whip-up mini quilt book + * gIvEAwaY !! *

edit:: hello hello -- #17 - robayre . you won! yay. thanks for playing along everyone. i'll be back later this week with a post



so of course you all know kathreen the supreme editor extraordinaire of whip-up [your one stop site for all things crafty]. well she asked if i would come up with a mini-quilt design for her book. and so i did.

and somehow my target pillow design ended up on the cover [not sure how that happened. i think it's the pug]. i'm especially excited because i've been the hugest fan of chronicle books forever. and to be IN one? well.... it's as nicely designed as all chronicle books tend to be.



see - spiral bound to lay flat and a cute pocket to hold all your patterns.

my quilt/pillow is in the "punk" section. tee hee !



my project is double sided. this is the colorful orange side. and a HUGE shout out goes to lara cameron for the fantastic fabrics !

they don't really show this side in the book:


this is the side that looks more like the target art that i made


kathreen said she really wanted me to try and make some of my art into a quilt. she mentioned she liked the target pieces - and so... i tried it ! i'm no expert sewer - so... i'm kind of amazed it all worked out. you can garner more info on the book [and more on all the fantastic contributors] at whipup.net

you can purchase the book through chronicle books

or on amazon

BUT.... chronicle has graciously given me a book to GIVEAWAY. so comment here if you are inclined to win one. i'll draw a winner at random on june 1st..... happy sewing!

viruses and toxins and art fairs

would this post title ever be a google search? hmmm



i drove to san francisco in our bizarre may winter rainstorm today to drop off some work for the san francisco fine art fair that is happening this weekend.

above in a new doily toxin piece. [remember the other doily toxins i did with aurora robson for our show in jan 2008 ?].

when gwen wrote about imidacloprid i knew i had to draw it. so i finally did. and i decided it was time to start adding some other 3D elements to my work. so i busted out the felt stash and the pins.i was really excited because the molecular structure included a hexagon - so it's a direct visual correlation to a honeycomb. i love coincidences like that.



i'm actually kind of excited about this piece. often i end up liking, not liking, rejecting, liking again and then ultimately being unsure about a piece. but this one i just like. even as time has passed and it's been hanging in my studio. i still like it. that's a rare thing.

i also took some new virus drawings. same idea - but instead of toxins i'm representing the viruses with doilies. [after the little got RSV this winter i had viruses on the brain.] i can't seem to shake this thing that i do - representing something ugly/scary/unyielding in a hopefully beautiful way. i wonder if this is my shtick. what i will continue to research and do my entire art life. i guess we'll see huh?

anyway - here are the drawings. my work can be seen in richard levy's booth and in walter maciel's booth at the fair [which is at Fort Mason in San Francisco]. if anyone wants free passes i might be able to garner you some. send me an email....






[this one i'm particularly fascinated by - mostly because i had to configure the doily into a strange shape -- and because of the dots. it makes the doily harder to "read" - i'm interested in this idea].



when i was dropping off the work i had flashbacks to my gallery working days. it was always really fun, but also stressful, to do a fair. so much work. so little time. so much standing. by hour 3 i would have all the prices to all the pieces hanging in the booth flying out of my mouth rapid fire. by hour 6 you knew which pieces would garner the most questions - and you stopped counting how many times you answered the same question. my old bosses girlfriend and i would count THE fashion item of the season opening night [or the outdated faux paux]. 46 fendi bagette bags [12 pashima's with fringe]. there are aspects i miss about that life, but there are also things i don't !

have a good week!

this art + behold

hello there. the other day heather posted this on her flickr ... hey did you know i make art? it's true. i feel the same way. not sure why. but it feels like i haven't talked about or posted any art "for reals" in a while. i'm not feeling really chatty, but i can show you some stuff i've been up to.



these are sketches that i worked on a few weeks back. you can see them in their entirety and read more about me/them on this joy + ride



i was a bit apprehensive about showing them. but then sheri and shari were so nice about them. thanks ladies. i'm honored to amongst a list of such inspiring folks.



i also decided to put them up on the beholder . i did a bit of cleaning up around there too. old sold stuff gone.... more changes to come hopefully in the next few weeks.

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my grandma would have been 92 today. every morning i look at her picture . and today i'm thinking about all she gave me . both physically and mentally. i miss her [in a really good way].

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next week i have to deliver some work to galleries for the san francisco art fair . some new work ! show you soon.....

happy mother's day

to all the moms - moms to be, moms of pets, and anyone who just feels like a mom :)
enjoy today. i hope someone is doing something special for you.



i get cupcakes :)

l o v i n g

i discovered a hummingbird nest right outside our front door. it is the most amazing thing ever! it's so small and cute. i keep checking on it all the time. today mama bird was out of the nest a lot. sitting right next to it. but she didn't really leave it. i don't want to check and see if there are any eggs in it because i don't want to wreck it. so i don't know if the eggs are there, if they are going to be there or if she's scoping out the scene and will be mad that i'm always looking at her. there's a male bird that hovers around occasionally and it looked like today he brought a snack to the female.

i was trying to point it out to the little - she LOVES birds... and i think she spied it... we'll see if she remembers it tomorrow.

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and now - things that i'm coveting.... just because....



japanese sugar molds [kashiga]

this one is courtesy of this etsy shop. i can't remember where i first spied these, but i'm totally smitten. i really like the plainer more abstract ones - or the simple floral ones like this

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i need another camera like i need a.... hole in my head?? yeah. but i do want this one. digital. toy. japan. takes videos. need i say more? go look at what it can do here's a flickr group .

i think freestylephoto has the best price i've found....

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lag scarf detail, originally uploaded by UNIFORM natural.

i got this scarf for hubby's mom for mother's day. martha is a genius. see her store for yourself.

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the shop has been updated!, originally uploaded by house on hill road.

someday i will get a camera strap made by erin. 1. because they are beautiful. 2. because i hate my boring black camera strap with NIKON plastered all over it 3. because i never will get around to making my own. 4. because even if i did make my own it wouldn't turn out as nice.

but you have to be quick because they sell out of her shop fast !

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i got a new piece of equipment for the studio today. but i didn't have enough time to set it up. hopefully i can get it running in the next few days. i'm so excited about it. but i'm not saying anything else. not yet.....

have a great week!