More "Catch Up"

     And last week, my studioQ art group met. We either meet at each other's homes or often we'll meet at a fabric shop in Fort Worth, Cabbage Rose, http://www.cabbagerosequilting.com/  which has a great meeting room. As we like to share ideas with each other, our latest endeavor has been working with elements. One of our members, Heather, has had great success with an element she designed. So she has been mentoring  the rest of us on this design technique.

We have started out in black and white. This is a collection of what several of us have done. First steps.

This last picture is my final design for my elements. I sliced it all up and inserted strips of red. Now to get it quilted. I had used the 4 as my basic element so if I like this after it is finished, I may enter it in our guild show, titled "May The Fourth Be With You!"

     I have been working on a couple other projects. One is my quilt for an Internet group I belong to, which is due in a couple weeks. The title for this challenge is "Out of This World ". I've been having fun with this one! so watch for it later in May.

     And I am working on two or three small wallhangings for a book about the first walk on the moon. I can't really show too much of it because we have been requested to not post what we are doing. But maybe I can sneak in just some teasers.

Spreading the Word

The studioQ gals met on Monday and I showed them my version of how to do zentangles (giving full credit to Rick and Marie for starting the whole maddness!), gave them some good websites to use and we practiced drawing a few of my favorite tangles. I gave them a challenge to come to our next meeting in July with a completed tile....I had drawn a "string" on a large sheet then divided and cut it up into 12 tiles, put numbers on the back to be able to reassemble it, and passed them out randomly...we will see how many will get them done so we can put them together...I will post it if all get done!!

I have also started doing another challenge put out by the 3 Creative Studio folk...their challenge "A Sketchbook Challenge", is monthly instead of weekly...this month the topic is "Pathways".  After a few false starts, I decided to do another ZIA (Zentangle Inspired Art) for my entry.

"Pathways: Sketchbook Challenge for June"

      Now I am working on my Challenge quilt for our guild show which is this fall.  The theme is "being green" so the challenge is to create a quilt using recycled fabric of any nature.  It has been fun to work on, and now that we have to have our entries in by next month, I need to have enough done to take a picture...up to now I have just been putting blocks together with no end planned as yet!!

Some Accomplishments....Finally!!

"Know that every human being must cross a very narrow bridge.  What is most important is not to be overcome by fear."    Rebbe Nachman of Bratslav, 1772-1810

This quote comes from book I just finished.  "Day After Night" by Anita Diamant.   After reading several mediocre books (except for Alice Hoffman's) it was really good to read a very moving book.  It takes place in a dentention camp in Palestine in 1945...based on true events.  The book revolves around four young women in particular but many others also as they try to overcome their horrible experiences in Europe and trying to get to live in Israel.  I highly recommend it for all!!

Monday, I am hosting the Studio Q meeting.  This meeting will be in place of our January meeting although it is February 1.  Then we will have another meeting the last Monday of February...our usual meeting time.  Because we have two meetings coming up, we did two "recipes" this month.  The first one..on the left is for the topic "The Color or Shape of Pain"...and the second one..on the right is for "Earth Awareness".  I guess I didn't have to have both done and will probably not show both on Monday as I think the second one is really for our later meeting.

Usually the host of the meeting does a demonstration of some kind...I am going to do some monoprinting on a gelatin block!  It is an activity out of the August/September "Quilting Arts" magazine.  I made my gelatin block today....pretty cool!  I am going to practice printing on Friday and will post some pictures so you can see what it looks like.

Busy week coming up....Tomorrow we go to play poker with our poker pals; Saturday, Andrea is coming over and we are going to go to the Fort Worth Stock Show Rodeo..it is a matinee showing, then everyone is coming back here for dinner and to celebrate Marti's birthday which is next Monday.

And the weather is due for a change....it has been nice..in the 60's, but tomorrow it is supposed to be rainy and get cold.  We usually have some bad weather during the stock sho time.  Saturday it is supposed to be sunny but cold..high in low 40s!  That may not seem cold to some, but it is to us!!

Quilt blocks and more

I have completed my fourth mini quilt for my series on "Wheels"...the workbook assignment was "innovative piecing" so I have included a couple of overlapping wheels, sliced the whole thing up and added a strip. I did this three times, offsetting the pieces each time I inserted the new strip which makes the "wheel" a little harder to see as a result. Neat technique though...I enjoyed it. I also embellished with small springs which I had gotten from a bracelet I had taken apart.

My art group, studioQ, met Monday at my house. Here are the blocks of those who were able to do the next "ingredient" in our recipe quilt. The ingredient was "part of a chicken"...however a person wanted to interpret it!

This block has many parts! Can you find them all?

And we have the KFC logo on this block!

Nancy concentrated on chicken beaks...she doesn't know how to work small!!!

Heather drew hers out, enlarged it and then created her "chicken" part block.

And mine is a form of the dominoe game..."Chickenfoot"!! Made out of fabric...12"square.
What a great group....we have so much fun together and are such an inspiration to each other! Our next ingredient is "Magical"....that will bring out lots of ideas from everyone!

End of Quilt Show

My quilt show entries: "Age of Aquarius", "Inner City", and "Some Assembly Required". The Show ended today...very good show, lots of fun, and of course I did get some new fabric!! Like that is really what I need! I did resist any of the fun gadgets though...I have a few of those from past shows that really didn't live up to their demos!

Some of these I have shown before but I don't think my "Age of A..." has been on my blog. It is the result of my bee's Round Robin to which I have added the circles, black edging and lots of embellishments. I had taken this on the ferries with me and did work on it some while enjoying the passing scenery. I didn't quite get finished so plan to add a little more embellishments.

Daughter Andrea leaves California tomorrow....she will be driving, plans on a few touristy stops then meeting up with the dad in Vegas and driving back together....really looking forward to seeing her. We are trying to get a time together to see all the family and show our pics from the trip, but with teenager and preteenager things get busy around their house!!

Now that the show is over, I can work on some other commitments: a "purple 8" square exchange, a small quilt swap, and "Veronica's quilt" which is almost ready to put together then get quilted....a multi colored Snails Trail...pretty wild!

And I am having "studioQ" here next Monday and need to get caught up on our "Recipe Quilt". I am behind a couple....one ingredient is "Spring"...I know what I am going to do with it, just need to "git 'r dun"! and the other ingredient is "Chicken"...however I want to interpret that!! Should be interesting to see!

Hot and hotter!!

My round robin quilt All of studioQ's round robin quilts

Our studio Q met Monday at Bethany's. She demonstrated using Shiva Paintstix on fabric...pretty neat! Probably something I will need to get someday!! We showed off our newest "recipe" blocks. Above, are my two...the top is th newest one...overlapping blocks..and the lower one is the first we did...whimisical. Our next "ingredient" is going to be a real challenge! It is "black and white teeth"....now, it should be interesting to see how everyone interprets that!! We are meeting at Wendy's for our July meeting. Also have poste the pics of my Round Robin quilt and then all of our Round Robin quilts. We are going to all finish them and put them into the show in September.

Over a hundred for the temperature again today...our tomato crop is about gone...didn't really have too many this year. Strange weather...too cool/wet; then too hot/dry! Ahhh, Texas!!

I am working on my log cabin challenge. I decided since I was promoting it for the show I should probably make one too. So far I am liking it pretty well...just making a pretty quick one so don't really expect anything from it. I also need to work on my group quilt and maybe one more if I have time. I do have one finished....my red and greens Inner City which I think I have posted earlier.

June Already...where did May go???

This is my "whimsical" block...from our first drawing of my "bee's" new challenge. We met yesterday and everyone had theirs to show; then for our second drawing, we have to do "overlapping circles"...not a problem as I love doing circles!

This is a closeup of my second in my series from the Art Workbook I am going through. This topic was to be on photocopying pics from the computer and making your own fabric, etc. After putting it together, I decided to do some hand quilting. I am very pleased with the results.

This is "Wheels:# Two"...it is about 9" x 12" as was my first one. The little trike in the corner is a pin I had....the pics are from places we have traveled to...the large one-the Smithsonian, then one spinning wheel from Philedelphia, PA visitors center, one from Mt. Vernon, and then, my favorite...from Flagstaff AZ on a trip with the kids.

I love my studio Q group! We just keep inspiring each other....what a creative bunch of gals!! I put pictures from our meeting yesterday out on Flickr...here is the link... http://www.flickr.com/photos/74529469@N00/sets/72157619126092148/ After you see the pics you will know what I mean. The RR pictures are of our Round Robin which we passed around for several months and have now returned to the perspective owners. We are hoping to have a "special" exhibition of our quilts at our Guild Quilt show in the fall. The other pictures are our regular show and tell. I am blown away by Susan's "Log Cabin" which she has done for the guild challenge.

Meeting of studio Q

Yesterday, my art guild buddies met at the home of one of the three who went to Ohio to the Nancy Crow workshop to take a dyeing class from Carol Soderlund. They showed us their wonderful notebooks that they made with swatches of cotton and silk fabrics. What they primarily learned was how to dye fabric and get the exact color you want. My friend Heather's blog has much more information about what they did. I took a couple of pics of what they did, but my setting on my camera was off so they are a little fuzzy.

We always have a show and tell with our meetings. It is so great to be able to share information and ideas with these incredibly talented ladies! I have this book my daughter gave me a year or so ago...."Art Quilt Workbook" by Jane Davila & Elin Waterston. Each chapter has techniques and exercises to "ignite creativity", so I decided rather than just read about the ideas to actually do them! So I have resolved to set aside a few hours on Sunday afternoons and work my way through the book. The first exercise was on Perspective and Color...I am going to do a series on Wheels and my first one is in warm colors. It is just 9 x 12 and not complete. I will wait until I finish all my series to decide if I want to finish them up into something.

The studio Q gals have a new challenge for ourselves. Yesterday at our meeting, everyone brought words, phrases, adjectives, emotions, whatever and we put them all in a jar. Then we drew one slip of paper from the jar and that will be our first challenge for our "Recipe Quilt". We are each doing our own thing, not passing around this time. And our starter block will be our individual interpretation of the word "Whimsical"! Each month we will bring what we have done to share and inspire each other! I think it will be fun!

Another week gone by

Today, I talked to almost everyone in my family! Andrea called...is working on her training for her 3-day walk in October; I talked to Dorothy; and Jack called.

Tomorrow I have a meeting with my group of art quilters from studio Q. I will post after that as we always have lots of interesting things to talk about. Three of the gals just got back from a workshop in Ohio on dying fabric and they will have a lot to tell us about!!

So I will keep this short and add more tomorrow.