This is the second year of a three-year IQF project intended to throw the spot light on the plight of homeless cats and dogs. Last year a hand full of art quilts depicting animals was hung in Houston and fabric postcards were sold to raise money for local animal shelters. This year’s exhibit of 30 art quilts will travel through 2014 to various IQF-sponsored shows.

I’ll miss having this quilt in my home but the cause is worthy and I’m excited to help bring awareness to it. And, after all, the real Mendelssohn will be here to keep me company. He’s 13 now!

If you’d like to learn about the inspiration for and construction of this art quilt, click here.

The needlepoint piece still looks new. Do they every wear out? Just wondering.

The chair has been used in nearly every room of my house by now and, frankly, I’m pretty bored with the covering. It’s time for a fresh look.

I decided to stick with typography but this time I’m using our three initials to create a new fabric. The background fabric is a sturdy cotton in a light oatmeal color leftover from a cushion made for the window seat in our bedroom.

Here I am well on the way with the lettering. I started in the center and embroidered an area about 8″ x 11″. Then I hooped the fabric, lining up with existing letters to continue stitching to the right of the initial letters. This was a lot easier than may seem possible because of a handy grid insert on the hoop. I hooped the fabric 3 times to get this far.

The finished piece is 24″ x 24″ and will be ample to cover the seat of my chair.

I’ll be seeing the upholsterer tomorrow.

According to Heather Piazza, owner of Creative Framing & Gallery, this exhibit has enjoyed more viewers than any exhibit she’s had in the past 5 years. In the final week of the exhibit, 3 art quilts sold:

Untitled by Sandi Goldstein

Ode to Sacratomato by the Pixeladies

Breezy by Pat Porter

Thanks to all 26 artists who participated in this exhibit and helped to get the word out about art quilts!

If you’d like to learn more about the NorCA/NorNV region of SAQA, click here. To learn more about the international organization, click here.

Paint colors were inspired by an orange succulent and some of the blooms (for the post) and a new planter in the foreground of the above picture (for the door). Moving the round green pot with jade under the succulent wall accomplished two goals: it hides the watering lines for the succulent wall and eliminates the bottle neck at the corner where it sat. The second jade plant in the green pot (a different variety) was removed and planted in the smaller blue pot.

Here’s a view with the door shut.

The succulent wall continues to grow and has almost completely filled in the panels. They are so happy that they are producing pups like crazy.

And here’s a close-up view.

The inspiration for this project was born last November when I traded a trellis for a door.  Here’s how the side yard looked in February.

I think this has real possibility.

I’ve stitched it out on an upholstery fabric used for a couch in our family room. This design could be the answer to a fresh look. I can see using it several ways: as a single unit, a group of four and scattered. Stay tuned.

I couldn’t wait to dive in! I made Radish-Top Soup with Lemon and Yogurt from Deborah Madison’s new book, Vegetable Literacy. Yum! You can see more about Deborah and that book here.

And since I was in the mood and in the kitchen, I decided to try my hand at the mole recipe I got from Tracy Ritter while in Santa Fe. I learned long ago that the easiest way to cook is to prepare. Here are all the ingredients assembled, ready to use.

After roasting, chopping, and browning the ingredients simmer to finish cooking and thickening.

From start to finish about one hour elapsed. Time to get some shrimp out and give it a taste test.

Thanks to great local vegetables and some wonderful chefs we’re eating some mighty fine meals.

I’m very pleased that the silk deconstructed screen print fabric found a home here. It so nicely echoes the deconstruction of one of the oakleaf hydrangea leaves. And the Ghana wax batik mimics the blossom.

The copper and blue fabric — another ‘find’ while cleaning up my stash — is a hand-painted fat quarter. Straightening my stash continues to reap big rewards! And I was happy to find that some of the fabric I painted in Lonni Rossi’s surface design class worked well at the top — that’s linen painted with Setacolor opaque.

This piece really speaks to me of the earth and the cycles of nature — fresh and fading.

The print captured so much detail! Many of the veins of the leaves are clear and easy to stitch in. And the papery-thin flowers create such an elegant, wispy design.

This print is on China silk, approximately 20″ x 24″. I’m using silk thread. It is stabilized with Pellon Shirt Tailor, a fusible interfacing that works perfectly for this kind of work. Unlike the paper tear-away products that I use, the Shirt Tailor will remain on the back of the silk print. Because of this, I stop every few leaves or flowers and give the entire piece a gentle steam pressing. It’s important to me that the silk remains flat and true to size.

I finished sorting and organizing my green fabrics yesterday and in the process discovered a piece of silk fabric that I screen printed in a class with Kerr Grabowski in 2007. Kerr uses a method she calls Deconstructed Screenprinting. I think this small piece may find its way into this quilt.

For now its living with the other fabrics I’m auditioning. We’ll see what happens.

I shared the original printing of the oakleaf hydrangea here and the learning experience that came shortly after here. There is only one commercial fabric in what I pulled (fabrics on the right). Most have been created by me; the remaining are hand made by other fabric artists. I don’t have a specific plan right now — I’ll just have to start putting fabric on the wall and see what happens.