Creating

Hi guys, another day of rain in "sunny" California. We luckily had sun yesterday and this morning. I needed my bright day fix. I photographed this painter at Fort Ross and made a wall hanging last year. The photo was chosen to be in the exhibition at Houston. I've really been in a painting mood, so here is "Plen Aire Painter",a 9 x 12 oil. I think it's framed to 11 x 14. It mellows me out when I look at it.



My oldest daughter was very intrested in horses until she discovered boys! She rode and jumped English and was fearless. Now she's a mother of three and still fearless.I painted this from a photo and gave it to her for Christmas. It's 18 x 24 mixed media. I think she was touched.



My friend took this picture of a southern California mission entrance while he was on vacation. I really liked it and asked if I could use it for inspiration. The result is an 11 x 14 oil painting I titled "Sanctuary."



I also made an 11 x 17 fiber art wall hanging and it will be on exhibit with "12 Connected". I painted a silkscreen with Caran d'Ache Neocolor II and screened it with textile medium onto muslin. I added it to hand-dyed cotton embellished with painted cheescloth and painted and stamped fabrics.

I have the tv on and I decided I want David Bromstad and his Color Splash crew to come and redo my house! Wouldn't that be nice? Okay, back to work. So now you know I'm staying out of trouble and hope you are too. It would be good to hear from you.

A New Year, New Work

Happy New Year! I spent a quiet Eve with Ryan AND Dick and finally hit the hay around 2am. It was a pleasure to sleep in the next day, although I got an 8 am wakeup from a friend who was in my driveway. EEk! Luckily he stayed there. The roses were one of thr centerpieces I made for my annual Christmas Eve bash. Lots of family and Santa!

This is my glass tree in the family room. I've collected glass ornaments for years and have enough to decorate this whole tree.


My daughters did the honors and decorated the trees. Lights blew out, not once but twice but the end result is a thing of beauty. I wonder when it will come down.

It has been raining here for days. This afternoon I finally saw some blue sky. I worked off and on all season creating first Christmas cards from an old Italian card. I painted silk scarves for my Stitch an B!@#$ friends. I made a Twin-sized dinosaur quilt for my nephew.I spent most time working on 2 paintings. I hope to get pictures soon as I forgot to take pics before I wrapped them. They were both mixed media pictorials. One of my daughter riding English in a show many years ago. I think she liked it. The second was of 2 dogs that belonged to my brother and his wife. A huge yellow lab and a sweet Golden Retriever. Unfortunately the dogs are no longer with us, but were vital members of their family. I saw tears and that could mean anything.

I've been working on my piece for the 12 Connected group. I finished my "Whisper Challenge for SAQA and stitched some UFOs that I'm going to mount on paintd canvas. Pictures later when allowed. I've been reading this year's words on the QuiltArt list and haven't come up with anything new. "Create" has been my mantra for several years and I plan to continue. I'm trying to find some balance between my painting and fiber art.My number one goal is to keep getting better.Thanks to all I've learned from this year.

Famous?

Well, the magazine "Machine Quilting Unlimited" has an article about quilting with disabilities. I was interviewed for this article, but have,'t read it yet. So if you get it before me, let me know what you think. Oh, and I've been so busy trying to complete Christmas presents so I can't show pics.




Here is the piece I created for SAQA's Art and Science. I didn't get chosen, but I love the piece of the DNA module. It's all hand-dyed fabric and soft edged appliqued. I used Shiva paintsticks as highlighters on the modules. I added silkscreened images of a man and woman after these pics were taken. Machine quilted. I enjoyed doing it.


This is a scan of a Christmas card my Italian grandmother received many years ago. I saved it because I thought it pretty, so I decided to use it this year, and today finished my fiber Christmas postcards and sent them out. This is the first time in many years I've gotten them out on time!

What's New

Polar Bears on Ice was made for a Pointless Sisters challenge about Water. I started it awhile ago and had very specific instructions to follow. It needed to be blue. Okay, I can do that, so I painted some fabric that looked to me like water. I then fused ice flows and the mommy polar bear and her babies on the ice flow. I painted them to add some texture. I then zig zag quilted around each of the ice flows and echo quilted the water. I added stitches to the sky. I was really happy with this little piece, so off I went to the Pointless Sisters meeting where we planned to lay out these pieces that we were going to hang together to show as one large piece. All of the pieces being laid were landscape. As the pieces were laid out, I had a moment of terror. Landscape! Mine was the only vertically challenged piece. I had somehow missed this on the instructions that I looked at just this morning. So I blamed it on my impaired brain. But I've since realized that even though I read the instructions, I made the piece the way I wanted. Rebel? Who knows. I now have a piece of my own that I can add to a category of political-social consciousness. Since I learned about the effects of global warming, I have felt great empathy for the polar bears, who may cease to exist from the effects of global warming. Because I want others to learn about this, I made another piece. This time landscape!
I am sorry to miss next weekend's SAQA meeting as I get so much inspiration from all the great work coming from our region. I am really looking forward to an oil painting class with Brooks Anderson next week. As much as I enjoy fiber art, I also love to paint. I had time for both today, so I'm a happy camper. I don't get trick or treaters where I live, so everyone enjoy the cute costumes and don't forget to "fall back."

Happenings

I was going thru some old pictures and came upon this beautiful Christmas card sent to my grandmother by her sister. Obviously, I come from an Italian heritage. I saved it originally because I thought it unusual. I think I will use it in my Christmas wishes this year.


This is the message from the card. I never learned Italian, so hopefully I can get it translated. But while going thru this container of old photos, I found a picture of my mom as a baby (which I won't post here for privacy reasons.) It was a fun trip into the past.
I try not to post about personal issues, but I wanted some ideas how to make this card contemporary.
Today, Linda Morand, Nancy McDermott and I as representatives of the Pointless Sisters went to Napa to meet with some people who were starting their own Art Quilt group. We met several very nice quilters who needed info to get them moving towards a cohesive group. We brought pieces to show and gave as much info as we could about what we do and how we go about it. I introduced them to the Quiltart list and SAQA so I hope we did enough to help them get started. We saw some of their work which was a treat. Tomorrow we meet as Pointless to work out our water challenge. And I'm happy to report I sent 2 applications out for upcoming exhibits. We'll see!

More PIQF

Some more great quilts at PIQF. This photo is blurry, but maybe you can see why Phyllis Cullen got best use of color with her Pelican wall quilt.


Linda Morand's Yosemite quilt took eight years to complete and is just gorgeous. Try to see it in person if you can it's in the New Quilts of California exhibit.


This is one of Eva Henneberry's quilts. Each of these quilts were made by Studio Art Quilt Associate members. We have creative members in the Northern California region. It's a lazy day for me today. I'm recovering from the last few days of running around (well, not quite running)I spent most of yesterday restocking my studio cabinets that I had emptied to be moved. Now I just have to clean up my work table and my studio will be presentable again. So I can mess it up again...such a vicious cycle. I got my entry into the SAQA Frontiers:Art meets Science and wait hopefully for acceptance. Tomorrow I complete my Pointless Sisters water challenge and then work on some paintings I need to finish. I hope its a good week for all of you.

Pacific International

So I went to Pacific International today and am once again impressed with the quality of workmanship at this Festival. I heard over and over again from men, (attending with their wives?) that these wonderful pieces were works of ART. I certainly don't need convincing. Congratulations to all who exhibited. These pictures were taken at PIQF and are the property of the artists. So no copying these images! "Hong Kong Taxi" (above) was a first Place winner and its creator Jeanette Jorgenson is a fellow SAQA member. I saw this piece first at a SAQA meeting and loved the perspective in this piece and was delighted to find Jeanette nearby to get her in the photo with her great piece. Liz Berg's One Woman Show was well received. She was there to meet and greet, looked great and had an interested crowd asking lots of questions.


I've liked Eva Henneberry's work for years and really admire her commitment to the planet. Eva is another SAQA member from Northern California and loved by all. Great work, Eva. We're all pulling for you.


I think this piece from Ireland won the World Quilt competition, but if not, I liked it a lot.
I would have liked to post more photos, but my hand was unsteady and I have lots of blurry images. Great work all and go and check out the "Hand Dyed" vendors for some beautiful, rich fabrics.