Happy Halloween!

Hope you had a spooktacular day!

Four Days in New York

Four friends spent four days in New York City to celebrate four birthdays

 within four weeks of each other. 

We had a wonderful dinner in Brooklyn at the home of one friend's son.

We visited the gallery in DUMBO where her other son had a photograph on display,

and road home to New York in an open-air Land-Rover. Beautiful!

We visited Ground Zero,  

 and took a boat to explore Liberty and Ellis Islands.

After a yummy New York-style pizza at John's, 

we surprised one birthday girl with tickets to "Wicked."

I loved it.

We visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 

and climbed on the fabulous installation, Big Bambu.

Big Bambu was on the roof of the MET, overlooking Central Park from March through October.

So cool!

We spent a few hours at the Museum of Modern Art wishing we had more time.

We walked across the Brooklyn Bridge to buy bagels and cupcakes.

We explored Chinatown and enjoyed a yummy lunch.

I had such a WONDERFUL time. 

I'm so grateful that my family and friends made it possible.

A month ago...

my son brought me flowers for my birthday...

my dear husband hosted my birthday party...

 our talented friend, Dave Thomas, sang and entertained our guests...

 my son danced with me...

 we shared some wonderful food and cake...

and I danced with my dear husband...

It was a fabulous day. Thank you!

"Heart Bubbles"

"Heart Bubbles" 10x16"

I found this piece of marbled silk in Cosette's booth at Houston International Quilt Festival last year. I thought it would be fun to quilt for a donation mini quilt.

I added some beads.

I enjoyed working with the silk.

"Buddy"

Buddy, 12x12" 

My neighbor commissioned me to make a quilt of her dad's cat Buddy. 

She had this great photo for me to use.

I printed Buddy's face on cotton sateen with my friend Linda's big inkjet printer. I fused the fabric onto freezer paper and we fed it into the printer from the back. After several wadded up attempts, we put scotch tape on the leading edge to get it to feed correctly.

I cut out the face and fused it to a fabric background. The machine quilting caused the edges to wave, so he is fused to two layers of canvas to keep him flat.

beaded silk

While tidying up my studio, I found some pieces of silk I had dyed in a class with Ginny Eckley a long time ago. I was looking for some handwork and noticed several flower-shaped tied spots on this one.

"Buzz off!," Said the Flower to the Bee. 13x12"

Deborah Boschert discovered that if you embroidery with felt as your middle layer instead of batting that you don't have as much bearding. 

The embroidery on her "Framing Flourish" quilt is what got me started looking for something to embellish.

I thought it needed a bee.

I liked the random edges of felt poking out from under the silk so I finished the edges with a blanket stitch. I think it's kind of unexpected to have the humble acrylic felt beneath the luxurious silk.

Deja Brew

Years ago I made this teacup as a fusing sample in a class with Robbi Joy Eklow. It's been hanging out on my bulletin board until this spring when I combined it with some marbled and hand-dyed fabric and recycled buttons.

Deja Brew, 14x14"