Did You Know?

TAFA (Textile and Fiber Art List) is a business community of entrepreneurs working in the textile and fiber art field.  Rachel Biel has written a feature article on quilting TAFA's website.  This well thought out piece includes some interesting statistics from the International Association of Professional Quilters.  I encourage you to follow the link and read it.  A selection of TAFA members who quilt are shown, including:  Floris Flam,  Constance Rose,  Teri Stegmiller,  and Sandra Hankins.  Happy to say I am included in this selection.  As a newer member,  I am wowed by the amazing variety of offerings from this community.  Check it out!

Santa Monica Exhibit

The results are in for the Quilts on the Wall artists exhibit at the Santa Monica Art Studios Hangar Gallery.  I am thrilled to announce Fluid Fissure and Fluid Fissure 3 have been accepted!  I am honored to be a part of this fine group of artists:  Laura Bisagna, Mia Bloom, Inga Buell, Cynthia Catlin, David and Patricia Charity, Linda Friedman, Annette Guerrero, Stacy Hurt, Sherry Davis Kleinman, Sandra E. Lauterbach, Linda A. Miller, Julie Schlueter, Suanne Summers, Carolyn Villars, and Deborah Weir.  Our excellent Jurors were Karen Rips and Connie Rohman.  Congratulations to all!  See you at the reception....

Fluid Fissure 3 , quilt  © 2012 Linda A. Miller

Santa Monica Art Studios Hangar Gallery 3026 Airport Ave. Santa Monica, CA 90405.  The exhibit will run May 19 - June 16, 2012. Reception is on Saturday, May 19th 6-9 pm. Regular gallery hours are Wednesdays - Saturdays noon-6 pm.

Time Away

Getting out the the normal routine is invigorating, and can certainly shift my perspective. 

 

Ah, to breathe the air of a different city.  My sister and I went to Berkeley for the weekend to visit my nephew.  We just missed the rain, and while still cold and blustery, it was great weather.

Conor was a terrific tour guide...showing us the campus and the city.  It was great to walk..and walk and walk.   

Sather Tower

Mom and son at the top of the Campanile tower

A view of the bay from the tower

Berkeley's Thai Temple

Soup and Kanom Krog

Walking and cold weather stimulated the appetites and we ate very well.  Berkeley has so much to offer in the way of culinary choices.  one of the special meals was at the Thai Buddhist Temple, Wat Mongkolratanaram, a popular local brunch spot.  On Sundays, the temple cooks up delicious meals for the public at very reasonable prices.  It was hopping, but not quite as busy as normal, according to Conor.  Worth braving the cold wind for! Yummy soup curry and Kanom Krog (a subtly sweet dessert of coconut milk, green onion, rice flour and sugar).

Also wonderful: The Indian cuisine of Mint Leaf  (try the Chicken Pomegranate); and the rather trendy but delicious Gather, where I had a delicately curry spiced carrot soup and shared melt in your mouth roast chicken among other treats.

The Berkeley Art Museum has a number of fascinating current exhibits, including Abstract Expressionist paintings and drawings from the museum's collection, Buddhist art over the centuries in Himalayan Pilgrimage , Andy Warhol polaroids and much more.  It had been many years since I visited both the city and the museum...Do check out the exhibits and the food if you are in the area.

I feel much renewed by this time spent with Karen and Conor. 

Spring Upon Us

The garden is blossoming...despite the up and down in the range of temperatures recently.  And soon it will be spring...my favorite season!   Energy begins to expand.  I am so grateful for it!

The change in season brings with it new projects.  I am stitching ...beginning to hand quilt a black and white ink piece that is related to a recently completed quilt ( that I cannot reveal yet).  I enjoy the quiet needlework of hand quilting..stitch by stitch, keeping me present.  I find I tend to jump ahead of myself much more when I machine quilt.  It is such a different experience.  How do you respond to hand v. machine work?

Interesting newsletter today by Robert Genn on Strategic Patience, letting time tell...yet pausing to consider what we are doing now that will affect the future.  All good reminders, check it out.  

Follow this link to see the just completed 9th flag in the Bhavana Project's peace set.

Where are you?

It is a beautiful warm SoCal day, and I am sitting at the computer getting caught up in online connections.  Wait a minute, where am I?  This insightful post from Mind Deep's Marguerite Manteau-Rao reminds me of how easy it is to stay present, even when the web is calling for all my attention.  Take a breath, feel my sit bones on the chair and my feet on the floor.  I am here.

Thursday Thoughts

Fluid Fissure 3 -

© 2012 Linda A. Miller

Introducing Fluid Fissure 3... materials and techniques include hand dyed cotton, appliqued silk, oil sticks, machine quilted, hand couched yarn, hand embroidered.  Much of the texture comes from quilting the cotton on wool felt, then washing and drying for shrinkage, followed by the embellishing.  This has become one of my favorite explorations at the moment. This one is off to a call for entry....will let you know how it goes.

This week was the monthly meeting of my art group, Fiber Fanatics, always a wonderful and valuable gathering with sharing art, laughter, great food and conversation.  I love seeing what each person has been up to over the month.  I was reminded of Jamie Fingal's House Quilt Project again, as two of our group contributed recently.  See Roberta Walley's and Sally Wright's quilts.  Do you belong to an group?  Do you find it supportive?  I most certainly do!  Thanks, Ladies!

With all the copyright issues brought up recently through Pinterest discussions, thought I would share this link on creating watermarks on your photographs with Photoshop.  It is easy to do.

Completing Projects and More...

© 2011 Linda A. Miller

 In process with several pieces for upcoming local calls for entry.  Above is detail of one to share with you...however the second quilt will have to wait to be shown. Suffice it to say both quilts have a lot of hand work. 
While working I listened to the very enjoyable audio book "Major Pettigrew's Last Stand" by Helen Simonson.  A wonderful charming story with colorful characters.  Thanks to Margaret Blank for letting me know about it!


Needing to stay focused on quilting meant cutting back my online time.  However, I have seen numerous discussions about the online pinboard, Pinterest.  There seems to be a lot of interest and heated discussions with regards to copyright issues.  Some helpful links in sorting out the issues come from Alyson Stanfield's Art Biz Blog and Artists Bill of Rights .  I do not feel ready to take Pinterest on right now.  I am finding that the more sites that I add, the less attention there is for those I am already following without spending an inordinate amount of the day on the computer.  For myself, there needs to be reevaluation and discrimination so I do not spread myself too thin.  It is great for those who can handle it...more power to you!