road to california AND visions, too!

I had the good fortune to visit Road to California on Thursday, and then Quilt Visions on Friday. I was impressed with both. Road to California had higher quality quilts this year, in my opinion. The prize winners all seemed to have heavy, elaborate, intricate machine quilting. Yikes, I can't compete with that. There were some great special exhibits; I think my favorite one was on portraits.

It was the first time in maybe 12 years that I did not have a quilt at Road. Between Noble Elements, Noble Seasons, and various Quilts on the Wall challenges, I always had at least one thing there. The Noble series are over, and I haven't belonged to QOTW for a few years, that's why. Maybe next year!

Then on Friday I finally paid a visit to the Visions Quilt Gallery, before the Quilt Visions/Brainstorms exhibit ends in February. I was relieved to see that the quilting was more organic, generally less meticulous than many of the pieces I saw at Road. The accent was on the Art, not as much the Technique. One of my favorite pieces was by Lisa Kijak.  I also loved the one by a Korean woman.

It's been 10 years since I had a quilt in Quilt Visions. I didn't enter this year; I've only entered maybe half the time since 2002. Maybe I will be inspired for next time.

A quick snapshot with quilts by Sherry Kleinman and Hollis Chatelain, taken at Road.

birthday fun

We spent the night down south to celebrate our son's bday on Friday. There were maybe a hundred birds outside our hotel window, I have no idea why.

Fun evening. We ate at Vigilucci's.

Someone has a new hobby to enjoy.

Back to the future, anyone?

This is the front hood. Under the little door is where the gas goes. The engine is in the back.

After I came home I've been working really hard on my new quilt. It's coming together, yay!

Random leftover photos from the Cook visit, plus those from a New Year's Day open house we had for a few people.

 This is the quilt I made for Sammy, being slept on by dog and toddler.

The little boy is Gavin Matranga. He's as big as Samantha but quite a bit younger. In the background on the left is Jack's brother, David.

I guess that's it. Yay, I'm caught up!

Behind the scenes, I'm wrestling with an art quilt due for submission in a few months. It's a challenge for me, fingers crossed that it will at some point take wings and fly. Sorry, can't post any photos of it yet.

bear with me, a little more Christmas

Scenes from Christmas, mostly from the morning.

Martine made this fabulous duck lasagna for Christmas dinner.

Christmas brunch

I am determined to put the holidays behind me. Still plugging away at photos. Sorry if you're not into family stuff.

These photos are from Christmas eve brunch at the Westcotts.

Uncle Warren giving Sammy a push on her new lady bug toy from cousin Alex.

Alex, my son-in-law, Jack, and Sammy.

Waiting for brunch to begin...

Nice photo, but a little dark.

This is one of my favorite photos from their visit.

Sammy was fascinated by my brother John's train set. I won't show all the photos here.

The annual Westcott Christmas photo! My oldest brother Jim and his family were missing, choosing to stay up north, where they recently moved. We missed them! This is a good photo except that Sammy has her back turned. Notice Warren is sitting on the lady bug.  My brother John is in the middle and brother Bob is just behind me. I'm wearing the upcycled sweater I made for the Fibreye challenge.

By contrast, here is a holiday photo from the 60's. My brothers are the ones with neckties; Bob is near the center and John is on the right, with glasses on. I'm in the middle row in green. By coincidence, Jim is mysteriously missing from this photo, too.

post holiday catch-up

I'm drowning in holiday photos and too busy to post. Here are some random family photos from my phone.

Ginger cuddled up in the animal quilt I made for Sammy.

On a walk with Sammy and Ginger to the park.

Dining at Zov's in Irvine.

Sammy modeling the sweater I knitted her.

I still have more photos to process out of my camera.

holiday projects continued

This is a small art quilt that I made for Vickie, a member of my art quilt friendship group. She was supposed to get it last Friday, but the meeting got cancelled due to illness. She wanted Art Nouveau style quilts. This is similar but not quite AN, so I called it "Presque Nouveau." (presque means almost)

I made a pillow case for Samantha to go on her youth bed. It goes with her animal quilt. I need to find a photo of that, too. I've got one somewhere.

I made two hats like this, except with the colors changed around. These were for Jack and Warren.

Our friend Yoshiko sent us Japanese treats all the way from Japan! We've been working them. My favorites are the ones that include chocolate.


More photos to come!

more holiday projects

 

I made four of these hats for gifts, made by a pattern that I got at Yarn Lady, which is unfortunately going out of business. This photo doesn't do them justice. They are slouchy and flattering.

The way you shape them is to wet down the finished hat and shape it onto a child's ball. Let it dry thoroughly and it's stretched into a nice slouchy, lacy shape.

I knitted this sweater for Samantha. It was a simple pattern, but I think it turned out adorable. I believe I found the pattern at a little shop in Santa Fe. It looks cute on her; I will post photos of her wearing it later.

Another view.

I made this puppy for Samantha, too.

Hanging out with the red dog.

Aren't they cute together? I loved making these dogs.

I made this kitty from a Mimi Kirchner pattern. Mimi is a very talented doll artist. She has a cool blog; I'll try to get the link for it.

I made the doll to ressemble Samantha's cat, a tuxedo cat who is coincidentally called Mimi! The scarf on the Mimi doll is cut from a cashmere sweater. The body is made from black sweaters.

The details are made from felt and embroidered. This doll was also fun to make. She's very huggable! I would like to make more.

Okay, now to something more art quilty! This is a prayer flag for my sister-in-law Marti. I was inspired by the forest fires that were near where she lived in Colorado Springs in 2012.

This is the other prayer flag I made for Marti for Christmas. Obviously I went with a more wintery vibe, and the theme is "Calm." The quazi-calligraphy pieces were made by Lisa Englebrecht. I am sure I will get inspired to make more flags for Marti in the future.

More projects to show you, soon....

Holiday projects aplenty

At last I can share some of the things I made for Christmas. I made this stocking and donated it to a silent auction at Flying Geese Quilters in December. One Dresden plate block, cut up and appliqued to the stocking shape. I used my sashiko machine here.

I made an upcycled sweater as part of a challenge for Fibreye. I used an old J Crew pullover sweater, overlaid with silk chiffon which I dyed at the last retreat in the Diane Ricks workshop.

This is the front. I was inspired by Christopher in the last season's Project Runway; he put "shredded" silk chiffon on a lot of his clothing, but not on sweaters.

I made this wall hanging, kind of a riff on my previous VW tree quilt. I used the sashiko machine again. It ended up being a gift for my friend Linda.

Detail.

Another detail.

Well, that's a start. I will post more holiday projects soon, now that I've finally figured how to efficiently access the photos from my phone. :-) Hurray!