Houston Bound

30 minutes to departure for the airport and i still must do some online bill paying. I am so excited to go to Houston again... it's been a while. 'Am taking dear friends with me too. I lecture tomorrow and teach Wednesday.. Sure hope I haven't forgotten anything big. I have to look at it as a little mystery each time I travel. Wonder what I've forgotten? I'm pretty sure I'm not alone in this lil problema. I have a equine piece in the Houston show. I'm told to be at the awards ceremony Tues night. cause it ribboned but I don't know how. A second and delightful mystery! I'll let you know upon return what happened.
My hubby is an artist too... a 69 year old art major at Cal Poly. We live in the mountains with a stream running just outside our home so he created a Curtain of Light (strung mylar pieces) to dance in the breeze above the sound of rushing water. It's beautiful. We installed it yesterday with the help of his brother and nephew who filmed it as a documentary. So very cool.

WOW PIQF was spectacular

Home from PIQF.. preparing to leave for teaching at Houston.... My my ... fall is busy in this industry. I was really taken by the number of quilts from throughout the world. As always, the U.S., Japan, the UK, Australia and Canada were well represented. South Africa offered some exceptional quilts too. SOOOOOO many outstanding quilts without ribbons. One quilt that knocked me out as well as everyone else was that of a 70+ year old Japanese lady with over a 178 thousand quarter inch pieces to create an unusual flower garden quilt. All I kept thinking was ...WHY? Here's a closeup of the 1/4 inch hexagons used to create a small rose. No one could get a clear shot of this piece. Crowds were ever present. My friend Hilary (shown with a puzzled look) is representative of everyone viewing this piece. Double click on the full view to see greater detail showing what appears to be somewhat larger than quarter inch pieces but are in reality... many hexagons of the same fabric. Mind blowing.

"In The Beginning" at PIQF

Ya gotta start somewhere!!!!! (c)

Workin on The Giant

Not finished painting but he's getting close. This mountain gorilla is huge in real life so it seemed a portrait should be over sized to feel the immensity of this primate. This is pretty much a monochromatic piece by nature of the gorillas coloring. I have so far used less than one .5 ounce bottle of pigment ink. Unbelievable!

I'm heading out for a week retreat and a visit to PIQF where I have 2 pieces showing.

Life's joys

It's wonderful when your grandchildren want to sew. Dark haired grandaughter Morgan(age 7) and blonde grandaughter Kaley (age 9) both sew with me from time to time, and they LOVE visiting fabric stores. Ginger's Quilt Shoppe in Upland,Ca. has a mighty cute dog.

Gorilla In progression

This portrait of a Mountain Gorilla is slow coming,(I'm packing for Houston teaching) but it's a comin. I'm getting the bones in.. meaning... all the basic features of the animal... then I will add detail and remaining darks. He looks a bit intimidating already, but I think when the rest of the darks are added, he will take on a different feeling. We'll see! By the way, I hear the Cowboy on the heading of the blog appears in this quarters Quilting Arts magazine. It was part of the Silver Screen Exhibition at The IQA Long Beach Ca. show.

Chopstix done.. Primate Begun

Finally... a painted with dye piece from a while back is quilted and bound. I'm on a long quest to quilt several pieces.. but admittedly I am simultaneously driven to paint an image that has been on my mind some time... so I'm starting a BIG primate. When I teach people NEW to working with pigment inks, I encourage people to work from light to dark value.... because it's easy to add... not take away... BUT... once one is familiar with the media... start with the darks if that makes sense.... I'm doing some of that here. The overall piece will end up quite dark too.

Some great news yesterday from IQA in Houston. My entry piece Windsong has won some award.. I won't know what til I get there the end of this month, but it feels pretty nice whatever the case.