Rohling Studios

PFATT~Christmas In JULY

It is PFATT time again!  Lots of new things over at the Marketplace!  Right now there is a bit of Christmas in July!  Be sure to start your Christmas shopping early... CLICK HERE and see what is new!  I am offering the remaining prints of my Original Christmas PEACE SANTA.  It's an Old Fashioned Santa Print on parchement featuring the original poem by Children's Artist, ME!. Santa is reminiscent of the old European Santas. The print will fit an 8”x10” mat and frame. It's great to bring out as a holiday tradition every year. This is the original print made in 1987 and one of the last opportunities to purchase it in this format. It is being reintroduced this Christmas in a revised edition and all remaining original prints in my possession will be destroyed. If you have any questions please feel free to email me!  Prints are $5.00 each and 1-10 will be mailed for the same shipping and handling fee of a $4.oo  Orders outside the US will have to be precalculated for shipping and handling. 

I have had to take some legal steps to stop another company that took my poem without purchasing the rights to it and began publishing it.  That still amazes me how many folks think that is ok to do.  If anyone would like to join me...I will be designing a button that will link to a Copyright Information Site so that we can spread the word to make it known that Copyrighted means it is illegal to Copy and sell information and work that is not yours.  Is there an interest out there?????

I am also offering the WISH I COULD ASK OLD SANTA Print below.  IT is also an original print of my copyrighted work and poem. 

Price for this print is also $5.00 and $4.00 for shipping and handling up to 10 prints within the US.  Payment can be made by Paypal, moneyorder or personal check.  Again, orders outside the US will have to be precalculated for shipping and handling. 

To purchase these prints stop over at PFATT .  We'd all love to hear from you so be sure to email us to add you to our elists!

It's PFATT Time Again!

I couldn't resist posting another one of Sandy's T-shirts to remind you all that it is time to check PFATT again! 

International Quilt Festival/Chicago/Country Threads

While at the Quilt Festival I had the pleasure of meeting Mary Etherington from County Threads.  She gave me permission to film her for the blog while she was doing a demonstration of rug weaving.  A chicken house in north central Iowa became home to Country Threads, Inc. in 1983. Connie Tesene and Mary Etherington, two friends who loved to sew, started a small quilt pattern business, which has become Iowa’s largest and best known “quilt shop in a chicken coop.” Country Threads is based and located in Garner Iowa.  Be sure to visit their web site and go out of the way to visit them if you can. ("Four Miles West of the Garner Stoplight on Hwy 18...Look for the signs.") Their next stop is the Spring Quilt Market May 4,5,6 in Salt Lake City, UT.  Then they are on to Minnesota Quilters June 15,16,17 in St. Paul.  They have a fall Camp from September 18-22.  The cost is $175.  The two entrepreneurs, who started by designing four patterns, currently have designed over 800 patterns and books. Country Threads patterns are sold in quilt shops around the world. They also put out quite a newsletter called "Goat Gazette".  See for yourself....Their booth was packed full of the most wonderful things! 

I'd like to make these great banners and I know my daughter would love their punch needle patterns. And...

I'd love to order this to make!  Isn't it just the most adorable Quilt (with a capitol "Q")?  To visit their online shopping click HERE.

The International Quilt Festival/Chicago 2007/Little Stitches

Oh my!  I have never been in such a large area with as many REALLY NICE PEOPLE all at one time!  It must be the nature of quilters and people who love fabric.  It was crowded but let me tell you...everywhere you heard..."oh excuse me....I'm so sorry....Isn't this wonderful....I'll share it with you!"  My goodness I came out of this day thinking that if quilters ran the world we'd be so much better off! I have a whole weeks worth of things to show you and people for you to meet!  So I guess I will just start from the beginning!  There is bound to be something you will like going on in this blog for the next week....lots of new people to meet and lots of eye candy!

This is where I met Debbie Lofgren from Little Stitches.  She is from Escondido, Ca.   Their patterns are a mixture of primitive, folk-art & a bit of whimsy. AND.........they are super nice folks too!  Be sure to visit their website and get to know them better HERE.  You can order from their website so treat yourself to looking at all the wonderful patterns from penny rugs to punch needle and more...they offer it.  Tell them I said hi!                                                                                              

       

To order these check out there website on this page!

Elona's Wonderous Thhings

Elona's workshop is busy for Christmas already!  Stop by and see the wonderful things she offers at PFATT and on Ebay.  Christmas is everywhere already!  I have to sit down and make my list and this year I am making things for everyone!  So....I better get going!  I have lots of ideas...just hard to find the time when I need it!  I'm sure everyone can identify with that.  That is so why I admire all the ladies, their talent and dedication at PFATT.  But do...check out Elona's sites.  Her work just gets better and better.

Selling The Last of The Prints

Well here is a blast down memory lane!  This is one of several old prints I have decided to part with.  Those of you who know me personally know what a big part of my life these prints were.  And....all of you helped me out in so many ways!  I will be periodically posting them on ebay.  You can check out all of my listings at http://my.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?MyeBay&CurrentPage=MyeBaySelling&ssPageName=STRK:ME:LNLK or type my name into a search and it will take you to my page of listings. 

Elkhorn Antique Flea Market

It's still summer to me when I can go to the Elkhorn Antique Flea Market and find great things laying about!  Especially water things!  LOL!  Last Sunday found me itching to go to the flea market since I hadn't gone all summer long and it's just one of those things you have to do at least once a year.  I called Paul and Laure to tell them it was happening this weekend.  In an hour Paul called me back to say they were going and I told them..."ME TOO!".  We met there and spent our time each searching out our own favorites.  See if you can find them in this Where's Waldo picture.   

Isn't this some treasure of a bike?  I meant to crop this picture when I took it but then noticed Paul and Laura in the background and couldn't crop them out of it.

This is a good time of year to go because there are usually some unique Halloween items and I simply LOVE the vintage Halloween items!   

Some things are genuine vintage old stuff and some are just made to look old but, it's all wonderful when you are having fun and it's a beautiful sunny day!  (I speak from experience when I say there is nothing worse than rain when you are doing a fair!). 

I was very taken by this display....Meet Bobby Boyd and Joe Grim from "Shabbiques".

 

I ended up buying lots of frames from them and you will be seeing my art work in them soon.  I also HAD to purchase the old framed musical notes that Joe is holding.  Somehow they looked strangely familiar.  When Bobby told me that they used to line the walls with them in school rooms to teach the songs to the kids I snapped right back to first grade at U.S. Grand Elementary School when Miss Frey was my teacher and we had them in our room.  The ceilings must have been at least 20 feet tall then and I remembered her putting these in the blackboard chalk trays to teach us how to follow the notes and sing.  (Yes they were black then).  I can even smell the chalk dust as I am typing now.  If you were lucky you'd get to take the erasers outside to clap the chalk dust off of them when they got too full and wouldn't wipe the board very well.  I liked Miss Frey.  She got married that year and we used to giggle when her husband came to see her at work.  He always joked with us and winked as he stuck his head in the door.  On our birthdays, (or any day we picked if it was in the summer) she let us bring treats for the class and before we could hand them out she would chase us around the room until she playfully caught us and pretended to give us a birthday spanking plus "a pinch to grow an inch and a swat to grow a block" (Whatever did THAT mean?) or at least that's the way I heard her say it.  She also taught us the alphabet song.  Then each of us got to go up to the blackboard and write it for real on our tippy toes to reach it as we tried to write.  I wrote, "A,B,C,D,E,F,G,H,I,J,K........hmmmm... what DOES and an elemeno look like, Miss Frey?"  Of course that's the way I heard her say that too. 

Well...back to Shabbiques.  Their products are mostly made from old tin tiles.  This is one of the frames I bought.  They also have other wonderful things.....

   There are stars....

and  tin shaped hearts....and....   

  and vintage crown moldings with sparkley knobs.  !  If you like what you see here be sure to email them here and tell them Claudia sent you.  And next year...don't miss the Flea Market.  As for Bobby and Joe...if you are in Texas right now you will find them at at the Round Top Show Daily which is something I don't want to miss next year if I can help it.   Check it out here and here.

Thursday I am off to Arkansas.  Who knows what treasures await me there!

Primitive Folkart Trinkets and Treasures

I am thrilled to announce I have been invited to Join PFATT.  If you have never been to their site before be sure to visit today!  All the artists have their brand new postings listed for the month and it is a shopping delight!

Meet David, Lucas and Heather Frykman

Two of the nicest people you want to meet live Near the tip of the Door Peninsula in Ellison Bay,WI which is fast becoming known as Door County’s gallery town.  The amazing thing is that the two folks are members of a family that makes art their life together.  Meet David's son Lucas Frykman, photographer and painter and his wife, Heather Harle Frykman, photographer.  In 2005 David, his wife Carole, a native of nearby Baileys Harbor, Lucas and Heather bought the hundred-year-old building that, during the 80’s and 90’s, was called The Birch Tree. They set to work and created a beautiful gallery of David’s wood carved art, Heather’s Door County nature photography, as well as fine pottery and paintings.  This is one talented family! I so enjoy noodling around their gallery. 

David is a woodcarver.  He creates the most whimsical characters...each one seems to have a little bit of built in happiness....a twinkle to their smile.... or a bit of innocence.  They are all wood, mostly Eastern White Cedar, and most are painted with oil colors, while some are left natural with a finish of amber shellac.  On the day that I visited Heather and Lucas they were busy painting some of dad, David's carvings and stocking the shelves for the holidays. 

There is nothing's better than walking into a working gallery!!!!  I love the brushes and paints and the feeling of creativity and magic in the air. 

When I walk through the gallery there is not a single corner that isn't eye candy!

It's my personal observation that I found a big smile on my face as I visited the gallery! 

Heather's photographs can be viewed further on-line.  Her animal photos are  HERE....birds are captured beautifully HERE.... they are some of the most amazing I have ever seen!  If you are in the mood for nature look HERE.  Breathtaking sunsets are HERE. If you want to see a trillium in bloom anytime of the year look HERE.  Have some fun and treat yourself to a visit to their website Here.  Oh I can't resist...here are just a few more pictures....Enjoy!

Be sure that when you stop in to see them to tell them that Claudia says, "HI". 

Ding Dong School and Miss Frances

Even if you don't remember Miss Frances and Ding Dong School this little Apron pattern is a find that brought back memories.  A friend of mine is listing it on Ebay right now but I just had to reminisce about the friendly lady that taught school on Television when I was young.  Miss Frances had a bell that she would ring to start the program which was usually some kind of craft that I begged my mother to do.  She would ask me questions as I sat there...like, "What do you think of that?".  Then her eyes would widen and she would lean forward so I...of course had to answer her.  I believed she really heard me!  After I got older, my little sister would be seated in front of the television watching Miss Frances as I got ready to go to elementary school.  I remember her as being seated there in her little footie pajamas, answering the same questions I did.  We grew up with Ding Dong School Golden Books in the house.  I'd love to have one of those now!  If you are interested in the pattern it is available now on Ebay.