My Relationship with Blogs

(Cartoon on the back of a business card
by Hugh MacLeod, London, UK)

Phoebe the Bengal cat

Here's a photo my husband took of our Bengal cat Phoebe sleeping on a black and white quilt I made a couple of years ago. She's sleeping right in the middle of the face I made depicting an Asian Leopard cat, from whom she's descended many generations ago. She's incredibly smart and very sweet.


I've had some responses from a number of people who have viewed my blog. Now the pressure's on to keep it updated.

Experimental art

I keep trying to find my true "voice" in my work. That means constantly trying new techniques, fabric choices, and color combinations. Some seem to work well, others...not so much.

Here are pics of some of my more recent stuff

The one above was trying some new fabric manipulation techniques and some strip piecing. I'm thinking it looks pretty busy, but at least it's cheerful!

The one below was cut improvisationally and pieced and quilted by machine. I really like it.

The piece below has some fabric manipulation (folds, gathers, etc.), and includes some wonderful fabric I bought from Cherie in Nancy Crow's class last summer (the green and yellow animal-print-looking fabric). This is one of my favorite pieces I think.


The piece below is all pieced (no fusing or gluing) except for a few appliqued pieces added after the base piece had all been constructed. I think I like the idea of doing impressionistic portraiture, so this was a good learning piece, but it looks maybe a bit over the top. I think the concept is a good one though, so I'm sure I'll do more.


Today is my dear hubby Jim's birthday, so I'm taking him out for breakfast this morning. For once, it's not raining.

Ready or Not...I'm off to Nancy Crow's

I'm getting excited and prepared to leave Saturday to spend two weeks with Nancy Crow at her beautiful barn studio in Ohio. I've admired her work for a very long time, and had a class with her last summer. She's a wonderfully creative and super energetic person, so hopefully some of that will wear off on me.

Since the previous class I took from her, my quilting style has completely changed. For one thing, I had a studio built so that I could have a huge design wall. Since it's in a different building from where we live, I'm now able to fling stuff every which way, and not worry about what a slob I'm being. I tidy it up when I want to, and don't if I don't.

Here are some photos of my new studio.



Another really cool thing for me is that I recently bought an old Bernina 1090 machine. The machine in the photo is my trusty Viking, but I wanted to get a used machine for a spare when the Viking has to go to the shop. I love my Viking, but WOW is the Bernina an incredible machine! Perfect stitches, no computer to act finicky, and easily adjustable stitch length, width, and tension, and a very adequate variety of stitch types. If you ever get the chance to buy one of these old girls, I highly recommend it. I just turned sixty this month, and I'm beginning to learn that us old broads have our advantages.

March 27, 2007

I've been reading people's blog posts for a long time now, so I finally decided to join the party. I've been loving keeping up with people's lives, mostly without them even knowing me. It feels sort of voyeuristic in a way, but I really enjoy some people's posts. I'll try to keep active on my blog, post lots of photos, and spread the word about what I'm doing and learning.