Pisces Moon Studio

For everyone who has been following along with the Month Zero goal-setting, here is a gift for you:

Click on the image to download a PDF version. Print it out and post it on your wall.

Then head into 2010 knowing that you are a month ahead of the rest of the world… and that you don’t have to be perfect!

Happy New Year!

Last week I spent much of one day with my accountant doing my year-end tune-up and planning for 2010, and I impressed the heck out of him with how much I’ve done this year and what I have planned out for next year. This isn’t easy to do, so I feel really good about that. Month Zero is on its way to helping me create a great 2010!

So how to start Month Zero?

Well, first of all… do you have goals set for next year? They don’t have to be big goals like “restore world peace” or “stamp out hunger.” They do need to be measurable, though. You can’t say something vague like “I’ll make more quilts next year.”

Nope. Make it concrete. “I made XX quilts this year. Next year I will make YY.”

Or “I will enter one exhibition/quilt show this year.”

Or “I will take a class from (teacher I’ve always secretly admired).”

Read the rest of this entry »

There are 31 days left in 2009. What will you do with them?

I’m getting a head start on next year. Instead of winding down the old one and fretting over holidays interfering with the end-of-year stuff, I’ve decided to look at this as Month Zero of 2010. A whole month for planning! When everyone wakes up hung over on January 1 and starts blearily thinking about New Year’s Resolutions, I’ll have spent 31 days thinking, planning, getting priorities in place for a successful and happy 2010.

Who will join me in Month Zero of 2010?

It went okay. The crowd was not hugely enthusiastic, but I’d forgotten just how traditional this particular guild tends to be. Only half a dozen members walked out, and those were all near the beginning, so I assume they were merely bored and not offended.

And I learned how to make my own slides from digital images, so I acquired a new skill from the experience.

Continuing with yesterday’s theme…

I got an email this morning from Zappo’s .

——–
Dear C L Newbill,

One year ago, you ordered the following product from Zappos.com:

Saucony Grid Instep 3 – White/White – 10/W

We wanted to let you know that right now, your size is still available
from Zappos.com. You can order the same product again by visiting:

(link and some other let-us-know-how-we-can-help stuff omitted)

———

This reminded me, in the friendliest possible way, that I am still wearing year-old walking shoes despite knowing that I’m supposed to change them out every six months. Did it encourage me to go to the Zappos web site and buy another pair? You bet it did! And it didn’t put my hackles up, which is a minor miracle all by itself.

So how can we turn this idea to our advantage in marketing our own work?

This is good. :)

I have a request from Artisans International for more work, and this morning I found out about a local opportunity for women artists. The Central Alabama Women’s Business Center is hosting a seminar called “The Business of Art: Creating Success” on August 11, with a networking opportunity to show and sell work afterward. You bet I signed up!

So… time to make some small pieces and mount on mat board, like those Sonji did last month for her art fair. Mine, of course, will not resemble those of the superfantastic Sonji, other than that they will be small, but that’s okay. I resemble the superfantastic Sonji in very few other respects.

Oh — Fibonacci Fandango is done, binding and sleeve and pretty little purple crystals in the center of the flower. Final picture soon. But for now, back to the studio with me.

New, improved, much cleaner: Pisces Moon

The new Pisces Moon is almost ready to go. Tonight I was working on the links page, and wondered if any of you Artful Quilters who have websites would like to exchange links. If so, drop me a note with your URL.

Thanks!

Weekend mannequin report: She is still a bride. Maybe it’s time to put out an APB for a Runaway Groom?

Department of Good News: The invitation to the reception for Quilts of Today arrived in my mailbox this morning.

And there’s Orange Guy! Basking in his fifteen minutes of fame.

I showed the card to Sabrina at the post office, and the first thing she noticed was that my name had top billing. Funny — first thing *I* noticed was that it was misspelled…

You know the really cool thing about this show, though? There are seven artists represented, and four of us are members of Art2Mail. Couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch. :)

I know I haven’t talked too much about it, but since the beginning of May I’ve been nose down in “The To-Do List from Hell”â„¢ and I’ve actually accomplished a great deal.

I’ve made two new quilts and a number of postcard-size pieces; I’ve entered and been accepted into a juried exhibition that opens July 9; I’ve signed up with Artisans International (who have already sold two of my quilts since mid-May); I’ve set up three new web sites and have three more in the pipeline; I’ve kept the household running reasonably smoothly (defined by my dear husband as “never running out of Diet Mountain Dew and dinner’s on the table at 7 pm”); and I’ve been working to get ready for the Birmingham Quilt Guild show this coming weekend.

At this show, I will be one of three judges on Friday. On Saturday, I will be doing a half-hour program on fabric postcards. I also, in a rash and energetic moment in April, sent in my fee to be a vendor of hand-dyed fabric for the weekend.

I try not to talk much about it because it doesn’t define *who I am,*, but I live with a couple of autoimmune disorders that tend to wreak havoc with my strength and energy levels. Stress and fatigue also cause flare-ups, and I’ve been running myself pretty ragged these past six weeks. I’ve gotten an incredible amount done, but I have not been able to dye nearly as much fabric as I will need to sell this weekend.

Autumn II
Click on image for larger view. (88KB)

So I have about decided to back off on the fabric thing. I’ve put together some sample postcard kits — not patterns, but envelopes with the Wonder-Under, fusible stabilizer, batting and base muslin for two postcards, plus basic instructions on how to put a card together and some suggestions on making the decorated side. This, I think, might be popular with people who are mildly interested in the concept but don’t necessarily want to go invest in a lot of supplies that they might not use again.

Another thing I might do is use some of the fabric I’ve dyed and printed already as advertising for classes. One of the things on that To-Do List is to set up some local classes in surface design, and maybe this is a good opportunity to gather some names of interested people.

As an example, I finished this quilt top, called Autumn II, to show some of the monoprints I did a year or so ago when I was teaching a class on gelatin plate printing on fabric. Not high art, but pleasant enough to look at and may pique some interest in the process.

I can also use this as informational time — talk to people about what I do rather than concentrating so much on selling “stuff.”

This will be easier on my body; I won’t start out the weekend exhausted and yet I won’t waste the fee either. Yet I am feeling a bit guilty about lowering my expectations of myself.

If you were going to the show, would any of this interest you, or would you be disappointed if I didn’t have 200 yards of hand-dyes ready to sell?