The Joy of Moleskine

For the last couple years I have not understood what the big woop about these books were until I recently bought one myself. Now I am completely hooked. I bought a Japanese pocket accordion notebook. It is 3.5 x 5.5 inches and unfolds into a long sheet.



The paper is awesome, smooth and heavy weight. It takes any medium wonderfully. I have been doing little fantasy drawings of plant and animal hybrids, inking them with a waterproof pen and coloring/painting them with watercolor pencils. I have now bought two more different types to try out. I originally thought these books were a little pricey, but these books are worth every penny. I want more, more more...

A book to honor my Dad

My sister Deb and I have been altering board books. These are small baby books you can buy on the sale shelf at bookstores for cheap. After peeling off the shiny paper the chip board underneath makes a great surface to paint and glue things to.

My dad died several weeks ago. He came from a long line of Masons. Growing up I never really understood what he used to do at all those meetings. Over the years I asked my dad about the Masons and found it to be a really interesting organization full of symbolism, ritual and mystery. My dad had the longest obituary I think I have ever seen, full of all his accomplishments as a Mason. I decided to cut up the obituary and make it into a book to remember my dad.

Virtual Studios at Quilt Festival

These are some of the other gals who participated in the virtual studios. Cheryl Prater, a former Chicagoan, who was very funny and I wish I had more time to hang out with, she seemed like a real hoot! In front is Debbi Crane who had some wonderful art books, she alters them and also makes her own bindings, gorgeous! And then there is Julaine Lofquist Birch, the creater of one of my favorite little quilts, Green Goddess Dressing.

You can see more pictures from Virtual Studios on the the Quilting Arts website at Make it University.

Fauna

Our group quilt "Fauna" in the Quilting Arts magazine booth at International Quilt Festival Chicago. photo by nina this time.

Kelli Perkins sat across from us in the Cloth Paper Scissors Virtual Studio, she was making these beautiful little paper beads, total eye candy. This is my sisters picture, I could never get a clear shot of her there was always a crowd in front of her table. You can see pictures of her beads on the Quilting Arts website.

The Artgirlz had all sorts of fun things in their booth like these little felted balls that you could decorate and make into bracelets, necklaces and other cool stuff.
They reminded me of my felted ball ornaments I made at Christmas, so I brought them over for a bit of show and tell.

Chicago Quilt Festival

This is the offical greeting party for quilt festival. You can find Laura and Frieda at the ArtFabrik booth.
This is my sister Deb working on her fabric book and me painting in the virtual studios being observed by Allison from the cool sister art duo Art Girlz.

Here I am with our group quilt Fauna in the Quilting Arts booth. My sister cut off my panel with the chameleon when she took the picture. Tomorrow I will have my daughter Nina take a picture.

Frieda thought we all needed to get our picture taken with Alex Anderson, who was sitting two booths over.

Nothing but the utmost in professional behavior at Lauras booth.

Flora and Fauna

Flora detail
Flora and Second Nature are our two group quilts that came before Fauna. They can be seen on the Quilting Arts Website here. If you havn't seen Fauna yet, you need to go pick up a copy of Quilting Arts magazine (April May issue).

I will be painting a sample based on my latest quilt Arbol de Vida at the International Quilt Festival/Chicago friday from 2-4 in the Quilting Arts magazine's Virtual studios by Make-It University. This piece will probably turn into my donation for the Silent Auction at International Quilt Festival/Houston. I will also be at the virtual Studios on Saturday from 2-4pm.

Fantastic Lecture on Creativity

Sir Ken Robinson is author of Out of Our Minds: Learning to be Creative, and a leading expert on innovation and human resources. In this talk, he makes an entertaining (and profoundly moving) case for creating an education system that nurtures creativity, rather than undermining it.

Click on the picture of him in the sidebar on the right to see the lecture that took place at the 2006 TED (Technology Entertainment Design) conference.

Virtual Studios at Quilt Festival

International Quilt Festival/Chicago is coming up April 13-15. This year Quilting Arts magazine is expanding beyond Make-It University classes to also have virtual studios. Two to four different artists at a time will be creating art throughout the day friday, saturday and sunday.

My sister Deb and I will be guest artists on Friday and Saturday afternoons from 2-4. I will probably be painting with textile paints on one day and painting with Tsukineko Inks on the other. I think Deb will be working on artist journals.