Tracy McCabe Stewart - Contemporary Fiber

Hi all,

I am back.  Our move out to California has had a much longer settle in time than I would ever have imagined possible.   My life was pretty much in a holding pattern for the first 3 1/2 months out here.  Among other challenges, I was never able to fully unpack and my dyeing workspace never materialized.  I don’t want to dwell on the drama of it, but we have moved for a second time.   We are now in a great place, my work areas are functional and I am ready to get on with living and making some art.

I had been working on cave pieces prior to all of this life upheaval, but am feeling very drawn to making things with nature images right now.  Making things that reconnect me to a feeling of peace seem just right.  I am busy screening pieces with vat dye and will steam my pieces at the end of the week.

Maine Pond (C) Tracy McCabe Stewart

I have been spending time at a great local studio:  A Work of Heart and took a resin class.  I’ll be experimenting with using this new resin to incorporate mixed media into my pieces.  I’ll post pictures.

Dragonfly (C) Tracy McCabe Stewart

Thanks for sticking with me!

Tracy

One of the really neat things about California are all of the gardening possibilities.  We are a zone 9 or 10 out here and that means you can grow just about anything.  I am particularly intrigued by all of the xeriscape or low water gardens out here.  Water is definitely scarce and it is the responsible thing to do.  I am inspired by how beautiful they can be!

Here are some gardens that my pooches and I pass by on our daily walks:

I love this one.  This is about as low water use as you can get!

Xeriscape garden!

This one is really nice as well:

Xeriscape garden!

 

Xeriscape garden!

This one is at the other end of the water use spectrum, though probably less water use than a traditional lawn.  Really beautiful:

Tropical garden

I have been working on my vege garden as well.  Beds are set up, landscape fabric is laid and I put down straw for mulch betweeen the beds.  The soil comes Tuesday.  The straw is a big hit with Lucy:

Lucy makes herself comfortable

Well, by my lack of posts, you can probably guess who’s been winning this one.  I finally got the pictures off my phone, but found I had oodles of other pictures on there like movie promo stills and headlines off the BBC.  Weird.  Anyway, when I tried to delete them, I ended up copying them endlessly.  I tried to make a folder with the photos I’d actually taken and deleting the rest, but ended up deleting  some of the photos I meant to keep.  I did manage to save some, so here goes.

I had a wonderful lunch recently with Margie Trembley from the Needle Arts Guild in Chicago.  She was out for a wedding in San Jose.  Beside being an artist herself, Margie and her husband, Glenn have a great gallery in Springfield, NE called Springfield Artworks. 

Margie introduced me to fiber/bead artist, Shirley Cook.  I took some pictures of Shirley’s beautiful work:

Felted Vessel (C) By Shirley Cook

 I took these at the restaurant table with my phone camera, so excuse the backgrounds:

Felted Vessel (C) By Shirley Cook

This one turned out a bit blurry:

Felted Vessel (C) By Shirley Cook

I’m sad to say I managed to delete the other photos I had of Shirley’s work.

I am setting up my raised bed vege garden this week.  I’ll post pictures, provided that my phone cooperates:-)

It’s been a whirlwind couple of months!  I left Chicago on August 4th with my 2 dogs and drove about 2200 miles over the next 3 days to reach San Jose.  We spent the next 9 days living with a bed and  plastic  utensils and paper plates.  The movers delivered our stuff on August 15th.  Since then, I have managed to get mostly unpacked, but we are still waiting for our garage to be built before we can unpack all of the stuff that we had in the basement of out old place.  I am hoping that will go up in the next week or so.

My sewing room is set up, but I don’t yet have a place to dye or paint fabric, so I haven’t really started any new work.  I also can’t find a regular sized USB cord, so can’t upload all the pictures I’ve been taking with my phone.  I am going out to buy one this week! 

I did manage to take a class at a great art studio in my neighborhood- A Work of Heart  It’s got equipment/classes for everything from stamping to dyeing fabric, to precious metal clay, including a class I signed up for in cyanotype printing on fabric  The place has a great vibe and really nice people.  I am sure to be a regular there.

I also joined  the Contemporary Quilters Fiber Artists group.  This is a group of extremely talented people that do lots of surface design techniques.  I am sure to learn a ton from them.

To top it off, I went to the regional meeting of the Surface Design Association today as well.  It met at artist Judith Content’s home, which is a work of art in itself.  This is a group working and teaching in all aspects of surface design.  Applications include anything from weaving to designing fabric, to felt vessels.  You name it.  Very inspiring!

I learned about a really cool company today as well called Spoonflower.  Seems like everyone but me knows about this.  For what I think is a pretty good price, you can upload an image and they will custom print it onto fabric.  Amazing!  Like inkjet printing you do at home, but on a much larger scale. 

More later and I’ll have pictures!!!!

Welcome to Box World.  I had grand intentions of taking you through my moving saga.  Sadly, I have been crazy busy actually living the saga.  Besides, it hasn’t been all that exciting. 

Box Maze

The movers have finished the first day of packing and managed to pack most of the things I had put aside to make breakfast for myself this week.  Luckily, Starbucks has oatmeal.   I had a flash of feeling like this is part of what it might feel like to be in a hoarder’s house.  I feel I am  navigating a maze and can’t see around the high stacks of boxes.

My dogs are getting panicky about all the changes and my Great Dane, Lucy the Wonder Dog, has started chewing up anything she can get that gigantic mouth on in protest to all of this upheaval.  Yesterday it was disposable razors and deoderant.  She just chewed the wrappers and was not injured.  The poor old girl is a bit of a mess right now. 

An Extremely Stressed Out Lucy

I have a day of relative peace today (thank you!) and the packers are back tomorrow, at which point I will lose my electronics.  Tuesday and Wednesday they load the truck and Thursday I hit the road with the dogs to make the trek cross country.  Nothing like 2000+ miles/3 days in a car with 2 dogs.  My husband joins me after the first day of the drive in Lincoln, NE.   It should be interesting.  I have packed audiobooks and (I hope) my sense of humor and adventure.   

Thanks to all those people who purchased work from me this last month.  I sold 7 pieces!  I sincerely appreciate your support of my work.

See you in California!

Well, I have sold my longarm and am in negotiations to sell our house, I’ve found a great place to live in San Jose.  Things are rolling along, but are taking a ton of time and energy.  I haven’t managed to create a sale page for my work, as I’d hoped.  For one thing, I can’t figure out how to get the Paypal buttons into the body of my blog post.  I will not have time to get a proper sale page up for another week.

I actually have about 6 or 7 pieces that aren’t up on the site yet.  Theyare experiments with mixing images on plexiglass and quilted material.  Half are framed cave images and half are very small tree pieces that sit on the table. I’ll try to get those posted over the next few days.

In the meantime, if you are interested in a piece of my work, email me and I will tell you the regular price and the sale price.   I basically price my work at $1.50 per square inch, so sale price will be $.75 per square inch.  Pieces with metal are priced higher.   Everything I’m selling will be discounted 50% until I move to California (August 4th).  There are a few pieces I’m not selling at this time:  Herons, Cave Series Horses and Lascaux Bulls.  Anything else is 50% off+shipping.  Buy more than 1 piece and I will throw in domestic shipping.  Images can be found here. 

I have higher resolution and detail shots of all my pieces.  I am happy to send them upon request.

"Evening Meditation" (C) 2006 By Tracy McCabe Stewart

and a detail shot: 

 

"Evening Meditation" (C) 2006 By Tracy McCabe Stewart

Regular Price: $3900.00  Sale Price: $1945.00

48″wx54″l

Hand Dyed Silks and commercial cottons Machine Quilted.

Cheers,

Tracy

Gammill Classic Plus Longarm Quilting Machine for Sale

As part of my big move to California at the end of the summer, I am selling my longarm.  I just don’t have room for it at the new place.

This machine has been used on about 10 personal quilts (<50 hours on machine).  Just serviced, it runs beautifully.

Retails for $15,800, without the options.  My price:  $10,000 or best offer

Gammill Classic Plus Longarm

FEATURES:

26″ by 10″ Throat Space; 21″ Quilting Area
Stitch-Regulated & Manual Modes
Electronic Needle Positioner & Single Stitch
Horizontal & Vertical Channel Locks
Low Bobbin Alert
Run-Time Clock
Dual Data Display Panels
Double-Capacity Bobbin
Built-On Bobbin Winder
WorkStation Attachment for Circles, Ovals and More

Portable Stylaser

Sit-or-Stand Roller Adjustment
All-Steel 12′ Powder Coated Stand with Pivotal Access
ACCESSORIES INCLUDED:
Gam-Guide Bar for perfectly straight diagonal lines

Horizontal Small Spool Holder for using small spools of thread
- 2 sets Leaders with Zippered Edges  

Extend-A-Drive Handles (for micro-stippling)

-Free standing motorized bobbin winder

Retails for $15,800, without the options.  My price:  $10,000 or best offer

Contact me via my contact page with any questions about the longarm or offers. 

Local pick up only-Grayslake, Illinois (50 miles north of Chicago)

Buyer is responsible for dismantling, transport and set up of machine.  I’ll help, if I can, but you must have 2 own your own people!

We locked down a new place to live in San Jose today.  I had gone out on a house hunting trip last weekend with the intention of finding a wonderful place for us to spend the next couple of years and getting a lease signed.  Nothin that the relocation person assigned to me came up with really thrilled me and I was convinced that we would have to settle for something that we really didn’t love or didn’t work logistically for this next chapter in our lives.  I literally stumbled on the for rent sign for this house while driving around killing time.  It wasn’t currently listed on the web, but had a homemade sign on the fence.

New Digs!

It has a half an acre fence yard for my pooches to run and me to plant veges, and a completely remodeled home to boot.  The master bedroom has windows on three sides and feels like being in a treehouse.  It’s two blocks off the town center, so we can walk to restaurants and it’s a doable commute for my husband.  It is so much more than I ever imagined that I would find  in a rental, especially in San Jose.  Such is the power of intention.  I am incredibly grateful. 

I will now put my intention superpowers toward selling my house!

San Jose Museum of Art

Hi all,

I can’t believe that it’s been 6 months since I last posted!  My husband and I have been involved in a very complicated process of career change (his) and impending relocation to sunny San Jose, California.  My daughter relocated to Seoul, South Korea a few months ago, as well.  I’m afraid my head has been in a whole other world and I just haven’t had any mental room for making art or even talking about it. 

We are currently in the process of selling our home in Illinois, finding a new place in San Jose and getting ready to move.  I probably won’t be making all that much art this summer, but hope to drag the 3 people left who still read my blog along through our relocation via blog posts.  I’m sure I will have some amazing new art venues to post from California and other useless trivia to share along the way. 

A few other things.  I am moving to a smaller space and am trying to lighten the load a bit before the moving truck pulls up. To that end, I am selling my Gammill Longarm and am discounting almost all of my work by 50% until it’s loaded on the truck (+shipping).  There are a few pieces that I’ve decided not to sell at this time, but anything that is for sale, will be discounted.  Buy more than 1 and I’ll throw domestic shipping in free.    I will post more about that later in the week and have a link to a sale page, but if you have been contemplating a purchase of my work, now’s the time.  Feel free to contact me in the meantime, if there’s something you’re interested in. 

Given that I have never even been to San Jose, this is bound to be quite a ride.  I hope you’ll come along.

-Tracy