September | 2012 | The Creamsicle Cat

I’ve been an artist for as long as I can remember. Whether that meant doodling, painting, crafting, jewelry making, woodworking, sewing or quilting, I’ve always been happiest when creating something. As my quilting customers know, my dining room is my longarm quilting studio. My machine is just about the first thing you see when you walk into my house. You will also see a variety of quilts on my walls, and here and there, other pieces of artwork that I’ve created. Over the past couple of years, both of my boys have moved away from home. That left me with two empty bedrooms just screaming for purpose! One of them was the guest bedroom, and I set up the other one as my quilting/sewing room. Zack needed the spare bed, so the guest room ended up being the catch-all room for “stuff”. You know, the stuff you don’t really need, should toss or take to Goodwill, but it’s just easier to toss it in the spare room and shut the door. It became even scarier when our bedroom closet recently flooded, and everything was taken into the spare room while repairs to the closet were made.

Also going on in my ADHD brain over the past several months, was a desire to have an area completely dedicated to creating painted/drawn art, as opposed to my quilting/sewing pieces. After weeks of nagging my husband to help clear out the “catch-all” room, I finally got a wild hair the other day. I moved stuff back to our closet, filled a trash can, and made a trip to Goodwill. My poor aching body was screaming at me for doing it all by myself, but my mind was looking at a cleaned out space just waiting to be set up as an art room! Scott helped me put together an Ikea desk, and it took me all of about 10 minutes to put out some of my art supplies. It took Shamus even less time to make it all his own! I’m so danged excited, I can barely stand it! I am almost finished with a pretty intense customer quilt, then I can sit at my art desk and play a bit. I’ve always wondered what I might create if I just allowed myself a dedicated space to play. I suppose it’s time to find out! Until then, I’m sharing some pictures of things I’ve done over the past several years.

This is a quilt! I drew it, stitched it, painted it, then mounted it to cavas using gel medium. It was a fun experiement inspired by my friend, Linda Teddlie Minton, whose creativity amazes me!