Scrap Blocks

bumblebeansinc.blogspot.com has a great free tutorial for using up all those little pieces of left over fabric when you make a quilt.

After digging through my scrap bag, I selected all of the blue, teals, lime greens and purples.  They are pieced together than cut into 5" squares.

I am up to 8 blocks so far.  I'm not sure yet which quilt pattern I will be using, but it's a great way to get the most use from your fabrics.

Thursday Journey #5

Tucked between high rise buildings and next door to the Santa Fe Train Depot is the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego.  On Thursday, we visited it for the first time. 

We entered a 4500 sq. foot space to find ourselves in a moving field of flowers. The installation is by Jennifer Steinkamp and titled "Madame Curie".  The artist was inspired by the scientist and the fact that Madame Marie Curie was an avid gardener. 

The flowers are shown on synchronized projections onto the walls.  When you stand close, your whole body becomes part of the movement, with flowers dancing all over you.  It was quite an experience.

Is It Spring Yet?



The days are getting longer and we have started working in the garden more, spring must be on the way.

My cynbidiums are in full bloom.

Yesterday I planted impatients and lobelia.



Birds have been visiting this 3 year old nest.



We found a new nest under construction.

The Spa

Although our home is small, it has his and her bathrooms.  My daughters call mine "The Spa".  This is where they find the fragrant soap, bubble bath, lotion and candles. It's a tiny bathroom but the perfect, quiet spot for relaxing in a warm bath.

I try to always have an orchid blooming next to the mirror, the reflection makes it appear larger.

I bought this medicine chest through a catalog.  It really adds needed storage space.

The counter is filled with gifts and special mementos that mean a lot to me.  My grandmother's bone china basket, ceramic hearts from loved ones, unique bottles and a childhood photo of my sister and I.  I love my little spa. 

Art Class - Week 5

Monday's class was spent working on our recycled circles.  We spent our time sharing our projects, cutting, glueing and sewing our circles.  It's so fun to see everyone's work - all of the ideas are so different but they all look great.

I spent my time working on a second circle.  This one is smaller - the squares are 4" each and the finished piece will be 8".  I wanted a look completely opposite of my first circle which was in cool colors, this one is hot, hot, hot.

It's so fun adding the details.  Just a few more stitches and I will join the squares together on a hot pink background.

Recycled Circle

My "Recycled Circle" project is complete.  After cutting the 12" square into 4ths, I decorated each piece individually.  To put them back together, I stitched in circles around the entire piece on the sewing machine.

This shows some of the details of the completed circle. I stamped the top with more of the lid rims dipped in paint and you can see the different machine stitches I used.  I then handstitched french knots, added buttons
and beads plus some small dots of paint.  This was a lot of fun to create.

Thursday Journey #4

Two years ago my husband built a ukulele and for the past several months, he has been working on making a guitar.  This week for our Thursday Journey, because of his interest in music, he choose the Museum of Making Music in Carlsbad.  It shares space with the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM).

The museum is filled with vintage and modern instruments.  You could listen to samples of music from the different eras and see how the instruments were created.

The museum holds over 450 instruments and everything is beautifully displayed.

My favorite section was the salute to modern music, the music of my youth,
THE BEATLES!! YEAH, YEAH, YEAH

At the end of the tour, visitors have the chance to play instruments.  Using headphones so luckily only you can hear the sound, I played a bass guitar while my husband went wild on the drum set.  It was fun, educational and a great experience.

Run Storm Run

My husband is a triathlete and enters many races.  I wanted to honor him and his dedication to the hard training he puts into swimming, biking and running.  Since he is tall, slender and wears a size 15 shoe, this cartoon character fits him perfectly.

I used an old birthday card for the runner, enlarged the drawing and traced it onto artist tissue paper then filled it in with colored pencils. One of his race bibs was reduced and added to the background.  I used permanent ink for the lettering and details.

Scalloped Pouch

Using a pattern from "Sew Pretty Homestyle" by Tone Finnanger, I made a scalloped pouch for my friend Sherry.  I chose two complimentary fabrics in her favorite color. 

Here is the finished pouch.  I had planned to buy a cyclamen plant to place in the gift, but ran out of time.  So, I printed a photo from the computer, glued it to cardboard and added it for presentation.  After we went shopping and to lunch, I took her to the nursery and she was able to select her own flowers.

Art Class - Week 4

This week our lesson is "Recycled Circles".  Our teacher, Jane LaFazio, had an article in the "Cloth Paper Scissors" March/April 2009 issue on making these and we were very excited to get started.

Using rosin paper, we created a 12" x 12" collage with a color theme in mind.  We lightly painted it with watered down acrylics and added circles using lids dipped in the paint.

Next, we cut the piece into 6" squares.  Each square will be collaged separately with quarter circles from paper or cloth as shown on the bottom right.

After all of the squares have quarter circles added, I will start decorating them with stitching, beads and tiny buttons.  I will share my "Recycled Circles" when it is all put back together into a 12" x 12" art project.

It's Valentine's Day

This was our sunset last night, if you use your imagination you can almost see a big heart floating in the sky.

I made gift tags to put on bags of dark chocolate See's Candies hearts.

On Friday, my friends Michelle and Priscilla came over for a Valentine's craft day.  We had a great time creating, laughing and having lunch out on the deck.

I made cards for my daughters, Michelle made gift tags and cards for her kids and Priscilla sewed cute little fabric hearts for her family.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY

Thursday Journey #3

It's Thursday, it's our anniversary, it's warm out and where do we choose to spend our day? LEGOLAND!!
What a great place.  Even though it's designed for small children, I think everyone should get a chance to visit this theme park.  The Lego structures are fantastic, it's amazing what the designers can do with little plastic blocks.  The landscaping was beautiful, there was music, water features and the rides were even fun!

All of the critters in the park are life sized and when you see the details of the Lego's, it's a work of art.

Last fall, my sister and I visited New York City, seeing it recreated in miniature was a real treat.

High on my "bucket list" has always been a hope to sail across Sydney Harbor towards the opera house.

I took this photo from a boat at Legoland, do I have to cross this off of my list now?

We had a wonderful day and a great anniversary.

Happy Anniversary

My husband Storm and I were married 43 years ago today - where has the time gone?  We met through mutual friends when we all went dancing at the Clairemont Bowl in 1966.

I woke up this morning to find this beautiful bouquet of yellow and red long stemmed roses.

AND a purple and white varigated orchid plant.  I am so spoiled.

I feel truly blessed for my husband and our two beautiful daughters.

 HAPPY ANNIVERSARY STORM!

Art Class - Week 3

We brought paints, colored pencils and crayons to class this week to start coloring our collages.
What started with odd pieces of paper and cloth painted white with gesso, were transformed into bright works of art.

I painted it with layers and layers of different colored acrylics and used colored pencils for highlights.

My favorite detail is the word bloom, even though I started with paper lettering, it has the look and feel of something that has been outdoors for many years.

Red - the quilt

Our cat Red, weighs 18 pounds.  The vet thinks he has some Maine Coon somewhere in his ancestory.  When I saw this quilt pattern, it reminded me so much of him that I had to make it.

The finished quilt measures 29" x 33" and is machine pieced.  The flowers and birds where added by hand with a blanket stitch.

I even found fabric with red and gray kitties on it, the colors of our two cats, for the border.

She Sells Seashells

I haven't worked in my art journal for a long time, so yesterday (during endless TV time of golf tournaments and Super Bowls) I spent the day being creative.

SHE SELLS SEASHELLS BY THE SEASHORE

This page in my journal is to honor my mother, Jane Snedecor Anderson, when she arrived in Southern California from Michigan to begin nursing at Scripps Clinic in La Jolla.  The background is acrylics and tissue paper adhered with matte medium.  I printed her photo on fabric, painted on a Nautilus shell, the hands are drawn with ink and I cut the "37" date from an old photograph of La Jolla Cove.  It's still a work in progress and I will share the page when it is finished.

Thursday Journey #2

This week, our Thursday Journey took place on Friday night.  We received memberships from our daughter Paige for the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego.  We attended a members opening in La Jolla of "Mexico: expected/unexpected".  It featured over 100 artworks from the Mexican contemporary art scene.
The exhibit included painting, photography, installation, sculpture, video art and text to show the relationship between city and nature.

Along The Coast

My friend Michelle and I went for a walk along Sunset Cliffs in Point Loma yesterday.  The sun was shining, the air was crisp and the ocean was beautiful.  We walked south for approximately 1 mile, along the rugged path. 

The views are spectacular and we could see up the coast for miles.

Beautiful homes line Sunset Cliffs Boulevard as it winds along the coast.

The City of San Diego has been battling the elements to protect the cliffs from erosion by placing rocks along the shore line.  It was low tide today but during a really high tide, waves crash into the cliffs with such force that in some areas the path is gone.

What a great day.

From Scratch

I decided it was time for some chicken enchiladas - I hadn't fixed them in years.  I used my crockpot to slow cook chicken breasts in broth until they were very tender and could be shredded easily.  I simmered Salsa de Chile Rojo using a recipe from the Sunset Mexican Cook Book.  All afternoon we could smell wonderful aromas coming from the kitchen.

The ingredients are ready - shredded Cheddar cheese, sliced green onions, sliced black olives, shredded chicken, corn tortillas and the sauce.

YUMMO!!!!

Art Class - Week 2

Starting with rosin paper as a background, I made a collage with fabrics, gift wrap and other small pieces of paper, adhering them with matte medium. 

The next step was to cover the entire surface with gesso. 

The lettering is from pre-cut scrapbook paper.  I glued each letter 5 layers thick so they really pop out from the background.

Using non-copywrited clip art from my computer, I traced a sunflower onto artist tissue paper and added it to the collage.  I cropped my design to fit around the lettering and sunflower.

In class next week, I will add color and details.