I am so bad at updating my blog! I started a draft post back in May talking about Spring and now as I write this my son' James’s summer vacation is almost over! It feels like the weeks have flown by and summer is almost over! I do love this time of year. Longer days, bright mornings, easy to get dressed in shorts and a t-shirt, salads, the farmers market and swimming in our pool. I am pledging now to write a monthly blog post as I am not short of topics!

Summer began with a couple of calls for entry to exhibitions I wanted to apply to. Having had many teaching engagements through the spring working on new pieces was not a priority which meant that those deadlines came very quickly. With a week or so to spare I finished this quilt for a SAQA exhibition called Stitching California. This piece I painted as a whole cloth using fabric paints, added small raw edge fabric details, free motion quilted and then hand embroidered. Alas it was not accepted but I am happy a piece I made last year ‘Packing into Point Reyes’ was accepted. The exhibition opens in Ukiah at the Grace Hudson museum on August 17th.

This quilt I made for an invitational exhibition called Better World curated by Susan Brusker Knapp and Lyric Kinard and unfortunately it didn’t get selected either. It will be included in a book of all entries and on a website about the exhibit that celebrates Heroes. The hero I chose was GCF, the Giraffe Conservation Foundation because of their work promoting the conservation of the giraffe species in Africa, Sadly their numbers are on a sharp decline and are on the endangered species list.. I am entering this in other shows and like my Melman quilt I will donate half my profits from the sale of this quilt to GCF.

I am still working on Pet Portrait fabric collage quilts. Sasha is one of my more recent finishes. It is a quilt I started a while ago and used it for demonstrating free motion quilting in my classes. Sasha is our friends dog. She loves her time living on Donner Summit, CA, especially in the winter and she loves to talk. Love of Pets Fabric Collage is my most popular class that I teach. I think this is because working on a personal image is more personal, whilst at the same time learning a new technique .

I have a retreat at Zephyr Point, Lake Tahoe coming up Sept 2-6 with Artistic Alchemy and have room in my class and would love a couple more students to sign-up. Its not too late! It is a great event with plenty of time to sew, a beautiful location, fun times with fun creative people. And did I mention the beautiful lake and surroundings in perfect weather. In this 5 day retreat you will have enough time to finish your collage. Please contact me.

Other news…. I have been working on my website and have opened my shop :)

I am selling printed patterns for collage with directions how to make your collage. Also a few Fabric collage kits, I will add more later, the magazine Quilting Arts April/May 2019 that I am featured in and have the cover art. And then a deposit purchase for ordering a custom made t-shirt or necktie quilt.

I am continuing to design new patterns and come up with ideas for new classes when I have the time. My latest project has been this Peacock quilt. It is from a photo taken by my godson Zac

Coming up I am teaching Pet Portraits at Quilt and Fabric Festival in Sacramento, September 27th, spaces still available.

At the International Quilt Festival in Houston, TX Oct 27-31st I am teaching 6 classes and only have space available in 2 of my classes Sunflowers on Tuesday Oct 29 and Making a Pet collage from a Photo on Oct 31st. There are wait lists and all sign-ups are made online this year.

In January I will again be at Craft Napa January 15-19 2020. The classes I am teaching are Pet Portraits on a smaller scale and Beautiful Bovines. I have really been having fun designing patterns from photos of cows. They really are beautiful and perfect for making in bright abstract colors and for using up your scraps.

I hope you have enjoyed reading about what I have been up to. My next project is to have a go at videoing my collage process and hope James will help me before he starts high school in a couple of weeks. So stayed tuned. And as for procrastination I will be updating my blog again soon.