I will be a Featured Artist at World Quilt Show in Tampa, Jan. 31 -Feb. 2! This is very exciting. I’m preparing 33 quilts to show. Some of them are still in the works. Since this is the biggest exposure I expect to have, I want to make a statement about climate change. So my show title is Temperatures Rising. It refers to both the physical climate, and the social climate.

Some of the quilts will be tropical flowers and insects. Some will be my Go Go Girls, little women with something to say. Here’s the postcard.

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I’m giddy with delight.

This is my water volleyball hat. Since we play with so many different people, it helps to have a name on your hat.

In my case I want the person behind me to know my name too. I added a few instructions, just in case.

   This is the front cover of my Moonlight book. It was made for a STARS challenge. Mine turned into a book partly because I did not like the placement of the reflection.

Here is the cover opened, you can see the reflection is off kilter. But I like it enough to use it this way.

Finally, at long last, after collecting robotparts for 6 years, I made a robot. This is almost what I had in mind when I started collecting. In the intervening years, I have saved parts from recliners, timers, dryers, teakettles, lamps, … It was a lot of fun, and we have a date to make more on Friday. Below are Pam and Gail with their own bots.

Using an editor on my phone, I changed my original photo to Negative and Impressionist setting. Am thinking of making an art quilt of one of these. I like them all.

Just finished. It’s a flower made of dyed cheesecloth, sewn onto a commercial hand dye, and embroidered. Not sure you can read, but it has Courage, and my name on it. It will be part of a quilt for a sick friend. I changed the picture, because I added more stitching

I took an Improv Floral quilt class with Ellen Lindner on Tuesday. Although I have made many similar quilts, I wanted to learn Ellen’s techniques for the project. I also wanted to get to know her a little better. We met at a SAQA retreat this Spring.

I made my quilt into a pillow, so didn’t use the best technique she taught, finishing the edges, making a rod pocket, and putting on a label, all on the sewing machine. No hand sewing! But you can bet I will use that the next time. The class was fun, I enjoyed it. If you have a chance, take a class with Ellen. She’s very helpful, even getting down on the floor a couple times to demonstrate. And my new pillow looks good with it’s mates on the couch.

In the last 3 weeks I have invited 3 women to make art with me. All of them are named Pam. It was not planned, just a coincidence. With Pam #1 I experimented with oil paint crayons, Shiva sticks. The second Pam and I made paper collage birds. The third Pam I taught to make a crazy quilt with scraps her mother saved from making her childhood clothes.

Pams are nice, I recommend you get to know one too.

Before we moved to Florida, I expected there would be a million bugs. I have not seen many at all. In fact, we had a lot more in Michigan. But I made this quilt to show what I expected.

I follow Este Macleod on Instagram. She is a wonderful artist. Sometimes she posts a video of her drawing process. I tried it. It’s much harder than she makes it look. This says Beach time. I made the letters into a picture like she does, sort of. Take a look at her website. estemacleod.com

Sorry for blurry pictures. It’s hard to hold the book open and snap a pic.

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For years I have visited my daughter in San Diego, and wished I could go see this place. This time I made it. We arrived early, so went to Visions before we saw family.

This is inside the entrance, as far as I could take pictures. But the art we saw was incredible. Betty Busby and Jane Sassaman were featured artists, and we were amazed at the colors, designs, stitching, and mostly, the VISION they  showed in their work. Erma Martin Yost is a featured artist who makes exquisite felted masterpieces. Her work is also fabulous. But my heart holds stitches and fabric. I plan to go see the current show every time I go now. I’ll make plans to make it work. This is worth seeing people! It is art, not just quilts.