A birthday postcard

My friend Liz Broussard sent me a beautiful fiber-art birthday card ... thank you, Miz Liz, I love it!

"Garden Clippings", 4x6"

The Antechamber revealed

It's here!  The book (catalog) for Dinner at Eight's current exhibit, "The Space Between", is now available for ordering at Blurb.com.  Here's the direct link ... you can even preview all the pages.  (Thank you again, Jamie Fingal and Leslie Tucker Jenison, for curating this beautiful show, and thanks to Loris Bogue for creating the book!)

Now that the catalog is published, I can show my entry, "The Antechamber":

The Antechamber, 36" x 48"

The Antechamber is an entryway, a waiting room … the space between.  The space between city and country, stress and tranquility, sophistication and simplicity.   I want to step through this antechamber into that other world.

Materials:  printable silk fabric sheets; silk dyes; cotton, rayon, and metallic threads; iridescent medium; Tsukineko inks.

Techniques:  digital altering, silk painting, machine quilting, hand-painting with inks.

I hope you get to see this exhibit in person, opening at the International Quilt Festival, July 29-31, in Long Beach, California.  If not, treat yourself to the catalog for some wonderful fiber art.

Book Review: Quilt National 2011

This beautiful hardback book presents, in striking color photography and detailed-yet-concise descriptions by the artists themselves, the 86 works of fiber art that were accepted for the 2011 exhibition at The Dairy Barn Arts Center in Athens, Ohio.

Quilt National is possibly the most prestigious juried art-quilt exhibit in the U.S., and has been called “the premier international showcase for contemporary quilts” by The Wall Street Journal.  As a fiber artist myself, I know that it takes tremendous talent, imagination, and determination to ultimately have a piece accepted by Quilt National.  Many fine artists try for years and years before finally (if ever) having work shown there.

Some previous editions of the Quilt National book have not had, in my opinion, the excellent quality of photography that this 2011 edition displays.  Each image is large, clear, and, as far as I can tell, color-correct.  Many of the pages also have detail shots, so that the reader can see a closer view of the piecing, painting, stitching and other minutia of these works of art.  It is especially exciting to be able to see the fine quilted details.  The artists’ statements are all well-written and interesting, adding yet another layer of personal enjoyment to the images.

I received this book in consideration for writing an independent review, but having now reviewed it, I can honestly say that I would have bought it anyway.  Definitely a keeper for your library, this book can be ordered directly from Lark Crafts or through Amazon.com.

P.S.  Deb Boschert has posted a unique review of this book on her blog.  If you are interested in unusual, if unofficial, statistics about Quilt National entries, take a look ... it's quite fascinating! 

Grrrrrr ...

Apologies to all who have written asking about my blog pictures ... for some reason most of them for the past two years have disappeared from the blog.  I'm working on figuring it out, but haven't had much luck yet.  I'm posting a picture here, just to see if it "takes".



Section from "Speaking in Color"



A little tribute to Mariah

Not to get maudlin, but I miss my little Mariah-cat more than I can say.  Sweet Meg reminded me on my Facebook page of the tiny little artquilt I had made years ago, in a workshop at QSDS with Susan Shie.  It was all about Mariah, and I thought I'd post it here.  (Thanks, Meg, for reminding me of this little piece!)

Mariah Needs Her Mama
3-1/2" square

Just in case you don't want to twist your head (or your computer) upside down to read the stitched text, here's what it says:

Mariah needs her Mama 
She purrs even while she's biting me - ouch!
No bouncing!
Sandpaper tongue
Sweet sharp kisses
Only crunchy food, please!
Velvet fur and tuna breath, Yum

There is a little shisha mirror, and she's wearing a collar tag that says "Be good".

I'm so glad I made this, back in the days when Mariah was young and lively.  Thank you, Susan, for the wonderful class and this little memento that I probably never would have made otherwise. 

If Mariah (and her Uncle Buddy and Aunt Peaches) aren't allowed into Heaven, then I'm not going either!

Printers and Another Rant

I came so close to buying the absolute wrong printer for my needs today.  (Cue violins)

Wait, let me back up.  My trusty (Hah!) HP Photosmart Plus printer died an unnatural death earlier this week, just months after the 1-year warranty expired.  I had a hard time forcing myself to do all the research all over again, to find the best printer (for a decent price) on the market for printing on fabric.

I really wanted to try one of the new Kodak printers, and sent out cries for help on the internet for those who might have used it for printing on fabric ... to no avail.  To be honest, I didn't try really too hard, just hoped someone might have already made all the mistakes before I did.

"Luckily", I ran into the Kodak sales rep at an Office Max, and he was such a terrific salesman that I very nearly bought the thing on the spot.  However, I had promised myself that I would do my "due diligence" and try out everything possible first.

Snake oil salesman

But, oh boy, it sounded so great ... cheaper (pigment-based) ink cartridges, interchangeable among all Kodak printers, cool new features, it was even cute, and had a relatively small footprint.  And Kodak is famous for printing PICTURES!  Plus, they were going to give me a cool little $99 video camera as a bonus, THIS WEEK ONLY! How could I go wrong?  OHHH, I wanted that little baby!  (The very smart salesman "didn't know" how it would work on fabric, "but it must be good, because we're famous for printing pictures!")

Kodak 3250

Then, on top of that, the salesman slipped me an ad for a $50 credit at Best Buy this week, if I traded in any other old printer, broken or not, for any Kodak printer.  Hot Diggity!  Combined with a $25 gift certificate generously donated by my brother, this little dude would only cost me about $25!

But still, determined to do my research ... I came home and looked for customer reviews ... which were mostly bad.  Among other issues, "fantastic prints on photo paper, crappy prints on plain paper".  This did not bode well for printing on fabric.

So today, armed with my stack of beloved-but-costly Printed Treasures and Jacquard Silk Sheets, I trekked down to the nearest Best Buy and tried out a lot of pigment-based-ink printers, including the Kodak.

On both floor models of the Kodak (operated by the Best Buy techie), the sheets jammed without exception, and what partial images I could make out were absolutely awful.  The Kodak printer prints beautifully on photo paper, but not even marginally well on fabric.

Oh, and I discovered that although yes, the Kodak ink cartridges are less expensive that Epson's and HP's ... they are also much smaller and contain less ink.  So any perceived savings is probably just that ... perceived.  It's one of those things that's hard to quantify, especially since ALL the manufacturers are so cagey, not to say secretive, about revealing exactly how much ink their cartridges contain.

I finally ended up with another HP Photosmart Plus, since it even uses the same inks as my dearly departed printer.

HP Photosmart Plus

And as long as I'm sort of ranting about manufacturers and big-box stores, not a single printer had a brochure available for the customer.  They "must be all out of them."  And I had to practically demand that the techie-kid break open some new ink cartridges so that I could test the HP printers.  Not a single one of the "demo" printers had enough ink in them to print a single picture.  When I asked "what is the customer supposed to do, just buy it on faith?", the kid just shrugged.  I had to threaten to go to a manager before he would take the trouble to ask for permission to do it.  (Evidently, the marketing reps for each manufacturer are supposed to come by occasionally and replenish the inks in their printers.  The kid said that the HP guy hadn't been there this week, so I was just out of luck.)  As the kid was opening all those little ink cartridge boxes, he even took the trouble to admonish me that these inks were "very expensive", and that the store would have to swallow the cost.  I just stared at him, open-mouthed.  I couldn't even think of a snappy comeback.

Techie-Kid

I'm just getting really, really tired of having to demand simple customer service.  The kid who "helped" me was more interested in playing on his iPhone than he was in assisting me.  Not to mention, I had to track him down and drag him away from his computer in the first place.  I swear to goodness, I'm nice most of the time!  Why do these people seem to be on a mission to force me to be a crabby old lady?

To quote Paul Lynde in a Bye Bye Birdie song, "What's the matter with kids today?"  Modified to add, "What's the matter with Business today?"

AAARRRRGGGHHHHHH!

R.I.P. Mariah

My beautiful, loving little cat Mariah, 14 years old, had to be put to sleep this past weekend.  Her brother/best friend is still roaming the house calling for her, both of us broken-hearted.

Mariah loved boxes.

Mariah and her brother, sunning on their bench.

Funny haiku

I'm sooo tempted by this merchandise, especially with this haiku by The Selfish Seamstress:

Sew something for you?
It's not that I don't have time,
I just don't want to.

On Color

No, not an academic treatise on color, just a little haiku that popped into my head this morning.

Yellow, green, blue, red

Quinacridone Burnt Orange?

Colors on my mind.

Poetry Month

Oh, where have I been for the first two-thirds of this month?  I just now realized that it is Poetry Month, and I don't have a thing to wear write!

Hmmm ... well, at least a little haiku for fiber artists ...

Nodding at my desk.

Fiber art comes easily,

Poetry is hard.

The Space Between - Interview

I was so thrilled to be juried into the invitational exhibit "The Space Between", co-curated by Leslie Tucker Jenison and Jamie Fingal.  And today was my "day in the sun", when I was the featured artist on their Dinner at Eight Artists blog.  Please take a look, then be sure to read about the other artists too ... we are all just fascinating!   ;^)

Sharon's winning quilts

My friend Sharon Dixon is a ribbon winner AGAIN ... 

1st place

2nd place

Well deserved, Sharon ... gorgeous quilts!

Maggie, Oh Maggie

My friend Maggie Winfield just sent me a couple of pictures that I just have to share.  She's dyed her hair a ... sort of ... magenta? 

Of course, she looks adorable as always, and even shared some pictures of a couple of her latest creations.

Check out the cute little top she made from a recycled dress she got from Goodwill.  I love the little "fascinator" hat ... and don't forget the shoes ... Lordy, how could we forget the shoes?

And she's been drawing & stitching faces lately ... here's one she's put on the back of a jacket.

I love to trail around with Maggie when she's out on the town.  Admiring glances follow her everywhere, and I get to bask in the reflected glow.  She's giggly and fun too, as you might guess, and you're never bored when you're around Maggie!

The Space Between

I was thrilled to learn this past weekend that my 36x48" art quilt, "The Antechamber" had been juried into the Dinner at Eight Artists' new exhibit, The Space Between.  Here's a little sneak preview, just to whet your appetite.

The Antechamber (detail)

The curators, Jamie Fingal and Leslie Tucker Jenison, invited a number of fiber artists to submit their work for the exhibit.  It will first be viewed at the International Quilt Festival in Chicago, sponsored by Moore's Sewing Centers, followed by the IQF in Houston, once a sponsor is found.


My entry for last year, "The Key", is still traveling with their Beneath the Surface exhibit.  It started out in Chicago and Houston, sponsored by Mistyfuse, and will next be seen at the IQF in Cincinnati.

The Key

If you have a few minutes, give yourself a little mini-break and go to the Dinner at Eight Artists blog to read some of the Artist's Profiles that are starting to be posted for this year's exhibit.  Today's profile is by Judy Coates Perez, yesterday's was by Susan Brubaker Knapp, and the first one was by ... drumroll, please ... Yvonne Porcella.  These are all fascinating artists, and I'm inspired by each of them.  Go ahead, indulge yourself, for just a few minutes!  You'll be glad you did.

Rant Success: (Or at least a step in the right direction)

After having written a scathing letter (see my original Rant here) to David Green, owner and CEO of Hobby Lobby, I received an emailed response from a regional manager.  My two major issues were lack of management visibility/accessibility, and the insulting practice of confiscating backpacks at the front of the store before allowing the customer in to shop.

(Sorry, the above-pictured backpack is no longer available.)

Although I failed in my attempt to reach Mr. Green personally, I will say that my complaints were readily received, and I've recently received another letter from the regional manager, assuring me that both issues have been addressed at a regional meeting:

"We had a yearend meeting with San Antonio mgrs Friday laying out the great customer service guidelines we expect. At all times every hobby lobby has a member of mgt and should of been available upon request. Proper scheduling was discussed to make sure we have employees available for our customers.
We appreciate you letting us know about the backpack issue and the store has been directed not to be asking anyone to leave backpacks at front."

It's kind of nice to know that sometimes you can make a bit of a difference, just by speaking up.  I'm feeling rather proud of myself this morning.  

Is this kid ready to pick yet?

My sister just found an old Polaroid picture of her son that our Dad had altered, years ago.  I knew he was artistic, but he was doing mixed-media collage before I ever heard of it.  He had taken a cut-out photo of the kid, glued it onto a picture of his garden, and tied him on a bean pole with a piece of twine!  Just had to share this ...

What do you think?  Is he ripe for pickin'?

Some photoshopped fun

Just for fun ... hours and HOURS of fun ... some old black-and-white photos I have prettified with some "hand-tinting" techniques in Photoshop Elements.  These are some pictures from my parents' stash ... I don't think they are family; probably children of friends, back in the '40's and '50's.

Original photograph, ca 1940's.
I could have removed the crinkled fold-marks,
but decided that I like them in this case.

Colorized in Photoshop Elements -- "hand-tinted" look.

with my "crinkled paper" texture added.

Original photo, probably from the 1940's.

"Hand-tinted" look, via Photoshop Elements.

with "Golden" texture (by Kim Klassen) added.

New Grace machine quilting frame

Many of you know that when I moved from Houston to San Antonio last year I had to sell my beloved "Piglet", the A1 longarm quilting machine.  I really thought I'd "get over it" after a while, but I found myself missing the longarming experience more and more.

After months and months of researching on-line (and not wanting to wait until the next Houston Quilt Festival to try some mid-arm arrangements) I finally took the plunge and bought the Grace Start-Right frame, to use with my Juki TL-98E sewing machine, which has a 9" harp (or "throat", as it's sometimes called).

Not only was I concerned about which frame was the best for me, but also which dealer to buy from.  After much sturm und drang, I finally settled on Kathy Quilts, on-line.  There are no local dealers for the Grace frame in San Antonio, and this one seemed to have the best service.

back view of Juki on Grace frame.

I called and spoke to Lynn, co-owner of Kathy Quilts, and he answered all my questions to my satisfaction, so I placed the order through their on-line ordering page.  In very short order, stuff started arriving on my doorstep!

Sharon to the rescue!

Now, who among us can boast the kind of friend who will travel 3 hours from Houston to San Antonio, just to help you set up your new quilting frame?  Me, that's who!  My dear friend Sharon Dixon made the drive last week, and we spent a whole hilarious day setting up the frame.  Of course, then we had to reward ourselves with Mexican food and wine that night, and a whole day of just goofing off the next.

How about a little review of the Grace Start-Right frame?  First of all, I purchased the 5' long frame ("crib size"), because I really don't quilt bed quilts anymore (I have my buddy Sharon to do that for me!), plus I don't have the space for the queen-sized frame, which is the only other size the Start-Right frame comes in.

I wanted this model over the other Grace machine quilting frames, because it is steel instead of wood or aluminum.  It also came with a Power/Speed Control, which works quite well with my Juki.

Tongue firmly clamped between teeth, I started quilting.

A couple of things ... some of the table parts arrived bent, and so were hard to put together with the supplied nuts and bolts.  It's kind of amazing to me how this can have happened, because the steel is impossible to bend with bare hands and a hammer.  Nevertheless, with some elbow grease and some ingenuity, we finally got it done.

The back "table" part of the setup is evidently being manufactured in a different place than their original, so it was actually defective in some aspects.  Nevertheless, once again we were able to overcome these little obstacles and get everything together and working properly.

The only other drawback ... actually the major one ... is that the Power/Speed Control does not have a "needle up/down" capability, which I consider to be of supreme importance when longarming.  (I keep using that phrase ... longarming ... because this is essentially a "short" longarm setup.  The machine head moves over the quilt sandwich, instead of moving the quilt underneath a stationary machine head.)

Now for the good points.  This thing is made like a tank, and is not going anywhere!  Once it is set up, it's still light-weight enough to shift around a bit if I want to, but it is extremely stable, with no bounce.  Each foot has a leveler on it which is very easy to use with a small hand-held wrench.  My machine is perfectly balanced on the frame, which I never seemed able to quite achieve with my longarm!

And the movement of the machine on the frame is truly incredible.  It is as smooth and floaty over the quilt top as my A1 ever was ... and that's saying a lot.  The wheels are set up differently on the tracks, which seems to make a big difference ... take a look at the website if you're curious.

All set up and actually quilting (well, "scribbling" is more like it.)
(Note: I ultimately moved the Power/Speed Control to the right handle.)

I did not want or need the "extras", such as the Sure Stitch Regulator, Quilt CAD program, or laser lights for following pantographs, so I basically got the "bare bones" unit, saving quite a bit of money in the process.

And here's the BEST part of all:  my dealer, Kathy Quilts, was extremely responsive to all my questions and concerns (even my complaints) AFTER the sale, as well as before.  These days, that seems to be almost unheard of.  Lynn was especially concerned about the issues I had with the back half of the table being properly fitted.  He forwarded my detailed letter directly to the Grace Company, so hopefully they will be making corrections right away.

If you decide the Grace frame (of any size) is for you, I can't recommend Kathy Quilts highly enough.  Their main goal and focus seems to be customer service, and that goes a long way with me.  Check out their videos on their website and on YouTube.   (WARNING!  Turn your volume way down before starting the videos, then you can turn it back up ... there seems to be a big discrepancy in volume from the intro to the body of the video.)

This is a commercial picture of the Grace Start-Right frame,
lifted directly from the Kathy Quilts website.

And ... holy cow! ... I just looked at their list of 6 videos on YouTube, and see that Lynn wasn't kidding when he said he would make a new video of how to install the lamp on the frame.  I had asked him about it, and he said he would go ahead and get one going.  (This was just a few days ago!)  Looking at their videos made a huge difference to Sharon and me in getting set up.

I'm looking forward to quilting more, now that I have my "longarming" experience back in my grasp.  (I don't do big, looping designs anyway ... all my freehand quilting tends to be tiny and detailed, so this is perfect for me.  Plus, I have the option of upgrading my machine to a deeper harp, one of these days!)

An old-fashioned Proposal

In going through more of the photographs and paperwork from my Mom & Dad's house (they've moved into a lovely new retirement community, but had to downsize considerably), I made this beautiful discovery today.  It's the letter written by my grandfather to his prospective mother-in-law in 1917, asking for my grandmother's hand in marriage.

I was so touched by the old-fashioned sensibility of asking for a daughter's hand in marriage ... but upon closer inspection, it is clear that he is stating their intention to be married ... that same month ... and is basically just going through the formality of asking for her mother's consent.  His sentiments are obviously sincere and sweet, though, and I feel so lucky to have found this treasure.  I don't even think my mother remembered having it; at least I never heard her mention it, and I know I had never seen it before.

I even love the discolored and deteriorated condition of the pages!  Thank goodness for scanners and Photoshop, which allow us to preserve such ephemera even as they are slowly disintegrating.  I would urge anyone who has such treasures in their own family to do it now ... preserve copies in whatever way you can ... these precious memories won't last forever.

Gyotaku fish printing

While at a FiberVoices meeting last week, my friend Susan gave us a little impromptu workshop on Gyotaku fish printing.  Here is the result of my first (and, so far, only) fish print.  He's not perfect (he seems to have a double-chin), but I love him anyway.  Thank you, Susan!

Gyotaku fish print, enhanced with hand-painting.

No, we didn't use real fish!  You can buy rubber fish (cast from real fish) and other critters from Dick Blick Art Supply, as well as other places, I'm sure.