How NOT to write a blog post!

The Culprit! titled "Quietly she waited for her name to be called on the Polka Dot Door"

Last week I wrote this whole blog post about four of the drawings I'm showing at the Serendipi Tea House and asked my husband to check it over for me, as he often does. The blog post talked about my favourite titled drawing of the show called, "Quietly she waited for her name to be called on the Polka Dot Door." Witty and cute right? Then I proceeded to talk about a conversation my friend Sue and I had about enduring watching the Polka Dot Door. We'd both watch because the host at the end of the show would hold up a magic mirror and would say the names of the kids watching. They never called our names, two fairly common names of the seventies, Sue and Lysa (I figured if they said Lisa, that would mean me too). Oddly enough I couldn't find a link on YouTube to that part in the show but I did find the theme song, so good enough! Time to have Chris, my editor, have a peek at the post. He takes a quick look and calls me back:

"... um, you know the Polka Dot Door?"

"Ya?"

"They never had a magic mirror."

"Wha? Ya they did."

"No Romper Room did. I just looked it up on YouTube. You've got the wrong show."

in a teeny tiny voice "Embarrassing!!!"

Especially since I've had my show, with the titles for my drawings, up for four weeks now.

Which bring us back to present day. Determined to save this blog post I promptly sat down, this rainy Monday morning, to edit... oh wait, I didn't save the original post! Super!

... and that's how NOT to write a blog post!

Titled "Little stack of fabric-blue and green"

A detail of the drawing above.

Titled " Little stack of fabric-purple and orange"

Gingham fabric added to the sides.

"An Ode to Kitty Yoshida"

Show held over! Woohoo!

Criss Cross Applesauce-Green and Blue

Good news! I'll have a chance to stop in and have waffles this weekend with my family at the Serendipi Tea house! I've been in for tea but, other than my husband, my family hasn't had a chance to see the show yet. I talked to Shelley, the owner, last week and she suggested we leave the pieces up until after Mother's Day! What a dandy idea! I like it!

Criss Cross Applesauce-Green and Blue-Detail

Criss Cross Applesauce-Pink and Yellow

Criss Cross Applesauce-Pink and Yellow-Detail

Nothin flashy... just fabric (more from the Serendipi Tea House)

As I'm sure you can tell, I love fabric. I love to look at it and touch it (dare I say fondle it, which makes buying online a challenge for me).  I'm not sure when this addiction set in... maybe as a kid when I watched my mom sew, high school possibly (I had a great Textiles teacher!), or perhaps from working in fabric stores after high school (the endless tidying of bolts you think would be enough to cure me) but I still love it!

"Triple Decker" Coloured Pencil on Wood

An ode to the Runaways "Cherry Bomb" (Coloured Pencil on Wood)

Remember my Cherry Blossom Quilt, well I just had to draw it too!

The Quilt and the Drawing titled "A slice of Cherry Pie"are featured in Serendipi Tea's window.

...and that's a wrap! More to come in a few days!

Deja Vu?

This feels like deja vu... this time last year I was showing a series of drawings at the Abbotsford Art Walk, at the Serendipi Tea House. Guess what? It's a year later and I am showing a new series of drawings at the Abbotsford Art Walk, at the Serendipi Tea House!

I thought I'd start off  this series with the drawing that was featured at the opening.
 

Ta Da! It's called "The Secret Stash". I always leave the house with a list of what I need, fabric wise, and always tend find something I just have to have! Which means sometimes I have to sneak a few pieces into the house that weren't on my list (shhh... don't tell my husband, although I think he has his suspicions)!

If you get a chance, pop into Serendipi Tea. It's such a lovely place to spend time with friends and you'll get to see my whole show! If you do pop round be sure to check next door, my good friend Cynthia is showing at Quilt Essentials.

No worries if you can't make it but be sure to stay tuned as I'll be posting pictures of the whole show over the next couple of days!

Oops! I almost missed it!

I guess time does fly when you're having fun!

Whoops! I almost missed my blog birthday! It's been one whole year since I started blogging and what a year it's been. To celebrate, I want to give you one of my pin cushion cupcakes! Simply leave a comment about which post  you liked best and why. Easy Peasy, right? I'll randomly draw a winner and send them one of these bad boys!

Happy Birthday to me, Happy Birthday to me...

The BIG (little) reveal!

 

When I first envisioned this quilt, it was king sized and perfect for my bed. Then I received, in the mail, a catalogue of the Sewing and Craft Show (April 1 and 2nd at the Abbotsford Tradex). In the back of the catalogue was  the West Coast Quilt and Fibre Art Challenge. To have an entry done on time the quilt shrunk quite considerably and turned into a totally decadent, impractical baby quilt, just like those cute little baby tutus!

Hand sewn wool leaves and hand beaded centres.

Each blossom has Velcro sewn to the back. This is so the blossoms can be rearranged on the  leaves or removed, for the quilt to be washed.

This quilt was inspired, in part, by a March wedding we attended a few years back. Inspired by the blooming cherry blossoms and not because the couple are expecting anytime soon... well, not that we know of, hmmm? It was also partly inspired by an old habit of mine. Every spring when I would see the first cherry blossoms, I'd rush home from whatever I was doing and write to my grandfather, in Alberta, that I had seen them!

Red Polka dots for the binding (and you know how I love polka dots!). This was the first time I had used a bias tape maker (whoever invented that is a genius!) and the first time I ever used rounded corners.

 A close up texture of the tree trunk.

Maybe I'll see you at the Sewing and Craft show? If not, be on the look out for the first cherry blossoms. I've seen a few and not just the ones on my quilt!

C'mon Spring! We're ready for ya!

Oh and thanks for stopping by!

For your sweet tooth!

I've come to realize I love everyday things reinvented!

Check out this artist: Debra Kallen. I came across her about a year ago and thought her work was just phenomenal! She does jelly beans, coffee beans, chocolate strawberries, chocolates, gum drops, suckers and Swedish fish, plus the prettiest little flowers all made out of glass (some are beads and some are pendents, oh and she's done some that are pens too!). Isn't she brilliant!

 

I love them all and  I don't think I could pick a favourite. I'd be happy with any one of these lovely treats. (Hint, hint!) I'm assuming my husband reads my blog!

Sweetheart quilts. Happy Valentine's Day!

An ode to Valentine's, the day of  pink, red, flowers, hearts, and every thing sweet! Well, except for maybe the  bow and arrow wielding naked baby image but you get the idea!

 Since her sister got one last, a quilt for Cadence.

 A quilt for Jen, Makenna and Cadence's Mom

A detail on Jen's quilt, a chenille flower.

Happy Valentine's Day and watch out for those naked babies!

My fortune cookie said: We're all naked under our clothes!..well it didn't really but it's true!

 My good friend Cynthia (one of my partners in crime from the Frazer Valley Modern Quilt Guild) suggested this sketch book project to me. The gist of it is, you send them money, they send you a sketch book. You fill the sketch book, you send the sketch book back to them in New York, then they display it for you. "It's like a concert tour but with sketch books". I resisted at first, I had so many projects brewing, plus at the time I had no idea what I would do for it anyways.

Then I had a light bulb moment! About a month before the sketch books were due back, I was checking out the site, thinking it was such a great opportunity, when I came across the"figuring you out" theme. "Bing!" I knew exactly what I wanted to do AND it incorporated an idea I had been wanting to do since last year. This killing two birds with one stone situation could not be wasted.

I remember teaching last year and thinking, wouldn't it be great if I could do these gesture drawings with the free motion on my sewing machine! Then I had a vision of happily playing away and drawing only to look up  to a sea of students staring at me with a look of, "would you please stop all that racket!" So instead of making a racket and disrupting other people drawing,  I modified the idea and here it is, a much quieter version.

On a side note, tomorrow I start back teaching figure drawing at Ron Hedrick's painting studio ...  without my sewing machine though! 

On this one I left a few threads behind. I figured what the heck!

Happy surprise! I really loved the way the in between pages looked but decided to seal the pages so you can't see them. I thought it just took away from the flow of the book.
(Click the photo for a better look.)

The end!

Today's fortune cookie said: YOUR TALENTS WILL BE REWARDED.

Over the Christmas break I went to hang out with family in Alberta. Did you miss me? I'd forgotten how much I missed the prairies and especially the snow, it was very refreshing! Don't get me wrong, I love living in BC but there is something about where you come from that never leaves you.

This past year I moved into my new art studio, which gave me a chance to take stock of my inventory and supplies. I am completely OCD so I love organizing stuff! An old friend, who now lives in Texas, was moving into a new house and was looking for art for her walls. She told me how much she had loved my grain elevator paintings and asked if I had any prints for sale. Not only did I have prints, I knew exactly where they were now! After posting a few pictures of my prints on Facebook for her to pick from, to my surprise other people were asking to buy them too! To make things even more interesting a gallery, the Garden Gallery in Kindersley, Saskatchewan, contacted me after some of my prints were brought in for framing! Separately, like a cherry on top, I was commissioned for two large paintings, based off of my day and night prints. I hadn't painted that large in a while and forgot how much I enjoyed itl!

 Ta Da! Here they are in all there glory!

detail of the moon in "Wee Hours-Nighttime"

"Wee Hours-Nighttime"

"Wee Hours-Morning"



Sadly, you don't see any Alberta Wheat Pool grain elevators anymore (or prairie rockets as my husband called them when he was a kid). So many of them have been torn down!



Quiet morning sun.

A big thank you to everyone that has looked at my work, considered it and not called it nice or interesting ( I could always tell when my parents didn't get what I was working on when they called it nice or interesting - cringe). Everyone has been very encouraging and just as excited as I am about my ideas. Ultimately I want to make stuff and have people love it as much as I do!

My fortune cookie said : THE CURRENT YEAR WILL BRING HAPPINESS

This is me. This is me happy! A big thank you to Carol Browne for capturing my happiness, on a happy day of crafty shopping with good friends. I intend on using it for my profile photos and that makes me very happy! I have been looking for the ever elusive profile photo and finding a photo I am happy with has been quite a challenge. A good photographer makes all the difference in the world.

Speaking of happy, since the middle of December I've been reading this book: The Happiness Project and yes, it also make me happy. The author, Gretchen Rubin, gives her self monthly challenges (resolutions, tis the season) on how to make her life happier. It's been a really fun read with lots of great insights about happiness. I especially love her excitement after she discovers, what she calls, her first splendid truth about happiness:
                

To be happy I need to think about feeling good,

feeling bad and feeling right,

in an atmosphere of growth.

Perhaps reading this book will make you happy too? After all, they say happiness is contagious! Happy New Year!