Larger yellow leaves

Over the long weekend, I machine quilted the larger version of the Yellow Leaf quilt. The border has leaf quilting, the interior squares are quilted along the edges of the images with clear thread. This one was also basted with the spray, and it had the same problems. Maybe it's because my basting spray is several years old?

Foster City Quilt

I've been busy--this is the photo and the quilt that emerged after a brief visit to a park in Foster City two weeks ago. I took a nice angled shot of a piece of the pier, printed it a few times on fabric, and made this little quilt (about 25 inches by 30 inches). I also tried using fusible fleece instead of batting, and even spray basted the backing, so no pins or thread basting were required. It's machine quilted with invisible thread. Today my needle and the base of my machine have some grey sticky stuff on them, so I'm wondering if it was the basting spray migrating out through the needle holes--must do further research. The sticky stuff cleaned off with water and Windex, at least.

Yellow leaf photo quilt

Here's another photo and the resulting quilt (it's about 20 inches by 15 inches). These leaf prints were the ones that didn't come out too great because the toner cartridge was running out of ink--I am making a larger quilt using the same photos and better prints. I had to color in the black areas in this quilt to cover up the light grey lines made by the printer. But it came out just fine and I didn't have to waste even one piece of precious fabric from Color Textiles (www.colortextiles.com). I am using their white cotton sheeting, it is about the same weight as most quilting cottons.

Snails in the fish pond

This is the little quilt I sold this past weekend, it has some fabric I stamped with a snail shape on either side of the batik fish panel in the middle. I embroidered the fish panel, also. Usually I transfer photos from my camera to my computer by putting the camera's memory card into my printer. But it stopped working, so I just pulled out the cable that came with my camera and used it for the first time to transfer photos directly from the camera to my computer. There is always another way to do something...

Cute little things

These two shots are also inside my sewing room. The kitties are all made in Japan of the same kind of Japanese crape fabric that is used in my photo quilt. The wooden woman was made by my dad many years ago, and the wooden chain is a depression-era piece that has these words incised on it: "spit and argue club." I can just image a bunch of unemployed guys sitting around whittling and talking and chewing tobacco, spitting into a cuspidor in the corner...

The sewing bear is made of composite (plastic). If you lift him up, the top of the book he is sitting on comes off and inside is a little box where I can hide things. The round doll is also from Japan, she is made of paper and has a little bell inside.

Ft. Mason Piers

Here's the top, all sewn together although it still needs borders. I printed many copies of the photo on the polyester crape fabric. As you can see, the image is softer on fabric, it seems to grey down the colors, but I like the effect. The waves under the pier (next to black vertical shapes) almost look like sashiko stitching.

Starting a new quilt...

When I was at Ft. Mason, I took this photo of an old pier. Today I decided to try printing it on some Japanese crape ("chirimen") that I received for an invitational quilt show that will tour in Japan next year. By flipping the picture, the lines of the wooden piers line up and create an image that looks like "shibori" fabric (another Japanese textile technique). The pieces are pinned on my design wall now, when they are sewed together I'll post another picture.

I sold a quilt

I had a few visitors yesterday at Open Studios--and one of them bought this quilt! It is called Oak Leaves and I painted the fabric at Art Quilt Tahoe (www.artquilttahoe.com) last November in Gerry Chase's (www.artquilttahoe.com/gerrychase/index.htm) class. Then I tore it into squares, and designed this little quilt. This sale paid for my Open Studios fees plus a bit more, so I am very happy.

Kitty sisters!

I went to Ft. Mason in San Francisco yesterday to check out the SFMOMA artists sale (www.sfmoma.org/museumstore/artists_exhibitions.html). You can see how overcast and grey it was--that's the Golden Gate Bridge in the distance.

These are our two orange cats--they are so similar, I call them "the kitty sisters." (I think they are actually cousins.) Their names are Honey and Ginger, but only my kids can tell which is which. We put this basket out on our front step when it was raining so much, and now they don't want to leave it even on a nice day. Aren't they sweet?

Japanese blossom quilt

My newest quilt, "Japanese Blossom," started with a block that I made using scraps leftover from other projects (it's in the middle of the quilt). It hung around my studio for several months until I finally finished it. This piece is about 20 inches by 30 inches, and has intensive machine quilting in a leafy pattern.

Open Studios this weekend!

I'm participating in Silicon Valley Open Studios for the next three weekends (may 6-7, 13-14, and 20-21) from 11 am to 5 pm each Saturday and Sunday. I'm #31 on the official map, you can find the maps and a picture of one of my quilts at www.svos.org. This quilt is a fairly new one--it is promised to a CFA exhibition in Huntsville, Alabama later this year, but it will be on display during Open Studios anyway. My studio is in my home, I hope you can come by and check it out. I am baking fresh cookies as an incentive :-)

Free e-mail newsletter about art

For awhile, I have been getting weekly emails about art from Robert Genn. These are free, you can sign up at http://www.painterskeys.com/.

He is an interesting writer and also includes comments from other artists. If you let me sign you up, I can get a free book--but you can go ahead and sign yourself up, too. I find it inspiring to get emails about art, not just about quilting. I used to enjoy the quiltart mailing list, but there were so many off-topic posts that I am unsubscribed at the moment. Seems like I spend enough time at the computer as it is, since I work at home there are many other things I could be doing than reading email.

The photos are from a garden tour I recently took in Palo Alto. The rocks and tree roots will become another watercolor painting. The metal statue was in a garden, I have seen work by this same artist (don't know his name) at Ft. Mason craft shows, but this is the first time I have seen his work in an actual garden.

My son's new house

My oldest son just bought a new house--it is actually an older house in a nice established area of Atlanta. I love the big old trees. It needs a lot of redecorating but is in good condition. I am hoping to visit soon after they move in...isn't it a lovely place?

Peek Into My Sketchbook

These three pages are from my 2005 journal--it is larger than my current journal, so it's easier to scan. These journals include interesting quotes that I come across in my reading, as well as sketches of things that I see. Bits of "ephemera" are taped onto the pages whenever appropriate. Usually, I sketch with a black fine point marker, then later at home I use watercolor paints to add color. These pages will be sent to Artists Sketchbook magazine--they publish pages from readers who send them in.

No-Fear Guide to Creating Art Journals

Last weekend, I met Sabrina Ward Harrison -- she is a young artist who has been staying on a ranch nearby for several months and was doing a book signing and reading at a local bookstore. I bought all her books, including the newest one, "The True and The Questions." But I asked her to sign my own journal, instead.

Sabrina Ward Harrison's Art Journals

Adam and Eve

This is my newest quilt--I made it specifically for a show called "The Naked Truth." The two drawings by Rubens were printed onto fabric and then I designed the quilt around them, using some silk shibori scraps I bought from Judith Content several years ago (the horizontal pieces across the bottom and middle of the quilt) along with a large grey piece of fabric I painted. This quilt is about 30 inches square.

When I first finished the quilting, it was warped badly. I slice out about half an inch next to the "Adam" image, and then I pinned it on the floor and held a steam iron over it. I hope that fixed it! I usually don't do this much machine quilting, but the smaller pieces that I heavily quilted did not warp, so I'm not sure why this one did.

The color scheme is very subdued compared to my usual bright colors and I really like it--this could be a new direction for my fiber art. It's more like my watercolor paintings, don't you think?

"The Naked Truth" is a group show by the California Fiber Artists (www.cafiberartists.com). It will be at the Coastal Arts League Museum and Gallery in Half Moon Bay, from June 8 through July 3, 2006. (www.coastalartsleague.com) I hope you'll come by and see it.

Open Studio

Today, you get to peek inside my studio! It's just a bedroom in my house that I have been using as a sewing and craft room for several years. I don't have anything interesting on the design wall right now, but you can see my fabric storage (laundry baskets on wire shelving under the window), antique oak desk chair, and the sewing table with my new Janome 6500 machine (Love it!). A large cutting table and bookshelves are on a third wall, and the bedroom closet is full of yarn, batting, and finished quilts.

"Inspiring Work Spaces" (Amazon.com book)

Yadda, yadda, yadda

My latest little quilt, this one is called "Yadda, yadda, yadda" because it looks like some human figures and there are letter sequins glued on the yellow background, along with a few beads. The white "glints" are actually my camera's flash reflecting off the largest sequins. This is actually the second quilt like this one I made--the first is for a Bag o Stuff exchange for SAQA, and I liked it so much I had to make one for myself. They are identical except for the backing. The human figures are cut from one of the fabrics that came in the bag, I fused them onto the background, then machine quilted very heavily. I plan to send this to a CFA show next month at Ironstone Winery.

Tangle of Kelp

This watercolor painting is four times as big as the Stones picture. I drove to Santa Cruz a couple of months ago, and stopped to take photos on the beach at Big Basin. This tangle of kelp was a lot of fun to paint--like doing a puzzle. This is the first time I have used watercolor board, it is actually matt board with watercolor paper bonded to it. It is almost like regular watercolor paper, except it dried a bit faster. This helped me complete the painting fairly quickly, because I could put another glaze on top of an area I had just painted without waiting for it to dry.

The Train Depot Rocks

You are the first to see my newest watercolor. The title, "Train Depot Rocks," refers to the historic Train Depot where we usually have our watercolor classes. One day I took pictures of some rocks nearby--and this painting is the result. We have not had class for a few weeks now, as the Depot has mildew that is being removed. I miss it! Doing this painting brought back all my good memories of our classes there.

Textile Arts Today at Synopsys

Today I visited a show at Synopsys, a software company in Silicon Valley. The show was curated by Carol Dabb, and part of the proceeds from any sales will go to the San Jose Museum of Quilts. Two of my quilts are in the show. I was only able to see part of the exhibit, since the quilts are spread around three buildings and we were only allowed into one of them today. But you can see all of the quilts at http://www.sjquiltmuseum.org/synopsys/index.html.

My quilts were both made at Art Quilt Tahoe (www.artquilttahoe.com) last November in a class by Gerry Chase. We painted on fabric with acrylic paint, then tore it into squares and designed small pieces. The blue quilt is appropriately titled, "Blue Squares." The other quilt is "One Fish," inspired by the tiny goldfish in a bag that is appliqued on the center section.