Postcards and first fiber art

Post card #16 $30


Post Card #39 SOLD


Post card #15 SOLD


Post Card #13 $30


Post card #14 $30

These five postcards are all that remain from a series of postcards that I made for my exchange group at Art2Mail. They are available for sale.

I had my grandson for the day a week and a half ago. We ended up in my studio and he sat down at my ironing board. I put down a piece of white cotton and then reached into my bag of prefused scraps from various pieces I have done. I cut up some of the bigger ones. My grandson is 21 months old and he has now completed his first piece of fiber art. He would pick the pieces of fabric he wanted, stuff them into his little hand, pull one out and flatten it carefully on the cotton and then tell me "hot" and would put his hands under his bottom so they were safe. I would then hit the piece with the iron to fuse it down, and then another, and another until he decided he was finished. What fun!


Jacob's first piece of fiber art! Age 21 months.

EVEN MORE NEW WORK

So here are the first two of this series. I painted a piece of canvas, did multible printing on it with various found objects, created my own black and white fabric and used a commercial fabric for the red (Sherril Khan) and also for the solids. There are also discharged fabrics in some of the pieces which were my hand dyes. I think the one on the right is sideways but I am still trying to figure that out.

Here are another two. The one of the right also contains some monoprinted fabric...the blue/green/black and white piece.


And these are the last two of this series. Still open on the orientation.

All of these are about 8 x 8 or so and will be mounted onto stretched canvas to a size of 16 x 16. I think that will look nice.

Finished my postcards from my group at Art2Mail and got them all addressed tonight and will drop them off at the post office tomorrow. That sure feels good.

Tomorrow I will post five new postcards that are for sale...taking a clue from Claire Fenton!

More new work

So here you go with a new series. These are all done on canvas and are not quilts. I don't even think that I want to use batting and quilt them...I am thinking about just mounting them on mat board for framing. The canvas has been painted and stamped with found objects like a test tube holder, the back of a cutting board, etc. The white background fabric with the blue and green is a monoprint that I cut up. I then added the turquouise and red to add some jazz...you know, there wasn't enough color. These are all (6) about 8.5 x 8.5. I love the way the color pops...unfortunately I took with pictures without proper lighting so have to get them off to the photographers for righteous photos! This one is Around and AroundThis piece has a yellow piece that had been dyed and then discharged using found objects for the stamping of Sunlight dishwasher detergent. I also had found a neat hot pad that is flexible and had the wavy lines...
And in this one I started stamping on the black fabric and also used another monoprinted fabric that I had cut up to make postcards with (the green piece) which is also canvas. I used a bunch of my hand carved rubber stamps made out of erasers.
Sorry, this one is really out of focus...I must do better but I really like it and wanted to show it off. It has three red small sqaures on the rust and in person the color is fantastic. I also did a bunch of stamping on this one, too, both with found objects and with some of my hand carved stamps. I did all the painting of the background fabrics at my dad's house when he was sleeping...got about four good size pieces of canvas painted. Then when I was able to come home for an overnight I spent one day doing monoprinting and the next day discharging my fat quarters that I had previously dyed.
And this is the first one that I did when I was at Asilomar last week. I did all the stamped while I was there, usually after I had cut up the piece of painted canvas to the size I wanted...well, more or less wanted.
And finally, the last one of this series. I had only brought some variegated thread with me as I really didn't know what I was going to do with the canvas and the monoprints and the discharged stuff so a big storage box of acrylic paints (brought the tubes because I could bring more for the space) and all the printing stuff (well, not really all since I left all the silk screens and tons of stamps etc at home) Then I just decided what I wanted to do and had at it.

I did three of another series but these were the last that I did while there. They are bigger, I'd say, without measuring them that they are about 12 x 18". I had gone to Back Porch Fabric in Pacific Grove and found this red and black and gold Sherrill Khan fabric which I just had to use. I also decided that I needed some black and white so bought some PDF white fabric, and used sumi ink to write on it and then cut out parts that I wanted to use. It is so much fun to determine what you need and then to create it yourself when you need it!I call this one below my Aspens...really fences with squares but squint your eyes and pretend that you see fall colors...of course, I know aspens don't turn red but they do turn every color of green and yellow....not that I have any yellow in it either. Come to think of it, why do I think of aspens when I see this? Again, some of my balck and white fabric, carved erasers, satin stitching, etc.
Now this one I just love for the utter simplicity. The dark fuschia fabric is dyed and then monoprinted with lots of texture. The green circle was dyed and then discharged and then you have my black and white pseudo characters. And of course, the background canvas which is painted and stamped several times. It looks great either in a verticle or horizonal orientation.

I went over to see my dad today, to collect bills, take him out to the grocery store and to get a power of attorney signed and noterized...another step away from his independence...this is really hard but not as hard as watching him almost die. Then went to the back and opened up on-line access to his checking account. When through a lot of stuff and he and I shredded a big bag of papers and old bills.

Felt like I have accomplished alot and felt good to be able to leave. I told Saane that I really appreciated her being there, got teary eyed and headed off to the freeway.

Two miles down the freeway the traffic came to a quick stop and I didn't...my car is now totaled. My seat belt kept me in my seat but I now have a huge black and blue bruise across my boobie. My back muscles will be sore tomorrow. Had the car towed, after a nice CHP took all the information, and then Doug and I went out for Chinese food. Came home and I got into our huged bathtub with the foot massagers, brought my Nano and Bose speakers in, had a small glass of Streaga (an Italian liquour) and relaxed in the hot water for half an hour. Feel much better but know I will hurt tomorrow! Oh well, didn't get any cleaning up done in my studio today...but there is always tomorrow.

Mixed Media Work

These are the pieces of mixed media that I did at my dad's house.
I worked on these usually in pairs as I needed to let each layer completely dry before I did the next one. It was low stress and yet I felt like I was accomplishing something.This piece is No Entry as the door has a heave grill in front of it...really looks like a jail cell.

This is actually the first door...simply called Door.

And this is Painted Door.

The doors, which have been transferred from inkjet images of my own photographs.

Somehow my fences creep back in to almost all of my work. These two pieces were the first that I did, about the second week while I was at my dad's. Sorry about the glare...these are all acrylic, papers, and image transfers from my own photographs.

I AM BACK

It has been a very eventful two months.

My father had gone down to 117 pounds, was sleeping 20 hours a day, and was barely drinking anything and wasn't eating anything. After a lot of hard word and two weeks time, I was finally able to get him on to Hospice. The nurse came, verified that it sure looked like he was fading away to nothing but had no diseases or illnesses. He was put on an antibiotic for a cough that he had but his lungs were clear. I had moved in to his home immediately and began the round the clock watch. My husband and daughter and her family would come over to visit and to keep me cheered up...when we weren't all going through greif and crying!

But something happened. Dad started to eat again. And does he ever eat! He has been out of bed for the entire day for two full weeks now, eats at the table, consumes large amounts of food which has made me feel like a short order cook.

For breakfast he will eat a bowl of cream of wheat, two scrambled eggs, a banana and an equal amount of cataloupe, a glass of V8 juice and a cup of coffee. Then he has a snack before lunch at which time he eats an entire sandwich, chips, soup, and some more fruit. And then he nibbles all afternoon, on grapes, oreo cookies, oatmeal cookies and whatever else he can find. And then for dinner he has his meat, salad, vegetable, and starch and then has ice cream an hour later. Three hours later he is now eating half a sandwich as we are trying to get him to sleep through the night. For a while he was consuming a gallon of V8 juice a day....that's a lot of red stuff.

However, what we are noticing is that his health is improving and he isn't dying right now but some serious demetia is setting in and we can watch it get worse and worse daily. During all the time he slept in bed, he detoxed on his alcohol and no longer drinks. Now he wanders around with an unlit cigarette and handles it, puts it in his mouth but doesn't seem to remember what else he is supposed to do with it...which is fine. We have now hidded the cigarette lighters from him and he is quite happy...we just keep him eating. Obviously this has become a very oral kind of fixation.

Three weeks ago I found a care taker who came in several days during the day...the first time I got out of the house for more than just grocery shopping!. We then tried some overnights and as of yesterday, she is full time. Dad really likes her and jokes a lot with her. Saane is Tongan and is absolutely wonderful with him. Her husband comes over if she has to run out and he talks football with my father. The other day my dad watched two baseball games...he has never watched baseball before! However, his eye sight is getting worse and worse so he can't see much of the TV and his hearing is horrible so he plays it pretty loudly, either in his room or in the kitchen which is where he spends most of his time. He has the chore of going down two flights of steps to get the newspaper in the morning and then later in the afternoon to get the mail and is getting much stronger.

It is really strange to see this man, who two months ago was a skeleton, now with a little round belly.

I did some collage work while I was staying there and will post it probably later or tomorrow.

Last week I went to Asilomar with a group of women from Roseville Sun City and from my area...no classes, no workshops, just five days of doing our own work at our own pace. I had a meltdown from all that had been going on with me but it was much needed.

I was able to do two and a half small series works which are different. I had painted canvas while at dad's and then on short trips home I discharged fabric I had previously dyed. So I took that all with me, my paints and some stamping things and created.

I am now in the process of trying to get my studio sorted out. There has been too much grab and dump going on...it is an absolute mess so I am trying to spend a couple of days taking care of that so I can start doing some serious work.

In November I will be at ArtQuiltTahoe and will get to spend a week with Gerrie...and doing a lot of work!

Yesterday I received a phone call from Empty Spools Seminars...they have booked me for March 2008 for artist-in-residence. I also have another booking for a retreat in 2008 and will get that info out before long.

And then, Virginia Spiegle and I are going to Kerry Bresnahan's retreat for a month in January in Texas....what could be better!!!!

Information Please

Craig's List is a listing by regions, states, countries, of all sorts of things for sale or the passing of information. If you go to the groups part, you will see artists and there are interesting things listed there.

I like to use Misty Fuse for my fusing. You can order it directly from Esterita Austin or get it in many quilt shops.

In order to use Misty Fuse, which does not come with a backing paper, you will need teflon sheets for fusing. You can get it by the yard, either 18" wide or 36" wide. I have 3 yards of the 36" and 3 yards of the 18", each cut into two pieces. That is available from Valeria Hearder.

For more information on the arts part of art, a good book is Nita Leland's newly updated The New Creative Artist.. Her Color Book is also excellent.

That's all my information for the day.

Information as requested

Let's see, Michelle would like to know how to get on the QuiltArt list. Be careful of what you wish! When you sign up, be sure to sign up for the digests...you will get about 10 per day which beats getting 250 individual emails! Go to www.quiltart.com and you can sign up to see what is going on. Do not despair when the talk moves to Jack russel Terriers or cats and their hairballs or cats in the studio or cats eating pins, or cats whatever...can you tell that I am not a cat lover? I like big dogs.

My satin stitching...I got tired of trying to vary the satin stitch on my top of the line Pfaff which I love for everything else but not its satin stitch. Years and years ago I had had a Singer Athena which had a dial control for the width which made it very easy to change the width of the stitch. With my Pfaff the width would jump down in 1 mm increments which wasn't what I wanted.

So I went to my favorite store, The Sewing Machine Shop, in Walnut Creek, CA and sat down at many Berninas, Pfaffs, New Homes and then the Janome 6500. I had already been interested in the Janome 6500 because of the larger harp area and I wasn't that happy with my Juki whatever it was numbered. The Janome did a better satin stitch for me and I can make infinite adjustments to it...not with a dial but with a push button.
Then, just a month ago, I upgraded to the 6600 which is better yet! And, it does all of the stitches that I want and "only" costs $1500. So now I have to sell the 6500 which I will post on Craig's list when I get a chance.

I am currently going through some adjustments in my life. My father is rapidly losing weight as he is not eating due to the appetite suppressant effect of cigarettes and alcohol. I have tried to get someone in to the house to be with him as he lives alone but this is a no-go...I was directed to get "all those people out of his house." His health is rapidly declining and I am his primary caretaker. A year and a half ago his macular degeneration had reached the point that he was legally blind and could no longer drive. I have been taking him out weekly to run his errands and to pay his bills. But now, things are going downhill very rapidly. I am watching closely to see when I need to actually start staying at his house instead of mine. But, he is in God's hands and there is nothing I can do about his situation other than to be sure that he is comfortable and receives the appropriate medical care. I share this with you not for sympathy but simply to share with the world...why, I have no idea. We can both use your prayers!

Critiques and the QA list

Well, Lisa Call suggested having reviews that actually reviewed the work...not just nicey-nicey things and of course, the list has been all over the place. Not being one to keep quiet, I posted the following:

"There is a big different between a critique and criticism. A critique takes an honest look at a piece of art and points out the strong points and the weak points. The idea is to determine if changes need to be made to make it a better piece of art. Criticism just finds fault with whatever and doesn't say anything positive.However, neither one belongs on this list as this list, as much as everyone would like to believe it, is not really made up of serious artists.

Many on this list make things from patterns. Many on this list have never made a real art quilt. Many on this list are crafters. And none of these are bad or wrong but just at a different place than serious artists. When most of the list does not understand the elements and principles of design, a critique would not mean anything since those are discussed.

Our group is made up of people who want to be artists, who think they are artists but don't understand the art part, those who are artists but work at it as a hobby, and professional artists who work all the time at it, whether they feel like it or not and do all the business work to book. Given that most of the list did not sign up for an art class that includes a critique, too many people would have their feelings hurt.

For example, look what happens when we discuss who is an artist? We get into discussions about how everyone is an artist! We are in a feel-good society where everybody and everything is accepted and we are all politically correct!"

so much for my two cents' worth!
PS.
This is fun! I post this on the QA list and within 5 minutes I get two responses. How come no one every responds when I tell them I have put pictures of my new work up?

Post Cards for Fiberart for a Cause

This is a small sampling of the 40 postcards that are on their way to Virginia Spiegel for Fiberart for a Cause. The postcards, hopefully 1000 of them, will be shown at the
International Quilt Festival in Houston later this year. I am proud that I have contributed many to two previous shows, Houston last year and Chicago this year as well
as participating in the reverse auction. This has been a very easy way for me to assist in the fundraising for the American Cancer Society.

more of what I have been doing

I was really trying to get these three pictures in the previous post but blogger wouldn't let me so I started all over again. This is ordinary time at church and is the green season. At our church, we call it the green growing season. Last year I have made a set of green things for church but I got tired of them so last week I pulled out various silk fabrics and hit the dye pots. These are all fused. The way the silks are turned makes the light reflect differently.

On the left, if that is the way it comes on, is part of the stole. I have used foiling to make the crosses which were silk screened on using foiling glue through the silkscreen.
The next piece is the hanging for the Holy Table which we are using for our altar during this hot time as we are meeting in a smaller, lighter room. And then the third is the front of the veil which goes over the chalice. In addition to just finishing these pieces, last week I sewed up some sheers for the meeting room at church that were two panels of 90" x 16'...sure don't want to do that again but it does cool the room off a little in addition to cutting the glare in the morning.

My rant came about because I was busy sewing and listening to news...now I just listen to music!

what I have been doing besides ranting

I have been very busy working on various things. Several weeks ago I did some overdyeing, using acrylic circles and rectangles for the resist. Now I have finished the two small quilts that have come from them. They are each about 28 x 36" with the overdyed piece in the middle and then fused more stuff...whatever. They were both fun to do to just play with the fabric and to figure out what I was going to do. This makes my third piece using my overdyed, resisted fabrics. They are so much fun! Instant gratification!

Last week I spent time pulling together these first two pieces and then I pulled together a larger piece that I had painted and started doing some silk screening on but hadn't gone any further. So I finished up the design part and now I am in the middle of quilting it but wanted to show it off. This is about 36 x 55 or so.














I have another big one that is ready to sandwich and hopefully I can get it quilted new week. In addition, I am finishing the binding on the blues and greens quilt that I did on the long arm.

Public Correction!

Tonya pointed out that I discussed the religious left when I really meant the religious right. I am so sorry. I just can't keep my left from my right, whether it is my brain or my lack of politics.

Next time I will post pictures of some new work.

Hate

This morning I was busy sewing away on this new piece. I took a break and looked at a few of my favorite blogs and stopped by Gerrie Congdon's blog. She has some beautiful pictures that her son took at the Japanese gardens in Portland. In fact, there are a couple that I would like to ask if I could use for inspiration in some new work! As I was reading about what was going on and about her daughter's wins at the swimming meets, she also posted a link to a picture of a man holding a sign that says "God hates fags"

This has been on my mind all the time I have been sewing and I finally decided that I had to stop sewing and respond to this.

I am so very tired of people way out on the left thinking that they represent all Christians. My God and my Jesus do not hate "fags". In fact, hate in not in the vocabulary of either one. Jesus joined us on this earth to teach us what God wanted us to know...to love one another, to treat all as brothers, not to judge, and that His death brought Grace to us all. I am tired of things being taken out of context in the bible to justify someone's personal belief.

No matter what one's religious beliefs are, loving one another is a part of the teachings of all of them. Hate is not a part of any of them. If someone tells you otherwise, they are taking something out of context.

so much for my rant of the day.

Meanwhile, I have thoughts about making my Katrina quilt...it has been in my mind for sometime and will be titled "Nagin's Folly". I am in the middle of reading the Great Deluge which is a history of Katrina and who did what and who did not do what. It is really fascinating reading and I suggest anyone who lives in any area subject to natural disasters of any kind should read this. The best message coming out of this book is that we need to be able to care for ourselves, and care for each other and to not expect anyone else to do it for us.

On Birthdays and other such stuff

Today is my 59th birthday. It was really nice having it celebrated at church this morning. One woman said it was nice to see someone happy about their birthday for change. I am happy that I was born and my birthday is the celebration of my birth. Now that is something to be glad about! And turning 59 is just fine, as will turning 60 next year will be. This year has been full and rich, complex, difficult, funny, happy, sad, and lots of times, just rolling along okay!

The more I understand about my spirituality and my creativeness, the more I can understand why it is so important to be able to be in the moment. This comes relatively easily for me. I am curious, easily entertained, and very grateful for all of the beauty around me. To be able to take moments to appreciate the shape of the clouds, the color of the sky whether it is blue or grey, the sound of the birds in my backyard, the colors that come out of my fabric dyeing...these are all such wonderful things. Take the time to recognize them, to revel in them, to enjoy them because that is what makes life really worth living. Connecting with the moment puts us closer to our God which has created all.

During July and August, our 10:30 service on Sundays has been moved to 9:30 because it is cooler and we are meeting in our "fireside" room rather than the sanctuary. Our services are not big...about 40-50 people with a bunch out and away for the summer. So we have a small table for an altar, our priest wears only her stole, our cup bearers are not in their robes, and we all sit in a semi-circle so we can see each other. We have developed a much stronger sense of community. Our service is much more informal but also far more personal. It will be hard to move back to the dark sanctuary which is covered in 100 year old redwood paneling...

My husband and daughter and her husband gave me a purple Tutto tote which is for putting your machine in wheels. I really didn't want it for my sewing machine...I want it for a carry on...when I do get to travel on an airplane to give a lecture and workshop, I travel with my computer and projector for my power point presentation. The computer has it's own bag but it is really heavy...the projector has it's own case which puts be over the limit when I have a purse also. So now, this tote will work great. It pulls from the end so it will go through the airplane aisles rather than requiring carrying. It will hold the computer, projector, cables, water bottle, food snacks, and some clothes and a book and magazine along with a project to work on. What more could I ask? (well some bookings would help!)

I am now deleting most of the posts on the list. It's really sad that it has fallen to this level...too much talk about TV, too much talk about who is right, too much offense taken, too much offense given. I learned some time ago that I cannot allow myself to be brought down by negative people and situations. I am now able to excuse myself, or ask that the situation be changed, or just not invite negative people in to my life. I have suffered from clinical depression now for 11 years. Unfortunately, therapy did not provide long term answers but medication has really assisted me in living a normal life. With a change in medications a year and a half ago, things got much better. But my mental health is too important to me to allow others negativity to effect it. So, back to being in the moment...when things get negative around me, I look for that something special somewhere where I can be in the moment with beauty. And thus, my art is generally about making beauty (at least from my perspective!)

I have been getting a lot of work done recently. Will try to get pictures up soon although some has been put on my website.

Art for the Soul or Art to Sell?

Well, as the list continues with it's ongoing discussion of cows, pigs, patterns etc. someone mentioned the issue of making art from our soul versus making art to sell.

When my children were young, I used to make a lot of baby quilts and sell them at Children's fairyland in Oakland, CA. Most were from patters...that is before the big brouhaha over making things and selling them from patterns. It was a way to could earn a little extra money for my fabric. I have also done assorted types of greeting cards, especially when I was working. This was an easy way for me to be creative, without putting a lot of time or thought in to what I was doing. I sold those also.

Now I just make art that comes from within. Is it all ART FROM THE SOUL? Well, it comes from inside me.

Does it have angst? No.
Was it all hard to do? No.
Did I wrestle with the design? No.
Did I worry about the color choices? No.
Did I stay up forever trying to decide just how to quilt it? No.

Now, why do I say no to many of these things? Isn't art supposed to be gut wrenching in the making? I don't think so.

I believe that the more we make, the easier it gets. Like learning the rules. When you learn the rules, think out loud about them as you are doing them, and make them a part of your brain, then they are very easy to use without thinking. Same thing with color. One needs to become color confident and that comes from doing a lot of work to see what works and what doesn't.

In order to do a lot of work, it helps to work small. That way we can do a lot of stuff and get a lot of practice. Too many people on the LIST get too concerned about if something is art or not, will it sell, what size should it be to get into whatever show they would like, what does the judge like, etc?

Just do the work. It isn't until you have a body of work together that you are in a position to start showing it out there.

When I retired, the first year and a half were spent in producing work. I started entering shows during the second year and continued, with the goal of getting my work out there in quilt and art shows. I have won awards in art shows. I have won awards in quilt shows. I don't win top awards in quilt shows because I am not always as careful as I should be on the backs of my quilts and sometimes the bindings aren't straight or done with the proper stitching in the corner of the miter. Oh well. Does that bother me? NO.

Because my work is getting out there, it is selling. Now that is validation! That is what I want? Why would I want to make one quilt every other year that is perfect and will win big awards in every show I enter it in? Well, maybe that would be nice because there is far more money in the quilt show awards in the big shows than there is in the art shows. But, more work sells in the art shows.

I have a big pile of art of various sizes (that look like quilts) piled on the bed. I also have about 40 pieces that are out at various galleries and shows. And right now I have two fused, large pieces that need to be sandwiched and stitched, another one that is almost finished in it stitching, a piece made with resisted dyeing that needs to be stitched, one that is partly stitched and two that need to get sleeves put on so they can go out to shows. Plus tons of pieces that need to have labels made for them!

But, I have now had an art consultant come to me to see about selling my work (now that is the really easy way and boy does it feel good). That is what I want!

Boy that list is getting to me! Would you believe I don't read it much but just scan the index in the digests?

web site and art issues

I have finally updated my website. If you are just interested in the new pieces, you can scroll down on the first, home page, to new quilts and take a look. The new pieces are in the abstract gallery and the sun gallery. I have posted all of the pieces made for Quilting Arts Magazine along with several other new pieces, several of which have been shown here but have now been professionally photographed.

The Art Quilt list is back to "Is it art?" again. Unfortunately, too many people just don't get the big picture. There are so many levels to this whole question. Anyone can call something art but then, the question is, is it good art? I get very few quilting magazines and many more art magazines. It is really interesting to see what is being presented in the world of painting as opposed to quilting.

I think that pieces that are art quilts that show up in quilt shows are not always very good art. Sometimes they just try too hard.

Textile pieces (quilts, fiber, etc) that show up in art shows are another matter. They are juried in based on the art and workmanship. ( and I don't mean the stitches to the inch type of workmanship, but the overall quality). And the heavily embellished pieces don't usually make it to art shows. I think that if one really wants to see art, that happens to be fiber, would be in the shows that Joanie San Chirico curates. Not the type of work that the people on the art quilt list do!

It is also so sad that people are quick to negatively comment and miss the entire idea of the comments made on the list. I believe that most of those who get defensive are, unfortunately, those whose "art" is the weakest. The reason behind my doing the articles for Quilting Arts was to help educate people about the art part of quilting. Embellishment, new techniques, etc., do not make art. If you look at some of the modern art, it really isn't about the finished product, but about the experience of the creation...therein lies the art! Creating is a process and works best when one understands the rules of the medium used. Once one firmly grasps the rules, then they can be broken with knowledge and intent.

I used to do a lot of pottery on the wheel. I really loved it and admired those who did distressed work...work that had bangs in to them, etc. But I couldnot flop a pot off kilter until I had learned to make one that was perfectly centered and even. Then, the piece was strong enough to get whopped and whacked out of round! But it had to have been made properly before I could do something else with it.

The same goes with art. If one has not learned to use the medium correctly and well, then it just doesn't work. There will always be art that is considered outsider art...that which defies all of the rules but somehow works. But we generally see too many "technique" pieces at quilt shows and not enough art. The comments about older work being art is so true. But not all older work fits the art definition. The good, old pieces have outstanding use of color, balance, design and workmanship that are so often missing in today's art quilt world. As Rayna Gillman says, we are too insular and need to get out in to the world (well, she sort of said that!)

New Work

So this past weekend I did some more dyeing...this time using my flat boards. I don't want to spend the money that Melody Johnson did for her acrylic plates, plus I don't have the drying racks she has. But the temperature was in the high 90's so things dried pretty quickly.












I finally finished that piece that was a little pouffy....I did all of the heavy stitching in the blocks and then into the orange and turquoise areas in the background. Then all the rest of the background needed to really get quilted flat which I did with a meandering stitch. This piece uses dyed fabric for the background and monoprinted fabrics for the blocks.

And the I finished the piece with the dyed fabrics I overdyed, using washers clamped together to make the yellow circles. This was a lot of fun to do. I have even done some beading in the yellow circles which doesn't show up very well in the photo.

Well, have to trim that big piece that I quilted on the long arm, fix a couple of places that I had to take out and put a facing on the piece.

Then I am finally ready to start some new work. I want to make two stoles, a veil and altar frontal for our church in the ordinary greens...have an idea for fusing various green fabrics on to the stoles (using silk) and then maybe adding some highlights. Well, we'll see. The ideas are starting to flow!

Life Gets in the Way

Oh dear, the babysitter's son has foot-mouth-hand disease...something I had never heard of before when my children were young but evidently has been going around. So Jacob has been spending a lot of time with his grammy and granpa...but mostly grammy! So, of course, not a lot else gets done!

I do have a couple of pictures to show you though.

This piece was cut off in the article in Quilting Arts magazine which was created to show formal balance. I really like it and had a lot of fun doing it as I don't usually work in this way. I much prefer asymmetrical balance but once in a while it is good to do the exercises and work with something different. It is done in a triadic color scheme.



And this is Canyonlands. I think I had shown it before but it wasn't really finished. I added the purple and then mounted it on stretched black cotton duck and did an uneven satin stitch around it to set it off more.

And this piece is my favorite. I actually pieced it...not fused!

I used Thai silk for the black and then some of my hand dyed silk charmuese...the quilting lines are hard to see but are really neat with lots of lines adding to the composition. Each black block has its own lines...

Well, got to get going on working with some more running fence stuff. there will be a show coming up with work from all of us who are working with it and I want to get a couple of pieces done to include with the two that are already with Dianne.

Meanwhile, I've had a blast discharging cotton. Will show you shortly.

A Couple of New Pieces

So here we have a couple of the many pieces that just came back from the photographer.

The first is Blues in the Day. I thought of calling it Study of a Red Line but I have another piece that is getting that title and I didn't feel like having another series. This piece has two red stitched lines, one of which is stitched over heavy cording. Then there is a chartreuse line which doesn't quite show the right color in this picture. It is made from painted canvas. Now, this is really in my simple mode! This piece is about 34 x 55 or so...I haven't measured them yet.








And the I have Harvest Moon. You saw parts of it some time ago but I finally got it finished and photographed. It was interesting working in tones rather than clear colors. Quite a change but a fun exercise. This piece is about 58 x 58 or so. Haven't measured this one, either.


Tomorrow I will get the tape measure out, and start cataloging them.

Today was spent all on art. I had to finish up a piece (by that I mean put a sleeve on it) and get a slat cut to fit so that I could deliver it for a show the California Fiber Artists will be in in Half Moon Day.

So, tomorrow I work at the computer for a while, getting photos edited and sized for the web site, measuring, naming and pricing...all that kind of stuff. And enter the info for each on into my catalogue so I can try to keep track of it.

And I am still trying to get the smaller quilt finished...almost done with the heavy, heavy quilting that is on it...that is to make of for the minimal quilting on Blues in the Day! And then I have to trim and face Waiting for Spring, a large quilt about 60 x 60 that I quilted on the long arm. Never time to sleep. and then I hope to be able to start some new work...perhaps it is time for orbs, but then I keep thinking of fences running across them. Can't get those fences out of my mind!