Something About Nothing

I was thrilled to be asked by Artistcellar to participate in  a blog hop promoting  Cecilia Swatton's new line of  Kaleidoscope Stencils .   I LOVE STENCILS! And I know you all do too, so someone is going to win a set of their own.   More details on that below.   Mister loves stencils too. Well honestly he loves anything he can get his paws into! He is such a good model. I started out playing with the stencils in my sketchbook. I tried a little painting, a little doodling, all just to see what kind of project I wanted to use them in. OH!   I just noticed a funny little white seal with fangs and a party hat there on the bottom right of the doodle above! OH, or maybe it is a seagull with a bow tie and party hat?  What do you think? Anyway, I decided that one of the projects I wanted to make was a birthday card for my sister-in-law.  I took a piece of sketchbook paper which I had added color to with my...

"I'd rather have roses on my table than diamonds on my neck." ~Emma Goldman  Flowers and leaves have always been my biggest inspiration in my art, my Muses as it were.  They are my go-to design and a natural choice for me when I wanted to make a whole cloth appliqué quilt.  I layered my quilt by Mistyfusing a piece of ice dyed fabrics to 80/20 wool felt , and then used 505 basting spray to baste the black over the the ice dyed fabric.  Next I free motion quilted the entire piece, leaving the insides of the flowers open so that I could cut them away and reveal the ice dyed fabric. I am submitting my quilt to the Bloggers Quilt Festival. Follow the link above and vote for your favorite quilts in each category!

I travelled south about 100 miles yesterday to give a lecture about Prayer Flags to the Wales Quilt Guild.   Wales is a former mining town nestled at the foot of the Sanpitch mountains.  Before the guild meeting I met my friend, Sylvia , in the town of Fountain Green to get a bite of lunch.  The highway leading into Fountain Green was beautiful!  Lots of color.  Lovely, almost clear, skies. We went to Shep's Grill for lunch.   I love Shep's Grill. I spent a lot of time there when I taught at  Pie Plates Retreat . They have free wifi AND great food. The owner/chef is very careful in preparing food for me that is gluten free.  She is a real sweetheart! The quilt guild meetings are held at the Wales Town hall .  The town hall, a brand new building, is l ocated next door to the park  and of course I forgot to get a photo of the town hall! Sylvia , current leader of the Wales guild, ...

I was excited to be asked by Regina Dunn to participate in the World Wide Blog Hop.  Basically everyone is sharing a little bit about themselves by answering a few simple questions and then sending the fun on to a few other bloggers. 1. What am I working on? I always have several projects in the hopper.  Lately I have been working on a project using some new stencil's from Cecilia Swatton  and Artistcellar .  I will reveal the projects I've been making with Cecilia's stencils on Oct. 27th.  I have been putting together a presentation about Blogging and Social Media that I will teach next month, as well as a class about Prayer Flags I will be teaching this coming Wednesday in Wales, Utah.  I also have ideas floating around my head and sketchbook for a few future projects I'm not ready to share yet.  Always something! 2. How does my work differ from others of its genre? I like to experiment, learn new things and share what I learn. I don...

Last night I finished up four little puppies for the Festival Pet Postcards at International Quilt Festival I created a stencil outline with a little puppy drawing  and then painted him in with acrylic paints. He is ready to play! Won't someone please take him home and play with him? Two of the postcards have gelli plate prints for their backing: All four will be available for a $20 donation at International Quilt Festival in Houston . I wish I was going to be there in person this year! Is anyone reading this post going to be there?

It was a fun week of packages! I ordered one of these awesome apron's  from Cheryl Sleboda of Muppin.com . It fits my daughter's personality perfectly! She has dreams of becoming a Costume Designer. The pockets in the apron make it perfect for the sewing room. I got a fun surprise in the mail too: I purchased the at-home ticket to Quilters Take Manhattan which included this fun bag of goodies!  Included in the bag were a business card holder, thread, fabric, magazines, and coupons! Lots of fun fodder. I also put a package IN the mail filled with three pincushions made with Lynn Krawczyk's new fabric line but I can't show even a glimpse until after Market at the end of the month.  I am also working with some new stencils from Artistcellar (more on those next week) and with a stencil I created to make some postcards for Festival Pet Postcard Project .  Proceeds from the sale of all the post cards will benefit Friends For Life , a no kill shelter ...

Leslie Tucker Jenison was the Queen Bee for September for The Printed Fabric Bee.  She chose Urban Surfaces as her theme because she loves the look of layered textures of old walls, peeling paint, and graffiti on building walls. I have been looking forward to this theme!  I wanted to do something that would resemble a wall with bits of paint peeling away to reveal other layers of mystery.  I started with a piece of fabric I dyed in one of my favorite color ways:  Next I added a few words in turquoise here and there from a thermofax screen I made from an image I found at The Graphics Fairy . I must have been very caught up in the process because I missed getting a photo of the next layer - another thermofax.  It was comprised of lots of scribbles.  I printed them in brown and yellow.  You can see a little bit of the results on the lefthand side of this photo of me stencil more texture: The next layer of texture was created using a stencil I...