¡Viva La Fiesta!

August 1 - 5 is Old Spanish Days in Santa Barbara. Tourists invade the city by the thousands and the whole city becomes a very large party.

There are many different activities throughout the city. Wednesday night at the mercado, we attended a free concert by Hollywood U2. Tonight is the Rodeo and tomorrow is the childrens parade and tomorrow night is the Flamenco dancers at the Courthouse.

Here is a vasquero showing his roping technique, he was really good.

Beautiful costumes can be seen throughtout the city.

One of the hundreds of beautiful horses in the parade.

The cascarones are definitely one of the Fiesta highlights. Colorful confetti is contained inside every egg. You sneak up on people and crack the egg on their head and confetti goes flying everywhere. It will take six months for the confetti to disappear d0wntown!

New Projects

It seems that summer presents many distractions. I haven't been working in my studio as often as I should be, but still have a few things in progress. It seems that I haven't been getting many comments lately either. Is anyone out there? I really enjoy hearing from you. (hint, hint)

These ATC's were made using crayon as a resist, acrylic ink, dye, marker, utee and stamps. I'm not sure what will happen to them now, but I feel like they need something else.
This piece just received its second layer of crayon. Next, I will add another wash of acrylic ink, let it dry and then iron it to remove the wax, but the pigment will remain. I'll post the results next time.A while ago, I purchased this lanyard disc at Michael's for $1.00. I found it the other day while looking for something else, and decided to give it a try. It is extremely easy to do and is a great project while watching television. I am using 2 pieces of chenille yarn in each slot which makes a very sturdy cord with a 1/2" diameter. Not quite sure what I will do with it yet, I'm thinking a handle for a handbag. Time will tell!

Art in the Mail

The last few days were great mail days! It is so nice to open the mailbox and find beautiful pieces of art instead of bills.

This postcard was a personal trade with Lynda. The texture on this piece is wonderful. It is lace, acrylic paint and treasure gold. Thank you Lynda, this piece is a treasure!

This ATC was another personal trade with SueB. It is made from Lotka paper that Sue further embellished with paint. The texture is difficult to describe, it is both smooth and bumpy at the same time. I've never seen anything quite like it. It is gorgeous, thank you Sue.
This postcard trade was through the Yahoo Surface Design Group. Norma B created this wonderful Monochromatic Color Composition. The subtle colors are beautiful with just the right amount of bright spark and movement. Thanks Norma, I love it.

Fabric Store Run

Kathy and I are the organizers of our quilt guild challenge this year. The theme is "LIGHTS! CAMERA! ACTION! The date is quickly coming up and it's time to request donations from our fabric and quilt shops. We drove south about 60 miles to visit area shops. We received gift certificates from Baron's, Quilters Studio and Quilt Ventura and have two other shops to call back. We have also received donations from Grant House and Craft Essentials. We're off to a good start! We will be heading north in a couple of weeks.

Along the way, many wonderful fabrics screamed "BUY ME" and we did. Here is a photos of my haul today. Quite a bit considering I can't use all the fabric I have in 3 lifetimes. I'm sure I don't need to make excuses to all of you. From what I've seen, I'm not the only one! LOL

ATCs Ready to Trade

Here a some of my ATCs being traded this month. These were started using leftovers from other projects. The green base was made at the same time as my "Spring of Creativity" canvas. It sat around for a couple of weeks until I decided to paint a shirt. I screened several paints and designs onto the shirt, but only the black layer made with the wire whisk managed to make it onto the ATC paper. The design evolved on its own after that. It has texture from gesso and tissue paper and color from acrylic paints, watercolor pencils and pearl ex powder.

Reflections

I see things differently than most people; I've known this for a long time. Usually, people look around at the general scene as a whole. I can also do that, but I tend to focus in on the details. I notice the patterns in cracked concrete or the shadows on a building. Water is always a fun to look at.Here are a couple of photos I shot of reflections of boats in the harbor.

I thought they were really cool while I was looking at them, but found that by changing the shutter

speed, the image changed dramatically.

You should take some photos of reflections, it's a lot of fun and very inspiring.

My daughter is a competitive swimmer and the pool is right by the ocean. There is a lot of waiting between her swimming events. Needless to say, I've taken many harbor/ocean photos over the years.

Beautiful Postcards Received

Here are two postcards I received from the Surface Design Color Composition trade.This one is made by the incredibly talented Joanna. I love the complimentary colors she used. Visit her blog to see more of her fabulous work. This beautiful postcard is made by Jan Z. As far as I know, Jan doesn't have a blog or website. Correct me if I'm wrong Jan. I love all the different purples in this card. Jan also incorporated some purple yarn for additional texture.

Color Composition Trade

I belong to an online group called Surface Design. This group of artists LOVE to trade PC's, pins, padfolios, ATC's, etc. It's hard not to sign up for every trade, but I know I wouldn't have enough time to get them finished. The color composition trade sounded really appealing and I just couldn't resist. Here are the postcards that I will be mailing to my trade partners.I used a split complimentary color scheme. These aren't colors that I generally use together, but I really like the results. I am going to explore this combination further.I was looking through a pile of hand painted fabric and this yellow orange just jumped out at me. It contained all of the colors needed for the split complimentary scheme.The green fabric is also hand-painted. The purple is a commercial fabric.I had fun cutting the fabric and rearranging into different compositions. The finishing touch was machine embroidery and beads. I hope Joanna, Jan, Carol T. and Norma like them.

Painted Canvas

Several posts ago, I had a small quilt with 3-D flowers and a butterfly. I was searching for an unusual way to mount or frame this small piece. Well, I built up many different layers and textures with paint and gel medium onto the canvas, looking for just the right background. The colors started dark and gradually went pretty bright, then I added a wash over the whole thing to unify it. I like the idea of mounting a fiber piece on canvas and want to make some more. What do you think?

Busy Art Week

Even though I didn't post anything lately, doesn't mean I haven't been creating. I guess I've been too busy to take the photos! I'm a very visual person, I need to have photos with each posting.

This month, my ATC meeting was at Art from Scrap. I received these wonderful little pieces of art from the many talented members. I really enjoy creating in a different medium than fiber, it makes me think differently. This month my ATC's were photographs that I have taken.

I also had a wonderful meeting with my Fibervision buddies. We had a short business meeting, a really good critique session and a Jeanne led a very fun lesson in portrait painting with Tsukineko Inks. I love these inks and this technique. It is very easy and we all had very good results. Here is the portrait I worked on, unfortunately, I didn't have my camera with me, so I can't show all of them. Thanks Jeanne, it was a great lesson!

Templeton Outdoor Quilt Show

Kathy heard about this outdoor quilt show in Templeton and asked me if I wanted to go. Templeton? Where is it? Turns out it's an old fashioned town, 160 miles north of us. Quilts hanging outdoors is unusual, but the real draw for me was the architecture of this sleepy little town. Off we went, with my trusty camera in tow.The drive along the coast was foggy, pretty typical for June. As soon as we turned inland, the fog lifted and the temperature began to rise. Fortunately, for us, there was a breeze. Turned out to be a great day. The town was a blast from the past! There were a few innovative quilts and many traditional ones hanging in front of the businesses along Main Street.

My camera found Templeton to be quite photogenic! There were lots of OLD buildings in various states of disrepair. I couldn't resist the shadows and textures on this old building.

This bright turquoise door caught my eye. I suppose I did a little trespassing to get these photos, but nobody seemed to care.
Not sure what this was in its former life, but the patina was wonderful. It made me think of all the fabric rusting experiments I've seen lately!

California Photos

I thought I would take a few moments to post some of my favorite "scenic" photos of where I live in California. It is located about 10 miles north of Santa Barbara or in the middle of the state, right along the ocean. We (bloggers) interact with people all over the world on a daily basis and probably don't know much about where we are from. Hope you enjoy the little tour.

This is my favorite park in the downtown Santa Barbara area. There are massive Koi and turtles that live in the pond. A Blue Heron flew in to fish while I was taking photos. There are many wonderful plants and trees. The tree with the red flowers blooming in the background is called a Coral tree.

This is a sunrise photo at East Beach. It is a popular tourist area and is very beautiful. There is a wharf with shopping and restaurants, a breakwater where you can walk out between the harbor and ocean and a walking/bike path following the beach for many miles.

This is a very interesting photo of downtown Santa Barbara with snow on the mountains. The elevation of these mountains are 2,000 ft. This is the only time in the 29 years that I have lived here that snow has fallen that low. You may be able to see all the Spanish architecture, red tiled roofs and palm trees.