Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Boulders Landscape

I've been to the Boulders Resort in Carefree Arizona a few times for my hubby's birthday. He likes to golf and I go to the spa. It is a beautiful place, full of wildlife, desert landscaping, and southwestern architecture.

I always try to do at least one sketch while I am there from somewhere on the grounds. I often do one from the balcony of the room I am staying in, but sometimes I will ride in the cart with the hubby and do sketches of the golf course area. This is a watercolor painting of one part of the golf course. It is based on my sketches and photographs of the locale.

Friday, November 23, 2012

Class with Judith Baker Montano

While in Houston I took a free form embroidery class with Judith Baker Montano. It was a fun experience and I learned some creative ways to add detail to landscape pieces. The photo to the left shows the sampler made based upon her instruction in the class. She uses all sorts of threads, laces, fabrics, etc to depict a part of the landscape. The tree trunk is actually a bunch of different threads twisted around and stitched down. I look forward to putting some of this use soon on one of my art quilts! 

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Holiday Season Background

Since we're going into the Holidays, I decided to dress my blog in Holiday colors. It's quite a strong color, so I'm sure I will be ready for a change come January 1, 2013!

Monday, November 19, 2012

Working on the Town

Lithologic Landscape Town
I have started adding the town to the lithologic landscape piece I am working on. I embroidered the names and building framing features to each building. After that was done I stitched each building to a piece of wool to give it some loft. These have not been stitched down yet, and are just pinned in place, but they'll be stitched down soon.

Monday, November 12, 2012

Photos from Houston

I am just back from a trip to the Houston International Quilt Festival. I had a lot of fun there with a few friends, and came back very inspired to create more. They had a large, diverse display of some of the best quilts from all over the world. I was looking at pieces I don't think I would be able to see anywhere else. There is a lot of very impressive work going on out there.

I also spent some quality time with about 400 vendors and took a free form embroidery class with Judith Baker Montano. It was all good.

To the left you see me by my Black and White Desert piece that was in Houston. Below you see photos of three pieces in the show that I thought were outstanding.




If you ever want to know what your "style" is, just take a look at what you photograph: