Technicolor Dream Bag

After saving every scrap of fabric, I found myself with a bag full of quilted strips leftover from other projects. I spread them on my work table and wondered how I could conjure up a funky bag out of all those haphazard strips.

I began by piecing together similar-sized pieces for a base fabric, which I covered with more fabric strips.

I also had lots of random scraps with fusible webbing to use for a decorative feature.

I cut out lots and lots of circles and made a sun and a moon.

Then yarn and more yarn.

Here's the moon side.

And the sunny side.

And a happy yellow lining for the inside.

Nora's Guest Book

This morning my friend and neighbor Nora called and asked me to create a quilted notebook for use as a guest book at Villa Santa Cruz, her seaside villa here in Salt River.

Fortunately, my day was already going to be spent in the studio. So, I put aside my latest incarnation of Marlena the mermaid and began work on her project.

I knew exactly what kind of cover I would make. It'd be a water scene with a poem about the sea. The poem is an excerpt that I found online. On the label I gave credit to the author. Here's how it turned out:



And this is the front of it when the book is closed:



This is my second cover in this theme. It's a fun project and I'd like to make more to sell. The quandary at the moment is how much to charge for it in the general market. It takes a good 3 hours to construct.

Summer Travels and the Muse

This past July our travels took us to my native Colombia. We enjoyed a family reunion at Villa Clara, my sister's farm near Ibague.



I was captivated by the magnificent beauty of the Andes Mountains surrounding us.



In August we returned to one of our favorite playgrounds on this beautiful planet. We chartered a boat out of St. Thomas and made the rounds through the British Virgin Islands.



While some of us snorkeled the pristine waters, our crew mates Brooke and John preferred diving for deeper treasures. Here they brought up a gorgeous starfish for a quick visit to the surface.



Being on water for seven days recharged my creative batteries. I sat on the boat admiring the beauty and I got to imagining a mermaid named Marlena. I could see her amid the coral, playing hide and seek with the schools of angelfish and blue tang. She came home with me and followed me right into the studio. She's here for an extended stay.



You can click on Marlena or any of the photos for a close-up view.

Anatomy of a Sun

For me, the sun is a frequent subject of contemplation. In my artistic endeavors I sometimes ponder how to portray on fabric this magnificent source of light, how to capture the energy of this titan that is indispensable and hazardous all at once; giver and taker; the rightful subject of mysticism throughout the ages.

The ancients have personified the sun as a king with a shining crown and as a deity riding a chariot across the sky. My favorite characterization of the sun comes from Hindu religious literature, in which the sun is considered a visible form of God that we can see every day.

I'm working on a small sun quilt. Here's my attempt at capturing the sun using a simple fabric collage. The quilting of it will come later.

A Creative Winter

It's Winter season here on St. Croix--yes, we do have "winter" in the tropics! Day time temperatures drop to the lower F80's, evenings get down to the F70's and we complain of "chills" and wear long pants and long sleeves and avoid the water when we go to the beach. In fact, the weather is perfect to be ensconced in the studio, which is what I've been doing the past couple of months.

So Winter has kept me quite busy in a wonderfully creative way. Here's a recap of my doings so far:

In early December I was a vendor at Starving Artists Day at the Whim Museum, a great place to sell and shop for Christmas gifts.

Some of my creations were totes:

Satchels
Purses
Journal Covers
Bookmarks


And now my art is permanently available at the Whim Museum Store.

I also participated in the Botanical Garden's Christmas Spoken Here festival in Mid December.

After Christmas I switched gears and began preparations for the Good Hope Fine Art Exhibit, which took place this past weekend.

Here's a close-up of the pieces that I exhibited:

Seahorse Under the Moon

Turtle Magic

Whale Rain

Poseidon's Reef

Whale Across the Water

Fantastic Fish 1


Fantastic Fish 2

The first sale and crowd favorite at Good Hope was Whale Rain, corroborating my desire to create a whole series of whale quilts. Fantastic Fish 2 was also quite popular and also sold. The other pieces will now go on sale through my website, which is about to undergo a much-needed update.

Overall, it's been a great creative season and I'm energized to continue this level of creativity throughout the year.

Two Shows and Three Fish

I've been sequestered this whole month in my home studio preparing for two shows in February. The Twenty-First Annual Caribbean Fine Art Exhibit at the Good Hope School will take place February 15-18, 2008, and I'll be one of about 60 artists showing our stuff at this, the largest art show on St. Croix.

Beginning on February 9 and for the rest of the month, I'll have a solo exhibit at Cultural Creations of the Virgin Islands, a new gallery that opened in Frederiksted a few months ago.

I'm almost ready for both shows. And yesterday I completed a quilt that sat on my design wall for about a month. I created the three fish, and then waited weeks until I knew what to do with them. I'm happy with the results. Here's a preview of the full quilt:


And here's a close up of the stitch work involved:

New Year, New Studio

After some heart wrenching deliberation, I decided to give up my studio at La Grande Princesse in favor of a home studio, one to which I go on a dime. Bob made a floor plan of our one-bedroom apartment to see if it would be feasible to move my 4' X 8' work table into a nook in our living room.
We discovered that it was possible if we got rid of our unused futon. We did, and I moved into that nook by the window, and in the process we rearranged our furniture such that the apartment actually looks more spacious!

The table fit perfectly, my fabrics fit under the table, and a couple of book cases were employed to house my quilting paraphernalia. We put up a design wall (foam covered with felt, nailed in place under a 1" X 3" board), and voila! Instant studio!

Oh, and I get a fabulous view to boot!