Happy New Year

 

 Somebody is enjoying their new Christmas present.

 New hats knitted for my son Ryland and his room mates and friends.  I tried so hard to use up some of my stash, but it didn't even make a dent.

 As promised, pictures of my doodle quilting. I am a super strong advocate of free motion quilting and this book is just crazy with ideas of how to quilt all over with many different designs that all sort of bump into each other. So I practice.

 Just a reminder....don't drink too much tonight and drive safely.

If this works, it is a video of my husband coming down my brother in laws fire pole that goes directly into his "man cave".

This is a pretty bad picture of my postcard in the newest Quilting Arts Magazine. The article and challenge was called "Staycation". I took it pretty literally, like what do you do with your art at home when you are on vacation, and I do a lot of dyeing fabric. I was pretty surprised to see it published, I am not that impressed with it myself.

 Here are my two boys, Ryland looking bad ass in his grandfathers blue polyester suit from the 70's and Styles wearing a stylish plaid sports jacket from the same source.  Ryland recently came home from Santa Cruz to go through some of his stuff, hence the boxes and mess.

 Okay this picture is weird. This is Otis revisiting his childhood home. It is a fish "house" that I made for him when he was just a kitten. Back then he fit in it easily, now not so much. But he did seem to remember it well.  Now it lays on its side and he sleeps on top of it.

Wingin It

Putting some blocks together, but I really don't know what I am doing. I want to make these more interesting some how. I'll  keep plugging away at it.

 And because I know you need an Otis "fix", hanging out in the guitar case.

This is some of what I am thankful for...

My boys, my husband, my cats, my son's long time girlfriend, my sewing machine, and fabric.

Have a great Thanksgiving holiday.

Water Coloring Lately

I've been working  on water colors lately.  I got a little moleskin water color book and a tiny little portable water color set that comes with a brush with water resevoir and mixing tray and at night if I am too tired to sew or anything else, which is often, I sit and do water colors.

 The paintings below are emblematic of neurotic doodles that I have been doing for years. They are all a variation of about the same thing, which is what doodles are. I figured out that if this is what I draw all the time, why not let them be the subject of some art projects. Besides water colors I also add colored pencil and very fine black marker lines. Markers do not work well on top of water color. It makes the marker stop working...... any suggestions? I don't know what to use, I've tried several types and brands.

 It is very relaxing, almost as relaxing as knitting.

 

 

Can you hear me now?

Don't Forget

New shawlette, new "work" truck, new sculpture

I forget the pattern, but I am trying to use up some yarn, the color is a little off because I photographed it at 6:00 pm and it was getting dark.

 

Someone bought and has been restoring a "work truck". It is a 1970 VW Transporter and apparently quite rare.

 This is the someone who bought it for the company. He is very happy with it and it is pretty cute in a weird sort of way.

And last but not least this is a test to see if my son reads my blog, a bike sculpture made from food.

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New project

I showed you these fabrics a few weeks ago and they have morphed into this project. I looked and looked at books and pictures and then finally I decided half-square triangles would do the trick. Sometimes simple is the best solution.

 

 

And one more California Girl, Scooter

 

I've been doing a lot of water coloring, more on that later.

 

California Girl Finished!

 Not a very "fall" looking quilt, but fall is here!

This is the back. I try to use all the leftovers that I can in the backing. I loved this fabric when I first saw it, in retrospect it is a little old fashioned for me, but when I added some of my hand dyes to the front I liked it a little more. The spinning stars are all hand dyed fabrics. It turned out pretty, with  lots of  curlicues and squiggles in the quilting.

Check Out That California Girl!

Almost ready to quilt! California Girl fabric and California Girl taking the pic!

Coffee Mug to Quilt

I stared at this mug for over a year in my classroom. It looked like fabric every time I looked at it. One day I will make a quilt that resembles it, I said to myself. And I did. It was some piecing and some fusing. Fun to make.

Topflappen

This is my entry to Quilting Arts Magazine for their reader challenge, "What is your signature color?"

They told me I was a finalist and asked me to mail it in, but alas, they evidently did "not have room for all the entries" in their magazine. I was disappointed, but here it is. When they asked me for a title for it, I kept thinking about how small it was. The assignment, "create a 6"x6" "quilt" in your signature color, and I wanted to name it Topflappen, the german word for , oh yeah, potholder.

 

 

 

Hand dyed fabrics, oil pastels, water color crayons, bobbin stitching, machine quilting.