She quilts!

It's true! I am a quilter! Much as I love to paint and make jewelry and journal, and and and, quilting is my first love. I love the colors and textures. And there's something about sitting down to stitch that calms and comforts me like nothing else can.

Blossom 20" by 20"

This is a piece that I hand dyed. I quilted/embroidered it with perle cotton. I'm really loving using embroidery as the quilting, combining two things I love to do. You can see this piece up close and personal at the North Idaho Quilters show this Friday and Saturday at the Kootenai County Fairgrounds in Coeur d' Alene.

True beauty

This is me today. The real me, as I am. With the ten extra pounds and the wrinkles and the pimples on the same face. With the messy house, the weeds in the yard and that darn double chin. The girl who turned the wrong way this morning on the way to the hairdresser I've been going to since I was 16. And the truth is, none of that matters.

What matters is that today my sweet beautiful AshLee will marry her sweet beautiful Ben. And we will all gather together, her crazy hodgepodge of a family, to share our joy for them as they set out on the life they've chosen to share. We will come as we are, beautiful in our imperfection, transformed by our shared love for these two. And that is the most beautiful thing I can imagine.

some new paintings

Pistol and I have been spending tons of time out here lately, but I did finally get back to painting and finished up these three little angels.

I think this little blond girl is my favorite. I figured out how to mix this nice blond hair color by accident in Sunny Carvalho's class at ArtFest.

These three are a series I painted as a commission for my friend Lynn.

It felt good to paint again. Need to make more time for that...

Pistol says...

I like to act like a well-groomed, dignified house cat...

but at heart I'm a goofy little dirt cat!
(I sure hate that wet towel mom throws on me before she lets me back inside!)

i love my book club...

It's not about the books, although we've read some great ones, including this one. In fact, we don't spend much time talking about the books...we're usually too busy talking about every other topic under the sun.

For us, it's about the friendship and the food! Once a month I get to have a great meal in the company of these kind, interesting, funny, wise women. And every time, as I sit with them around a table, I feel so blessed to be there.

Stamping and Stenciling at Sew Uniquely You

I had so much fun teaching at Sew Uniquely You on Thursday.

I took a big box of stamps, stencils and paint, along with my lovely assistant Shelby (pictured above). I demoed my favorite techniques and then turned everyone loose to play.

The flowers in the piece above were done with a stencil. Below, the same artist flipped the stencil over and ran the brayer over it to get a negative image. Very cool!

I love how the piece above turned into an Alice-in-Wonderland-y story.

So many wonderful pieces! I'm sorry I don't have names, if you see something here that you made, please leave a comment so I can add your name.

Home from Artfest

Another amazing Artfest has come and gone. I had a traveling companion for the first time this year. It was soooooo wonderful to have my budding artist friend Maureen with me.

My first class was with Nina Bagley. I had the amazing privilege of sharing my table with the beautiful, brave Tina, who turned out to be a kindred soul. I love how Artfest makes things like that happen.

I made this wrap bracelet, dramatically improving my wire wrapping skills while I was at it.

Friday I had the lovely Misty Mawn. I had a great time hanging out with table-mate Ben, talking sports and admiring the pretty patterns we ended up with on our hands.

I was completely in my element in this class, slapping paint and collage and stencils and hand-carved stamps around. This is one of several pages I worked on.

I spent Saturday with Sunny Carvalho, who is just so wonderfully talented and kind. Above, my table-mate Lynn and I show off our pretty girls.

I usually paint with acrylics, so painting this lovely with Genesis oil paints was quite the learning curve, but so rewarding in the end.

And now it's back home to the regular routine. Happily I've come home inspired and itching to make things.

I'm teaching a quick Surface Design on Fabric workshop this Thursday evening at Sew Uniquely You. $5 to come play with my stamps, stencils and paints. Last I checked there were still spots open if you're in the area and want to join the fun - 509-467-8210.

Weekend wanderings

I was lucky enough to have both time and energy for a bit of wandering this weekend. Starting in my own front yard where Pistol and I have been wandering quite a bit lately, checking out the new stuff popping up out of the ground. I have crocuses!! I can't tell you how excited I was to see these beautiful spots of color pop up!

I headed out to Coeur d' Alene where I caught the fabulous MaryJo McGraw in action teaching a class on Copic markers at the North Idaho Rubberstamp Show.

Here's Melinda demoing at the Lost Coast Designs table. There were some great vendors and lots of folks snapping up all the great products. I left more than a few of my pesos with Elaine from Carmen's Verandah!

I made a brief stop at a flea market in Post Falls. I found a couple of things but was thrown totally off my game by the sweetest little black baby puppy. I couldn't concentrate after putting him back in the basket with his sister and left emptyhanded.

I still had an hour to kill before a hair appointment. I was way out in the valley (where I almost never go) so I had to make the most of it and go somewhere cool. I got off the freeway and cut over to an extremely uninspiring stretch of highway where I found this little oasis of bliss. This Old House, The Mad Cow and All That Glitter all lined up in a little row of pretty.

Here's a pic from inside the shabby chic heaven that is All That Glitter, possibly the prettiest store in the Spokane area.

I also managed to hit Longhorn BBQ for some zesty pork and garlic rolls on the way back home. Which really just rounded out a nice yummy Saturday.