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I love my yard! I take joy in wandering around it frequently. It’s not on the cover of Sunset Gardens, but it is full of beauty that changes as my plantings mature. We’ve had such an early spring that the butterflies have already arrived, along with dragon flies and hummingbirds. I love how over time, almost any kind of plantings will begin to grow into each other and create new combinations: The sedums are ready to take over the hen ‘n chicks. I try to get as much variety in shape, texture and color as I can. I’m loving the dusty…
The first ever Northern CA-Northern NV Region‘s exhibit for Studio Art Quilt Associates has opened! “Put Your Best Foot Forward” opened April 1st at Creative Framing & Gallery in Oakland. The exhibit features 44 one-foot-square works from 26 artists-including my “Jewel Box”. If you’ve not seen work in this diminutive format, you will be pleasantly surprised at how delightful these gems are. Here is a sampling of some of the work you’ll see: Our Opening Reception is April 13, 6 – 9PM and the Closing Reception is May 25, 6 – 9PM. I hope you’ll stop by the gallery and…
Ever since I sent off my SAQA donation piece last week, I’ve been itching to try another hand-dyed wool/organza/cut-work piece. But I couldn’t even start before finding more hand-dyed wool. I had a lovely visit with the uber creative dyer/quilter/surface designer Linda Waddle and I came home with this mini-stash of some of her gorgeous hand-dyed wool. I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted to do, but I needed to dig into my design files and books and other resources to hone in on my plan. I was thinking this was one piece where things should go smoothly…
Yesterday was yet another spectacular spring day and I took the opportunity to visit the Sacramento Historic City Cemetery. Known as the “Resting Place of California Pioneers”, the cemetery was established in 1849 and chronicles California history from the Gold Rush through today. A diverse group rests here: from Civil War veterans to famous citizens and former residents of diverse cultural heritage. The cemetery has an “Adopt a Plot” program and volunteers take over the gardening of their selected plots. The result is a spectacular display of mainly perennial beauties. These guys seemed to group together in dappled sunlight, shying…
Lucky me, I finally got to go to a spring quilt show, my first of the season. “Prime Time in the Foothills” was this year’s theme for the Foothill Quilters Guild show last weekend. And it was indeed Prime Time-everything was in bloom and it was a spectacular drive to Auburn on a gorgeous sunny day! Freddy Moran was the Guest Quilter this year and there were probably 25 of Freddy’s colorful quilts on display-you just had to smile when you walked into the room. Who else can use color like this? Candy Brown was the Featured Quilter and she…
I’ve had a bit of a run of things that have taken me away from my quilting-all of them good! But upon my return, I see a sea of work that I do not like: It’s not that I don’t like the stitching, it’s just that I chose a thread color on the front of this piece that just fades- I need to change the color. And… you can see that the stitches are tiny, tiny and it’s going to take a long time to rip out a whole area of this. Ugh. One of my recent diversions was a…
After last week’s playtime with my hand dyed wool/sheer/cutwork piece, I was inspired to pull out a hand dyed wool piece I had purchased at my guild’s show in Feb. Patty Henderson dyed this beautiful piece and I knew I had to use it in a similar way. Spring is busting out all over Northern California and that inspired me to place a flower in the center, and surround it with stylized nature motifs and some curves. I find Patty’s artistry with hand dyed wool to be breath taking. I layered it atop some hand dyed silk organza and began to…
I took a fabric dying class from Linda Waddle last year and ended up with a treasure trove of beautiful hand dyed fabrics. I am always jealous when I see “fabric hand dyed by artist” in the description of a beautiful art quilt. This class gave me the chance to say that-hah! Today I got out one of the pieces from the class, a bright pink wool, and started playing. I’ve had it in my mind to layer some pretty wool over a sheer, to free motion a motif atop the two layers, and then cut out the wool. So I layered…
I recently began to work a large whole cloth quilt. In my eternal search for The Most Difficult Thread Combinations, I have settled upon a doozie. I chose black Aurifil Mako for the top and gray Superior Kimono for the bobbin. This presents a challenge not only in the different thread weights, but also in the combination of a light thread color with a dark. And that requires dead. on. tension. I thoroughly tested this and many other thread combos before settling on this one. One of my missions for this piece is to actually be able to see the…
Honestly, I will get back to my “regularly scheduled programming” but just one more boast. I’ve been published for the first time; my “Mom’s Lily Bed” quilt was featured in the March/April, 2013 issue of Machine Quilting Unlimited. So get a copy and turn to page 79! I’m reveling in the joy of seeing that quilt in print. The timing seems especially appropriate since my Mom passed around this time last year. “Mom’s Lily Bed” is based on a strong childhood memory of a beautiful moment in time. A year ago I was lurching through the process of helping with all the arrangements with…