Zora and Zella...

Zella had a good nap and now the girls have decided to go see if the blackberries are ripe yet.
Zella puts her basket on top of her head for fun and off they go. But wait! Just as they walk down the dusty road I get a call that Zora's younger sister, Lulu will be in town and is coming for a visit too!

Meet Zora!

This is Zora, who arrived last night for a 2 week visit. She is a single mom and has a cute little daughter named Zella, who is currently taking a nap. She is an art teacher and loves to travel and collect folk art.
Could it be "love at first sight"? Hubert seems to think so....

Rug hooking at Penny's Playhouse

I brought my two girls for Show 'n Tell...still need to finish them up as real dolls.
Katie finished her Lion rug for her son. It came out beautifully.
Katie also made this great Sunflower pillow for her African harp teacher's mother...she worked on the backing during our meeting...below..

Anne S. worked on her rug for her sister...so fun!
And Pepa's darling grandaughter Zellie is featured on her Flora piece.....
One of Penny's great rugs....a fun basket weave design....
More of Penny's wonderful art collection...wall sculpture by Marge Dunlap..
and some of her fun collections....
tiny portion of her "hand collection"....
a few of the girls at our monthly meeting....
We had a fun but small gathering for our Monday night rug hookers meeting. A great Show 'n tell with refreshments..I made some Madeline's at my son's request (he gets half of the recipe) followed by lots of great conversation, wool sharing, book exchanges, and planning for our next hook-in. Always fun to visit Penny's and check out her latest art work, collections and fabric purchases!

Pin Cushion and fiber finds...

Here's my finished pin cushion for Tricia's Textile Challenge...join up if you are interested...
And below are my purchases at the Quilt show....

these 2 photos are from a fragment of an old quilt that I found in a bin with old quilt blocks...enough to make a few dolls or use in a fabric collage, if I can bear to cut it up....it has old velvets and the funny top stitching...(only $6.00)
Below is a little collection of Japanese silk pieces that I couldn't resist!
And these are the dyed silk cocoons that I want to play with....not sure how, but I'll think of something!

Long Beach International Quilt Show!

Friday I took the day off to go visit the Long Beach International Quilt Show. There were so many wonderful quilts to see and even more vendors! I got to see some of my Santa Barbara fiber art pals there, Barbara, Maren and Penny, and had a fun time at the Quilting Arts booth and workshop center where the talented and friendly Ruth Rae and Traci Bautista, fun fellow Artfiberfest teachers were hanging out. Ruth was demonstrating fiber ATC's on her Singer featherweight and we traded a few...the first two below are from Ruth. After her Demo we had lunch together and then went to look at the Quilts...so many...and fun to see with another artist and to hear their viewpoint and ideas.."more burning!" said Ruth.
Quilting Arts had a wall set up for trading ATC's...Penny and I brought ATC's to trade and I came home with some new ones..and that is always fun.
After looking at the quilts and a little more shopping we went back to Quilting Arts and I got to meet Patricia Bolton, the charming editor in chief of Cloth, Paper, Scissors and Quilting Arts magazines. She encouraged me to send more stuff in...and I hope to. I bought the Studio issue and some of those dyed silk cocoons called "Oliver Twists"that I've been curious about playing with. They had a great selection of books, and after some browsing....I found more that I want to add to my ever growing collection. I also got to meet Beryl Taylor who was doing a great Demo on fabric paper. Fun talking to her and seeing her lovely silk books and fabric collages in person. I remember seeing the silk book she made in Quilting Arts years ago and being so amazed...one of the most beautiful things I'd ever seen. She is sweet and down to earth and I am so glad that I got to meet her and even get in a mini-class. Another fun spot was the ArtGirlz booth. Traci and Allison Stillwell were busy demonstrating and selling their cool charms and felt beads, dressed in funky fiber attire. I have been to quilt shows before but never on this scale. I think the thing that surprised me the most was the huge number of vendors. ...way more than quilts! I'm so glad that I got to see the quilts from all over the world, meet up with friends, new and old, buy a few things for fresh inspiration, and just take a whole day off for myself!

fun new ATC's from the Quilting arts booth....
Here's just a partial shot of the ATC wall of trades....
And the following are some of the wonderful quilts at the show.......these are just a few that caught my eye.....Enjoy!!!!
By Heidi Stegehuis-Ihle
By Elaine Plogman
By Bodil Gardner
By Cecile Trentini
Janet Twinn
Pine Eisfelter 1939
Dianne S. Hire
Diane S. Hire
Laura Wasilowski
Kathy York
Detail..Kathy York
Deborah Kimball
Diane Rusin Doran
See the lizard...? By Margaret Heinisch
Grasshopper on lower left side.... by Margarete Heinisch

Stitching a pin cushion and the kitties..

This is the embroidered top of the pin cushion that I'm working on. I may do a little bit more stitching before sewing it up. I thought I'd show you the simple steps to this point.

Here is the felt that has been embellished with wool roving . I then used my Embellisher to add wool flowers and the green trim.
First I cut out a circle of felt and then added more color and interest by embellishing with hand dyed wool roving. I used my new embellisher but needle felting would work just as well.

And here are the two kitties asleep...

Hubert, the cat boy softie...

Here's my latest softie....meet Hubert!

I am in the midst of a major art studio cleaning and sorting....I've collected mountains of wool fabric and felted wool sweaters and need to really see what I've got and what I can get rid of. I tend to get into a whirlwind of creative energy and love to make stuff but don't always clean up after myself and just zoom onto another project. So now I need to do a real clean up and get the table cleared off and organized a bit before starting too many new things. I've got some hooked dolls to finish up, a pin cushion challenge to do, felted wool softies to send in, and always new hooking designs in the works. Also hope to go to the Long Beach Quilt show on Friday if possible.

Fun evening at Art From Scrap!

Huge inflatable atop the Art From Scrap roof for our Art Event and silent auction.

Wonderful decorations made by Jeanette watched the party from above.
Like big sock dolls...such fun..all made from recycled items from the shop..
Outside on the patio there was a spot set up to take photos by Bob DeBris...complete with costumes and props to play with...everyone had fun with these.
Three heartthrobs!
Young swashbucklers!
Elvis?
Julia Ford's sweet piece for the show. Loved meeting her...always admired her work and nice to get a chance to chat.
Judy Nielsen's fabric flying bird..so fun and funky!
Kathy Snow and me with my piece "Fiber World" behind us.

We had a great evening at the Art from Scrap silent auction event. There was music, food, wine, free photos and lots of artists and community members showed up to bid on the fiber assemblage pieces created as a fund raiser for the non-profit gallery, shop, and educational space featuring all recycled goods for schools and community artists to share in. Holly and her wonderful family were there. Syd, Carol, Penny, Wayne, Jeanette, Judy, Julia and many more came to enjoy the festivities. I stayed to see who would take home my Fiber World piece and the amazing thing was that the high bidder turned out to be someone from my distant past! Kathy Snow, who is on the Art from Scrap board of directors and who has lived here since 1969, grew up in Pasadena and our mothers were friends and in a wonderful circle of artistic women who gathered at the home of Audy Lou Colvin in Sierra Madre where all manner of creative things went on. We had such fun reminiscing about the past and promised to get together again for lunch to finish catching up. And I'm so happy that Kathy is going to put my piece up in her mother's home here in Santa Barbara.