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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!

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Originally uploaded by ddhabicht

Flyin in

Flyin in
Originally uploaded by ddhabicht

It was just as I imagined flying in, rolling green hills as far as you
could see

Happy Mother's Day!

We celebrated Mothers day on Friday since Jennifer was going to be in the hopital on Sunday and we were leaving for Europe on Monday. Soooooo... your thinking "who cares". I wanted to make sure I wished all of my dear artist friends a Happy Mothers day with another one of my little mini quilts/fabric pieces I have been working on. I also did a quick sketch and painting of the yummy chocolate covered strawberries that Kim had for us to eat at her house. My mom prepared the ribs which were just amazing, then Aimee brought the beans, Kim made a salad, I brought a greek pasta salad and potatoe salad and strawberry shortcake! OK, phew, 20lbs later we dragged ourselves home!

I will be flying off to Italy and France on Monday, I will be posting a sketching/painting journal of our adventures on my blog, I hope you all will check in often and keep us in your prayers.

Happy Mothers day!!

New fabric pieces

I have been playing again! Paint, collage, fabric. I really like the way these small pieces are turning out. I made a fabric/paper and then painted and distressed. I have started a few more but I know they will have to wait until I get back from vacation.

DSFDF

I participate in a challenge every few weeks on the blog "Different strokes from different folks". Karen Jurick is a wonderfully talented women and encourages us to break out of the "paint whats there" thinking and encourages risks. Developing style and so, with that in mind, I have decided to go about these challenges a bit differently. I am going to give myself the freedom to experiment and try new things, either papers, paints, techniques, whatever. The goal is to learn something new, without the fear of not living up to expectations. Thats the only problem with these types of groups. When you see all the great work you feel pressured to just perform and put out. I am going to try and take that away. So, in saying that, I also understand that things will not always work out and they may actually flop big time. I am going to make myself post regardless. I feel sweat already!

This current challenge was a New York street scene. I took my watercolor paper and added tissue paper for texture. This caused the paint to run and travel along the tissue paper lines and took away the control of the paint, but it was fun. I added some pen, pastel pencils for fun.

May 4th, Everything is in bloom

Our coral tree is starting to bloom, they are amazing blooms, spikes of color. The tree sets these flowers prior to leafing out, so this barren, wonderful twisted shaped tree has these giant clumps of flowers on the tips of eash branch. It is striking. This variety of the coral tree is as beautiful without foliage in the winter as they are in bloom, or in full foliage as they are in summer. this variety is also less invasive and destructive as some of the others which can grow up to 60' in all directions and lift all cement within its reach.

Working in the yard

Today we worked in the yard, it was a beautiful day. We have been trying to get the backyard in before we leave on vacation. Since our trip is on May 11, we are running out of time. We had 25 yards of compost dumped in our driveway last week and we got all of it into flower beds and into the new lawn areas. We have four lawn areas in the backyard around the pool and buildings. I can't wait for green, we have had brown dirt for so long. It will not only change the whole look of the yard but it will also make it cooler. Around a small stucco wall in our front yard Randys rose's are blooming like crazy. He loves his roses and we have so many. That first flush of color is always so amazing. These roses are almost irridesent red with yellow centers and they are so showy.

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Originally uploaded by ddhabicht

Store Samples Dogwood

I am teaching a colored pencil technique on fabric for these small panels. This one is a very simple design but I did some micro stippling around it to give it a look of trapunto. The design is quilted first, then colored, then quilted again, in this case heavily and borders were added. I also finished up another one with pomegranites and I will post later. The photo is not showing true colors, the border isn't so bright, matching the dogwoog much nicer. My class at Cozy Cottage in Brea, CA on June 7th, will offer this elegant block to paint, along with other blocks and a table runner.

Some mans trash is another mans ... artwork?

The joke in my house is that nothing is safe from either my pencils or paints. Everything and everyone is fair game! I was getting excited about my keys and decided to draw everyones keys when I happened upon a pile of peanut shells, wow, how interesting. Although many tried to throw them away as trash I managed to keep this pile until the drawing was finished!

Garden Tours

This last weekend we went on a garden tour of 6 houses in Riverside. The theme of this years tour seemed to be water conservation and drought tolerant plants. I can appreciate these gardens but I was hoping for more of a variety of gardens. Each home was wonderful and we got lots of pictures for painting later. It turned out to be a full day of running or slowly walking with mom. We all enjoyed it so much, I look forward to doing it next year. These were quick watercolor sketches of two of the homes.

Oh these chains that bind us!

My mom has been here since October, trying to get better. I have been caring for her along with Jennifer. When she was the sickest and I was trying to get her back and forth to the hospital she always grabbed her purse, complaining it was so heavy and she need to get a smaller purse. We always tease her because she is always working and usually carries hammers, levels, wrenches in her purse but she swore she didn't have any tools in there. I would throw her purse on my shoulder that also carried my leather purse, another two ton bag as I wheeled her into the hospital. One day, after many tiring hours of hauling the purses, my mom, and myself all over the hospital to different doctor appt's I decided to look inside her purse and see what she could possibly be carrying. To my amazement I pulled out a huge ring of keys and said, oh my gosh, are you moonlighting as a janitor? Which she replied I have another set just as large. What could you possibly have this many keys too? She opened the offices where she still works, she has most of her furniture and possessions in storage units which all have keys. She has containers on her property that also contain her treasures, with locks, and then there are the house keys, car keys and gate keys. Wow, it was amazing. All this time I had been hauling a bag of metal! I am trying to get her to take off her car key with my house key and use a smaller key chain, she isn't going for it though! There is some deeper meaning to all the keys we carry around. I know I have a drawer that has a plastic cup full of old keys I am too afraid to throw away, just in case someday I remember what they go to and need to open it! LOL Here is my drawing this morning, as I drank my coffee and thought about how hard it will be to go through those keys in an emergency to try and find something! I did eliminate some since I didn't have time to draw that many keys.

Sumi's Quilt is finished

Well I amazed myself at how quickly I finished this project, since I am the queen of procrastination. I like how it turned out although the picture shows the border fabric a bit darker than it is. I like the contrast and I ended up beading the one side of her shoulder and sleeve to make it look like the light was reflecting off of the dress. Click on the picture to see a close up. Finished size is 25 1/2" x 26". One of my smaller quilts. On to another now, I'm on a roll!

Happy Earth Day!

It's Earth Day today, and in an effort to do my part in preserving our gift I am sharing the things I am currently involved with. My garden is a huge part of my earthday celebration. We have always grown our own food, and for years raised all of our meat and had milk goats. I usually can and freeze for use later as crops seem to produce a bounty of goods at one time. I also have dried zucchini and ground it up to make zucchini flour to use in my zucchini bread. There are so many wonderful ways to creatively be a good steward of our planet. I now only garden a small area, in a raised bed. I use drip irrigation and mulch to conserve water and I compost. This year I bought some tomatoes in peat pots which are directly planted in the ground so there is no waste or trash from plastic containers.

I think one of my biggest weaknesses is Costco, which I feel is not the best at being an earth friendly company. They over package things, package some perishable foods in over sized packaging which you can never eat fast enough. But for some reason I love to shop at Costco. They carry some very cool things. Last week while I was shopping I saw that they had a composter for sale, Oh wow, an easier, smaller way to compost. It was only 99$ so I bought it. Today, my husband is setting it up for me, an appropriate way to ring in Earth Day. I keep a plastic milk jug with its top cut off in my sink and as I chop or peel I just add the pieces to the jug and I can easily carry it out to the composter to empty. I have always had the giant pile of stuff that had to be covered and turned and watered. This is all self contained and has a handle to turn it weekly! Yippie, I can't wait.

As my garden grows, and my fruit trees start to set fruit I will be thinking of all the good uses I will have for my new crop of "black earth".

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These are my latest twin grandbabies and yesterday I got to spend the day with them, what a joy!

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Originally uploaded by ddhabicht

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Originally uploaded by ddhabicht

Easter/Spring fun!

I love to decorate, both my house and for all the holidays. I also love to have family and friends over and set a formal table, serve a huge meal and fellowship. This year I made this little quiltlette (as termed by Jane LaFazio) for this little wire hanger I found at Gingers Quilt shoppe. I painted the fabric with many different methods, using paints, inks, glue, tape, stamps LOL and anything else I could grab. I think it turned out great! If I do say so myself. I can only say that because it was just a miracle it turned out at all. I hated it at the beginning. Originally I used glue as a resist, not realizing that I would have to soak it for hours to remove it. I have since learned what kind of glue washes out easier. So in my frustration I decided to leave it, as I painted over it I loved the way the paint seemed to light up as I painted over it. I then decided to bead it, ok that didn't work out very well. Just incase you don't know, a needle will NOT go through dried glue. So I embellished with beads around the glue, in areas that I could and the glue wouldn't effect the overall design. This is one of my samples for my "Fabric Playday" class I teach. I am happy with it and used it for Easter with my bunnies. LOL