Open Studio Tour

The theme of the Fall 2009 issue of Studios is Open Studios, so they're kicking it off with a virtual tour, and you're invited to participate. Stop back here on Saturday October 3rd and I'll have a tour of my studio for you. I look forward to seeing all the studios of those who participate.

Click over to this post for the tour.

Book Covers

Well clearly I am almost all by myself in my favorite painted papers in the post below. Perhaps I have no taste? I'd like to think I have taste. But I think it all comes down to everyone having their own preferences and when an artist makes a grouping of art pieces, I imagine the pieces they like the least may be the ones that sell first in some instances.

So let's have a little more input. I made three composition book covers today. I have my favorite, but I'm not going to tell you which one it is this time. Do you have a favorite? Please let me know which one you like best. We'll see if I picked "wrong" again.


I'm not sure if I'm done with these yet or not. I'm contemplating adding a word or some text to the covers yet.

Painted Papers

Well the count down is on for the next Twelve by Twelve group reveal on October 1. Do I have mine done? NOOOOOOOOOOOOO. I'm getting a little frustrated with myself as I can't seem to concentrate on a good idea and my attempts so far have proven to be not good. Pray for me! LOL!

In the meantime, when I wasn't working on my 12x12 quilt, I was painting these papers.




All of these papers are recycled packing paper. Whenever I get a package that has this type of packing material I usually save it if it's in decent shape. Well I recently got some of this and when I went to put it away with my growing stash, well I noticed that the stash is getting quite big...so I thought I should start doing something with it.

I'm not sure what I'll do with these pieces of paper just yet. They would make very lovely wrapping paper. I could make them pages in a handmade book. Just a couple of ideas that come to mind right now.

My least favorite of the three is the middle one. My most favorite of the three is the top one.

SAQA Auction Part 3

The SAQA Benefit Auction 2009 - One Foot Square, has been going on for the past couple of weeks. Round 1 started on Sept. 10, and Round 2 started last Thursday (Sept 17). Tomorrow (Sept. 24) marks the beginning of Round 3, the final group to be auctioned off. The above quilt, Mixed Berries, is my contribution to the auction. You can see all of the quilts that will be in Round 3 here. All are wonderful creations.

By the way, Creative Ways with Books and Journals is now available for purchase through Amazon.com. You can also order it through our e-store here.

And just wondering....is anyone out there interested in some back issues of Somerset Studios or Art Doll Quarterly? My book shelves are filled to capacity and I need more room. If you are interested, please email me. You'll find my email information in my profile. Thanks!

It's Here, It's Here!

It was so fun to see the UPS driver coming up my road yesterday. He was bringing me a much anticipated package....a proof of the new book. It is very exciting to actually be holding it in my hands.

I mentioned in an earlier post that I hoped the book would be available soon, and it is! YAY! Much sooner than we thought possible. You can now order it directly from the printer here. It will also be available soon through Amazon.

Here's a look at one of the books I made for this book.


Have a fabulous weekend!

The "P" Word

I made another block for the Block of the Month that Two Creative Studios is hosting. I wanted to do another color combo. So far I like this one. It is very peaceful.

Are you wondering about the "P" word? Well "P" stands for prizes. Yes, I said prizes. Now I like prizes, and you probably do too....right? Well here's the scoop. If you participate in the Block of the Month through Two Creative Studios and share your block each month in the group, you will be eligible for prizes. Each month we will select a winner by putting all the names in the hat of those who share a photo of their block that month. So are you going to play now? I hope some of you are more enticed now that the "P" word is involved.

By the way, if you join the Two Creative Studios ning group because you would like to participate in the Block of the Month, please remember that after you initially join the ning group, you also then need to join the BOM group, which is a subgroup in the ning group. So have I got you all confused now? I hope not. If you have any questions, please email me.

Book News!

The book that Sue and I are working on is coming along and we are close to a release date. We are hoping by late October or early November, or even sooner, may I hope?

We are now taking pre-orders for Creative Ways with Books and Journals. You can read more information about the book, take a peek inside the book, and purchase a copy all on this page.

Remember the Block of the Month (BOM) I talked about recently? Sue and I decided to host it on the Two Creative Studios website. You can also join a group with other participants. You will find more information about the BOM here. I hope you'll join us.

Color Palette

The current fabrics I'm using to make some wallets.

Hello, My Name is...

I decided to make myself a new name tag for quilt guild meetings. We encourage guild members to wear name tags so that everyone can become familiar with who's who. I sort of failed in the name tag department last year. I hated my name tag, a simple plastic clip on sleeve with a quickly made tag to slip inside. I hated clipping it to my clothing. It hung weird and was hard to read. So I decided to kick off the new guild year with a new name tag. I wanted one I could easily slip over my head. Here is what I made. I hope it does the job. I wrote my name first onto the painted cotton duck, and then I thread painted over the writing.


In my spare moments here and there, I've been working on some more wallets. I finished two this weekend, and they both are like the one shown in the photo. I also had some scraps left and made some business card pouches. These can also be used for credit cards or the punch type cards where once you buy 10 coffees, you get one free, sort of thing.

Block of the Month

I've had some requests to share the block pattern that I talked about in my previous post. I have Electric Quilt software and I created templates from that program to provide in my guild newsletter. I am providing those templates here if you like working with templates. Click here for template file: Garden Walk pdf

You will also find the instructions for constructing this block over on The Quilter's Cache website. The instructions given there are partially paper piecing and partially rotary cutting.

The name of the block in my EQ program was Garden Walk and the name on Quilter's Cache is Birds of Paradise. I think they probably get different names depending on the color placement of your block pieces.

So, are you going to create blocks with me???? I hope so. If you do, I hope you share your results.

Sketch Doodle Block

Pretty catchy blog post title eh?

Well I've been busy this week working on formatting, designing, editing, double-checking, and more on the book that Sue and I will be releasing this fall...Creative Ways with Books and Journals. I've gone cross-eyed!

That's mostly why I don't have much to show as far as new art work goes. I did have some time a couple of evenings this week to do some drawing and doodling. The first photo here is a new sketch. I think this will be my next quilt. Probably won't get a chance to start on that until maybe late this month or next month.


And here is a new doodle.....hmmm.....I could rename these to newdles.


And the last photo here is a 12-inch quilt block I whipped out last evening. I am the newsletter editor for my local quilt guild and September is our annual change over of officers and marks the start of a new year so to speak. Well I thought this year I would introduce a block of the month in the newsletter. I plan to give directions to make nine blocks. This is the first block and I will take it to share with the group at the next meeting. I do hope that someone in the guild will join me in making a block of the month.

Butterfly Garden

Here's another quilt that I made last year and haven't shown. At least I don't recall showing it. I call it Butterfly Garden. Speaking of butterflies, I don't get very many here, even though I'm an avid flower gardener. Perhaps it's just my location. Anyway, I do see a few monarch butterflies now and then, at least that's what I think they are. This morning I was outside doing my daily bird feeding and watering when I walked up upon a monarch on the grass. It just stayed there while I hovered over it. It's the closest I've ever gotten to one and even had a minute or two of inspection time. Usually they flutter off if I get too close. It was fun!


I had a quilt in the Blurred Boundaries exhibit that was held Aug. 31 through Sept. 4. You can see a blog post about the exhibit on Lynn Krawczyk's blog Fibra Artysta. Lynn was the curator of this exhibit. The quilt I entered into this exhibit was Waiting. You can see this quilt on the home page of my web site.

Have a happy and safe Labor Day!

Fresh Cut

Here are three quilts I made last year that I've never shown here. These three measure approximately 20" x 13.5".


NEWS: I'm the guest blogger on the Subversive Stitchers: Women Armed with Needles blog. See my guest blog write-up here.

Check out the great comp book cover that Sue made. I just love it.

Hope you are having a happy and safe holiday weekend.

New Stuff

I've been busy this week with computer work and haven't gotten into the studio. I was so bound and determined to create something today that I just took the time and reacquainted myself with my favorite room in my house. I decided I would make something small so that I could finish it and feel a sense of accomplishment.

Well I got so consumed with my project that I totally forgot to take a shower. Ewwww! Luckily it's just me and the cats for the time being. Here is my completed project.


A mini quilt that I mounted to mat board. You may remember these fabrics from my post dated August 27. I thought perhaps they'd look nice together in something. Well they were still laying around wanting to play together so I grabbed them up and started cutting and stitching. It has a sheer flower that I made with several layers of organza and I added beads to the center. I used a novelty yarn for the stem.

Then, while looking through some boxes for something, I came across these two knit clutches I made. I had completely forgotten about them. Does this happen to you? Well I made them perhaps a year ago. They are knitted from some of my handspun yarns and slightly felted. I lined them with cotton fabric and added the fabric flap with Velcro closure.


All of the above is now appearing in my etsy shop. Ok, I'm off to take a shower after I go see what the UPS man, who just pulled into my driveway, is bringing me!

News from Two Creative Studios

Sue and I have some very exciting changes about how we will be conducting online classes at Two Creative Studios.

Effective immediately all of the Two Creative Studios' online classes are now ongoing, instant access classes! This means that as soon as you register for a class you have access to all of the lessons. No more waiting for a new class to post each week! You can open and save all the lessons to your computer and work through them at your own pace.

But that's not all...

We'll now be using a Ning group instead of Yahoo groups for the class forums! You'll find the brand new Two Creative Studios' Ning group here. When you register for a class you'll have access to your class group where you can interact with the instructor for your class, other students, post photos and ask questions. You can, of course, join this Ning group at any time, but you will not have access to any student-only groups until you have registered for a class. If you have taken one of our online classes in the past and wish to join the current class group please contact either Sue or me.

Why have we switched from running scheduled, online classes to ongoing, instant access ones? Well, we know how busy everyone is and how sometimes even with the best of intentions and planning some of our students are registered for a class, get distracted and are unable to complete all the lessons before the class ends. With an ongoing class you can come back to your lessons in 3 months, 6 months, or even a year from now and still get the support you need. You'll also have the benefit of being able to interact with all of the other students who have become a member of the student group, no matter when they signed up for the class. We also recognize that every student works at their own pace and that some work faster than others. With an ongoing class you'll have access to all the lessons at once so if you're a fast worker you can advance to the next lesson without waiting for the instructor to post it.

To learn more about how our online classes work please click here.

To see a complete listing of all of our online classes and to register for them click here.