Friday Favorites

It's been a good week for me.  I hope it has been for you too!  I am pleased with the slow progress on the Center of the Universe piece and my IT piece is finally moving.  I might even get it done in time for the reveal.  As by-products of my IT piece I have several pieces of beautiful hand dyed fabric begging to be turned into art.  And, (and this is a biggie) I have started clearing out my art storage so I can actually find things (like the floor).  Well, on to my favorites for this week.

I have thought about starting a blog where I and a couple of friends test out surface design and quilting techniques from books, DVDs, and magazine articles and report our results.  You know, were the instructions easy to understand? did I get similar results?  how hard was the process?  that kind of thing.  I thought that would be a real service to readers and would be lots of fun for me.  So, imagine my excitement when I saw that The Quilt Rat did that for a recent DVD she purchased on painting on fabric.  Okay, that DVD is now on my wish list.

Wen Redmond gives some great tips for how to prepare pictures for thermofax.  I have some images I want to send off for silk screens and found the tips very helpful.  I also have a funny story about Wen.  My daughter, Ellen, was visiting her in-laws in NH.  I had suggested that while she was there they go and see the League of New Hampshire Crafts Fair.  I knew about it from seeing it on Wen's blog.  I even sent Ellen the link from Wen's blog for the Fair.  Well, Ellen went to the Fair and excitedly emailed later to tell me she saw an amazing artist whose work reminded me of the type of work I do. She gave me the website for the artist because she knew I would want to check out the artist's work.  Yep, it was Wen Redmond!  Ellen has good taste!

A new blog for me to visit popped up on my radar this week.  Sew Much Art posted about setting monthly art goals and doing an evaluation at the end of the month.  Have you ever had one of those "DUH!" moments?  Such a simple suggestion but of course what a great idea.  I often let other things interfere with my art or I wander around side alleys instead of pursuing larger goals.  So, I will try this and see if it helps.