Most of my life I have been painfully shy around people I didn’t know, and even people I did know. I was the one hiding behind my mother’s skirt at the birthday party. There was a time when walking into a room of 55 people, only four of whom I had met over dinner the […]
SECRET LIVES
I like to listen to audio books while I work. The most recent books have been autobiographical about women who have hidden parts to their lives. Examples include hiding a schizophrenic mother, face blindness, and overcoming visual-spatial learning disabilities. That got me to thinking about what have I kept secret. For the longest time […]
Little Things Add Up
It started with three gallons of yellow paint, rotting rafters, and a glass of lemonade. Nine years later, I sit in my studio as a full-time artist writing a blog post. I never would have guessed it would turn out this way. Knowing that we needed to paint the trim on our little 1954 brick […]
Mumblings from the Backroom
Sometimes I’ll make a design decision seemingly without thought, only to realize later there really was a reason for the madness. When designing Tiger Eyes, I had a huge constraint on my method of working. The fusible web I prefer, Lite Steam-a-Seam 2, had been on backorder for months with no ship date in sight. […]
RUSTY BITS
I have the most popular husband in the world of rust. He came about it quite by accident. I’ve rusted fabric from time to time with limited success. After participating in a critique group that included Regina Benson, I decided I wanted to try again and was mentioning to my hubby that I needed to […]
A TALE OF FIVE NEEDLES
When my trusty sewing machine starts to misbehave, I know it’s time to change needles. So you might ask why it took me almost a month to get it back in working order recently. I have a routine of cleaning the bobbin area with a paintbrush every time I drop in a new bobbin. This […]
A Traveling Duo
Illiamna and The Old Codger have extended their travels after debuting at the International Quilt Festival in Chicago. They’re part of the Deux-US exhibit that will be traveling throughout the Original Sewing & Quilt Expo circuit: September 19-21, 2013 — Atlanta, Georgia October 3-5, 2013 — Fredericksburg, VirginiaOctober 17-19, 2013 — Fort Worth, TexasNovember 7-9, 2013 –– Minneapolis, MinnesotaNovember 14-16, 2013 […]
On the Road . . . Again
Once again, I’m on my way to Chicago. Can a year go by in such a flash as to be hardly recognizable? This year sure has for me. This trip will be a little different from the one I did last year. I will spend time with my aunt in Chicago. We have plans to […]
PAISLEY OR PERSIAN PICKLE?
Summer of love or cashmere shawl—which comes to your mind when you hear the word paisley? Since I was only 8 years old during the summer of love and I own four shawls with paisley patterns, I tend to go back and forth on the question. A recent donation of fabric contained a treasure […]
THE SCENT OF A BABY
Who can resist the sweet smell of a baby? The scent of fresh beef as they lick your face and sniff your breath. Yes, I prefer the four-footed, canine version of baby. Rosie and Tiger, who had been gnawing on raw beef bones before slobbering on my face, were 11 weeks old when I had […]
ART ALONG THE ROCKIES
First Friday and Final Friday can be busy nights for artists and art lovers along the Front Range. May’s Final Friday found me crusin’ from Colorado Springs to Denver to enjoy the […]
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 […]
How to Paint a House
Me: “I want the light purple on the siding and the dark purple on the house trim.” Painter: “Where do you want the gray?” Me: “There isn’t any gray.” Painter: “This gray” (shows me a sample). Me: “That’s the light purple.” Painter: “No, it’s gray!” Me: “OK, gray on the siding and purple on the […]
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 […]
How Much Is That Goat on the Wall?
Most of the time I’m making art for no other reason than it makes me smile. I also do commissions to make others smile. Then there are the times that a piece of artwork just sings to a total stranger, and I must send it off on a new adventure. It’s like sending off a […]
The Beauty of a Stash
One of the most common questions I am asked is, “Why did you pick that particular fabric?” I find that to be a hard question to answer most of the time. It always depends on the piece and what is in my stash at the time. Although I do gravitate toward certain colors, purple in […]
Everyone Take a Number!
Are you ever in search of an idea for your next artwork? Can’t decide what to do? Sometimes I wish I had that problem. More often than not my animals are knocking each other over trying to be next in line. My laptop is overflowing with reference photos I’ve taken at zoos, the National Western […]
A Question about Fusible Materials
A friend recently called me asking which fusible web I use in my artwork. She was excited about working on a fusible project, but the product suggested with the pattern wasn’t working for her because certain fabrics would not fuse together. The quick and easy answer is that my chosen fusible web is Lite Steam-a-Seam […]
Reflections on the Bluebird Mine
The men stand with their lunch buckets and miners candles dressed for work. The photo may have been taken in a Boulder studio, but these men were miners through and through. One of the requirements of being chosen for the Caribou Ranch Open Space Artist-in-Residence program is that you donate piece of artwork inspired by […]
Dreaming of Moose
During Open Studios last fall I met another of the Caribou Artist-in-Residence, Anne Gifford. Anne is an award-winning artist from Boulder who is currently working in watercolor. I have admired her work at the Boulder Arts and Crafts Gallery for years, so it was fun to meet her and swap Caribou stories. Like me, she […]