This is a close-up of the quilted wave. It took a long, long time
to free-motion quilt because it could not be quilted with continuous stitching.

SERENITY III
This piece was recently finished. The quilting is rather intricate, with the wave at the
bottom left corner reminiscent of Hokusai or Hiroshige. The large "moon" and "gateway" are hand-dyed fabrics, and over-painted with copper metallic. The background is composed of commercial batiks. The binding changes color with the background color, and three of the sides have stepped borders. The shape is actually very well squared, even thought it doesn't appear to be in my photograph. I will try to post a good close-up of the stitching.

Delta IV Heavy Rocket Launch

This is a digression from studio news; however, Thursday's launch was very exciting.  The Delta IV Heavy is the largest rocket ever to be launched from the west coast, carrying a top secret spy satellite payload.  Robert and I drove to Vandenberg AFB, or at least as close as we could get, to watch the launch.  The rocket rising silently above the hills was such a beautiful sight!  We didn't hear the roar until about 10 seconds after we saw the rocket.  There were hundreds of cars parked along the main and side roads; and when the rocket came over the foothills everyone watching started screaming and applauding the sight.  It was a really something to behold.

New completed work

This is the latest piece I have finished.  I call it "Chaos 2010".  It is an original graphic design, and it is hand-painted, hand-dyed with organic dyes made with plum peels from the orchard and hand-stencilled with hand-cut stencils and antique wooden print blocks.  The piece is free-motion quilted and measures about
21" X 21".  I like the gold paints, which do not show up well in this photo.

Sunshine and Paint!

Even with as busy a week as it is going to be, I have found time this morning to get up in the studio, and am unwrapping brushes, silkscreen frames, paints and new reactive dyes to start a new work.  I hope everyone had a fantastic Xmas!  We are spending New Year's Eve out of town and have tickets to a "pops" concert.  In the meantime it is a race to the weekend to get everything done!!

This is the image I chose for my logo--the windows overlooking Woodstock Road.  It is the first thing one notices about the studio.  The windows frame the valley from our hilltop perspective.

RAINING LIKE CRAZY!!

It should be a great opportunity to forego household duties.  But I tried to get up into the studio today, and got sidetracked with overdue errands.  Tomorrow is another day (Scarlett!) so I will make an attempt to 1. work on refining this blog, and 2. work on some in-process projects.   I am working on a piece that has various shades of teals and greens, and has insets of hand-dyed and hand-painted fabric with some copper metallic embellishments. I am also "dying" to get started with some newly acquired reactive dyes and screening tools.