Under the Ginkgo Tree

I have noticed that unintentionally, most of my pieces have orange in them....I am neither a lover nor hater of orange but the use was not planned. So with that in mind, I decided to do a small piece with the intention of using orange. Under the Ginkgo tree is the result. This piece measures 12" x 12" and I have decided I will donate it to the SAQA auction.

Out with the old, in with the new

.... well not quite. I finished a piece that I have been working on and started a new one. I have been working on a still life that is a challenge from my art quilters guild. It had to be 24"sq and at least 50% black fabric. I wasn't a real happy camper when I signed up for this (actually, I signed up for it before I knew it had to be black) since I had just finished working on the black and white piece that was driving me nuts. It has no name..... I can't think of one so I am just calling it Still Life 2. The background fabrics are my shibori pieces and one I dyed black. The 2 vases on the left are African fabrics and the squat vase is one of my hand dyes that has been painted over. The flowers are silk from the craft store. I lost my marbles and hand beaded the left side. I would like to enter this somewhere but I am not sure where. This is the old.

The new is more of my shibori and hand dyes that is going to be the background for something oriental in flavor. I think I got carried away and made it larger than I wanted.... Oh well... this is what the fabric was telling me to do.


I had a frightening experience this afternoon. All of a sudden my mouse stopped working as did all 4 of my USB ports. I forced shut down my laptop and opened it up expecting to find it filled with cat hair (occupational hazard in this house). Surprisingly, it was clean ( I clean it out fairly regularly or the fans shut down and overheat. The cat hair gets caught behind the fans). Now I have no idea what might have caused this but I turned the computer back on and everything is working fine.... gremlins.

I had ordered some silk scraps by Jane Steinberg through Artistic Artifacts and my package arrived yesterday....... they are gorgeous and I plan on using them in the piece I am working on.

My poor hubby is on a business trip in Pennsylvania and Ohio and freezing his buns off... it has been a balmy 72 here. I do not miss the northeast one bit. This is what I call winter!

Sneak preview

I have been working on this piece for awhile now in between trips and bridge games. It is almost done. I am going to do some beading on the left side ( I must be losing my marbles) to balance the piece out. I am almost happy with it. I think that the stitching I have done for the stems of the flowers does not show up very well so I may paint over them. I should have this done by the end of next week and will post a photo of it then. What you see here is my shibori pieces and silk flowers stitched on with a swipe of silver metallic paint on them. They have black crystals in the centers. This is just a detail shot.

Our adventures in California

We spent the past week visiting friends in Irvine, California. We are sort of extended family and what is really nice is that we are really part of the woodwork. They do not need to entertain us and we do not impose on them other than for a bed. We have been friends for 51 years. I love to cook so when I have been visiting lately, I treat them to meals they would never make for themselves.

On our agenda was to go down the the San Diego Zoo and the Long Beach Aquarium. Ned and I both love to spend time with the fishies and walk the zoo. As an added bonus this time I got to see the exhibit "Kimono as Art, The Landscapes of Itchiku Kubota". I wish I could have spent more time looking at these absolutely fantastic works of art. They did not allow pictures but if you Google it, you can find some videos with his work. Amazon sells the book for $30. Treat yourselves.... buy it. You will drool over it. It closes tomorrow in San Diego but will be in Canton, Ohio from Feb 8- April 26, 2009. If you are anywhere in the area, do yourselves a favor and go see it.
For those who are into food the menu included: Quesadilla's with goat cheese and roasted pepper sauce, 7 types of onion soup, risotto with asparagus, oven steamed snapper with black bean sauce, Spanikopita (with my special cheese combo), brisket, guacamole, and chocolate mousse. I love having people to cook for. Lots of good wines went with these meals.

I even got to sew the sleeve on my Black and White piece (see old post) and hand delivered it to Annie Copeland who went out of her way to meet us one morning.

The only bad news is that we picked up my kitty from the vet ( we thought he just had a respiratory infection) to find out he might have either a kidney stone or a malfunctioning kidney. He is 15 years old and really my baby. The next week or so should give us a better idea of where he is. He is in great health otherwise. The respiratory infection crops up every 5 years or so and is treatable.

I am in the process of working on a piece that includes some of the black shibori dyed pieces I had done. No photo yet.

Here's to a great new year. I tend not to do resolutions because I never keep them but I do have goals for myself this year. The first is to try to focus more on my work and not get so distracted. The second would be to try to both sell and show more of it as well.