Rain in June?

I can't quite figure out what is happening with the weather . . . it's been raining here for two days! I know that sounds normal to some of you, but, I've never seen it rain in June in the 30+ years I've lived here. Generally, it pours between December-March, and that's it for the year. This time of the year, we have June Gloom . . . heavy fog that burns off by noon. There seems to be a lot of strange things happening worldwide . . . it really makes you stop and think, doesn't it?

Our back yard is still a work in progress but we're getting very close. After 15 drawings in Illustrator, we've finally decided on a design for the patio. It will be a free-form, L-shaped patio with and a couple of cutouts against the house for plants. It will be colored and stamped concrete, that will look like flagstone. Once dry, we'll grout the low areas so it looks even more like stone. We chose a contractor and now we just have to get the irrigation done.

We've been trying to recycle/reuse as many plants and materials as possible. These large patio pavers have a new home under my potting bench and under the trash cans. Each one weighs about 400 pounds and was very difficult to move.

The old concrete path has been removed and is ready for the new patio and path. A cutout in the patio will be made for the angel trumpet tree on the right.

I'm still exercising quite a bit, and have lost 14 pounds. At first, I was exhausted from all the exercise, and didn't have much energy left for other interests, but it's getting easier now, and I'm back in the studio making art. Yeah!

This will give you an idea of what I'm working on. These are made from the knotted ends of washed fabric. They will look different once they are stitched together and mounted onto the painted canvas.

I'll share a couple other pieces made with the same materials in next post. I'm just about ready to applique my hormones onto the background.

Progress in several areas is underway!

Shared Stories, SAQA Exhibit in Carlsbad

Yippee . . . Inside Out: Golgi Body was Accepted!

Congratulations to:
Betty Amador, Charlotte Bird, Patt Blair, Loris Bogue, Cherie Brown, Jamie Fingal, Barbara Friedman, Doria Goocher, Desiree Habicht, Gail Hansen, Ranell Hansen, Carol Henke, Rose Hughes, Sara Kelly, Pam Price Klebaum, Sherry Kleinman, Smadar Knobler, Jane LaFazio, Linda Boone Laird, Sandra Lauterbach, Jill Le Croissette, Nancy Lemke, Felisa Lyons, Kathleen McCabe, Linda Miller, Jeannie Palmer Moore, Gillian Moss, Kathy Nida, Andi Perejda, Judy Rys, Lois Sprague, Jeanne Surber, Mary Tabar, Terry Waldron, Deborah Weir, Susan West, Sally Wright, and Lisa Yoder


for having work accepted in Shared Stories~ Expressions and Stitched Memories. Read more at Front Porch Gallery's blog.

Hot Time in the Desert

The last time we were in Arizona was 30+ years ago when we drove across the country. Our son is attending grad school in Tucson, so we have a great reason to revisit the desert state once again.

First we flew to Tucson, picked up our son, drove north to Sedona to visit the breathtaking red mountains. From there, we drove to Jerome, an old copper mining town, and then back to Tucson. It's really quite surprising to see how different the vegetation is in each area.

Tucson is definitely the home of the Saguaro cactus. They are everywhere . . . thousands of them . . . standing tall. It's amazing that anything, plant or animal could live in that scorching desert, but both have found a way to survive and thrive.

This little guy was photographed at the Desert Museum, where they have exhibits of 300+ desert animals.

Sedona is as gorgeous as I hoped it would be. The mountains get their red color from a high concentration of iron. They have some wonderful hiking trails that take you to the base of the mountains. We also went on a jeep ride through the back country. It was called an "Adventure Ride" for a good reason! Fortunately, the woman driver was amazing; she knew the trails like the back of her hand.

No Saguaro cactus here . . . their main cactus is the Prickly Pear. You really need to be careful where you walked in Arizona, there are pickers everywhere.

Our hotel, Sedona Rouge, was also gorgeous. Beautiful fountains, private patio, pool, spa, handmade lemon-mint soap. I would definitely recommend it.

Jerome couldn't have been more different than Sedona. This mountain town was built because copper was discovered. There were a lot of jobs and money to be made. In its heyday, Jerome was the 4th largest city in Arizona. Once the mine closed, the population dropped from 15,000 to 100 residents, and basically became a ghost town.

Around 500 people live in Jerome now. Quite a few of the buildings remain in various stages of renovation or disrepair. Several shells remain that add an authentic flavor to the odd ghost town.

I'm not sure what is holding this facade upright, but it makes an very interesting entrance way to a glass blowers studio.

The remains of this bank building displays an odd assortment of items like an outhouse, toilet, wheel barrel, and sink. People stand above the building, and throw coins, trying to hit the various vessels. It reminded me of a carnival game, without the prizes!

Here's a photo of a sign that made me laugh out loud. Perhaps it was originally posted in the very popular brothel.

All in all, we had a lot of fun in the desert . . . but there's no place like home!

Fabric, Fabric, and More Fabric!

Unfortunately, I haven't been very creative lately. A lot of my free time is being consumed by gardening and exercise. I've been walking several times a week with my friend Kathy. One of the perks of my job is a personal trainer that comes to our office one day a week. Sloane is young, sweet, gorgeous, and an exercise fanatic. She is helping me become more fit . . . no easy feat. I have always been the artistic, not athletic type. So far, I've lost 6 pounds but I still have a long way to go!

Kathy and I have been fabric shopping. I own a wall full of fabric and certainly don't need any more, but that doesn't seem to stop me. The Treasure Hunt is having a going out of business sale and I scored some lovely batiks.

I've already used some of the striped batik on the left. The project isn't quite finished yet, so you'll have to wait a little while to see it.

Color is probably the number one thing that attracts me, but the texture is usually the deciding factor. The fabric above on the left and below second one in from right are not colors I generally use, but the textures were so interesting, I couldn't resist. I always keep an eye out for interesting black fabrics and very light fabrics.

Here's a few more fabrics that I bought at the Seven Sisters Quilt show this past weekend. I generally buy 1 yard of each, so the stash takes up quite a bit of space. Whenever I start a new project, I find everything I need in my own stash. If I don't have the right color, I'll change it by adding paint, dye stick or ink.

Fibervision Workshops

No matter how hard I try, I keep falling behind on my blog posts. Each month, after our business meeting and lunch, one of our Fibervision members teaches a mini workshop. They highlight whatever technique they feel someone would want to learn about. I like spending time with my friends and I like learning everything I can. I can't help it, it seems to be the way I'm wired! Some people believe that all these new techniques and subject will distract them and won't be able to focus on their own style. Not me.

Jeanne taught Free motion quilting in March. She has been doing some amazing stitching and were are lucky to some pointers from her. First we did a few pencil sketches using one continuous line, then we did the same sketch with thread on fabric. It's a good way to gain confidence in your FMQ. The next thing we did was new to me.

We dropped our feed dogs, and made a sampler of decorative stitches. It was fun trying to figure out what the stitch was going to do next. After a few minutes, you began to get a feeling for what it was going to do next and went with it. On the back side, I recorded what stitch it was and the different tension settings I used.

Here's a close-up. The stitches really have a personality of their own.

Kristin led a bookmaking workshop in April. Each of us made two different small books.
The yellow one has stitched signatures and the turquoise one has accordion pages. Both came out quite well for my first books. I'm glad I leaned how to make them, but I don't think I will be making more anytime soon.

Three's a Charm

This small piece is the third in a series, hence the title, "Three's a Charm".

If you're interested, you can see the other two pieces in the Art Gallery section. If you look closely, you'll see that they share some of the same characteristics. The reason is that the fabric was stacked in five vertical layers and paint was added to different layers. Depending on the type of paint used, some of it penetrated through several layers and some didn't penetrate at all. After it was dry, additional layers were added to enhance each piece.

The painted fabric and batting were machine stitched, then the beads were added. I painted a canvas for the background and hand stitched the finished piece through the canvas. The inner piece is 8 1/2 x 11" and the canvas is 11 x 14".

FYI: That white border is the batting.

Hormones: Divide and Duplicate

My intention was to finish this quilt for the Faulkner Gallery exhibit, but I just wasn't happy with the design. It needed something, and I just couldn't quite put my finger on what the something was. It hung on my design wall for a while until I realized that the hormones should be divided. I was afraid it was a mistake, and didn't want to start from scratch. So, I decided to do the cutting in Photoshop, and see how it looked before I took scissors to fabric. Once I played with the pieces, and saw the many possibilities, the scissors came out.

The hormones were cut apart and rearranged. But it still needed something . . . More Hormones, of course.So, here I am back at the beginning, creating even more hormones. Here's a close up of the plain yellow hormone fabric before the embellishment began. If you want to see the whole process, click here. The green strip in the middle is dyed cheesecloth that will float around the hormones. There are some other surprises in store, but you're going to have to wait a while to see the final results. It will debut in a group exhibit at PIQF in Santa Clara, CA. The exhibit is called "On the Way" and it will feature 20 Journey pieces made by Fibervision members. This will be our first group exhibit at PIQF and we're all very excited about it. Hope you get a chance to see it in person.

Scarf Redux

Thanks to the wonderful advise of Teri and Lisa, I ripped the offending scarf apart, and proceeded to knit it on circular needles. Unfortunately, nobody warned me that if you weren't careful, you could knit it together into a circle. Okay, stop laughing, it only happened twice! Now I have a pretty good idea how to make a hat. Seriously, it's so much better now. Thanks Ladies, great save!

This is my favorite scarf to date. It's knit with a yarn called Knit One-Crochet Too Cotton Ty-Dy. The lacy stitch makes and cotton yarn makes for the perfect CA scarf. LOVE IT!!

And here's a close up of the lovely lacy stitch. Another new knitting adventure!

The last post showed the orchid that was in the exhibit room. These are photos of MY actual plant. I absolutely love the visual texture! Isn't it gorgeous?

You're probably sick of reading about flowers and scarves by now. Next post will be about quilting, I promise!

The End of the Grapefruit Tree

We've been working really hard in the backyard. As you can see, the grapefruit tree is gone, the grass is dead, and quite a few plants have been removed. I'm still working on the patio design, but we're getting pretty close. No matter what we decide to do, it has to look better than it does now.The rain has finally stopped and the sun has returned to southern CA. This is a beautiful sunset that I saw from my back yard. I had to stop working and run inside for my camera. Spring is here!
A few weeks ago, I spent a fun, action packed day with my son, Jason, his girlfriend, Helen, and Helen's mom, Lisa. One of the things we did was attend a fantastic orchid show. There were so many colorful orchids in one place, I couldn't believe it.Every one of them was gorgeous and it was pretty difficult to choose a favorite, but I did. This lovely orchid came home with me.So far, it's doing great. Almost all the buds have opened, and it looks very happy in its new home. The real test is whether or not it survives long enough to flower again. I bought orchid food and read up on how to care for them. Keep your fingers crossed . . . the orchid I bought last year didn't survive. Sad, but true!

Beauty before the Storm

It's so peaceful to roam around the garden, looking for the prettiest flower, and the best angle to photograph it.

A Camellia bud getting ready to burst.

Beautiful Lilacs, a rare sight in Santa Barbara.

Brilliant Clivia's are happy in their new home under the orange tree.

All was well . . . and then a late season storm hit hard. 7" of rain in 24 hours! Fortunately, it has stopped for a while, but more rain is expected tomorrow. The ground has been completely saturated, flash floods warnings were issued, and the risk of mudslides is pretty high. I hope the next storm takes a different route and lets us dry out a bit.

Can this Scarf Be Saved??

Unfortunately, my opinion is NO. I know, I spent a lot time knitting this much, but I just have to accept the fact that it's a failure, and rip those stitches out.

It's one of those yarns that have six wonderful (so I thought) yarns on one skein. It looked so beautiful, I just had to make a scarf. How can something so pretty turn ugly so fast? The gauge of every yarn is different and the scarf ended up getting fat and skinny with every yarn change. Some of the yarn is fuzzy like mohair, some is metallic and slender, some nubby and it's all different thicknesses. Somebody told me that I could block it, but they said that sight unseen. I stopped at the Ball & Skein yarn shop in Cambria and saw a scarf knitted with similar yarn, and asked them about it. They said to use size 11 needles, but I'm currently using size 10, so I think 13 might be better. I need advice from any knitters out there.

While I was at the yarn shop, I saw this beautiful yarn, and had to buy it. It came with a free lacy pattern and the owner showed me how to do it. Unfortunately, by the time I got home, I forgot how to do it. Yarn over and knit 2 stitches together. Huh? I couldn't get my needles through 2 stitches no matter how hard I tried.

Honestly, I'm really not good a knitting, but for some strange reason, I continue to torture myself by trying to knit. Every time I begin a project, I have to watch videos on the internet to re-learn how to do it. Then, I start knitting and ripping the project apart at least 6 times. Finally, I figured it out, and I LOVE how it looks.

It would have been a lot faster to crochet it. Hmm . . . buying a scarf would have been really easy. Sometimes, I wish I wasn't so stubborn!

Exhibit Opening

Here are some photos of our exhibit at the Faulkner Gallery. Hanging the show turned out to be pretty easy because we met before the exhibit and figured out how the work from 3 different artists would blend together best. In the end, I think we did a great job. This photo was taken right after we finished hanging it.

Ranell forgot to bring one of her pieces (empty space on the right) and she added the title "Conceptualize, Create, Communicate" on the far wall, later in the day. I managed to remember to take a couple of photos during the reception. We had a great turnout and we received wonderful feedback. The most exciting part was that many people had never seen fiber art like this. They were really excited about our work and had many wonderful questions. Here is a photo of Rafael Perea de la Cabada (right), a Santa Barbara artist, and teacher. He's a great source of inspiration and will give me honest feedback about my work. I really appreciate his input.

I also have two pieces hanging in an exhibit at the Jewish Center in Santa Barbara.