Blog
I’ve been busy-notice anything new?? With a LOT of help from my long-suffering web designer I have a new look! Lisa Stambaugh, the Web Diva, of Collective Discovery designed my updated site. Last fall as I was readying myself for Houston, all of a sudden I got a torrent of spam-hundreds a day! That buried all the real correspondence from my students and created a nightmare for me. So I am thrilled to be all buttoned up security-wise, with a whole new user-friendly, mobile-responsive layout. I hope you like it! Finally, I can show the garments and “other fiber” items…
What a busy week! I intended to get all my quilt show photos up last week but it was not to be. This week I’m showing the larger quilts. I hope to get a smaller post out later this week with the garments. What a Best of Show! This was a spectacular piece to see in person. Bill Brennan, husband of one of the participants, took a great photo of a Pacifica hillside. They divided the photo into twelve sections and assigned two non-contiguous sections to each artist to allow for individual exploration of techniques. There was so much interesting…
My home guild’s show always kicks off “quilt show season” in my area. I love show-vendors, boutique, great food, wonderful quilts and art made by friends. I love walking around the show in the late afternoons, aisles empty, time to ponder each quilt, surrounded and embraced by beauty. And it’s always a little sad when it’s over. This year’s show was spectacular! Most notable in my eyes was the level of machine quilting, both domestic and long arm-it was incredible. It rained like crazy at times and our visitors braved the weather for the show. I’m going to cover the…
I took a weekend off to enjoy a micro-vacation in Napa with my husband. He likes to go a fun place away from home to watch the Super Bowl. And since we don’t have the whole Gigantic TV thing going on at home, we choose our hotel based on location, amenities and…..screen size! Drought-stricken and thirsty Northern California thinks it’s spring. We just passed the driest January on record and it’s been beautiful and warm, causing plants and trees to think it’s spring. If you’ve just endured your fourth major snow storm of the season you’re probably wondering what’s so…
I have a very simple motto-“just go forward”. It means that instead of fixing less-than-perfect work, I’ll “go forward” and fix that on the next piece. I don’t think I learn a lot from ripping out work. My Poppies quilt really challenged that motto. I was up against a seemingly impossible deadline. At several points I had to decide whether to even try to make the deadline. At one point the entire quilt came into question. I did “just go forward” and it worked out well. I know that is not always the case so I was happy to take…
I’ve been busy during my “break” from teaching! I needed to finish two new class samples as well as complete a Modern-ish quilting sample that should have done before I taught in Houston last October. It was nice to be able to catch up with my To-Do List. I noticed that class sample photos that were posted on shop and show sites were not very clear. They were beautiful samples that were usually done on a light pastel cotton sateen with various threads. The problem was that the color washed out in on-line postings. I decided I needed to do…
My interests seem to be bouncing back and forth between traditional, modern and art quilts lately. After my quilt was published in 500 Traditional Quilts, my love of exquisite traditional quilts was reignited. In an alternative universe, I’ve been smitten by some of the modern quilts I’ve been seeing. And then there are the art quilts that I’ve been loving, making and studying for the last 5 years or so. Of course they all have much in common. When I saw that the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles was having an exhibit of Ohio Amish quilts, as well…
I am both thrilled and sad that my year-long on-line Design Master Class with Elizabeth Barton is over. I worked really hard in class and actually completed 9 of the 11 projects, purposefully chose not to complete one month because I was not enjoying my piece, and then just flat missed October’s piece. I am proud of my work, how HARD I worked, and that I completed all but 2 months’ projects. I have been rewarded richly for my efforts and I’m pleased with how my skills have improved. I had no clue when I began the class that we…
As a member of Studio Art Quilt Associates, I knew I could ask the Yahoo group if there would be any textile art exhibits during the time of my visit to Tucson. Lucky me-SAQA-Arizona was hosting its first ever juried exhibition during the time of my visit, so I was able to view it while Hubby was golfing. “JOURNEYS” included 30 pieces from 28 members. It was a high quality show with a great variety of styles. The Tucson Jewish Community Center hosted the show and the display area was open, pleasant and well lighted. One take-away for me, once…
My husband and I each recently celebrated a major birthday as well as our 30th wedding anniversary with a trip to Tucson, Arizona. After considering at a 14 day cruise around the tip of South America, and renting a gorgeous home with its own pool on Kauai, we chose Tucson. I know, weird, huh? We realized that the one thing we really wanted was SUN (and golf for him). The other choices carried a significant chance of rain. I think we made the right choice-this was one of our best vacations ever! As an added bonus we were able to…