This little wall quilt was part of a challenge from our quilt group, theme "Stars". I used my hand dyed fabrics to create the sun, a star we are all so  familiar with on earth. Hand dyed fabrics, hand painted and machine quilted.

Detail

 It's been a year since I've posted on here and a lot has happened. I retired from teaching a year ago and I'm enjoying myself so much. I love having the time to do whatever I want. So lucky to be in this position. My son graduated with his MBA in Sustainable Management. This picture was taken of him and his girlfriend in San Francisco in early June this year at the graduation. It was great fun to see him complete this accomplishment and  all while working full time. We are so proud.

 These two mini quilts were created for two friends who recently retired. Congratulations!

And I've been working in the backyard a lot, especially  working on these two stone paths. Both were made a long time ago, but needed repair. So much time was spent repairing, expanding, and otherwise fixing these paths .They're not perfect but I love how they turned out. Now I'm ready to do a mosaic on one of our patio walls. I'll keep you posted on that. We also planted a succulent garden and I am busy propagating succulents all over the place. It's so easy and fun. 

Still Dyeing and Knitting

 This adventure became.....

 this.

 Mandala blouse with indigo dye.

 I made two almost identical panels for bedroom windows.

 Backyard dyeing scene in progress.

 New curtain dyed for kitchen.

New shawl, Find Your Fade, on Ravelry. Very happy to say I used stash only!!!

Mandala Madness Continues

Retirement Quilt for Brenda

This was a special goodbye quilt to that beautiful person on the left at the top of the page. I've taught with Brenda for almost 25 years at our elementary school. Everyone on staff signed their names on the "rays". All the fabric is my hand dyed fabric with the exception of the batik "love" fabric. The center is quilted with crazy machine stitches, going round and round in a circle. The center is pieced and all the rays are fused on. Eric Carle I'm looking at you! Everyone thought it looked like an Eric Carle collage. Needless to say she loved it!

Mandalas 2

This detail shot shows the use of hemostats to pinch and hold the center. I bought several sizes at Harbor Freight fairly cheaply, they carry four sizes.

I'm sort of in love with making these. I counted them up this weekend when I was taking pictures of them, and I have about 100. OMG. Yes that's correct, I have over 100 of these babies. Not all are keepers for sure, the ones I did at the beginning were real experiments. But now I'm considering how some of the "rejects" might be cut up for quilting or other art projects. SO FUN.