Magical Business Card Case

The Winter issue of Quilting Arts magazine has an article in it with instructions for making a Magical Business Card Case. Several artists were asked to make a sample case to be photographed for inclusion with the article. I was thrilled to be asked to be one of those artists. The bad news is that the photograph accompanying the article has the raku face bead on the front of my case turned backwards. It looks like a big white bump of a bead. So......here is a corrected photograph, so you can see how fabulous that bead really is.

Happy Birthday, Bennett!

Our great nephew, Bennett, just turned 1 year old. It didn't take him long to figure out that cake is a good thing, and messiness doesn't matter on your birthday. Thank goodness for bathtubs with spray nozzles!

New Work

Barren
Artist: Claire Fenton

This is the newest piece in my art collection. I love the lines and textures, and I am thrilled to own this new work by Claire.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope all of you enjoy a wonderful day with your families and that your lives are richly blessed!

Letters Home

Letters Home
14"h x 10"w

This is the completed piece from my earlier post. I really like this one, and I think it does a good job of portraying the destruction of war and the worry of loved ones at home waiting for letters from their military family members.

New Work

Fragments #5
12" x 12"

I've finished two new pieces in the Fragments series. Click here to see them on my website.

Tyvek Beads

Ever have one of those days when you've just finished some new artwork and you're feeling pretty good about it and life and you're ready to just play for the afternoon? Well, today was one of those days. I'd recently read about painting tyvek and melting it to make beads, so I decided this afternoon was a good time to try it out. I painted pieces of tyvek in various color combinations, then cut it in strips or wedges and wound it around a piece of thick wire. Then I melted it with a heat gun. Once the beads were cooled, I added some paint to some of them using a dry brush technique. Above is a photo of the afternoon's results.

On the design wall...

This is the latest piece that I am working on. The working title is "Letters Home". It is layered and ready for stitching, then more over-painting. The inspiration for the piece is the destruction through war and the precious letters home from members of the military and the prayers of family members waiting for those letters and the safe return of their loved ones.

New Collages

Urban Scrawl #1 (left)
Urban Scrawl #2 (right)
10"h x 8"w each

These are two new collages, created for the 9x12 Works on Paper exhibition in Fort Worth, Texas. The pieces are inspired by the contrast of the agricultural area around me and the peeling paint and graffiti of the forgotten downtown areas.

FFAC Treasures

Fiberart For A Cause raised over $63,000 at the International Quilt Festival for the American Cancer Society! That is alot of postcards at $30 each. Photos of my two purchases are below. I love them both, and I actually had to patiently wait to buy Carol's while 3 other patrons made their choices. Thank goodness none of them chose her card!

"Bridge 3"
by Claire Fenton

"Jewelbox I"
by Carol Moore

Neonatal Hats

A local hospital asked for help in supplying their neonatal unit with knitted hats for their babies. One of the prime concerns for babies in the neonatal unit is maintaining the baby's body temperature, so all of the babies are given hats. The babies in the unit range in weight from 1-10 pounds, so all different sizes of hats are needed. This is a batch of hats that are finished and will be donated tomorrow. This is one of those "feel good" projects that I can relax in the evenings and make.

Visual AIDS Benefit

I have been playing with beeswax again. This is a new piece that will be offered for sale at Sikkema Jenkins & Co. gallery in New York City to benefit Visual AIDS.

Visual AIDS strives to increase public awareness of AIDS through the visual arts --- creating exhibitions and working in partnership with artists, galleries, museums and AIDS organizations. They raise money to provide services to artists living with AIDS.

Houston Highlights

Karey Bresenhan, Ann Graf, Marilyn Rose, Pat Havey

Every year members of the online QuiltArt group create fabulous tiaras and model them at International Quilt Festival in Houston, TX. Each artist gets a chance to strut/dance across the stage, wave to the crowd, and describe their tiara. There is no humility and nothing is too preposterous to try if they think it will garner them enough votes to win. These are this year's 3 winners on the right, along with the festival director, Karey Bresenhan, on the left.

Also making its debut at quilt festival was the new journal quilt book. I am thrilled to have 5 journal quilts in the book. The book is available from Quilting Arts. It's about an inch thick, and the photography and journal quilt stories are wonderful.