Fun Ways to Improve Your Art

3 Creative Studios Launch Party!

New website!

New Blog!

Flickr Albums!

Facebook Page!

Terri and Vicki Thank You for being a part of 3 Creative Studios. Look for the January newsletter (January 16) announcing our first Guest Artist and other new programs for 2011. Let’s celebrate with some prizes!

Here’s the first prize of our launch Party. It has 4 original prints and original fabric from Terri, a journal from Sue Bleiweiss, hand dyed and painted fabric and note cards from Vicki along with sequin waste and yarns.

The second prize package has a handmade purse from Terri, a journal from Sue Bleiweiss, hand dyed fabric and note cards from Vicki along with sequin waste, glitter, Angelina fibers and yarns.

The third prize package has Terri‘s book, Creative Paper Quilts, a journal from Sue Bleiweiss, hand dyed fabric, hand dyed scarf and note cards from Vicki along with a package of Texture Magic, buttons and yarns.

As the week goes by, each of these packages will have some additional surprise items added to fill the mailing box! We want to get the word out about our new presence on the web so we are offering you several opportunities to enter to win one of these great prize packages.

• One entry for just posting a comment on this post
• One entry for subscribing to the newsletter (or already being a subscriber) – leave a separate comment about your newsletter subscription
• One entry for “Liking” our Facebook Page – leave a separate comment about our FB “like”
• One entry for posting about this giveaway on your blog – leave a separate comment here with a link to your blog post

The drawing will occur Saturday, January 8 at midnight EST. Winners will be announced on the blog Sunday.

Good Luck!

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Ebullient!

Ebullient is the word and it's my latest mixed media challenge. It consists of digital images printed on metal then glued and stitched onto a batik base fused to Timtex.

It's a new technique for me and I hope to explore using it further.

The large piece is the detail.

Go to http://12connected.blogspot.com/ to see the rest of the challenges and paticipant's work.

This collage is my piece for the 12 Connected Fiber group. We were asked to portray the word "reminiscence" in a piece of fiber art. My "date" with Paul was a perfect way to reminisce about the Beatles and their music. The rest of the group will be posting their pieces on the 12 Connected blog today. Check it out.

New work

I don't usually post photos that are not art related. But I have these three miniature Angus steer in my pasture and I couldn't help recording and posting this. They don't look too tiny to me!




Oil painting of my barn road and gate, still unfinished. Drying time, you know.










Paint on fiber. Actually, Caran d'Ache watercolor crayons on Pima cotton to create an ethnic image for a challenge.










Paint on fiber silkscreened on Pima cotton for a piece I'm creating to add to an upcoming challenge.

Peeking - NOT

Friday, March 26, 2010
Peekin"

I had a great idea for the color challenge. I worked on it again last week and was pretty satisfied with it and took a photo. When I went to upload the photo to the blog, I was aghast. It looked garish and awful. Back to the drawing board. I'm not sure what happened between the original and the photo, maybe I am looking at my work thru rose colored glasses. I write down some goals that have nothing to do with my art. But they are very important to my recovery. I have also beemn reading an interesting book, "The BRAIN that CHANGES ITSELF" by Norman Doidge, M.D. Hello Doctors and therapists, Why aren't you implementing these practices for us? They won't hurt and may HELP! I'm determined to see if they will work for me. Stay tuned...
Posted by Cathy in gorgeous Sonoma County at 5:57 PM

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.

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!

Freedom - SAQA Trunk Show

"Freedom" is the realization of a dream. A Democratic President willing to bring values back to the American people and the world. I sure hope it works. So I got my photo uploeded in time, but I misread the call and trimmed my piece to 8X8 inches. Oh no! That's the size of the opening and I needed aminimum of 9 inches square. I blame it on my stroke. I blame all my missteps on my stroke. Maybe I need to pay more attention or get someone to help me. I get confused so easily now. Oh well, I was hoping to get a place in SAQA history. Not thistime, but I'm sure proud of those who will make it. (congrats Carol, Jill and the others)

Holiday greetings

Merry Christmas to all! The picture is of a glass ornament on my all glass tree. (ornaments only) I've been collecting glass ornaments for many years with the goal of dressing a tree in only spun glass ornaments. Well, I reached my goal a few years ago and enjoy the family room tree. My living room tree is filled with ornaments collected from around the world, and many were gifts from friends. I always enjoyed unwrapping them and remembering the giftor. I ran out of time to get my Christmas postcards done and sent, but completed my presents, which included chenille scarves, painted and stamped tee shirts, a handbag and the wallhanging shown below. I have to get a better picture of it. The wallhanging was received with tears of gratitude, so I think she really liked it! And of course, I tried my best to help outthe economy, but was careful in my spending. I host a large gathering on Christmas eve, so I'm pretty tired after cooking all day. I hope everyone enjoys their special holidays. And some of us have birthdays coming up this week. Some even share a birthday! Happy Birthday Melody! And have a creative New Year.

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!

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.

EPU II Cultures in Cloth

EPU II challenge and artist statement.

ABILITY WITH DISABILITY
My photo-transfer collage features a Sonoma County sunrise, my love of horses, the strength of my Italian grandmother, the wisdom of my Irish/English mother. I actively participate in my world . I’m now “Unbalanced” ( my quilt title in the collage) but my art is still my passion in spite of my disablity.

Look at this cool rusted fabric from Rustex by Lois Jarvis. It will be used for the Alzheimer's auction after I use it in my piece. Lois is donting $5.00 to the cause for every piece registered. Hooray, Lois. I have a couple of pieces finished and an idea for this one.

I entered an online challenge, which, if I'm juried in, will be exhibited in at least 4 locations over 2 years. These are just details of each. They really show nothing, bit I remembered to post a photo. I'm horrible at posting. I'm not sure why. I used to write for a living. Maybe it's the one-hand thing. Frustrating as.... you know what. I've been getting my studio back together. Finally! Pictures to come. I'm still working on my fine art painting as well as finishing up some fiber pieces I've been working on for what seems like forever. I never got my auction piece into SAQA. I found it yesterday almost complete. I'll try to remember it for next year. There are some fine small compositions in there. VP debate tomorrow nite. Can't wait. Tina Fey will have enough work for a year.

Breaking Traditions piece previewed

Check out the Breaking Traditions Blog for its preview of my Maya Angelou piece, "Still I Rise."

Or check it out here!

Vote 2008

So. When I go shopping, my public knows my politics. One of my Art quilt groups (Pointless Sisters) have a challenge going to make some kind of green shopping bag. So I decided to combine the challnge with my desire to have Obama elected. Someone on the Art Quilt list posted about a Move On challenge. Maybe I'll check it out. I stencilled the letters with Shiva paint sticks and painted the photo with Setacolor paints. I made extra long handles as I need to shlep things over my shoulder on my good arm, or else everything hits the floor.

I was extra lazy today and watched movies. I had lower intestinal ouchies which seem to have made their way out of my system. I plan to work on my Black and White challenge tomorrow. I'm supposed to be working on my Olympic challenge but the marathon is so boring, I'm bailing until something more exciting comes along.

An aside, the baby quilt above was delivered last night and was well received. Thank goodness! Ta ta till next time.

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...

Tulle time

Today I received an envelope full of tulle samples from Montana. Yummy! but what? Then I remembered I had requested this package after reading about the Salvaged Threads challenge online. Cynthia St. Charles has put this challenge together. It is on my TO DO list. Too late to think about it now. Still exhausted.

New Year, New Stuff

Well, I have survived another year and another birthday. I survived the New Year's storms with only a few downed branches, but I may not survive the bill from the pump and well company who gave me back my water (no flushing). I have been creating consistently since the holidays. I completed one piece, hints are in the pictures, and am working on another. So, what's the problem?


Part of my problem is that the house is still decorated for the holidays and I have to wait for help to UNdecorate it! My workrooms are full of all the things I moved to make room for Christmas. The birdcage is on my surface design table and my kitchen table is a poor substitute.
Too cold to paint today. I'll try to do some tomorrow. I've been missing it. I've been thinking about doing some artwork in my guest bathroom.I'm not sure I'm UP to it, but I may be able to get part of it done. (the lower part). I've also been making some new stamping materials. I have decided that I will experiment with several of the techniques I've learned but haven't put to use yet. More on the pictures later...