Looking Forward

Under the Sea

This past week was very busy with work (yesterday was my last day at Soma), catching up from the quilt show, catching up from the daughter and granddaughters being here and getting organized for the upcoming week.

"Under the Sea" is a upside down mini-quilt (9x12) that spun off from my "Outside In" quilt. I haven't finished it yet, but hopefully I will sometime beading on it this weekend, definitely this next week. It is due to SAQA-TX by the 28th for the SAQA-TX exhibit of 9x12's at the International Quilt Festival. I have a sunflower quilt also and need to get busy on beading the center of it.

With so much to do this next week, I couldn't help but add to the mix a 2 day workshop with the Trinity Valley Quilt Guild. Larkin Van Horn is our guest speaker this month and is giving us a 2 day workshop on "Beading is Applique'". I'm so excited to be able to spend two days with her and learn more about beading on my art quilts.

Saturday, Sandra Sider, President of SAQA will be coming to town for critique workshops and a speaking engagement with the Dallas Area Fiber Artists. And she is staying with me! I'm so excited that I get to entertain her for a few days and bask in her knowledge and expertise. Saturday night I have invited DAFA and local SAQA members to my home for a cookout and a get-to-know Sandra evening. Our new grill has been completed, so we are going to get the chance to test out massive grilling on it and enjoy our fire pit with great conversations. If you are a local SAQA member, contact me and come for the cookout Saturday night!

Now, I must get to beading...

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!

DAFA Workshop and Being Creative Today!

Everyone is being creative!

Our wonderful Program Director
Linda Disosway

Suzanne Morgan
working on her abstract creation

This past Saturday I spent a wonderful day with members of the Dallas Area Fiber Artists, teaching my Painted Cheesecloth and 12x12 Sunflower workshop. Here are a few pictures of the members and their creations!

Valery Guignon
also working abstract

Valery's painted cheesecloth

DAFA President - Janet Jelen
working on Sunflower placement

Karen Fischer and Pam Patton
sharing creative ideas

My work schedule this past week hasn’t allowed me to be in the studio very much, but I’ve made some progress today and have the basics to three art quilts in progress and the thoughts of several more are written down. Here’s a peek at what I’ve gotten started. Hopefully I can finish these next week before I leave for the Trinity Valley Quilt Show in Fort Worth. If you are in the area, don’t forget to come by, see the show and say Hi!

While I have been working in the Studio today I have been listening to "Sister's Choice" by Emilie Richards. I love her books and to my wonderful surprise there is a quilter in this book. One that, like me, wanted to venture beyond the traditional quilts and enjoyed exploring art quilting. I appreciated the way she expressed the way quilter's are. Paraphrasing, they always have a quilt in process, a quilt on their work wall, a quilt under the needle, quilts in our heads, quilts waiting to be bound, quilting until our final breath. Isn't that how we all feel?

Continue to be creative my friends!

Getting Things Done

This week has been busy, busy, busy. I finished preparing my hand dyed fabrics for the Trinity Valley Quilt Show and just have cards and patterns left to prepare. I also need to prepare kits for the Painted Cheesecloth and Sunflower Art Quilt workshop I am teaching to the DAFA members on September 17th. But I think this will wait until closer to the workshop so I know exactly how many to prepare.

I have taken time for myself this week with a wonderful massage and mani/pedi on Tuesday. Then I did a little shopping. Since my birthday is tomorrow, I decided that it was time to take some time off and pamper myself a bit.

This morning I received a wonderful email about one of my pieces of fabric being included in a Treasury on Etsy. Here is the link to Style Study #26 Mediterranean. It is a beautiful, relaxing collection. I'm honored to have one of my pieces included!

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!