2009 update

The biggest news is that I am now retired after many, many, very satisfying years in the classroom. So I am free to devote heaps of time to quilting (in addition to all my other passions).

I was no less productive in 2009 than in years past, it is just that I posted all of my earlier quilts in one "fell swoop" at the end of 2008. The two recent Tidepool quilts were the focus of my attention at the beginning of the year but once they were finished, I switched to the "Senegal" travel poster in time for the Coastal Quilters Guild Challenge in June. August was happily spent in the cabin at the family ranch in northern Colorado spent making three queen size quilts to add to my stock pile. Trouble was that no sooner were they in it then they were out - my brother relayed the wonderful news that both of his daughters have either married or are about to be. The third I had mentally set aside for Toby since the only "large" quilt I've ever made for him was twin-size. He and his lady Lauren picked out a very colorful creation which will be posted next year because the back has yet to be made. Their quilt will be two-sided with the second side made of Senegalese fabrics Toby brought back to me after each stay there. Meanwhile, I've been whiling away my time making graduation presents (June is fast approaching) and next year's Guild Challenge.

Perhaps the most exciting thing about this year has been getting my work shown. Over the years I have hung quilts at the local Coastal Quilters Guild biennial show "Harvest of Colors" but these are not juried exhibitions. "Tidepool Souvenirs" was my first juried exhibit; it was shown at Road to California in January. Its successor, "Tidepool Souvenirs - Littoral Memories" was juried into Pacific International Quilt Festival in October. December marked my first ever one-person show at The Health Gallery here in Santa Barbara.

This year's quilts are tucked away under the rubrics: Tidepool Quilts, Watercolor Wash, Pyramid and Landscape.

Pyramid Quilts

I was impressed when my fellow Blockhead, Kathy Rose, made a version of this quilt a couple of years ago - it showed a lot of potential for using up fabrics of which I have an embarrassing amount. Although Bob thinks that he is seeing all the fabric in my stash because there are about two dozen large plastic tubs in full view on the shelf in my sewing room, he is sorely mistaken. I've got little hiding places of which he is blissfully ignorant. Since all the fabric came out of my own paycheck, I don't feel the need to confess.

This was made as a wedding present for one of my brother Mont's daughters.

Bouquet de couleurs

2009

76x90 inches

Tidepool Quilts

This is the first in a series of (so far three) tidepool quilts inspired by the

hundreds of hours spent puddling around in the intertidal with my marine biologist husband and three children. The background is pieced from about six different fabrics featuring rocks and pebbles. Then I added the sand (teeny fabric chips trapped under tulle) and water. The surface is richly embellished with stuffed fabric shells, buttons, ribbons, yarn, beads and fabric origami starfish. I dream about including an octopus but haven't mastered that one yet. This quilt was exhibited at the "Road to California" quilt show, January 2009. I am proud that it will hang in the office of our dear friend and Bob's colleague, Jane Lubchenco, newly appointed director of NOAA in the Obama administration.

Tidepool Souvenirs

2008

18 x 24 inches

The second in the series was made for my sister Nan Downs Leedy who is fortunate to live right on Puget Sound and so can play in the tidepools any time.

Tidepool Souvenirs 2

2009

24 x 30 inches

The third but I think not the last was made

for my husband Bob. It is a real triumph although, sad to say, the photo does not do it justice. It is jampacked with marine organisms including several kinds of algae, two species of barnacles (tiny dime-sized "yoyos"), a nudibranch beaded to within an inch of its little life, two species of starfish of the genus Pisaster, sea anemones (both open and closed), assorted snails and bivalves, a shark egg case and even an octopus. This latter did all it could to get out of the picture; you can see that it is trying to back into a little cave. Only the feathers are found objects; all the rest are fashioned as mentioned above of fabric, ribbons, yarn, buttons and beads. The quilt was exhibited at the 2009 Pacific International Quilt Festival.

Tidepool Souvenirs-Littoral Memories

2009

30x42 inches

Meandering quilt

Reynola Pacusich gave a guild workshop in 2000 (or was it 2001?). My second son received this quilt for his high school graduation. The colors, green and gold, are those of the high school my children all attended and at which I teach. The three complete circles symbolize my three children.

Labyrinth

2002

72 x 84 inches

Curved Piecing Quilts

I took a workshop from Judy B. Dales on "Curved Piecing" at Asilomar in the spring of 2000. As if the technique wasn't challenging enough, she dared us to work in a color palette that we always avoid. I loathe pink, so here it is, an improbable flower in pinks and lavenders.

Olivia's Wild Flower

2000

36 x 36 inches

The Coastal Quilters Guild challenge a few years ago was themed "Black and White with a little Color". Using Judy Dales's curved piecing technique again (am I a glutton for punishment?), I came up with this little piece to celebrate the first (and sadly also last) Santa Barbara Tango and Malambo Festival in 2003. I gave it to the Festival organizer and Santa Barbara Symphony director, Gisele Ben-Dor.

Tango Dancers

2003

42 x 36 inches

Bird Quilt

SBCC Adult Ed instructor Norah McMeeking offered a class a few years back on paper piecing California birds. I immediately imagined making an East Coast birds quilt as I felt that my husband and I really "owed one" to my older sister Helen and her husband, long-time residents of upstate NY and serious birdwatchers, for nurturing our two sons while they were at Cornell University, 3000+ miles away. I'm sorry that this format does not do justice to the little tweeters. I  tried valiantly to upload images of some of the individual birds but I failed miserably.

Bird Quilt

2006

42 x 36 inches

Kaleidoscope quilts

Shortly after I took up quilting again in the early 1990s, I came across a pattern put out by The Cranberry Cupboard called Kaleidoscope. It was a simple pattern, perfect for a busy working mom with three school-age kids. I made a matching set for our two sons which are still on their beds at home (they're adults now and long gone).

1994

60 72 inches

My daughter Olivia adores rabbits and got her first as a reward for learning to read. Fortunately for me she was a "dress" and not a "pants" girl, so when she was small, I had a great time making dresses with bunny fabrics. Each spring, I would scour the fabric shops for rabbit theme prints. I saved all the scraps and made her a Kaleidoscope quilt which is even now on her bed at university. One spring, there was a bunny alphabet fabric which I used to spell out her name on the back.

Bunny Quilt

1997

60 x 72 inches