I’ve been fortunate to receive a few pieces of my grandmother’s fine hand work. Not necessarily things I would make for myself, they are nonetheless, a treasured legacy from a woman who influenced me deeply. Hilda Elizabeth Packer Preston lived with my family for 10 years — my ages 3 – 13 — and it […]
One-Sentence Journaling
Late in 2009 I learned about a woman who began keeping a one-sentence journal in an attempt to capture highlights of her life on a regular basis. I thought it was a great idea and something I could commit to. For ease, I decided to keep it on my computer and augment the written journal […]
Wordless Wednesday
Leafy Sea Dragon
Earlier this month we made a trip to visit the Monterey Bay Aquarium. I’ve wanted to revisit since learning about the seahorse exhibit. The exhibit has been there for many years already…but you know how that happens. I was tickled by the Potbelly seahorse. Apparently, a big belly is better for attracting females, so the […]
More Needle Felting
Yum! I am loving the hand of these needle felted pieces. Here is the second half of the crewel-embroidered snippet I found. The cording on the edge was tied around a Christmas gift last year. It’s so fun to repurpose things that come into my life — especially in unexpected ways. Click on an image […]
Needle Felting
I’ve turned half of the crewel-embroidered fabric I needle felted into a postcard. The fabric included a metallic thread stitched around much of the individual motifs, however, after needle felting the metallic thread was cut too much to leave hanging here and there. So I removed the tidbits of broken threads and added my own […]
Needlefelting
The needlefelting machine has been idle for simply too long. Time to dig out the wool roving and do something with it! And look what I found while pulling out the roving. It’s an embroidered snippet (about 6″ x 8″) of who-knows-what that my cousin left me from his estate. It looks like crewel […]
Wordless Wednesday
A Teaching Moment
Cinema Place Gallery is exhibiting my work in The QuiltEssential Event and I have agreed to sit the gallery twice during the exhibition. My first experience was on a Thursday, 4 – 8 p.m. Considering the day of the week and the hours I was there, I anticipated a rather quiet time. Not so. Foot […]
Time to Tweak
Since August my energy has been focused on completing projects for deadlines and keeping up with commitments made before the crazy time set in. That’s history and the bulk of my quilts are home once again. So it’s time for tweaking — rehanging old friends and finding a place for two large quilts that went […]
Gallery Visit and Quilt Critiques with Sandra Sider
I’m a member of Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA) and I share the role of Representative for the Northern California/Nevada region with Sandy Wagner. I had the pleasure of hosting Sandra Sider, President of SAQA, at my home earlier this month. She was in town for other business and graciously offered to conduct a session […]
Borrowed From Nature – Artist Reception
The reception for my solo exhibit Borrowed From Nature, was held on Saturday, October 22, from 6 – 8 p.m. One of the nice things about the artist receptions at Creative Framing & Gallery is that they are held several weeks after the exhibit opens — it acts more as a closing reception. Some of […]
Creative Living is a very good thing
In the past week I’ve received email and phone requests to purchase my book. The interested parties had seen me on TV and were excited about making fabric postcards! A bit of history here…please bear with me. In January 2010 my publisher, C & T Publishing, alerted me that Sheryl Borden, Producer/Host of Creative Living […]
Postmark’d Art Has a New Face
Postmark’d Art, the on-line community of artists creating and trading fabric postcards through the mail, has a new face! The new site, which now includes a blog, went public Sunday, October 16th. Karen Musgrave of Illinois and Lynn Chinnis of Virginia, both charter members, are working with me to fine tune the information and ease […]
Wordless Wednesday
Inspiration Leads to Precious Metals
Remember those postcards I created using the themes of gold, silver and copper? Making those little gems inspired my putting the three together into a larger format. Thinking about all that glitz naturally led to beads. It sounded like such a good idea and then I started beading — that’s 39″ of beading on a […]
Demonstration at Cinema Place Gallery
The QuiltEssential Event at Cinema Place Gallery in Hayward continues to garner rave reviews. The first quilt sold the night of the reception! How exciting is that? I will be at the gallery tomorrow from 6 – 8 p.m. demonstrating how I create fabric postcards. I’ll also have copies of my book for sale. Liz […]
SAQA Auction a Success
309 art quilts were donated for the 2011 SAQA Auction, raising $52,100! I’d call that a raging success actually. The funds raised through the Auction are critical to supporting SAQA’s exhibitions, catalogs and outreach programs. And I was lucky enough to be high bidder on Elemental Surprise by Janice McKeehan of Houston, Texas. […]
Precious Metals
I couldn’t resist using the three metals — copper, silver and gold — that I just used for postcards in my next small quilt. I’ve just finished the quilting and I have it prepared to block. Since it’s just 14 inches square right now, it shouldn’t take long to dry. I’ve already decided […]
Wordless Wednesday: The Gold is Here
Fabric Postcard
Anyone who knows me understands that I am possessed with the ginkgo leaf. After years of using the image on postcards and quilts, I even planted a ginkgo tree last year. My own tree! My own leaves! And it’s autumn! But I digress…. Having just completed the second of two large quilts that will hang […]
Woodwardia Ferns Done
Ahh, there’s nothing quite like the satisfaction of a completed project and since this one is done before deadline I’m feeling an extra measure of satisfaction. “Woodwardia Ferns” measures 49″ x 65 1/4″ and is the largest art quilt I’ve made to date. The three heliographic prints were begun in the early summer. These fabulous […]
Fabric Postcards
I’m yearning to work in a small format. I have a stack of 5″ x 7″ and 16″ x 16″ fabrics sitting on my cutting board and I’ll be turning those into postcards and 12-inch-square quilts over the next 7 – 10 days. While I’ve been pondering these stacks and the possibilities, my mind has […]
Textiles and Tomatoes
The moment we stepped outside for our morning walk with the boys I could tell it was going to be a real summer day — you know, the kind of tomato-ripening weather you usually have in July and August. Well, that kind of heat eluded us all summer. But it’s here today and I couldn’t […]
Wordless Wednesday
Quilting the ferns
I’m back working on the Woodwardia fern quilt and am reminded once more how much I truly enjoy each step in the process of creating an art quilt. Right down to the final hand stitching of the binding, I’m enjoying the work. Having just completed smaller pieces with much smaller quilting patterns, this takes focus, […]
Art in the Mail
The theme I joined for this rounds’ exchange of fabric postcards with Postmark’d Art is Alphabet. It will take several rounds of trading to get through the whole alphabet. This round involves the first 6 letters: A, B, C, D, E, F. There are 6 fiber artists in a group and each person chooses one […]
Time Travel
The phenomenon of social media has tweaked lives, mine included. Just this week I checked out a photo album on a site for Frankfurt American High School and found 2 photos of myself in my drill team uniform on the football field. (Frankfurt is one of 2 high schools I attended in Germany during the 1960’s; I […]
Collaboration Complete
It doesn’t get better than this: The quilt it done and we have a day to spare. Both Heather and I enjoyed the process enormously, learned a lot from each other and will enjoy showing this shared vision at the “Collaborative Exhibit” at Creative Framing & Gallery during September. (See “Exhibitions of my work” in […]
Getting the edge right
Getting the edge of a quilt right is important. For me that means the edge will be easy to handle as I stitch the binding on, both by machine and by hand, and the quilt will lay flat — no ripples. There are two things I do to achieve this. First, I stitch the edge […]
