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The show’s opening reception is this Sunday, September 7th, from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Etui Fiber Gallery in Larchmont, NY.

I’m very happy to have three small works included in this show, especially considering how few shows I’ve entered this year.  All works are for sale, and two were made specifically for the show — Butterfly I, and Butterfly II.  If they don’t sell at the show, I am going to offer them for sale through my website.

Here is one of the two Butterflies.  Each are float-mounted on 8×10 watercolor paper and framed in a shadow box.  You can see more images from the show here.

These are the individual blocks that make up my beautiful butterfly quilt. There are several blocks that I cannot identify the maker, and they are SO pretty.  Nancy Billings, Vivien Zepf, Ginny Greaves, Susan Klang, and Nita Markos, please let me know which block is yours. I again thank all of you for this incredible gift!

“A gift of love from our heart to yours.”

In today’s mail I received a large Priority Mail box.  It came from Lyric Kinard, who sent me an email a few days ago confirming my mailing address and that I’d be home to receive a “surprise.”  While I knew a surprise was coming, I had no idea what it was.  Thus, when I saw that box, I felt a wave of excitement.

I opened the box to find a card written by Lyric. It was a “gift of love from our heart to yours.”  She wrote about my earlier cancer diagnosis, relief that all went very well (I was extremely fortunate), and how she and others wanted to offer support in the form of a quilt — “a gift of love from our heart to yours.”  She further wrote, “You are one of those people who quietly goes about making the world a better place with your generosity.  This is just a small token of our love and appreciation for you.” Yes, I had tears in my eyes!  Then I slowly unwrapped the gift, and  there it was — a large quilt filled with butterflies!  I have such a thing for butterflies and immediately thought, wow, how perfect!” At 65″ x 47″, it’s a comfy snuggle-on-the-sofa size!

Although I feel totally undeserving of such a generous gift, I am very, very grateful for it.  The quilt has blocks made by Nancy Billings, Sue Bleiweiss, Traci Bunkers, Lisa Engelbrecht, Jamie Fingal, Ginny Greaves, Mary Kerr, Susan Kiang, Kristin La Flamme, Nita Markos, Barb McKie, Virginia Spiegel, and Vivien Zeph.  The beautiful fabric filled with butterflies and connecting all of the blocks was screen printed by Lyric!  Plus it includes her “Fly” motif, which I always liked in her work and am happy to now have one of my own!

I will thank each of you individually, but wanted to share this beautiful gift and thank you all here, too.  The overall view of the quilt doesn’t do the quilt justice.  I have photos of each block, which I’ll add here soon.

On Saturday I took a class at The Center for Book Arts on W. 27th Street in NY on paste paper printing taught by artist, Lynn Gall.  Also in the class were Benedicte and Shirley! We worked right through lunch, creating and having a blast.  The Center is very cool, and I’ll add a post soon on the exhibits on display (and we stop at FIT to see a couple additional exhibits.

Our instructor, artist Lynn Gall

Shirley, Benedicte, and others hard at work

Shirley, me, and Benedicte having an excellent day

Some of the papers I made

and more …

and more

Benedicte and I both took home a container of paste mixture, and I painted more Saturday night and Sunday, until I was out of mixture. (And, yes, I totally over did it yesterday, and my poor back was screaming for me to stop!)

If you’re interested in making some papers of your own, there’s plenty of information online, including this page from Lorna Aaronson’s here.  I’ve photographed the sheets I painted and already started playing around with them in Photoshop.  The piece on the bottom is a paste print over a digital image.  I have some digital images that had one problem or another, such as an ink color running out or a funky print because the printer needed a head cleaning.  Rather than throw them away, I tend to keep them for possible use in a collage or something else. In this case, I tried a paste print over the digital image. Additionally, I photographed all of the prints and started blending them in Photoshop.  You can really go to town on this stuff!

The following are some of my favorites.

The above is paste printing on top of a digital print.

I have some very cool friends, including Beryl, who is an amazing artist.  This week I visited with her, and lucky me received some very, very cool presents!  In addition to some art supplies that had my mouth watering, she gave me these lovely items:

Made by Beryl Taylor

Close-up of Beryl’s work

Another close-up

Beryl makes the most amazing fabric paper; she truly started it all. This is thick, strong, and will make a fantastic journal cover!

A close-up

Another close-up

Two more pieces of unique paper Beryl made

A close-up

I just love her work!

Issue 27 is now available of Just Paint, a free 16-page PDF download published by Golden Artist Colors and available here.  This issue include an article that investigates the drying time of acrylic colors and gel mediums, another about Golden’s virtual paint mixer, which you can find here, information on “the color graveyard,” and more.  (I’ve no affiliation.)

This summer I’ve been working on a couple large projects, the first of which is nearing completion — a retrospective of my work, going back some 30 years.  It’s become quite a project.  I ended up re-photographing all of my earlier work. I also went through several boxes of photographs to find and scan image that I wanted to include — like me as  an Apple rep when the Bondi Blue iMac was released in 1998 or the Polaroid of me and Todd Hensley, who was then the publisher of C&T Publishing when the Free Stuff on the Internet books were released. The 106 page book is now almost finished, and my goal is to send it for printing by the end of this month. I’ll be printing it through Blurb, and another goal is to do a version as an iBook, just in case anyone is interested in seeing it on their iPad.

While the full view and a detail are in the book, I’m sharing here some additional images of my 52″ square quilt, Reflections, which I finished in 1989.  It was the result of a class I took with Nancy Lubisco, who sold Grafix paper in right-angle, equilateral, and kaleidoscope pattern grids.  After I created my design using the kaleidoscope grid paper as a base, I made full size templates with various set-in seams rather than simply repeating the block itself (daa!).

I re-discovered the notes I wrote on the back hanging sleeve, which gives new meaning to “journal quilt.” I wrote that I learned how to wind surf that summer.  Immediately my mind was filled with those memories.  Ahh, the days before back surgeries!  I also wrote that we got a new dog that year. It was actually in 1988 that we got him, but because I hand quilted the quilt, I didn’t finish it until 1989.  I remember writing that I left some of Mustang’s dog hairs in the quilt because they made me smile. Amazingly, some of his dog hairs are still on the quilt (Mustang has long since died).

Eventually I’ll create an online gallery of older work, as well as update the older images on my site.  But, one thing at a time.

Last Saturday I had the pleasure of joining some friends to see our friend Judy Langille at the opening of Art Cloth Network: Lines and Numbers, at the Crane Arts’ Old School, White Space Gallery in Philadelphia as part of Fiber Philadelphia. Also part of the show is a second exhibition, Beyond the Line. The Lines and Number exhibit hangs from the ceiling while Beyond the Line is on two walls. The show features the luscious work of Laura Beehler, Janet Hadingham, Sue Copeland Jones, Lisa Kerpoe, Dianne Koppisch Hricko, Judy Langille, Mary Ellen Latinio, Russ Little, Susie Monday, Barbara Schneider, Peggy Sexton, Jeanne Sisson, Priscilla J. Smith, Katherine Sylvan, Connie Tiegel, and Deborah Weir.  The show runs through April 1, 2012.  Judy and her very proud husband are below.

detail of Bubble Line by Judy Langille

detail of Diptych: Beyond the Line by Katherine Sylvan

detail of Harem by Deborah Weir

detail of Crossing the Line by Lisa Kerpoe

I made this piece, Artifications, in 2011.  The inspiration for it came from the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California.  I remember reading a review in the NY Times describing it as a place where “computer artifacts come alive.” Last year when Derry and I went to MacWorld, we took a train to Mountain View to visit the Museum.  I totally loved it, took many pictures, and agreed that the artifacts certainly did seem to come alive.

Although I did have the quilt on exhibit at the Houston IQA show this past fall, it never quite felt finished to me.  In looking at the piece, my eye kept going to some of the curved lines formed in the grid.   After some thought, I decided to remove the top and bottom hanging pockets and some of the facing.  I then used a variegated perle cotton thread, and began hand stitching various curved lines.

The quilt came with me this year to MacWorld where I worked on it in my room at night.  It feels like it went full circle, ending where the inspiration began.  The piece is now at the NJ Quilt Festival where it will be on display this weekend.

Refracted Lily ©2010 - 28" x 21"

I’m pleased to share the news that my quilt, Refracted Lily, won first prize in the digital imagery category at the International Quilt Association show in Houston, Texas.  This quilt is based on one of the many images I took of a water lily during a partly sunny day.  When the sun was out, it was glistened off the water, often with short bursts of color.  When the sun went behind the clouds, it was dreary looking.  In this piece, I tried to merge my love of taking photos with my enjoyment of using geometric shapes in artwork.

The face of the piece is a digital print done on cotton sateen using an Epson 7900 Stylus Pro with  archival pigment ink.  I also used colored pencils/pastel-crayons and dense stitching to emphasize the color and illusion of depth.

ArtSpark is a group of very talented artists that I am honored to be a member.  This summer has been hot.  Very hot.  And in celebration of the hot summer, we are giving away some hot items, including various publications and DVD!.  Yes, giving away for free! To enter, copy the list below.  Then, on the day of each member’s give-away, visit the blog, read the rules, and enter for a chance to win the fabulous item from that member.

My give away if this Friday.  I’m giving away my book Digital Essentials, the Must Have Guide to Images, Files, and More.  Okay, the words “quilt makers” is in the title, but the book is really for any artist to learn the essential digital information you need so that you can do what you need with understanding and ease!

To enter my give-away, please leave a comment on my blog any time from now through Friday, the 19th (the last day of the give-away) night.  Some time Saturday, the 20th,  I will select a name at random and will contact you in email.  My publisher will then send a copy of the book directly to your door!  If there is a large number of people who leave a post, I’ll have two given away!

Here’s the list of participating members:
Wednesday, August 10th – Carla Sonheim
Thursday, August 11th – Diana Trout
Friday, August 12th — ME
Saturday, August 13th – Tracie Lyn Huskamp
Sunday, August 14th – Jane LaFazio
Monday, August 15th – Jill Berry
Tuesday, August 16th – Judy Coates Perez
Wednesday, August 17th – Kelli Nina Perkins
Thursday, August 18th – Lyric Kinard
Friday, August 19th – Melanie Testa

Remember, copy the list and visit each blog for your chance at winning a hot give-away!

The Alliance for the American Quilt  held a weekend event in New York City to raise funds for the Alliance, and I attended Saturday’s events.  The day started with meeting my good friend, Benedicte, where we had fun conversation and a light brunch before heading to F.I.T. (the Fashion Institute of Technology).

Marianne Fons

Marianne Fons started the program with an excellent lecture entitled, “Why We Quilt.”  She discussed various reasons — such as community, love, comfort, and even money — showing slide show examples and telling stories. Her daughter Mary followed.  While she was  animated and her lecture amusing, I found myself stuck on some of her statements.  There were times I felt like saying, hey — I started quilt making in my young 20s (doing needlework prior); there’s a whole world of quilt makers that are unafraid of funky color-combinations and trying all types of “nontraditional” methods (she only had to look around the room to see what people were wearing and carrying); many of us over 40 and much over 40 get harshly judged by “veterans” not understanding our work (as in that’s certainly not age relevant); and not only do we get technology (I’ve met many at the event some 20 years ago in online chat rooms before the graphical interface was invented) we regularly buy any i-gadget we want.  How’s that for being on a soapbox! What I heard may not be entirely what she was trying to convey, and her message of  love for her mom and the gift of quilt making love passed on by her mother was poignant.

Jay McCarroll

Moving on, next up was Jay McCaroll, the first season winner of Project Runway.  After addressing the audience, members of the Alliance Board gave a short fashion show strutting across the room in some of Jay’s clothing featuring monochromatic patchwork.

Alliance board members modeling Jay's creations.

Jay's work

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Jay being interviewed by Mark

Then, the always entertaining Mark Lupinski interviewed Jay for the Alliance’s  Q.S.O.S. — quilters save our stories.  Many of the Q.S.O.S. interviews are archived at the Library of Congress American Folklife Center and are available for research.  You can learn about about Q.S.O.S. here.  Mark was very good at asking questions so we could learn about Jay’s beginnings —  how he got on his road and where he thinks that road is going.  Mark was great at weeding through various interesting tangents to get Jay to return and answer the original question.  It should be a week or two before the interview is on the Alliance site.

The City Quilter

After 6 of us had a delicious dinner in the garden at the East of Eighth restaurant, we were off to a cocktail party at The City Quilter located at 133 West 25th Street (between 6th and 7th). What a great shop!

NYC-themed fabrics only available at The City Quilter

Alliance President, Meg Cox.

The art quilt gallery

The shop has a new art gallery, and presently on exhibit was gorgeous work by Japanese quilt maker Noriko Endo.  I have Noriko’s book and will be giving one away on my blog in the coming days.

Noriko Endo's work

and more

The best part of the day was getting to spend time with friends, some like Judy Doenias whom I haven’t seen in years. Jeri Riggs (from our dinner group) is missing from the pictures. Sorry Jerri, we couldn’t find you!

Beth Carney, Benedicte Caneill, and moi

Paula Nadeltern, Megan Downer, Benedicte, and moi