My auction piece for the quilt retreat that I am going to miss again!

I will be in Houston during the weekend the quilt group is having their retreat. It is a great group of women who have been meeting together for over 20 years. Through lots of laughing and crying, the group is stitched together pretty tightly. One of the fun things we do, just to mention one, is an auction. You can bring things to be auctioned off on Saturday, the only rule is that you have to have made it. Every year during the retreat we pick the theme for the following camp. This falls theme was "Going Green", here is my wall art quilt for the auction. It is done with collage, tissue paper, paint, glue, and lots of quilting.

Fall Card Exchange

On Painting Friends we do a few card exchanges during the year. Often during Easter, Christmas and fall/halloween. This year we sent cards a little early and they are now starting to arrive. Everyone who wants to participate signs up, then I go through and randomly assign names to everyone, that is their exchange person. They will paint an original piece of art for their person and send it. The person on the receiving side doesn't know who is sending to them until they recieve their card. Lots of fun and we end up with little masterpieces from other artists. The card I sent to Regina arrived today, she loved it so now I can post it. It is a Rubeckia called Cherokee sunset, watercolor, 4x5".

Pears and shadows

Cindi in our watercolor group "Painting Friends" challenged us to do shadows. I decided to paint tonight and this seemed perfect. She had posted two pictures, one of a statue and pears, I "picked" pears! I think I was too tired to paint as I felt like I was struggling from the start. Somedays you just know instinctively, don't paint! Well, I decided to keep going, I mean, its just a practice piece, right? well soon I was getting mud. Mud is never good in watercolor painting, so I told myself, pretend your an oil painter. So now I was going for mud, colorful mud. I ended up with this, I do like it, it was fun. I want to get dark darks that still have color. That arent dead blacks or browns. So these practice pieces are great, thanks Cindi!

"Pears" watercolor 5x7

One of my new patterns

This is called "Fabulous Folded bags" it is one of my new patterns to be released at Houston. They are so fun and easy to make, plus there is a folding process that takes them from a square to a bag, but is a secret. Hope you like them!

Postcrossing

Jennifer and I decided to do a postcard exchange with people from all over the world. Since traveling for us if challenging we thought it would be fun to explore the world through the eyes of those who live in it! Its a great idea for teachers, moms, etc. Its called Postcrossings and we recieved our first postcard today! Yippie, it came from Finland. We have sent several to Russia, The Netherlands, Belgium, China, Japan, South Korea. The website keeps track of them for you on a map so you can see where you have sent and where you have received cards from. We are going to travel a bit through our postcard exchange!

Mushrooms

We have had mushrooms growing in our lawn, even with all this heat! It either means we are over watering or we have some pretty tough mushrooms! Randy got our camera and took some close up shots of these little beauties. They are so wonderful and unique. They come up in a day and are gone almost as quickly. I think they are a challenge to paint since they are so overly simple and not very colorful. The challenge here is to make them interesting. I had a piece of left over primed watercolor paper. Although it only had a green wash on it I found it hard to capture any good light areas because of the green. I will paint these again but here is my quick watercolor painting of Mushrooms.

Fractured Quilt by Sub Q Art Quilters

cropped quilt
Originally uploaded by ddhabicht

Our Sub Q Art Quilters group did this fractured quilt. The participants received a piece of a photo and was asked to blow it up 400% and recreate it in an art quilt. They could use any techniques they wanted to use in recreating their section of the photo. Oh I forgot to mention that I gave them their section in black and white, so they had to add back in the missing color. It was a study on value and I love the results! There were so many different techniques from applique, to paints, inks, piecing, even paper towel collage.

Follow up post: I asked everyone to send me the techniques they used to do each of their pieces. I have that information and wanted to share with everyone. The first piece was done by Nancy Mastroianni, she used
paper piecing, beads, crystals and colored pencil. Piece #2 was done by Kay Davis, she used hand/machine applique, art pencils, ink and thread play. Piece #3 was done by Phyllis Campbell, she used tsukineko inks, fabric pens,oil pastels, pigma pens and thread painting. Piece #4 was done by yours truly, Desiree and I applied used painted paper towels, tissue paper, papers, and fabrics to create a collage. I then used paints to add more color. Piece #5 was done by Ann Turley, she used machine applique and paints. Piece #6 was done by Carol Colbert, she used hand applique, paint, colored pencils. Thanks to these amazing women and there efforts in completing this quilt.

Randy reading

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Originally uploaded by ddhabicht

Sketched in watercolor in my sketchbook

Taking a minute to enjoy

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Originally uploaded by ddhabicht

How often do we just end up working outside in the yard and never really just stop to enjoy it. Although we love working outside its nice to just stop and really take it all in. Breathing in and filling my lungs with satisfaction. Laying in the shade and feeling the breeze as it flows over my arms and cools me. That is what we miss when we get caught up in the work of it all. Today, we had one of those special resting days. Ahhhh I love it. Randy brought out the Kindle (electronic book reader) which he has practically taken over. I had some art magazines and my sketchbook. I sketched and quickly painted one of the border dahlias and Randy reading. Its so nice out here, I think I will just take a nap.

Party

Party
Originally uploaded by ddhabicht

Chris and I trying to get a photo together with my phone

Robs 50th

Robs 50th
Originally uploaded by ddhabicht

We went to a neighbors 50th birthday party last night. It was great,
catered food, dj, hypnotist and this custom cake. It is wine barrels
and a plate of cheeses all part of this awesome cake!

Fall Gifts

Its almost midnight but I wanted to post my little watercolor sketch from my journal before going to bed. I noticed on our morning walks that the pine trees are dropping their pine cones. Some are open, many are not. These unwanted gifts are nothing but litter to some, a nuisance to the gardeners,but as the Holidays arrive they will be gathered and appreciated. They might be in a table decoration or sit on a fireplace hearth. Some will be painted with white paint and glitter to look as though they are full of snow. I think I may start to collect my gifts early this year, while the selection is prime! I think a basket full of pine cones would make a wonderful and challenging painting!

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Originally uploaded by ddhabicht

Marta was making pastel paper the last time I visited and I grabbed
one. She had based them all in different colors, so cool. Last night
at 11 I started this French waiter, what was I thinking? I am not
overly thrilled with my results. In my photo he is doing this weird
persing of his lips plus the shadows are so dark no eye details show
up which I tried to fix... Hmmm. The paper was not quite 8x10 so it
was small to do a bust. Yet I am happy since I think I got his
porportions right, captured him and I love the background.

My garden is still trying even in the heat

My garden is still trying even in the heat
Originally uploaded by ddhabicht

I uploaded this picture from my iphone today, I love my phone. We were working outside and although I was taking out my bean plants I realized that the rest of the garden was really still producing and looked pretty good. We have had such a long stretch of super heat, I am even amazed it all hasn't just shriveled up and blown away. We actually had fresh squash tonight for dinner. In my magic box garden I have potatoes, basil,onions, beets, squash, bell peppers. On the back side is a tomatoe plant. I used to have a huge garden, I spend many days putting things in the freezer or canning or pickling. But now, this box holds just the right amount for us to eat fresh veggies almost everyday.

As I pulled out my very tired bean plants I realized that fall was on its way. The heat from summer was still with us but the plants knew it is getting late in the season. My pumpkins (across the yard) are dying back and the green pumpkins are starting to turn orange. The coral tree is starting to get yellow leaves as it prepares to sleep through the winter. I love and hate this time of the year. I so love the long days, so thinking of it getting dark at 5 is depressing. But I love the color of fall, the warm pink/orange the sun turns everything it touches. The cooling nights and the approaching holidays. It is a bittersweet time.

Cupcakes the latest DSDF challenge

This biweekly challenge was a photo of cupcakes, I loved it. I actually love all the pictures she posts but my schedule hasn't allowed me any time to paint for fun ! LOL I took a few hours this afternoon and did this pastel painting of cupcakes. It is a bit blurry, I hope to get a clearer picture next time. There is just something about painting food that is so enjoyable! Especially when you re on a diet. Soft Pastel 10"x 20"

!

A Video of my quilt

At the Long Beach Quilt show the IQA did a video of our exhibit, my quilt is in this video along with many of the others in the exhibit. I hope you enjoy http://www.quilts.com/lbqf09/enVivo/

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Originally uploaded by ddhabicht

Close-up

Sneak peak

Sneak peak
Originally uploaded by ddhabicht

I have been working on some new quilt patterns for Houston. This is a
youth quilt called Just Ducky Sports. Comments are welcome

Houston Quilt Show coming up

I was informed today that my quilt called "Glass Beach" is being used for the advertising media page. Here is the link, www.quilts.com/mediapage/ I am very excited that it was choosen to represent the Edges Exhibit in Houston. I have been so busy with patterns and fabric designs for Houston. My fabric is now going to be late in arriving, the mills are all backed up so it could come as late as the end of Sept. With Houston Oct 9th that doesn't leave much time!

Fabric drying

Fabric drying
Originally uploaded by ddhabicht

Some students painting fabric

Some students painting fabric
Originally uploaded by ddhabicht

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Originally uploaded by ddhabicht

I took a pastel class from Alicia Sotherland today. Pastel on suede
mat board. No preliminary drawing just start by filling in negative
spaces. I choose to paint this old women from our photos from
Italy. Actually Helen took the picture and met and talked with this woman. She has very masculine feature so hard to tell if she is man or
woman. Marta also went and painted a beautiful piece.

Long Beach Show

Where does the time go? The Long Beach Quilt show was amazing. I worked the SAQA booth on Thursday night and got to meet some wonderful people. The quilts were amazing. I walked around in awe of the talent and work required to produce these masterpieces! Jamie Fingal sent us an email about a video that was wonderfully done to show off some of the exhibits. We were honored to be choosen. Here is the link, choose vidcast and Edges to see some of the quilts in the exhibit, including mine! "Long Beach Quilt Show"

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Originally uploaded by ddhabicht

Working on a new quilt using painted paper towels!

Happy 4th of July America!

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and that we remember our troops that are still overseas fighting!

My quilt for the SAQA auction done!

My quilt for the SAQA auction done!
Originally uploaded by ddhabicht

The quilt is squarer than the picture shows, I took the picture with my phone! LOL I used collage, acrylic inks, paints, shiva paint sticks, distressing inks, raw edge applique. I like the way it turned out. As I was posting this I noticed that Jamie just posted our quilts on her blog for the Edges Exhibit she is curating at Long Beach Quilt show. Take a look at how she has assembled all 21 quilts, its pretty cool. Thanks Jamie for all your hard work on this, and Leslies too!

Mini Quilt Swap

I signed up to do a mini quilt swap about Spring. I recieved my quilt today, it came from Sara in NY and it is so cute. She worked so hard on it and I think she did a great job. From what I understand she hasn't been quilting very long but you wouldn't know it from this little quilt, thanks Sara.

I need to get out a mini quilt for SAQA now! Deadline is July 1

My fabric is here!

I received the first proof for my fabric line today, its so exciting to see your name on the selvage of that material! We are proofing for colors and just make sure all the details read write. Here is the art work still on paper not on fabric but I wanted to share. Please ask you quilt shop to carry it, its only as good as the volume they sell. The fabric turned out alot brighter than this is showing. It will be called "Horsing Around" by desirees designs for Red Rooster Fabrics. YIPPIE!!

Another quiltlette piece I am experimenting with

I have been doing some collaging with tissue papers and other papers to create textures on the fabric, then I have been painting the base colors and then adding the main design. Here is one I like, what do you guys think? I was thinking it might make a nice fabric.

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Originally uploaded by ddhabicht

My garden is exploding with veggies!

Happy Fathers Day

I wanted to say Happy Fathers Day to some of the best dad's I know!

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Originally uploaded by ddhabicht

I finally got a picture of Nathans Quilt. We used it yesterday to sit
on at the school

New Pattern

- Click on image to see it larger-

Well, I did it again. I had the quilt shop sign me up to teach something that I hadn't designed yet. I thought I would have time but that seems to be the illusive thing in my crazy life! Two days before the due date for class samples I started drawing. Mind you that I had been painting fabric in anticipation of the design but I still hadn't figured out how I would execute it. I finished and even had a few sign ups at meet the teacher night! Phew! I am making it into a new pattern and I think I may kit it up with hand painted fabrics for Houston this year. Here it is, I will be doing another in a square format and a few variations maybe as a show quilt.

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Originally uploaded by ddhabicht

The beginning of our class assignment in Dianna Pontings pastel class.

Paris

After the farmhouse making the transition back to the city proved to be very hard. So many people and the noise again, but we soon adjusted and got into the swing of museums and churches, cafes and shopping! Paris was so different from Rome, the people, the feel of it. I can't really put my finger on it but it went beyond the obvious. In Paris people were much more dressed, they were also a bit more reluctant to help. The city was beautiful and we soon discovered why people fall in love here. Most of my sketches in Paris are on heavily journals pages so I will be sharing the few that are just sketches, mostly done in the Louvre and in the park outside the Louvre. The museum has and incredible Egyptian Exhibit that I enjoyed sketching in pencil.

I am sorry that I don't have more things to share in Paris, I will be doing some paintings from all the pictures we shot and I will share then. One thing I did try to do was to capture some of the people, in a different small sketchbook I drew some of the people, here are four of those drawings.

My Trip

It is so nice to be missed, I missed all of you too, my dear Internet friends. Our daily chats were gone so abruptly! I was hoping to post all the way through but my phone and the Internet issues made it difficult. I decided to just stop stressing over it and fix it when I got home. I noticed once I entered the states the emails that wouldn't post all posted! AHHHH So much happened and I don't want to bore everyone with the details but it was a wonderful trip, dreamy, and perfect in every way. I am going to post all of my fairly good sketches, skipping the ones that have mostly writing and journaling, in this one post. I will be posting my photos on facebook and flickr if you are interested. If anyone is so inclined to paint one of my photos please help yourself, then share with everyone. I tried to journal everyday, I am glad I did since each day was so packed with activities I doubt I would of remembered anything if I hadn't. We have never been to Europe so if I get a bit excited or overly wordy please forgive me, I think it might have been our trip of a lifetime. The hospital that is taking care of Jennifer wouldn't release her until tomorrow so it is Friday and I am cleaning up the loose ends of our vacation in preparation for my trip back to reality.

Pict 1, is the Piazzo Navona and the Four Rivers Fountain by Bernini( see photo in previous post). This square is lined with wonderful resturants, gelato stands and artists selling their wears. It is a hub bub of activity and we loved it.

Pict 2 Palentine Hill- We did the Colosseum, Palentine Hill and the Roman Forum and my feet hurt. This sketch is a part of the ruins on Palentine Hill which is part of Augustus' quarters, bathhouses. I loved the way they trimmed the pine trees, it showed off their structure perfectly.

We started the museum tours and I have lots of pictures of them but not sketches. I am going to skip to the farmhouse. My brother and his friend Helen met us in Rome and then we all went together out to the Tuscan hills where they rented a farmhouse, we stayed with them for a few days before leaving for Paris. It was such a wonderful adventure. The owners had 40 acres of olive trees and made their own olive oil. When we arrived in the kitchen sat olive oil, their homemade wine, perserve, and fresh eggs from their chickens. The farmhouse over looked a valley and Montepulciano, the village across the valley. Everyday we took our rent a car out to a neighboring village and explored. Such fun!!

This is the farmhouse, so many things to sketch and paint, I could of stayed busy for a month! Then it was on to Florence for a night and then to Paris. It was so hard to say good bye to my brother and Helen, we had such fun with them. We were half way through and I had to keep pinching myself to make sure I wasn't dreaming.

In my sketchbook I would paint something and then journal around the object. I am not sharing all of those pages since there is so much journaling. I did want to share these pages because I loved them. One is of the old water barrel that they used back when to get their water down in the creek, then the oxen would haul it up the hill. The other is of the poppies and view. These bright orange/red poppies were in bloom everywhere in Italy.

We arrived in Florence and spent the night in a beautiful Palazzo. An old palace converted to a hotel. We went and saw more museums and statues which were all amazing, this is one of the lion statues outside of the Ufizzi Museum.

Florence is known for its florentine gold so I had to buy some!

Next Paris!