Trash or Treasure? 3 Deciding Factors

Trash or Treasure . . .

It's an instant decision that each of us has to make on a daily basis. If we didn't our homes would overflow with stuff and we would soon be featured on the Hoarder's television show.

That's not the way I want to gain my 15 minutes of fame, so I'm pretty selective about what I save. Here's how I decide:

1) Size does matter: If it's an inside item, it needs to be fairly small because I'm running out of storage space. If it is going to be yard art, it needs to be large enough to be seen.

2) Color: I can't help myself . . . I love color, especially multiple colored items.

3) Texture: I've been know to stop and stare at tree bark. I even have a photo collection of unusual textures.

Upcycled Binder Clip Pin

This broken binder clip could have easily found its way into the trash, but it didn't. I instantly loved the shape and knew what I was going to do with it. I grabbed my wire and went to work wrapping it around the binder clip, then added the arms with beads for hands. The little crab is the pin attachment. I thought about adding loopy hair but didn't want to go overboard.

What is the most unusual item you've repurposed? I would love to hear about it. Please leave a comment.

My Favorite Steam Iron

I just finished ironing 9 yards of hand-dyed fabric and 10 silk scarves with my Eurosteam iron. Ironing isn't how I like to spend my time, (and I generally avoid it as much as possible), but this iron makes the task a bit easier. If you do a lot of ironing, you may be interested in purchasing one too, click here for their website.

The demo I saw at the SLO quilt show was very impressive and I just had to have one. The iron is either ON or OFF and it either has STEAM or NO STEAM. That's it. One temperature for ALL fabric types. It doesn't matter if it's cotton, tulle, wool, or organza . . . it won't burn or melt even if you leave the iron face down for 3 minutes. I made the woman test every unusual material possible.

The only negative thing is that it runs out of steam pretty fast because the boiler is small. Other than that, the iron is great.

Inside Out: Hormones is on its way to Houston!

Yippee, Inside Out: Hormones was accepted into the IQF Festival in Houston! And I'll be going with two of my girlfriends too.
It'll be my first time at the Houston show and I'm totally prepared to be overwhelmed. I've attended PIQF in San Jose in the middle of October for many years, and two large quilt shows in one month is just too much for me. This year, I'll skip PIQF and will go to Houston show instead. I signed up for a quilting forum and an HQ quilting class and didn't get into either of them. So, now I'm not sure what I'm going to do. I might sign up for a raw edge applique class with Ann Johnston, but haven't decided. Will any of you be there? If so, let me know and we can set up a time to meet somewhere. It would be a lot of fun to meet some of you in person.
Fibervision will be having a special exhibit at PIQF again this year. I forgot the name of it, but you'll find it in the program. Here is a preview of my quilt that will be in the PIQF exhibit. "Ancient Artifacts" incorporates a photo of an old gas station that I shot in Los Alamos, CA. It was printed on cotton fabric on my Epson printer and is combined with other unique elements from this rural area.

Hot Time in Vegas

If you like it hot . . . there's no place like Las Vegas in the summer! The temperature was between 105-107 degrees . . . but it's a dry heat. It wasn't as bad as it sounds because there's AC and swimming pools everywhere. They make it pretty easy to cool off.

Vegas isn't my first choice of places to visit, but my husband was competing in National Billiards championship, so I tagged along. Most of his time was spent in a convention center, but we did manage to see the Cirque du Soleil "Love" show. We got caught in a freak flash flood on the way to the show, and had to take our socks and shoes off and wade through the streets in knee deep water. I wasn't sure if we were going to make it alive, but we did, and we enjoyed the show immensely.

Vegas never disappoints with the amount of entertaining sights available everywhere. Here are a few photos from my travels.

 Dale Chihuly has a beautiful glass sculpture in the Bellagio Hotel.

 I love his work and spent quite a bit of time there taking photos.

 He had an exhibit at the Santa Barbara Museum years ago, and it's still my favorite exhibit to date.

 The Cosmopolitan Hotel  had a lot of interesting and unexpected things going on. I'm not a girly girl, and would kill myself in heels, but this giant stiletto got my attention.

 I went to the Cosmopolitan to check out an artist in residence studio, but it was closed until 6:00 pm. What I found outside the studio was an Art-o-Mat machine. If you've never heard of it, they are cigarette machines that have been converted to dispense packages of art. I've never seen one in person and got pretty excited. I cracked up when I saw the no smoking sign above it, dug through my purse and found (2) $5.00 bills. I chose one artist I already knew of, Nikki Wheeler, and one random choice based on the material used (titanium).

Here are the boxes as they came out, and the contents. Nikki's box had an ATC, a nice note and card inside. The titanium pieces came with a note that said it was a work in progress. Hmmm . . . honestly, I wasn't impressed with their titanium scraps.

Here's the Vegas Strip from the roof of the Rio Hotel. The view from 52 floors up was stunning! 

Time to Relax

I just returned from a fun family reunion and spent a couple of days at this beautiful lake. I also had the opportunity to meet Sue Bleiweiss in person. I think we hit it off quite well and hope that our paths cross again sometime. Sue is a very talented lady and you're going to be seeing her work everywhere.

This is what I found when I got home. Don't they look delicious? The tomatoes are so abundant this year, the cages can't support the weight of the plants. The metal has completely given up the fight and has bent over in half. Besides tomatoes, I'm also growing a few varieties of peppers, green beans, garlic, lettuce, and several herbs. What do you have growing in your garden?

Preview Your Quilting Designs

I'm pretty confident in my color choices and my design decisions. Generally, I can visualize the outcome and make decisions fairly quick. But when it comes to deciding how to quilt the piece, everything slows down considerably or comes to a screeching halt. I understand how to use my machine(s), I know how to make many quilting designs and I'm a pretty good quilter. Each quilt is unique and I'm just not sure what quilting design is best for each quilt. It's not as simple as choosing an allover pantograph design.

Maybe it's just a general fear that I could ruin a nice piece with an awful quilting design. We have all seen quilts improved and ruined by the final layer of quilting.

Eventually, I need to get over it because there is a deadline to meet. So, I take a deep breath and begin quilting, and the creativity begins to flow. And everything is fine .  . . until the next quilt.

I had a pretty good idea of how I wanted to quilt this top, but it still sat on my design board for a long time. I printed the photos on a tightly woven fabric and I knew that if I had to remove any stitching, you would see the holes a mile away, and the piece would be ruined.

Even though I wanted to stitch through the photos, I just didn't have the confidence to do it. I discussed my problem with my artsy friend Ranell, who has a long arm quilting business. Fortunately, she doesn't have an issue sewing through anything.

Ranell had a great suggestion for me (and maybe you too) that set me and my quilting decisions free. She suggested that I use a piece of plexiglass to draw and audition quilting designs. I bought a 30 x 36" piece, taped the edges, placed it on top of the quilt, used a dry erase pen to draw / erase quilting lines until I was confident that the design would work.

I put paper behind the plexiglass so you could see the lines clearly.

What a concept! So simple and so effective. That's all it took to get me quilting and I haven't ripped out a single stitch. I've got a lot more quilting to do, but for me, the hardest part is getting started.

If you have a tip that helped you get over a hurdle you were having, please leave me a comment. I would love to hear from  you. I hope I'm not the only one with an issue.

Summer Solstice Celebration

Every year, Santa Barbara has a huge summer solstice parade and party in two of the city parks. I've never seen anything like this parade, but from what I've heard, Mardi Gras is probably the closest comparison. The theme for the parade this year is Creatures.

 The sun was probably 20 feet tall. It's body parts were made from flowing fabric. This is my favorite photo of the day.

 This looks like some sort of creature that would live in the woods.

This alien wore old school curlers on her head, carried a baby alien in her arms, mopped the ground, and dusted the crowd.  Definitely a multi-tasker. 

And what is this thing coming up the street?

It's a giant octopus like bubble with a woman inside doing acrobats on a ring. What a great finale!

The party continued at the park, but my camera wasn't invited.

Decorated Boxes

A re-election campaign is underway for Helene Schneider, the current mayor of Santa Barbara. I don't live in Santa Barbara, so I'm really not involved in any of that, however, a good friend of mine hosted a party for the mayor and I helped her with some of the decorations.
Recycled boxes that had been decorated especially for the occasion and filled with an unknown prize inside were being offered to guests for a donation of $50.00. Arlene wanted the boxes to look unique and enticing. Here is what I came up with.

This box began as a brown and white box that said Happy Birthday all over . That just wasn't going to work. I broke out the spray paint and gave it several coats of pink and purple paint. It turned out very pretty with this giant pink bow on top.

This box featured hand made flowers. The multi-colored flowers were crocheted. The coral flower on the bottom right was made using origami techniques. The pink flowers on the bottom left are folded strips that are gathered and slashed. I have quite a few flowers ready in case I need something in a hurry. They came in handy.

I added some fabric, ribbon, made a sun out of clay and gave it a coat of gold paint. It was a fun little project. Quite different than what I usually work on.

Unfortunately, I couldn't attend the party because I was preparing for a baby shower at my house. Why do all the fun things happen on the same day?

Happy Summer Solstice to All!

Love Ice Dyeing

Okay, I admit it . . . I'm addicted to ice dyeing.

I just love everything about ice dyeing and it seems like I can't get enough of it. I always wait for a nice day because I do it out on my patio, get all my materials set up, and then relax and enjoy the process of watching luscious dye colors mix together over ice.

These are fat half yards of a gorgeous sateen fabric. These are all so uniquely patterned and colored, it is really difficult to choose a favorite.

A few of the pieces in the back row have very rich saturated colors that are gorgeous. Next week, I'll be dyeing some more fabric and probably some silk scarves too.

I think blue, red and purple will be a good combination to try next. What colors do you think would look good together?

I may have to start selling some of this fabric to support my dyeing habit!

Published in Art Quilting Studio Magazine

I was really excited when the magazine finally came out and I could see my articles in print. Yes, that is plural, I am featured in three different areas of the magazine. I'm really pleased with the way the articles turned out, which is saying a lot. Overall,  it was a good experience and I'd be happy to do it again.

Here is the article that I wrote for the Special Feature section, "Too Hot to Handle". 

If you've read my blog for a while, you'll remember reading about the fires that came through the Santa Barbara area. This article gives a bit of the back story, how it affected me and my art.

 Inside Out is an interview that covers a bit of my background and the inspiration behind my "Inside Out" Cellular Series.

 This interview is in the Quilting Odd & Unusual section. Who knew that such a section ever existed until now. It figures that I would land there. LOL

 "Gridlock" is in the Patchworks section (right page). It has two photos and a description of how I went about making it.

If you haven't previously seen Art Quilting Studio magazine, you should pick up a copy. It is always packed with great articles, photos and information. It is and has been one of my favorites and I wish it was published more than twice a year. I believe you can buy it at Barnes & Nobles, Joann's and Stampington.

Sunprinted Fabric

Last weekend, my Fibervision group decided to have a sunprinting play day. I used Dye-na-flow paint instead of the usual Setacolor. I've found that both work equally as well, so use whatever you have on hand. There was a fourth piece which was more subtle than these, but one of my good friends admired it, so I gave it to her.

 I feel like I'm in an airplane looking down on the scenery.

 Love the jewel tones.

I will never have too many circles.

One of the questions in my FV group was "How do you know when a piece of fabric is finished?" Honestly, I don't think there is one answer that will be right for everyone. Some people might think that my first layer is over the top! I believe that if you follow your gut instinct you will generally make the right decision for you. How do you decide when to stop?

The Rolling Stones Concert was Fabulous!

Mike (DH) and I went to see the stones at the Honda Center last weekend in LA and had a great time. It's amazing how much energy Mick has. He's like an energizer bunny . . . he just keeps on going and going and going.

We saw them thirty years ago in LA and thought that would be the last time. Who knew they would stay together so long. I'm really glad they did though.

The stage and light show were great. As usual, it has the walkway in the shape of a tongue. All the instruments are wireless now, so everyone can travel around while performing. I took this shot while we were waiting for the arena to fill in. It took FOREVER for people to get through security, and the show began an hour late. After the Boston Marathon incident, I'm sure everyone is on high alert everywhere.

There was a huge video screen behind the band. This photo is actually a projection of Mick. If you look close, you will see the band in the foreground.
Hope some of you get to see them too!