Beautiful Boobs

I've been dragging out my old stuff so that Jim could photograph it for me. I thought it'd be fun to show everyone this one (full size and a couple of detail shots).

Don't forget to click on any image on this blog to get a better look.

Her bra I made from an old dish towel. I had recently had a mammogram, so I guess I needed an artistic catharsis of some sort. (Not really. It was just fun.)

The piece is about 19" x 30".

I finally finished the "Connections II" quilt yesterday. It wound up being about the same size as the "Connections I" piece. Here it is.



I already have my keep-me-awake idea for the next in the series.

I'll keep you posted.

Blast from the Past

My husband Jim recently photographed most of my art quilts, including this one. These photos show the whole piece, and two detail shots.











This is the very first art quilt I ever made. It's hard to believe I've been doing this for almost ten years! My goals and style sure have changed.

On this quilt, the pieces were drawn onto freezer paper, cut, and fused to the background with Wonder Under. Then I stitched around each piece to stabilize the raw edges.















I got the fabrics at the Salvation Army (men's shirts mostly). Now, I almost exclusively do abstracts, or at least non-pictorial pieces, I no longer fuse anything, but piece everything together, and I've become much too much of a fabric snob to scrounge at thrift stores.
I want the best materials I can find!

I do think about doing figures again, but I'm not keen on fusibles any more. I understand they can harm fibers over time. Who wants to spend that much time on something that'll self-destruct and disintegrate?

So my figures now (according to my new rules) have to be pieced together or appliqued on. Very time consuming, but a good challenge.

Creating Connections

Here's a photo of my latest creation. I'm calling my last one and this one my "Connections" series, so this will be "Connections #2". It's a little smaller than "Connections #1" so far, but I may decide to add more stripes on both sides before I layer and quilt it. I always seem to be so compulsive about putting my ideas together that I lose my ability to evaluate them for awhile. I'll leave this one on my wall for a few days and then I'll sneak up on it and see what it needs.

Today our weather was perfect and there was no one anywhere around. Even my hubby was away doing photography, so it was totally quiet except for the birds. I took advantage and did some nice deck lolling and book reading. I'm about halfway through "Inheritance of Loss" which has me pretty hooked.

Huggly Snuggly

I'm still in my thinking-about-babies mode.

Aren't little versions of the big versions so darned cute? I want to snuzzle them all.

Still Life With Tomatoes

The past few days have been a bit cool and rainy, but I've still managed to do a bit of tomato harvesting. Look at these beauties! The variety of sizes and colors is mostly thanks to our friend Frank who gave us most of our tomato plants. Thanks again, Frank!

Jim has been in Alaska for the past few days, so I've had even more time than usual to wile away the hours in my studio. I managed to attach some big pieces of 1/2" thick foamcore to the design wall, which makes pinning fabric to the wall much easier. All I have to do now is stab a pin straight through the fabric into the wall. It works great.




This is what I'm working on now. I haven't quilted it yet, but hopefully I'll get to that in a day or two.

I'm thinking I might do a series with this general design idea because I think there's more to explore here. I like the idea of working with only three or four colors, and trying to push them into something dramatic.

This piece is about 50" x 65".

Brazilian Embroidered Baby Blanket

Here's the blanket I made for Josh and Lori's baby. I embellished individual squares with Brazilian embroidery (three dimensional flowers done with a variety of needle and thread contortions). Then I put them together with super soft thick fuzzy chenille fabric in pink and white, and bound it with white satin around the edges.

It took awhile to do all the embroidery, but I think it's something that she'll be able to cuddle in for a long time and maybe pass along to a future generation.

This photo was taken by Lori's aunt Mary Ann Sall at the baby shower. Thanks, Mary Ann!

Beloved Babies Bring Blissful Bonding

Yesterday was the baby shower for Lori, so my thoughts today are all about babies.

Isn't is so incredible that each baby comes into existence due to millions of years of evolutionary flukes, mutations, and coincidences?

I just find it mind boggling, and breathtakingly incredible that we're here and can experience our life consciously as we do. It's too amazing.


















Here's Lori sitting with her niece Taylor. Look at what a great haul she got! It was a wonderful party, and she and Josh received lots of necessities for the baby. Oh...and did I mention...it'll be my first grandchild?!?

My Granddaughter's New Room

I woke up this morning to find an e-mail from my son Josh and daughter-in-law Lori, with some photos of their newly put together nursery. I just had to post one of them. You'll be able to see the rocking chair and curtains I posted about earlier.

Lori looks nice and relaxed in the new chair.



Credits: Josh Spivey, photographer

Peter Piper Pieced a Peck of Pieces

These past few days, I've been working on piecing pieced pieces into larger unpieced fabrics. (Hmmm... there's a poem in there somewhere I think.)

Here's what I've come up with so far in the way of a sampler of sorts.

It wound up being about 36" x 48", big enough to be an actual finished piece, but I don't think I'm going to go any further with it. I'll just appreciate it for the practice it gave me at doing what I want and don't want to do, and threads that I want and don't want to use.

I decided to use a variety of threads and quilting designs just to see how they looked (for future reference).







I used gold metallic thread in the top section, regular cotton/poly thread in the second section, #17 cotton thread in the third (multi-colored stipe section), and plain old cotton thread in the bottom section. For the bobbin, I used monofilament.

I especially loved the #17 cotton thread. I had never used it before, and it has a heft to it that adds great texture.

Pitiful Photographers Purchase Prohibitive Pizza

Last week our friends Frank and Melinda went with us to the nearby little town of Stayton, Oregon, to do some photography and eat pizza at a little gourmet pizzaria there.

It's a charming small town and some of the buildings are very old.

These are a few photos I took there.

I don't consider myself to be any great
photographer, and I don't know anything about the history of these places, but it is easy to see what images catch my eye...graphic and colorful possibilities for fabric art.

We had such a nice afternoon and then went to eat pizza which was wonderful. What Jim and I didn't notice was that each topping we added cost $3.00. We happily ordered away, and in the end, our bill was $46.00! That was for two 12" pizzas and two drinks. Arg!

Big Red Note to Self: Read the damn menu before you order!