Colour Collective Fridays
Fridays are fun on Twitter. The process actually starts the Saturday before, when the Colour Collective (@Clr_Collective) posts a color for the week. The idea is for artists to create a piece using that color, or to find a previous work that has the color in it.
On any given Friday, at 19:30 GMT (that would be early afternoon, here in Texas), everyone posts their work, tagging #colour_collective, and the name of the color for the week. It’s a fun challenge, and my Friday afternoon Twitter feed is just beautiful!
Lots of illustrators join in, which I love, because I have been fascinated by illustration since childhood. However, artists in all media are welcome to take the Colour Collective challenge.
Making textile art takes me a while, so I had to go back to Puzzling Pinks, a piece from 2015, to find Cherry Blossom Pink for our May 11th challenge.
After working (and being distracted from working) on a large, complicated piece for quite a while, I needed a break. Usually, creating something small and relatively quick helps me feel like I’m accomplishing something, and I can go back to complex work with renewed enthusiasm.
So for the next two weeks, I made mini-quilts especially for the Colour Collective challenge. For May 18th, the color was Dioxazine Mauve, a dark violet. I put together previously-knitted purples with old and newly-crocheted stars in Stellar Perspective, a 10 x 14″ knitted, embellished mini-quilt.
In February of this year, my friend Donna was giving away some rainbow-striped-with-black fabric. I took it home. Later, when I was organizing(ish?), I piled a bright and happy doily with red, yellow, and green accents on the rainbow fabric. As the young people would say…OMG! This was clearly a match made in heaven! The happy doily and rainbow fabric were absolutely made for each other!
I posted on Instagram about this wonderful discovery, then put the doily and fabric carefully away, to work on later.
The time came in May, when the Colour Collective challenge was Gamboge. Of all the fabric I have accumulated, the rainbow fabric was the only one with any gamboge in it. Yay! I happily tweeted Fiesta Flower in the Rainbow Jungle on May 25th.
Antelope Horns in the Library
Antelope Horns in the Library
We were back in Bastrop, Texas, this weekend for another Bastrop Art in Public Places event. This time my daughter came along, and our first stop was the Bastrop Public Library on Church Street.
For the next year, the library will be home to Antelope Horns and several of the sixteen 2-dimensional art pieces chosen from a field of about 60, back in April. We took photos to show to you and of course to my parents. They love that kind of stuff!
We also took the opportunity to change from our driving clothes to our party clothes, because our next stop was the Lost Pines Art Center, where we attended a reception for the artists represented in this year’s Bastrop Art in Public Places program. Delicious cheeses and chocolate mousse were on the menu, and we nibbled while the organizers talked about the program and showed us the various sculptures and 2-D pieces on display around town.
The most exciting part was the awards.Antelope Horns won an Honorable Mention and a cash prize. Hurray!
Texas artists, please consider entering your work in next year’s competition. Find links and more information here.
Celebrate Doilies Travels
Hot Snakes and doilies? Yeah, I was kind of confused, too, when I read the first paragraph of this article by journalist Dave Thomas of the Austin American-Statesman. But read on—it all begins to make sense.
Many thanks to Dave for writing about the Celebrate Doilies exhibit during its time at the German Free School in Austin.
Next up for Celebrate Doilies:
- The doily-inspired art quilts of Celebrate Doilies join a group exhibit at the Clyde H. Wells Fine Arts Center gallery at Tarleton State University, June 26 – August 3, 2018.
- The doily heritage posters will be on display at the International Organization of Lace conference in San Antonio, Texas, this summer.
- The Celebrate Doilies exhibit will travel to Houston in 2019. More details to come!
Antelope Horns in Bastrop
By the time the sun came up on Saturday, April 21, my wall hanging Antelope Horns was in the back seat of the car, and we were on the way to pick up my friend Peggy. Our destination was Bastrop, Texas, and our mission was to deliver Antelope Horns for the second round of judging for the Bastrop Art in Public Places 2D program.
Nearly three and a half hours later, we arrived at the Bastrop City Hall, where friendly folks greeted artists and showed us where to drop off our work. Anne Beck, who organized the competition, explained why artists had to bring their works to town for judging for the first time this year. Previously, judging was accomplished by looking at photos of artwork online and ranking them according to a list of criteria. Once the chosen art was installed in Bastrop’s public buildings, judges took a closer look at the artwork, this time choosing five pieces for cash prizes. Judges were amazed at the difference between seeing the art online versus in person.
Things changed slightly this year, with one group of judges viewing the original group of entries online, and choosing 30 pieces for the next round. Artists brought their work so the next judging panel could see them in real life, and choose the sixteen works to be displayed in Bastrop for one year.
While the judges worked, artists and their guests took a tour of the Lost Pines Art Center, a community-centered gallery with classrooms and a gift shop. Even on that cloudy, drizzly day, lots of natural light streamed in, illuminating paintings, photos, and sculptures by area artists. I loved the butterfly mosaic by Jim and Marlene Outlaw, in the floor just inside one of the building’s entries.
BAiPP provided a nice lunch for us, and we talked with our table-mates until Anne came in to tell us whose works would be staying in Bastrop.
I’m very glad to tell you that Antelope Horns is one of the sixteen! It is on display in the Bastrop Public Library until mid-April 2019.
Artists, if you’re within driving distance of Bastrop, I hope you’ll consider entering your work next year. To get their news, which will include notification of next year’s competition, sign up for the Bastrop Art in Public Places newsletter at their website. Good luck!
Click here for the first of three posts about the making of Antelope Horns.
Celebrate Doilies Podcast Adventure
Installing Celebrate Doilies in Austin last week was an adventure, which became even more exciting when Casey of www.kcknits.com came by the German Free School to interview me for Episode 95 of the www.verypink.com podcast.
In a testament to how well social media can work, Casey told about how she found me through Twitter. I had tweeted about a crochet sample book on loan to me from Gwen Blakley Kinsler, the Crochet Kween. Casey saw a retweet, read about Celebrate Doilies, and messaged me.
For the interview, we both wore clip-on microphones, even though her recorder had very cool directional microphones attached to it. I’ve learned a lot about recording voices in the last few months, and you definitely need a microphone close to the person who is speaking. Clip-ons are a pain, because their long cords tangle so easily and they limit your movement, but they are much less expensive than the fancier alternative.
We talked about how the idea of Celebrate Doilies came to me, back in 2015. Casey asked about some of the stories people have told me about their family heirloom doilies, and I was glad to tell them. After the interview, she photographed the exhibit, which we had just finished putting up.
You can listen to the podcast online at https://verypink.com/2018/05/02/podcast-episode-95-celebrate-doilies/ or wherever you get your podcasts.
Casey added some history about the German Free School in her own blog post about the podcast, which you can read at www.kcknits.com/blog/doilies.
Visit Celebrate Doilies in Austin
It’s May, so come and see the Celebrate Doilies exhibit at the German Free School, 507 East 10th Street, Austin, Texas! It is open for viewing on Wednesdays and Thursdays, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. all through the month of May 2018.
The German Free School was built by German immigrants in the 1800s (I think), using rammed earth. It’s a lovely, historical building, and the perfect backdrop for my doily-inspired art quilts, Sandi Horton’s poetry, and doily heritage stories about crocheters of the present and past, and their work.
The exhibit will also be on display during Maifest, May 12, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Read more here.
There’s metered parking just outside the building on 10th Street, and you should be able to see the big, blue, baling twine doily from the sidewalk.
Sandi and I will present “What to Do with Oma’s Doilies” on Sunday, June 3, 2018, at 3 p.m. That will be your last chance for a while to see Celebrate Doilies in Austin.
Many thanks to the staff at the German Free School and to my sister-in-law Carolyn and my daughter Eva for their work installing the exhibit last week.
Celebrate Doilies on Red Heart Blog
Please enjoy a short, sweet blog post about the Celebrate Doilies exhibit on Coats & Clark’s Heart Strings, a blog by Red Heart Yarns, where you’ll get an insight into the secret power of doilies!
Celebrate Doilies in Comanche
The Celebrate Doilies exhibit was at the 4 North Event Center in Comanche, TX for a week in March. The vintage building on the courthouse square matched the vintage doily wall hangings and posters beautifully.
You might say that Comanche is in northwest Central Texas, and it is one of the last few stops before the great expanses of West Texas begin. Buildings around the courthouse retain their attractive western flair, and decorated bicycles are permanently parked in front of several businesses. I passed this one on my way to and from the car, unloading wall hangings and doily heritage posters. Someone had fun embellishing it with old crochet, and I took it as a good omen for the exhibit.
I hung several pieces, including House of Crochet, Sweet Home, and Afternoon in the enclosed patio at the 4 North Event Center. The natural light is perfect for viewing and photographing artwork. The space feels good, and I told Charles I’d love to have my living room on that patio.
Light from the patio streams through French doors leading into the elegant main room, where I displayed the doily heritage posters and several wall hangings, like Crochet Comets. I love how the celestial elements of comets and a sunray come together in this photo.
Another set of French doors leads to the Beer Garden, which is welcoming and comfortable. German-style food is served a few days of the week. We are definitely coming in for a German meal someday, without doilies, to enjoy the Gemütlichkeit.
I enjoyed seeing friends and meeting doily enthusiasts during the week Celebrate Doilies was in Comanche.
Celebrate Doilies is a traveling exhibit. If you’d like to see the exhibit at a gallery near you, please ask the venue manager to contact me at the email address on the TextileFusion home page. We can work it out!
Sweet Picot Shamrock for St. Patrick’s Day
You still have a few days before St. Patrick’s Day to crochet a shamrock table mat or ornament!
The pattern is part of my “Sweet Picot Heart” collection, available through Ravelry. 
The Shamrock is part of the “Sweet Picot Heart Motif and More” pattern, which also includes
- the Sweet Picot Heart motif
- a heart table mat
- written and charted instructions photos to help you visualize the
instructions better - how to join heart motifs
- how to do an invisible join at the end of the last round
- the inspiration for the pattern
- nice suggestions for using the heart motifs
For each “Sweet Picot Heart and More” sold, I will donate one dollar to the Comanche (TX) All Pets Alive group, which compassionately cares for stray pets until their owners are found or until new homes are found for them.
Santa Train Finished on Time
All kinds of things happened last fall. I was going to add, “as usual,” but really, more than the usual stuff happened last fall. My final Christmas in July report got forgotten in the shuffle.
The good news is that the Santa Train was finished on time!
In Week 13, I finished the second candy cane and did the wreath and gift box for the train.
Week 14 was about putting a bow on the wreath and starting the teddy.
The teddy and a Christmas ornament for the train’s roof were the jobs for Week 15.
The teddy bear turned out so cute, I wanted to show him to you up close.
And finally, we come to Week 16, when I made a green gift box with lots of little embroidered exxes (xs?), sewed it and the second candy cane on the train roof, and attached the hanging loop. Yay! It’s finished!
We hung the Santa Train inside our front door, where every time we went in or out, it sparkled thrillingly.
I have two more Christmas kits somewhere. They are probably in a box in my parents’ storage barn, that we have forgotten about since we moved back to Texas in 2003. If they show up, my Christmas in July 2018 project will be finishing one of them. If I can’t find them in a last ditch effort to empty all the moving boxes (argh!!), here’s a peek at my Plan B for 2018.
