Counting Down

Are you ready yet?

I like making things for Christmas. As obvious as it seems it's taken me a long time to figure this out. Some folks are excited about the baking, or the decorating, the music, or the shopping. Those are all fine, and of course I do all of them to some extent, but I really look forward to making small decorations and gifts every year. This year I'm making an advent calendar (clearly I'm a little behind), and the clothespins above are part of it. I hope you've figured out what gives you pleasure for whatever special holiday you celebrate, and put aside a little time to make yourself happy.

P.S. I also looove glitter!!! And I'm not afraid to use it.

P.P.S. My children will get to open five advent treats at once (we already did one through nine), so they're not too deprived.

Quilting Arts at 10

Can you believe that Quilting Arts is celebrating their 10th birthday?! I remember how exciting it was to have a new kid on the quilting block, and to this day look forward to every issue.

I'm happy to have an article called "Serendipitous Screen Printing" in the 10th Anniversary Issue. The article details a fun and easy technique for you to add to your screen printing bag of tricks. Here are two examples (that aren't in the magazine) I made with this technique:

My obsession with locust leaves continues ;)

This reminds me of the woods in springtime, when the maples are starting to bloom.

The contributing artists were asked to make commemorative postcards, and here's mine.

This was fun to make, as I combined a variety of techniques - digital imagery, screen printing, and sponge painting.

So what else is new? I'm honored to have won 3rd place at the Houston IQA show with my grackle. So many people who saw this quilt in Houston have reached out to me with many kind words, and I really appreciate it - thank you all!

November was just a mess. My mother in law has been quite ill, so my husband was gone most of the time starting October 29, including four weekends in a row. Thankfully she is doing much better now!

I've been working on several more articles. I'm really excited about a series of six articles I'm writing for Machine Quilting Unlimited on fill designs. The first one will debut in the January issue. And right now I better dash back to the studio to finish working on a project for Quilting Arts' 101 Patchwork Projects - hmmm, I wonder what the other 100 are?