Studio Tour 2014

It has been a whirlwind four days for me as a participant in the Great Falls Studios annual Studio Tour. The idea is to welcome visitors in to the places where we create our art, give them the opportunity to chat directly with the artists and maybe achieve some sales. 

Not all of us have a home studio that is suitable for visitors to come to so I was delighted to once more set up in the living room of the home of my water-color artist friend Linda Jones. This year we were joined by silversmith Richard Masaniello; the combination of art techniques was a good variety and made spending time at our studio stop worthwhile.

 My timing for this post is not terrific because the tour is over now. But we were just so busy that I kept forgetting to take a few photographs. Fortunately the weather was kind enough not to rain and the sunny skies combined with the lots of opportunity for leaf peeping made for a gorgeous Fall day to be out and about exploring the back roads and stopping off at the open art studios. The wind was fierce though and by day three, when the temperature had dropped, we had to move the greeter and welcome materials that had been on the table with the wedding ring quilt inside the front door. But my "Purple Passion" quilt let people know they were at the right place.

 Inside the front door my quilt "The Luscious Lilies" complimented the colors in many of Linda's artworks hanging on the right stair wall while my much smaller "There's One in Every Crowd" did the same for other pieces on the left. Down a short flight of stairs was my area.

 The theme for my display this year was history and I was showcasing both completed and current pieces that draw their inspiration from history. The big piece in the center is a commission item I made earlier this year I titled "Work Clothes" - it is made from fabrics cut from the suits, sport coats, shirts, ties, suspenders and pants belonging to a retired friend. I'm now working on pillows that go with the lapquilt and you can see three of them just to the left of Work Clothes. Visitors loved to hear the story of those pieces.

In the back left I had pinned up my two current block of the month projects; Threads of Memory and Where Poppies Grow. Folded up and laying underneath "Strawberries and Cream" (the red and white one) is "St Patrick's Day", the Remarkable Round Robin quilt I am finishing that belonged to my sister. I am thinking about her constantly right now as it is coming up on the first anniversary of her passing away.

The low coffee table held my binder with information and my copy of "Inspired by the Beatles - An Art Quilt Challenge" open to "my" page (I was one of the 150 fiber artists who made a piece based on the title of a Beatles song - the complete collection debuts at the imminent Houston Quilt Show). Each day I gave away a small thanks-for-visiting bag containing a cookie made from an old family recipe, to go with the history theme, and I had them displayed in one of the cake tins that I remember my Mum always had full of a wide variety of delicious cakes/cookies/slices. On Friday visitors received an Anzac Biscuit which also fit nicely with my World War I project on the wall. Saturday's treat was Hokey Pokey Biscuits and Sunday it was Yo-Yoes.

Moving around the room I had five of my challenge pieces from the June Bride and There is a Season collections displayed on the screens with more quilts draped over the sofa.

Each day when I got home I was really tired from being on my feet all day and talking so much. Saturday it was 4.30pm before I was able to grab a few minutes and eat my lunch. Each evening my own kitchen became the scene of the production of the cookies for the next day; my son did most of the baking and I quickly packaged them up invariably forgetting to even taste one myself. So I was delighted to come home on Sunday to find he had made another batch of Yo-Yoes just for us to enjoy.

If you are reading this blog for the first time because I met you on Studio Tour I hope you had a great visit. Thanks to everyone who took the time to listen to - or read here - all my stories about making memories with fabric.