2015 – a new year, a new studio

Hi everyone, to all my readers a Happy New Year for 2015.

I’M IN !!  🙂 yeay.  After a lovely Christmas Day with 18 out of a possible 24 family members celebrating in the new studio,  and once the family had all returned home again, I started the serious (but very enjoyable) job of moving dozens of boxes from the various places I have been working for the last how many years.

Of course I had to start work on a new project before everything was properly set up, and have my first quilt for 2015 nearly done.  All raw edge strips for sky sea and sand, and fussy cut applique plants in the foreground.

Horizons

Close-up foreground

Photos taken before stitching.  I’m about half done.

Here are some views of the chaos I am working my way through.

Welcome sign

From where I used to work  …

… to the new work space

Dyeing supplies waiting to be put away

Working space in afternoon light

Afternoon light so bright the camera doesn’t like it

There might not be a deck with a roof over it yet, but inside as you can see, the space and light are great to work in.

First market of the year next Sunday, and I need to replenish stocks which are well down from pre-Christmas markets.

I’ll keep smiling if you do too.  🙂 🙂

The move in to the new studio begins …

I had intended to make this part of my studio update post, but that turned into such a lengthy novel, I decided to post separately.

Tuesday was our regular meeting day for one of the quilting groups I belong to, and as it was the unveiling of this year’s challenge quilts, my studio walls made a great display space.

Here are a couple of photos of the action – typical of when quilters get together – lots of chatting, oohing and aahhing over the quilts on the walls.

Channel Quilters challenge unveiled

The little room at the far end of the main studio, directly below the large triangle window, originally meant to be for storage of all things textile, I have decided is a good place to set up the fabric shop and my market supplies.

Not much happening in there yet,

but in a week or so I will have all the boxes unpacked and displayed on the tables around the four walls.

I have closed the shop until the New Year, so I can get everything sorted before the Christmas holidays, re-opening the second week of January 2015.

I plan to have a relaxing corner at one end, with my bookcases, sofa and easy chairs.  This will easily convert to a guest room for visitors coming to stay, and the first guests will be our eldest daughter and her family, who live overseas, home for Christmas. 🙂

Studio building update – dramas and smiles

It’s all happening here now.   The carpets were laid last week –

Wet working area with grey vinyl surround

Vinyl bottom left of picture with grey and red carpets

All the greys are soft and delicate to go with the colour of the window and door frames.  The red strip of carpet greets you as you step in the door.  It was such a beautiful rich colour that I fell in love with it when I saw it in the shop and had to have it.  Common sense took over of course and I went for the pale grey for most of the studio especially along below the design walls, so there were no distractions for the eye from what would be hanging on the wall, but I did get some red along in front of the doors and windows, I love it 🙂

We did get the ceiling fans and lights in place just in time before the carpet was laid – we didn’t want the scaffolds being pulled around on the new carpet!

Installing ceiling an lights

Fan blades fold in when not working

Then the plumbers arrived.  Chaos reigned for a few days while new water lines were installed, replacing the old and already existing pipes under the house.  Every now and then the cry would come up from under the floor boards, “Don’t turn any taps on for half an hour!”

Then it was the drainage that had to be changed over – one day we had the toilet in the house, laundry tubs and the shower that we could use, next day it was only the studio toilet, laundry and kitchen and the message would be “Don’t press the button or pull the plug anywhere!”

The last bit of drainage work under the house was changing the pipes under the old toilet, from the old terra cotta to the new poly-pipes.  We were warned what could happen, and of course it did – in chipping the concrete away from the pipe the bowl broke near the base – not repairable –

There’s a hole in the floor, dear Henry dear Henry ….

so it was off to the plumbing shop to get a replacement, actually able to get the same as the one in the studio – we now have matching loos !!

All new loo

While this drama was happening, outside everything went quite smoothly.  The new tank rolled easily from truck to new resting place on its gravel bed,

Manoeuvring water tank

Tank safe on new bed of gravel

and the local water carrier came with a truck load of water to hold the tank in place so it wouldn’t move in  the wind – tank will hold 5,000 gallons and 2,000 is enough to keep it anchored in place until all the pipes are in place.

Transferring water from truck to tank

New drainage lines with gravel bedding

Meanwhile the outside looks much like it did last time I took a photo, still no deck, hopefully, touch wood, and all things crossed, we will have it before Christmas.

Studio today

Till next time, keep smiling 🙂

Another UFO is finished and studio update

Remember this quilt from a year or more ago?

Tunnel quilt original photo 2013

Which I cut the photo into strips and played around with it – read about it in this blog from January 2013 .

Ready for quilting

Well, a couple of weeks ago I looked at it again, quilting finished (and no photos of that 😦  ), but there was too much colour in it,  tunnels are dark and mysterious, not bright and colourful as this.

After auditioning various organza and tulle overlays, I decided that painting might be the answer.  Out came the paints – bother, no transparent black only very thick opaque which wouldn’t do at all.  Light bulb moment – Indian Ink 🙂 After trialling various glitter/pearl type paints, I found this watercolour medium in the local art supply store.

Ready to go

One and a half bottles of ink later, diluted at 3:1 with a few drops of the iridescent medium added to each mix of ink,  and painting it twice to get the depth of darkness I wanted, I added some pearl splashes to the area of the tunnel floor.

Those bright pinks and blues are more subtle browns now.  There is quite a lot of “water sparkle” on the fabric which isn’t showing in the photo, but very visible in sunlight.

Painting finished and tunnel transformed

Close-up

Now to finish off – do I bind it in the same fabric as the bars, or do I make a facing on the back? I don’t think this is a quilt to use the overlocker on.

Pinned on the wall now, so I can walk past it and think about it for a week or so.

STUDIO UPDATE –

The studio is still waiting to be finished and occupied.  The plumber was expected 2 Monday’s ago, hopefully it will be third time lucky – next Monday.  We can’t “occupy” until the building inspector says so, and the plumbing has to be done before that, even though it is an extension of an already existing occupied dwelling!

The fan lights for the ceiling have arrived, and when they have been installed (electrician needs to use the scaffolds to get up to the peak), we can go ahead with ordering the floor coverings.

Keep smiling – I’m trying to 🙂

New studio – in for the weekend and out again on Monday

The Channel Art Trail with it’s exhibitions and open studios happened over this last weekend.  Although my studio is still in a state of “not quite finished”, the builders were very good and vacated for a couple of days so that we could set up our displays.  The weather had been pretty awful in the days leading up, and there was mud everywhere, as is commonly the case on building sites.

To enable access to the front door, as the deck has not been built on yet, a temporary catwalk was constructed from old pallets and sheets of flooring, with a door mat either end, it worked very well.  The photos can tell you the story.

Pondering the next step

Add a few more pallets and another plank

A little later and nearly to hard ground

And on Saturday the sun came out 🙂

Early morning outside after the clean up

Meanwhile inside a lot had been happening.  First the ‘soft’ design wall had to be constructed – a layer of cotton quilt batting glued directly to the styrene wall, and several lengths of heavy curtain lining called bumf (spelling?) which is like a very fine woven but thick flannelette fabric sewn together and stretched down the length of the wall, 7.5m down one wall and 3m on the shorter wall.  We tested the strength with a heavy bed quilt pinned with only 3 pins in the top – wonderful, even without the pins it stuck to the wall! Then we covered it over with black plastic so that no plaster or paint would splash on to it.

Here’s some more pictures.

Styrene wall ready for covering

First layer is cotton quilt batting

 

Multi-skilled builder handy with the iron

Ready for the top layer of bumf (or bumph ?)

Top layer before final stretching and stapling

And we only used 2 cans of glue

Test strength with heavy quilt – only needed 3 pins at the top

Design wall covered with plastic for the plasterers

Cleaning plaster scraps from floor

Happy to watch this paint dry

Looks so lovely and clean

A large empty space full of potential ready and waiting –

First load of boxes arrive

This is outside

And inside – one end for Jen

And the other end for me

Plenty of room for displays

Demonstration tables

Entrance catwalk

Directional bunting

The view outdoors

 

Some of my collections of quirky teapots and old irons – tiny ones are for lace

And lastly, what it looked like after the removalists arrived – we had to empty the space for the builders to come back at 7am on Monday to get on with the plastering

Removalists moved in

Next morning the plasterers were back at it

Thank you for reading this far, it has been a very long post, there was a lot I wanted to tell you about.

Keep smiling 🙂

 

Catching up with the latest news building the studio

A lot has happened since I last posted – life gets in the way when you are very busy.

The studio construction seems to be never ending, stop and go and stop again, usually because it is raining, again!  which is what happened when the builders were ready to build the roof frame, then again when the windows arrived, and again this week when the sheets of tin were delivered last week and the laden truck has been sitting in the yard waiting for the weather to change.  Yes, winter has arrived with a vengeance.

Roof frame ready for the iron

Inside looking up – it’s big

Re-aligning house roof to meet extension roof

Flat roof is on, now for the gable

The builders knocked off at lunch time today and won’t be back until the weather clears, who knows when.

In the meantime, stay warm 🙂

 

 

New studio – week 1

Here we go – everything is happening so quickly, hopefully the weather stays good for the next few weeks.
End of day 1 – marking out the wall lines

Where the building will come to

End of day 2 – a lot of dirt was shifted to get this big flat hole

Dug down to floor level

End of day 3 – Beginning of trenches for footings and first holes

Shape of building with first trenches

End of day 4 – all trenches and holes finished

Holes and trenches all done

While all this activity is happening outside, I have had time to be working in the sewing room.  I am putting together a couple of kits to go with quilt patterns by Leesa Chandler.  Photos and story next time.

🙂

My new studio – it’s happening, yeay!

The dream started over 20 years ago, but something always got in the way.  When we were farming, any spare money went on new tractors, new tree planting, irrigation schemes, etc.  Now we are retired, the dream is finally becoming a reality.

This afternoon the builders arrived and began laying out lines ready for the digger tomorrow morning.

First boundary marker goes in (right where my car is usually parked)

 We thought everything would fit nicely into the lawn space, but  it was just a tad bigger …

Outside wall will be right over the driveway

I’ll keep you posted 🙂

 

 

Art Trail photos

We had a wonderful weekend, the weather was kind as regards the rain, some but not too bad, and the sun was out most of the time.I can’t say definitely, but we probably had over 150 visitors, only about half of them wrote in the visitors’ book – some very nice comments too.

Here’s a few photos to tell the story.

Part of Flowerpot Quilts’ studio space

Visitors to Marcato studio space

The first display of small art quilts by the Circle of 4 Art Quilters, arranged by each challenge theme –

Circle of 4 display of small art quilts

Challenge #1 – Looking out the window

Challenge #2 – Portrait inspired by Picasso

Challenge #3 – Black Magic

Challenge #4 – Winter

Challenge #5 – free choice theme, but on canvas

Over the course of the weekend, I demonstrated dyeing silk scarves using Procion and Landscape dyes, and wool scarves using Landscape dyes. Here are some of the results.  Left to right – 2 Landscape wool scarves (bloodwood purple and galah pink), 4 Landscape silk scarves (marine blue, marine blue & apollo bay blue, bloodwood scrunched, galah pink), and 3 Procion Mx silk scarves (same Red MXG on all, with varying amounts of Aubergine poured over the red – I love the one on the right).

Results of scarf dyeing demonstrations

Second picture is of the same red and aubergine on a silk jersey cowl scarf.

Silk jersey cowl scarf

And this is what the studio looks like now, all packed up and put away.  The sheet-covered tables are the shop displays.

An empty studio

An empty and tidy studio space just waiting for me to start work and make it messy again.

As of today, my shop Flowerpot Quilts, is open 3 days a week, Tues-Thurs, 10am to 4pm.  If you’re driving past and see the orange flags flying, come in and say hello.

I have also worked out a new class list for the summer, 2nd Saturday each month from September to April. I’ll have the details up soon.

Day 1 of the Channel Art Trail

A warm sunny day, and lots of people came down the Channel to see the exhibitions and artists’ studios.

Here at Flowerpot, we had plenty of visitors who came to check us out.  This picture shows a couple of ladies looking at the bags in Jen’s “studio space”, with Jen working on another of her lovely creations.

Visitors in Marcato studio space

On the back wall of my studio are some of my favourite quilts. In the centre and right of the picture is part of my Flowerpot Quilts shop, and some silk scarves hanging right in front.

Back wall of my studio

After having several enquiries today about dyeing , I think  it’s time to start my classes again, and get organised for the coming summer.  I’ll let you know soon.