Interweave Press, new best friend, CLOTH PAPER SCISSORS, MIU, Long Beach et al
At last. I am back blogging like a good little crafty entrepreneur. If I could tell you all how many times in the last 4 months someone told me to get on Etsy, start a blog, promote myself on Facebook or Twitter! Like they think I am some kind of grandma that never heard of any of it. Well, actually I do all of the above except twitter. What WORKS is going to quilt festivals, doing demos and workshops and getting magazine articles published about Ficklesticks, because that drives people to my website, and cash into my register. DUH! Interweave Press is my new best friend! They published an article about my Fickle Flowers in April's Cloth Paper Scissors magazine and another in Studios this month. As soon as the mags hit the stands, my web traffic revs up. I LOVE THOSE GUYS! I have managed to get booth space right around Make It University in Long Beach July 24-27, and I may be teaching one or more mini workshops there, too.YAY.
Round about Little Rock ARK, people are starting to check out the Fickles! I am selling my work in the new Arkansas Studies Institute Gallery which features Arkansas artists. Found out I sold a necklace to an old advertising buddy from way back who didn't realize I was the artist! WEIRD. I am also starting to sell a bit of work at the Farmers Market in North Little Rock, the only farmers market that requires its farmers to actually grow the stuff they sell, and offer organics. It seems like a miniature Berkeley CA! I will be showing kids how to make things with Ficklesticks at the Laman Library on July 14, and doing another demo at Ellie's Bead shop in North Little Rock on July 17 during Gallery Walk. I AM STILL trying to get into the Hot Springs Quilt Festival mid July. I will let you know about that one.
Just back from a big trip to Baltimore, DC, my hometown of Lafayette IN, and Lawrence, Kansas. Thanks to Carly at Webfabrics in Purcellville, VA (near DC) I had a couple of fun demos. I also got to see an extraordinary exhibit of Amish Quilts at the Textile Museum in DC and the Quilt Extravaganza in Chantilly. In Baltimore, I visited Hampden, and the Visionary Art Museum, both of which made me feel pretty normal after all. In Lafayette, we pilgrimaged Arni's Pizza (where they still cut it in squares) and the Frozen Custard. AH, just like I remember it when we cruised the place in my Rambler in the 60s. In Lawrence, we sprawled at the condo and I visited Sarah's, where I got a few snippets of some Kaffe Fassette.