Small room to left of outside door.

Same room with beam up and studs removed.

Old studio space with only studs remaining where wall used to be.

Almost same view with beam in and studs removed.

WOW! So much is happening daily in the new studio space! Here's pictures from yesterday and today. It is truly one room now and the finish work begins!

Yikes! So exciting - ordered my sink today! No more working out of the bathroom sink and hunched over the bathtub when dyeing. My back will be happy!

Very exciting news....FINALLY found a contractor to do my studio renovation and demo starts next week!! I have been straight out during my school vacation this week, cleaning out 2 rooms and the hallway. Two walls coming down, stainless steel work sink being installed, lots of new overhead full-spectrum lighting and all new flooring and ceilings throughout the space! Below are some before and after pictures of the clean out I had to accomplish! Will add pictures as the reno gets going!

A very full corner of the old studio....

After clean out!

The "study", ie the junk room!

Mostly cleaned out!

Hallway. Walls to either side are coming down! Old studio is on left, study on right.

Hallway cleaned out!

Some colors I am thinking about.

First piece on multi blue background.

Have always wanted to send some work to one of the challenges I read about in my quilting and sewing magazines. These are three pieces I have started for a competition for a quilting magazine, called a "Readers Challenge".

The theme is "Birds of a Feather". Well isn't that right up my alley! With a name like "Robin" I have collected feathers since I was a wee one, have a feather tattoo on my foot, and already had all of these feather stamps carved!

Finished piece can only be 9" x 9". Very small for me! So printed up these base pieces. Will start layering them with the batting and maybe play with some applique......
Finished pieces due early April.

Close up of first piece.

Second piece on dark teal background.

Close up of second piece.

Third piece with hands.

Close up.

More leggings!

Stamps and prints on leggings.

Fun leggings for a friend at school!

Close up.

So back in late summer I took in these lovely caterpillers to see what they would do. Upon some research I found out they were Black Swallowtail. They were found on some free growing parsley. Well, they built their chrysalis on a sick in the container. Information varied a little online on how long they would stay in that state, some said a few weeks others said they may winter over in the chrysalis. So I ignored them after a couple of weeks and stuck the stick in a plant in my bathroom. Well in the deep cold depths of a snowy spell they are now hatching! In the middle of winter! The first one did not seem to be able to fly. I named it Margarin and put some honey water in a bottle top in a container with some house plant cuttings. It did not seem to do much but did like walking around on my hand. It lasted about a week and a half. Now I have the second one, hatched 2 days ago. It is just hanging out on the branch next to it's chrysalis. So waiting to see if it will fly. Then I could maybe take it to hang out in a greenhouse at a local nursery. We'll see what happens!

Baby Quilt

The first of two baby quilts for some soon-to-be-born twin girls, my nieces! This was started with scraps and strips of cloth. I chose a color scheme and started stitching everything together. Then I printed with some of my carved stamps to pull it all together! All the piece work was done by hand sitting by the woodstove! Only the two outer borders were done on the machine. Next is sandwiching the batting and backing cloth and doing all the quilting, again by hand!

Close up of one flower block....

And another....

And another.

Some of the border flowers.

Thought I would try using some Thermofax screens for some printmaking. Hadn't used in years, since I printed in art class with my students maybe 20 years ago. The tech teacher at my school has a thermofax machine and has been screen printing for a few years with his students. So asked him to make a couple of screens for me. Combined them with some matching rubber stamps and printed on some previously dyed and printed fabrics. Love the results!

Rubber stamp and thermofax screen prints over bleach discharge leaf prints.

Thermofax screen print.

Rubber stamp over traditional silk screen print.

Rubber stamp and thermofax prints over dyed and stamped fabric.

Thermofax prints over soy wax batik.

Three pieces together look pretty good!

A piece I have done by hand, sitting by the woodstove in the evenings. These pieces can take on a life of their own and get really out of shape, but I trimmed this out tonight and it looks pretty good. This is just a whole bunch of odds and ends of dyed and printed cloth, with some pieces of store bought or given-to-me cloth. Next steps are some more borders and then lots of stamping, probably some big magenta flowers!

An unplanned masterpiece!

This is the wonderful print left on my craft paper that protects my work table while I am printing. All these marks come from the paint leaking through the fabric as I printed the eight tablecloths! Need to figure out what I might do with it....any suggestions out there?

Vermont Venture

Not a great picture (I left my camera at home!), but this shows three of the seventeen (!) wall hangings that are decorating the Putney General Store in Putney Vermont.
I am very excited to have so many pieces on display as they would otherwise be hanging, unseen, in my studio! Received wonderful comments and interest as I was hanging them all up, made me feel good about what I create!
So if you are over that way, take a stop in to see them all!
Hit all that nasty rain and ice coming home from a further excursion up route 91, over to Lebanon to visit my daughter, and down 89. Saw 10 accidents along the way! Decided I did not want to add to that number so crawled home!  A little over 3 hours of white-knuckle driving. Glad to be home!

Fun and Funky Leggings

The four pair of leggings and some stamps for mine ready to go.

The finished product! I'm loving these!









                       
                      A close-up of the leg.

Close-up of the largest flower stamp.











A grouping of stamps.

Welcoming in the New Year!

It has been crazy busy through the holidays! I participated in three Holiday Craft Fairs in my area. It was great to be out and about in my community selling my wares!

 I FINALLY did a project I have been wanting to do for years - designing a wall calendar for family and friends using my flower photos. I worked with the program that comes as part of iPhoto and it was sooo easy. Had 17 calendars printed and it felt so good handing them all out. That may become an annual project!










                      


Am halfway through a big project dyeing and printing 8 tablecloths for a client. They are just beautiful and it has been so fun printing them. I was able to spend some quality time next to the wood stove carving up a whole bunch of new rubber stamps! Here are some pics of the work so far: