Goodbye and Hello

I am closing this blog and starting a new one under DC Creations Art. Since I handle the fabric art and photo art parts of the business I decided to make the blog the newsletter for both. I will have to purchase more space to do this but hope all will work out for us in the end. Back to studying "Inbound Marketing".

May life treat you well,
Caroline

Beach Bucket Bags done

Hello,

Two more projects done and published on dccreationsart.com and dcfabricart.etsy.com. I have been a little busy. Might as well work on websites as I have to sit for awhile. For some reason the bottom of one foot hurts so bad walking is almost impossible. This has happened before and will more than likely happen again - but it really irks me because the rain has stopped and I could now be painting on our stairwell mural. Oh well!!!!

Will study my inbound marketing books, put some projects on Craftsy and maybe even design some patterns for fabric and have Spoonflower print them. Will also take another crack at "Drawing From The Right Side Of The Brain", and reading some of my wonderful books I have collected for over 50 years. Mostly history and classic lit, but I love a real good mystery from Agatha Christie also.

It never has to be dull, even when sitting on one's butt.



May life treat you well,
Caroline

New materials for two bucket bags and a very old quilt sample

Hello from another muggy day in PA. Have ticked off another project from my once extensive list - cleaning and staining our glider. Spouse bought it for me several years ago as a birthday gift. Love it and am going to move it to what we call the "Garden Deck". A lower deck with a great view of our back garden. At any rate I only have one outdoor project left and it is a biggy. Creating a mural in our basement stair well. Started on it - but weather has not cooperated and got stalled.

On to what this blog today is about - eldest daughter sent me a gift certificate to JoAnns and I purchased some true outdoor material to make a couple of beach bucket bags. Will get them done by next week. Putting them together will be fun, fun, fun.

Back in the 80's I took a quilt making class in Ft Worth, TX where we made a couple of sample blocks. I took the class to get my mother out of the house and hopefully interested in something besides herding me about (she was living with me at the time). It did not work for her but I fell in love with quilting. But, alas I had to work two jobs for awhile and sewing took a big back seat. Retired now and back into it. This sample is hand quilted - I use the machine for quilting now and love free motion quilting. There is something very soothing about hand quilting. A great connection to those before us that made some of the most beautiful quilts without all of the fancy gee gaws we have now. I am all for tools that make things easier, but never want to lose sight of how wonderful and creative those ladies were. Unfortunate that they made the quilts for daily use and fiber really is delicate in most cases so a good find of an old quilt is unique. I do not have the means to collect them and envy those that do. Now that I live in Amish country I have a big interest in their work with quilts.  Take a look at my first attempt at quilting. I believe this pattern is called Bear Claw. I had a very country decor in my house at the time.

May life treat you well,

Caroline

It is up and running!!!!

Hello,

Our website is finally up and running. We use 1 and 1 which is easy enough, but nothing is as intuitive as one would hope. They do have a good help line though and I made good use of it.

Soooo after all of my hard work please accept my invitation to check it out. dccreationsart.com you will find some great stuff. Of course we can still be found on Etsy dcfabricart.etsy.com and dcphotoart.etsy.com.

I will continue work on the website as there is always tweaking and new items to add and hopefully sold items to remove. See some of the stuff below. I am going to have to log out as I am really tired of computer work for today.

May life treat you well,

Back to the Deck

Hi,

Spending time staining the last boards for the lower deck - when Dave puts them down it will be finished. I can now devote my time to painting a mural in our basement stair well. Going to give Dave a touch of Hawaii with flora from there.

But I have managed to create a couple of bucket bags including a very small one for a grand daughter of a friend. Pics included. Have also created a bunch of pillows for a childs room. Can find all my stuff on Etsy - DCFabricArt or on our new website DCCreationsArt.com

Am ready to publish our new website today. It is very difficult keeping up with two websites, creating what goes on them, working around the house, taking care of the garden, etc.. etc.. but feel I am up to the task.

Until next time may life treat you well,

Caroline.

Bucket Bag with Dots

Bucket Bag with Cranes

Butterfly Pillow

Cats and Kettles Pillow

Lady Bugs Pillow

Pink Dots Pillow

Childs Bucket Bag

Bucket Bag prototype

Hi,

Took a free class on Craftsy and learned how to make a bucket bag. It has unlimited potential for my business. I used painted on a pfd fabric today and will use it as the pocket part of a new bag. I will be buying some water resistant fabric to make beach bucket bags. Oh the excitement of the ideas running about in my head. Wish I could clone myself - the clone could do the housework and I could do the business. The bag below is red cotton duck and a cotton oriental print. The lining is the oriental print and the outside is pockets.

Speaking of housework - getting everything done this week to clear my plate for painting 'My Secret Garden" mural next week. It will be in our double stair well and done with concrete stain and acrylic paint. The sides will be trees and flowers, the steps will be a water fall with stones, and the bottom will be a pool with Koi. Should be interesting. Worse case scenario is I repaint the whole thing over.

Learning new free motion quilt techniques from Angela Walters and Leah Day. Not from the ladies in person, I could only wish, but by following their blogs and taking class on Craftsy. So young, so talented - great work ladies. If you would like to check them out here is their web sites. http://www.quiltingismytherapy.com/my-blog/
http://freemotionquilting.blogspot.com/

May life treat you well,

Caroline

It is finally done - now on to new projects

Hi,

Busy sewing, studying drawing, preparing to varnish the geisha lady I painted in oils last year, working in garden, building a stone wall around new garden that spans the deck. helping spouse work on deck (I get to stain the wood), working out at Golds Gym, Taking classes on Craftsy, working on our webpage which I need to complete and publish, making and canning Strawberry jam and of course the everyday tasks that one must do. Busy, busy, busy. And happy to be busy, busy, busy.


King Quilt and Pillow Shams - Love Kona Bay Fabric

Have completed the sudy of what I want for my first hand painted and quilted wall hanging. Thus the fabric art in my business name. It is three ladies covered in cloaks. I have been facinated with this grouping for a long time. Will have it done shortly to put up for sell. Oh, a sell would be wonderful, please.

See at right the king size quilt that took a chunk of my time. Also pics of othere fabric art I did for our bedroom and the afore mentioned geisha lady that I am going to varnish. Oh did I mention that I purchased two new pieces of material to make spouse two new shirts? And I am going to make some pillows for a friends boat along with a hand painted bucket bag for her. Love her like one of my kids.
Until next time, may life treat you well.
Caroline




Dragon and Tiger Wall Hanging



Beautiful Lady

Geishas in the middle

Well back to staining wood instead of sewing!

Spouse finishing deck rails. Making them pretty, pretty not your normal old rails. But guess who gets to stain all of the wood going into this project. That is correct - me. Well with this cold I have had no hearing for over a week so since staining wood does not require a lot of need to hear anyone - it is not so bad doing it. Sewing does not require hearing either but husbands commute keeps him away 13 hours everyday so I am glad to help him out.

I do give credance to us having come from the ocean as eyes, ears, nose and throat are all connected. I think our ears use to be gills, why else would they drain into the throat. At least that is what Doc told me (the draining not the gills) and since I had strep throat it is still swollen thus the ears are still full of fluid making it impossible to hear. What a bore,

Included a picture of part of the extended back garden. Moved three rose bushes from front garden to here. Also planted  Dinner Plat Dahlias and a Peony. They have to make an appearance. Since we live in the Appalacians rock are plentyfull and make a good border. The black thing in the middle is where the bubbler or fountain is going to reside. Bought a tiller for $75.00 bucks from Appalachian Lawn and Garden and it works like a top. The only way to get the ground stirred up. The thing is no beauty however since it is used, rusted and very old. But so am I and I still work

.

May life treat you well,

Caroline

On the road to recovery

Seems I had more than just a cold - my looks could have landed me a great part in a grade B horror film. John Carpenter where are you when needed? I work for scale!!!!! I still cannot hear anything, which would mean taking John's directing, directions difficult, but can breath and see, so we are getting there. Anti-bodies mean I cannot ingest my favorite wine, for now, but the positive is I have lost six pounds as I have no appetite. Not the way to do it though. Had to postpone for a week my meeting with the personal trainer at Golds Gym - really wanted to get started this week.

Moving on with planting in gardens and helping Dave where I can on the building of our deck. Today, besides putting four more plants in the ground, I will work on king size quilt. This is a sit down job and after 50 years of sit down jobs you know I can handle it. Take a look at a couple of the rather large strips. I have to do a 'quilt as you go' because I do not have a long arm quilter and cannot afford anyone to quilt it. Besides the quilting is the fun - really get a zen thing going with the movement of the quilt under the needle and seeing something great happen.

May life treat you well,

Caroline

Oh terrible, terrible cold

I have a plan and am all set to get going on it - when wham, I am floored with a horrible cold. Without going into all the aspects of a bad cold I just want to say that I am not able to work and anything I want to work at this week. Yes I used the word work. I find no disgrace in using that word even when what I do is for me and my partner/spouse Dave. Well I will be well in a couple of days and will press on.

In the meantime may life treat you well,

Caroline

Does anyone have some unused time they could give me?

Hi,

I know that I have to connect with the internet world to make a go of my business. The days of living in a world of ones own and only going to craft shows is very much over. This goes for my partner and spouses business also. He is photography and I am fiber arts. We are both over 60, me way over and it was a hard decision to really get involved with the internet. It takes a lot of time from what I love doing. He still has a full time job - so it is up to me to get the marketing done for both of us.

In that vein I have bought two books that I hope will help me achive my goals of selling well on the internet. "Inbound Marketing" by Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah and "Recipe for Press" by Amy Flurry. I already study everything Etsy has in their seller handbook and feel I am understanding this brave new world. I have a Twitter account, a Facebook account, am on Pinterest, Linkedin, also on Etsy (dcfabricart.etsy.com), and am setting up our new web page under our own domain dccreationsart.com. Need to get on Flicker, and I also have this blog - so I am really moving forward. But it is very time consuming and for a dyed in the wool procrastinator like me, difficult to keep up with. Ooops, almost forgot I have an ever extending flower garden I have to work on. I salivate over David Austin Roses and want to get some in the ground.

We are going to make a success of this - I was a computer programmer for over 50 years and know my stuff - just have to apply the discipline it took to be a great computer programmer to a great designer, blogger, web designer, chatterer, etc. etc..

Now you know why I need some time, please.

May life treat you well and give you all of the time you need to make it work.

Caroline

I keep putting off procrastinating

It seems all of my whole long life I have been a procrastinator. And to make matters worse I keep putting off stopping it. Take this blog for example. I know I should post at the very least once a week, but do I? No I do not. I have very long days and can do anything I want now but I keep putting things off. How long do I think I am going to live- forever I guess. At least I act that way.

Well today I ordered two books to help me understand and use social media to market our businesses. Yes I am working on both, so guess I am not to lazy. See attached picture of just one of spouses great work 'Moroccon Pots'. I am working on our web page, making a king size quilt for our bed, just finished painting my copy of O'Keefe's poppy, have a lot of yard work, need to spring clean the house, and I am adding marketing to my list. Oh, and let us not forget I have to keep my business fresh by making new items. I also want to try my hand at designing fabric.

Maybe I am not such a procrastinator after all.

May life treat you well,

Caroline

Where did February go?

How did I go a whole month without writing anything? Also need to post some pictures - but just letting you know I am still alive and somewhat kicking.

Made some Mozzarella today. Did not turn out as well as in the past but tried a new recipe. Will go back to old from the cheese queen.

Bought some material today to make Dave a St. Patrick day shirt. Now there can be one of those pictures I promised. Also bought Vogue Knitting magazine, Threads, and Sew Beautiful today. Going to spend the last of my time doing exactly what I want. Too bad I do not have a young child to sew for - my great grand daughter does not seem to like clothes. Oh well.

May life treat you well,
Caroline

Hooray, Hooray, we now have studio lighting!!

One of the major problems with creating something, that one wants to sell or even just show on the web, is getting great pictures of it. A regular flash only blows out black and white photographs leaving them very lackluster and flat. The beauty of black and white printed by my husband is the shine of silver - when it is washed out you are left with what looks like a print from a house printer - ugly, ugly, ugly. My fabric art does not show at it's best either. Suggestions to shoot in natural light works only when you have really good natural light to shoot by and we all know the light changes during the day. Solution, purchase studio lighting. Ours came with two strobe lights, one modeling light, softboxes, synch, three backdrops plus stand for backdrops. None of which I know how to use - thank heavens for a photographer husband. We are working on how to set everything up to best shoot what we want to shoot. Dave will also use it to shoot new studio photographs - think macros of flowers.

So what we have now is part of the basement devoted to a place to shoot photographs, another part devoted to my studio, another part devoted to my oil and fabric painting, and a rather large room devoted to Dave's darkroom. All of this for our small businesses. No excuses to not create for either of us anymore. Will post pics as soon as it is all setup. He is down there working as I write this.

Speaking of creating I have decided that I want to make beaded evening bags. They will be my designs and will be priced way above my other work. Beading is a very labor intensive process made even more so by the fact I prefer the very small Japanese glass beads that take 350 of to cover one square inch. They are not cheap either. I have to decide if I will make or buy the fringe for the bags. Guess it depends on if I can find the right fringe in the right colors. Making fringe is also very labor intensive - but you know what - if I am going to spend time creating something - it has to be something I would purchase.

In the meantime I am also creating one of a kind decorative pillows and hand painted canvas bags for the beach. Not to mention I am honing my skills with couture sewing.

Back to work

May life treat you well,
Caroline