Quotes Galore

Yesterday I mentioned my quote book.  This is an old book of mine.  It started as one of those diary books with lined pages.  I'm sure I got it in the bargain section of some bookstore and liked it because it has an oriental design on the cover.

The date on the first page is Feb. 1986, my senior year of high school.  The first few written things were just thoughts of mine and a few poems.  But then I started writing in quotes or sayings I like (and probably some hallmark greetings, too, I'm sorry to say).  And that's when it became my container for quotes.

I've written quotes in it all these years.  I started with one quote on each page.  When I reached the end of the book, I went back to the beginning and started writing one quote on the back of each page.  I'm almost to the end of the book again and will go back and start writing more than one quote on each page.

I like to go back and read through it once in a while. I have also used it for inspiration for my art.  But it's not the only book I have.  Here is my collection of quote books.

Quote of the Day

"Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work." -Gustav Flaubert

I rediscovered this quote scribbled on a post-it note this weekend as I was trying to clean out and get organized with some of my art stuff, papers, files, piles, etc.  Seems very appropriate don't you think?  I rewrote it in my quote book and threw the paper away.

I accomplished quite a bit this weekend but there is plenty more to do.  Spring cleaning has begun.

I'm Working On It

I'm here and keeping busy.  I've completed my two online classes and my MS Excel class.  I'm now taking another online class from Alyson Stanfield of ArtBizCoach for getting organized (which includes all kinds of art business stuff and just plain organizing stuff).  That will be keeping me extra busy this weekend, along with the usual suspects.

Although I have not spent as much time in my studio as I would like, this week.  I have managed to piece two smaller artworks and am working on a third piece with some of the leftover fabric.  You can see it in progress in this photo.

Spring Bird

 Spring Bird

hand printed linocut

image size: 3"x 2"

@2010 Lisa Flowers Ross

I have been noticing more singing of the birds lately when I have been outside.  I think spring is in the air.  If not in the air, then, at least on my mind.  This little birdie above is from my mind.  I created this print for a print exchange that was initiated locally called Leftovers.  The idea was to use up the leftover scraps of paper that people had leftover from other prints they had made.  And the paper size couldn't be any larger than 5"x7".

You might have noticed that I'm not usually a print maker.  But I did have a class in college and have done some local workshops.  So my few pieces of leftover paper came from the workshops.  But I didn't have enough scraps to make the baker's dozen that was needed so I had to go buy some paper.  Since I don't have a printing press, these prints were printed by hand using rice paper, or Japanese paper.  I also did some on white paper.  I'm planning on putting some of the "leftovers" in my Etsy shop, soon.

Which color do you like better?  I am kind of leaning toward the tan paper as my favorite.  On one of my extra proofs I tried coloring the bird in with colored pencil.  I used yellow and a bit of orange.  I liked it on the tan but not so much on the white.  So, I did not do any hand coloring on the prints. 

I'm very excited to see what prints I get in exchange as well as see the entire 77 pieces.  Yes, there are 77 participants!  And there will be an exhibition of all the prints in April 2010 at Saltgrass Printmakers Gallery in Salt Lake City and August 2010 at Woodriver Cellars Gallery in Eagle, Idaho.  Oh, I hope I don't have to wait until August to see them all.

Signs of Spring

I was surprised the other day to look out my window and see the crocus flowers were out.  I grabbed my camera and went out to take some pictures.  As I walked around, I noticed other things were sprouting.  I probably have a gazillion pictures of the plants in my yard.  But for some reason I have to take more. . .

 

 

 

 

 

. . . and I'm glad I did because I love the shapes and swirls in these last two pictures of leaves that I took from above.  They still have some rain in them that kind of looks like marbles.

Smelling Roses?

I don't really have a regular schedule. I don't know if/when I work at the art museum until, maybe, a month ahead of time.  Lately, there really hasn't been any of that anyway.  My schedule also revolves more around Anna and Frank than myself.  Therefore, for the last year, I have sat down on Saturday or Sunday and planned the upcoming week.  Each day I list what needs to be done, activities to attend, how that time will be spent, etc.

I have to be flexible, at times, as things come up.  Like yesterday, Anna stayed home from school because she was ill. Originally, I had planned to volunteer at the museum, but switched that to another day.  So the plan was to have some studio time to work on my art. 
 
In the afternoon, Anna came in and asked me if I could read to her.  I said no because I was working on something.  But after a while, I started to feel a little guilty.  She is twelve and who knows how much longer she is going to want me to read to her.  So, I finished the section of quilting I was working on and went upstairs.

I told her I would read to her but she had to put some socks on and grab a blanket because we were going to read outside.  It was a gorgeous day! The sky was clear, the sun was shining and the high was near 60 degrees.  Eventually, I laid out a yoga mat on the deck for her.  She laid down with her blanket and pillow and I read to her outside (I wonder if the people walking by or the neighbors enjoyed the story, too). 

When my voice was starting to get sore, I stopped reading.  Anna eventually fell asleep on the deck.  I left her there, as what could be more pleasant than taking a nap outside in the sun? especially on the first day of March?  She looked just like she did when she was a baby sleeping, except much, much bigger and with her mouth open and tongue hanging out.  I thought I should take a picture.  But I decided to be a nice mother for one day and not embarrass her.  No picture.

I like to think that I am pretty good about stopping to smell the roses now and then.  Or if not stopping, at least noticing the roses.  The point of this story, though, is that I still get caught up in my to-do list sometimes.  And I have to remind myself to take that time to read to Anna or sit outside in the sun and enjoy life.  I hope you do, too.

Blue, White and Black

I can finally show you my latest artwork.  I was playing along with the Twelve by Twelve group's recent theme: Blue, White and Black. My piece is obviously not 12"x12". 

Winter Birches

27-1/4"x40"

commercial fabrics and fabrics hand-dyed by artist,

 machine pieced, machine quilted and hand stitching

©2010 Lisa Flowers Ross

$400

 detail of stitching

This piece has a lot of quilting on it and took me awhile to do.  Although you may not be able to tell, there are three different variegated threads in the blue areas.  On the birches, I also used three different colors of thread.  There are hand stitches on the birches and in the blue areas. 

Go check out all the wonderful quilts the Twelve by Twelve group did, too, by clicking on their name.

Olympic Tubing

O.k. there really is no such thing as Olympic tubing.  We have been enjoying watching the Olympics on t.v. But that is not the kind of tubing I mean. 

Anna was inspired by the Olympics and wanted to go ice skating.  I deferred that one to Frank (as he is probably the better ice skater).  Since we can go ice skating any time, he suggested we go tubing instead.  So we made a reservation (because you have to) and took ourselves and one of Anna's friends up to the ski area Saturday night.  We haven't done any skiing this year, so this was our first time up. 

 Frank with tubes and ski area in the background.

 They're ready to ride!

We did a couple of runs together (holding onto each others' tubes) and then let Anna and her friend go on their own.  The really nice thing about it is that you don't have to walk back up the hill.  The tube has a leash that you attach to a cable that pulls you up the hill.

The guys at the top tell you when to go and give you a pull to start down the hill.  You can ask them to spin you or not.  Frank and I wanted to spin and they told us how to do the "helicopter".  You face each other and hold onto the other person's feet/legs.  This keeps you more compact to spin faster.  The guy that started us off nearly threw himself down the hill trying to get us to spin as fast as possible.  Very fun! Although I thought I might pull Frank's boots off.

After about an hour and a half, Frank was done.  But I wanted to do a few more runs by myself.  I asked the guy to spin me.  He spun me so fast, my hat flew off.  By the time I got to the bottom, my stomach was just a little bit queasy.  (It's kind of like those spinning teacups at the amusement parks).

A fun time was had by all and I think I deserve the gold medal for most spins completed.

Color

I am currently doing some quilting on a piece and am always fascinated with the color of the threads and how different they look on different colors.  Below is a close-up of some of the quilting I'm doing with a variegated blue-green thread on top of an orange-y rust color.

Since the thread color and the background fabric color are somewhat complimentary, the stitching really vibrates and "pops". 

I used the same thread in the bobbin and have a white fabric as a backing.  Below you can see how much different the thread looks on the white background.

On the Needles

Here are some pictures of what I have been knitting lately.  The above picture is a scarf using the same pattern I used to make a Christmas gift for a friend.  I really like how that one looked, so I started another one for myself.  Yes, right now this is actually something for me.

On a different set of needles (because I always have to have more than one thing going on at a time!) is another scarf, also for me.  I was in one of our local yarn shops, Fuzz, and saw an example of a scarf they had knitted.  I commented on it and the store owner said it was an easy pattern and she could show me how to do it.  I thought it had two yarns but it was only one yarn. 

On President's day I went to the shop with some needles and she showed me how to do this.  The example they made was in a brown color which made it look kind of vintage.  But they were out of that color.  I picked this color because it looks spring-like.

What should be on the needles are these two colors below.

These are the colors chosen for the Idaho Winter Special Olympics this year.  Last year the World Special Olympics were in Boise and they ask people to knit scarves for the athletes.  They received so many from all over the place, they also gave them out to the fans to show support.  Every kid in Anna's elementary school received one.

When they announced it in the paper two weekends ago, I thought I could make one, now that I know how to knit and it would be kind of a payback.  A few days later I went to the store to get the specific colors, Red Cherry and Grey Heather.  I had no problem finding the red, but all the stores I went to were out of the grey.  I called around and nobody had it.  JoAnn's said their store in Nampa had some, but I did not want to drive a half an hour each way to get it.  Anna said I could order it on the internet, but I did not want to pay shipping. 

Today while I was out, I stopped at one of the Boise JoAnn's and found they had restocked the grey.  Now, I need to get to work because they want the scarves delivered by March 9th.

Blog Update

Did you notice anything different about my blog?  There are some new tabs at the top of the page.  These are new pages we can add to Blogger.  Now I have a page to put all my larger works together, still in process of getting them up.  Just click on the tab to go to that page.  I am also planning to add an "About Me" page soon.

Jane's Garden

Jane's Garden, 33-1/2"x20-3/4"
hand dyed fabrics,
fused applique and machine quilted
©2010 Lisa Flowers Ross
$300

I finished this piece a couple of weeks ago and haven't gotten around to showing it here yet. This piece is a bit unusual for me. First, it has no straight lines (not counting the quilting). Second, it has pink and purple in it. Thirdly, that background quilting is different. I titled it Jane's Garden, not because of my neighbor named Jane (sorry, neighbor) but for Jane Sassaman. I have her book and was looking at some of the techniques she described and which I used in this quilt. Below is a detail of some of the stitching.

And this was the thumbnail sketch that the quilt came from. It is literally thumbnail sized as you can see the dime next to it. It was a little difficult to scale it up so much, but it worked out.

Happy Valentine's Day

Hope everyone has a good day and some chocolate! Below is my little attempt at setting a Valentine table. Some flowers, a little bit of red, some gifts - it's all good! Anna made the pie (above) for us.

Learning

I think I have mentioned before that I could be a professional student if it was a paid position. I like taking classes, especially learning new art techniques. However, I realized that so many different ways to do things can be overwhelming and I just need to focus on doing my own work. And I have been.

But I still like to take classes. So, I am currently enrolled in two online classes and a community education class. The online classes are Freezer Paper, Paint, Oh My! with Melanie Testa and Mark Making with Hand Dyed Embroidery Threads with Melanie Testa.

I have Melanie's book Inspired to Quilt and have been wanting to try a few of the techniques although I never got around to it. So I thought the classes would get me going. Below are some of the threads I have dyed for the Mark Making class. They are actually a little bit lighter in person.

I thought I had taken a picture of my freezer paper cut-outs but cannot locate it.

The community education class I am taking is Microsoft Excel beginner and I'm also doing the intermediate class. I think I remember using Excel or something similar in college for accounting class, but it has been a long time. I want to create spreadsheets for my art expenses/sales/etc. But I'm sure I can use it for other things as well. Last night we created calendars. It is much more fun to just play with a program than try to learn it as you are doing something important. Less pressure, I guess.

That's what is keeping me busy these days. Of course, I am still doing my artwork. I have one piece I am working on that has lots of stitching. It is almost done but I need to go get some more thread today.

Bid On

I have been a bit busy with two online classes and a community education class (more about those another day) but managed to get over to Flying M this week to look at all the artwork for auction.

I love this painted guitar. I don't know how to play the guitar, so I didn't bid on it.

Here is just part of one wall. They really squeeze them in.

There are also some three dimensional items in niches. Anna's cat is number 22. The bid was already up to $28 for it.

I think bidding closes on the 13th. That's when you need to be there if you really want something, because people will be waiting for the last minute, seconds, to make sure they get a piece. I bid on a pretty necklace, but since I won't be there for the last day, I'm sure I will not have the high bid.

There is also an exhibition at the Visual Arts Collective in conjunction with the auction. More pieces are there. I think they are for sale and a percentage of the sale goes to the Aids organization. I haven't been there yet to check it out.

The Dress

Anna with her friend, Katarina

Throughout the school year, Anna's junior high has held about four dances so far. Friday night was the latest and was called "formal" at first and then changed to "semi-formal".

I don't recall having dances when I was in middle school. I think "formal" for junior high is a little too much. We don't need the kids to grow up any faster than they already are. But as you can see from the picture above, Anna still went in a fancy dress.

There is a story behind that dress. Months ago, we were just shopping for school clothes at Penney's and Anna saw that dress. You know why she liked it, don't you? The leopard print. She said that they would be having a formal dance sometime and she wanted to try it on. I wasn't really interested in getting her a dress, especially one with spaghetti straps and for the price it was. But eventually I said I would let her just try it on, hoping that it would not fit well. Well, she tried it on and she looked so adorable, what else could I do but get it for her?

Day Trip: Winter Carnival

I has been years since we have been to McCall's Winter Carnival. Anna doesn't remember going. So we headed north today to check it out. Now I remember why we haven't been there in years - many people in a small town. This was the second weekend and it was crowded. Although someone said it was even more so last weekend.

For those who don't know, the Winter Carnival is an event with different activities. The main attraction being the building of snow sculptures around town. Being the second weekend of the event, the sculptures were looking a little worn and melted. But we could still make out what they were.

People out on the lake.

Anna and Frank out on the lake.

Where the Wild Things Are sculpture.

Lisa and Anna kayaking in one of the sculptures.

Whale sculpture

Valentine Collages

Last year I made a series of "Valentine" collages, one of which was donated to the auction for aids. I have put the remaining pieces in my Etsy shop. If you would like to see them you can click on Lisa's Etsy shop in the sidebar. Below is one of them.

Heart Compass, Mind Soul
found papers, colored pencil, pen
2009 Lisa Flowers Ross

How Entertaining!

This weekend, Anna and I are getting a large dose of some performing arts. On Thursday night we went to see Tap Kids at the Nampa Civic Center. I will never understand why they choose to put a family show on a school night and not have it start until 8 p.m. It takes us about a half on hour to drive over there. So it is fairly late for Anna by the time we get home.

Despite that, I still get the tickets. The show was different than I expected but very energetic and fun. You can get an idea of the show in this video. It made me want to tap my toes on the way out. I asked Anna if it made her feel like dancing and she said, no. But she did enjoy it.

The next night, Friday, we had tickets for the Boise High School Chamber Orchestra concert. If we bought the tickets early through her orchestra teacher at school, they were half price. So for $8, Anna and I got to enjoy some great music. It is was a benefit concert to help them raise money to perform in the Mt. Hood area sometime. They announced at the show that they would be donating a percentage of the ticket sales to help the Haitian people. That was nice.

We went to the show last year and I was impressed with how well they played. They also have guest artists come and play with them. I'm hoping to encourage Anna to keep playing her violin so that maybe one day she will be in the high school orchestra. Although they said they meet at 6:50 a.m. every morning. I'm not so sure Anna would be up for that.

Our last outing for the weekend will be tomorrow afternoon. We will see the Idaho Dance Theatre perform. It is basically the university troupe and I usually get season tickets for me and Anna. I always want to dance after that as well. I guess it is a good thing I found the Nia class, now I can dance every week.

Valentine Collages

Last year I made a series of "Valentine" collages, one of which was donated to the auction. These were done in paper and I have put the remaining collages for sale in my Etsy shop. Each collage is sewn to Bristol paper.

Heart Compass, Mind Soul
image size: 10"x7-1/2"
Bristol paper size: 14"x11-1/2"
2009 Lisa Flowers Ross

Valentine Cat

Here is the piece Anna made for the Valentine auction. It is a polymer clay cat. She made one similar to this several years ago and it received many bids. Isn't it adorable?

Valentine Piece

Love is Not Always Black and White
19"x15"
©2010 Lisa Flowers Ross
Available for bidding at Valentine's for Aids event, Flying M Coffeehouse, Boise, Idaho

Here is the piece I made for the Valentine auction. For some reason, my Valentine pieces are always very different from what I'm currently working on and I'm not sure why. They also tend to be a little more traditional. This one has some hand stitched x's and o's on it. The organizers like you to keep with the Valentine theme, but it is not a strict rule.

Last year they posted pictures of all the pieces online. If they do that again, I will certainly post the link here.

Sewing Tip: How to Quilt a Curve

I was finishing up my piece for the Valentine auction the other day and wanted to have some curved quilting lines in the borders. I didn't want to do free motion quilting because I wanted to have consistent curves. I could have traced a template onto the fabric and then followed it with free motion quilting, but I did not have a good template.

As I was trying to figure out what I could use to create the lines, I came up with the idea of ric-rac. I have a piece of very large ric-rac that would provide the right size curves. I pinned the ric-rac to the quilt sandwich where I wanted the curved line.

I used my open-toed foot with a straight stitch and just followed along the edge of the ric-rac moving the fabric back and forth. I had to be careful to not catch the edge of the ric-rac or I would have to take the stitches out. Despite how close the needle looks in this picture, I was able to sew without catching any of the ric-rac edge.


And that is how I got my curved line. I will post the finished piece soon.

It's Official

I can finally share some good news with you. I will be having a show at the Initial Point Gallery in Meridian from May 21 - June 18. It is a gallery run by the Meridian Arts Commission and is in the city hall building on the third floor. I have known since Dec. but was waiting for my official letter in the mail.

The application was due last November. Even though I had the info. for a while, I did not get my act together. The deadline was drawing near and I was thinking maybe I should just not bother to apply. But one day I decided to just go for it and got all the materials together and mailed that day. I'm so glad I did! And I'm so excited for my first solo show. O.k. technically I am sharing the gallery space with another artist, but it seems like a solo show to me.

It is very low key because I will have to do the installation, labels, price list and all that stuff. But there will be an artist reception (for both of us) on May 26. If you are in town, come on by. Of course, more details later.

How To: Earring Holder

I have had pierced ears since high school and have amassed quite a collection of earrings. In the 80's, there were some pretty big ones. Not so much now. Years ago, I decided to make myself something to hold my collection of earrings.

I started with some thin wood and built myself a small cabinet with doors. Since I prefer the earrings with hooks, I put lots of small dowel rods inside to hold those. On the inside of the doors I put some strips of raised balsa wood with notches to hold the post type earrings. It has served me well.

Since Anna has had her ears pierced, she has started her own collection of earrings (yep, she's got that collector gene, too). Of course, I said we could make a holder for her, but not like mine. I'm sure if you searched the internet there would be lots of ideas. I know I have seen picture frames with screen attached to the open area. That would work well with the hook earrings, but not so great for post earrings, especially if you wanted to hang it on the wall.

Here's what I did for Anna:

I had a picture frame I was not planning on using anymore. I could have drilled holes right through the sides of the frame for the dowel rods, but I did not. I could have just drilled a hole partway from the inside. But I chose to put some eye screws on the inside of the frame and put the dowel rod into the hole of the screw. If I ever want to use the frame, as a frame, then I can unscrew them.

I used the same balsa wood strips with notches for the post earrings and just used a little wood glue to attach them. I hung it on the wall and it was ready to go. It didn't take very long to do. But I won't tell you how long Anna waited for me to get around to doing it!

Apparently it works for necklaces and other things as well.

Haiti

I am sure you have all heard about the tragic earthquake in Haiti. Above is a picture of Labadee, Haiti where we stopped on our cruise in 2008. It is a beautiful place with wonderful snorkeling. It was Anna's favorite place.

I tried to explain to her that we weren't seeing the much of the real Haiti, that the place had much poverty. This beach we were at was a private area owned by the cruise line. But that is so hard for her to understand, being so young. The only locals we saw were in the market area and they were very agressive with their selling.

Hopefully, organizations will be able to mobilize quickly and get help to the island.

Leaf

Leaf, 25-1/2"x31"
hand dyed and commercial fabrics,
machine pieced and quilted
©2010 Lisa Flowers Ross
$300

Detail

This is a piece that came together fairly quickly. Partly because it was kicking around in my head for so long while I finished up the last piece. And partly because it is fairly simple. It was inspired by a leaf that I had found and scanned.



I love how you can see the different sections and break down of the leaf. This is what I based the quilted shapes on. I am thinking of doing another piece, also inspired by this photo.

Spring Green

Spring Green, 38-1/2"x31-3/4"
hand dyed fabrics,
machine pieced, fused appliqué, machine quilted
© 2010 Lisa Flowers Ross
$400

This piece is finally finished. My first piece for the year, even though it was started last year. I know some people like to hear about the artist's inspiration and intention for a piece. Although sometimes I think it is better not to know. Then, the the viewer can bring their own vision and experiences to the piece. But I am going to talk about my intention here. So if you don't want to be influenced on your impressions, read no further.

This piece was developed from an impression in my head of sunlight shining through new growth of spring leaves and grass. I decided to go with the circle stitching as, to me, that represented sun spots and also the energy of the new spring growth. As I was sewing on the circles, I realized that they reminded me of the growth rings of trees when they are cut. I thought that fit in perfectly and added another dimension.

Wasting No Time

These last few days I have been finishing up the quilting on my latest piece. In this post I showed you some different ideas I had for doing the quilting lines. I decided to go with the circles. However, I have not done much free-motion work with big circles. (For those that don't know what free-motion quilting is, it is dropping the feed dogs on the machine and moving the fabric around to create the lines. It's like drawing with the needle. )

To help me with my circles, I decided to cut out some freezer paper circles that I could iron on to the fabric and use as a guide. You can see the cut-outs below and some of the stitching I have already done.

I finished the circles today and I just need to finish the edges and I will get a completed picture up here soon.

Happy New Year

2010 is here. I managed to get the Christmas stuff put away just in time, last night. Usually this is a time for review of the year and setting goals/intentions for the next year. I did review my artistic goals for last year and did fairly well in accomplishing most of them. I will not elaborate here. I hope this year will be even better and I have new goals to work on. The sky's the limit.


The new year always has me excited about what I might accomplish for the year. It's like starting with a clean state. Speaking of clean, it is also a time where I have an urge to clean out things and get the house in order so as to have a physically clean slate as well. That doesn't always happen but I will at least try to get the pine needles vacuumed up today and things put back in place.