Tuesday's Teaser

The Tuesday Teaser subject this week is:
A CUPPA (tea or coffee) & A SWEET ROLL

You too can now join in and share with others your own Tuesday Teaser
drawing & collage, or words & short tale.

It’s easy, so grab your sketchbook or some paper.
1. make a timed drawing (5 minutes) of something/ anything that comes to mind when you think about the teaser
2. create a collage (15 minutes) using the drawing ideas to guide your way

Or if you love is of words…
1. make a list of all the words this week’s teaser makes you think up (5 minutes)
2. create a short tale (15 minutes) using your word list
Ready? Now you get the chance to post your results on your blog, then share them by adding a direct link to your post in the box below. Remember it’s fun to support other participants, visit their sites and leave a comment.

I'll be posting my own sketchbook on Friday morning!

Seeing Red

The Guardian (Edgar)

My Thanksgiving weekend was quite busy and I had a great time with friends and family, and by the time Sunday rolled around I was really ready for some quiet time. Luckily for me, I had nowhere where I had to be and a quilt that was calling out-ready to be beaded. So Sunday was spent with thread, needle -BEADs, and a couple of happy cats. Happy of course that mom was sitting in one place long enough to cuddle in. I do wish this type of day for everyone. While sitting and stitching on Sunday ideas of all sorts entered my head, but the ones that kept bubbling to the top all revolved around a series of red pieced panels..... so as Monday rolled in, I pulled out the bin of red silks and got to work.

picking the fabrics

turning them into strips

and then into small pieced canvases

Design Group's - Tuesday Teaser

The Tuesday Teaser subject this week is -- LATE LAST NIGHT

You too can now join in and share with others your own Tuesday Teaser
drawing & collage, or words & short tale.

It’s easy, so grab your sketchbook or some paper.
1. make a timed drawing (5 minutes) of something/ anything that comes to mind when you think about the teaser
2. create a collage (15 minutes) using the drawing ideas to guide your way

Or if you love is of words…
1. make a list of all the words this week’s teaser makes you think up (5 minutes)
2. create a short tale (15 minutes) using your word list

Here are my studies from this week's Teaser...

Ready? Now you get the chance to post your results on your blog, then share them by adding a direct link to your post in the box below. Remember it’s fun to support other participants, visit and leave a comment.

Holiday Mind Spin & Sharing Too!

What a week?!? It's that time of the year when there seems SO much to do... and this week just disappeared. I am happy though to report that most of my time has been stitching on the A Maizin' quilt - where I am happily at the embellishment phase... nothing like having to wade through yarns, beads and shiny fun things. I have also been working on learning new Photoshop designing methods and I have not gotten through the rough stuff and having a great time. All this equates to little time for posting, but I do have a fun sharing.

A while back I got an email from Annette Burston from Australia. She sent a really nice note commenting on my Dream Landscape book, but even better she sent a photo of the first small Fast-Piece Applique learning project. With her permission I am posting it here. Normally I might clean away the background but I loved how Annette framed her piece and has it sitting on a small shelf -- obviously in a place she walks by everyday.

These types of messages are all special, so I do hope you enjoy seeing these treasures. Annette mentioned she'd love to chat with other quilt artists and she has started her own blog... please stop by her blog and leave her a word or two!

Happy Sunday All - and if you're lucky enough to be celebrating Thanksgiving this coming Thursday I wish you a wonderful day.

Tuesday's Teaser

I have heard from a number of you who are going to join in the fun, and the challenge of the Tuesday Teaser.
Remember, you want to grab a sketchbook and...
1. make a timed drawing (5 minutes) of something/ anything that comes to mind when you think about the teaser
2. create a collage (15 minutes) using the drawing ideas to guide your way

The Tuesday Teaser subject this week is --  SOLITUDE

As promised, I am adding my 'teaser - solitude' exercises here...

my five minute drawing

& 15 minute collage

and would love to see yours, too!
So, I'm scouting out a way we can possible post them...
Happy Tuesday!

A-Maizin Day

For the last couple of days I have been tucked away in my studio..taking breaks only to grab some eats and post here and there. Since a couple of friends have thought I was hiding away I thought I would share with you the before and after of my work today.

Here is the stack of fabric that awaited me -- all picked out & ready to be stitched up into:

This quilt top>>>>

Time now to catch up on a few other things... then I get to the fun part of quilting & embellishing this piece.

A Wish Cast for Growing Older

Today out on Jamie Ridler's blog it is WishCasting Wednesday - a day she reminds us to set aside a few moments for contemplative thought and then make a wish and cast it out into the world. I love this idea and even though I may not take the time to write my wishes down each week I do enjoy Jamie's topics and the thoughtful wishes they create for myself and so many others.

This week her question of 'How do you wish to grow older' hit home with me and fit kind of nicely into some other areas of my life that I had been pondering...

So, the wish I would cast for my life as I grow older is for wisdom and graciousness.
Wisdom to know what I want, and know that by following my passion I can obtain all - share all, and be happy.

Graciousness to be able to accept and give-honestly and openly, for to be able to do both well one can not help but be happy.

There it goes... my wish-cast!

Thank you Jamie!

The 1st - Tuesday Teaser

I've been giving some thought to trying to put together an on-line design group. So many of you have mentioned that you long to be part of just such a gathering, but time, location and maybe the distance between you and any other willing participants have kept you away.

Well, as I work through this process I thought it might be fun to share some of my own DG's fun and open the things we do to any of you who'd like to join along.

We decided to become a bit organized in our efforts this year, so each of us has purchased a sketchbook 9X12, that has a heavier weight paper (so we could use a variety of mediums as may suit)... and we were off.

The Tuesday Teaser will be the same opening exercises we do. We all have put a word or series of words onto slips of paper & thrown them all into a basket. Then when we arrive we pull a slip out - announce the word - set the timer (1) 5 minutes for pencil drawing & (2) 15 minutes for collage - and we're off.

This morning, (just to let you know we are not stuck on too many rules) the slip came out and everyone groaned --- too many words... pick another --- again too many words... well, the third time we just decided to throw a bunch of them together and you could pick & choose what you wanted. So please, take what you like and enjoy the process.

Out long winded words ended up being -
A long time ago, a secret is revealed at Jr.High in the morning....

Below is a photo of our sketchbooks all showing the collages we came up with.

More In Black & White

I hope you all enjoyed visiting the blogs on the Bloggers Quilt Festival and seeing all the quilts... it really is a always a lot of fun, and especially nice for you can keep traveling the blogs long after all the quilts have been taken down in Houston.

Today though, I wanted to continue sharing the current happenings in my design group.
Meeting once a week we use this time together to work on general design work, topics and/or materials of interest and things very much removed from what may be going on in our own studios. We usually have a plan... a big picture for the day/week or month and for the next several weeks we planned to use art works found in old Christies Catalogs as jumping off places for our design exercises. Then using the criteria for the day we each create 3 spin-offs from the original - and for each we have 20 minutes. This week, we could use only black & white for our creations.

I've included here pictures of my own three pieces....

A long view of our table in action ---

And, some of the works from the rest of the design group....

I hope that by sharing these little adventures that you may find one or two that you might like to try yourself.

Want to join us regularly?!?
You need only pick yourself up a sketchbook
and check in here for details.

or, leave a comment-

if there's  interest we could kick off
an on-line design group!

This coming week we'll be working in the same way, only using color.

Fall 2010 Bloggers Quilt Festival

Having now return from Quilt Market in Houston, it's time to get my quilt out there to be part of the fun of Amy's Blogger Quilt Festival. This year I am posting for the first time a recently completed commission piece. It was made especially for a young couple recently married. What makes this a bit different and definitely special for me is that the young couple live in Italy and their friend Sheila who commissioned this piece found me on FaceBook.

So this is my first international commission piece and it was such a delight to work with, (and really meet) Sheila during this process and to learn about another city so far away and so different from my own.

The medieval city where this couple is from is still a beautiful, walled city, and the city was to be part of the special quilt for them.
I hope you enjoy the piece!