My yearly blog post

Well, it's spring 2009, which means it's time for my much anticipated (tongue in cheek, of course) yearly blog post. For all you who follow my blog--all zero of you--you know that I have spent the last year continuing to paint fabric while maintaining our growing family and teaching part-time at Wayne State College. Unfortunately, the latter two activities keep me busy enough that painting occurs only when pigs are winging above and the sun and moon are straight overhead, shining in unison.

Nevertheless, I forge on. Just yesterday I spent a pleasant afternoon cleaning my corner-"studio", in the hopes of getting down there some time soon. I organized my paint, cleaned all my dirty stamps, made things look as if I'm always that tidy, then I vacuumed to pick up all the threads and bits of dried paint that splatter everywhere. Oh, and then I took a Mr. Clean magic sponge to the walls of the basement bathroom to scrub off paint, just so I could say to Dwaine that I Clean Up MY Mess, while it's obvious that his exploding-dark-beer-making spray from years ago is a permanent fixture down there. I love you anyway, Dwaine.

(See...isn't this riviting, Oh Imaginary Reader?)

The real reason behind my cleaning zeal was the thought that soon we'll be putting our beloved hovel up for sale. I imagined the snooty realtor descending into the basement and my face immediately flushed and I reached for the all-purpose cleaner before I realized what I was doing.

So. Art takes backseat to Ajax for now. And soon it will be warm, and Art will play second-fiddle to Dirt. And then fall will come, and Art will defer to Apple Crisp. But it's still there in the periphery. Isn't that how is should be?

So, it's been a year....

All right, I'll admit it. I'm just no good at blogging. I had actually FORGOTTEN I started this blog over a year ago until I saw it listed on a friend's site. "Mmmm...Mollie's blog...wonder what that is......ACK!"

So this is just a note to say that if you REALLY want to access Monkey Shine Design, go to the following address:

www.monkeyshinedesign.etsy.com

That's where the goods are. Like the fabric posted to your left.

Postcard swap

Have been participating in a fibreart postcard swap through Art2Mail and it's been so much fun. Besides the pleasure that comes with receiving interesting postcards in my mailbox, I truly enjoy sending them off. I get the feeling that I'm not as interested in quilting as the other ladies---so far I haven't stitched any cards, just used bonding and glue--but I'm still having a lot of fun. I included a (partial) picture of one of my cards that I recently sent out, where I used the trimmings from other cards as my material for new ones. Tedious and very satisfying. Especially gratifying to do when annoyed at the typical household doldrums.

Monkey Shine Designs by Mollie Spieker

Hello! Well, I'm sitting here in the waning minutes of my boys' naps, trying to decide whether to type, to clean or to work on my latest project. Typing wins for now! My sister, Anne, encouraged me to start this blog to "showcase" some of my "art quilt" projects (though I feel bad actually calling what I do "art" or "quilt", because it is neither!!) Hopefully in the next month or so, I can get some pictures online of my work ("work" is also a pretty loose definition!)

I've been experimenting lately with commercial batik fabrics, fusing them onto muslin-covered felt, to create fabric postcards. This was initially a moneymaking strategy because my mother-in-law had purchased a few months at a craft-booth store for her daughters and me to display some of our stuff (my sister-in-laws make cards as well, both with watercolor and photography.) So I made a batch of these cloth postcards, and had so much fun that I made another batch and another batch, and so forth. I also have a little display of them at a gift store here in town, but sales have not been that brisk. I finally came to the conclusion that the sort of person to spend $5 on a card is few and far between in this area of the world, and that I may have to start marketing my stuff as "art" (cringe), which holds me accountable to the label "artist" (cringe again) which makes me nervous. "So, Mollie, what do you do?" "Oh, I'm an artist." (Then the person asking the question thinks sarcastically, "SURE you're an artist.") Anyway. I'm probably worrying in vain.

But I will try to get a pictures on here of my postcards, and hopefully of a few bigger pieces as well. I'm working on a larger piece for my sister-in-law's bridal shower. It's about 11 x 17 and supposed to be a close-up stand of wheat and has involved hours of cutting little teeny tiny bits fabric into kernals and those stringy-type-things that are on wheatheads. It's been very fun, and very tedious. My husband saw me working on it the other day and he just shook his head as if he felt sorry for me.