CELEBRATIONS!! GREAT NEWS!! JOYFUL BLESSINGS!!

I wanted to share with everyone some good news for three local Sacramento artists. First, our amazing sculpture artist and more Kanika Marshall was one of 26 artists who entered the Solar Panel art exhibit sponsored by SMUD. A few months ago, artists were offered the chance to pick up free discarded solar panels from SMUD. The artists could use the panels as the material and the basis of an art project of their choice and enter their works in an exhibit  at the SMUD customer service building. Kanika won a first place prize of $300 for her entry "Energy Meridians".
                                                              



The exhibit runs until July 31st at the SMUD Customer Service Center, 6301 S Street. Sacramento CA. If you have a chance, stop by and view Kanika's work and the other participating artists. Also, wish her a belated happy birthday. The win and her birthday were on the same day.









The next celebration is for quilt and textile artist Jan Hollins who entered her beautiful quilt "Miss Ida" in the California State Fair. The judging was this past Wednesday and notifications went out today and she was accepted. A lot of you can remember "Miss Ida" as part of the Sisters Quilting Collective Quilt Show in February.

The third celebration is for me! I am so happy and pleased to announce that my two dolls "Michael and Verlene" were also accepted in the California State Fair. This was one of ten things on my list of goals that I wanted to accomplish this year. I can mark one item off. The State Fair runs from July 11th through the 27th and the award ceremony for fiber artists and crafters is Saturday, July 12th. If you are attending the fair this year I hope you take the time to visit "Miss Ida" and "Michael and Verlene".

I'm so proud to be able to represent. Don't ever let anyone tell you that you can't accomplish a dream large or small. The only obstacles in our way are the ones we give permission to be there. I always think of my mother's words "It's 100% NO
if we never try and 50% YES when we do. What have you got to lose?" Believe in yourself.

F is for...

F is for my one of my other loves and that's fabric art. I love using printed fabrics to make quilts or taking plain white cotton muslin and painting my own patterns and designs. When I'm not making art dolls I make art quilts. These are a few of my quilted and fabric painted art pieces.

The Moon Watcher

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

    

 

  Dreams Caught on the Wind

 

 





 

Kente Block Quilt

 

 

 

Fire On The Mountain





 

 

Looking Back

 

 

Talkin' To The Moon

 

 

 

Monterey Sunset

Sisters Under The Moon

Mermaids

I finally got my artwork off to the gallery in South Carolina. I finished three pieces, two dolls and a wall hanging. I've already introduced my two mermaid dolls Malika and Adilah. They are on their way to the City Gallery at Waterfront Park in Charleston, South Carolina via their magic coach courtesy of UPS.

The third piece that the gallery accepted is a wall hanging I did called "The Rescue".

I used textile pants by Jacquard to paint the background.

I wanted the sky to be at sunrise when the sun is just emerging from the horizon and the colors are shades of pink and coral and the night sky begins to disappear and the day time sky begins to show itself.

The rocks, the mermaid and her rescue were cut from the pattern that I drew and quilted and appliqued to the background.









I love to use glass beads to add shine and texture to my quilts. I cut out some fish from a piece of fabric that I found and appliqued them with the glass beads.

I used more glass beads on the mermaid's tail and beads and shells around the rocks.

The Brickhouse Gallery Quilt Show

I am proud to be a part of the Brickhouse Gallery's first annual quilt show. I entered the two pieces shown in the middle of this photograph. The top piece is called "Plum Blossoms"

and the bottom one is called "Moon Watcher".

I was very humbled to be among so many extremely talented quilters. These artists are very serious quilters who devote their creative spirits and many long, long hours to these extraordinary works of art.

I am happy to share some of their work with you here.

If you are in the Sacramento area, this show runs until February 29th.

The Brickhouse Gallery

2837 36th Street

Sacramento CA 95817

Thursday & Friday 12:00pm to 6:00pm

Saturday 12:00pm to 7:00pm

Twelve Yards of Muslin: Project 1

Here is my first finished project out of my "twelve yards of muslin."
I decided to make a fabric art piece. I used the plain white muslin and fabric paints and pens to create the background.




My hairdryer is my favorite tool when I use paint. I always want to get my projects done quickly and this saves drying time between the painted layers.

The white muslin is a perfect blank canvas so that it can become anything.

I made a pattern for the design I wanted to applique into the piece.

Next I pulled out embroidery thread...

...and lots of colored glass beads...

I used beads to add some detail...

...and make the piece come to life.

I used embroidery thread to hand quilt the background...

...and the finished piece is called

"Talkin' To The Moon".

This is not the first time I've created this piece. I designed it for the first time about 18 years ago. It was so popular that I sold it immediately at a craft show I was selling at.

I love my first finished project out of the twelve yards and I've already started the next one. Can't wait to share it here with you.

A Finished Project

The beginning of a beautiful quilt. My favorite colors, lots of satiny red ribbon and an exotic cotton print.

I am still nursing a sick computer. Hopefully, this month I will resolve my computer problems one way or another. Anyway, I have used my time wisely and have been able to finish a lot of my art and craft projects and have explored some new ones. I've also had the time to get out and followed my second love, taking photographs. I will try to get some posting done over the next few weeks by begging, borrowing and camping onto whatever computer I can get to.

Above is one of my ribbon quilts that I had time to finish. I have been in a decidedly "red mood" this month as you will see in some of the other finished projects I will be posting.

El Cielo de Colores

I am so proud of myself. I stayed on track this week and have all of the projects I committed to almost completed. This is the quilted fabric art piece that I started last week. I named it El Cielo de Colores, the sky of colors or the colorful sky.

I really enjoyed working on this. It's been a while since I've done a quilted art piece. I used fabric paint, fabric pastels and fabric paint pens. I also used some very tribal cotton prints to create the applique image.

I bordered it first in white cotton to make it look matted and then created a six inch border in a cotton batik to simulate a picture frame. I am very happy and honored to be able to share my projects here with you.

My next post will be my fabric paint dyed doll. When I painted her face she told me who she was and what she should look like. She's almost done.