New website

I'm happy to report that my website is now live at monicajohnstone.com

I'd recommend my friend and web designer Brenda Gael Smith to anyone interested in taking this step. 

From Paper to Cloth

I'm currently working on a series of pieces based on this piece I produced in Coloraid paper.  I've enjoyed collecting and dyeing linen, coton, and silk in this palette.

Always Something... Regional SDA show will contain two of my quilts

Arctic Melt and Hawaiian Women's Petition of 1897 were both selected for inclusion in an upcoming regional SDA show called Always Something...  The exhibition will be held at The Vogt Visual Arts Center (http://www.tinleyparkdistrict.org/Parks-Facilities/vogt-visual-arts-center.htm) in Tinley Park, IL September 3rd through the 26th.

Yesterday a Silk Necktie

After being in a slump, I made something!

A couple more venues and then the dream run is complete

Beneath the Southern Sky is completing its wonderful 5 country series of exhibitions.  Hats off to our wonderful curator Brenda Gael Smith!

Getting Going Again

I was a bit burned out after getting back from a recent art retreat at the Crow Barn and the studio looked like an ad for entropy after I unpacked, so it took a while to dig out and get in the right frame of mind for the next projects.  In the next year I want to make two submissions for the Living Colours exhbit and finish several of my pieces started at the two seminars this last year with Nancy Crow. 

GV Magazine article

An article entitled, "Another Kind of Communication" (pages 38-39) about my quilting has appeared in the Grand Valley Magazine (circulation 100,000) as well as a some close up shots as the background to the Winter 2013 issue's Table of Contents.  The issue is also available online for free viewing: http://issuu.com/gvsu/docs/winter2013_gvm_issuu?mode=embed&layout=http%3A%2F%2Fskin.issuu.com%2Fv%2Fcolor%2Flayout.xml&backgroundColor=1b1b1b&showFlipBtn=true&logo=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gvsu.edu%2Fimg%2Fgvsu-logo-greybg2.gif

The writer, Mary Pirkola, and photographer Elizabeth Lienau did a lovely job.  All I had to do was deliver the quilts and come back a couple hours later to find everything nicely arranged and well lit.

Fantastic Fibers 2013

This week I was delighted to find that my quilt Hawaiian Women's Petition of 1897 was juried into Fantastic Fibers 2013 and will be one of only 54 entiries sellected from a field of more than 700 to hang at the Yeiser Art Center in Paducah, KY April 6 - May 4, 2013.  Happily, that overlaps with the big AQS Paducah show which features the Beneath the Southern Sky exhibit which includes my quilt Kiwi's Nocturne.