Supporting The Arts, Supporting the Crafts

Approximately 2 years ago, I became a member of our provincial craft council.  In only 2 years, they have expanded in so many ways.  I just got this letter in the mail.  It is a request for cash donations to upgrade their space.  The Saskatchewan Craft Council / Affinity Gallery are in a very old building and are in the process of giving it a facelift and fixing thing up.  Here's a part of the letter:

They have done SO much for me and I want to give back.  I've been juried with them, interviewed for their blog, had A Prairie Dress in their 'Seeds' exhibit earlier this year, and now this fall they are using my art for their ad in Studio magazine.  (!!! WOW !!!)  They've given me great advice on so many things.  The SCC has a members' lending library that I use, and they also host web pages for their members.  Oh!  And they chose my suggest for the 'name that store' contest!  My point is... I support the Saskatchewan Craft Council wholeheartedly.  I want to give back.

So here's my plan:

I have one piece of art for sale at this time.  It's the one that was awarded a red ribbon at Showcase of the Arts this year.  It's a scene from Wanuskewin, south of Saskatoon in winter.  I would like to sell it, and give half of the proceeds to the SCC.  The donation can be in the name of the buyer.  If you aren't from here, I can ship the piece.

Tipi & Roships, 2012

This is hand painted fabric and thread, stitched free-motion by machine and embellished by hand.  The art is approximately 7x9".  The matting is double thick to keep the glass off the fibres.  It's in quite a heavy frame, but it's one that I chose because of the rich crimson in it - I think it goes so nice with the rosehips.

If you are interested in purchasing, you may email me privately at mysweetprairie @ gmail dot com.  I'll see if anything rolls in over the next few days.  I will reserve the right to have a baseline amount met before this sells (you know... so it doesn't go for too cheap.)

It's for a GREAT cause.  I will most likely use my half for more frames and mats.  I'm so excited about this!  I will post again on this soon to update you all.  : )

Wednesday Work in Progress

I am spending all day framing my work for the weekend and preparing all the little cards for each piece in my display.  I doubt I'll get the crocuses done in time, but that's okay as it seems to have been spoken for.  I just sold another Flax field too!  I was smart this time:  I made TWO.  : )  SO there will still be one at the show on Sunday.

3x9 vertical Flax in progress...

I DARE someone to count the French Knots in that piece!  : )

This will also be the week that I photograph all my embroidery before if goes under glass and is sold.  What crappy timing - again.  It's been grey and rainy for a couple days.  I think the same thing happened just prior to Gardenscape.   Dark & blustery - typical Saskatchewan spring.  We lost 4 out of 5 unbrellas yesterday while walking to school!  POOF - inside out and bent in half!  lol  Spring winds around here are not for sissies.

Tipi & Rosehips, 2012

I hope the weekend is nicer.  There will be walking tours on Sunday that bring in extra traffic to the Spring Show & Sale.  Elizabeth Cuming, an award winning art quilter from our guild, will be there as well!  I really want to buy an elevator from her and she has some lovely small works of local scenes.  Check this out from last fall at our bennial show!  They are both hers (I had posted these last fall on my blog with her permission).

Wall Hangings / Quilt Art by Elizabeth Cuming, Saskatoon

I love the hills on the other side of the river where the pelicans are!  Isn't she fabulous at what she does!?

Well... here I go.  Offline and to the cutting table.  I hope the sun decides to shine soon! This is why I love winter shows.  Winters here are MUCH brighter.   ; )  I'm linking up to The Needle & Thread Network for WIP Wednesday.  See you soon!

WIP Wednesday

WIP - "work in progress.  I have to chuckle.  My life is a work-in-progress.  Gosh things have been busy.  I thought it was, 'March: In like a lion, out like a lion', but April continues to be lion-like. ; )  I have started several threadpaintings...  seven to be exact!  Some are commissions from the last show and some are for the next one at the end of May.

in progress:  Flax at Jackfish (mini), Canola / Highway 16, and Bloom 4

The only thing missing is the flowers.  I'll do all those by hand - a field of blue flax and yellow canola all in french knots, and then bloom will be full of handstitched alfalfa, wild clover, and blanket flowers.  Sweet!  The edges are done on this one, and the stray threads all cleaned up.  I managed to photograph this in a better light, so the colors are pretty true to the real thing.  It's about 7x9".

Tipi & Rosehips, 2012  (Wanuskewin last November)

I haven't touched Megan's "Denmark" piece yet.  I have the background fabric ready and mapped out, but I'm still staring at those trees and trying to get the nerve to begin.  I know once I start, it will all come together easily.  It's a matter of having a chunk of time to myself though!

Sweet!  I looked on my calendar to see what was up and I had forgotten that I signed up for a two part class at the Studio on 9th!  It begins today.  I had a moment of, "oh crap, now i have to lug that big heavy machine back and forth," until I realized that it's a Hand Quilting Class!  Haha!  I'm VERY excited to do this one.  I adore handstitching.  This is the last part of the scholarship money from the Saskatoon Quilters' Guild and possibly the best part for me!  Immediately following the class, I need to head to the university to meet our USCAD group & plan out tomorrow's exhibition!  I'll post more on that tomorrow, along with a map if you plan on coming.  : )

Please drop by next week for sure.  It's party time at My Sweet Prairie, and I have LOADS of giveaways!  I love this time of year.  It's my birthday soon, my daughter's, my mother's, our 14th anniversary, Mother's day...  I'm feeling festive. : )

Linking to TN&TN for WIP Wednesday...
Have a good one!

Tipi & Rosehips, 2012

Tipi & Rosehips, 2012, a photo by My Sweet Prairie - Monika Kinner on Flickr.

Complete!

Details, details.

After stitching all the rosehips (see the last post), I went back and added the dried tips with fine rayon thread.  It's sooo pretty now!  I think hand stitching really makes a piece better.  The little details can't be done by machine now they don't look like any old berry.

They photo colors are odd.  It's hard to photograph white.  I'll post better photos once I'm done all the stitching and the piece gets cleaned up.  This is taking longer than I expected, but the added stitches are so worth it.

Rosehips in November.

Linking to WIP Wednesday at The Needle & Thread Network.  : )

Tipi & Rosehips

I said I would clean the house, sort out my studio, and do my taxes... but naaah.  Sewng is WAY more fun.  : )  I've been working on finishing this one that I started before Gardenscape.  It's from a photo I took in November at Wanuskewin.

Remember?  I sketched it out.  (I never sketch things out.)

Then I laid out the fabrics for snow, grass, and sky.  That was a hand-painted piece.

I had all the thread painting pretty much done on the background... and that's where I left it.  Just yesterday I added the tipi and the rosebushes!  I was really afraid of this step for some reason.   Ha ha - important aspects considering that the piece is called "Tipi and Rosehips" you know.  lol

Whew!  It worked.  I hand stitched the poles and some of the grasses in the bush.  Another couple hours to finish and tidy it up and it will be done. : )))  It's a larger version of it's sister here below.  The original photos were taken on the same day last November.

At the Buffalo Jump, 2011 (sold)

March - In Like a Lion, Out Like a Lion.

March.  Oh March!  What a month you will be.

* Every Thursday night I have Experimental Fibre Art classes for a total of 18 hrs.

* March 11th is the day I get my work juried at the Saskatchewan Craft Council.  (gasp!)  That is in 10 days.

* March 18th is the day the embroidery guild puts up a double display at the Centre Galleries.  I plan to put the Spirea into that one.

* March 24 is a sneak-peek art show that Creative House has invited me to do.  I'll talk briefly about my work, and do a machine demo (they sell Janome). Nervous?  Yeah, a tad.  I'll post details on that later in the month. I know there will be refreshments and door prizes.  Oooh!  Exciting.

* March 29 is when I put my work up for sale at Gardenscape for 3 days & volunteer there (with traffic of 25,000+ people).

* April 4 (we'll count that as March too), I am doing a presentation for the Bridge City NeedleArts Guild.

WHEW!  After that - all my work goes to new homes, and I start fresh with a new body of work.  In the mean time, March is also the month where A Needle Pulling Thread comes out.  Wait until you see what they have done!  My head is spinning.

I want to let you know that I'll need to blog less for a while, but that never seems to happen!  I'll spend the summer off with the kids, and then get back into it with teaching in the fall.  Pretty exciting!  In the mean time, my husband is pushing me to do a book or video classes, but oh man.  Some day.  Some day!

In the mean time, I have been working on this:

Tipi and Rosehips, work in progress...

I'm so at peace with this.  You might think it looks like crap at this stage, but hold tight!  It's the back drop for the tipi and rosehips, with the dry grasses poking up out of the little bit of snow from last November.  I'm pretty sure I can get it done by the jurying session.  It's a sister landscape to this one.

At the Buffalo Jump, 2011

I just picked up the last of the double mats from the shelves at Michael's lastnight.  Talk about LUCKY.  What they had left was exactly what I needed to get ready for the jurying session.  These are all ready for framing.

Stitchin' away...  framing next week.  Thanks for stopping by!

More Paint.

I'm linking this post up to The Needle and Thread Network.  What a blast it's been there lately now that we have our Feature Fridays started!  It's really great to meet all these Canucks a little more in person.  Today, I'm showing you my work in progress as of Monday.  I'm hoping that there will be LOTS more to show on these new projects by the weekend.  I was looking again at my first ever landscape and thinking I should try that one once more, but twice the size.  There's less stitching in it, but lots of pretty fibres.

I'm amazed to look at that now.  I made that 2 years ago and I'm surprised how well it turned out for my very first landscape.  I love the dark thunderhead and the glowing field.  It's such a common scene here, but it never fails to take our breath away.  So I took out my paints.  They only grey I have is oilbars though.  I applied the grey directly, but the white was put on a glass plate and then taken up with a brush.

It goes on lump-free that way.  Now I have to wait until tomorrow before I can stitch on it.  It would have been quicker to drive to the store and buy acrylics.  haha  It turned out good and it's hanging on my design/inspiration wall now.

Those grey blotches underneath are from my little finger's knuckle... from every time I anchored my hand to hold still.  I can remove them, but they'll likely be stitched over.

So while I wait, I keep eyeballing this photo from last November out at Wanuskewin.  I think it's just so darn pretty.

It's dimly lit, but the composition is pretty sweet.  I drew it out a while back.

I really liked the angle of the clouds.  So now I'm laying out the background.  I just finished putting it all together and I can't wait to stitch it!  I hope I don't mess up the tipi.  I'm a little nervous about that.

I used a piece of winter sky I had painted last month with the Jaquard dyes.  This one in particular had a bit of that upward angle to the clouds, so I think it looks just terrific in this one!  ; )  Off to stitch!