Something About Nothing

Keiko and I have been working hard. . .  . . . And sometimes hardly working. . .  . . .because when it's winter, sometimes you just need to stop and watch some Paul Hollywood .  The icicles keep getting longer. . .  . . .and longer.  Pretty soon they might be growing from the ground up!  Brrrr  But seriously, I am working, I just can't show you what it is yet!  I have an article coming up in  Quilting Arts magazine on creating carved stamp repeats. I'm looking forward to the warmth as well as the article being done. The worst part of this article is that they want a photo of me and my studio. That meant I had to CLEAN UP the studio, AND take a shower. Just kidding, I do shower regularly, sometimes. But seriously, I'm not a fan of taking photos of myself. First off, my face does not like make up anymore. My eyes tear up whenever anything gets near them.  It's okay to have a bare face on a day to day basis

Liz and Ruth introduced me to Wonderfil threads. I have had a good time using them in all my hand stitching, and even some machine stitching too. I can't show the machine stitched piece for another year though!  I will have to make more I can show. I am enjoying doing big stitch hand quilting with them in my Thunderstruck quilt I started last year in Victoria Findlay Wolfe's class at Craft Napa . I love the texture the big stitches and thicker thread give to the quilt. I have also been using the thread in the pieces I am embroidering for the  Social Justice Sewing Academy.  The kids who are putting these blocks together are amazing!  They really come up with great ideas. My job is to get it all stitched down so it can be pieced into quilts and machine quilted. You can find out more about their program at this link . And then maybe volunteer to help embroider a block or five.

On Friday I hosted one more make and take of wristlets. I like seeing what people will create when given the same materials. All the stops are always pulled out at Art and Soul! I only have a couple of shots of items at Vendor Night, but I made a video too.  And before I left town, my friend Nancy Raymond and I stopped at the Fabric Depot where they were having a giant warehouse sale. The line was just too long to buy anything but it was fun to look. The bridges in Portland are beautiful, even on a rainy day.  Goodbye Portland! Until next time!

I had the opportunity to teach two stamp carving classes at Art and Soul . The first class was a beginning stamp carving class. The students did a great job! The second class was learning how to create repeat carving stamps. Darla's awesome designs. Lara and her lovely designs. Ruth's intricate designs. And while everyone was busy designing and carving I made a stamp too. The ladies in my Bojagi Fusion class were a lot of fun!   They created some lovely pieces. One day we had some free time and Kristin La Flame and Gerrie Congdon picked Liz Kettle and I up at the hotel to show us around a bit of Portland. We visited Bolt . . .  . . .where Liz easily found her favorite color. We had a great lunch of Thai food followed by dessert at a cute coffee shop. We also visited another beautiful shop called Modern Domestic. My daughter loves plaid flannels so I had to get a photo of these! Late