Stars For San Bruno

 My friend Jaye is making quilts for a few of the people who survived the San Bruno gas explosion but lost everything in the fire.  She asked for quilt blocks that were yellow stars on dark blue backgrounds.

 I hand-drafted these (thanks to the degree angles on my Omnigrid ruler), and cut them out of fused yellow fabric.  I just didn't feel like piecing for some reason.

 I zig-zagged the edges just to be sure.  I never trust fusible completely.  Unless of course if it is for sticking something to the ironing board....forever!

 I think I liked this one better, the two fabrics combined made me thinking of Van Gogh's Starry Night a little bit.

I can't wait to see how the quilts turn out, she's almost got one whole quilt top put together.

Gifts of Bits & Bobs

At the recent CQFA retreat, my friend Bronwen gave me a very mysterious Valentine box that rattled rather temptingly.

Oooh look at the goodies inside! I took a few closeup pictures so you can see some of the details. Bronwen knows that I love using old buttons and things in my artwork so she always is coming up with little bits and bobs for me which is really thoughtful and quite helpful!

A really lovely little rhinestone star button. Love this design so much 13 circles around an 8-pointed star. I could see making a hairbow clip with this sewn onto the center.

A filigree metalwork clasp. She thought I could use it on the cover of an altered book. What a fabulous idea!

A mother of pearl buckle. Love the squiggly gold accents. I wonder if I can make a sash belt that would look good with this, I really like the colors.

And a little metal bird pin with a red shiny eye. Look at that intricate detail on the feathers.

Thanks Bron!

Tumbled Over

What a nice surprise!
Friend Jaye recently sent me a small mysterious Rechiutti box. Nope, no chocolate, even better...more Tumblers! Well, wait, I know that Rechiutti is Jaye's favorite chocolate, so it is entirely conceivable that the chocolate *in this case* would possibly be better than pre-cut fabulous fabric pieces for my Tumbler quilt project.
But I'm pleased beyond measure at these happy fabrics up on my wall cheering me up every time I pass by them. Thanks Jaye!

And who knows I may get the Tumbler cutting bug once again and add to the 18.25 completed strips for my eventual bed sized quilt. I haven't done a danged thing on it since January when I last posted about it. This is one of those slow-cooked quilt projects, not a race-to-the-finish deal.
But hopefully well-worth it in the end.

Barcelona Bark by way of Marion

So, an artist friend, Marion was looking through some pictures she took of Barcelona, and posted this of some tree bark. She noticed the graffitti after the fact. Pondering what others would come up with for a use of this image, she offered one darker alternative also.

Here is what I came up with.

My first photo fooling around thing is playing with the filers unlimited package I use in irfanview. I always go for the kaleidoscope first, something about the repetition and symmetry and how strange the image comes to look...

This one is just mirroring, but look how cool the red graffitti looks now!

Then I looked at some colorizing, this one was particularly cool I thought.

Stay tuned for a wearable item I just whipped up using this image!

Thanks Marion, for the photo inspiration.

Having a Ball in Berkeley

To continue on my weekend trip report, here are pictures of the fun happenings in Berkeley, where brunch at Tacubaya with friends and of course some shopping happened.

Tacubaya is a great restaurant, here is the cool ceiling, and I loved all the different intense colours painted on the walls. Very vivid. Huevos divorciadas was my meal, yum, a red sauce on one side and a fresh green tomatillo sauce over the over easy eggs and yummy fresh made corn tortillas.

Don't kristen and Jaye look great against the pink wall? I didn't get a picture of kristen's adorable daughter or Jaye's adorable son who also joined us. They were too busy drawing and getting impromptu art lessons from Pamela.

Oh, look, I'm in the picture now. Thanks to W for taking this picture, good job~

And then here is Pamela. We all look good in pink! Pretty in Pink even....

At The Ark toystore we found a display of Fun Meals, and Pamela scooped up many boxes, hoping to find a lobster dinner. After frantically opening them and enjoying the sushi, desserts and other foods, no lobster love . These goodies are really going to look great on quilts Pamela!

The inside of the fabulous package reveals, a teeny tiny mexican dinner, complete with Corona Beer!

Then we crossed the street to the Crate & Barrel Outlet, where after some digging in the remnant bin I found some Marimekko scraps, as well as some cool cocktail napkins (look for them appearing in a quilt near you), and some placemats. I'm working out how to use the placemats in a sculpture, more on that later!

I bought these three fabrics at New Pieces, the one on the left is Japanese ikat in a strange orange and green combo.

At Black Cat Quilts I found these four fat quarters. The one on the right looks like a blurry city streetscape. I also found these cool triskele frog closures.

Phew, that was a lot of fun and a lot of shopping. I'm still recovering three days later!
It is so fun to get together with people you know well online, and continue the virtual conversations complete with body language, facial expressions, and voice tone. A whole 'nother level to communicating, that is for sure.