Please Like Me!

The other day I realized that I had about 300 hundred friends on Facebook & Twitter that I had no good idea who they were.  Or they were "friends" that never communicated with me.  Maybe they just stalked me, like I stalk so many others!

With the need to eliminate stress in my life, I decided to limit my friends on these social networks to people that I truly interacted with on a regular basis...family & close friends. 

That being said, I still needed my outlet for all things creative and my place to share things I've been inspired to make and hopefully to get some customers.  So my Facebook page Piney's Needle is becoming more and more active and the place to catch up on the latest news from here on the Piney.

As of right now, I'm 1 person away from having 100 likes on Piney's Needle. 

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Pineys-Needle/166274363429826?ref=hl

So, if you haven't already, click on the link above (I really hope that works, let me know if it doesn't) and "like" me!  Once I get 100 likes, I'm doing a give-away.  The lucky winner gets this wall hanging in browns, pinks, greens, & blues!

Hurry and be #100!

Going the Next Step

I have this ability to basically look at a picture of a quilt block and can figure out how to make it and it's true to say that, while we all may use the same pattern, the way we turn it or fabrics we use makes the most common pattern unique.  But usually someone else already figured out the pattern, so we are just coping what someone else has already thought of.

But tonight for the first time, I actually designed my own pattern!

I am using a common idea, but how to make it is all my own.

At least I hope it is.

I've purposely not looked on-line to see how others have created their pattern so that I didn't unknowingly copy someone else's idea.  Of course after 30 years of quilting, I've got a lot of impressions in my memories to go from.  But I still don't think my way of creating the block is going to be like anyone else's. 

Hint....I used 2 basic patterns and created mine.

The Log Cabin and the Flower Pot quilt patterns.

I'll work on it some more and hopefully by Monday, I'll have the beginnings of a quilt ready to show you.

The other thing I'm looking at is how to submit a design for fabric.  This one is way over my head, but I think my daughter and I have some great ideas.

I'm really forward to seeing what happens with these two ideas!

My Photos for Sale & a Few Places to Connect with Me!

With the popularity of cell phone with cameras, everyone is a photographer.  But who knew that you could sell your shots so easily?

I've just set up an account that uploads my Instagram photos and any other of my personal shots that I would like to add so that they are for sale to the public.

I am no photographer, but every now and then I take a pretty good picture and people say "you should print that out".  Well, now you can!

Twenty20 Gallery has a very small collection of my shots of living in the country, shots of back country roads, sunsets, sunrises, pretty flowers and just the stuff I see everyday and love.

Check out all the options to have the pictures printed.  I'm thinking this picture my son took from the tractor will be a great gift for him as his IPhone cover or maybe a T-shirt.


http://twenty20.com/boutwell_d

Some other things I've got going on:

Don't forget that I have an Etsy store, Piney's Needle, https://www.etsy.com/shop/PineysNeedle.

 

I'm also writing at a new blog, sharing a little more personally about some issues I've got going on, 

Me, You, Us, Them, http://meyouusthem.blogspot.com/

You can also follow me on:

Pinterest, http://www.pinterest.com/debbout/
Instagram, http://followgram.me/debbout
Tumblr, Dreaming at Last, http://dreamingatlast.tumblr.com/

And of course on Facebook Piney's Needle.

I know...I'm everywhere!!!  Join me in my journey to create all things beautiful, be inspired, and to live out my dream!!!

End of the Tour

You know that mad dash to finish all your Christmas projects 2 days before Christmas and then the melt-down after all the gifts are opened and you are left with a house full of empty boxes and wrapping paper?

Yeah, that's me today.

The 2-day self guided tour through our community is over and we had about 200 people come through our place.  My husband's BBQ and my daughter's pies were the hit of the show and brought in the most money for us. 

And the quilt display!   I loved opening the door and inviting people into our house to view our family quilts.  If there was a way to put a dollar amount on the expressions of awe on people's faces, I would be rolling in cash this morning.  But quilters and crafters know that when you work in this type of art, there truly is no way to measure the success of our work financially.  I think at the heart of every artist is the simple desire to share something beautiful and if we can make some income in the process, that's an added bonus.

Thought I would share an overview of the weekend in pictures.

My grandmother's quilt frame, my grandfather made.  It sit up just like this all year long in her house.  It only came down at Christmas so that the family could all fit in their little house.  I gave folks the opportunity of sitting down and "quilting a reach", but no one took me up on it.  I gave demonstrations on how to load the frame.  Sally gave a demonstration on how to mend ripped blue-jeans and my son actually sewed a button on his pants!

 

I've created a slideshow of our stop and I'll let you that couldn't visit in person,

browse to your hearts content.

 

 

Arts & Ag Tour 2014, Piney's Needle

Quilting is Relaxing

With every stitch, I feel tension release.

Some people might not understand that.

That's not to say the push to get everything finished for this weekend hasn't been stressful, but normally, the simple act of doing something creative is enough to center my mind and thoughts on positive things.

The fact that I'm going to pick up my quilting/sewing machine from the shop and finish up the 4 quilts in 2 days helps too!

I have renewed some passions while getting ready for the show.  I remembered how much I loved embroidery and combining it with patchwork.  Now I'm playing around with combining it with the printed fabric.  I love enhancing my mother's art with stitches.  I truly believe this is something that I'll continue to play around with. 

I also foresee some other things coming from this adventure this weekend.  But those are still dreams floating around waiting for us to put wings to them and fly. 

I'll try to post pictures of the show this weekend.  Everyone have a wonderful Memorial Weekend.  Don't forget that it's not about the picnics and BBQ.  Set aside some time to truly think about what it is we are remembering this weekend.  Those men and women that served our country.  Let's always thank them, remember and honor their (and their families) sacrifice.  Hug a solider this weekend!

Happenings on the Piney

I know that I've mentioned it several times, but the Arts & Ag Tour of Hickman County, TN takes place this Friday and Saturday, May 23-24, 10-6 both days.  I mention it again, because, well, I'm super excited about being involved in the tour!

This is a self-guided tour through the private homes and back-woods of Hickman County to folks and families that are doing some unique arts and farming through-out our county.  There are over 30 stops and that's why it takes two days to see everything.  If you look at the map (on the link) you'll notice that most stops are along the main road through the county, however, if you zoom in on stops 25, 26, & 27 we are located in the Pinewood community going out HWY 48.  It's only about a 20 minute drive and it's a beautiful drive.

Stop #25 - Pinewood Farms

My neighbors further down the Piney River are working hard to provide healthy food to the local market.  Our family has been connected with this farm for many years and now my niece, Crystal Lewis, has taken on the job of managing the garden production and it's a huge project!  Their gardens provide food for participants in a CSA (community supported agriculture) program, where once a week locals residents receive a bag full of whatever the garden is producing at the time.

During the tour they will have cooking and canning demonstrations, along with some music on the porch.  We went last year and stayed most of the day!  These folks not only know how to grow food good for you, but how to prepare it so that it is something your family will eat.  Their goal is to have a healthier society through the food we are eating. 

Check them out on Facebook.

Stop #26 - Piney's Needle

That's me!!!!  You can browse through the last few posts and see some of the stuff we are up to.

Stop #27 - Piney River Enterprises

Literally next door are my brother and his wife, James & Anita Lewis.  Both of them are so talented and they will be showcasing Anita's pottery and James' hand made guns and knives.  They've also been highly influenced by the Pinewood Farms and have started their own gardens, including a shiitake mushroom garden!

 Here's Anita working hard getting her pottery ready, they are firing it today.  Every one of her pieces is something I wish I could have.

 James and I both will have prints from our mother's paintings for sale.  They came in the mail yesterday and are beautiful.  There are various sizes and all the sales go to the Frances Lewis Art Scholarship.

 

James and Anita also have a campground, Piney River Escape and at 6:00 on Saturday, we'll be rocking the Piney with music from the Lugnuts

So download the map and plan your day, making sure to include everything that is happening on the Piney!

What are Altered Books?

If you are visiting today from the Arts & Ag Tour of Hickman County, TN....

Welcome!!!!

Please browse through the past posts and see some of the beautiful artwork using various mediums, that we will be showcasing and having for sale at stop #26.

My daughter, Sally, and I have so much fun creating and we love all kinds of art.  The article mentions that Sally will be demonstrating some of her altered book art. In case you weren't sure what that was, I thought I would share just a sample of what she does.

These are large wall hangings and she puts hours of work into these.  They will look beautiful on any wall and with any decorations.  I have a couple of her altered books in my office at work and I'm always getting compliments on them.

Sally just started quilting and I'm just amazed at her talent and how she visualizes her work and then brings it to life.  She started playing with some yellow fabric with red shoes printed on it and has made a beautiful baby blanket.  Then she went all out and made a Wizard of Oz quilt, complete with the twisting yellow brick road and Dorothy's blue dress.  And she quilted it in rainbows!

 I'm so proud of her and I can't wait for you to see her work.  She definitely uses all the colors in the crayon box to create and she loves painting outside the lines!

Printing on Fabric

Slowly, I'm beginning to make Piney's Needle, not only a fun hobby, but a business.  Getting ready for the Arts & Ag Tour has really helped.  Once the creative juices start flowing, it's hard to stop them and, do you know what?  I'm okay with that!

My greatest desire is to turn this hobby into a full blown home-based business.  I'm not against a shop in the public someday, but the home-based business is the true way I want to go for now.  Sally seems to be having as much fun, if not more, getting ready for the show too.  We are already talking about what the next show we do will be like.

Last weekend, I remembered some freezer paper that I had bought at the Paducah Quilt Show and had never really used. The thought was to make some quilt labels, so I played around with a business card template on my computer and came up with a label.

After seeing how easy it was to print on fabric after ironing it to the freezer paper (per-cut to letter size, printed on my ink-jet printer), I went a little crazy and started printing all kinds of things!  Next came the logo for the bags I mentioned in my last post, made into a pocket on the bag.

Then I went a step further and I think I've found my passion!


I wanted to make a sample wall hanging to show at the tour of a memory quilt.  So I made one in memory of my mother (ironic that it was also Mother's Day weekend and I was really missing her).

All of the memory quilts I have done so far, have been made from the clothes of the person being remembered.  The quilts were going to be used literally as quilts, so they were selected quilts patterns made with those clothes (not like a T-shirt quilt, which I don't do).

For Mom's quilt, I wanted something smaller and I wanted pictures on the piece.  Mom's clothes were mostly given away, so I didn't want to cut up the few pieces I had kept back.  However, since she made a lot of her clothes and since I have her fabric stash, I have some of the fabric from her clothes, in particular a black and white vest she had made that was beautiful.

I've seen pictures of people put on fabric before, but I wanted one of her paintings on the memory quilt too.  It turned out great.  The colors are a little muted, but I still like it. 

After printing out my favorite pictures of Mom and Dad (that's her high school graduation in a gown my grandmother made), I pulled out some items that Mom had made for me over the years and placed them on the wall hanging (still needs to be stitched down, it's a work in progress).

Mom made the little crocheted cross as a gift for people.  She probably gave away hundreds of them.  While she was sick, so many people would bring food over or send cards and flowers.  Everyone got a thank you with one of these crosses.  She didn't really keep a stock pile of them, she made them as needed, right up until the time she got to weak to do hand work, about a month before she passed away.

Mixed in with the pictures and needlework, I've added a block left over from a wall hanging Mom had made.  The purple irises were one of her favorite flowers.  How fitting that purple is also the color that represents the cancer that ushered her into Heaven, pancreatic cancer.

One last tribute, a listing of names and dates, people she loved and that loved her.  A Bible verse, used for their 50th anniversary, and a sample of her signature with the family crest, the Cross L.

In everything she did, she gave God the glory.

The wall hanging has some more items to be added and a border added, plus the quilting, which I'll probably do by hand, but I think it is turning out beautiful and so meaningful to me.

Last night I printed out a couple more of her paintings on fabric, just playing around, and I'm hooked.  Making art with her art blesses my heart.  It's something I'll continue with.

Remember, if you are interested in buying any of the prints of her paintings, we are offering these to the public with the proceeds we receive going to an art scholarship at the local high school.  Please visit the website and help us raise some money for the scholarship.  It's a double blessing, for you to get the prints and for the students to get the scholarship.

Here's a link to my brother's website, be sure and scroll down so that you can see the 37 prints currently available.  http://www.alewisenterprise.com/franceslewisart.html

We will have some of the prints for sale at the Arts & Ag Tour.  We are stops #26 & #27.  There is a free guide provided, http://artsandagtour.wordpress.com/arts-ag-tour/2014-arts-ag-tour/2014-arts-ag-tour-guide/  We look forward to seeing you.

If you aren't local and are interested in quotes on any of the items I've posted, please contact me at pineysneedle@gmail.com.  Or just leave me a comment.

Sally & I both have Etsy stores where our items shown here and other things are for sale.

www.SallyMarieVintage.etsy.com
www.PineysNeedle.etsy.com

The Count-Down is On!

10 Days and counting.

10 Days until the Art & Ag Tour of Hickman County of which we are stop number #26.  Click here to get more information and a map of the county for a two-day self-guided tour through, what I consider, to be the prettiest county in Tennessee.

10 Days until May 23 & 24.

10 Days of late nights, finishing projects, labeling, cleaning, and sitting up.

And we are still thinking of things we would like to make for the show!  Once we get started, it's hard to stop the creative juices.

We...it's a family thing.  Sally, my daughter and I are doing all the sewing, arts, and demonstrations.  Ken, my husband, is cooking BBQ.  Courtney, my niece, is serving as our bouncer, serving as the guide for the in-house quilt display.  Adam, my son, has been told he must be there, at least Saturday to help us out with the hundreds of people we are hoping turns up.

And next door, my brother and his wife are doing the same thing.

The needles have been busy around here...until tonight!

After Sally spent the day getting several of her projects finished, the main sewing/quilting machine gave out.  So it's off to the repair shop for a little oil and cleaning.  We've been making it work so hard.  But it has to hurry back, because we only have 10 days!!!!

Here's a sampling of some of the things we've been working on.

Cards.

Needlework.

 Memory Quilts

 Wallhangings

And quilts.

I'll be giving quilting demonstrations using my grandmother's quilting frame, so I still have to get a quilt ready to go in the frame.  Plus I'll have some of my legacy of quilts on display.  Oh, I've got to get busy labeling them!

As a final project, I'm making bags.  The logo was Sally's idea to incorporate all that we will be doing, not just at our stop on the tour, but my brother's too.

Hope to see you in about 10 days!!!



The Frances Lewis Art Scholarship

This is an article that I've submitted to several newspapers and organizations asking for support in promoting the sale of prints from my mother's oil paintings.  Any help at all in helping us promote the site would be greatly appreciated.

 

The family of Frances Lewis (1938-2011) has made available prints of her oil paintings.  Frances’ talent with canvas is well known throughout our community.  She won many 1^st and 2^nd place ribbons with her art in our local county fairs.  Many people have desired to own one of her works of art; however, she never had them for sale to the public except for one private, invitation-only event several years ago.  Friends and family were often gifted with one of her paintings and now, with her passing, those have become treasured items.

After continued requests by friends and associates for one of her paintings after her death in 2011 from pancreatic cancer, her son, James Lewis Jr., took on the project of having prints made of most of her paintings several months ago.  These prints are now available to purchase directly from his website, Piney River Enterprises, Inc. at http://www.alewisenterprise.com/franceslewisart.html.  There is a company working with them, behind the scene, that offers the prints in a variety of sizes and styles.  There are currently 37 different prints to choose from, with more being added.  The cost starts at $22.00 for most prints and increases depending on the style and size ordered, with options for matting and framing.  The styles include a metal print, acrylic, and canvas prints. There is also an option to have the prints made into cards.

Frances worked mostly with oils, often sitting up on location for some of her most beautiful paintings.  Each painting has a story and most are actual locations that Frances and her husband, James, along with their children, James, Ray Lewis, and Deborah Boutwell, traveled to.  The stories behind the paintings are also listed with each print’s information.  Frances painted mountain ranges, country roads, adobe homes, florals, trains, and wagons, all scenic views found in Colorado, Wyoming, Arizona, New Mexico, Florida, Texas and Tennessee.  Locally, there are prints of her depictions of an old barn on the late Joe Shipp’s farm and the Pinewood Mansion.

Because of Frances’ love of art, the family has set up the Frances Lewis Art Scholarship which will be granted to a senior graduating from Hickman County High School.  The proceeds the family receives from the sale of the prints will all go toward this scholarship.  The specifics of the scholarship are still being worked out, however they hope by 2015 there will be enough money received to grant the first of many scholarships.

A selection of prints will be for sale at the homes of James Lewis Jr. and Deborah Boutwell during the Arts & Ag Tour, May 23-24.  They are stops numbers 26 & 27 on the tour guide in the Pinewood community.