Upcoming show at the Faulkner Gallery

I am getting ready down to the wire finishing new work to go in my show at the Faulkner Gallery. The gallery is located at the Santa Barbara Public Library, 40 E. Anapumu, in downtown Santa Barbara. I am excited to be hanging a solo show. It is called Faces and Places and will be a mix of old work and new, both portraits and landscapes. The picture here is of my son and daughter in law waiting for a trolley in San Francisco. it is entitled “Stand Back From Edge”.  My newest piece is of a warehouse in Carpinteria that exists only in photos and in people’s memory. It used to be a Bean packing house owned by the Fish brothers. I have an old burlap sack that was from that era. When I was growing up it was the headquarters of Bliss trucking. I have a photo of an old truck inside the old building. This piece depicts that building in a rather dilapidated state right off the railroad right of way. It is still being quilted, but I will try to post a photo as soon as it is done, early next week.
My show will be on for the month of March, from the 1st to the 30th, 2014. Do come and see it.

Dia De Los Muertos at the Hollywood Forever Cemetary

Here is a photo of the altar we made honoring our friend Don Smythe who passed away last November. The centerpiece is a quilt of Don when he was a young Deadhead. 

My Chair

Here is my chair. It was bought at a yard sale in absolutely deplorable condition. I think it was a restaurant chair because the upholstery was beyond stained. It was Grrrrrrross. The wood part was chipped and in general shoddy, but it was a sturdy chair and I saw possibilities in it. The covering was inspired by a Jelly Roll quilt race that I participated in at Roxanne’s, a Wish and a Dream. I pieced the fabric, quilted it and then reupholstered the chair. It was fun. I love how it came out. See it at Roxanne’s in Carpinteria. It is for sale.

You can see a little of the old upholstery sticking out at the bottom of this photo. Here is a photo of the whole gross piece from the seat cushion.

I Madonari at the Santa Barbara Mission

I just got through helping my friend Marlene Ray do a chalk rendition of my skeleton quilt, Grateful Dance on the sidewalk in front of the Santa Barbara Mission.
Fun, but exhausting.

My quilt Santa Barbara Riviera was chosen to be in the West Coast Wonders exhibit at the International Quilt Festival in Long Beach in July.

Faulkner Gallery Show

Here is a preview of a show that Jeanne Surber, Judy Rys and I just hung. It is at the Faulkner Gallery East located at the main branch of the Santa Barbara Public Library on Anacapa St. The show is called Conceptualize, Create, Communicate. Our work is very diverse, and yet blends well together. It is an absolute splash of color, texture, pattern and form. Please try to come and see our work during the month of March.

Open House photos

I had my open house on Saturday and almost 100 people came.    It looked really lovely with quilts hanging on the eaves of the building, on the fence and all around inside the studio. I made little party favors for everyone who came, served cookies and juice, and just celebrated with lots of really nice people.    Some of them had been to my studio before, but most had not.    It was a wonderful event.    There are more photos somewhere, but I will post this and look for them tomorrow.

“Grateful Dance” my newest quilt

Here is a photo of my newest quilt. It is entitled Grateful Dance. I created it in commemoration of my two hip replacements and in gratitude that I have mobility again. My inspirations were the skeletons from the Dia De Los Muertos tradition, and an image I saw on a T shirt of the Virgin of Guadalupe as a skeleton. The titanium hips are made of gold and silver lame fabric.

This quilt  got a blue ribbon at the local quilt show last week end. I am entering it in Road to California. I am also quilting the muslin base fabric as a whole cloth quilt just to practice my machine quilting skills. I will be retiring from my full time job in October and plan to return to custom machine quilting as a retirement business. I feel that I need to hone my machine quilting skills because it has been a long time since I quilted full time.

This photo doesn’t show the border, which is very cool. I will take another pic with the border on soon. Actually I talked to my friend Judy Rys about taking a photo of the quilt for me.

slide show at Guild meeting

quilt guild Presentation 5-13-10

Here’s a sneak preview of the slide show I will be presenting at the quilt guild on 5-13-10. I am talking about my journey as an art quilter. The slides are to get to know me and to see some of my work and my environment. It will be lots of fun to present the show. I will also show some quilts.

Road to California entries

I had two quilts accepted into Road to California this year. One is a conglomeration of my Wild Women series, sewn onto a black background. The other is the Santa Barbara Riviera. The show is next week end. I am going to drive down to Ontario on Tuesday and take two classes from longarm instructors Pam Clark and Jamie Wallen.  Then on Friday, I am taking a class from Yvonne Porcella who is coming to our guild, then on Saturday, going back to Ontario to see the show and take a class from Pamela Allen. Phew… I won’t know if I am coming or going by next week.

yosemite quilt photo

I was reading what I have posted in the past and I realized that I have not yet posted a photo of my Yosemite quilt. There is one on the Coastal Quilters Guild website at coastalquiltersguild.org . look for Challenge 2009.