Laura Foster Nicholson: Art Textiles

Monday, April 6, 2009

next stop: Paducah Quilt Show

April 22-25 will find me in Paducah Kentucky, offering my ribbons to the world of quilters at the AQS Quilt Show. This is the first time I have done this show but sold LFN Textiles Artist's Ribbons really well a few years ago at the International Quilt Festival in Chicago. I will be selling ribbon by the yard, and packaged in selected mixes, along with ribbon books, sewing patterns, and even a few kits.

I am partnering with my dear friend Rita Davis, of Pumpkin Run Hill Drygoods, who will bring her wonderful mix of vintage feed sacks, quilt tops and blocks. We have worked hard to ensure that our mix of products is inspired and complementary; the booth will be gorgeous! We will be in the Galleria section at the hotel, in booth 5411-G. If you are planning to be at the show please stop in and visit!

LFN Textiles

I am a studio artist and textile designer. My work swirls around among art, design, and the joy of making things. I founded LFN Textiles Artists Ribbons in 2002, and have been designing these fairly wonderful ribbons for 8 years now. They are distributed for the wholesale market exclusively by Renaissance Ribbons, and are available at retail on my website, www.lfntextiles.com, and nationwide through fine fabric stores, gift shops. My tapestries are available through a number of galleries across the country as well. See the links section for contact information.

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Knitting Letters : A to Z: S is for Suzani

Knitting Letters : A to Z: S is for Suzani

A great discussion of Suzanis, good pix, and a link to my suzani ribbons.

LFN Textiles

Sunday, March 8, 2009

scout's fancy

My young friend Scout turned up at the post office the same time I did the other day and proudly showed me her pretty dress. It was a warm spring day and she & mom decided she needed to dress up for it. Here she is, trimmed with my Chard ribbon and looking fine!

LFN Textiles

Sunday, March 1, 2009

pocket fun

I get a little thrill out of having things manufactured. Why is that? It is like major birthday when the objects arrive -- that is why I started my ribbon business. It wasn't enough, I suppose, to make one of a kind tapestries every few weeks; I needed thousands of yards of fabric which sprang from my prolific interior designer. Well, not jsut that, I suppose: I love having things made which I can't make myself here in the studio by hand, and it also throws the handmade into a special new light for me, often when I am taking it for granted. Making cloth by hand is totally unlike the kind of cloth one can have manufactured -- both can be wondrous but they exercise different attitudes for me.

A long way around to introducing my new toy -- a pocket mirror design. I have thought these little things were charming for some time. Last year, for Arts In Harmony (the art fair for which I was the founding chair here in New Harmony -- coming up again this May!) we had little pin on buttons made with various artist's imagery and sold them as a little fund -- fun -- raiser. So great! What is it about these little tschotskes! so far from my MFA...

The same company that made the buttons, Busy Beaver in Chicago, makes pocket mirrors, so I had a bunch made with the Dahlia ribbon design I am so fond of. Then I decided to make little felt cases for them -- a sweet and fun day's project on what I call my toy sewing machine. This is an inexpensive Janome which makes 5 or 6 pretty little embroidery stitches.
I am almost embarrassed to tell you how much fun I had making these: using all these luscious colors of wool felt, I found quite happily that this ribbon goes with the whole rainbow (well, a slightly pastellated version of it). Coordinating color is sort of a crucial aspect of designing trim, after all!

The finished products are on etsy (where else?)

LFN Textiles

Monday, February 16, 2009

ribbon remnants

One of the more popular items on my website is the ribbon remnant bag. For $20 you get a quart-size ziplock bag of ribbon scraps; some are pretty small (around 2" square) but they range up to 1/2 or 3/4 of a yard. The tiny bits, I worry, might exasperate some people, but in reality, like my mother did, I tend to save ANYTHING that might be useful, and I already know how useful those bits are! I posted earlier about using a wood-burning tool to cut ribbon so that the ends don't ravel: this makes it into charming little appliques. To wit, here are some things I have used ribbon appliques on. Many of the items were purchased at places like Target: I am determined to make ribbons that blend across the marketplace and can go on anything. Since they are polyester, they are washable. When sewing doesn't work, a hot-melt glue gun is great! (see "Glue Gun Decor" by Marian McEvoy -- and now you can get at at Amazon for 52 cents, the wonderful thing about waiting a couple of years to buy a book!)

LFN Textiles

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

where I work

I was writing to someone today describing the wonderful place where I live & work and I thought, I should post this on the blog. So here is my beautiful studio building in New Harmony. I am smack dab in the middle of Main Street, and my studio comprises the second floor of what is actually two buildings.

The building on the left houses the gallery shop of the New Harmony Gallery of Contemporary Art. I sold ribbon here long before I moved to New Harmony: I was bemused by the number of people, who when seeing my ribbons, would comment "you know, I bought some of these ribbons in a small town in Indiana ..."

The building on the right ensconces the venerable Main Cafe, which has been noted in a column by Jane & Michael Stern (who write about good regional food on the road). They are open from 5:30 am to 1:00 pm: how's that for a working day? I smell bacon & eggs all day upstairs.