There is a small but mighty fabric store in Boulder named Elfriede’s Fine Fabrics, after the owner. My first trip to Elfriede’s came not long after it opened upstairs in a building just off Pearl Street in Boulder. I marveled at the exquisite fabrics, wishing that my sewing skills were up to the level of […]
Floating Bison or We Get By with a Little Help from Our Friends
There can be drawbacks to working in a room with just yourself and a dog. I tend to lose myself in a very specific part of the piece I’m working on, even to the point that I don’t see the whole piece when I step across the room. This happened with the bison. What drew […]
Out of the Blue
I remember back in the day when the phone was black, had a dial, and sat on Mom’s desk. When the phone rang, you hesitated to see if it was going to be one long ring or two short rings before you answered. Funny, I don’t remember now which ring pattern we were. Awhile back […]
THE HEALING POWER OF TOUCH
A faithful companion waits at the feet of his guardian. Have the two just returned from a romp in the field? Has he finished his meal and is relaxing for the night? We sense the love and contentment between them. I completed a piece recently for a show at Adventist Hospitals (found out tonight it […]
UNDER WRAPS
I’ve been working furiously in the studio. Too bad you can’t see what I’ve been doing. I have completed the first, and now I’m working on the second quilt, to submit to Raining Cats and Dogs in Houston. This is the same show that Drew was in last year with Best Friend. Since the show […]
BOUNCING AROUND IN MY BRAIN
Tonight as I was returning home from a seminar on mason bees and xeriscaping, my mind started bouncing around. This is not a good thing when you are driving the narrow, winding, and windy Highway 93 between Golden and Boulder. What got it going tonight was the happy convergence of a wonderful speaker painting pictures […]
RINGING IN THE NEW YEAR
Do you make resolutions for the New Year? Do you choose a guiding word? Do you set goals? Or like me are you more concerned about where that bag of black-eyed peas is hiding? A typical New Year’s Day at my house is spent cooking the very important black-eyed peas and ham hocks, a tradition […]
SHOW NOTES
You can’t believe how excited I was to find out I was selected as one of the artists to have a show at NCAR. And then reality set in . . . and I’m still excited. There have been so many things to think about, learn, and then implement. • The first thing I […]
Colorado Representative for SDA
What is SDA you might ask? Let me tell you. Surface Design Association is an international group of artists, designers, students, teachers, and anyone interested in textiles and fiber art. With the Surface Design magazine, conferences, and exhibits, SDA promotes awareness and appreciation of design, and inspires creativity. Not to mention there are some very […]
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
The three “Rs” of the green movement are not new. My mother was one of the queens of recycling in her day. To set the stage for our story, it is important to remember that the Sugar Loaf area is crisscrossed with mining claims. Each claim had a shaft or tunnel. The shafts came in […]
A Tail of Two Dogs
I love doing commissions. No matter how straightforward the project seems at first, there is always a challenge somewhere along the way. I am finding the challenges to be some of the most frustrating yet most rewarding parts of the job. Take my latest commission. Although I can’t go into great detail (it is a […]
Taking the Leap—One Small Step at a Time
When the speaker at a recent meeting advised “taking the leap,” it struck a chord with me because of where I was in the process of completing “Indian Summer.” The top was completed and ready to layer and stitch, but I wasn’t completely happy with it yet. Through trial and error, I have learned […]
Power Suit Update
Back in October I told you about the Power Suit challenge and that the artists were asked not to reveal what they had done until after the show opened. But by then I was off creating other works and forgot to do the big reveal. This week I finally got around to ordering the CD […]
Power Suit Challenge
I was in Cincinnati for the International Quilt Festival when my friend Liz Kettle handed me a bag of goodies and declared, “You need to do this.” The bag contained samples of men’s suiting and shirting fabrics, a tie, buttons, and the challenge to make an 18 x 18-inch art quilt based on what a […]