Yellowstone National Park event June 27th/28th

Yea! Next week I am off to the first two days of doing demos of my free motion fire quilts. I'll be at Old Faithful General Store June 27th and 28th, Fishing Bridge on July 27th and 28th then back to Old Faithful Sept 7th and 8th.  I feel so lucky to have been given such a wonderful opportunity I had to make at least one star quilt reflecting how Yellowstone National Park makes me feel.

I had to choose something simple to demonstrate keeping in mind the safety of children and tourists, free motion embroidery in my life of work is about as easy as its gets.

Hope to see you in Yellowstone Park one day this summer.

Fire

Majestic Geyser Star 

Put a Moose on it cosmetic bag

Bear in the woods hanging 

Fire Dragons 

The Loft 1st Friday art walk

I have the honor of being art of the 1st Friday art walk in Missoula Montana courtesy of  The Loft. I have several pieces hanging and a few of my reversible travel/grocery totes. If you are in Missoula stop by.

Soy silk paper machine embroidery on felt.

City scapes

August 13th in Ennis

This is proving to be an interesting and busy summer tomorrow it is off to Ennis for the Madison Valley Art Festival   -- should be fun! 

Quilts On Main Street August 20th East Helena Mt

The first of what will become an annual Quilts On Main Street in East Helena Montana is August 20th from 10 till 6.

Montana Quilts/ Parker Snowe and Glorious Day Quilt Shoppe will be hosting the small event. Parker Snowe/Montana quilts will be hanging their collection of over 30 Native American star quilts in the 200 block of West Main Street. Theresa from Glorious Day will have her shop open and be hanging quilts of local quilters on her end of East Main Street.

The East Helena branch of the the Lewis and Clark Library has 19 Parker Snowe fiber art quilts on display and will stay open for the entire day.

Art in the Garden at 215 West Main will also be open with artists work available to purchase. If you don't have your copy of Montana Star Quilts - you can get your autographed copy at the garden.

Featured artists --  Ed Mohler oils and leather work, Evi Dixon of Spanish Peaks Alpaca who will be bringing baby alpacas for us and Emily Free Wilson of Free Ceramics. and Prickly Pear Quilts  will both have items available as well. Fred Cowie watercolor and all around artist will be set up at 24 West Main thanks to Main Street Eats for making the indoor space available. High Plains Sheepskin 5 West Main will be hanging out sheepskin quilts. Stan Underwood of The Joinery Shop at 208 West Main will have his wares available and right next door at 212 West Main quilts will be hanging from the porch. Ron Darlington is going to play oldies for us.

The Native American star quilt display is on honor of Jerry Belgarde who left us this year, she is the reason I wrote the book Montana Star quilts and that I have such a large collection of star quilts to display. Star quilts are to honor and comfort, my best dog Lulu left me this year with in days of Jerry, Several other of my friends have lost loved ones, best dogs and are loosing some one very loved -- so Quilts on Main Street is to honor them.

Thanks to our sponsors Bev Pickett, Virginia Cochran, Opportunity Bank and Shalon Hastings of The Hub Tacodelsol  for helping to make this happen and Kevin Herrin from All Wood Designs for getting the display arbors together at the last minute.

Fast Star taught to me by Jerry Belgarde

Original Governor's Mansion Secret Garden Tour

One of my favorite events to have my work at is the Original Governor's Mansion Secret Garden Tour. Every one is in a festive mood and the gardens are wonderful. I'll be set up on the porch across the street from the mansion. Quilts, baskets bags and raffle tickets for the star quilt are available. Hope to see you there. 

Summer Shows 2016

July is going to be a wonderful busy time. July 2nd, 3rd and 4th is Festival of the Arts in Livingston, http://www.livingstonmuseums.org/depot/festivalofarts.html. July 11th and 12 it is off to Billings for the Yellowstone Art Museum YAM SummerFair . July 17th I'll be set up for the local Original Governor's Mansion annual Secret Garden Tour on the porch right across the street http://www.mtogm.org, if you love gardens it is a great event. August 13th it is off to Ennis Mt for the  21st Annual Madison Valley Arts Festival http://www.ennisartsassociation.org/madison_valley_arts_festival.html

August 20th the local quilt shoppe Glorious Day http://www.gloriousdayquilts.com and Montana Quilts http://www.montanaquilts.com/index.html are hosting Quilts on Main St in East Helena Mt. We will be hanging as many quilts as possible on Main Street for the day. Montana Quilts collection of Native American quilts will be hung for the second time ever.


Saturdays throughout the summer Art in the Garden will be happening on Saturdays from noon till 6 -- weather permitting, garden gates will be open, we'd love to have to stop by.

Art in the Garden

Summer shows 2015

July is going to be a wonderful busy time. My work is currently hanging in the Montana Secretary of State lobby until the end of summer. July 2nd, 3rd and 4th is Festival of the Arts in Livingston, http://www.livingstonmuseums.org/depot/festivalofarts.html. July 11th and 12 Summer Fair in Billings http://www.artmuseum.org/special-events/summerfair2015/ and July 16th and 17th it's off to Ennis for the Moods of the Madison http://moodsofthemadison.com.

Fiber art on display in the Montana Secretary of States office

If you happen to be in Helena Montana a few of my pieces are on display in the lobby of the Secretary of State's office. I am really excited and honored! 

University of Montana Art Fair is this coming week

Parker Snowe will be at the University of Montana Homecoming Art Fair this Thursday Friday and Saturday. Hope to see you there. Life has been busy with shows this year though I have been contemplating new tutorials.

http://www.umt.edu/uc/Arts-Entertainment/uc-art-fairs/

Lulu the dog who rules my life dressed up as a fairy princess today because she is excited to go visit friends for the next few days one being her favored cat!

Here are a few pieces of new work for the up coming show in Missoula! 

Art Opening at four0six in Helena Aug 8th and the work is still up!

Parker Snowe art is still on display at four 0 six! 

If you happen to be in Helena we'd love for you to stop in! 320 North Last Chance Gulch!

Summer Shows

I will be at Summer Fair in Billing this coming weekend then off to Arts in the Park in Kalispell. I am so looking forward to both shows! I will have a huge assortment of work made from new and vintage fabrics, cottons, wools, silks.

Yellowstone Art Museum Summer Fair in Billings


Arts in the Park Kalispell

I will be doing most of my updating on facebook from my new phone since that is the one part I know how to do! I 'd rather be sewing then learn new technology. 

Montana Quilts Parker Snowe on Facebook

Off to a good start

So far the new year is full of little projects to finish as well as fabric both new and old. 

Discontinued fabric samples make for great bags, purses and all manner of other stuff not yet began.  One of the things I love about the fabric samples is designing a bag or something for the size of the piece. Old Jim Thompson handkerchiefs sent to me years ago have been waiting to become something, and now they are a quilt top, inspired by Muumu Heaven's use of vintage Hawaiian prints. I happen to have a best Aunti ever who lived in Southeast Asia in the 50's and 60's accumulating fabrics. With the exception of the blue GVH Hawaiian print all of the fabrics for that quilt came from Indonesia or Thailand.  I've been taking a Skinny Quilts class once a month for the past year, a great way to brush up on long forgotten techniques and to learn new ones, not to mention using up the stash. The most recently finished quilt is all silk, including the back, I just could not whack it into small pieces because the fabric is like a painting, now it is quilted waiting for binding of some sort. And best of all I was invited to hang a piece of my work at the Secretary of States Office and now I am an officially treasured artist, this makes me smile. 

Little make up bags. 

Fabric for simple patchwork.   

Quilt top with Jim Thompson handkerchiefs. 

Little  bags 

Silk I couldn't cut up. 

One more skinny quilt done.
Skinny Quilts by Eleanor Levie, I and II
full of great ideas.

I am now officially a treasured artist.

Lulu the dog who rules my life says Happy Holidays!

May your life be bright from Lulu!

Small spaces and bad lighting make for nasty photos!

As a fiber artist who makes large quilts as well as small quilts in a little house with low ceilings I am always and forever trying to figure out how to take decent photos. Just in case those of you who follow my blog haven't noticed I am not a photographer. I have spent much time mulling over how to fix this and I think I have a solution. Today I went shopping for new pillow cases to match the quilts I want pics of, a gallon of Antique White paint, new lamp shades - white of course and tons of day light light bulbs. I had the back ground color on my web site changed to a soft gray today as well. So we will see how this all progresses.

I think a whole lot of artists live in smaller then they need houses as do many other people. I do not have a single room in this house where I can get a 'perfect' quilt on a bed shot. I happen to have a very dark wood book case in my room, so for today I covered it with a sheet, not so great in my opinion. Tomorrow the shelf gets moved and I am so wishing I had a magic wand to move it, well more the books then the shelf.

The room with the blue walls which I rarely ever go in is the lightest room in the house. So one blue wall is going to now be antique white, I will use it to take pictures of my small work. Maybe I can get pics of a red basket that shows the red, or whatever other color my work happens to be. We will see.

Ultimately it does not matter if you live in a great big huge house or a tiny one, we all like to be comfortable where we live and I want my work to be seen for the color it is, cause it can live anywhere.

Happy Holidays
Parker

A bluish wall will become antique white.

Daylight bulb on the left, soft white on the right. I love soft white but it makes for yellow  toned pictures. 

This is a combination of light and it is close to the actual color. 

This is in the same light but much closer to the reality of the color of the quilt. and this is what I am going for  in my pictures.

The ugly brown dresser got painted antique white.

The wall behind the dresser was also painted and a piece of whitish carpet added.

Much better for taking pictures now for a better camera.

Something witty or not?

Of course when I started this blog I thought for sure I would have something witty to share every day, instead what I have found is maybe I am good for 5 or 6 witty sentences a year. Often even though I am working on something new or interesting in terms of fiber art I am so engrossed in the project I forget to share, this coming from some one who also forgets to eat. (speaking of I mean to pay more attention to eating when engrossed in a project so I pop something easy in the oven, only remembering it is there as that slightly burned smell wafts through the air) Or perhaps I can't think about the process I just have to do it. The city scapes quilts are a perfect example. Right now I am working on updating my web site, not my favorite thing, though I find I feel like a real grown up when I do,whatever that means. My book, patterns and angelina fibers are always available from my web site. I gave up etsy, while a great net working tool, I have a mini shopping cart on my web site.

After all the Farmer's Markets this summer I made an executive decision to turn my living room into a gallery. Keep in mind in a normal persons house what I call the living room would be a bedroom and the studio would be a living room, but alas this is not a normal person house. The Parker Snowe Gallery is now open by appointment only.

Right now while the studio happens to be ultra cleaned up I am working on finishing all those projects I never quite get around to because I have to clean up first. Not sure how long this will last but 2 down and several hundred to go. The birds is just one of many.

One finished project for the Montana Audubon Society to raffle.
The birds are from a google search for free appliqué bird patterns. 

Studio, quilting machine space. 

The studio all too organized.

A cleaned off cutting table in the studio.

Perfect place to hang skinny quilts for the evening

Studio space used for an event.

Studio used as gallery space for one event. I've left two of the quilts hanging just so I am not distracted by all that fabric hiding behind them. 

Gallery space

Christmas socks of all sorts.

Gallery space.

New gallery space 

Gallery space in a pinch I can still use it as a living room.

Gallery space.

Raffle Quilt winner

The drawing for the raffle quilt was yesterday September 12h at the East Helena City Building and Adam Pople of Big Sky Montana was the lucky winner.

Artist Raffle Quilt and the winner was?

Over the last month I have donated my work to a variety of causes, and in the process thought about how artists well-known or unknown are always donating to one cause or another. Our work is raffled, auctioned, given away for door prizes, etc.  The raffling or auctioning of artwork is not unusual at all.  As part of my consideration of this topic, I learned that in Montana, an individual can raffle almost anything, as long as the value is under $5,000. There is no limitation on the purpose for such a raffle.  So, I have decided to raffle one of my own works in order to raise money so that I can continue to be an artist. I have made a beautiful quilt just for this purpose.  The raffle has already begun, and the feedback has been interesting, ranging from "wow that is really cool, I want 5 tickets"  to "who would want to buy a raffle ticket from you?"  I'll bet that if this same quilt had been donated to a non-profit (where I could only deduct the cost of materials and nothing for my time and expertise) and the non-profit raffled it, no one would likely wonder "who would want to buy a raffle ticket" for it. They would do it for the fun of it and the possibility of winning and to support the cause. Yet I wonder how many folks bidding on art or buying raffle tickets for art for a 'Cause" ever stop to wonder if the artist is benefiting in any way?

How often are you bidding on a doctor's services, the car mechanic, the groceries, gas or any other thing not art, a car a bike or some tangible item that some one had to buy from the store or car dealer?   Maybe some items were donated but not all by any means. 

I spent a week consulting with "the Gambling Guy" at our local state gambling control division office. He was very informative, answered all my questions and has even taken the time to review my Facebook posting to be sure I covered all the right information. The gambling laws involved in a raffle are interesting. A raffle by an individual in Montana has to be intrastate.  In other words, while I have tons of artist friends who live all over, many of whom would probably buy a couple of tickets, and vice versa if they conducted a raffle of one of their works, I cannot conduct my raffle other than in Montana.  Montana residents and people who are visiting Montana can purchase tickets but out-of-staters cannot.  I cannot sell raffle tickets over the internet, via credits cards or pay pal and mail orders must be from folks with a Montana mailing address. 

As a result of this raffle I may make enough money to live on for a year and continue to create beautiful fiber art,  or perhaps I will only make enough to cover the cost of materials.  That is part of the fun of this.  And, I love, love, love doing something that gets an "Oh, my, that is really outside of the box" reaction, or "why don't artists raise money for themselves?"  or "I might have to try that after I watch to see how it works for you." 

Facebook Posting 

"This is the offical raffle quilt.  It is roughly queen-sized, and has a burgundy minky-fur back.  Designer fabric was used for the flowers and the border, vintage muslin-ish fabric for the flower backgrounds, and wool batting inside. The drawing will be conducted on September 12, 2013. The winning ticket will be drawn by the East Helena Police Chief. (The time of day is to be announced, since crime investigations comes first, raffle drawings later.) Tickets are $10.00 each.The sale of raffle tickets is limited to the geographical confines of the state of Montana. Tickets may be purchased in person or through the mail if accompanied by cash or check (made out to Montana Quilts) and you have a MT address. No tickets can be sold over the Internet. The item being raffled must be worth less then 5,000. The applicable statute is Montana Code Annotated section 23-5-413."

The blocks made from designer fabric 

Liking it with the dark green and yellow.

The Lulu dog giving her 2 cents on how it looks. This was my first choice with a yellow green batik to set the blocks together. It sat around for weeks waiting to be finished.

Wondering why I do not quite want to finish it?

Replaced the batik with a soft green which is also used on the border and now it is ready to be finished.
This is one of the very few quilts I have ever ripped out.

Quilted

Quilted

Minky fur backing. The binding is on and it is now officially ready to raffle. 

The raffle quilt was won by Adam Pople of Big Sky Montana.

The winning ticket was drawn on Sept 12th 2013 by the local Police Chief Dale J Aschim.