The arts and crafts show

Well the show is over and it was a lot of fun. People were pretty blown away by my quilts and were amazed that they were quilts. So it was an educational experience for them to be introduced to art quilts. Unfortunately I did not sell anything which was not a big surprise.

I did add a tab at the top of the blog of quilts for sale in case you are interested.

The quilt that got the most attention was my cardinal quilt, Midwinter Visitor. This is what I expected.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

People loved my landscape (Orange Sky at Night) and church quilt (Spiritual Sanctuary) a lot as well.

Forest Cathedral got a lot of attention.

What surprised my is how many people liked my energy series. I guess I need to make the anti fracking quilt to add to the series! In fact one person commented that it was my best work.

The questions most asked by people is how did you do this, how do you get your ideas, and how long does it take?

Now for the funny part of the show….

Remember the framed daisy quilt that I donated for a raffle to benefit the food pantry? I mentioned it in my last blog. Well guess who won it? My husband! So we still have it!  My husband was thrilled that we are keeping it. I am still chuckling about it. And a lot of people bought chances on it. It was not like that time I won a kitty in a raffle in HS because I was pretty much the only one that bought a chance.

Will I do it again? Not sure. Maybe one more time. I thought about making smaller, cheaper pieces to sell, but decided against that. I think I will just continue to make what I want to make.

Thanks for reading

Chris

Still working on the blues

After deciding to stick with the Cherrywood fabrics I made some minor changes to my abstract blue quilt. I have gotten over the idea that they are not the same blues as in the computer sketch.

• I got rid of the really dark navy blue blocks and put in lighter ones.
• I added a brighter hand dyed fabric that I did years ago for some of the blocks. It also brightened it right up.
• I decided to use black Kona cotton for the black instead of the gray looking Cherrywood black. This works better I think.
• I decided to try randomly cutting out some black strips and place them on the top to see how  the black overlay might look before sketching and cutting out the actual overlay pieces.

I think we are looking much better. What do you think? My husband likes it! He usually never comments about my quilts, but made a comment about this one. He asked if it was supposed to be looking through a window. Funny how we look for something we recognize even in abstract art.

 

 

 

 

 

This Sunday is the art show in my development. I am getting the quilts ready for it. I also am donating a small piece for a raffle where the proceeds will go to our local food bank.

It is my Crazy about Daisies quilt. I cut off the goofy daisy fabric border and framed it. I always hated the trite border fabric. Not sure why I chose it. I guess I thought it was clever at the time. See the original quilt below. The new quilt is in a frame that is 12 by 12 and matted to 8 by 8. I thought that a framed piece would be easier to get people to take chances to win it.

I had a hard time getting a good photo of it.

 

 

Here is the original quilt. Thanks for reading.

Chris

Linking to Nina-Marie.

Singing the blues

I did a first try at arranging the blue squares on the black background for the abstract blue quilt.

Not sure if they are too dark. The Cherrywoods are certainly more grayed then my “sketch”. It certainly does not have the bright blue look of the sketch.

What do you think? Maybe I should have done a different palette of blues that tended more toward the royal blues rather than navy. Maybe I should use more of the lighter blues in my navy gradation.

And I thought this was going to be easy…

Thanks for reading.

Chris

Lions, tigers, and bears..

OH MY! And zebras, alligators, and elephants, too.  Our Noah’s Arc has 19 pairs of animals.

 

As well as Noah and his wife.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Even a separate boat for skunks….

 

 

 

 

 

 

We even did our cats….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We made this from a pattern we found in a book. It was a lot of work for my husband cutting out all of these pieces and then I had to paint them. And they are painted on both sides. And yes there are lions, tigers, and bears.

 

 

 

 

 

 

On a quilty note I cut out the blue squares for the abstract quilt. It is supposed to be a gradation, but to me some of the fabrics in the sequence look the same. I guess that happens with gradations. I also cut out some “white” since I think the design has some white blocks. Or maybe they are just pale blue. I guess I will see when I lay out the blocks with the black background.

 

Thanks for reading.

Chris

Deciding on prices for quilts

I have been trying Idaho Beauty’s formula for pricing the art quilts that I want to sell at our neighborhood art sale in November.
She suggested $1 per square inch as a rough guideline.  I don’t have to pay a commission to sell them and I do live in central PA which is certainly not NYC. So I deducted out about 40% for that. I also thought about how much work went into them.
This is what I have come up with so far. Let me know if these look fair and not too low or too high. I do not want to give them away.


“Orange Sky at Night” 19 in by 27 in.
$325










“Forest Cathedral” 15 in by 21 in
$215

“Paris Rooftops” 18 in by 26 in
$250









“Spiritual Sanctuary” 23 in by 37 in
$425











What do you think? Input is much appreciated.
Also do people typically try to negotiate the price at an art show?
Thanks for reading and commenting.
Chris