ART QUILTING STUDIO

I just received my copy of a brand new publication from Stampington and Company called "Art Quilting Studio". This magazine is 144 pages of serious "eye candy". It is beautiful! Last spring I was invited to submit a piece for the new publication and it took me 3 months to complete it. It has been almost a year since I mailed it off to the publisher and it is nice to see it again now in print; almost like meeting an old friend. It will be at Barnes and Noble effective June 1st. If you are browsing the magazine shelf you can see my art quilt on pages 60 and 61. As soon as we get moved back east and I am settled in my studio I will work on another submission. Here is a photograph of the magazine cover. These are the pages referencing my art quilt.

STRAW MOUNTAIN STUDIO HAS....

SOLD !! On June 22nd we will be officially homeless and on June 23rd we will be pointing our hearts towards Meadville, PA. This evening we will have a private celebration party, Roy and me, with gourmet cheese, fancy crackers, champagne and wonderful dark chocolate. I wish we could share it with all of you but we just can't. In the next few days I will try to keep you updated on the process of moving from a strawbale home on 41 acres in New Mexico to the promise of a larger home, on a paved road, with pizza delivery nearby (grin).

AFTER THE RAIN...

The desert comes to life. ..

...TWO TURTLE DOVES...

Raise your hand if you are currently humming "The Twelve Days of Christmas". Yeah, I knew you would! I have been trying for months to get a photograph for you of our sweet pair of ring-necked turtle doves. Finally I did. They have decided that their new resting perch, every afternoon around 4 PM, is this one particular railing on our porch. They are so shy and skittish that I had to approach the window very slowly and use the zoom feature on my camera so the pictures are not real clear. They are so entertaining! When they are on the ground, looking for seeds to eat, they seem to become almost agitated in their movements. They will take a couple of steps to the left, then abruptly go to the right, and then start walking around in tight little circles. You could almost see them wringing their little hands ( if they had any) in a worrisome manner. We spend a lot of time just watching them and smiling. Most of the time they sit quietly and very close together. They might have seen my movement in the window when I took these shots.

PLEASE MEET MY NEWEST BUSINESS PARTNER...

Her name is Tchotcho Anastasie Amakoue from Togo. I (along with others) have loaned her money to grow her business of selling cloth and sewing supplies. This has been taken from the KIVA site and explains her business:

"This is a woman who is married and the mother of four. Her husband is an auto mechanic. Her husband's income is insufficient to cover household expenses. Thus, to help her husband with these responsibilities, she does commerce in sewing supplies. Most of her customers are seamstresses and tailors. She has an inventory shortage and wants to resupply herself. To do so, she's requesting her first loan to buy 16 rolls of poplin, 10 rolls of guipure (heavy lace), 20 boxes of thread, and 15 boxes of buttons."

KIVA is an organization that facilitates the matching up of lenders and entrepreneurs. . In December, 2008 I made a loan to Mery Tidjani, also of Togo, to help her buy cloth and dress making supplies. She has repaid about 1/3 of her loan and is ahead of her repayment schedule. I used that repaid amount ( plus a little more) to make this new loan to Tchotcho. As she begins to repay her loan, I can turn that money into another loan to another entrepreneur. Since I have a love for fabrics of all kinds, I seek out those ladies with similar interests. It makes me feel connected to them. I encourage you, my readers, to research this fine program at http://www.kiva.org/. Its a great big "feels good" thing!

HEMINGWAY HAS ARRIVED!

No, we all know he is dead but I received a box of Ernest Hemingway books today! He is the first author I have selected to read in my 2009 resolution to try new things and become a more learned person. When we are moved into our new home in Pennsylvania I will continue to build the wonderful library I have always wanted. I had ordered 3 books by Hemingway from Copperfield Books on Amazon.com. I must tell you they are wonderful people to do business with. In addition to the books I ordered, they included two additional books for free! I strongly recommend Copperfield Books for all your reading needs. The three books in the bottom row are the ones I ordered and the two at the top were gifts from the seller. Oh happy day! I can't wait to read them...but which one first?

"NIGHT WATCH"

Yes, I know. It has been several days since my last post. But, I have been busy! I have finished this painting called "Night Watch". It is acrylic and measures 26 x 35. Roy built the stretcher frame for it and stapled it on this morning. The inspiration for this was several weeks ago when I had many sleepless nights caused by that shoulder pain. (Yeah, it's much better and I am sleeping well.) So now in my head I am planning the next piece. No clue yet which direction it will go but I will have fun with it!

A SWEET SURPRISE TO SHARE....

Yesterday during my Physical Therapy session Roy brought in this sweet little bouquet! He said it was to reward me for working so hard and making such good progress in the treatment. I decided it was too pretty not to share with all of you. The vase is 4-5 inches tall. I photographed it on a tie-dyed shawl I bought in Santa Fe a couple of years ago. Please enjoy it with me!

STRAW MOUNTAIN STUDIO IS FOR SALE....

A few of my regular readers know that for some time now we have had our lovely straw bale home for sale. I decided it was time to let the rest of the world in on the secret! Recently I added a visitor map feature on this blog and realized that perhaps someone out there would really like to live in New Mexico in this wonderful home. So, I am putting photographs up for your review . We are listed with the local Coldwell Banker Legacy Realty Company. If you ,or someone you know, are ready for the New Mexico experience please drop me a note off site and I will connect you to our two Realtors. In the meantime do enjoy these photographs. It is a sweet place with a wonderful well lit studio. Have a good day all of you!

HISTORY IN OUR FRONT YARD.....

Well, not exactly in our front yard. Those of us who live on 40 acres off a dirt road don't have yards. It would just be silly! Besides, water is very special here and should not be wasted on "lawns". We took a walk this evening after dinner while the sun was still quite high in the sky. We ambled down the dirt road from our home to the 40 acres just to the south. The land belongs to absentee property owners and there is no house there. Ahh, but there is! Here I give you photographs of a very old adobe home; so old it has almost completely returned to the earth. We can see this from our windows and for a long time I have wanted to photograph it. Although all of the pictures were taken within about 10 minutes they look very different, depending on whether in sun or shade. I hope you enjoy them! I included Roy in this one so you could see some scale.

This is an old window frame that is almost ready to fall out.In these closeup shots you can see the adobe bricks with small stones embedded in the walls. This looks like an old door that has fallen in.Not far from the perimeter of the building we found the family "dump" where the ground was littered with rusted cans, broken dishes and lots of pieces of colored glass. This photo shows an array of cans around and under a cactus.And speaking of cactus, here you can see several cholla cactus, standing like silent sentinels near the home. One day this will all be gone; gently melted away and back to the earth from where it came. It will be a gentle and quiet ending for a building that used to be home to a family. I wish I knew who made the bricks and built the home. I wish I knew the story of who lived there.

ART WORK FOR YOUR REVIEW.....

I have been reminded recently (by some of my loyal readers), that it is time to see some artwork! Really, I HAVE been busy but, in doing more than one piece at a time, it seems a long time between pieces of finished work. Wait no more! Here are photographs of the three vests I will be shipping out to the Firenza Gallery in Arroyo Seco, NM. They have sold some of my vests and are wanting more inventory. That makes me so happy! Somewhere out there are ladies who have bought my wearable art and are having fun wearing one of a kind creations. I wish I could meet them! If any of these connect with you, contact me off site and I will connect you with the gallery. Enjoy! This is "The Party Girl Vest" which was featured in the Spring 2008 issue of "Altered Couture Magazine". This is "The Peace Vest". This is "The Dream Vest".

BREAKFAST WITH BART....

Yes, this is Bart. He is SURE he can hold onto that pole long enough to get to the bird seed. You see that dead bush to the left in the photograph? Yesterday he tried to climb those skinny, brittle branches and fell out on the ground. He is persistent if not real smart!I felt so sorry for him and his efforts that I put seed out on the stones for him. Did he say "thank-you"? Naahh...just proceeded to fill his little cheeks until they dragged on the ground. We will have breakfast again tomorrow.

GOODBYE NORMA JEAN.......

February 9, 2009 I assembled a piece of Disintegration Art as part of a global project organized by Seth at www.thealteredpage.blogspot.com. I could see the piece from my studio windows and got used to having Marilyn there every day. Our direction was to place this piece outside in the weather and watch as Mother Nature assisted in the creation. On May 1, 2009 we were to retrieve the piece and photograph it.

File Note: the weather at about 7000 feet in New Mexico can be harsh and the wind unrelenting. As pieces became unattached and started blowing around the courtyard I gathered them up. Marilyn disappeared one day after a particularly strong wind lasting about 24 hours. I looked for her in vain. She is gone. And this is what is left.