San Francisco Garden Show

Last Sunday, I went to the San Francisco Garden Show at the Cow Palace. It's not as big as in years past, but still a ton of fun. I got new garden shoes, two huge white orchids ($10 each!) another garden clipper (never have enough of those) and of course, took photos of my favorite displays.

The first is Bikini Pool--no people, but two discarded bikinis, a postcard mentioning how this guy has met two terrific girls on his vacation, and a brand new Subaru packed with picnic gear. Very cute concept.

The second is an outdoor canopy bed and also a funky bathtub--they were in the same garden display.

The bonsai display was also fabulous. I always enjoy this show, which is held in the spring every year. Be sure to check it out if you can.

Winter Garden painting is finally finished!

I started this painting way last summer, but thanks to my new little painting group, I managed to finish it today. I invited some friends to come and paint at my house on Saturdays, and this forces me to paint, too. It took three more sessions to finish this one, which I called "Winter Garden." I also drew up my next painting--it's a photo that I had already chosen and even printed up large, but it has been waiting patiently for months. It feels so good to be painting again.

California Fiber Artists meeting

Another day, another California Fiber Artists meeting. Actually, we all get together only one day a year in person--at other times, we communicate by e-mail and we hang, on average, about four shows a year in various galleries and museums. Our next show is a display at the upcoming East Bay Heritage Quilters Show in Oakland, CA. in April.

These pictures show quilts by Karen Flamme (she pronounces it "Flame"). We met at her house in Oakland, just at the edge of where the Oakland fire burned so many homes about ten years ago. The views of the bay are spectacular. She has a very pretty back patio and a super-neat home studio. (is it always that tidy???)

Stitches West, knitter's paradise

I spent the last three days fondling fiber at Stitches West, the biggest knitting convention in the U.S., which just happens to be about an hour from where I live. I took a class in backward knitting (handy for entrelac) and "Foxglove sock architecture" from Cat Bordhi. Yes, I bought some lovely hand dyed sock yarn, more Noro Kureyon so I can make some felted bags, and a few other goodies.

Marianne North

Have you ever heard of an English painter called Marianne North? When I went to England last year, I found an old house/museum packed full of her paintings at Kew Gardens. You can see how the walls are completely covered with her work. She was a Victorian-era artist who traveled all over, especially to tropical countries, and painted the weird and wonderful plants and scenery she saw there. There are a couple books of her paintings available for sale on kewbooks.com.

A scarey sculpture at the Getty Villa

I just got back from a whirlwind three-day trip to LA. The initial reason was to check out the LA Art Show, which is held at the Santa Monica Airport in a couple of hangers. I also wanted to show my daughter the Getty Center and visit the Getty Villa, which I have not seen since it reopened a couple of years ago. So here is a scarey sculpture from the Villa, my daughter outside the LA Art Show standing next to a large yellow sculpture, and another shot of the art show entrance. The last picture is me, sitting in front of a tiled fountain at the Villa. I used to go there when I lived in LA, and it was very nostalgic to see it again--now all the art is Greek or Roman, and a new cafe, bookstore and open theater has been built on the side. But the museum, which is a recreation of a Roman villa that was buried at Pompei, is still much the same. You need reservations to get in, you can make them online and find out about both Getty museums at www.getty.edu.

another painting in progress

I started this large painting last summer, but haven;t worked on it since September. Now that my friend Linda and I have started a semi-regular painting group, I am going to finish it. We painted together yesterday for the first time, and I got quite a lot done on this.

poor lighting

I submitted two of my pieces to the Coastal Arts League Gallery Member's show. One is in a great spot (Farmer John's Pumpkins) but the other (Veiled Nude) is in the darkest corner, too high up on the wall. [note:I don't know why it is sideways--it isn't that way on my computer.] I am posting two shots of the gallery--that dark rectangle in the corner is Veiled Nude (you can see it in the close up shot). Now why do people do that? Somehow, no matter which show I enter, I invariably find that the lighting on MY piece is terrible. It would have been better to switch the two--the dark Veiled Nude really needs good lighting, but the pumpkin painting is bright enough to stand out, even in a dark location.

Start the new year with a radish

I just finished this little painting, the Chronicle ran a photo of radishes that I really liked so that was my inspiration. Plus, the color scheme is so Christmas.

Stuffed Santa

I haven't painted this much for months, but seeing all our holiday decorations seems to have inspired me. I made this quilted Santa many years ago, he is entirely hand quilted. The tree is actually a stocking hanger that sits on the mantel.

I'm a painting fool

Today, I painted this nutcracker with a poinsettia in the background.

New Painting: Nutcrackers

Here's the painting I did yesterday, using those cute nutcracker candles that I showed in my last blog entry. My talented daughter painted the shaded background for me. I plan to do a few more Christmas paintings so next year, I can print my own cards.

getting ready for Christmas

I'm hoping to do some watercolor painting over the holidays, and I decided to take some photos of our Christmas decorations so I can do a painting for cards. These two candle nutcrackers were on sale for half price at Longs drugstore last week--so of course I had to snap them up. The vase is made by Foxlo Pottery, I usually see them at the Kings Mountain Art Festival and this year they came to the Pumpkin Festival, too. They are a husband/wife team--he makes the vessels and she carves designs into them. Each color requires a separate firing. I own several pieces of theirs now, since I try to buy at least one whenever I see them.

Slip-stitch socks

I continue to make socks--these have a slip stitch cuff and heel, plus a contrasting toe to try to use up some leftover varigated yarn. It never works, I always have more yarn left. But it did make a lovely pair of socks.

Another mystery shawl

This is my progress through clue #3--the next clue just came out today so I'm working on it, but it will become harder to photograph on the needles as the shawl gets larger. I think the varigated yarn is going to look okay, but if the values are just too contrasty, I may just dunk the finished shawl into some medium blue dye and even out the contrast a bit.

Today I blocked the needle roll that Margie felted for me, in the hopes that I can make it a bit more square. The yarn is noro kureyon, the same colors as the bag I posted here recently. I have to sew a lining into it, I have the perfect fabric so now I just need to find the time to do it.

It's in the bag

Margie brought over three projects she felted for me last night. This was the easiest to finish--a mitered bag that just needed the handles sewn on. I bought these nice leather handles on sale last month, they are the perfect color and very sturdy. I may end up putting a lining into the bag to make it stand up a bit better. Those pink cabled socks I posted last month won a prize on Ravelry! I was so surprised and pleased. Of course that means I am knitting even more socks.

Too many socks?

I've been madly knitting socks lately--here is a group shot of a bunch of my creations, plus a couple of recent additions to the bunch. The reddish socks are tofutsies yarn (yes, it has tofu and wool and shrimp shells in it), and the dark socks are from a sock club I joined last year, called Socks That Rock. The pattern is called Lenore.

The Great Pumpkin

I wore this same outfit to the Pumpkin Festival in Half Moon Bay, but nobody took my picture. So you get to see my hand knitted pumpkin hat and tie-dyed pumpkin t-shirt as it appeared at my company's Halloween party last week. (That's me on the far right, grinning.)

Oldie but a goodie--Japanese heroine

This quilt is a few years old, but I didn't have a blog when I made it--so I'm posting it now for the first time. The central image is from a cotton Japanese banner--it is actually only about half of the very long, vertical banner which is attached to a tall bamboo pole during parades. The border with the large white stars is a tie-dyed fabric from an old yukata (cotton kimono). I used many small pieces of Japanese fabrics to piece the border. Somehow, I still have plenty of Japanese fabric left--it does seem to multiply in my stash.

Mystery Stole is finished!

The Mystery Stole is finished. The grafting was a nightmare and it's far from perfect, but it's done and I learned a lot. The yarn is a hand dyed perle cotton that I bought somewhere a few years ago. I still have enough left for a small project, perhaps a shoulder-size shawl.

Here's looking at you, kid!

I took this fellow's picture at the Long Branch, too.

Halloween on the Coastside

Where I live, there are many pumpkin farms. Today, we visited a different kind of pumpkin patch--Long Branch, about six miles south of Half Moon Bay on highway 1. It is usually not open to the public, because it is usually rented out to companies or groups that have meetings and parties there. For the month of October, they held it open to anyone, so we drove down to check it out. One picture shows an overall view of the town. Some of the buildings are just fake fronts, but in the "saloon" is the actual Palace Hotel bar, which survived the San Francisco Earthquake. There are a few live farm and exotic animals and a lovely cow skull--very appropriate for this time of year.

Finally finished--mystery shawl 3!

I took this shot as it was blocking--this is the famous Mystery Shawl 3! I used a camel/silk blend yarn from elann.com, and didn't quite have enough--I had to leave off the last repeat of the lace pattern. But the shawl is just the right size for me.

Linda McDonald Bear Quilt

I was the lucky bidder on this Linda McDonald Bear quilt at the recent fundraising auction for the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles. She airbrushes the image onto fabric--this piece is very small (about 18 inches square) but many of her quilts are very large and intricate. She was the featured guest on the same Simply Quilts when I had the opening short segment, and I have always wanted to own one of her pieces.

Photo Needle Case at PIQF

I saw this needlecase at the PIQF show and just loved it. The artist scanned her actual knitting needles and yarn, and printed them on fabric, then sewed the case. What a great idea! I believe this needle case was in the display for the book I plugged in the previous post ("Innovative Fabric Imagery"), but I don't know if it's in the book itself. The label next to it says it is called "I know where to find my needles bag", but I can't read the artist's name.

Innovative Imagery book with my quilt

I just have to brag--a new book was just published, and it has a picture of this quilt of mine, Yellow Leaves with Grate. I took the photo while attending Art Quilt Tahoe at Squaw Creek, printed it on fabric and sewed the prints together to make the quilt top.

My quilt is shown on page 86 of "Innovative Fabric Imagery for Quilts: Must-Have Guide to Transforming & Printing Your Favorite Images on Fabric" by Cyndy Lyle Rymer and Lynn Koolis, just published by C&T. It's on preorder at amazon.com, but I picked up a copy in the Cotton Patch booth at the Pacific International Quilt Festival a couple of weeks ago.

SAQA meeting at Judith Content's house

We are so lucky that the new president of Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA) lives nearby! And she offers her home for our meetings about once a year. Her home and garden are truly an extension of her artwork. We met there last Saturday, and I took a few pictures. As you can see, she loves to arrange wonderful, eclectic things all over the house. I wonder how much time she spends dusting???

Victoria and Albert Museum needlework

I didn't have time to see much needlework in London, but I did take these shots at the Victoria and Albert Museum. The first is a lovely piece of embroidery called "Fantasy" by Rebecca Crompton, 1936. According to the label, "She was an influential educator and one of Britain's leading exponents of free, creative machine embroidery. Her control of the machine was such that she could create embroideries of great subtlety." I didn't make notes about the other two, but isn't that knitted lace shawl stunning? And I loved the old hand knitted socks in the third photo.

Felt artist, Bailey Curtis

I showed you the pink felted piece that I brought back from England. It was made by Bailey Curtis. We were able to visit her in her home studio and find out how she makes her wonderful art. Later on, we saw her at the Birmingham quilt show, where she had a booth. The photos show Bailey explaining how she dyes the felt, some landscape photos and a woven piece she made that was inspired by them, and an interior shot of her tiny studio in a former garage behind her house.

Making cute felt creatures!]

I found this incredibly charming book at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and decided to try making some of the little creatures in it. As you can see, I made three of them--a blue monkey, "Liar" (the guy with the yellow head and red body), and a Sprite--actually, my daughter made the Sprite and did a very neat job of it. We have vowed to make all the creatures in the book--they are so cute! The book was originally published in Japanese but the English version came out recently, so you should be able to find it. The author is Aranzi Aronzo, publisher is Vertical. Also, "Craft" magazine, volume 3 (www.craftzine.com) published a cat pattern from the book recently.