Art in the Burg

I am going to be showing in Middleburg the end of April for a one day show in a big parish hall with some of my art friends. More information about the show here: http://www.middleburgarts.org/ 
We used to do an October show in Arlington, VA but have since moved on to Middleburg with the organizer Peter Wood also known as Rusty Metal for his rusted metal sculptures. We have a great time showing and talking and even selling some of our art but it takes months to get the goodies ready to show. I am currently working on daily sketches and book binding to have a nice stack of both to show by April 28th.

Yesterday I got two books finished one "jeans pocket sized" and one half sheet size. 8.5" x 5.5" These take several days to complete but the final step is to sew them together adding beads to the spine. Monday last I went to the Beadazzeled store on Dupont circle and found nice clear blue glass and shinny metallic black glass beads to use on these two designs with the end pages of Japanese paper we bought Valentines day.

end page of turquoise cherry blossoms in the blue books 

Japanese village end pages in golden book

Each day I try to accomplish something towards filling my booth with new art and crafts. I love sketching daily and have done it for over a year now. As my subject I usually go for the flowers around the house this time of year. When the weather is a little better I step outside in the mornings to do a sketch right in the garden. Recently I began using loose leaf paper to do some sketches to sell originals along side prints of smaller sketches in my home made sketch books that I don't want to tear up for framing. I guess if anyone wants to buy an entire sketch book full, I would sell them that way, about 36 sketches in each book. I planned to make inexpensive digital prints which I will edition, sign and number to sell for this show of the smaller sketches from the last couple years. These will allow me to get a big book full of my sketch prints on the table to show and discuss that will be easy to bring home.

sketch of narcissus ikebana arrangement in the studio

sketch of red flowers 

red ranunculus
 and tulips in crystal vase

narcissus poeticus in milk bottle 

Spring came so suddenly here in DC this year. The lovely Cherry blossoms were accompanied by late blooming tulips and all the narcissus are blooming out and nearly gone the in the same week.  The tree pollen is massive and I am grateful for a day of rain today to tamp down all that dust in the air that is causing me hard times with breathing.

ikebana narcissus 

 I continue to work on the English paper piecing at night while listening to TV and have made some good progress. I now have 29 blocks done and 4 more under construction. Time to get some half sized blocks to fill in the gaps at top and bottom of the quilt design for a straight edge finish. It's nearly big enough that I can think about stopping but I am not sure if I want to make a small quilt or a big quilt in this technique so I just keep going.

rose pink block #28

copper center block #29