New Work - What I Did During My Summer Vacation

I spent five glorious weeks at our summer home in California. The weather actually was not very nice. It was overcast and chilly. So rather than spending a considerable time down at the beach, I spent more time in my studio.

While I brought UFOs to work on, I ended up creating these four new pieces. The pictures can be enlarged by clicking on them.

It all started with a cool fish stencil I bought while at the Long Beach IQF show. It's by Laura Murray. The stencil also has some feathery plants which look like seaweed or kelp. I haven't done a lot of beading so this was good practice to use beads for the fish eyes.

After this piece, I knew I was going to visit my friend Claudia Sammis so I wanted to make something for her. I also wanted to experiment with Angelina fibers and couching on decorative threads. This little 12" x 12" is the result. I call it "Fish for Claudia".


After the fun of couching on decorative threads, I decided I wanted to try more of that so I made this next piece. The background fabric was one of my purchases from Long Beach. Friend Cathie Hoover saw it and said it looked like me. So of course, I bought it. The pleated border at the bottom I learned from quilt teacher and friend Vikki Pignatelli.


Finally, I made this last piece. More couching and a focus on beads this time. At the bottom you can see shells from our beach that have been drilled to make buttons. The large orange fish is from the stencil but enlarged and done with thread work instead of paint.


Here's a close-up of the shell buttons from our beach.


All in all, it was a great summer in my studio. I stretched myself to do more embellishing with paint, beads and fibers.

Hoffman Challenge Picture from Suzanne

I received this picture from quilting friend Suzanne Kistler. She attended the Rocky Mountain Quilt Festival and got to see all the Hoffman Challenge 2009 pieces. My piece Woodland Spring is traveling in trunk QC-F. Thanks Suzanne!

California Beach House and Milestone Birthdays

I have been off-line for quite awhile now. I am in California at my summer house. During the weeks we are here, we are unplugged. We have no Internet, no TV and limited cell phone coverage. I spend my days in my studio and sitting at the beach. This pile of stones is a reminder to bask in God's beautiful creation. Tomorrow I celebrate a milestone birthday. I have lived half a century. This is the perfect place to think about all my blessings and dream of the next half century.