In 1969 when I was in the 6th grade, the mill burned down. It was about 500 feet from my home. Inspired by the Journal Quilt competition with the theme of Elements, Earth, Air, Water, Fire, I tried making a submission about this fire. It became very tedious - it just would not work. I surprised myself that I worked on it so long, reworking it 4 times to this point. For me, the process has to be fun - and beyond painting, this one was definitely not fun! But I was pleased with my painted fire.....I used inks, colored pencils and pastels. Oh, the smear effect with the pastels works really well. And I discovered when used ontop of the still damp ink, the pastels are permanent! Where this piece will go from her I do not know. A good friend Deb often talks of tossing pieces into her burn barrel. This one may get closer to fire than just the pictures on it. Bur I certainly do not regret the time spent - I did learn!

This Cardinal on Dogwood is a work in progress, not yet quilted. It is handpainted with the Tsuniko inks. Working with them is very similiar to painting with watercolors. As a resist (a way to preserve the white areas) I used freezer paper. I cutout the dogwood blooms, ironed them to the fabric and inked away.



In the beginning of the year, I took an online quilt class thru Quilt University with teacher Patti Anderson - to make a feathered star, in my pursuit for precise piecing. Patti's techniques and tips work really well, they are quick and even more important to me, they are fun! I actually made two feathered stars! This one grew to a queen sized quilt using Patti's border designs from the class, with some modifications as I was running out of focus fabric. This quilt is a birthday gift for a very dear friend who loves the ocean.









In July '07, my family had a get-together in Colorado. One day we went to Lookout Mountain which overlooks Golden, Colorado. I painted this picture, Two Boys (acrylic) from pictures taken on Lookout Mountain.





My pallette are the secondary colors, orange, green and purple. I really enjoy working with this color scheme in paint and fabric.

Going to quilt shows, I find I am attracted to quilts with lots of grey in them. So I have been attempting to work with grey also. But it has been a chore. I can't seem to find that spark to make it work. Part of the problem may well be that during construction, I am working with and closeup to a micro shot of color combinations. Example, put a small piece of teal blue on top of a small piece of honeydew green, stitch a seam, iron them open and my heart sings. Put that same teal blue on top of a small piece of grey, stitch and iron and blah......so silly!



Here is a painted wholecloth in grey. It is the second in a series about wildlife in contact with man that started with the redfox in a previous post. It is painted with Tsuniko inks, colored pencils and acrylic paints, then heavily quilted. I added 2 feathers to the quilting, top and bottom. Why feathers? because I like doing feathers, they are a tradition for quilting and because they have nothing whatsoever to do with water, sea otters or tires!