Archive for November, 2009

Wishing You a Blessed Day!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving and takes a moment or two out of the busy day to give thanks for all the blessings God has given us. Look around you….blessings are everywhere.

 ADVENT TEA AT HOLY ROSARY

posted November 23, 2009

Mom & I at the 2nd Annual Advent Tea

Definition from Wikipedia:  Advent (from the Latin word adventus, meaning “coming”) is a season of the Christian church, the period of expectant waiting and preparation for the celebration of the Nativity of Jesus; in other words, the period immediately before Christmas.

My Mom and I went to Holy Rosary’s Advent Tea yesterday afternoon. Neither one of us had ever been to an Advent Tea before but we are sure glad we were invited this year (thank you Carol & Keri). The “Recipe for an Advent Tea” was printed on the programs they handed out and I want to share it with you so you have an understanding of what takes place at this event.

Recipe for An Advent Tea

 Ingredients:

24 Tables

Teapots full of Hot Tea

Candlelight & Seasonal Decor

Music, Singing and Prayerful Entertainment

Lovingly combine all above ingredients with Christian women. Full recipe makes an unlimited number of hearts ready for the Advent Season.

Thank you to the ladies that organized this wonderful event. Thank you to the amazing singers and musicians. Thank you to the men that served coffee, hot water for tea, and ice water to all the tables. Thank you to all the ladies that hosted a table and invited eight women to join them in the celebration. Everyone brought a “dish to pass” (yummo!) and non-perishable food items for the Food Pantry. Each table was beautifully decorated and were so unique. There were Christmas trees and twinkle lights everywhere! There was time for reflection on the different gifts God has given us….such as Acceptance, Time, Talent, Faith, Laughter, Patience, Hope, & Forgiveness.  The fellowship and joyful spirit of this event was a fantastic way to prepare for Advent and to help keep our focus on what is really important during the Christmas Season………God’s love for us shown in His perfect gift to us….JESUS!

ANOTHER NEW PUNCHNEEDLE

posted November 21, 2009

“Springtime Robin”

copyright Teresa Kogut

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!!

posted November 20, 2009

“Birthday Blow-out”

copyright Teresa Kogut

Today is the birthday of someone very special to me…..my agent, my friend. Linda came into my life many years ago as the most cheerful, fun-loving,  hard-working sales rep I’ve ever met. She soon afterwards became my licensing agent. We have worked together now for 13 years and our business relationship has blossomed into a beautiful friendship. I wish you a blessed day today as you celebrate your birthday, Linda. Wish I could be there in NC to give you a hug…..and buy you a glass (or two) of wine.

ANOTHER SNEAK PEEK….

posted November 13, 2009

 ”Sunflowery Day”

copyright Teresa Kogut

“Crow to Crow”

copyright Teresa Kogut

Sneak Peek….

posted November 13, 2009

“Urn of Flowers”

copyright Teresa Kogut

“Liberty Wool”

copyright Teresa Kogut

I am working on new punchneedle embroidery patterns in the early morning while the boys get ready for school. I love these little works of art. Hopefully I will have these two available by December 1st along with four more. I will post more new as they get done.

Open Studio

posted November 7, 2009

photo by Ryan Kogut

We had our first open studio yesterday! It was so much fun that we are doing it again in the spring!

I have been designing quilting fabric for over 12 years now and I have four yard cuts of every fabric I have ever designed. Over the years I have donated fabric to quilt guilds and given the quilting members of my family fabric for various projects, but I still have hundreds of yards left. They have been stored in totes, some for as many as 12 years! I have been wanting to have a big sale for a long time but it took some wonderful ladies at Curves to give me the push I needed to host an open studio…..so, finally, I picked a date, made some flyers and viola…..open studio!! (OK…it wasn’t that easy…..after a few days of cleaning, organizing, digging out the 50 pound totes that where in storage and setting it all up….then viola…. open studio!)

You may be wondering……doesn’t Teresa use her fabric for sewing/quilting? Sad to say, no…..not yet. I love fabric….I love designing it, I love the feel of it, I love quilts, I have a sewing machine…..but guess what is lacking……..TIME!  I know some day I will be a quilter….. actually after getting all of the fabric out and looking at it, I have a feeling it will be sooner rather than later. My Mom also wants to learn to quilt. She has even bought a new sewing machine so we are getting closer! Matter of fact, she is coming over tomorrow to help me put all the fabric that was left after the sale back into the totes, but before we do, we are each picking out enough fabric to make a quilt! We are excited to get started……maybe that will be our New Year’s Resolution

I want to thank all of the people that attended my open studio. So many nice people…some I knew and some I didn’t, but I got to know them while they were here. Many thanks to my Mom that helped with set up and was here all day yesterday for the sale, cutting and folding fabric. Thanks to Kevin for lugging the heavy totes from storage and also helping out yesterday. Ryan, wow, what a worker. Ryan helped with set up and was also there during the sale to help out. I feel very blessed.

Below are pictures I took this morning….after the sale. We sold many, many yards of fabric but from the pictures, you’d never know it!

This is a shot of the “everyday” fabrics.

This table held all the Christmas fabric. The chair on the right has a tin box where everyone that came could put their name in a drawing for a free Pansy Bear fleece blanket.

And the winner is…..Arlene P! Congratulations!

This side of the studio has three work stations. The one where the gorgeous “Dashing Through the Snow” quilt is hanging is Kevin’s station. The one in the middle is my acrylic work station and the one at the front is my jewelry making station. The entrance to the studio in just to the right of this photo. The small table held T-shirts, Halloween and Autumn fabrics.

This is looking at my main work station…….normally there is not fabric here but projects I am working on. For the open studio we used every flat surface we could find to display fabric. Calendars, Christmas cards, books, slates and journals were also for sale.

Christmas Fabric…….Joyful Angels, Dashing Through the Snow, Frosty Friends, Twelve Days of Christmas, Up of the Rooftop are shown in this picture.

Everyday fabric…..Small Friends, Quilting Bees, Garden Party, and Slice of Summer where manufactured by SSI over ten years ago!

This is just before you enter the kitchen. The two peg boards hold yarn that I have used for rug punching. They also hold some felted purses that I attached punchneedle embroidery to.

This is part of the kitchen just behind the below picture. I have a small round table with a green cupboard sitting on it to hold wool yarn. Next to the table is a bookshelf made out of old white barnwood….they, along with the two cupboards above, house yards and yards of wool yarn that I use for rug punching. Directly across from this is the refrigerator, microwave and oven.

This is a shot of one of my favorite finds while antiquing….I use this discarded comic book rack to house my punchneedle patterns. It also shows the Weeks Dye Works floss rack. Behind this is the studio kitchen.

This is what I love about being in my studio in the morning. As the sun rises over our pond and shines through the front windows and slider door, everything in the studio takes on a glow of warms hues. Even my stash of wonderful antique wood doors, bread boards and cutting boards look like a work of art just as they are.  They are patiently waiting for me to put my brush and paint to them and give them new life………I am patiently waiting as well.

Pastels……gotta love ‘em. The vibrant color you get from pastels is as close to nature as you can get! I use these with my watercolors for that extra punch of color.

This is the left side of my main work station….phone, intercom, pens, pencils, markers, scissors, stapler, alarm clock, remotes and television…..definitely not artsy, but necessary.

This is the right side of my main work station…..where I paint the bulk of my licensed art. I use pastels and color pencils along with my watercolors for more detail and vibrant color. Behind this desk is my computer, printer, scanner and more non-artsy-but-necessary “stuff”.

This picture shows a portion of what is behind my main work station. You can see the scanner, postal scale and some new art ready for scanning.  To the left of this is my computer and printer.

This is where I make jewelry. It looks out the front of the studio. I also store my portfolios of watercolor paintings here along with a cupboard full of watercolor paper. You can see a couple of santa sculptures that I created years ago (I miss making those whimsical figurines….maybe I will make some new sculptures for Christmas gifts this year). I store my jewelry making supplies in pottery crocks and bowls that I made at the Flint Institute of Arts.

This is the narrow pathway into my acrylic/shipping area. I keep all my boxes and packaging supplies here as well as frames, licensed products that I sell on ebay and acrylic supplies.

Oh, I love this picture!! This is my little acrylic station. I would like to spend more time working with acrylics…..hopefully this December after all my licensing commitments are met.

Hope you enjoyed the open studio tour!

HALLOWEEN NIGHT

posted November 2, 2009

Ryan’s Costume…..creeeeepy!

It was nice that Halloween fell on a Saturday this year. After trick-or-treating we all hung out together and played games and had a fun time!

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