Where Have I Been?!?!?!?!?!

Gosh, I knew I had been busy, but I didn't realize it had been weeks since I paid attention to my blog! My weeks since my Painted Cheesecloth workshop have been filled with working for Soma Intimates and getting ready for the Trinity Valley Quilt Show in Fort Worth, TX.

The quilt show went well. Here is a pictures of my friend, Kathy Mayhew, in our booth at the show.
Now I am trying to find time to finish unpacking from the show and see what I need to dye for the Texas Federation of Fiber Artists show in February. February is the semi-annual conference for the Texas Federation of Fiber Artists. There will be a gallery show, classes and a dinner. I'm going to vend the show with Kathy's surface designed fabrics and my hand dyed fabrics and fibers.

As much as I enjoy the ladies at the Soma Intimates store, I had to give them my notice this past week. I really hated doing it after only a couple of months work, but my fibromyalgia just isn't cooperating with the routine. I've been in a lot of pain the past two, going on three, weeks and I just had to give it up. I'll work this week and then I'll be back in the Studio full time and working on loading more fabrics in my online shops, vending quilt shows and developing classes to teach.

I was encouraged at the TVQG show by our members and members of other quilt guilds to teach and learn the dying process and my painted cheesecloth process. The experience of working out in the public and not being able to pace myself properly has taught me that I must find an avenue where I can pace myself and work with my passion and be able to share it with others. So, there is my focus and that is what I am going to strive for. Passing on my passion, and as artists, don't we become more passionate about our art when we can pass it on and see the excitement and joy it brings to other artists?

This week our daughter and twin granddaughters are here for a visit, so we have been busy, busy, busy with these little "Princess Angels". Yesterday, we went to the Fort Worth Zoo and saw lots of animals they don't get to see at the LA zoo.  I would love to show you pictures, but for some reason my phone isn't wanting to forward pictures to my email address, so I'm stuck right now. Why do we hold our selves  hostage to technology?

That reminds me of what my dear friend, Lu Peters, wrote in an email to me lately, "Obviously technology is not my strong suit! If it fits under the sewing machine or in a hoop, I could manage it!" Isn't that the truth! Keeping to the basics is so much easier for some of us than trying to master the latest and greatest technology.

Well, I while I was writing this I realized that I do have a cable that I can use to transfer media between my Droid and computer, so now I can get the pictures from the zoo! Maybe I was maxing out the memory capabilities of the phone or something.... Who knows, not me for sure!


Okay, so here are a few of my favorite pictures from our visit to the zoo yesterday....

Oh, to have a long neck and be able to reach things!

King of the Jungle!

See No Evil, Hear No Evil and Speak No Evil...

Amanda and Sadie feeding the birds

I'm reading several magazines right now, one of them is "Artful Blogging". I'm ready for inspiration and encouragement to keep motivated and improve my blogging habits and art. So, and I may have said this before, I'm going to make a better habit to keep in touch and let you know what I am doing and what I am learning!
Stay Creative!

Hail Damage Repairs = A Creative Process

Today starts the first of the major hail damage repairs being made. After this morning we will no longer look out onto our English Garden through broken glass. Saturday and Sunday, the old roof will be ripped off and the new one put on. Then we will schedule the gutters to be replaced. This entire process reminds me of quilting. We rip fabric, dye it, cut it up and create something new and beautiful. We rip out stitches to replace them with better ones. I think I could go on and on, but I think you get my drift.



Hmmmmm, today I’m ripping fabric so I can dye it! I ordered new dyes this week and still have plenty on hand, so the dyeing process will happen this weekend when my buddy, Kathy Mayhew, comes over to enjoy my air conditioned Dye Studio. With this Texas heat, you have to have an air conditioned garage to dye in, otherwise you would have to dye during the night time hours. We have been reaching temps of 110°, today is suppose to be 108° and we are suppose to get down to a cool 102° this weekend. I definitely think we will break the record of the continuous days running of 100°+ temps of 1980.

Kathy and I will have a booth at the Trinity Valley Quilt Guild Quilt Show (September 30, 2011 – October 2, 2011), so we are working hard to have a beautiful variety of Kathy’s surface design fabric and my hand dyed fabric. We will also have some completed art work and hand dyed notions. Saturday Kathy is going to continue creating her one of a kind surface design fabrics and I am going to work on creating fabrics for fat quarter bundles. I wasn’t sure about dyeing fabric for this type of product, but after I did these three bundles, I decided it was a good idea, they are darling and I think quilters will really go for them.



What do you think?

Don’t forget about the Hot Sale in my Etsy and ArtFire shops! 25% off! Beat the heat and stay inside and create!

Truck Quilt Finished and DAFA March Show

I feel like dancing around and singing "I did it, I did it" like Dora the Explorer (okay, you can tell I have grandkids), the Truck Quilt is complete as of this morning!
I love the surface technique of painting over the background fabric to calm it down, show the quilting of the windmill and barn and make the truck pop out.
To make sure I didn't get paint on the truck, I taped it off before I painted the background. I learned this technique from "The Painted Quilt" by Linda and Laura Kemshall. The Kemshall's also demo'd this technique on one of the Quilting Arts TV Series 200 Episodes. I can't wait to use this technique again.

The Dallas Area Fiber Artists are having their annual show at The Pointe ~ C.C. Young the month of March. Tonight is our monthly meeting and tomorrow I will hang the show. This year we are honored to also show the SAQA-Texas Mini-Quilt Exhibit from the 2010 International Quilt Festival in Houston. If you are in the Dallas area, join us for our "Meet the Artists" night on March 8th, 6:30pm - 7:30pm. If you can't make it then, make time to go my The Pointe and see the exhibit. Kathy Mayhew and I will be presenting a program on SAQA and the Mini-Quilts at the DAFA April program.