HO-HO-HO!

Santa came to the Ortelle family Christmas again this year and he had quite a sense of humor. Here, he tried to coax 3 year old Vinny into his lap. No luck yet.
Still no luck. But after giving Vinny an extra large present, Vinny decided Santa needed a hug. Alas, no picture, but they both got a round of applause.

15 year old Sierra may still believe in Santa and she really enjoyed seeing all of the family and friends gathered, including a new baby and the parents of the next new baby, due in June. My house was bursting at the seams. My brothers and sister liked the family quilts I made (see the previous posts). Now,time to get to the real work. Only, will the Christmas elves come take down the decorations and get my house back to normal please?

Christmas fun

More Christmas presents. Nieces and nephews quilts as gifts for my brothers and sisters. Nephews Chris and Dan.
Nieces Alicia and Jessica. Godson Anthony.
Andrea, Jennifer and John. I was fun making these. I hope their folks like them.

These are members of my Stitch'nBitch group. I'm on the far right.I'm not sure how many years it has been since it began, but I joined a few years after it was organized. We were named by Kathy's mother because we literally bitched while we stitched. Back then, it was about husbands, kids and jobs. Now, due to death and divorce, only one husband remains, so we don't bitch about them anymore, and the subject of sex is mostly met with blank stares and wishful thinking. We are all retired now so we mostly moan about nothing important or our aches and pains. We try to be support systems for each other. After my stroke, they pitched in to drive me to therapy appointments, and visited me when I really needed support.

Pam S., Kathy R., Arlene W., Diane S., and Maxine D. We had our gift exchange, champagne, and lots of good food. I hosted this year and made grasshopper pie for dessert. Sorry, we ate the evidence. Merry Christmas everyone.

Christmas wishes

Good news! The 2005 Safari Challenge exhibit from Northern California is going national and the next venue will be in Southwest Florida. My "Serenghetti Soldiers" get around more than I do. Enjoy!

Sonoma County is one of the agricultural capitals of the world. Its wines, organic vegetables and dairy products supply a huge market with quality ingredients for fine dining. I am so lucky to live in such a spectacular place. I am luckt to live in the country, surrounded by a dairy and vineyard. So I mae a Christmas present for a friend who no longer lives in this county.
"Pink Pony" is for my grandaughter who works with ponies every weekend, guiding children on pony rides in exchange for riding lessons. Merry Christmas Amber.
I have six brothers and sisters, five of whom have families. I made these little photo quilts for them. Christmas wishes to Vin.
My youngest brother, Mike, has seven children. and with two recent marriages, he is now starting to acquire grandchildren. What wonderful holiday blessings.

Good news! The Safari challenge Quilt exhibit is going national and the next venue will be in Southwest Florida. Mt "Serenghetti Soldiers" will be traveling more than me!

Yummy

I used Melody's recipe for no knead bread to make pizza fritte. It is an Italian fried bread eaten alone,
or topped with sauce and cold meats. Yummy!
Silk kimono was made for an Xtremes exibition at Moshin winery. Stop by and check out the Asian inspired fiber art.

This is "red moon rising", only I can't remember how to edit the picture to remove background and rotate to vertical. I need to be rewired!

Thank You Veterans

Chocolate Chip cookies
I made these and took pics on Saturday. I tried to blog that nite. Well, to make a long story short, I had to redo my post and the cookies are all gone already! Everyone loved them.


Today is Veterans Day, so I'd like all of my veteran friends to know that I'm thinking of them today. Special hello to Doc and Sarge and a big Thank You to those who serve and those who have served.





Well, it must almost be Christmas because I made Bourbon Balls today. They have to cure for several weeks. It is one of my Christmas traditions. I host the Ortelle Family Christmas on Christmas eve for family and friends. Santa is the most famous visitor. Since I have 6 brothers and sisters and most have children (some have grandchildren), it is a huge undertaking. I love to decorate for the holiday, but my participation will be limited because of my stroke. Hopefully Santa will send some elves to help. Bourbon Balls






Well, I still haven't got all my pics up yet. The painting below is an abstract from my art class. I have so much art homework, I have little time for my fiber art. I finished a piece for the Oriental-themed Mosdhin Winery exhibition and my October moon piece is well on its way. Pics to come. I also applied for a scholarship to the Surface Design Seminars in Ohio next year. Wish me luck!

HAVING TROUBLES...

Well, I tried to post pics last nite... couldn't find them. So tonight I started my blog by putting the pics on first. They uploaded to somewhere. I tried to edit the post to put in text and lost the pics! I'll remember how to do this eventually. I did some surface design with Shiva painsticks and quilted a piece using straight lines. That worked. I talked my abstract art teacher into letting me incorporate fabric in my independent paint project. Now to come up with a concept! Okay, I tried again and got some pics. The top left is my new splatter brush, top right some great letter stamps ( Beverly's), and a new quilt, which .should be oriented vertically, entitled "Red Moon Rising" in honor of our red moon last month. I hope some of you will keep commenting and critiquing my work. I'll get better with all your help. Thanks.

I'm on a roll

Today was definitely a work day. I had to complete 2006 taxes! Luckily I hired someone to help, but I still got a major headache. To cure it, I went shopping. I picked up some graphite paper for some future projects. I got a new set of micron pens, some "Simply Fabulous" font foam stamps that I will try on my surface design and a cool speckling brush, also for surface design. See the pics! Also, a new abstract. I think I'm working on a spiral series. Since a spiral is a form, is it still an abstract? I couldn't find my spiral, so this is a painting I did. What do you think? Oh well, unable to update pics. I'll try again tommorrow.

Back among the living

I see that my last post was June 2006. I haven't been goofing off, I've been working hard to recover from a stroke I had July 3, 2006. To make a long story short, I have been trying to restart my creativity. I can now walk and drive, but cannot use my left arm much. So no free motion quilting for me yet. I've started making quilts and I'm being mentored by another SAQA member who is a fabulous artist. Getting back to blogging is another step in the right direction. So I'm going to try to put up some pictures of my latest works. Comments will be appreciated.

The first is entitled "Mommy's in the rug" a quote from a 2 year old boy when asked where his missing mother was. The father has been charged with murder. "Ocean Fence" is a photo I took in Fort Bragg, CA of a weathered fence overlooking the ocean. "Abstravt Spiral" Is an acrylic painting I did for a class I take. I uploaded it by mistake. "Plen Aire" is a photo of a woman plen aire painting at the ocean.

Thanks, Cathy in gorgeous Sonoma County.