Friday, November 14, 2008

Autumn colors


Autumn vineyards is my latest work. It is not completed yet and I am actively requesting critiques. Also, check out this site: http://dianedidit.com/stayathome.html. It chronicles the pieces made for the Ami Simms Alzheimer's challenge by those of us who didn't get to Houston. And if I don't get back to my blog, Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Wednesday, November 05, 2008

Yes, we can and we did!



I'm smiling along with a lot of the world and now hope we all will work together to make this a better place. We need each other to move forward.

Sunday, November 02, 2008

Alzheimer's Quilts Plus


I had to start with this photo. This is my grand niece, Addison. There is a photo of her baby quilt in a previous post. She is one of the prettiest babies I've ever seen, si I thought I'd share her with you all.

This has been an interesting and productive week. At Tuesday's Pointless Sisters meeting, we played with stamping fabric. I brought dyed, discharged and overdyed fabric to play with. I also brought my own handmade stamps. This piece includes fabric stamped previously. New pictures at another time. This is one of my Alzheimer's Quilts for AAQI. It is hand-dyed, stamped and painted fabric fused and soft-edged applique. I called it Sailing thru Life. If only we could.

IThis is another one of my Alzheimer's Quilts for AAQI. Paradise is Not Lost. It is hand-dyed and painted fabric fused and soft-edged applique. A message of hope.

Another AAQI quilt. Circle of Life. Hand-dyed and commercial fabric, fused and soft edged applique. With a gorgeous piece of rusted fabric from Lois Jarvis, donated specifically for AAQI.She also is dinating $5.00 per quilt using her Rust-Tex fabric and registered before 11/5. I made the cut-off date.

On Thursday I attended a Community Service "retreat" with guild members. I quilted 2 baby quilts and 6 doll quilts, all of which will be donated to needy families and children. Our group is very active and has donated 1050 quilts so far this year. Some go to Wounded Warriors, others to YMCA shelters and hospitals. If you ever need to purge your stash, our group would welcome the donation. Everything is put to good use.
On Friday, I attended a wonderful lecture and demonstration by Claudio Jiminez Quispe, a Peruvian artist who specializes in creating Retablos. The pieces he created for this exhibit focused on Day of the Dead scenarios and some Frida Kahlo works. He will be exhibiting and teaching next at Shasta College in California. Check their website for info. He does amazing work with few tools (small toothpick, large toothpick and small knife). There were also beautiful alters done by various artists included in the exhibit. I learned a lot about the creation of the Retablos and the tradition of the Dead ceremonies.