Our Girls Pastel Weekend

I just got back from my girls pastel weekend in San Clemente. We all meet to take Dianna Pontings class at the San Clemente Art Supply, an awesome art store. The owners are the nicest people and our group is now on its 5th year, I think its been five. This year we all went to the Pageant of the Masters and the Feastival of Arts and the Sawdust Feastival. What a fun day,looking at art, walking the streets of Laguna and eating at the sidewalk resturant.  Needless to say we were all exhausted at the end of the 5 days of fun! Here is the class piece that I finished and some of the pictures of our days together, enjoy! If youre interested in Dianna's class contact San Clemente Art Supply and get on the list now!

Painting pastel Sunflowers

Working on a new pastel in beautiful San Clemente

Getting back to business after a week of babies

I find that my biggest challenge in life is splitting up my time both wisely and efficiently. I am pulled between things I want to do and the things I have to do and the things I should do. Often the line is blurred between the different areas and its easy for us to never get to the things we want to do because of the things we have to do. I think sometimes we put the "things" in the wrong category. I only share this because I am struggling right now with trying to be a good mom and caregiver, wife, and Nana all while my business is trying to explode with potential that requires tons of time and commitment. I am in a constant state of juggle, switching hats sometimes hourly, like most of you are. I would appreciate any good tips on how to manage this circus act. I am blessed that my business happens to be my artwork and creative endeavors so its also the thing I want to do. 

This week I was Nana, we had a week with the twins that are 19 months old. They are so sweet and wonderful to be around, it was a blessing but I had to tell myself that I would not try and do anything else. There was no way to work with those busy fingers into everything. LOL We loved the week filled with pink everything, baby dolls, baby lotion, swings, parks, toenail polish and lots of giggling. Thank God for Randy who helped me tag team them at bath and bed time. As I wake up this morning and realize that I need to return to my life its bittersweet as I miss those little voices stirring in the morning but I will love not having to pick up wooden puzzle pieces and misc toys all over the house.

I took advantage of the week and took a million photos, some were with a new apron pattern for my fabric line and book I am working on. I had made the aprons for the girls but realize some changes I need to make now, good thing I tried them on. Back to the drawing board with some great ideas and improvements.  Here are a few pictures of our week.

Janets Quilt

I have been busy this week with the twins while their parents, my daughter and her husband, are in North Carolina. It has been a fun filled week of popsicles, ponytails, and giggling. I can't believe how fun it has been and how good they both are, although still busy. I am sure I will be exhausted by Tuesday night when they pick them up. 

Since one event seemed to flow into the next I never really got a chance to post the quilt I made for Janets birthay party. I had asked her kids to write her a letter and I even recieved some artwork from one of her grandchildren. Her husband had sent me a CD with pictures and I scanned them into the computer, did a bit of clean up on Photoshop and then printed them onto fabric. There are several ways to get your images onto fabric, one of them being this preprepared, packaged fabric sheets which allow you to print any image through your computer onto them.  The trick to photo quilts is being able to add fabric and arrange the images throughout the quilt and keep it square. There are no patterns so it is all about laying it out and filling in. I was challenging and very rewarding to be a part of their families love for each other. I found myself enjoying the process so much. As the quilt started to come together I got more and more excited. Here we are, Janet crying as I explained the elements and her husband held it up at the party, what a great time we had!

I also signed with a licensing agent this last week. I huge decision that was not made lightly. I am totally committed to making this work and very excited. As images are selected for products I will be posting it so I can share it with everyone.  I feel behind already since I have to organize and number all my artwork and images, that is NO easy task for someone who has been painting and drawing for so many years. 

Yesterday was the fourth of July, Independence Day! We had everyone over for a barbeque and swimming and it was a great day. The weather was wonderful, not too hot and a cool breeze I will post pictures later.

Las Vegas

A weekend with the in laws in Vegas to celebrate their 58th wedding anniversary and fathers day. Its was great as was the food. The buffet was in the Paris hotel and it is set up like a Parisian village, I could have lived there, and the food was amazing. This was one of the little shops off of the mall area where you could buy goodies. Oh I think this screams "paint me"!

WDE for Wet Canvas May 28th

It was my turn to host the WDE on Wet Canvas this week. I love this weekly challenge as it forces me to paint things that I wouldn't normally paint. I posted this photo of two women engaged in a serious conversation when we visited the Tea house at the Huntington gardens last Dec. I have wanted to paint them ever since. I did do a sketch of one of them and then did this quick painting this week.

 I am also excited that three of my paintings were accepted into the Del Mar Fair this year. Excited to go down and see them hanging. Any excuse to visit San Diego.

My free gift has arrived!!!!

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Originally uploaded by ddhabicht

It arrived, my free gift I won from a drawing I signed up for! I never win anything and then I win this! It is so beautiful, thank you Tri-City Printing for having this raffle and sending it too me!!!! The bag is adorable and filled with other bags for travel, even a flat iron bag that is insulated. It was the icing on an already great show!

Home again, Home again Rigga jig jig

Every time we pulled in the driveway after any length of time my mom always said those words! There is no place like home filled with all the things and people you love the most. But.... Spring market was amazing. I am still reeling from all the activity and excitement. I have so many wonderful ideas and things brewing in my head, I hate to waste the time to sleep.  The fabric line was very well received and I am hoping that Houston will be even better. I am going to start working on a book and another fabric line. phew Oh and then, just on a fluke I entered a contest for a big gift basket. I only glanced at it since I never win anything and thought to myself, that's big so I will enter this time. LOL I got an email that I WON!!! OH MY GOSH, I can't believe it so now I am waiting to get it in the mail, I will post more pictures when it arrives. 

On Saturday, I left the show early so I could spend the rest of my trip with a friend and her family. I got to meet her mother, Bev, who also does amazing artwork and quilts. She wins ribbons and in the short time she has been quilting she has made tons of quilts!! She put me to shame. I also got to meet Gail's wonderfully warm and hospitable family, who let me share their home with them. Living in southern California we only have green because we irrigate but there it was green and lush. We sat outside her beautiful home and overlooked a koi pond and lush yard that went down to the lake. Such fun, they served me a amazing breakfast Sunday after church and then Gail and I went site seeing . We made our way to the sculpture gardens and Dick Blicks Art store! I brought home more goodies.  Here are the pictures from my trip to market and my mini vacation afterwards! Thanks Gail!!!

My quilt hanging in Red Roosters Booth

My quilt hanging in Red Roosters Booth
Originally uploaded by ddhabicht

Adopt a Lil Miss Cutie Patootie Pin Cushion Pet

LOL, aren't these cute! Their muzzles hold the pins and they look like whiskers, this is my free gift to all of the shops that attend my schoolhouse. It is a pincushion kit with enough stuff to make both the cat and dog pincushion, keep one and give one away. I am packing up all my fun projects and giveaways now in preperation for the show. If anyone is going please come and look for me in the Red Rooster Booth # 3506-09 for a free gift. See you there! I will posting from the show for the next few days

Getting ready for Spring Market when a few Angels appeared

Getting ready for these shows is tough as the fabric arrives late and there is always so much to do. I think this is going to be the pattern for these trade shows and trying to fit an amazing amount of work into a limited amount of time. I have had a few angels here helping me this time, Dee and Shirley. Dee has been here almost everyday sewing, sewing. I was up until 3 am night before last, struggling with getting the quilt together as it continued to grow, and grow. I ended up having to take it all apart several times to find the problem and then resewed the boo boo blocks and at 3am finally realized it was going to go together. My dear husband has also been a saint, making dinners, lunch, helping unsew, I couldn't have done it without these wonderful friends. I also had the most miraculous thing happen. I asked Randy to call a local quilt shop and ask them if they knew of any long arm quilters that could possible quilt this quilt by Tuesday. LOL I knew in my mind that I was dreaming, most of the quilters I know are booked for months in advance. As we were talking to them one of the long arm quilters walked into the shop and they handed her the phone. I explained my delima and she agreed to take the quilt and quilt it by Monday!!! When I arrived at her home she had so many quilts in line to be quilted and explained that she was booked 3-4 months out!!! But she took my quilt to help out! I can't believe it, what an answer to prayer. It saved me from tons of hours trying to quilt that giant before I leave next week So thank you all so very, very much. Here is my quilt for the Red Rooster Booth, I am learning to be a piecer!  Thank God for EQ 6, I designed the quilt and scanned in all my fabrics into the fabric library so I can just drop them into the blocks and it will calculate my yardage requirements. Phew! I even designed the little paper pieced dogs and cats in the corners. I need to add their little button eyes still. Come by the Red Rooster Booth and see me, mention my blog and I will have a free gift for you!!!

My New Fabric Line, Lil Miss Cutie Patootie,the first of a series of adventures

This is the first in a series of Lil Miss Cutie Patooties adventures. This line is Lil Miss Cutie Patootie and Friends. All of her pet friends are here. I have actually created two panels, one larger and one fill with blocks. Each block has Cutie with a different pet, skating, giving her dogs a bath, hugging her kitties. The blocks are so fun and easily incorporated into a quilt or onto a bag. I am using some of them for pockets on aprons. I also hope to make some scrub tops for our favorite friends at the vets office. I hope you enjoy this new line and you will check out my website for new patterns and projects that will soon be released.

Fun new projects with my latest fabric line

I just love it when all my fabric arrives, its like a dream. After months of drawing and painting and planning it finally appears in beautiful colors on fabric just waiting for me to create some new and fun projects. This fabric line is the first of a series of lines with Lil Miss Cutie Patootie, this line is "Friends" and it shows her with her pets. I received 20 bolts of fabric with 15 yards per bolt! I can have lots of fun with this.  Since Monday was apron day as Pat Sloan reminded me of, I thought I would share my lil aprons designs, I will have these bundled in a new pattern I will be releasing that will have quite a few fun projects that you can do for any youngster, boy or girl! This little apron will be included although you can use the applique pattern to embellish any fun apron pattern you have! I used my dog and kitty treat recipe cards that are on my panel for a big pocket in the front.With my adorable fabric you can make Mommy and me aprons, or Nana and Me aprons. I am still working out all the elements that will be available but I am having so much fun doing it. I leave for MN on the 19th so I have lots to do still. More to come so stay tuned!

My fabric has arrived and other projects

I have been busy, busy trying to get things done as my fabric arrived the other day. I will be posting the full line soon. I also have been working on other projects that I will be sharing also. One of the fun, easy and funky projects I have been working in are these tyvek wallets. Tyvek is the envelopes that you get from Fed X or you can buy them. I bought a box to make these fun wallets with. They are waterproof, lightweight and just kind of fun and funky to give as gifts.  Here is the Utube video that offers you step by step directions to follow. I painted my wallet in a few minutes (make sure you paint it in the right direction) and had the wallet done in about 20 minutes.  I hope you enjoy as much as I did. You can use watercolor, acrylics, felt pens etc. Just play around and have fun.

Thank you Lord, Lily got to go home

We get caught up in all the excitment of a new baby, the showers, the gifts, the babys room. The anticipation waiting for the call seems to feed into the the mounting tension that both mom and dad feel. Everyone touching your stomach, talking to it, asking how much longer. You get tired of hearing, you look huge, are you having twins, and other statements that are supposed to start conversations but sometimes are just irritating. But what happens, after waiting all those months and the baby is born with a problem. As we celebrated the birth of our newest grandson I awaited the news from a friend about her grandbaby, still yet to arrive. I was basking in the happiness and new experiences that our youngest daughter was now finding herself in. Its so refreshing to once again be needed, called and asked advise. Just when I thought they had it all figured out, they need their mom. After all there is this new person that they are responsible for and they are afraid they might mess it up. And "what should I do for this and that" ahh, I love it. But then the call came, my girlfriends baby had been born but there were problems, heart problems and her daughter, a first time mom could only sit and wait and pray with empty arms. There wasn't the opportunity to cuddle with her newborn, she was faced with medical terms and fear right from the begining. We are all praying for Lily! She has had to undergo surgery and may need more but for now we recieved an email that she finally got to go home. She is doing well and we will continue to pray. So today, if you are thinking about it, and everyone is healthy and happy in your family,  maybe you could say a prayer for Lily and her family. I sent this card, a small little painting I did of her from a photo they had attached to an email, for Lily.

Another page in my Gardening Journal

I planted delphinium this year, it is one of my favorite flowers but I haven't always had great success with it. I don't know why I am constantly trying to grow things that I struggle with, must be the challenge. My mom planted a few last year and they did ok, but not great. This year , to my surprise they came back so I added more! They are beautiful!! I love the blue, there is no other blue like it, a true cobalt glazed pot blue! It doesn't look real. I debated whether to even paint them knowing I can't capture the blue correctly. I plan on planting more next year and hope that these will come back! I like the pacific giants best, they are bigger than the magic fountain variety.

Funky friends

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Originally uploaded by ddhabicht

While we were at therapy today I went to visit with the outdoor adventure group but sadly they were gone, probably outdoors! On the table outside the front door sat this, probably one of their latest projects. I loved them, they all looked like they were happy to see me. Being earthday, I thought that it was a perfect way to recycle old socks into cute new pots. Adding the buttons and faces made them even more special. I am sure it was a project for the kids, but I think I will be going home to dig through my husbands socks to make some new friends for my garden. I am thinking they would be so cute placed around my garden, planted with grass seeds, like hair. It seemed like they filled the socks with potting soil after sewing on the button faces and then tied the end shut. They then cut a small hole into the top of the socks to plant them. Most of them seemed to have some sprouts coming out of their heads! LOL They were sitting in a plastic, recycled container to help with the water not just pouring out all over. The ones in front, which you can't see very well, seem to be fish! LOL They are so cute, not pretty but clever. I love it when I am creatively surprised.

Sharing the process- a new upcoming workshop

I am often asked "How do I come up with my ideas?" or "How do you put it together?" when people see my artquilts. I know each one of us is unique and go about the process completely different but I am going to share with you my process with this last quilt I made, my signature quilt, that ended up growing as I assembled it. It became larger than I originally planned. 

First comes the inspiration, that can be from anywhere, books, nature, photos etc. In this case I was admiring and amazed by the month challenge on Wet Canvas in the floral/botanical area. They had posted photos of caladium and everyone interprets it their own way. I loved all the leaves and colors, then when everyone started posting their pieces, it was great. Wow, amazing. I was inspired also by Signchick or Beths acrylic painting where she used purple in the background and I was now filled with ideas to make a quilt. I needed to make a signature quilt for my quilting group. Every camp someone makes a quilt that everyone signs, then names go into a hat and one person is selected to win the quilt. The theme this camp was "Jungle". The leaves were a perfect fit for the theme and I was off and running. I started by drawing up my own interpretation of the caladium leaves. I then took this drawing and blew it up to the size I wanted the leaves to be.

I then took my drawing and painted it to give it color and life.

At this point I am thinking of different ways to transform this into fabric and how will I arrange the elements. I started making small thumbnail sketches of layout ideas and decided I liked the boxes of color in the background. I went through my stash of fabric and found a batik I just loved that had all the colors of my painting along with the purple I wanted to incorporate.

You can see here that I have leaves in bunches and some flowers, which I eliminated. I still like this design but as the quilt evolved I make different design choices and decisions as to placement etc.  Now I choose my fabrics. I choose the batik with all my colors and added some of the colors from that fabric like the green. I painted the pink and lime green fabric that i used for the caladium leaves. Then using my templates I cut out and fused the fabrics together to make the leaves. I even used the cut outs I had left over from cutting out the leaves as new leaves if you look at the quilt you will see that. The leaves without different colored edges are just the left over fabric from cutting out the ribs for some of the leaves. I sew all the blocks together after laying out how I want them to fall. This part of the design takes the longest, I have to square everything, figure out how how much to add to each piece to make it even sewable. I could have also fused all of the squares onto a base but I decided to piece since I need the practice. 

Here you can see the smaller black fabric on the top of the quilt, that was my original size and it is under this new quilt. I am beginning to place the leaves onto the base to see the composition etc. Once I am happy I can iron these elements into place and then add the other smaller elements such as the leaves, outlines.  I ended up taking out a few of the leaves and adding in the outlines of the leaves instead. I ended up simplifing as I went along.

Here is a piece of my hand painted fabric that I didn't cut up, I love this piece and may want to make it into commercial fabric for one of my next fabric lines. So here is the final quilt.

The colors arent great here, I need to photograph it during the day, the incandesent lights make it yellow at night! Uhhgg.  I finished it off by satin stitching the caladium leaves down, I wanted a thicker black outline around them, then I just freemotion quilted the leaves and additional lines, I did a minimum of quilting on this quilt due to my machine acting up, since its an artquilt and will be hanging I will be fine.  I plan on teaching a workshop where we will first do our sketches and then translate into a quilt design. Look for that in the next few months.

Last day of garden tour

I meant to post my final sketch from Sunday. We enjoyed getting to meet some online friends in person, so they are no longer just virtual friends now! Pat, from sketchersize, came up and sketched with me, we had a great time but filled with interuptions from people asking questions. I loved it, its so wonderful to share the yard with fellow gardeners that notice everything and have questions. I dont usually get that, often guests never even notice the yard let alone a specific plant.  Randy got to be home and soak up some of the comments from the guys, that was fun for him too. We had so many people feeling the lawn, they couldn't believe it was real. LOL. Here is my sketch from Sunday, another in my 2010 garden sketchbook. Under the window, standing about 30" tall are some angel wing begonias that Randy saved from the clearance rack at Lowes. They are so thankful that they haven never stopped blooming. 

New Signature Quilt for Quilt retreat WIP

I am working on a new quilt for the quilters group I belong to. We have two retreats per year and we do a signature quilt, that everyone signs. This camp I am doing the quilt, I will be adding some lettering and the idea is to have them write in the leaves since the theme was jungle.  I started with a painting I did for a challenge on Wet Canvas. I liked the leaves so well that I translated it to fabric. I mixed my hand painted fabrics with commercial fabrics and did geometric shapes along with the organic shapes of the caladium leaves. I hope you like it, I will post a finished picture in a few days.  What is everyone else up too?

The first day of the garden tour

Well we survived the first day of the garden tour. It turned out being so much more fun than I could have imagined. I at first thought of hiding in the house, letting them explore the yard without the owner lurking about.  But then decided I needed to be a part of the whole experience, be out painting and talking to fellow gardeners about the yard and plants. It isn't often I get to share my garden with fellow gardeners so this was me big chance. It turned out so amazing, groups of people around me asking me questions and sharing their stories of plants and gardens. I loved that so many people had to come in and feel the lawn, not believing it was real. I had wished Randy could have been home to see that since he worked so hard on having it look so perfect. I ended up only sketching one quick sketch but did manage to get sunburned! I will have to apply more sunscreen today. With a storm approaching I was worried that it would have been raining today but now they are saying tonight which should give us one more day of sunshine!!! I also met fellow artists, quilters as well as gardeners, it was a great day.

Beautiful April Fools Day at the beach

Beautiful April Fools Day at the beach
Originally uploaded by ddhabicht

I took two pastel paintings into Manhattan Beach yesterday for a pastel show. What a glorious day, a bit chilly, but that didn't stop everyone from enjoying the day. It was a mix of clothing from jackets to tank tops. On the pier the wind kept it cool as only a handful of fishermen were actually fishing. The little sidewalk cafe that sells ice creams and waters at the end of the pier was almost empty. Behind the cafe they had a classroom with all the aquariums full of eels and fish, they were teaching the kids about the dangers of littering in the water and taking care of the oceans. We walked along the boardwalk and admired all the houses and little flower gardens that lined the streets. It is hard not to notice the weathering all those beach front houses take, it looks like that salt water even eats the cement away. Cute little shops line the main streets with cafes and boutiques and as we walked by the smells of food cooking enveloped us. A wonderful day in Los Angeles.

The guardian of the vegetable garden

I have always had a vegetable garden. I love growing my own food, organically. Being able to go out and pick things right from the yard and then prepare them for dinner just feels right. I remember when the kids were little they loved to go into the garden and pick the strawberries or sweet peas and eat them right off the plant. I am glad that we never had to deal with pesticides. I have grown some pretty different things, trying to keep the kids interested in the garden. I have grown gourds, blue potatoes, peanuts, jicima, pumpkins, loffa sponges and more. Now my garden is so small compared to years back. It is just about the right size for the three of us. I could use one more bed but I spill over into the yard a bit and I think it is working. This year I bought a scarecrow and two crows just for fun. I thought the grandkids would like them. I put them into the garden box and now they are almost covered by the brocolli and cauliflower. Here is my sketch of my little vegetable garden and the new guardian of the food!