more show and tell

Now that the holidays are over, I can share some of the holiday things I made for gifts, mostly for family. I made several felt ornaments, following the directions of Judy Coates Perez in the most recent Quilting Arts Gifts issue. They were really fun - roving, panty hose, felt, beads - wow! Here's a photo of the felted balls in progress. I made a bunch with felt leaves and beads. I didn't have any green felt, so I dyed some white wool felt scraps that I had. I had the roving around, too - I thought it was pretty but hadn't done anything with it yet - so I didn't have to buy a single supply for this project.

After a while I got tired of doing the fanciful fruit ornaments, so I made a couple with buttons and beads.

I also made cloth shopping bags for gifts, using an existing bag as a pattern. It was easy and fun. I used corduroy that had been given to me, so it was "free."

Here's the amaryllis from Trader Joe's, that bloomed just in time for Christmas day!

I also wanted to share the "Cats on My Quilts" notecards I made, featuring my quilts and my two calico cats, Matilda and Olive. I gave some out as Christmas cards (using red card stock) and I also sold some when I was at the Bowers Museum last November.

Last of all, I wanted to say that my "A Dance to Spring" quilt is ready to mail off to jo so that can be part of the "Spring Forward" special exhibit. This exhibit will debut at Road to California in January. It may be a bit premature to show it all now, but I'm hoping a detail photo will do for now. It's inspired by a tiny photo of my mom, who was dressed this way for May Day in the mid-nineteen-twenties.

eclectic show and tell

I have been so busy that I haven't had time to post everything I've made in the past months. So now I'm playing catch-up, going through my camera and getting caught up. It's crazy - here it is 4 days before Christmas, and I'm updating my blog. I should be in a frenzy baking gingerbread men.

This is going back a few months, but I made a Halloween doll, a gypsy girl doll to be more specific, inspired by the mixed media pages I did for Annie.

I also made a Christmas doll for this ornament exchange that I'm in. It's pretty similar to the gypsy girl in the basic body. Yes, these are two different dolls! The dresses are both removable - they can wear other clothing, and they have little snaps to close up the neck and waist lines.

I made an Obama mini quilt that I donated to the local Democratic Party Headquarters by UCI. I told them they could raffle it off or whatever they wanted to do.

And I donated a "Little Pink House" to the Flying Geese Auction. I hear it did pretty well.

So that's enough for tonight. More eclectic updates soon....

9 hearts

I'm thrilled that at least a couple people have been bidding on my "9 Hearts" mini quilt in Ami Simm's auction to raise money for a cure for Alzheimer's. The amount is currently at $100, for a 9x12! The auction closes this evening at 10 eastern time. It's for a great cause....

"9 Hearts" is up for Auction already!

Wow, last week my quilt was in the SAQA Auction. This week I have a quilt in the AAQI Auction, to raise money for a cure for Alzheimer's. Go to the link below to see all the quilts. My quilt's number is #3393, and it's called "Nine Hearts." It's made from leftover scraps from another heart project, and I was very happy with how it came out. The minimum bid is only $40.

http://www.alzquilts.org/quiltauction.html

saqa auction quilts

I am happy to say that my SAQA Foot-Square Auction quilt has been sold. Thank you, Phyllis Cullen of Chico, California!

There are still several beautiful pieces left for sale... (See link a couple of posts below)

Link for Stay at Home Challenge

All the challenge quilts that were in the Stay at Home Challenge can be seen at the link below. (Mine is near the bottom) They have all been donated to the Alzheimer's Quilt Initiative to raise money for a cure. They have monthly auctions, plus they have some up for sale at certain venues. I'll let you know when I find out where my quilt is going.

http://dianedidit. com/stayathome. html

"Fibre Noir" on SAQA Auction

My quilt, "Fibre Noir," is up for auction this week on SAQA's website, together with 81 other quilts. It's a reverse auction, so bids are $750 today, but they go lower each day. There were some problems on the website earlier this week, but I am told they are all fixed.

It's free to look!

Page 2a: http://www.saqa.com/newsebulletins/Squares08_2a.aspx

9 Hearts for Alzheimer's

I just finished this quilt for Ami Simms to auction off at one of her monthly auctions to raise money for Alzheimer's research. I'm actually a straggler in the "Stay At Home Challenge" from the Quilt Art List. Better late than never! I'm calling this one "9 Hearts." Most of the quilt is made of scraps from another heart project. Five of the hearts are "negative," and four are "positive." I hope they like it and the buttons make it through the mail okay. :-)

SAQA Benefit Auction

The SAQA Benefit Auction is underway as of today. This is SAQA's biggest fundraiser. Proceeds will go to support exhibits, catalogs and outreach efforts in 2009. Pages 1a and 1b are available for bidding this week.

My quilt, as pictured here, is on Page 2a: http://www.saqa.com/newsebulletins/Squares08_2a.aspx

This group of quilts will be available for bidding next week, beginning on November 18.

Bid form: https://www.saqa.com/auction.aspx? (scroll down to the form)

Day of the Dead Fun and Hijinx

I spent several hours at the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana, California yesterday. There's a quilt exhibit going on there: "American Quilts: 200 Years of Tradition" from their permanent collection. It's there until March 15, by the way. My friend Peggy and I were there to demonstrate and promote quilting. There was also a Dia de los Muertos celebration going on there. It was originally supposed to be outside, but it was sprinkling in the morning so they held it indoors where we were stationed. I loved all the spectacle! So colorful. They had dancers and bands and shrines for departed loved ones. Here are some photos to give you a taste. They sold tamales for only $2.00! The only downside was the bone-crunching loudness of it all when the music was going. Otherwise, totally awesome.

Next to our table they had sugar skulls the children could decorate with sequins, beads and

icing. What fun! It made me wish I was a kid so I could try. I noticed that they sold sugar skull molds in the gift shop, in case I'd ever want to make my own....

After I got home, Dave and I snuck out and put up an Obama-Biden sign on a street corner not far from our house in Irvine. It was still there when Dave left for work this morning, but I noticed it had disappeared by 10 am. Bummer....

PIQF and Quilts Japan Magazine

I will have three quilts in special exhibits at PIQF this weekend, in Santa Clara, California. Now I wish I were going! The exhibits I'm in: Beauty in Imperfection and Slice of Southern California from Quilts on the Wall: Fiber Artists. Also Noble Elements: Wind.

The other news I have was a surprise to me. My friend Terry told me that my quilt, "If I Ever Tried Surfing," was pictured in the November 2008 issue of Quilts Japan Magazine, in their coverage of the Quilt Festival in Long Beach, California last July. It's a tiny photo, and they garbled my title to "If I Ever Tried The Surfing." Still, spelled my name right, and it's a nice honor to have been included. Arigato!

"Noble Elements: Air" Exhibit

Nov 8 - Dec 24th; Noble Elements - AIR; Soft Expressions Upstairs Gallery, 1230 North Jefferson St., Suite M, Anaheim, Ca 92807714.630.7414 Hours: M-F 10am-4pm http://www.SoftExpressions.com/Opening Reception is Sat, Nov 8th from 1:30 - 4pm; featuring the work of fiber artists: Patt Blair, Cynthia Catlin, joanell connolly, Cindy Cooksey, Anne Copeland, Jamie Fingal, Stevii Graves, jo p. griffith, Rose Hughes, Stacy Hurt, Jeanette I. Kelly, Marcia Ann Kuehl, Carol McDaniel, Martha Nordstrand, Cindy Rinne, Cyndy Rymer, Julie Schlueter, Janis Stob , Mary Tabar, Terry Waldron , Susan Willen

Mixed Media Pages; Day of the Dead

These are the pages I did for Jamie's mixed media book. I did them a month ago but have been too busy to post them. Her theme was "Secrets of an Artful Life," and for my pages I did "Top 5 Tips for an Artful Life." It was a lot of fun. This is my last mixed media book to add to in this round robin. I loved it so much................ Many of these pages have been seeds for other things. For example, my "Hope is the Thing" quilt I just finished for Quilts on the Wall's Unfettered Letters challenge was inspired by the pages I did for Stacy.

Also, I submitted photos of some of the pages I did to Lark Books, offering to make mini quilts inspired by them for their upcoming Pretty Little Mini-Quilts. I'm thrilled that they asked me to make a mini-quilt of the heart collage pages I did for Joanell (you can see it a couple of posts before this one). Plus they want to use my "Flora del Coronado quilt," already finished. I'm totally excited about it!

I also just found out one of my fiber art balls, the one with Day of the Dead images on it, got accepted in the Day of the Dead exhibit at the Maude Kerns Art Center in Eugene, Oregon in October. Woohoo! I'll try to find time to locate a photo of it to post. If you live in Oregon, I hope you will check it out. There will be an opening reception on October 17 from 6 to 9. They promise music, dancing, food, excitement!

World Alzheimer's Day

September 21 is World Alzheimer's Day. I added a Virtual Quilt Patch to honor my mother, who died earlier this year with Alzheimer's. You can see the patch if you scroll down on the right side. Her birthday is coming up on the 18th, and I will remember her by eating a little chocolate. One of her greatest pleasures was visiting a See's candy store.

26.6 million people have Alzheimer's world wide. I am part of a traveling exhibit called "Alzheimer's: Forgetting Piece by Piece" that was organized by Ami Simms. Please visit http://www.alzquilts.org/ to learn more and make your own Virtual Quilt Patch.

mixed media pages

I've gotten way behind in showing the mixed media pages I've done for the round robin exchange we've been doing in Cut-Loose Quilters. So tonight I'm playing catch-up.

The first photo shows the pages I did for Julie. The theme was travel - I had a hard time deciding what to do, and in the end made my pages about bicycling. I made a rubber stamp for the bicycle frame, and added the wheels afterward. Can you guess? The wheels are simply stamped from the end of a plastic spool of thread that had "spokes" in the inner core. The photos are from my bicycling days long ago. I'm riding across the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco in the first one, and in the second I'm miserable during a downpour. This was taken up near King City, California, on a bicycling trip we took from San Francisco to Santa Ana - about 550 miles! - in 1973.

I did the red pages with the hearts for Joanell's mixed media book. Her theme was "Shapes and Colors," simple enough. I fretted that hearts were too obvious (I did them in February), but I think they turned out okay. I did a lot of different techniques here, including a polymer clay heart on the second heart. The heart on the upper right is made from red plastic webbing I got from some fruit product. I wish I could remember what kind - perhaps mandarin oranges?

The pages at the right are the ones I did for Annie. It's probably too hard to read, but on the top it says, "It's fun to be a gypsy girl on Halloween!" The theme of Annie's book was "Gypsy in my Soul." I was a gypsy a couple of times on Halloween as a girl, so that's what inspired me to make these pages. In real life my costume was cobbled together with things I had on hand, such as the red cape I wore as Little Red Riding Hood the previous year, and my mom's hoop earrings. I made an actual doll and embedded her into the pages. Her costume was also cobbled together with whatever I had on hand. It was really fun - I would like to make another gypsy girl doll for myself. I made her tiny "trick or treat" sack, too.

Artful trip to Chicago

Here are three art-related photos from our recent trip to Chicago. The first one shows me on Michigan Avenue, on the "Magnificent Mile." There were all these dress forms embellished by various artists, usually with recycled materials. I thought this was a pretty funny one. There are straws, plastic utensils, potato chip wrappings, and a plastic tablecloth.

The next photo shows what I am calling "furtive crochet" - maybe there's a better name for it. Someone crocheted the pole of a street sign in front of the Art Institute of Chicago! It's kind of like a harmless graffiti done by a sneaky crafter. I loved it!

The Art Institute was great, but many of the contemporary exhibits are currently closed for remodeling. Bummer.

But we went to the Museum of Contemporary Art on another day, which made up for the disappointing Art Institute visit. Jeff Koons are was on display - very colorful and fun, except that some of it got offensive. While looking at some of the other art, my husband would say "I could do that." But he hasn't! If he did, he'd be famous. I guess I enjoyed the museum more than he did. But I took a photo of him watching the one thing he liked at the museum, a video of one thing leading to another, like balloons rolling down a board and breaking, causing a fire, making something else tip over, etc. It was pretty fascinating, I have to admit.

SAQA Portfolio 15 News!

Woohoo, I just found out that my quilt, "Dos Gatos Primitivos," will be featured on page 240 of SAQA Portfolio 15 , in addition to getting its own page with my artist's statement elsewhere in the book. Apparently page 240 is an informational page, so it's a nice little honor to be put there. Portfolio 15 will make its debut at Quilt Festival, Houston.

We just returned from a trip to Chicago and elsewhere in the midwest. I'm trying to get organized and will post some new photos as soon as I can.

Everything Under the Sun on exhibit again

Just wanted to mention that the "Everything Under the Sun" exhibit, which debuted at Quilt Festival in Long Beach, is currently being shown in the upstairs gallery of Soft Expressions, at 1230 N. Jefferson Street, Suite M, Anaheim. My previous post shows a couple of the quilts - it's an impressive collection.

More on Long Beach Festival

I wanted to share more photos from the Long Beach Quilt Festival. First of all, here's the Carousel quilt I participated in, for the exhibit "Everything Under the Sun." I did the rabbit. This was a group effort with Stacy Hurt, Terry Waldron, Julie Schlueter, and Vickie Valdez-Green.

I also participated in this cool postcard quilt in the same exhibit, organized by Jamie Fingal. I made four postcards, mostly from old family photos taken at Alamitos Bay and Belmont Shore. See the red/pink one about a third of the way down on the left half? That's one of mine. There were a lot of really nice postcards, all having something to do with Long Beach.

Long Beach was fun!

Sorry it's taken me so long to post about the Long Beach Quilt Festival at the end of July. What can I say - it was awesome. My favorite thing was the Mixed Media Sampler class I took on Saturday. There were eight teachers - notably Yvonne Porcella and eleanor peace bailey - who all demonstrated various things while the students moved around the room. There was everything from calligraphy and felting to all kinds of stenciling, stamping, layering, drawing, etc.

Also the SAQA/Quilt Art Reception was fun. Karey Bresnehan was such a gracious host. Too bad the tiara parade sort of fell flat here - there is much more enthusiasm for this kind of thing in Houston!

Here's a photo of my Surf's Up quilt at the festival. It's called "If I Ever Tried Surfing." I'm thrilled that it was included in the festival vidcast. Go to http://www.quilts.com/lbqf08/enVivo/ and click on the ruby slippers. Then click on "New-Vidcasts" and then click on "Surf's Up." Karey narrates - it's priceless.

Long Beach Quilt Festival

Well, tomorrow I'm headed to Long Beach for the big Quilt Festival, put on by the same folks who do the big wing-ding in Houston! We are all so excited that they decided to start a festival here, too, in Southern California. Long Beach is about a half hour's drive from Irvine. Woohoo!

I'm staying at the Hyatt next door and will be at the festival until Saturday afternoon. Thursday I signed up for a luncheon hosted by Pokey Bolton, "Surviving the Runway Challenge." I'm working at the SAQA booth on Friday morning, so if you're going, stop by and say hello. Then I signed up for the Bernina Fashion Show, and I'm going to the SAQA/Quilt Art List reception Friday evening. It's going to be so much fun! Saturday morning I signed up for a mixed media sampler. I also need to carve out time to see all the exhibits and check out the vendors - probably Friday afternoon.

I'll have two quilts in the show, one of them in the "Surf's Up" exhibit: "If I Ever Tried Surfing." Here's a detail shot of it. I also participated in a group quilt that will be in the "Everything Under the Sun"exhibit. Look for the pink carousel rabbit.

SAQAFoot Square Auction 2009

The quilt that I donated to SAQA for their Foot Square Auction this year is up on their website! Check it out at:

http://www.saqa.com/newsebulletins/Squares08_6.aspx

I finished the mixed media pages for Stacy's book. Her theme is "Words of a Feather." I thought a lot about this one before putting it together - what a cool theme. I went with the words from Emily Dickinson, "Hope is the thing with feathers, that perches in the soul..."

My cat, Matilda, was really curious about all the

feathers sticking out of the top of the book! I have to keep the book secreted away so that she doesn't get TOO curious.

Speaking of pets, here's a photo of my California desert tortoise, Grampa T, peeking out from under the barbecue cover to eat breakfast. Corn on the cob is his most favorite food in the whole world, and it has to be yellow, not white. Isn't he darling? He lives in our backyard except in the winter, when he hibernates in a box in the closet under the stairs. When I adopted him from the tortoise society, they told me he was between 50 and 60 years old, and it's been over ten years, so now he's between 60 and 70. I've always wanted to make a tortoise quilt, but so far I haven't.

sweet dreamy dreams

These days I have the urge to make something pretty, cuddly and mindless. I guess you can't call it an art quilt, because I'm using traditional techniques. I've already made a kajillion 3/4" hexagons. Websites such as http://www.incompetech.com/ will allow you to print out hexagons of any size. Here's a photo of what I've done so far - the flowers won't necessarily be in this arrangement when I actually sew them together. I love the colors and textures. It makes me smile. All the outer petals are cotton and the centers are all silk. Are there other art quilters out there who still revert to old-timey techniques? I'd like to hear from you.

mixed media book project

I'm having fun contributing pages for everyone's mixed media books in the Cut-Loose group. Here are the pages I did for Terry's book. The theme was "Little Things." I hope she doesn't mind me being a little irreverent, choosing atypical little things.

Surf's Up!

I'm excited that the quilt I entered in the "Quilt's Up" special exhibit for Quilt Festival in Long Beach got accepted! Only 26 quilts are in the exhibit. I can't show it here yet. Come to the show in Long Beach, California in late July to see it. The name of my quilt is "If I Ever Tried Surfing."

I'm thrilled that one of my quilts, "Peace Wish," has sold recently. It has been on exhibit at the Loft Studios Gallery in San Pedro. Here's what it looks like. It's on my website, too, along with many of my other quilts.

www.cindycooksey.com

Obama ad

Since my ad didn't make it to the finals, it is no longer on the link I mentioned on my last post. So for those of you who missed it and are curious, here is my ad. The sound is a little weak, so turn the sound up and watch it in a quiet room. I hope it works okay! (I've never posted a video on a blog before.)
Perhaps I should mention that there were over 1000 ads and almost 5 million votes, so my odds were slim for being a finalist. Still, it was a fun learning experience.

The timing is bad. But the fact is, a few weeks ago I entered an "Obama in 30 Seconds" ad contest, using the slide show feature in Photoshop Elements 5 and the microphone in my laptop. I showed some of my art quilts with peace signs in them and talked about why I made them.

My ad got accepted into the first round of voting! And the voting takes place online this week only, ending on Sunday.

There are two ways to become a finalist. One is to get rated by people visiting the voting website, who will be shown a random selection of ads, not necessarily including mine. The other way is to have people click on my link, which takes people directly to my particular ad. Each hit is a vote. Only one vote per e-mail address.

So here is my link. Peace is Beautiful. http://obamain30seconds.org/vote/?v=view-615-hZkstz
I would appreciate it if you would click on it and watch my ad. I am not asking you to vote for Obama, but I would be grateful if you'd vote for me. ;-) Also, be sure to forward the link to friends and family who you think might want to see it. There are art quilts in the ad. One of them is the "Foot Square" quilt I donated to SAQA's reverse auction in 2007.

The sound is a bit weak, so I suggest you turn your computer sound up and watch it in a quiet room.

Thank you.

sad news, mixed media books

My mom died earlier this week. She battled Alzheimer's for many years and had been in hospice for several days. I'm doing my best to remember her better days, when she was a warm, loving and creative spirit, who continues to inspire me.

As I have mentioned in previous posts, I'm a participant in the Alzheimer's: Forgetting Piece by Piece exhibit, which has been touring the country raising money for a cure for Alzheimer's. Last I checked, they have raised $157,000 for Alzheimer's research. http://www.alzquilts.com/

I really liked doing the mixed media book for Peggy in March. The topic was "What if?" My pages focused on the questions, "What if calicos spoke French...... and dachsunds spoke German?" I don't really speak any German. Thank you, Babelfish.com!

We've decided to show our pages along the way and not keep them a big secret for the end. This month I'm doing "Small Things" for Terry's book.

"Layers of Meaning" Exhibit in San Pedro

Quilters S.O.S.

I was interviewed recently by Karen Musgrave, for Quilter's S.O.S. (Save our Stories) The interview was in connection with the Alzheimer's: Forgetting Piece by Piece exhibit that I'm in. You can check out my interview and others at:

http://www.centerforthequilt.org/qsos/qsos_interviews.php

I've been busy, but not with anything I can show. I'm putting the finishing touches on the quilt I'm entering in the "Surf's Up!" exhibit that will be at the Quilt Festival in Long Beach this July. I've also been working on pages for the mixed media book project that I'm doing with Cut-Loose Quilters. It's a lot of fun! I really love doing this. It's a change of pace from my quilts, although it uses some of the same techniques. But we have to keep the pages a secret until the books are all finished.

my fiber art book

I'm participating in a fiber art book round robin with Cut-Loose Quilters. It's so much fun! Each of us chose our own theme, then made the outside of the book, the first and last pages, and title page. We brought our books to the meeting last night and passed them on to the next person, who will add two pages. Clear as mud?

Here are photos of my pages. To see everyone's books, go to http://cut-loose-quilters.blogspot.com/

Slice of Southern California

Here is a photo of my "Sand Sea Sky" quilt, which is part of the "Slice of Southern California" special exhibit by Quilts on the Wall. I took the photo at Road to California, so it's not the best. The exhibit looked great! I stenciled a rather snarky quote on the sky - it was the only quote I could find that had to do with both Southern California and the ocean. It goes something like, "There's nothing wrong with Southern California that a rise in the ocean level wouldn't cure." The author of the quote escapes me at the moment. The truth is, I am a native Southern Californian and love it here.

Road to California, etc.

I noticed that many of my recent posts don't talk about my quilts. It's misleading, because I'm still making quilts like crazy! But I can't show them here, because I'm entering them in shows, or I don't have a good photo, or the dog ate my homework, etc., etc. I'll try to have photos to share soon.

Hey, I have two quilts at Road to California, going on now in Ontario! They're both in special exhibits. My latest quilt, "Fan Club," is in the Noble Elements: Air or Wind exhibit.I hear that it can be found in the mid-section of the show, 527. The other one is part of Quilts on the Wall's Slice of Southern California exhibit. I am anxious to see it, because I need to photograph it. Also, I forget what I called it. :-) It can be found in the smaller ballroom all across the back wall.

I am going to Road on Saturday afternoon. I can't wait!

photos of book signing

My friend Catherine put some photos of the book signing at Soft Expressions on her blog. As an experiment, I am seeing if I can transfer one of her photos to my blog. It worked, as you can see!

To see the rest of the photos on Catherine's blog, go to: http://www.catherinesinger.blogspot.com/

Cut-Loose Quilters blog

http://cut-loose-quilters.blogspot.com/

This link has lots of photos from the "Four Friends" embellished quilt exhibit that's up at Soft Expressions until January 28. Jamie Fingal took the photos.