Want to see my studio?

Want to see my studio? 

 My studio is featured in Cloth Paper Scissors issue of Studios, Spring 2010. I am so excited to be included in this fabulous issue! Apparently, they had so much neat stuff to show you in this issue, that they ended up making it much larger than usual! If you want to preorder an issue, click here, or wait until it hits the newstands on Feb 23. Happy, happy! I have written and photographed my sewing studio for this issue. Here's one of the photos that they did not publish....okay, I didn't really send this one in as an option. This is what I look like when I am working, moving faster than the speed of light!

Red and Pink
18" x 24"

color, rich and saturated, evocative,
softened with stitching,
machine and by hand.
and brought to life with simple shapes

It feels good to be working again. This is my first quilt of the new year. Yes, it's small, but a palpable start. I love repetition in design. I cut circles around the center of the window crosses for the center of the flowers. Then I used the windows in the inner border, and once again repeated the cross shape in the hand stitching on the background of the flowers (see closeup below). I'm saving the edge finish for a workshop. I am teaching at the end of February on finishing techniques for small quilts at the Austin Area Quilt Guild.

I have to laugh that the red and pink IKEA couch is still inspiring me. Maybe I should call it the IDEA couch?

Alamo Heritage Quilt Guild San Antonio, TX

Alamo Heritage Quilt Guild San Antonio, TX 

 This last Thursday night, I was honored to present a lecture about my work at the Alamo Heritage Quilt Guild. I had a great time. This guild is rather small, but oh so friendly. I felt so relaxed and welcomed there. It was wonderful! The first photo is of me with Dea Heller. She is the 2nd Vice President and my main contact person. She was a delight and it turns out that she has won numerous prizes with her quilts and also does presentations to guilds! She was kind enough to call before I left Austin and give me directions around the numerous road closures from construction! Very helpful! Next, Joyce Boyd and myself. She is the President of the guild. She is warm and humorous and a delight! I gave a one hour lecture and trunk show, punctuated with lightning strikes, thunder, and rain from outside. A lot of people came despite the bad weather. Thank you!! I brought about 15 quilts. Included in these photos are Little Cities (also here), Synchronized Swimming, and Doors Across Austin. And, the trunk show portion could not have been a success without all the volunteers who held up my quilts and walked them around the room so that everyone could see them. This is a difficult job because the quilts get heavy, and if you are the one holding it up, you don't get to look at the front side! Be sure to check out the fingers holding the quilts at the top and the legs underneath! Last a photo of my slide projector. Makes great pictures, eh?? No, really, it's turned off for this photo, and the actual quilt is being shown by a volunteer! At some point, I would love to get a new laptop and digital projector and skip the slides all together!

Good things all around!

Good things all around! 

 I just got this notice this morning, on Pokey's blog, that my quilt, Falling through the Cracks, is featured on the COVER of Quilting Arts Feb/March issue! Now, that is exciting! And, as her post is about warming the winter blues away, I'll have to say that this news has worked for me! I feel better already. Thanks Pokey! Wow, the quilting really pops in this photo! Now to share the news with my friend, Vickie Hallmark, whose artfully created bead is featured in the lower right hand corner! This quilt would not have been possible without her wonderful beads! Check her blog here, or follow the link on my sidebar. I am starting the new year off with a new small project I hope to post later this week.

Guest Blogger

Guest Blogger 

 Hello! Today I am a guest blogger at Subversive Stitchers: Women Armed with Needles. I love the title, don't you? Featured today I ask myself, "Why?" especially as it relates to some of my more elaborate and time consuming projects. Here at home, it has been a quiet month. I have had no real work to put on my blog in a while. Soon after I got home from Houston, I was busy with my fabric line, and then quite by surprise ended up withdrawing my son from school. He is learning at home now and though I have been reluctant for years to homeschool, I am finding it was the best decision I ever made. That's what he says too! Now, the trick will be to find my balance again and learn to multitask art and teaching. With a couple of months under my belt, I will say that it easy getting easier to get organized and balanced. And, since I can't blog without photos, you may be wondering what the Flying Cat Boys have been up to.... Well, Vanilla Bean has been studying physics and Pumpkin wants to learn to read and write. Smokey and Garfield are either preferring chores, or interested in tumbling objects, I'm not sure which. Enjoy your day!

Cleaning Cable Clutter

Cleaning Cable Clutter 

I have a drawer near my computer, stuffed with cables and extension cords and it is always a tangled mess. Every wire except my ipod is black, so it is impossible to quickly distinguish between various recharges for my cameras, or their corresponding USB cables. Necessity is the mother of invention, right? Too much frustration led me to finally organize this mess. I decided to make a colorful, easy to recognize, stuff sack for each ...appliance (for lack of a better word). Anything unworthy of a stuff sack would be tossed (or donated to the technology Goodwill Center). So, here is my collection: One yellow stuff bag with numbers for my cell phone recharger One turquoise bag with an abstract camera image and the word "Nikon" for my recharger and USB cable for the Nikon camera. One red and pink bag for my monitor calibration system (eye-one). One turquoise bag with an abstract ipod image for my ipod recharger. One pink and orange flower bag for Pinkie (my little Fuji camera) for the recharger and different sized USB connecting cable. Most are stuff sacks with a drawstring, lined, and quite fun and easy to make. One has a zipper (because I wanted to try it). All are easily recognizable, and roomy enough to hold the contents. And, as an added bonus, when I am ready to travel, it will be so easy to grab exactly which stuff sacks to pack, and while I am gone, easy to find them in my suitcase! I am super happy with the results. It was a bit time intensive, as is all organization projects. However, being unorganized is also time consuming. The following are before cleanup, after cleanup, and the recycle pile.

Little Art

Little Art 

This is a little piece batiked and dye painted by my 8 year old daughter. She was so pleased with it that she took it to school to show her friends!! Then we decided to cut it into squares. Her job is to rearrange the squares. You can see her hard at work deciding what to do. She did several arrangements. We snapped photos, then she picked one, and off to work I went sewing them together. You can then see the final product. I had sew much fun! Next, to select borders, some quilting, and possibly a pillow....

Fabric Design

Fabric Design 

Since I started obsessively stamping found objects in wax and dyeing fabric, I have been wanting to design fabric. Many of my designs have been used in my art quilts. It is with great JOY that I announce.....(drum roll, please)..... I am working with Clothworks to produce my new fabric line based on my quilt Building UP. It will be available in stores sometime next summer. I have named the collection, Urban Landscapes, though I am not sure if that is the name with which it will be marketed. It is full of bold graphics and bright colors...Really? YES!!!! This is one of the supporting cast of characters, 9 dot block.

Quilt Purchase!

Quilt Purchase!

That's what my email said. It was from Kathleen Dawson of the Dairy Barn. Apparently, someone has spoken for my quilt Little Fish in a Big City. I am so delighted, and thrilled, happy dancing on cloud 9 with a cherry on top!! This is fantastic news! I have enjoyed many successes with my art, yet this one offers a whole new level of validation for me. The act of making art is now a necessary part of my life. It brings me such joy to know that it has affected others, that they may have benefited in some way by seeing it. And, that it has affected someone enough that they want to buy it? Well, in a word... fabulous! Please stop back by next week, I have more news to share, but wanted to save the post just for Little Fish.

Demonstrating Art Quilting Techniques

Demonstrating Art Quilting Techniques at the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum 

This last Sunday, I was at the Texas State History Museum with a few friends demonstrating art quilting techniques. But really, we mostly did surface design. This lovely poster greeted our visitors as they entered the foyer. I was delighted! It had a full view of my quilt, Building UP on it, the color is fabulous!! AND, after the demonstrations were over, I got to keep this lovely sign! Then a bit closer to our classrooms, more signs telling what we are doing. Sherri McCauley is posing with me next to our sign. She showed visitors how to make stamps and use fabric paint on fabric. Unfortunately, I didn't get a photo of Connie Hudson. She was demonstrating painting on fabric too, in a different style. We also strolled by the museum store on our way in. They have a number of my quilts for sale. These three are hanging from the ceiling and look fantastic. They are, Winter to Spring, A Few of My Favorite Things, and Synchronized Swimming. Here are a few of my smaller quilts in the Little House Series. Two of these have sold already! Awesome!! A proud new owner of my Little House quilt. Not sure who is happier! Here I am, in the classroom, demonstrating deconstructed screen printing. I had a blast playing with this technique, and even more fun trying to explain it to my visitors. The next shot is a photo of a screen I did earlier in the week. The print paste has a bit of dye added to it, then it is globbed onto the screen to dry. Next you 'pull' through the screen some fresh print paste with a dye of a contrasting color and it slowly dissolves and prints the design you had put on previously. Each run dissolves more and more making the image slowly fade away. It's really fun, and you get some rather interesting results.