Are You Ready to Kick Off Your Heels??

Kick Off Your Heels and support Women's Heart Research!

You may know about my "show fetish".  Yes, I have "a few" pairs of shoes. Not as many heels as I used to , but that won't stop me from wanting a pair of THESE heels, created by some very talented artists will be auctioned off to benefit women's heart health and education! Did you know heart disease kills more women each year than all cancers combined? Join us to educate the public about this disease and help save lives.

 "Women Fly When Men Aren't Looking"

The sale of the shoes benefiting the Barbra Streisand Women's Heart Center at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles, California
will begin at 8:00 a.m. EST  Monday May 20, 2013. Artist created high heeled shoes will be available for purchase over the course of the week as follows:

Shoes can be purchased for $300 on  May 20 and 21, 2013
beginning at 8:00 a.m. EST
Shoes can be purchased for $200 on May 22 and 23, 2013
beginning at 8:00 a.m. EST
Shoes can be purchased for $100 on May 24 and 25, 2013
beginning at 8:00 a.m. EST

Set your calendar alarms for Monday, May 20, 2013 and check out the website for your favorite pair of artisan made high heels!

So Proud...

I'm thrilled to share a link to the "Rituals" exhibition as it is displayed at the  Open European Quilt Championships at Expo Veldhoven in the Netherlands!  Here is a video clip of how it looks in the show:

Guestcollection - Dinner at Eight Artists at EXPO Veldhoven

Made by M-Jan-Design.nl

Playing Around With Thread & Free Motion Quilting...

Here are a few detail shots of an ongoing project.  This is a piece of silk broadcloth that was screenprinted with thickened dye in a deconstructed technique as well as through a stencil.  Now, I'm playing with threads to "push back" certain elements and bring others forward.  Wish me luck!

Observations On A Field Trip

I am fortunate to have a close friend who owns a gorgeous riverfront property near San Antonio.
I visited last weekend and we walked down to the river.  I grew up in Kansas where the rivers had water that looked a lot like cappuccino:  very muddy water.  It never ceases to amaze me when I see the crystal clear, aquamarine color of the water here.

I adore the Cypress trees that line the banks of this river.

limestone lines the edge of my friend's property.

I love looking at all the contours and cracks in it.

How does a plant manage to grow out of the center of this rock?

Near the river's edge a cardinal take a bath

Even if they are considered to be a nuisance by many,

these thistle blossoms are lovely.

Finding Your Voice...Or Recovering It

Recently, I read a powerful blog post by Kelly Rae Roberts.  I encourage you to visit her blog and take a moment to read it.  I think it is important.
As artists, we are often pushing ourselves in many directions.  I know I do.  I am primarily a quilt maker, a textile artist who uses my own cloth as well as commercially printed cloth.  I am a mixed media artist who works with all sorts of paint, medium, and ephemera.  I have more than one means of walking on my artistic path.  One medium often informs the other, or so it has been my experience.
That said, we can easily get scattered.  Our time is split between making work, applying to shows or teaching venues, volunteering time and resources to organizations, and more.  And that is just our artistic selves.  What about all the other things that happen in our lives?  After all, none of us live in a vacuum!
Every one of us has unique demands on time and artistic resources and these will vary over the years.
If we have young children at home or aging parents, we know that these are our priorities.  These are periods of time when our art-lives take a back seat and we find ourselves less prolific.  Many of us are doing these things plus juggling the demands of a career outside the studio.  It makes me tired to read all this and I. Have. Done. It.  And guess what?  I wasn't making much art while I was juggling all those plates.  Each of these things was an "era", a portion of my life.  If I had an artistic voice, it was whispering very faintly.

Early in my "former life" as an RN, Elisabeth Kubler-Ross was a pioneer in the field of death and dying.  She humanized and put a face on the experience of loss, death, and challenging life transitions.  In reading Ms. Roberts' blog post I was reacquainted with Ross.  This quote should resonate for many who read this:

The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen.― Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

Realize that we are all the sum of our experiences.  We all have great joys and sometimes great sorrow.
It makes us who we are as human beings.  And for all of that we learn a great deal about ourselves and the world.  As artists, we are often conduits:  we use our art as a means of expression.

There are times for many of us that the events of our life overshadow our artistic-selves:  it is a universal truth.  The challenge is to reawaken the muse, to find the balance, to work with intent, to prioritize time for making art.

Modern Guild Retreat

Here are a few shots from last weekend's San Antonio Modern Guild retreat near Smithville, Texas.
The retreat organizers did an amazing job of creating fun activities mixed in between all our hard work creating new things.  Everyone received very generous door prizes from our sponsors.  All-in-all, it was a great, exhausting weekend that was very productive.
I arrived Thursday afternoon.  Several of us came early to get a jumpstart on our work.  My goal was to fix one project, finish two that were underway, and piece yet another.  Ambitious, yes?

Gazing across the large room where we are set up for work.  Each participant has 

a 4x8 foot design wall and one and a half work tables.  Since I brought my Sew Ezi, I had more room!

I worked on this piece, the background for a quilt that I am creating for the MD Anderson ovarian cancer fundraising event.

I am paper-piecing hexi's, which will be part of a design to be appliqued to the surface of the 

MD Anderson piece.

Here is a Kaffe Fassett design, the first pattern I have constructed in decades, under construction.

I have always loved this quilt!  I made several mistakes as I do not follow written instructions very well.

The mistakes are plainly evident, and I like them very much.  Seriously.

It is quite large:  80-something inches by 70-something inches.

We were treated to a surprise champagne and strawberry toast late one evening!

Our toast?  The same as the Dinner At Eight toast, given to us by my dear friend, Rachel Parris.

It goes like this...

Here's to strong women:

May We Know Them

May We Raise Them

May We Be Them!

Next up:  Finish this big quilt top.

I had previously pieced the bright blocks in the upper right.

Now, my task was to embed the other blocks into a large negative space using a

Kaffe Fassett shot cotton color of gray.

Apparently I did not photograph this after finishing the quilt top.  I'll add an image later.

Here is my workspace:  messy!

Life Starts Here...

Today, especially after the horrible events that occurred in Boston, I decided to write about something that I experienced during the summer of 2011.  I returned to Santa Fe, NM, to spend time with 2 dear friends of mine from Kansas.  We don't get to see each other very much now that I have moved to Texas, and we find that planning a trip to a different destination is a great way to stay connected to one another.  

While we were in the area we wandered up to Taos, to Georgia O'Keefe's ranch, and more.  One of the fun things we did was walk across this bridge.

I was so taken with this little scratched-out message located right in the center of the bridge.

Life Starts Here.  

Every morning we wake up and make a decision.  Will we live this day to the fullest or will we spend it in worry or anger?  I know it isn't always that simple.  I know we each have our cares.  But, really, we each make a choice as to how to live our lives.  

I'm heartsick over the events that occurred in Boston today.  I will never understand terrorism and violence.  

But, tomorrow, I will wake up and do the very best I can to stay in the moment, to work with intent, to realize that each day is precious.  

Because, quite frankly, every single day we can say to ourselves, "Life Starts Here".