Thank you!

I'm up to ten backers on my kickstarter.com project!  Only six more days to go to make this dream a reality!  Today I'd like to thank those who have backed the project so far:

you_will_succeed

Dawn Wampler

William Martin

Anthony Vilgiate

Xaver Wilhelmy

Sara Homeyer

Kim Scales

Melissa Chonka

Dawn 

Wendi Dunlap 

You all are my ANGELS!

 I'm working on quilting this one today.  I don't know what it will look like when I'm finished.

 These two before I quilted them...

 Became:  "Set Aside" and...

 Buttoned.  It really makes a difference when I've finished the quilting...

...put them through the laundry and them framed and embellished them. 

As you might imagine, sometimes it's tough just to choose which side is up!

I can't tell you how much I love what I do, and to have others partner with me

in the process is a genuine privilege and honor!

Thanks to those who have pledged to the project!

Would you like to get in on the fun?

My Kickstarter.com Project is here, go check out the video 

that explains the whole thing and then choose what you'd like from the cool pledge options! 

Thank you so much!

-Carmen Rose

Tease!

Oh, alright....

Here is another teaser:

This should be fun.

My project has been approved by Kickstarter.com and I'll be going live as soon as possible.  

Here are some teasers:

 I love old skeleton keys.  These are the ones I keep by my front door in case I ever lose my keyring. 

 I put these marvelous old keys in the kiln with enamel powder just to see what would happen.  

I love how they turned out!

Just a photo of three canvas sizes.  6x6, 9x9 and 12x12. 

Check back for more information in the coming days!

(and wish me luck!)

Happy Creating,

-Carmen Rose

Fabric, Roses, Guests, Projects and Warmth

I have started another quilt and I’m not real sure where I’m going with this one. I want something to go on the dining room table in a room that will have this painting on the wall. I painted it a few years back and even though there is a little damage to the surface of it, it still feels much like a personal statement since my name is Carmen Rose. I do love roses! The more vividly fuchsia/magenta they are, the more I love them!

I pulled out a piece of very special hand dyed fabric from Frieda Anderson and put a few things with it, all batiks. I just love these colors and wanted to try to bring out vibrant color by contrasting it with more muddy murky tones. I am pretty sure that was badly unsuccessful but it was an interesting experiment. Now I’m going to need to consider it a while and see where it wants to go from here. The temptation is to cut into it to bring some strong contrast but I am not quite there yet. I think it could be pretty all quilted up and on the dining table under a large glass bowl with water and loaded up with floating candles. Sounds good, right? I will continue to give it some consideration.

I have two girls coming to spend their Spring Break with us, that will be fun. I also have a few furniture projects I would like to accomplish this week. Will I have time to paint a bedroom, make curtains and get them hung? Never a shortage of things to be done. I’ll try to remember to take “before” and “after” photos. I usually forget the “before” photos because I’m so impatient for transformation.

Oh, I almost forgot my other great news! My hubby and friends have been working on a big wood stove for our basement. As I was working at this quilt project yesterday evening, they brought in this big stove dangling on a chain from an engine lift (the thing must weigh a ton) with wheels. The apperatus looks a bit like a miniature crane. Then they carefully lowered it into place and hubby installed the needed pipe and damper and it is a thing of beauty! Well… not physically beautiful, just lovely and warm! And now we can keep the fire mess downstairs instead of using the family room fireplace when it gets ultra cold. It is a cold one here today! Brrrrrr!! I don’t know if it will really heat the whole house or anything, but it certainly makes my studio a lovely temperature! I am lovin it! Fire is good!!