NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE

Nashville

undefined

Remembering Barbaro

Here is a picture of my latest quilt. It is in honor of Barbaro, the horse that won the Kentucky Derby, but then broke his leg during his next race. He and his owners fought such a valiant battle, but in the end they had to put him down. Sad story but he will be well remembered!

This is hanging in Berea, Ky., amoung many other wonderful quilts at the State Extravaganza that we hold each year. I wish it didn't take such a long time for me to publish a picture on my blog, I would like to show some of the others.

Paris----------------

It took me 10 minutes for google to download this one picture! I just wanted all of you to see how the French display their veggies. Very creative!

Paris, France

I just got back from a trip to Paris France. What a treat, and although I have been there perhaps 6-7 times I never tire of spending time there. This time I tried to go to places I had not seen before. For instance, I went to the Museum of Decorative Arts. One section was housed in the Louvre, and featured costumes from famous designers of the 60ies. I will try and download a couple of the items.

Then I went to another museum and they featured designers of the 50ies and it was a challange. So, each person did a dress or coat using unusual fabrics. I spent one day at the Flea market. For a fiber person it was a feast, only everything was so expensive, because the $ was about l.47. Needless to say I didn't buy very much, but enjoyed looking at all the old jewelry, buttons and many laces and ribbons.

Of course the food was out of this world, but in that vein, lunch, with just a salad and a glass of wine could cost anywhere from $25 to $30.

Since my return I have been very busy working on a couple of new ideas as well as finishing up several quilts that I had in the works before my trip. I am so enjoying this new technique and plan to teach it at the local quilt shop as well as at Get Away next year.

The picture above is a little dessert. Inside it is rasberry moose with pistachios. The French do such beautiful deserts and the way they display their vegatables is really unique.

PADUCAH QUILT SHOW

Drove down on Thursday with two quilting friend. My friend Cindy has a house on the lake where we spent the night. It was so quiet and serene with lots of birds that I have never seen before. Then the next morning bright and early we headed into Paducah to see the show.

I have attended Paducah now for at least 5-6 years and I am always excited to see the winners. This year somehow the show was not very exciting. The lady that won best of show last year also won this year. There were several pieces that caught my attention but in general I didn't see anything with new techniques, or new quilting patterns. Cassandra Williams had two pieces in the show that I really liked but other than that nothing really stands out in my memory. As the trip goes the three of us really had a good time, and of course we spent time in the Hancock fabric store and Hobby Lobby, but didn't really buy very much.

I recently took a class with Hollis Chatlain, and learned to paint with dyes. So, I was anxious to buy some more dyes and also the thickening agent she uses. SORRY, she wouldn't allow us to take any pictures!

I want to thank you for all the latest comments, especially concerning the new Jumbo quilt. It was so much fun to do!

Now here is another using the same technique but it came out so different. This was done from a picture of my male Beagle by the name of Bagel. Hope you enjoy seeing it.

Takes Blogger forever to download anything but finally was able to show my new quilt.

I was given a small ceramic elephant as a child, and have had it with me all these years. When I came up with this new technique, I was so excited and so decided to make this quilt in honor of my little elephant that has followed me around the world several times.

New Quilts

New Quilts

I posted a sneak preview earlier, now here is the whole quilt. I took quite some time to do but I am pleased with it.

Finally!!!!!!!!!!!

I can hardly believe after a couple of weeks of trying to publish a picture, it finally happened! Perhaps I just wasn't patient enough, or perhaps the new Google account has some glitches!

Anyway, here is a peek of my new quilt. It is a landscape within a landscape and if it gets into Paducah I will publish the whole quilt.

In the meantime, I have started a new quilt. After completing such a large quilt I was just Quilted Out for a while. So, I just worked on paper projects and contemplated what direction I want to go next. It all depends on how the next quilt turns out. I always have a distinct idea but very often it changes along the way. So, now with all the cold weathe upon us, it is a good time stay in and be creative!

BLOGGER TROUBLES?

Anybody else having problems with Blogger? I signed onto the new Google site and everytime I try to get to my blog it just says try again in 30 seconds!

No Pictures@@@@@@@@@@

Woe is me!! Now that my computer is finally fixed I am having problems figuring out how to down my pictures again. Just wanted to post a sneak preview of my new quilt, but guess I will have to wait until I can find the file where the pictures are downloaded.

In the mean time I have not done any quilting since before Christmas. Strange thing for me as I almost have another quilt in the works or at least in the head before I finish one. This time I started making Christmas cards and just like quilts one thing led to another and I am still working in paper. Actually there isn't too much difference. I make fabric and I also make paper. Not from scratch but I take white card stock and spray it with paint, and from there either stencil or stamp them to make them unique. I will take some pictures and try and post them tomorrow.

OK here is what I have really been up to for the last few weeks. Has anyone heard of Zumba classes. It is a type of Latin American aerobics. Well, I have been doing Yoga now for about a year and thought I was in pretty good shape, but let me tell you Zumba is quite a workout. The best part is that it is so much fun, and you really get to turn loose and shake the hips and boobs. So, ask around and see if you can find a class in your neighborhood.

IT'S OVER!!!!!!!!!!!

You shop, you plan, you cook! You think you have all the time in the world, then suddenly it is upon you, panic! Not me. I just enjoyed myself and if it didn't all get done, no one noticed.

However, today, I had the day to do what ever I wanted to and I was so discombumbulated I just did Yoga, and slept. Nothing wrong with that! I am planning my next quilt. That is my excuse! It won't be long before I am back into my old routine, and wonder where the time went.

I finished my Silk Painting class, and have registered for an art class next semester. I finished my latest quilt, and actually sent off the cd for Paducah this morning. We will see! Don't want to post it yet, but I might give you a bit of teaser later!

This is done on silk using gutta and also a thickener as well and chemical water on the lower section. It doesn't look straight because the air conditioner was blowing it around.  

This is a Shobori piece done by folding and clamping. 

This is a close up of the Discharge piece. Some color added back in and also varigated threads used to quilt it. 

You can see the discharge piece with the large leaf. Then below is a silk piece with butterflies. 

OPEN STUDIO

Tonight we had open studio, which means that all the students in the art department put their projects for the semester on display, for anyone that wanted to come and see them. I took a few pictures, and it was rather exciting to have such a crowd viewing the show.

I'm still trying to get Piccasa set up again so I can post pictures. So, here goes!

FINALLY BACK!

Well, for the moment my computer is working perfectly. Had to reinstall windows! I spent hours on the phone with Microsoft, dispite that fact that they were very nice, they just could not seem to solve the problem. So, I am a little limited as we had to reinstall almost all my programs. So, hopefully in a few days I will be back to normal.

I really felt out of touch, not being able to surf the artful quilters. Also, I was anxious to see the quilts that won in Houston. They were wonderful, but it seemed more traditional than last year.

I have been working every extra second on my entry for Paducah. I am done quilting but must square it up and find suitable binding. It is a big one! 88" by 81 " for the moment. I don't know how much I will chop off when I square it up.

It is good to be back, and I am now going to try and access my pictures and post at least a few.

Still on the Fritz!!!!!!!!!!!

Just when I thought my computer was fixed and was going to be better than before, something went wrong, and I am not able to access the internet at all. So, I am at the Library just to sort out my e-mails, and just let everybody know I am trying to get things back up and running again.

I am working really hard on a quilt I hope to enter in the Paducah show, but it has to be done and photographed by the first part of January, so I am really going to have to be diligent about working on it every day. Also, had to finish up projects with the class I am taking, so that took time away from my project. I have some really wonderful pictures to post, but that will have to wait until later. Sorry! I am feeling really frustrated.