By Carrie Bloomston
We had a business for seventeen years, my husband and I. It wasn’t a scalable or glamorous business. It was just him and me in painter’s clothes working in houses one by one. We painted murals and did faux-finishes and generally painted and glazed all of Scottsdale a warm Tuscan gold or medium taupe.
I’m writing in my head all the time. Well, actually not in my head. In my body. Since I’m constantly urging people to turn off their minds in their creative practice when I teach art, painting, creativity, vision board workshops, I can’t say I’m writing in my head. More of the torso, actually. I feel the words in my shoulders and chest, roughly. Not the wrists. Not the root chakra. Not my heart, really. But in my chest. They collect like Luna’s fur does on our concrete floor. At first it doesn’t seem like much–she’s a German Shorthaired Pointer, after all, so it doesn’t seem like there’d be a lot of fur. But after a few days it’s like a game of miniature pick-up sticks–white dashes covering the tobacco colored concrete. When I sweep it up–there’s enough fur that it looks like a medium-sized gerbil. And that’s just after two or three days.
I’m so excited to share your new favorite book today! It’s called Playful Fabric Printing. Have you ever wanted to play with fabric printing or making your own cloth? This is the book for you. I’m a little biased though. My amazing friend, artist, textile designer, and activist, Melanie Testa, teamed up with Carol Soderlund to create the very first imprint of the brand new publishing house by bright light, Pokey Bolton, called Crafting a Life. And let me just say, if this first book is any indication of what Pokey is up to, prepare to be amazed.
I can finally share my next fabric collection with you. (You know it is so hard to wait nine months before I can share.) But here she is…World, meet DREAMER!!!
This sweet, fresh, bohemian collection is filled with layered patterns I made both with my typical collage technique and by hand-painted watercolor. This collection is a love song to the earth and to our ancestors around the globe who were MAKERS and who lived in harmony with nature.
Hello! I’m so excited to announce that Windham Fabrics printed my Newsprint fabric in 108″ wide quilt back cotton and it is zooming to stores near you…in fact it might already be there!
When I created my newsprint four years ago, I made a print that I knew I needed in my own stash. I LOVE newsprint and words and text. At that time, I only had one or two newsprint options (one was a linen which I had bought on etsy and which arrived a month later from China in a little brown paper package covered with lovely markings). But the newsprint fabrics I had seen were filled with inappropriate content…kinda like a real newspaper.
It’s a party! I was thrilled to be included in the blog party and G I V E A W A Y in celebration of Amy Butler’s newest book, Piece Keeping! Amy is a gorgeous, inspiring human on many levels, not least of which is her generous soul. (Plus I learned to sew six years ago making her Birdie bag.)
Hello and happy summer. I hibernate in the summer–I take time to unplug from media and obligations, be with my family, and clean and organize the corners of my house. I did this long before I fell in love with Marie Kondo’s Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up (which I did last summer). If you haven’t read it, you might want to. So, I’ve been hibernating a bit. But I wanted to share a cool thing in case you haven’t seen it. I was honored to be featured in the Summer 2016 of the stunning, inspiration-fest that is Where Women Create magazine. They completely captured the depth of my artistic life and I’m honored to see myself on the pages of such a richly nourishing creative magazine.
Hello there. Long time no see…or I guess I should say, long time no say because I haven’t posted here in a few months. I hope you are well and good and emerging from nature’s cocoon of winter. Our spring here in the desert has been warm and lovely. The garden bed is singing to me–the heirloom tomatoes ripening, the dill flowers are shoulder high, and the sunflowers are showing us their faces now.
If you read this blog, I just want to thank you and wish you happy holidays.
I honestly don’t know how to interpret backend blog analytics or to understand if my numbers of readers are good or bad, high or low. I’m kinda low-tech.
But still, if there are ten of you (other than my mom) who read this blog and support my work then that feels good to me. And if there are a hundred then that’s pretty awesome. And if there are 1,000 then that is amazing. But for some people, 1,000 would seem insignificant.
Are you ready for the new year? I’m thrilled and honored to be teaching at Craft NAPA in gorgeous Napa Valley, California at an incredible new retreat created by Pokey Bolton. She is bringing together many fabulous teachers for this event to get your creative juices flowing and help guide you into your creative passion. The teachers are textile designers, fiber artists, sewinistas, painters, mixed media artists and art quilters. During this three-day retreat, you will have the opportunity to master your skills in collage, quilting, sketching, printmaking, painting, art journaling, and mixed media, all the while enjoying outstanding cuisine and wine, too.
