Beacon Art Show and Sweatshirt Makeover Workshop

Friday night was the opening reception for the annual Beacon Art Show at the United Methodist Church inSan Luis Obispo.  I was wonderfully surprised and honored when the judges announced that they purchased my art quilt for their permanent collection.  Every year they choose just one piece of art for it.  Above is the picture of my quilt, " Gothic Grace."

This year's theme was "Blessed and Soaring."  I was all over the board thinking of ideas for it, tall redwoods, birds, etc. One day I was looking at one of my ice-dyed pieces on  my design wall when I saw the lines of a rose window in it. Rose windows were first used in the tall Gothic cathedrals  of Europe as the crafts guilds of the time tried to build taller and taller structures to reach to the heavens. I thought this would be the perfect idea for the theme.

Below is the original piece of fabric. It is an ice-dyed piece.  I block printed the smaller circles in the window and machine appliquéd them to the background. I added rick-rack trim and handmade fusible black, bias tape to create the lines. It has some  hand-quilting on it as well.

Below is a picture of me receiving the award. 

 Thanks to my son for taking photos. 

Yesterday I was an assistant to my wonderful friend, Kathy Howard, who was teaching a workshop on turning sweatshirts into art wearables through deconstruction and reconstruction. 

Above is a picture of Kathy, in her beautiful sweatshirt/jacket starting the class. Kathy also taught a lot of fabric manipulation and piecing techniques, including but not limited to seminole piecing and square within a square. She has been making beautiful quilts and wearables 

for many years and had great tips and shortcuts to share with the group.

  The class was presented by the Bear Valley Quilt Guild of Los Osos. They were a wonderful, fun group of women with whom to share the day.  It was a lot of fun and I learned a lot.  

Scrappy Crocheted Handbag

I've been receiving compliments on my small, scrappy handbag, so I thought I'd blog about it. I hate carrying a heavy bag with all my important 'stuff.' It hurts my shoulder and I'm sure it is not good for my back. Sometimes I just want a the bare essentials, some cash, a credit card, AAA card, license, lip gloss, keys, sunglasses, and cell phone. So, I made this little handbag out of leftover fabrics.

The photo above shows the lining I used inside.

Here's a closeup of the crocheting.

Below is a new one I'm working on which shows my balls of scraps. I tear the fabric into strips 3/4 inch to an inch wide and do it in double crochet with a size 9 crochet hook. 

 I like the idea of using up my fabric rather than buying something new.

Wool Applique Workshop with Catherine Redford

     Yesterday I attended a very fun and educational workshop on wool applique and embroidery taught by Catherine Redford https://catherineredford.com/  

She gave a great presentation Friday evening called  "Trip Around The World in Folk Stitches,"

 at our monthly Almond Country Quilt Guild Meeting.

 She's very creative, multi-talented, and has a great sense of humor. I learned a lot.

 Check out her website in the link above to learn more about her. 

She also teaches classes online.

She taught us some great tips on how to applique wool and cotton shapes and then how to embellish with a variety of embroidery stitches. I love embroidery, as you might know by now, so was in seventh heaven!  Below is her sampler of what we were trying to emulate.

I haven't finished mine yet. Maybe during the Super Bowl today, I'll get it done. 

Below are more photos of Catherine's exquisite work.

Beautiful Skies

The colors in this morning's sunrise were incredibly dramatic. 

 Had to go out in my jammies and take some photos. The colors and textures of the clouds kept changing every couple of minutes.

Women's March

Well, I'm finally over my doozie of a cold, thank goodness. 

On Saturday I went to San Luis Obispo to march in the 3rd annual Women's Day March.  It was a very positive experience. I felt it was important to stand up with this group of men, women and children of all colors, ages and races to let the politicians see that we're still here and we're still upset with what's happening in our country, whether its immigrations, women's rights, healthcare, or issues of racism .  Here's some pictures from the march. As you can see it drew a very large crowd.

Wishing everyone a happy New Year in this, my first post of the new year! 

 I haven't posted in a while because I caught a horrible cold about a week ago and it is still lingering. So mostly I've been sleeping, reading, drinking tea and blowing my nose.

Today however, I went for a walk with my dog and found some wonderful examples of fractal design in the moss clumps on the ground and hanging from our California Live Oak trees. If you are not familiar with fractal design here is a definition I found on the internet: 

"A fractal is a never-ending pattern. Fractals are infinitely complex patterns that are self-similar across different scales. They are created by repeating a simple process over and over in an ongoing feedback loop."

So if you look at the structure of the moss in the picture below, 

you will see the pattern repeating in a variety of sizes differing in length and width.

In the picture below, the moss looked like a wall hanging suspended from the branches.

 I like to think of this moss as 'Nature's Lace."

I've always been fascinated by fractals. In researching them today I came across a very interesting tidbit that I had never read before.  It came from the following website:

https://gabrielhemery.com/tree-fractals/

"In the 15th century Leonardo da Vinci wrote:  "All the branches of a tree at every stage of its height when put together are equal in thickness to the trunk."  The website goes on to say, 

"So, if you were to cut all the branches off a tree at a fixed distance away from its trunk and bundle these all together, the size of this cylinder would equal the size of the trunk (and any branches) below. The rule applies at whatever distance (or height) you exercised this - now that's cool math!"

This is known as 'Leonardo"s Rule for Branches.'  If you google that, you will find all sorts of fun information and people who dispute his theory and talk about

 how the formation of branches is more related to wind.

Anyways, something fun to ponder and wonder about. And now, it's time for more nose blowing

 and another cuppa to calm my cold.

Happy Holidays and Barn Progress

It's been a couple weeks since I last posted. 

We've been busy with family, holiday celebrating and more barn work. 

On Christmas we visited Mission San Miguel, which is just up the road from us.

The mission was founded in 1797. 

It always surprises me how 'gaudy' the interior of the mission church is.

The electrician finished upgrading and installing new lights in the barn last week

 and what a difference his work made. 

Our electric system was in pretty sketchy condition for years! 

Below are photos of  the light switch before and after the work.

He upgraded all the wiring in the barn. Yesterday my  husband and I were removing some of the old, decrepit wires. It was the old stuff that had black fiber wrapped around it.

  There are now two LED lights in  the main part of the barn that provide fabulous light, 

especially for working with paints and dyes. 

Can't wait to get out there and make fabric!