Season's Greetings

Though I would attach our Christmas card.  This watercolor is done of what I remember my Grandma Funk's home to look like. Both she and the farm house are no longer with us.  I hope everyone had a great Christmas and that we all have a better 2017 than 2016 has been. In light of the current election I am afraid that might not be the case. I hope I am wrong, but..... it really isn't looking good. This posting is not going to be political though.

2016 has held a lot of things for me, both good and bad. I am going to try to stay focused on the good. I have had a couple of exhibits this past year.  The last is currently at the St. George Art Museum, here in St. George, Utah. It will be there only until the 31 of December.   Candice is doing well in school and about ready to graduate. She will be applying to graduate schools. We have been lucky to have Megan and Patrick here twice this year. They are both doing good, both working hard and enjoying life in New York.  Meg is working hard and going to school.  Dave is doing pretty good as well.  One of the negative things we are going through is the possibility of Dave loosing his job.  We are hoping and praying that this does not happen. If we have to relocate.... well..... we relocate. Hopefully we will not have to cross this bridge, again.

I have been very busy with client work this past few months. I am enjoying that.  Right now I only have 3 quilts awaiting me. I will get at them as soon as the kids head back to New York. There are a couple of shows I might enter coming up. I have not decided about that yet.  Now that this blog seems to be easier to use. I will try to remember to post at least once a week.  I still don't have my website up and going. Patrick is waiting for me.

My goals this for 2017, besides getting more fit, is to focus on my painting more. I have done very little painting and really miss that. I am going to try to spend less time working on other's projects and focus on some of my own.  If Dave's job is solid and IHC signs a contract, I am going to cut down my client work. I still want to do some, but really need time to do my own art.  I have sold two pieces this past year, neither were high dollar, but I have hopes. My patterns are selling well, in the one store I have them in. I was going to have thing on a web site, so the patterns could be down loaded as PDF's but I really have not had time to even think about that.  Also...... I am thinking about a class, am working on a book and various other things.  We will see how much I accomplish this year.  I am going to become more computer savvy. I have to or I have to just quit.

Janice's

My quilt

Shauna's quilt

Darlene's

I am going to close for a while.  I have many other photos of quilts to post, but I need reduce their sizes, I guess.  My machine has hung on uploading, won't up load but won't let me disconnect either. Until later..... Charlotte

September 20, 2016

The summer is gone and I have really gotten a lot accomplished. It has been so nice here in St. George in the mornings that I have not been motivated to do anything but sit out and soak up the cooling weather and the sun. Today it feels like fall. I am not going to have any problem working.

I have not posted anything in a while. I post stuff on my Facebook page and kind of fill that it is where my time is best spent. I thought I would add a few photos of the things I have been working done since I last posted. For some reason the photos are not loading and will not let me cancel and start again. So.... if you are reading this and wish to see what I have done, go to my Facebook business account Charlotte Purcell Gary. I have a website being working on too.

Happy Quilting
Charlotte

August 22, 2016

  I have been busy trying to keep up. The Painted Hills Fiber Artists have a show at the St. George Art Museum, here in St. George, Utah August 27-December 31, 2016.  If you are in the area please check it out.
I have my Simple Cell Phone Case pattern in a couple of shops. One shop 'Scrap Apple Quilts'  located here in St. George, Utah and 'It's Sew Moab' located in my home town of Moab, Utah. I have a web site being built by Patrick Sayer's. So lots of positive things going on in my life.

I finished another couple of client's quilt. One was another pineapple...same as the last so I won't post a photo of it. I did do a great pantograph for a client.

the panto is call mimosa. I really like the way it turned out. A friend and fellow quilt and I ordered a bunch on new pantographs.  I hope I have more clients that will want over all quilting done. A lot of times that is all a quilt requires.  Sometimes custom is called for, but more times than not, a over all design would work just fine and cost the client a lot less than custom with wonderful outcome. 

Until latter...... Happy Quilting to you all

August 6

August 6...... Today was my Mom's Birthday. I still think about calling her and telling her something that is going on in my life from time to time and then remember she is gone.

I finished this quilt for Darlene Gardner. It was a fun quilt. I did use a pantograph on this one. This pantograph was a bit time consuming. It requires 4 passes for each roll of the quilt. I borrowed the pantograph from my friend and fellow quilter, Cathie Purdy. Thanks Cathie!

Time to fix something for dinner..... don't know what. Would rather quilt!

Aug 3, 2016

Dave and I had a wonderful weekend with high school friends. I am so glad we went. I actually just sat and enjoyed the setting. I honestly can't remember when I just sat before. I always work on some kind of hand work or appliqué quilting. I did get a drawing and a watercolor sketch done one afternoon. Dave and I cooked breakfast for one of the days for the group too. There were 9 couples there. We stayed at place on the LaSal Mtns. called Whispering Oaks. It is a perfect spot for reunions. 

We had a flat on our c-max while coming down off the mountain from our weekend, in a tire were had just replaced the week before because of a nail! That was not so great. The little car does not have a spare. Thankfully Dave had a patch kit in the car. He did not have pliers in the car though and he had to pull a piece of metal out of the tire before he could patch it. Some of our friends stopped to help us. If they had not come down off the mountain the same direction as us, we would have had a major problem! We will not purchase another car that does not have a spare. I don't want one that does not have a full size spare. I drive from here to Moab often by myself. There are places across the swell where this is no cell phone reception at all. If I happened to get a flat and someone stopped to help me... it would not make any difference, since there is nothing but a kit to put the stuff in the tire that plugs the hole and inflates the tire.  Not only does it plug the hole, but it messes up the stem on the tire.   We did not ask about the spare and were not told by any sales person that there was no spare here at the Ford dealership in St. George.  Had we really thought about it, we would not have purchased the car. 

I got accomplished today. I finished this wonderful pineapple quilt... put 19+ hours into this. It turned out very good, I think. I hope the client likes it. I think she will.

 I finished this today also. It is a small baby quilt. I think it turned out very cute. I really like this pantograph.

 It has been a long day and I need to call it a day and get some sleep. I have another busy day tomorrow.  Good night!

I have been very busy over the last couple of weeks. Trying to get as much done as I can before we head out for a very short vacation. My husband and I go to Moab every year for a reunion with high school friends. This will be our 10th year. It is great to get together and catch up. It really is amazing how friends can pick up like we have really never been apart, even though it might be years since we have last seen each other.  I am looking forward to the weekend. Although............. this year Dave volunteered for us to do the breakfast.  So, that means.... I get to do the breakfast. I am going just make a couple of breakfast casseroles. I have made different kind of quick breads though....Banana nut; fig, raisin and nut; blueberry orange; cranberry orange, nut; and date and nut. They are all done and in the freezer. It was really to hot here to heat the kitchen up to bake, but I did it anyway.

I listen to audio books on my iPhone all the time. I have a new big one, 6 or something like that. Anyway, I have dropped it so many times. The thing is to big for my pockets. The last time I dropped it I cracked the glass case. I decided I needed to have something to put the cell phone in, that was light weight (some things I have tried make my neck hurt) and easy to get the phone out to swipe, put my password in it and answer calls.  I put it in a name tag case I had made for the quilt guild I belong to. It was so tall that I put a piece of elastic on it. It worked, but really was not very pretty. I decided to create my a case the worked and looked nice.  I had a few tries before I got one that I liked. I have had a lot of ladies stop me and ask me where I got my case, so I have created a pattern for it. It will be available at 'It's Sew Moab' with in the next couple of weeks.  I am not sure what the retail price for the pattern will be, but I imagine around $10. I have a web site coming and plan on selling this pattern as a digital down load as well as my wall hanging patterns.  The case is easy to make and you can make 3 for 3/4 of a yard of fabric.  I have made quite a few of the cases as well. I will sell them for $15.99 plus, sales tax and shipping. I haven't set up any thing with pay pal just yet or any other kind of credit card acceptance. That is something I must get done soon.

"Simple Cell Phone Case"

I finished a quilt for a client this last week.  Janice M has been putting blocks that her mother made. This was a lovely quilt. 

My daughter's faience, Patrick Sayers, is building me a web site. It will be up soon....www.charlottepurcellgary.com! I am very pleased with that.  Now...... it is late and I am tired. So....... Happy Quilting.
Charlotte

Sunday July 10th, 2016

I have been very busy since my last posting. My youngest daughter and her fiancee have been here visiting from Brooklyn, Ny. I sure wish they lived closer. We have had a great time and I hope another whole years goes by until I get to see them again. The kids and I drove to Moab a week ago Friday and just got back today. We stayed at my Dad's home. All of us had a good time. They have to head back to NY in a couple of days......drat!

The opening reception for my 'visiting artist' gig at Gallery Moab was Saturday night. I had a great time visiting with old friends, making new friends and explaining what my art is.  I was asked to do a workshop for the local Moab quilt guild. I must come up with a project to teach, that gives them a idea of how and why I create my work.  I sold one piece so far and one was donated to the gallery for an auction. It was purchased for the minimum bid.  I am keeping my fingers crossed that more sells, but am not spending in of the money before it is in my pocket. I have not quite made up the fee I had to pay the gallery. It is a co-op of sorts. I grew up in Moab. Both of my girls were born in Moab and I would still be there if my husband's job had not disappeared many years ago. He decided to re-train in pharmacy. When he lost his job and we had to sign our home back to the mortgage company,  I though my world was coming to an end.  My life did not end, in fact the hardships we endured only made me stronger and our lives richer. I have made so very many friends and my life in the fabric art world would not exist as it does right now had we not have moved from Moab all those years ago.

 I feel I am at a cross roads of sorts. Trying to sell through galleries is very discouraging. People do not realize the time that is put into one piece. When you see a piece in a gallery that artist must pay 40% (as a rule) to that gallery.  I will see how things play out over the next few months. My business, Glad Rag's Art, is doing ok.  I have clients that keep me busy quilting their quilt tops and I love having the chance to add my artistic touch to their already beautiful quilt tops, however I really want to do more of my own art quilts and am seriously thinking about teaching. I know if I decide to teach, I have to be ready to teach when I am asked.  I also feel that more  basic art principles need to be taught, but realize at lot of ladies just want to create by following a pattern to a finished product.  I will just see what develops over the next 6 months.

Patrick, my daughter Megan's fiancee, is helping me get a website going. I currently have pieces listed on the Painted Hills Fiber Artist's web site. www.paintedhillsfiberartists.com. I have been paying for a domain name 'Glad Rag's Art' on Omnis for a couple of years. I figure it is time for me to get on that going. I will list all my pieces on that site and also plan to sell the wall hanging patterns I currently have designed as a PDF file down load as well as hard copy. The patterns are can currently be purchased at 'It's Sew Moab' quilt shop located in Moab, Utah.  I have more patterns in my mind, but nothing currently on the design wall....but soon will. This pattern will be a landscape of 'Castle Rock', similar to one of my art pieces that is currently for sale through Gallery Moab.

It is bedtime and  it is time to stop writing and try to shut my mind off.   I am attaching a photo of the display of my art at Gallery Moab, Peggy did a wonderful job of hanging my pieces.

Until next time ........ good night, sweet dreams and happy quilting!