Woo hoo! Just got notice

Oh Deer, Look What's Become of me! will be heading to Houston for International Quilt Festival!

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Have you tried Transfer Artist Paper?

My dear friend Lesley Riley has a new book out for how to use the transfer paper she developed called TAP. The book is filled with great information including the pro's and cons of using TAP on different substrates; fabric, lutradur, glass, metal, wood, paper, clay..., examples of all sorts of different ways to use it and project ideas.

Lesley invited me to create a project for the book, I have been a faithful user of TAP from the beginning. TAP is a coated paper used with an ink jet printer, the image is transfered to the substrate with a hot iron.

The cool thing about TAP is that after your image is printed out, you can draw or add color with a variety of media to the paper and when you iron it to your fabric it is all transferred permanently.

I drew my image on sketch paper, scanned it, changed my line drawing to a warm gray color in photoshop then printed it onto TAP. I used Cretacolor water soluble crayons to paint my image, then transferred it to fabric. I used Kona solid cotton leftover from another project, it worked great. I found when I used a tighter woven fabric like cotton sheeting it felt a little stiff. I did a little simple machine quilting and used embroidery floss to add hand stitched details.

My daughter Indigo (Nina) has also spent some time working with TAP. She drew directly on TAP with a ball point pen then transferred it to raw canvas.

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Summer long artquilt exhibit at the National Quilt Museum, Opening Today!

I am very excited to announce that 5 of my quilts will be in an exhibit at The National Quilt Museum in Paducah, KY with the Chicago School of Fusing gals; Laura Wasilowski, Frieda Anderson, Melody Johnson, Emily Parson, Anne Lulle and Jane Sassaman opening July 15 and running through October 4, also exhibiting with us is the amazing textile sculptor Susan Else.

There are also several other fantastic exhibits at the museum happening at the same time. It just might be worth a trip to Kentucky!

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Southern California here I come!

I have been really busy the last week preparing to spend the second half of July in Southern California, with a quick trip up to Northern California to see my mom between teaching at Idyllwild Arts and International Quilt Festival. My bags are quickly filling with lots of supplies, I just hope I have room for clothes!

I'm looking forward to making new friends in my classes and seeing some of my near and dear festival peeps!

There are still some spaces in the Idyllwild painting retreat, Art Quilts: Painting & Surface Techniques if you'd like a creative getaway in the scenic mountains of Southern California, next week!

This is going to be so fun! On the first day we are going to work on color. Through a series of color exercises, you will learn how to mix paint colors to create the colors you want, learn how colors interact and affect each other and know what color combinations will give your art the most impact.

On the second day we are going to learn about painting on fabric; how to avoid paint bleeding, how to paint backgrounds, use freezer paper resists, paint smooth gradations, work with transparent glazes to build up color and contrast and how to paint fine lines and details.

On the third and last day we will add mixed media techniques to fabric; collage with sheer paper imagery and tea bags, use paintsticks, colored pencils, rubber stamps and transfers.

It's going to be an information packed 3 days, sure to give you the tools you need to take on your next big painted quilt or mixed media textile project. Check out the details and register now.

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Opening Reception of "Birds."

Here are photos from the "Birds" opening reception at FCCA this past Friday night. It was a packed house. I sold several paintings, as well. Thanks to all who came out to celebrate the completion of a year long journey with birds. The show hangs through July.

I am taking a few weeks well earned rest and then it is back to the easel to prepare for the "New Mythology" show in November at HCCA.

A Sunny Day at the Antique Market

After getting rained out last month, it was so nice to spend a sunny day walking around the antique market down the street. I love living in the city! This was the day for seeing lots of awesome type, this thrills the graphic designer in me to no end.

When I was 18 and a student at Santa Rosa Junior College in California, I was the campus poster person for the student activities office. I designed posters for campus activities on an old letterpress machine using type just like this. I wish I could go back and use that press now, what fun I would have.

This is the type I couldn't live without.

I think these one foot tall letters spelling CUTE should be mounted on the wall over the bathroom mirror, for those days when one needs a little reminder :-)

My dog, Abby, grazing with the elephants.

Put a bird on it!

Beautiful glass!

I love this vintage store sewing machine parts bin.

It even had some needles still in it.

Indigo (nina) and I had a great day!

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Unusual clouds over Chicago

Last week we had some amazing clouds pass over Chicago, they were very ominous and threatening and had that slight greenish tinge that no one feels comfortable seeing, unless maybe you're a storm chaser.

It was really wild to see the undulations and circular rotations in the clouds. I couldn't help wondering what might come next, considering the night before we had a storm that brought golf ball size hail that blew out the 100 year old skylights in the Garfield Park Conservatory.

The wind picked up considerably with the clouds and it was a little intimidating going out on the roof of our building to get a good view, but it was too fascinating to resist. Oddly enough the clouds just kept moving east at a pretty fast pace and never let out a drop of rain.

Happy 4th of July!

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