Dreaming of AZ visit

Sometimes I get so envious, jealous, wish I was there, of my sister. I would love to be able to work on my pieces when I get the inspiration. Her emails when she is working on projects are the bright spot of my day. Even when I am really busy and have to wait until lunch or break to read them, they still bring a smile to my face.
It has been raining here in So. Cal and they are projecting more for the weekend. This could be an all weekend “indoor recess”. I think it is going to be really fun to have several items spread out and bounce from one to the other. I will be finding out soon how big the storm was when it finally got to AZ. We have a lot of new potholes all over the area.
I really would like to participate in some of the workshops and demos that the Green Valley group has. They always sound like so much fun and sometimes I even get the supplies or books so that I can pretend that I am working there also.
Perhaps David and I will be able to meet a few of the members when we come over for a few days on the New Year’s weekend. It would be lots of fun to see some of the projects in person, hint, hint.

David is in Road to California!

David got his acceptance letter for his quilt "Helixirs of Life". This was a wonderful surprise when we got home from work on Wednesday. Actually it was a perfect day. Got off a little early from work - yippee - and thanks to our wonderful bosses. Then we stopped off at Tesoro's winery to say hi to everyone and see what they have been up to.

We then walked across the street for dinner at Soro's. What a wonderful job they have done in expanding their menu and upgrading their venue. It is a wonderful place to dine. Great outdoor dining under a gazebo structure, nice lights and excellent food. I had the lamb shank special and it was so tender and wonderful. David said that even though his food was fabulous, the lamb was so good he wished he had ordered it also.

When we got home and I checked the mail, there was the fat envelope from Road to California! Now to send it in and wait for the final judging. He is so excited. This is his first quilt in a major juried show ever. He is just so happy to have been selected. He had submitted two quilts, the other one did not make it in the show.

Keep your fingers crossed, he still has the opportunity to be judged for a ribbon

Studio Tour 1 of From Edge 2 Edge

I did this little video this morning of our studio. I was not sure how long it was going to be so I "filmed" it in email mode so the quality is grainy. Please forgive. I may redo it later and split it into smaller pieces so it can still be uploaded. I hope you enjoy seeing where we create and that the area is very rarely tidy....


Note: Dead Italian music includes, Sinatra, Durante, Bennett, Martin, and Martino.
Others that we love to quilt to are Buble, NK Cole, flamenco, and classical.

Man at Work

David is madly working on his latest quilt for “Noble Seasons: Summer” that will be traveling next year to several venues in the U.S. It is not his typical quilt and I think it will surprise a lot of people with it’s playfulness. If you would like to see more of his work, visit his gallery at: FromEdge2Edge.com.

Studio Oct 2009

I LOVE my studio. It is 13' x 17'. It includes 2 sets of French Doors with plantation shutters, 3 small stair step windows about 12 x 36, AND a fireplace. I also have a new tile floor (we did the whole house - ourselves) and the most gorgeous views.

My fabrics are all folded so they fit two wide in my wire baskets. I have them sorted mostly by color, but by theme also. All my batiks (4 baskets) are by themselves. I love being able to pull a color basket out and play with it. I have approx. 36 baskets for fabric. The baskets are from Ikea and the size is 21" x 16" x 6". There are four baskets to each set and I have 12 systems or 48 baskets. The rest are filled with tools, needles, sewing feet, etc.

I made my own pressing station. It is a board cut the size of two wire rack systems, wrapped with a beach towel and then canvas attached to the outside. I take it off and wash it when needed. The size is 23" x 34".

I live in Southern Arizona and the mountains are the Santa Rita's. They stand at a height of 9453 feet. Outside the south side of my studio is what I call 'the pond' but it is actually a water feature with waterfall. The birds love it.

You can also see that I have a bicycle on a trainer in the studio. I can get on and ride it while thinking or watching tv. My goal is to get in shape enough to take it outside. YEAH - Plus with the weather starting to cooperate I am looking forward to that.

Somehow I have gotten some other pictures attached to my show. I will work on that.
Thanks for viewing, and I would love comments or questions.
Bonita

Link to Studios, Fall Issue

Cloth, Paper, Scissors and Quilting Arts are having a Studio Tour.
Come join us on October 3, 2009.

For more studios to view follow this link.

The Guys first post

Here is a quilt that I did for an upcoming book on embellishments. The idea came from a hammered copper plate hanging on a wall at my acupuncturist's office. I used painted lutradur, and painted paper clay. The center of the quilt is upholstery fabric. This made for a very textural piece.
David

SOLD! "Call Me a Cab"

Here is the exciting news.

I am a member of several wineries in our area. One of the wineries requested that I make a small piece that they would then sell in their gift shop. They had seen some of my other work and really liked it. They wanted pieces to reflect their Italian/Tuscan theme.

I created a small quilt (12 x 12) from a photo I had taken out at one of the vineyards and mounted on an artist canvas (16 x 20). I took it to them on a Sunday and it was sold by the following Friday at a Wine Club Members event. It is very exciting to sell a piece to someone and see how excited they are about having it.

Thank you Donna for your purchase of my piece. I guess I now have to get busy and make some new work. Time to go back through my photographs and go out and take more.
Trish

Giving - Final TIF

This is my final post for the TIF challenge.

Not having the time to do anything in fabric for this one I opted to practice my PhotoShop skills and try to get something that looked like fabric.
I used a canvas texture and ink outline, a fresco layer at 40%, an underpainting layer and a text layer. The original layer was left unchanged. I also liquidfied the corners on a 40% layer.

I had fun playing with a goal in mind. As a Christian I do think about God's greatest gift to us and the time He gives us to make a decision for Him. I rejected him a long time before coming to His saving grace and I am so grateful he gave me time.....

December Concept and Colors

December Challenge according to Sharon B:

For the final challenge of the year and since it is the gift giving season and many of us run ourselves ragged either making gifts or buying them I want to ask what is the idea of generosity to you. That is the theme for this month. So just take a few moments and think about what it is to give and how would you represent that visually.

Trish's November TIF

It is as done as it is going to get. I had a really good time playing with the Wordle site and I think I have some ideas on how to use it in an actual finished and stitched project. I did print this out on fabric and had some issues with the colors and loosing some of the less intense ones in the dark background. That is the main reason why it will probably morph later into something else.

I used a black fabric marker to define some of the edges. If I was going to stitch it out I would do something similar with thread.

I have had fun this year participating in the challenges - and some of them were that!