I have been nominated by a wonderfully creative and productive quilter for the Kreativ Blogger award. I had the good fortune to "meet" Bunny several years ago when I first started to do machine embroidery, long before I ever started to quilt. I do not think she ever sleeps. She produces more finished projects (good ones) than anyone else I know. Check out her blog The Creative Hare. She hasn't really gotten into art quilting yet, but if she did, her work would be great. She does great New York Beauty quilts though!

The rules of the award are:
1. The winner may put the logo on her blog.
2. Put a link to the person you got the award from in your blog.

3. Nominate 5 blogs.

4. Put links to the blogs.

5. Leave a message for your nominees.

Here are my 5 nominees. I enjoy reading their blogs and seeing what they are working on.
Linda at http://lindaedkinswyatt.blogspot.com/ does work that is innovative and full of color.
Lynn at http://lamdes.blogspot.com/does the most gorgeous quilting and painting. I hope to get as good as she is.
Wil at http://wilopiooguta.blogspot.com/is another innovative art quilter. I have taken 2 online classes with her and her work is gorgeous.
Deanna at http://www.eclectic-meanderings.blogspot.com/just has plain old fun with her stuff. I always smile as she really gets into everything with a passion.
Patty at http://pcoxdesign.blogspot.com/is another art quilter who I admire. She is not afraid to experiment.

Thawed out

I am back home again after taking Jan's Shibori class and freezing in New Jersey. However, it was well worth it! I had the pleasure of taking the class with Gloria Hansen and Rayna Gillman. Please check their blogs for other photos. The class was so much fun. Jan is a fantastic teacher with the patience of a saint. I feel very lucky that I had the opportunity to do this. Jan is holding up a sample of her own to which I aspire to. I have added a slide show of some of the pieces I dyed.
I also got to see my daughter. We went to dinner at a new restaurant on E. 82nd St. called Mussels. It had opened 4 days before and was excellent. As the name implies they specialize in Mussels. They were the best I have ever had and I thought the ones I had in Liege, Belgium were fantastic. These were better. They prepare them 23 different ways. We tried 2 of them and also ordered the best scallops I have ever had. The mussels and scallops come from Prince Edward Island. Yummy dinner.

Roses, etc

My Roses have been in full bloom again but I didn't get around to taking a picture until today. There will be plenty more blooms next week but I will not be here. Just thought I would share 2 pictures.

I am getting ready for my Shibori class. I am very excited. I leave on Thursday and I am just getting around to putting stuff together. I washed 20 yards of fabric last night and let it air dry.

I now have a "wet" studio! I turned one of my guest rooms into a messy workroom. I was using 2'sq of space in my laundry room. I did it the cheap way. We put a large waterproof tarp on the floor. I added a floor lamp and a clamp on lamp for more lighting and if I need more I will get another lamp. I used sawhorses to mount a sheet of plywood that I covered which will be my main workspace and also put in a 5' folding table that I will use for low water immersion dyeing. Thanks to a friend of mine who just had gorgeous fitted closets made (yep, I am jealous), I have inherited her plastic drawers and shelves. I put up 2 sheets of insulation board on the wall and covered it with flannel and now I have a real design wall. There is a bathroom next door for water and 2 doors down is the laundry room with the utility sink. No pictures...... everything is piled up in there waiting for me to decide where to put it and I am sure by the time I start working it will be a mess! Hahaha.

Playing with paint and dye paste

Yesterday was play day and today I got to see the results. I had an odd piece of silk hanging around that I had stenciled with some presist. I decided to toss a bunch of dye paste on it to see what would happen. I am happy with the result. The next piece is one that got started in Ohio as a monoprint that bombed. I added some dye paste using stencils, bubble wrap and just plain slopping it on. The jury is still out on this one. The 3rd piece is on that I was going to do up with a lot of gel glue but changed my mind mid stream. I painted it with fabric paint instead. These are the leftovers from the sun painting experiment. I did not want to throw away the paint even though I had watered them down too much. I added some dye paste via bubble wrap and a small stencil. This one I like as well although I am not sure what if anything I am going to add to this before I start quilting.
Enjoy and feel free to make suggestions.

Everything else is on hold as I am creating a new work area in our extra guest room. This will be my "wet" room so I have more than a 24" space to work on (my current laundry room).

Sun printing

I signed up for Susan Sorrell's online Monoprinting class and being the sometimes ditz that I am, I thought it started next week so I figured I still had time to purchase supplies. To my surprise, the first lesson arrived on Monday. The first assignment was to do a sun printed piece and of course I did not have any Seta Color paint. I ran out to Michael's and picked up a few jars and set to it on Tuesday morning. Since I had never done one before, I was a bit lost but serendipitously, Sue Andrus posted a note the the QA list with her version. Between the 2 sets of instructions I managed to do one. There is lots of room for improvement here, but I stuck my toe in the water. I also forgot to use salt.

Swooning

I had a rather frustrating day today but now I am flying very high. I came home to find an email from Martha Seilman saying that the 12 x 12 piece I had donated to the SAQA auction "Ginkgoes in the Wind" sold today on the first day for $750.00. WOW. I am in shock! I posted about this piece on June 17th.
Ok, I am going to see if I can come down out of the clouds!!

Rejected Journal Quilt

This is my journal quilt that got rejected but is now in an online show called Braving the Elements with the other rejectees. I know mine needs some work but it is not talking to me. It is called Survivor. We live in an area that is prone to wild fires and this represents the hope that some vegetation escapes the ravages of the fires. The other quilts in this "show" are well worth the visit.

We've come a long way, baby

Last night we made history. We finally put away our bigotry and bias and joined together to elect the best person for the job of steering our great country out of the mess of the last 8 years. Congratulations, America. We have grown up. We are now on the road to being able to hold our heads up high and proud in the rest of the world, again. We have proven that we can come together for the greater good of the whole. Maybe this will be a road map other nations can follow. When people pull together everyone profits. When people are fractured, everyone suffers.
There are going to be tough times ahead for many but the future is looking less bleak. The founding fathers of our country had it right... We are all created equal. Biases due to race, religion, or gender only hold us down. We all have something to offer. Dare to dream and may all your dreams come true.

Trip to Baltimore

Ned and I spent several days in Baltimore last week. One of the highlights of the trip was a visit to the Baltimore aquarium. It is a very interesting place as it is not just a bunch of fishies. They have a permanent exhibit housing some of the diversity of Australia and a wonderful exhibit of frogs... we liked that one best! Of course we got to see the dolphins and the sharks as well as the feeding of the sting rays. I also went to Fort McHenry were Frances Scott Key wrote the national anthem, The Star Spangled Banner.