These are the first few rounds of a picture I'm doing for my Aunt and Uncle of Capitola Beach in California. For anyone interested--here are the interesting points of this"
1. Didn't like any posted pictures of Capitola (angle wrong, too blurry, etc) and was not about to take a trip there for my own photos, so I used Google Earth street view, strolled along the road and was able to manipulate my own shot. Made me feel a little techie.
2. It is a busy picture and I wanted to collage it, but didn't want it to be too disconnected, so used the purplish background for the main piece and then painted patches of it to applique with. I think this helps with some continuity to the piece.
3. Used misty-fuse to glue down about three hundred little pieces of house. I seem to have misplaced the picture with all the windows (which, by the way, were made of a sheerish black ribbon. Guess I'll have to do another post. This last picture was taken a month ago and I have made lots of progress since then. Maybe I'll go take some pictures.

Celebrating Grinnell's Artists show

View from Jacob Krumm Dam

My Dad asked me to finish this cornfield piece for my Mom's birthday. It's nice to have patrons. Try to count the french knots. This is a record for me.

Grinnell Arts Center--Iowa Art Quilters

Iowa Art Quilters Show opened here tonight in Grinnell. These pictures are not great, but you get the general idea. I have three pieces in it.One is the map quilt shown below, one is the picture of Amelia--shown above with the real Amelia and one is Sacred Grove which I've never posted here because of the lack of a quality picture. You can see it above, second picture down, on the lower left.

West Jordan Utah, 2010

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In February of 2008 my Dad was made city manager of West Jordan, Utah. He moved into a big office with golden walls--which he didn't want to repaint for budget reasons. My mom mentioned to me that he needed artwork. I thought this might be a hint--so I did some research, trying to find landmarks in West Jordan to paint or stitch or whatever. Unfortunately, as much as West Jordan is a very nice place to live, it is sadly lacking in landmarks. It was mostly farms until the 70s--nothing historic of signifigance and while there are great mountain views--the mountains are not actually IN West Jordan. So, I did what anyone would do--I embroidered every street in West Jordan three times by hand. I made seventy some small quilts and then eventually attached them to a large background. This things is painted, layered, beaded, embroidered, woven--pretty much it is a sampler of my every technique. This will hang in a show at the Grinnell Arts Center for the month of November and then go on to Utah--to cover up some of those gold walls.

Another Cornfield

Another cornfield--currently living at Catiri Art Oasis in Amana, IA

Corn Fields 2010