Although they weren’t able to hold the in person Baltimore Craft Show this year, the American Craft Council has put together an online show they’ve entitled ‘Baltimore Craft Week‘. I am so happy that I’ll be participating! It will start this Monday, April 12th for American Craft members. Membership is an easy way to help support the ACC. If you’re not yet a member, you can sign up here.

After the member preview day, the show will open for the public on the 13th and continue through the rest of the week to next Sunday, April 18th.

The platform allows for 15 pieces for each artist. As one sells I’ll add another in it’s place so be sure and check back.

I’ve added a number of new pieces, including the brightly colored jacket I was working on in my last post. In honor of the season, I’m calling it ‘Spring Out.’

A celebration with bright clear colors for Spring. The back.

There’s one more jacket I’ve been working on. It’s close,…. but not quite finished.

A few days ago it was a pile of skinny blocks sewn from different whites and cream kimono silks interspersed with bright dots of color.

Below, as it is so far, the front, in my size petite.

Not quite ready for its debut, but in a day or two, as soon as it’s finished, I’ll have it up and on the Baltimore Craft Week website.

Check it out! My work will be there with close to 200 other artists selling their wares. It’s going to be great!

Although you’ll have to wait until Monday, here’s a direct link to my page here.

I started work on this jacket a few weeks ago. Now it is finished and ready for its close up.

The whole process of piecing the blocks, then laying them out, arranging and rearranging, it’s mesmerizing. Hours whoosh by.

A close up:

And the back.

Well, that was fun. So why not another?

Below, step one, make lots of blocks. This time in brights.

Stay tuned.

My latest project, it’s a pieced jacket in bright blues and white, a nod to spring. Which is just about here with lots of buds, a few daffodils blooming and as you walk through the neighborhoods, the glorious fragrances of daphne.

I chose the colors first. Next, I sewed the blocks. You can see some in the upper left corner. They are random pieces of fabric sewn together into various sizes and shapes. My goal is for each block to have an interesting composition, movement or design. In the very beginning, when I first start to sew them, they are not very interesting. But as I continue to cut and sew, they begin to take on their own individual dynamic. They take over and I follow where they lead me.

The final step, laying out the individual blocks so that they work with each other, bounce the eye around and at the same time, focus it on the areas I’d like to highlight. For this jacket, it’s down the center front. As I’m laying them out, in my mind there are a lot of, ‘Yes! That goes there!’ And, ‘Not at all! Take that off!’ And, ‘this seems to work, but it disrupts that area. What should I do to fix it?’ Time stalls and stands still, then moments later it flashes by. Just like a puzzle, eventually I find a way that works.

Stay tuned.