When our studio flooded, a lot of framed art got ruined. Since the Creamery Arts Center has lots of odd spaces, I cleaned the old frames and designed some collages to fit into them for the show.

Here’s the finished quilts in the show, but for fun I included some framed pages from my sketchbooks to show where the ideas come from.

“Paris – wish you were Hair.” The old vintage postage from my collection is from 1904 and someone wrote their postcard message on the front of the image.

“Seattle, the Space Needle – wish you were Hair”. Haven’t done the quilt for this this idea yet.

Actually, I drew this idea for “Twin Bridge”, then happened to find the postcard that matched. ooohwaa!

We had this really huge frame, so I put my actual pattern for “Athens – wish you were Hair”, with alternations into it. There was a little extra room, so I added some sketches and graphic inspirations at the bottom.

This one I called “Elements of an Art Quilt” because I included a stitch test for “St. Louis – wish you were Hair” to try out the effects of different thread colors on fabrics (and left the edges unfinished so that the astute observer could see the top layer, batting and backing), some graphic research and inspiration images, a pastel pencil practice for stitch patterns, and a wad of thread I picked up off the floor of my studio.

The little drawing in the corner gives a clue what “King Tut” (a variegated quilting thread) is because I used the reference in the labels on the stitch test on the left.

Lisa asked if McDonalds serves french fries for breakfast — I don’t know, I just buy Egg McMuffins and coffee. I don’t think McDonalds serves purple hamburgers either, but I think they look nice.

Actually striped french fries would be a good idea too. (this may not show up well in the photo, but they are orange and yellow stripes)

I had hoped to finish five new quilts for the next show, but a while back realized I could only do four. But there’s still a lot to do to finish those. And drawings, I’m working on framing those too.

Meanwhile all the quilts have arrived safely for the ThreadLines show at the MSU Art & Design Gallery.

Fortunately the gallery staff will handle all the installation, whew. I just did an interview with the Business Journal about the show and Susan Leslie Lumsden will be doing an television interview on Tuesday, so it will be getting lots press, yay!

Well, I thought I was tough anyway, sweating it out all summer in my studio with no air conditioning. But truthfully, it has been a mild summer…..until last weekend. Finally it got so hot, and add to that no windows to vent all the heat of my overhead lights and an iron that is constantly on HOT, that I knuckled and resorted to my emergency heat evacuation plan.

I moved my sewing machines to the newly redone gallery, love that bamboo floor! But even better, the now all-white walls and big open space. Formerly a meeting room and kitchen, we redesigned this room to be more of a multi-purpose room, and now it seems a wise investment.

The lighting’s not as even as my studio, but it’s cool! And I have all sorts of interesting new thoughts when I look up from my sewing and see the Russ RuBert beautiful sculptures. What a yummy place to work!