Butterfly wing dress

How fun to see projects being made from my new Amelia Harper fabric for Modern Yardage. My friends at The Linden Tree have been so helpful sewing up beautiful dresses, yo-yo headbands, blankets and lounge pants this past week. We'll start with this dress Melissa made using my Butterfly print in Skye, medium scale on the outside and Flowers print in Skye, small scale on the inside.  This young lady's Grandma works next door to the Linden Tree at Brown & Greene Floral, a fantastic shop for flowers, gifts and plants.
You can order this fabric at Modern Yardage here.
Below are some more close up pics of the dress:

No zippers! The dress ties at the shoulders.

Rick rack edging at the bottom is just the right touch.

The dress is reversible with small flowers on the inside

The reverse side

The rick rack works for both sides

Liz made a yo yo head band to match. 

Meet Amelia Harper

4 generations: Amelia Harper, my niece Jessie, my sister Cathy & my Mom Carol.It was a peacock theme birthday party for my Mom last October and everyone dressed accordingly!  

Meet Amelia Harper, the namesake for my latest Modern Yardage Collection.  I knew last year when my niece Jessie and her husband Matt announced they were going to have a baby, that I wanted to design a line of fabric for their nursery and their baby.

Amelia Harper born in August

Jessie and Matt were looking for gender neutral imagery and color.  They saw their friends receive pink and blue items only to have their next baby be a different gender. So I kept that in mind while developing oranges, greens, taupes, turquoise and mint green palettes.  Jessie and I both share a love of Craftsman style and have gone on many Frank Lloyd Wright home tours with my sister (her Mom) so part of the collection needed to represent that as well.

So while they put the nursery together, I was developing the fabric designs.  They knew they were having a girl but didn't disclose the name they chose, so I would have to wait to know what my collection would be called.

Amelia Harper was born in August in Minneapolis. I'm the closest relative in town so I rushed over as soon as possible to meet her.  Such a wonderful sweet baby! Aren't we all biased when it comes to the babies in our family?

Jessie, Matt and Amelia at Christmas

So now my collection had a name. It would take a few more months for my collection to be born at Modern Yardage.  I have been working with very talented friends and bloggers to create wonderful items out of the fabric. We will be sharing nursery items, a specially designed quilt, clothes and much more this month.

I am so lucky to live so close to Amelia and be a part of her life. You can purchase Amelia Harper fabric online at  Modern Yardage here.

Making Room for More Art in Your Life

Homegrown Bittersweet, my Grandpa's straw hat and my framed art.

This is what I hear a lot at my art shows..... "I love your work but I just don't have room in my house!" 

Same shelf with my son's art of Garrison Keillor and my framed art. 

I'm here to offer you a solution that I use in my home studio.  It's a large shelf I bought at Ikea and measures a little over 6 feet long and is about 10 inches deep.  Since I spend so much time at the computer facing this shelf, I occasionally or seasonally like to change things up. Without having to hang the artwork or add nail holes in the wall, I just lean the frames up against the wall. 

You will enjoy rotating your art, or collections and creating your own combinations.  So make some room for more art in your life.  

Large glass vase with dried reeds, art framed in white and ceramic white pitcher.

Big SnOwls with Big Possibilities

What could you make with extra large Snow Owls? These fabric panels are available thru Modern Yardage with my SnOwls Collection. My first thought is pillows; both as regular shape and contour shape.  Melissa, owner of The Linden Tree, made up the first pillow using a super soft fabric on the back with a piped edging. Perfect to snuggle with! Thank you to Genevieve and Lindsey for posing with them.

These panels are available in 6 colors to match all the SnOwl prints.  I'm going to use the violet one to make a contour pillow over Christmas break to match the lounge pants I made.

What else can you make with these designs?  A pillow case, a center for a blanket or quilt, a tote, stretch it over canvas for art?  I think it's fun to offer these large panels to my Modern Yardage collections. Check them out and order yours here.

SnOwls Collection

Gray SnOwls Flight, Pine Cones, Flakes

Introducing my latest Modern Yardage Collection SnOwls!  These snow owls in Flight are the highlight of the collection with two additional prints called Flakes and Pine Cones.  They come in 6 different color ways: aqua, periwinkle, cocoa, gray, magenta and violet.  In addition, each print comes in 3 sizes: small, medium and large!

Cocoa Snowls Flight, Pine Cones, Flakes

Aqua SnOwls Flight, Pine Cones, Flakes

Magenta SnOwls Flight, Pine Cones, Flakes

Periwinkle SnOwls Flight, Pine Cones, Flakes

Violet SnOwls Flight, Pine Cones, Flakes

When you order this collection from Modern Yardage here, you will get a special gift with SnOwls icons in the white space to use for all your projects.  I think they make great appliques on tops.  I can't wait to show you how great these look as lounge pants.

Coming next, I'll feature the SnOwl icon panels available in each color.

Art Outside the Box

Last Saturday was the walking tour of the CARAG neighborhood Utility Box projects featuring the art wraps of four Minneapolis artists. I was one of the fortunate artists selected to have my Cherry Tomato art applied as part of the community effort to cut down on graffiti. Taggers found the previously tan boxes an inviting canvas for their marks, much to the dismay of the neighborhoods.  It's a constant and costly battle besides being an eye sore.

This project was made possible through the Innovative Graffiti Prevention Micro Grant from the City of Minneapolis Solid Waste and Recycling Devision, with additional support from the Uptown Association, the CARAG neighborhood and local businesses.  The other artists were Gail Katz James, Kirk Sklar and Mark LaCroix.

Following the tour, we met at a neighborhood community center to hear from local police who reported that similar projects reduced graffiti markings by 50% or more. There is an unspoken respect for not tagging on top of existing art. By chance that it is, this utility box material can be easily washed to remove markings.  This project also furthers Uptown Association's tradition of providing local artists platforms for community art. This is the same association that produces the very popular Uptown Art Fair now in its 50th year.

I brought a print of my original Cherry Tomato illustration and described how I had to create additional art to wrap around the Utility Box template.  I chose Cherry Tomatoes because of the importance of fresh local food whether we grow it ourselves, like I do within my flower bed in the backyard, or purchase it from the many local Farmer's Markets.

Below are more pictures from the event.

Kirk Sklar with his neon Koi

Gail Katz James with her photographed sculpture piece

Mark LaCroix with his You Are Here Map piece

Walking tour with CARAG neighbors

Local police and event organizers

Group artist shot

A Peacock Party

My Mom's 75th birthday is today and we celebrated early over the weekend. Doesn't she look amazing?  It was a peacock themed party so I wanted to share a few pics from the party.

A local baker decorated one of her birthday cakes with a peacock

My family made a peacock fruit tray

And a peacock veggie tray

I designed her invitation and bought lime Mums, my sister bought candies and other decorations

My son and husband made a 12' party banner

Newest family member Amelia was dressed in peacock colors

Ivy and Andy 

Even Brooke had a peacock collar