Fall in the Arboretum

I cropped the people out of this frog fountain photo and you lost the scale! Wow, he is about 5 ft. tall. I walked all over during the Dallas arboretum's fall opening, there was an art show, great sculptures and lots of pumpkin displays. I always like these bright fuschia globe amaranths in the photo of me because they dry that same color.

grandma's garden

I think my mother gave me this top that someone else had given her. I had it quilted and just bound it this week. It has plain muslin on the back and a pretty flower design quilted on it. The hexagons were all hand sewn. This quilt has just a few colors/fabrics on it and is really not my style at all! I think it is an odd size now, kind of wide for a throw and too short for a twin bed.

Sunny Triangles quilt

I'm still working on this quilt for my friend's alternative health office. First off it was too hot to sew in my little upstairs studio all summer here in Texas, now a few cooling breezes have me finishing up some projects. This was much more difficult to assemble than I would have thought. The problems came because it was not nearly as random a design as it looks. The triangles have to be put together in odd ways to have the rows come out straight. It is cheery though!

I wanted to have a labyrinth quilted on this one but I think it is too confusing for my quilter's long arm, making all those channels unless she has a double needle option? I am also having problems figuring out how to transfer the design to this quilt top. It will default to something simple eventually.

Grandma Zarski Paintings

My Husband's Russian grandmother died this year, she was almost 100! She painted well into her late 80's. Sometimes she would scrape off the paint and paint back over her canvasses in the Wintertime. She grew a large garden, kept sheep and was a talented cook. Her are some of her impressionistic oil paintings, almost all were landscapes. These are the ones we have at our home. Maybe she wasn't the most talented artist, but I love that she kept doing it!

Rolling Blue Waves

Hurricane Ike is nearing us today and I am binding this quilt while I stay home. Hooray! It is now  completed for Ben and Steph. I will mail it to them on Monday. I don't know why I avoid these little binding tasks for so long, maybe because a queen size quilt is so unwieldy. 

This lovely blue quilt is quilted with a serpentine stitch covering all the seams on the half triangle blocks, this helps with durability when you have a one year old and a  little pomeranian dog. These are large blue blocks and this worked up quickly. It has interlocking stars on the dark blue borders. Some of the fabric has little white doves on them, a hope for a peaceful nation and a peaceful home from grandma.

Inspiringly Depressing

The phrase inspiringly depressing is one we coined back in my beginning belly dance days in 1990 when we would watch the grande dames of the dance perform. Artful blogging, The new special publication magazine by Stampington and  Company, fits this description to a T! They seek out visually inspiring blogs to feature in their magazines. While I feel unworthy compared to these others, I have got to recommend the magazine. I have read issues Autumn 2008 and Spring 2008. Now I will subscribe to this new delightful magazine.

These altered art books just jumped into my cart at Amazon and came home to me. Of the four, my favorite was the paper doll one. It had fun vintage photos of paper dolls and wild new artistic interpretations of the genre. I enjoyed these other books as well, the mosaics are more time consuming than I'll ever attempt.

New DMC variegated Floss

I could not resist the gorgeous new variegated floss from DMC that go from purple to blue or aqua to blues. I had this idea to string some of new beachy luster glass beads with this thread. I also bought the metallic floss in aqua and lavender. Spectacular thread, The idea didn't work at all, The holes in the beads were big enough but the threads caught on each other and on the twisted wire needles too. All of my crafts are not successful, you see. But I wanted you to see the colors anyways. I ended up making this necklace by threading on wire and tying half hitches of the thread around the beads.

Auction dilemma

The dilemma for a crafty person is that everything at an auction is like a sad puppy, just begging to come home with you, definitely the case with this old, chewed up, stained quilt! My husband says I don't dare to go to auctions after I brought home in the past: 12 old crab nets, 20 18 inch glass rose bowls, pounds of stinky potpourri to go in the bowls, and several boxes of antique linens and lace.

I haven't gone in years but then went to one recently where this old quilt was so sad and shabby and only 4 dollars. I haven't been able to think of anyting to do with it, mostly stained and downright raw in some bits. I washed it in the washing machine and it is clean and even held together. Maybe you have an idea? My favorite idea gets a piece of this quilt , I think there are a few unstained blocks--

review: Alphabetica

"Enter surprise truths, enter imaginatively into someone else's life" a great quote from the introduction of Alphabetica: an A-Z creativity guide for collage and book artists by Lynn Perella. This is a book for players in this great altered art game. No instructions, It assumes you will love the artworks for their own sakes and  enjoy the each artist varied take on their Letter and themes.

I collect Alphabet books and I love altered art! I had to buy this one,  S is for sign in, P is for Plaid, U is for Unlimited,  F is for flapping and Q is for quirky and so much more, some letters defined more than once. C'mon, F is for flapping? You gotta run find this book to see what is flapping in it, now don't you?!

Review: The complete Guide to Altered Imagery

Wow wow! THis great book I bought as a present for myself for my last birthday is a great resource on how to alter your own images. Yes , use  your drawings, your photos, your quilts and make them so much more dynamic and interesting. Use paints, markers, gels and inks with your photos to add depth to your work; also image transfers, lino prints, integrating found objects, monoprints, making a rubber stamp, a buffet of ideas! It also fun because there are so many artists sharing their work in the gallery. Yummy!

Review: French Inspired Jewelry

This book is so beautiful, each project page has not only a color image of the jewelry but a colorful collage of vintage items and inspiration around the projects.  It has interesting fonts and decorative page details. Each page is  a satisfying little journey into: the french seaside, vintage cherries, lush bluebirds etc. THis book is every bit as much a find for the altered artist as the jeweler. I particularly enjoyed the items made with vintage buttons, having once owned a button company.  Enjoy, enjoy, I highly recommend it!