Tag, You're it.

Ghinko tree in full autumn splendor. I've been watching the change with wonder and joy. This ghinko was recently planted in an old pinot noir wine barrel in my front yard as the last three I planted in the ground were ravaged by gophers. I know they deserve to live, but when they take my prize roses and expensive trees, I'm all for capital punishment of the little critters.

I've been tagged by Carol Larson and I have duties to perform. The five bloggers I must tag will follow, but I must say that I would tag Rayna Gillman, except Carol beat me to it. Her blogs are instructive and informative, and her book is excellent.

Here's what I must do:

1. The winner may put the logo on her blog.

2. Put a link to the person you got the award from in your blog.

3. Nominate 5 blogs.

4. Put links to the blogs.

5. Leave a message for your nominees.



Here are my choices:

Liz Berg just blows me away with the amount of work she produces, and she willingly shares it on her blog and with readers of her various articles in quilting publications.

Jane Davila is another blogger who is fun to read. Her "Chary Sprouts" blogis filled with information and amusements. In her book, "Art Quilts At Play", she and Elin Waterson set out a course of instruction that is great for the novice art quilter and a good reminder for the rest of us.

Gloria Hansen shares her wealth of knowledge of digital media in her blog and in her newly-published book "Digital Essentials." She design beautiful quilts on the computer.

Jamie Fingal frequently delights on her Twisted Sister blog. She comes up with great ideas for gifts and I get a kick out of her use of embellishments.

Kay Sorenson has kept my interest with her Quilts Plus Color blog. She is not afraid to try new things and even shares her mistakes.

So all you bloggers out there, check out those great sites if you haven't found them already.

Last nite I went to the opening reception by the Petaluma Arts Council where I have a piece hung in this exhibit. There were onlt two other fiber pieces. It was so crowded I couldn't take pictures

Silver Medal, Addison's quilt

It's finished! But I only get a silver medal because I haven't put on the label yet. and I can't seem to sew a straight seam. I wonder what's up with that? I challenged myself to do this and it's done.

I'm only surviving the Olympics because I'm taking a nap during the day. These late nights are getting to me. It's been hot during the day and I can't seem to handle the heat as well as I used to. I'll blame it on my stroke, because God forbid if it has anything to do with age.

Well, at least I got something on my blog. Does anyone care?

Baby quilt for Jemberee

I completed this quilt for a baby adopted from Ethiopia. I added her picture on several places on the quilt so as she grows, she may be delighted to find herself on her "blankie".

I started the quilt for Friday's shower. I remembered a Judy Cisneros pattern, but I coulddn't find it in my files. So I'm trying to do it from memory. Wish me luck.

I'm working on my Olympic challenge as I watch. I sure hope Phelps does it. They are sure hyping it. Why can't the male volleyball teams play without shirts? I would be more interested.

Sneak peek

I'm well into my Olympic challenge. I doubt if I'll medal. Just completing the challenge on time would be great. Just watching the athletes is exciting. If they can do it, I can do it!

I got a baby shower invitation for THIS Friday. Can I come up with something by then? It's for a little girl. I just finished an original piece for my neighbor's first grandchild. I think I showed the basic design some time ago, but of course I added to it. I'll get a new picture tomorrow. If I pull this off, I should get a gold. Off to sketch...

Fait accompli

Well, I am a little late completing Liz Berg's Better By Design class, but I did it! A little health scare put me behind but all's okay. This was a very definitive class. It had solid structure, exciting exercises and helpful critiques.

This was my first online class and the only thing I found lacking was the cameraderie and creativity of my fellow classmates. We had a closed Yahoo group so we could chat and see each other's work, but I didn't take enough advantage of those features, not wanting to look at other's work until mine was finished. Now I realize that seeing others' work added that extra spark of creativity needed in a demanding atmosphere.


I also have to finish my Quiltswap piece and I'm almost finished with Breaking Traditions.


The piece to the left is the result of a circle exercise. I just now realized it should be turned horizontally. I should've caught that. Darn brain.



This next piece is from the square exercise. I still had circles on my brain.


This is the rectangle exercise. I can't seem to get away from circles. Meaning? I need to sleep on that.

Liz Berg's Online Design Class

Just a glimpse of some of the exercises I've been working on in Liz's online class. The first is
an example of textured fabric, from highly textured to soft.
I didn't try to make compositions out of these exercises; just wanted to make sure I understood the concept.









Texture is so important. I added many images to my texture folder, including this of flour resist crunched on fabric. More to come...

More Moons

October Moon is finally finished. This is the piece in which Wonder Under did not behave. I tried lots of things to fix it. Nothing seemed to work. So, I queried the Art Quilt list for advice and the very nice Iris Karp sent me some Misty Fuse, which did the trick. Thanks Iris.
I spent some of today discharging some hand-dyed fabric. I'd take a pic, but it is de-chlorinating at the moment. I also cut some fabric for a new project and downloaded Liz Berg's latest lesson in her design class. I now have to put away all the fabric I pulled for her color lesson. I'd rather have a glass of wine.

Butterfly Parade

Butterfly Parade is my entry for this year's Pointless Sisters challenge. It is due next month, but I showed it today at our annual luncheon at Pat's house. We were told we had to start with white fabric and it must measure 8" X 42". The fabric is a silk/cotton mixture that I love. It has the luminosity of the silk, but the cotton makes it much easier to work with AND it doesn't fray. I dyed the fabric with Procion dyes and painted the details with Tsusineko inks. Each butterfly was fused individually then machine appliqued and machine quilted. All the pieces will be hanging in the Rincon Valley library show in March. To bed. Class homework tomorrow!

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.

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.