My daughter has gone to the dogs

My daughter has followed in her grandmothers foot steps and mastered expressing herself in her art work, her volunteer work at local shelter has resulted in some wonderfully inviting murals. take look at the work in processl , there is more to follow.

The Downey shelter has been identified to me as the highest "kill" shelter in LA County, true or not it needs to be welcoming to the comunity , please reach out and support this shelter.

Lisa Engelbrecht, fabric collage, Jenny Doh

Today I spent the day with a a group of artists led by Lisa Engelbrecht in a work shop she called shimmer and sparkle, as promised she managed to " guide us with assorted writing instruments to explore and discover experimental lettering and mark-making. The letters and marks were incorporated onto canvas, and combined with exciting mixed-media techniques to add special shimmer and sparkle by creating metallic hearts with duo adhesives, foils, double-stick tape, and metallic pens. Students will learn how to create mixed media art quilts and mixed media pendant necklace. " It was a wonderful day, in which Lisa Doh opened her home studio for us.

http://www.crescendoh.com/shop/workshops

This apparently was the first workshop that Lisa had opened her studio for. It was a success for me and I hope it will be for her. We had lunch and were enchanted by her husbands enthusiam for the Santa Ana Zoo, which we learned has the first pair of giant anteaters in Orange County . (Hard to believe in a county with a UC who's mascot is an Anteater and rallys with the call "Give'em some tongue!".

Fabrics on line

One of my favorite places to shop for fabric is http://superbuzzy.com/

This site sells Japanese fabric and craft supplies. The designs have a whimsy and a twist.

This is one found under the category for Transportation.
One of the search categories is "Basics, Dots, Stripes, & More". The stripes include columns of different size prints,

The dots include circles that are made of spiral or lines.

There is a full range of kawaii, Fairy tales, and florals.

Trio of OWLs

My daughter has had an interest in graphic Owls over the past few years. Clearly the novelty hearkens back to some of the Danish Modern and graphics of the late 60's .

So I was pleased to find the felt owls in the Winter 2010-2011 issue of International Quilt festival Quilt Scene.quilting arts.com.

So I did my own take on the and gave these to my daughter.

Stymied by "gadgets"

Spent part of my morning "quilting" with my mother's Singer slant-o -matic. I am not sure what constitutes quilting, ( Questions I plan to figure out included, can stitch line cross, what is an acceptable stitch length, how many layers .) Without the answers, I decided to accessorize this blog.

I tried to place a different photo, and then changed my design,, but my true desire was GADGETS. SO I went to work on adding "gadgets" to this blog. Really I just wanted to add some links, after 5 unsuccessful attempts , I decided to get rid of my frustration by sharing it .

Suggestions welcome!

Collectionds

I collect paper by the sheet, fabrics by the quarter yard, and yarn by the skein. Not enough to wrap a gift, or clothe a child, but just enough to wish, imagine and suggest.

In Jane La Fazio's class, I got a chance to use some handprinted cotton, kuzo paper, soy resist painted cloth from I class I took from Melanie Testa, and swatches of vintage kimono cloth from Japan.

What do you think?

Opportunity, again

I adore Jane La Fazio. (http://janeville.blogspot.com/) She is an exceptionally accessible artist. I have taken a number of half and full day workshops from her over the past few years. Normally that has involved taking vacation time, telling my husband I am off for a few days and traveling some distance, solo.

This was my first project ( well, a poor photo of it) from one of Jane's workshops. It is based upon a black and white photo of our dog Flossie, an old english sheep dog. It is a combination of paint, marker, quilting, hand embroidery and embellishments.

Jane has an ease of inviting you to explore a technique, or combination of techniques. She takes the fear out of the creative process, and make certain you leave with a sense of satisfaction, and a successful product. (Regardless of your self critic). She "speaks" to both the beginner and the consummate. I always leave from one of her workshops with good intentions to do more, little time and competing priorities.

I just started a 6 month Art Quilt class with Jane this past Sunday. I intend the once a month format, will enable and challenge me to truly explore and build on her lessons and my search for self- expression.. ( Or so I hope).