The Pastel Journals Top 100 Competition, I made it!

My painting, Cara Cara, was chosen as one of the top 100 Paintings in the Pastel Journals magazine! I never dreamed my painting would ever make it into this prestigious competition! Who would have known that the 25lb bag of oranges that Randy bought last year to share with the plein aire painters, and inspired this painting, would have gone so far! These beautiful oranges are grown locally and are delicious. One morning as I was cutting one up to eat I was compelled to paint it instead. The ruby colors were on fire from the morning sun illuminating them on the cutting board. The challenge for me was to capture the intense colors, the wet juicy inside as well as the textured skin. This may be my 15 minutes of fame and I wanted to share it with all of my friends! The magazine will hit the shelves on March 12 and is available for preorder here! 

Marta Gonzales came out to photograph my painting again as they were considering it for the cover and needed a higher resolution, thanks Marta!

Underwater Fun!

I am working on some fun projects using Coptic markers on fabric! Markers are wonderful for quickly creating some great images for art quilts. This is for a workshop I will be teaching in Rancho Cucamonga in April at the Nite Owl Quilt guild. I hope to see many of you there!

Creative Days with my peeps!

  Sounds so funny, my peeps, but if anyone is a peep it would be my twin granddaughters, Rachel and Megan. They love to be in the studio with me, Megan often says, Nana I love this room the best and that just warms my soul.

Sewing together, this was just after Megan cut her hair!

 I know that they have that creative spirit that loves to be in a place where magic happens, things get messy but fun is a constant.

After picking all their own fabrics we made skirts for them

They now have their own drawer in my studio, a place where they have their stamps, stickers, scissors, markers, crayons, glue sticks and then in the corner sits a giant roll of white butcher paper. It easily unrolls to accommodate any creative whim that comes along.

Making Valentines Cards for everyone, then we crammed them into envelopes and mailed the lumpy cards to everyone

 One day we spent creating dinosaurs and monsters, I drew, they painted. One day we did 6 feet of crazy flowers, I drew, they painted. Chalk on the sidewalk, paintbrushes in the pool painting with water on the concrete is all nourishment for their little creative souls.

Enjoyed the sunshine painting magical, flying horses on the concrete.

Last week,  I traced around their bodies and we made kids holding hands all over the cement.

Some kids were doing tricks!

 Today, with scissors, glue sticks and scraps of fabric I have from working on new quilt patterns they spent hours just glueing everything to their paper. They even managed to find two buttons which were quickly glued to the paper. They tied bows onto their heads and made necklaces by threading strips of fabric through buttons.

Today, playing in the studio with fabric, glue sticks, scissors and our imaginations

 A magical, creative world that allows them to just do whatever comes to their mind and heart. They even sat at the sewing machine, pretending to sew, me reminding them to not touch every button. They are so excited to take their masterpieces home for mom, many are framed for display but all are loved and cherished. These tiny marks not easily forgotten, painting the way for a love affair with art for all time.

Happy Valentines Day!!

I wanted to wish everyone a Happy Valentines Day, filled with everyone and everything sweet! I made a Valentines holder for all the Love Notes received on Valentines Day. It is made with cereal boxes and fabric, glue, decorated pins and some sewing. Then I filled these adorable Valentines Mailboxes with goodies for my grandkids. I had one mailbox for each household so they were crammed with goodies, candy, cookies, I made pillowcases, got dresses for the girls, bought matchbox cars for Blake etc. Lots of love crammed into those cute boxes.

Kick off your Heels Challenge!!!

As some of you know I am a part of the "Kick off your Heels" challenge to raise money for the The Barbra Streisand Women's Heart Center at Cedars-Sinai Hospital. It is such a good cause and I hope you will join me in creating a pair of shoes that will be judged and then put up for auction to raise money for this amazing organization! Just buy a pair of pumps and let your imagination run wild. I must admit I have never decorated a pair of shoes like this before so it was fun to play with glue and gesso and moss all in one project! Check out my Forest Fairy Shoes and the progression photos and then make a pair yourself, the details are HERE!

What women doesn't love shoes, won't you join me in a good cause and have some fun at the same time creating your own shoe story and design!?

Our retreat

I was able to sneak away for a few days and sew on our art quilt groups annual retreat. I think one of the hardest things to do is decide what projects to take along to try and accomplish. Often I take far to much or something far to big but I think I gaged it just right this time. I had some small projects that I had need to do but never make time for like Megan's Quilt, Nathan's pillowcases, even my SAQA auction piece! Today I go home but hope to finish up the last of my little projects first. Here's Megan's Quilt, not embellished but almost done. She is swimming with her googles on! I will add a fish like I did on Rachel's last year.

Megans new quilt! All it needs is the fish!

Rachels Quilt from last year

A Dandelion Wish

I happened to be taking a walk with my twin granddaughters, they are now already four! Two tiny people that hold a key to my heart. On this particular walk we were enjoying the yard after weeks of very cold weather. Today it was warm and the sun was out. We had decided to go for a walk in the backyard before getting our picnic lunch together and heading to the park. Rachel bolted forward as I said to them, Lets see what we can find on our walk.  Megan slipped her hand into mine and stayed behind to walk with me. I hadn't seen them in a week and that was much longer than normal, I missed them and they missed me!  Rachel came bounding back holding a tiny hair clip she had found, a treasure left from a previous visit I assume, Look Nana, she excitingly exclaimed. I dusted off her treasure and clipped it in her hair and she was off again to search for something else. I could tell Megan was feeling torn between staying with me and joining in on the hunt. What are we looking for Nana? She asked me. Your looking for anything that is special and means something to you. Just then Rachel appeared again with a beautiful flower, one of only a few to survive the weeks of cold weather. She ran up to us to have us both smell it and we both responded as though the flower was the most fragrant one of all. It was then that Megan screamed out, LOOK, Nana,LOOK and she dropped my hand and ran over to the flower bed, I found a wish! About to burst with excitement she bent down to pluck the wish from its stem and in doing so lost many of the fragile seeds waiting to be set free by the wind. She held the dandelion carefully now as she walked it back to me and reached up, handing me her new found treasure she said, Nana, make a wish and blow! 

There's nothing better than finding a wish!

I then added my journaling on vellum and glued it over one side of the sketchbook

Crystal Cove sketch

I did manage to take some great photos at Crystal Cove but I didn't bring my paints. I decided that I just wanted a break, and to spend some time with my family and friends without being preoccupied by painting. I took one of my photos and managed to do a sketch in my sketchbook off of the photo on my iPhone! Those were some tiny birds I must say!  Here is my sketchbook entry for those wonderful few days of sand and surf!

Road to California

I have been so busy with the show that I haven't had much time to walk around and see the quilts or shop, maybe today. I grabbed a few pictures of some of the show winners for you to see, enjoy! Only one more day! The show has been crazy busy, much better than it has been in years so the vendors are happy. My Fabulous Folded bag has been selling like crazy as have many of my patterns. I am thankful to be able to restock each night as I live 1/2 hour from the show. Long 9 hour days and constant talking has left me hoarse but my voice is recovery each night enough to go another day. Lots of fun seeing friends I haven't seen in years and meeting new ones. Here are some of the winning quilts, enjoy!!

Best of Show, sorry the quality isnt great, I thought my iphone 5 had a better camera!

Desiree

What a week! And here's a sneak peek!

I can barely contain myself this week with so much happening, I just had to share it with some of my friends! Not only did my fabric samples come in the mail and I was able to design a quilt for them but the Riverside Museum came to my house to select 8 paintings to hang in the museum for the next few months!! I am honored to have this exhibit at the museum it is the direct result from winning last years still life category in the Museums Members show. I am going to go to art walk tomorrow night and check it out. Then today I went to Road to California to set up our Art Groups 2012 group quilt. We have never seen it hanging all together since it is so long and to try and find a wall 27' long to hang and photograph is close to impossible. Carolyn gave us a premier spot in one of the hallways and the quilt looks amazing, the women did a fantastic job! Here is some of the details but you have to see it for yourself up close!

The quilt was something I had originally designed as a pool mural and made some changes to better fit the fabric. Each women could use any technique but had to add a personal element to their piece. From there I went over to Gingers Booth where I set up my patterns in preparation for the next 4 days where I will be demoing and selling my patterns. I hope, if you are going to Road, you will stop by and see the quilts and come over and say hi! And please, don't miss the Route 66 exhibit by Pat Blair which is amazing. Pat painted the back drop of the Route 66 hwy that runs from CA, AZ, NM, TX, OK, KS, MO and IL. The quilts represent different areas along the highway and are placed where they belong on the road map! It is an awesome exhibit, great job Pat!! Here is a sneak peek! Some of the women in the Iris challenge were also in the Route 66 Exhibit, amazing!