inspiring. The storage... ahem... it's definitely challenging. But here you can see a little about how I "organize" my creative work space. Friday I stumbled upon a glorious find at a yard sale - I found this ELFA wire basket rack system including the wood top. Needless to say I was a HAPPY HAPPY shopper. And of course that led to going home and doing a little re-arranging. I think "she's a fitta fine!" : )

You can see my cutting table, built by my grandfather for my grandmother sometime before I was born. There's tools and implements storage, book storage. I have a rolling kitchen cart with stainless steel top that doubles as work table and ironing surface. I made a padded ironing cover that attaches with hook & loop tape strips. You'll also note my new friend: "Phoebe" - she's my nearly new PFAFF QE 4.0. I have a little printer cart and rolling laptop stand tucked in another corner for photo editing, printing, blogging, email, facebook, etc. I hope you've enjoyed the tour.

Mom's Quilt in Progress