And the winners are...

Winners of the Roy G Biv fabrics

My husband pulled these winners of the Searching for Roy G Biv Challenge fabrics out of his JMU baseball cap...

Congratulations!

Lisa, please comment here to let me know whether you would like the red cats piece or the oranges piece.

Kathy you will get whichever piece Lisa doesn' t pick.

Yesterday, I started work on samples for some magazine articles I'll be proposing. I had some fun with brown paper and cardboard. Slathered on the Mod Podge to hold it all together.

This morning I took a look and they are ready for printing and rubbings.

I have some other sample ideas in the works. Want to get these proposals off soon.

I also hope to get over to Home Depot today to finally get a look at some of the possibilities in the gardening department. I especially want to check out anything that looks like a grid or could be made into a grid. I'd like some grids to go with my weeds!

Orange you glad there's still time!

Here's another orange entry for Roy. This one is from Kathy S., my friend and colleague at Star's Beads, Ltd.

So far these are the eligible players for free fabric:

 Jennifer Q 

Fiona at Paper Ponderings

Lisa at arzigogolare.

Joan S.

Kathy S.

There's still time...up until midnight tonight...that's Saturday, June 23 Eastern time (USA).

Tomorrow is the name drawing from my husband's baseball cap.

The first name pulled will have a choice between these two fabrics.

The second name pulled will receive the remaining fabric.

Thanks for playing...now off to mess up my clean studio!

Julie's Studio Reports, "I Feel Years Younger!"

Julie's Studio: Yes, I feel year's younger after my purge and organize diet!

Look at me before...ugh...so disorganized...I couldn't wait to shed all those layers of excess stuff.

Now that I've lost all that weight, I feel so spacious, so full of creative energy. Look at my work table...it's like a clean slate!

I'm so ready for Julie to get to work creating her beautiful fabrics and works of art!

 Julie would also like me to remind you that the second issue of her newsletter, Julie B Booth Surface Design News will be coming out Saturday, June 23 at 8:00 AM Eastern time (USA). If you haven't yet signed up, you can go to the upper right hand column of this blog and fill in your info. Julie's newsletter focuses on using the kitchen as a surface design resource. This time, she'll be talking a bit about me (her studio...I'm so honored!) and will continue to focus on getting readers set up to create some amazing fabrics. She will also send you a free list of Ten Kitchen Surface Design Ideas...just for signing up!

Also...the Searching for Roy G Biv Challenge continues through Saturday midnight, Eastern time (USA). Leave a comment here and Julie will link to your blog. She is giving away some of the fabrics she printed on my table. The drawing will be on Sunday.

Searching for Roy G Biv Challenge: ORANGE

Skidaway Island, Georgia

Seed bead hanks from Star's Beads, Ltd.

This one's for you, Jennifer! Skidaway Island, Georgia

I know it's not all orange but I loved the play of colors between the flowers, stems and leaves. Skidaway Island, Georgia

My orange challenge fabric: Printed adhesive craft foam and hot glue block with nature printing

 Looking forward to seeing lots of ORANGE today! Remember if you play, you are eligible for this orange challenge fabric. Post your orange photos and leave a comment here by midnight Saturday, June 22 Eastern time USA. I will continue to update this post to link to your blog, website or Flickr page (or if you are emailing me photos, will post them here).

The drawing for the ORANGE fabric above and for my RED cat fabric below will be made on Sunday, June 23.

Be sure to check out Jennifer's blog to see her orange too! Jennifer is offering some of her beautiful rusted fabric if you can correctly guess her orange by midnight, Saturday Eastern time USA.

Fiona of Paper Ponderings has a lovely orange poppy.

If you want to be dazzled by orange (Italian orange at that!) visit Lisa  at arzigogolare.

Here are some photos I received via email from my friend Joan. She's been spending time in her garden. It is definitely lily time here in Northern Virginia.

A Line in the Sand

This is the line in the sand...the Great Wall...the territorial divide.

Yes...it is a sofa.

Behind this sofa lies my studio...my wonderful work table, my shelving units loaded with fabric, paints, beads, tools, print blocks and even my little photo corner...my little slice of heaven...and for approximately nine months of the year... a very private place to work.

What about those other three months, you may ask?

That is summer break, when the area in front of the sofa...the part with the TV...becomes my undergrad son's pad.

You see, before he went off to school, this room...then called The Family Room...was his private lair. His hang out for playing video games and being with his buds (friends, not the beer!).

Last summer, we seemed to have a fairly easy truce and division of territory. It was new to both of us. I hadn't had the studio set up for that long and was just getting used to calling part of the room my own.

This summer is different. I've had a whole year and a half of working hard in my space. I even ventured into the no-man's-land in front of the sofa. It became my official fabric drying area and place to pack up for classes.

Now I'm back behind the sofa and feeling a bit hemmed in.

My son is courteous, he's quiet, he puts his ear buds in and plays his computer games. But he is also a bit more social this summer. As a mom, I'm thrilled to see him enjoying time with friends (after all, he is a quiet kind of guy). But, his having friends over (especially when it becomes a sleep over) means I can't easily be in the studio...Well let's face it...I just won't be in there. In my mind, that's just stepping over the privacy line with my son. And no way does a cool mom such as myself want to be seen as the mom in the back of the room looking over my son's shoulder and listening to his private conversations with friends.

So, I started doing a little research on the Internet...and I think I may be onto something..

 Seventy-two inches wide and seventy inches high, can be easily taken apart and stored away during those other nine months.

Not sure if it will resolve the Mom-in-same-room-as-friends issue. But it could give us both a bit more privacy. Not a bad price either!

Newsletters and Orange Fabric

I spent almost the entire day working on the next issue of Julie B Booth Surface Design News. What I discovered while typing it up was I'd actually written enough for two issues! So this next issue will cover more about the materials needed to get started along with a discussion of work spaces. The July issue will focus on sun printing.

In the meantime, I managed to get a layer of block printing onto the orange fabrics using hot glue/adhesive craft foam blocks. There is still at least one more layer of printing to come... I'm thinking about printing with an orange or a lemon... You will just have to wait until Thursday's Searching for Roy G Biv Challenge to see which piece is featured and what I decided to do.

Sun Printing

Sun printing

This weekend I'm working on the second newsletter which will be out a week from today. I'll be continuing to talk about supplies, getting set up and will also be highlighting sun printing.

Fortunately, today was a perfect day to sun print! Bright sun, low humidity and only a gently breeze.

I gathered up supplies and headed outside to paint and print.

This is always a fun project with visual surprises.

Now it's back to writing the newsletter!