Through The Years

This is not the type of quilt I make. I made this for a contest where one had to use Thimbleberries fabric in 1999. It was a finalist but not a winner.
It measures 61 inches square. It has a traditional feel to it and I do like it.
The reason I am sharing it now is because at lunch Tuesday the subject of their fabrics came up in a conversation between Kathy Metallica Cray and myself.
She said she no longer has any of their fabrics and I know I still have a few of their buck bundles I have used for guild projects, etc.
It is a good quilt but not my style. They did buy the pattern from me to publish a calendar which was never created but I was paid.
I actually designed this in Corel Draw but when I made the units they didn’t work so I made some changes and made a better quilt with them.
When I am creating I really need to work with fabric and not on a computer. I also need to let the quilt talk to me and tell me what it wants to be.

How Long Does It Take To Arrange Lunch With 2 Friends?

The answer is somewhere between 2 and 3 years!
Kathy Cray and Teddy Pruett were here for a visit and lunch.
With my crazy busy schedule it took me that long to make it happen.
It was so great to see both of them.
So many fun things to share and talk about.

Kathy brought along this wonderful sampler quilt to show us. It is amazing and her own design. The blocks are very traditional. She used fabrics that she has spent years collecting which gave the quilt the look of an older quilt. The construction is perfect.
After lunch I shared some of the ice dyed pieces I am working on, then dessert and a little more socializing before they each had to leave for their long drives home.
I am so glad we finally got this chance to get together and hope we will meet again without waiting two more years.

Ice Dye Different - The Newest

This is my most recent ice dye.
It is very different that anything I’ve done before.
I have mentioned before I am an ART ice dyer, not a production dyer.
Each piece I do comes from a new and different idea I have.

Horses, Food, Fun, Family and Friends! Part 2

Living in horse country the Kentucky Derby is a big day with BIG parties.
The race only last about 2 minutes, but the pre race and after race extends it…..
but the parties go on for hours and hours!
Now most people think it is all about the horses, the race and the Run For The Roses.
We Southern Ladies in Marion County Florida know what it is really about!
The HATS!

Even some of the men get in the spirit and sport their favorite hats.

It’s me, my Florida daughter and my twin!

My middle child and my Florida daughter intent on watching the race.
Sorry middle child, it looks better on Tina!

The fun ladies in their hats!

Tucker and Harley thought they looked pretty darn cute!

And last but not least, the back of Lauren’s hat is spectacular!

Horses, Food, Fun, Family and Friends! Part 1

What a great Kentucky Derby party.

Sally and great grandson Andy. Sally bought her outfit to coordinate with the hat she chose. That is the proper way to do it and she is a very proper lady.
Everyone was in a great mood and had such fun.

Tucker really loved my hat. I think he wants it!
We each brought an appetizer or dessert and what great food it was. there is no better was to host a party that to let each guest bring something. The food was outstanding.

This year there was no clear cut favorite so we all had fun watching the horse we drew in our pool. My horse, State of Honor, started the race in first place and stayed there until another horse took over…and he didn’t finish in the money It was fun to see him get off to a good start since he was a long shot.
Hats were not required but added a lot of fun and color to the party. Stay tuned for part 2.

My Art, My Passion, My Life

I have been very fortunate to have my art recognized as it has been recently and in the past.

I have always been too busy creating my art, living my life, teaching, running a business or two and being involved with family, NOT necessarily in that order, to seek recognition.

From the first time I was aware of fabric and fibers my life has been centered around using them in one way or another. I still can remember the texture and exact color of Navy blue of my Uncle Charlie’s Navy uniform and also the texture of his starched hat.
I have had so many people who have helped me share my work over the years, whether it was in publications, shows, or awards.

I won’t even attempt to name names as there are just TOO many people who have helped me and believed in me. But I would be remiss if I didn’t give credit to my mother who encouraged me and sent me to camps and classes where I could exercise my love of fibers and crafts.

Without the students who pushed me for more, MORE, MORE over the years I don’t believe I would have done all the research and development to satisfy them. It allowed me to develop and create work, even long after I gave up teaching. Sally Fry took classes from me for over 30 years and never repeated the same class twice.

I have not written all of this so you can tell me I am great, wonderful, talented, etc. It is more of an affirmation of what my ART means to me.
I am not done yet, not my a long shot.
I am fortunate I now have the time to create my ART as the major passion in my life .
As I just heard on a show I am watching and I hope this is true:
YOU AIN’T SEEN NOTHING YET!

Embellish Magazine From Australia

Do you see anything you recognize on the cover of the June issue of the magazine?

My show Ice Tapestries and Shibori Quilts is being featured in Embellish magazine  Issue 30 June 2017!
I am excited and can’t wait to get my copy.
If you missed the show you can read about it and also see photos of many of the pieces from the show.

Another Color Hue Dye Scarf

Knowing that the Color Hue dyes do not mix once they are on the fabric like ice dyeing colors do, I still wanted to attempt a mandala with them.
I am quite pleased with the results even though this is very different than the ice dyed fabrics. It was a quick project to do.
This is a very lightweight silk perfect for a scarf or any number of other things.
I was using the very last of some of my dye colors. Even though the bottles of dye are very small, once they are mixed with water they do go a long way. I think we’ve dyed close to 40 scarves with this set and I still have a fair amount of some of the colors left.

A New Silk Scarf

A friend and I each dyed a large scarf with Color Hue dyes.
They are fun to work with and behave differently than any other dyes I’ve ever worked with as they set instantly. No rinsing required and no color transfer to anything else.
If you want to mix colors you have to do that before you put the dye on the silk as once they are on the fabric they don’t mix with subsequent colors you add.
This one was a two step process. I first did baggie dyeing.
Next I folded it and did fold dyeing.
It’s always fun to try new ways of using the dyes.
It is 14 x 70 inches which means it can be tied a lot of different ways.

Pincushions For Two Special People

I made these two small pincushions for 2 very special people. The blocks are 4 inches square.
The third dimension is created by sewing the tops to a back that is exactly the same size but is rotated 45 degrees. This means you are sewing the corner of a square to the middle of the other square. I love the depth this creates.
I stuff them with leftover wool batting which gives them shape and also is a great filler to stick pins in. These were the smallest ones I have made and I have to admit it is easier to make larger ones!

My Middle Child And His Girls

Andy and the family were were here for a visit and dinner Saturday evening. This was their group hug as they were leaving. Left to right: Tina, Kendall and Sarah. Sorry you can’t see Kendall’s pretty face.
Drew was here too but he left early as he said he had a date. I’m waiting for her picture.
It was a fun evening. I called it the Last Supper as it was the last chance to have them all here before I head north.
We had my famous Mexican dip, a green salad, ham, mashed potatoes and my green bean and baby pea casserole. Dessert was chocolate cookies and strawberry shortcake. The ham was the best one I think I have every cooked and there was a lot.
We were able to enjoy dinner on the lanai as the temperature dropped to 89 degrees!
Tina was a big help cleaning up after dinner. I sent almost all the left overs home with them. I did save enough for strawberry shortcake for my breakfast on Sunday!

Ice Dye Du Jour

I have created some new ice dyed fabrics.
This is today’s one I want to share with all of you.
I never know what I am going to get when I do this as each one is a new experiment.
I couldn’t be happier about this one.

Knitting - It’s All About COLOR and TEXTURE

One of the reasons I enjoy knitting these afghans so much is that I love to work with color and use color flow in so much of my art. I am able to make these transitions because I have acquired quite a palette of yarn with more on the way.

The very first one I made was my attempt to use up some of the yarn I had. I soon had to start filling in colors to make it work. And now I have a lot more yarn than I started with!

Over the years I have refined and  improved the methods for the pieces I create. I can make them specifically for family and friends to enhance the colors they love. I no longer add fringe as it tickles you when you use them!


I rarely make them to coordinate to a decorating scheme and that is something that people change on a whim

The textures inherent in the yarns give me another way to make spectacular art. The yarns vary in weight and thickness which just adds to creating another degree of texture. I do seek out many novelty yarns in my quest as it adds even more interest.

I can also combine any and all types of yarn no matter what the fiber content.

Of course knitting (and most other handwork) is one of the most relaxing things we can do…unless it is one of those patterns we have to pay attention to for each and every stitch.

Since I only use garter stitch that is not a concern for me as I knit them.

This one is still a work in progress and I am awaiting more special yarns to finish it.
The finished pieces are soft, comfy and warm.
These are just a few of the 17 I have made to date and I am now working on number 18.

Back To My Color Roots?

My friend Mary Stori remarked that some of the current work I am doing reminds her of the colors I used when she met me 30 or so years ago.
Maybe it’s what comes around goes around.
Yet with the availability of today’s fabrics there is no comparison to what we had to work with 30 –40 or more years ago. I remember how excited we got when we found some of the newest most sophisticated fabrics at the time.
I remember Jeff Gutcheon telling me he would buy any yellow fabric he could find even if it was ugly! Yet, when I worked with him as he developed his first line of fabrics, there was NO yellow!

Autumn Rainbow was a break through piece for me. I used only solid colors which were extremely difficult to find at the time. I also included some lames. It was one of the first quilts I won a first place with. Yet more importantly it was the piece that developed my Tubular Spiral Patchwork technique that I went on to teach across the Midwest.

My Tree Of Life quilt was inspired by vintage quilts, yet was not a copy of anyone in particular. I did created kits for this as part of my Historic Concepts series. The kits are now collector items as I sold the last of them.

I designed and drafted this fan quilt. I taught it several times and it was not only a good learning experience in piecing and applique, but if was an excellent learning experience is using and balancing color and a variety of types of fabrics.
I remember my granddaughter Heidi who was probably 7 years old looking at one of my quilts and saying that looks like a “grandma” quilt. I thought she meant it looked like it was made my an “old grandma”. NO….that she meant was she could tell I made it as she knew the colors I used. (I had started her playing with color when she was between 7 and 10 days old. by the time she was about 3 she could arrange a box of 64 Crayola crayons in color flow order.
If you are following my recent color choices with my knitting and strip piecing I think you will see what Mary Stori was saying.

Dyeing Silk With Color Hue Dyes

It has been a few years since I used my Color Hue dyes. I had already mixed many of them with water. They worked fine with no loss of color. One of the great things about them is they don’t loose their potency no matter how long you keep them.
They set instantly so there is no waiting period or color transfer to the cotton towel I roll them in to dry before I press them.

Since I didn’t have any silk scarves to try the dyes on I just used a piece of off white silk crepe. This can be a scarf after I serge the edges. I just did an allover spray with some dyes I mixed with strong values. When I did this with friends most of them preferred making pastel colors. 

I was not happy with the way I sprayed the colors on this one so I did a second application. For the second application I folded the fabric in triangle folds and dipped each fold in a different color. This started with a white very lightweight silk. I will serge the edges of this also. 
There are so many possibilities of different ways to use these dyes. And how exciting that they are permanent within such a very short time.
I plan on using more of these soon on silk scarves.

Strips Waiting To Tell Me Their Secret

These strips have been sewn together for a little while.
I used a lot of my really wonderful hand dyed and painted fabrics.
The fabrics that were TOO precious to cut and use…mostly created by me but some I purchased for big bucks.
Yet what enjoyment does one get from fabrics that are folded and put away??? NONE.
I know eventually I will be slicing (and maybe dicing) this strata.
It measures approximately 40 x 80 inches with some longer sections at one end.
Several ideas have come to mind, but I have not fully accepted any of them yet.
Time will tell.

What Do You Do In Florida When It’s 86 Degrees

You turn on the A/C and you knit an afghan.
It has been quite a while since I have taken time to knit.
All these delicious gorgeous yarns were calling my name.
Each of the 17 afghans I have made in my signature colorful style are so different than any of the others.
Whether it is quilts, dyed fabric, polymer clay, clothing or anything else there is nothing like color to start my creative juices flowing.
Not only color, but texture makes these afghans so appealing. Once I start it’s hard to stop since I want to see what the next yarn is going to look like, and the next, and the next, ……………..

New Friends

My friend Denise brought her sister Deanna and niece Cadence over to meet me Monday morning.
We had a nice visit and enjoyed some time on the lanai.
I really enjoyed getting to know them and hope they’ll be back again sometime.
They are having an exciting vacation here in Florida.

A Very Special Easter With My Florida Family

This is “baby” Andy who is named after Grandpa Andy, Mom Megan and Dad Ben. He is too cute.

Baby Andy and Grandpa Andy were studying the dining room chandelier.

How many people have a merry go round in the middle of their dining room table? Baby Andy and Ryder were taking a few spins around on it.

Laney and Ryder were all dressed up for Easter.

BFF Sally and daughter Lauren. I’ve known Lauren since she was less that 2 years old.

Lauren, big brother Ted (hiding behind the Easter tree) and his wife Pam. I’ve known him also since he was about 3.
The weather was perfect, the food was delicious and plentiful and the company was the best.
My apologies to all of the family who didn’t make it into the blog….I missed taking a lot of pictures.

My Tough Work Week Is Over Finally

I have a tough job when I am in Florida.
It is called Ladies Who Lunch and this was the official Ladies Who Lunch Week so I worked Monday through Thursday!

Monday I met with my Free To Be Surface design group and we each bring out own lunch. A great group..Nancy, Robbie and Beth.

Tuesday my friend Carol Brum Gordhamer and I had lunch at our community clubhouse.

When I had lunch Wednesday with my long time friend Jean we were so busy talking, laughing and reminiscing we never got a current picture..So I am sharing this one from New Years many years ago. Jean is on the left and Ione is on the right. That was the year of the big snowstorm and all 6 of our friends had to spend the night at our house as there was no way to get anywhere. What a fun memory.

Thursday Lynn, Pat and I had lunch at B D Beans, an annual tradition for the 3 of us. Lynn and Pat and their DH’s are the inspiration for our decision to live here in Florida. Lynn was a local friend in WI and Pat and I were high school classmates in Racine.

And since I never remember to post food pictures anymore I had to share my Summer Salad with you. It has artichoke hears, walnuts, shopped tomatoes, sun dried tomatoes, coconut and fresh greens. I am a creature of habit and I order it most of the time I eat there.