Sunday Open Thoughts

While we were at the restaurant someone, I think my brother, mentioned they should have oil lamps back there that they have plenty of oil to put in them.  Yes, we were having lots of fun! It'll be all boring there in comparrison tonight.

Oh Youff!  :)  Some of those cracked me up good.  Love the LOL you pointed out and there sure are some other good ones too.   And from last year this priceless gem:

Hi, my name is Anne Frank.
comment:  This is not a diary.

I'll have to go back and read the ones in the comments better after I catch up here.

Yes, gas stoves are The Best.  The one I have in this apartment has pilot lights, which is not the "green" way to go, but hey, the landlord pays the gas bill: I suspect the boiler is powered by gas & he just doesn't want to install extra meters for the four apartments in this old converted house.

Mostly the steam heat (yeah, we have the old steam registers) is good enough to keep the place comfy in the winter: but if it gets TOO cold, I can use the oven to warm the place up!  Not very good of me, I know...but those are excellent days to make lechon or something else that requires a long, slow stay in the oven.

(And the extra use of gas in winter is probably offset by its lack of use in summer: I neither have nor want a/c.)

English usage is sometimes more than mere taste, judgment and education - sometimes it's sheer luck, like getting across the street.
E. B. White  

I think your quilt-i-scapes are amazing.  I mean really, really amazing.  Those I think you would have to market to rich folks, so you could charge enough to make a profit, but I really think they would pay for it.

A happy medium between regular and quilt-i-scapes would sell really well IMO.  The uniqueness would make the difference when people are deciding on a quilt to buy.  A regular beautiful quilt, or the beautiful, unique one, that catches the eye and gives a person so much more to see, feel and live.

The ideas you have sound beautiful.  I wish I had some design ideas for you but I don't have an artistic bone in my body.

I wanted to be a cafeteria lunch lady (heh, or a lunch guy, whatever) for Portland Public Schools.  No dice.  Would have been cool to see how they do school food here (you know me!).   Paid pretty well for a p/t Mon - Fri gig.  Enough to live on, actually (for me under my current Mr. Austerity guise), and would have still left afternoons free for interviews / searches elsewhere.

The other was a few months back, at a local / sustainable / organic boutique cat food manufacturer (yeah, Portland! hehehe) here in SE Portland.  Would have loved to have seen 'behind the curtain', so to speak, in such an operation.  Paid good, too.  I even think it was union (NUW?), if I recall correctly.  School thing was, too.

Haven't heard back on the Seattle city job yet.

For now, keep plugging away I guess...

Pass me a bottle, Mr. Jones...

I'm glad you guys are preparing.  Its not something you want to leave until the last minute.

Glad to see the storms you spoke of earlier are now over.

Have you evaluated your location for flooding potential?

"In proportion to the vigor of the individual, these revolutions are frequent, until in some happier mind they are incessant..." R.W.Emerson - Compensation

About your quilts, though: that thread was daunting & I didn't know where to jump in & I need to do a bit of research to be helpful in any case.  Here's the thing:

There is a quilt museum here.

http://www.quiltandtextilemuse...

I don't know that any of their info would apply to your highest quality quilts: I rather suspect not b/c this area would mostly be devoted to traditional Amish patterns.

We also have a new (small) convention center downtown -- I think it opened two years ago or so.  One of the groups they hosted not too awfully long after it opened was a quilting convention.

Well, who knew quilters had conventions?  Certainly I didn't.  But they do, apparently.  So there MUST be an organization out there putting the conventions together: they might have info that would help you.

There is a Folk Art Museum in NYC right across from MOMA (the Museum of Modern Art).  You might want to check their website & consider sending them some photos of your best, most artistic quilts.  If you or your husband has a cell phone, give them a call (no long-distance charges!) and try to get through to the quilt curator.  I'll bet they have one.  Even if you can only speak with the curator's assistant, that's an "in."  Maybe they will buy one...maybe they will display one as part of a show.  Who knows?  Can't hurt to try.

As others have said, don't underprice your work.  You probably can't get the $$$ in your locale to pay for your time and artistry.  BUT in NY there are lots of rich people -- I mean, really, really rich -- who would pay a bundle for a hand-crafted work of art.  Lived there for 20 years & while I never much rubbed elbows with that echelon, they make their presence known...and I did know a few (not stratospheric billionaires, but very wealthy nonetheless).

There might even be a few gallery owners who would show your best work on a consignment basis.  Can't speak to that: I was never in the art world except as a walk-in who just wanted to look at some art for free, lol.  If marketing yourself seems too daunting to you, maybe there are agents out there who could represent you.  There MUST be a nonprofit quilting society that would know.

Reach for the stars, firefly!  Figure out the cost of materials plus time...and hand-quilted is going to be worth a whole lot more than machine-quilted, btw.  And try to market to the richest of the rich.  In NYC, in SF, in DC, in LA, Chicago, Houston...I emphasize NYC mainly b/c it does have so many really wealthy people & b/c I lived there so long.  But there are other places where your work could sell at a premium, and you wouldn't have to take a loss to do your best, most artistic visions.

Oh: and price your time at union wages or better.  (I'm thinking at least $25/hour.)  Rich people expect a very high price tag.  Gives 'em bragging rights.  Look at Rolex watches.

In a nutshell:  If you need cash fast, go with the new idea for faster, less expensive quilts.  But do a couple more that you can showcase to the kind of market I'm talking about here: that's where the real money is.  Get a show in NYC and you have a chance of making the Times arts section: and that publicity is priceless.

And finally (& at long last): those beautiful quilted clothes you've made for the princess and the majik boy could possibly, imho, be almost as lucrative as your quilt art.

Just my two cents.

English usage is sometimes more than mere taste, judgment and education - sometimes it's sheer luck, like getting across the street.
E. B. White  

The purchase, in 1979, of the famous Bird of Paradise Quilt Top (1858-1863) represented a turning point: The art of quiltmaking would become a major emphasis in the collection and public programs of the institution.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A...

Your best work belongs there, Ria.  Really, give them a call (or have your most outgoing, persuasive friend do it for you) and charm the assistant who will answer the curator's phone.  It is their job to consider things: I don't know what they'll require but I suspect an email with a couple of photo attachments might pique their interest.  At worst, you (or your surrogate) can ask about high-end quilting societies to contact for more info.  Y'know?

But show them some of the work you've shown us.  It's that good.

English usage is sometimes more than mere taste, judgment and education - sometimes it's sheer luck, like getting across the street.
E. B. White