Nice Surprise...

Whaddaya know?.... Staff from The Quilt Show.com were at the January Road to California Show and have posted snapshots of my "Road" exhibit on their daily blog. Very cool of them!

Go to thequiltshow.com and click on the tab labeled Daily Blog or paste this URL link in your browser.

http://www.thequiltshow.com/os/blog.php

Paint Paint Paint in Play

On Wednesday this, 16 members of the South Bay Quilters Guild joined me at Luellas Quilt Shop in Redondo Beach, Ca. to paint the day away. The group produced several tigers and dragonflies, 2 bowls of delicious looking pears, a portrait of a pup named Tessa, an architectural landscape of the beautiful Greek island of Santorini, a mythical threesome of phoenix rising, and things my wee brain can't presently recall. We had a lovely time. It's plain fun to hang out with quilters.

Giving Back a New and Beautiful Way

Tuesday this week I lectured and visited with delightful members of the South Bay Quilters Guild in Redondo Beach, California. I was so impressed with their ongoing philanthrophy projects, I had to showcase their beautiful work... so hurray to members of South Bay for their "Read Me A Book" program where contributers donate a themed quilt with a matching theme childrens book... both of which are donated to the states Court Appointed Special Advocates organization known as C.A.S.A. This is an extremely needed and helpful organization where screened, and trained public volunteers become advocates in the courts for young children and teens who would otherwise have no one 'watching out' for them. I have a family member who does this rewarding advocate work. It's beautiful to see how this volunteerism can protect and develope our nations children and future adults. Partnered quilt/book sets are given to Advocates to present to the children for which they advocate. This is often the only thing receiving children can call their OWN! It was delightful to listen to Advocates grateful feedback letters describing how their advocate children so beautifully responded to gifts. The photo example showcases a dragon themed quilt accompanied by a delightful childrens book about playful dragons. Hats off to this idea and those who make it all happen.

New CD Patterns and Followalong Guides

For some time, students have been asking I make patterns I bring to class available in commercial form. Before I did that, I felt (I'm a teacher at heart) that I needed to create a step by step, color by color photo follow along guide.... which ofcourse meant repainting and photographing/documenting as I went. That's now done for four patterns and are now available from JukeboxQuilts.com (though they aren't on the website as of yesterday). You can email customerservice@jukeboxquilts.com though and they can fill your order til the web site is made current. These are economic! $10 retail (Jukebox may offer some specials... their call) They include printable pdf drawings in 2 sizes...8 1/2 x 11 so you can print enlarge to any size you want and one preformatted to print at 18 x 24..plus the step by step photo/text guide. Click on Products/Resources link to move to Jukebox website, and on News link for more detail about each CD.

I'm keepin him!

What a splendid Valentines Day... It doesn't get much better than this. Spent the day with the Coachella Valley Quilt Guild (FUN people) in WARM and beautiful Palm Desert near Palm Springs. Then home to a cozy evening with hubby Ray. Gorgeous white roses ( I love white roses) and my favorite movie of all time..."Out of Africa" I blubbered!

Sooooooo much snowwwwwww!

EEK! You are looking at my mountain home... Can you see my house? Me neither! I haven't been up the mountain for a couple days and the snow yesterday was down to 3000'. Doesn't look much like Southern California, huh? So I took a deep breath and went up but had to park at the bottom of the canyon entrance, and HIKE in! Not cool! 'Saw the chilled tree man face on the hike back down carrying my laptop and projector needed for my upcoming visit to the Coachella Valley Guild. I carried no extra clothes down.... only stuff needed to visit a quilt guild. :-)

What a class act!

'Taught a great group of people yesterday. Pouring rain did not dampen the spirits of all who joined me at Material Possessions in Lake Forest, Ca. Several traveled significant distances in bad weather and through business day traffic. I routinely teach here (www.quiltessentials.com) Who wouldn't want to?... Look at this great classroom.

Drawing For Those That Don't Draw

I just finished posting a detailed instruction on http://www.pattsretreats.blogspot.com ( there's a link button on the top left of this page) on how to create drawings from your own photographs. If you go to that link, the drawing instruction post follows the detail post on my May 09 Retreat.. Just scroll down.

Okay.. ready for another closeup!

Burkinabe Mother is in my view one of the most beautiful portraits ever done. It evokes the exquisite feeling of a protective mother balancing work and family... and my gosh... it is all thread. These are my photos of the piece but you can see/purchase a professional print of this piece. Go to hollisart.com It is obvious Hollis really knows her stuff.

Quilting Human Beings

Where is that training booklet on how to quilt faces? Oh yeah.... I don't think there is one....(lemme know if you know otherwise). I've seen students get downright angry at famous quilters that weren't able to give an exact formula for doing this. I admit I even (some time back when I had a corporate job with good pay) bought one of Hollis Chatelains all thread portraits to study. Bottom line, it requires thought! The best guidance I've ever received came from Hollis herself. In considering the quilt line atop a face, consider how an ant might crawl up and over / around curves on the body. Sounds simplistic... but it's a good guideline for sure. As a great example of it done right, look at these pics I took at Road To Ca. of Pam Hollands Gothic portrait. A click on the face images will give you a great closeup. Incredible!

Victorian Ladies

This is my take on how to handle a redwork pattern. This lady is one of twelve drawings from Nansneedlework.com. Being a painter at heart makes it hard to follow a pattern verbatim, so in this case, it didn't seem necessary. This project block employs ink painting, thread embroidery, needleturn applique and a bit of surface embellishment. This is just one of the 12 "Victorian Ladies" being completed by my Wanabe Quilters friendship group. They are fun so I have done 2, and am on my third. The gray threads in the face are part of the project owners plan. Kinda wish I had chosen this shared work project as I really like these ladies. One of the things the pattern didn't call for was a white pupil highlite. Without that, all the ladies appeared saddened. Click on images for closeup view.