Back to It...The Rush is ON!

I can't believe June is almost here! It's going to be a busy month...I hit the ground running June 1 with the installation of the Cosmic Cow Society group exhibit at the Yadkin Cultural Arts Center , opening reception June 3, 5-7:30 PM. Also opening June 3 is the faculty exhibit at Sawtooth from 5-7PM. Pass the clone please! :)

From there it's full steam ahead with shipping work to Sacred Threads and then making final preparations for teaching Summer Art Honors at Sawtooth and 3 kids/teen camps at Sew Original. I can't wait!! I love being around all those creative young minds! I may be the teacher, but I always learn from them as well. Be on the watch for lots of photo postings!

Throw in there some Elementary School graduation celebrations (how did my baby grow up so fast?!?), and other end-of-school-year festivities, and before I know it, it will be July!

Bring it!! It's going to be a fun summer!!

(image from http://www.freedigitalphotos.net )

Time Out for Some Family Fun

The recently promised photos of the Ornamental Fiesta class will be forthcoming...I would have finished two in class had I not driven to Asheville without Bernie's power cord! DOH!! Hard to do the sewing part without that, huh? Oy. I was able to borrow someone's machine to do part of it, but I still need to satin stitch the edges, stitch down the metal, and do the embossing. I will say though, that it was a really fun class and I can't wait to show them off!! If you ever get a chance to take a class from Judy Perez, don't miss it...she is a great teacher :)

Meanwhile, this past Friday was my husband's birthday...and not just any ordinary one, it was the big 5-0! He was in Minnesota all week on a business trip and flew home on his actual birthday. I started to have the crowd at the baggage pick up area sing to him, but he's not one for calling attention to himself and I figured he might just jump on the conveyor belt and ride right out of the building. So, I refrained. :) We did, however, stop at Bibb's, one of his favorite BBQ restaurants, for dinner on the way home.

The real celebration came Saturday night. We hosted our "Grub Club" and extended the guest list with his parents, brother, sister, niece and two surprise guests - his college buddy and wife - whom we hadn't seen in about 11 years! He had no idea they were coming! He came home from our youngest's baseball game and there they were. It was great! It was a night of Italian feasting with homemade raviolis, pasta Alfredo with chicken and sausage, salad straight from my garden, fresh NC strawberries, and more. Good food, good friends, good conversation all night, and kids running all over the place!

Coach Jim prepares to blow out all those candles...

On Sunday we spent the day at the Winston-Salem Dash game...it was hot but fun, and they won! Go Dash!

Even the sky was showing love...see the heart? :)

It was a great birthday weekend!

What the ????

Blogger seems to be doing wacky things with my photos...all of a sudden they are showing up as little empty boxes! You can click on them and pull up the image but you don't see anything in the post. Any ideas what's going on??? HELP!!

Fun with Ink!

I've been having the most fun!! My guild - Forsyth Piecers and Quilters - booked a Tsukineko Ink workshop with the brilliantly talented Judy Perez, held this past Saturday. I've been wanting to learn what to do with these inks for a while now, and have been looking for an opportunity to have Judy here for a class ever since we met a couple of years ago when she was in Winston-Salem on a personal trip. When I saw Asheville on her calendar I jumped at the chance to book a class in Winston-Salem, only 2 hours east of Asheville.

It was 6 hours of bliss!  :)

In this class Judy teaches two different methods for working with the inks, and she provides images to work from so you don't have to get bogged down in trying to think up something. It was a relaxed, really fun day! Look what we did!.....

Judy (right) giving tips to Joanna White

OK, we didn't do these...Judy did! Aren't they amazing?

This is my first test piece...learning to get the feel of it using the Fantastixs

My second pieces, done mostly with the Fantastix. I call them "Alien Fruits"  I was in a playful color mood :)

This is Fred, my seahorse. I love him madly! He is what I created in the afternoon using paintbrushes in the second technique Judy taught. Be on the watch for Fred to turn up in a future art quilt...

Asheville is hosting Judy's Ornamental Fiesta class and I'll be heading up there for that this week, so tune  in later for more pictures!