Houston Quilt Festival

I'm going to the Houston International Quilt Festival this November. I'll be doing open studios and for the first time, Make It University. Here's the project I'll be teaching at MIU, working with Shiva Paintstiks and you'll make your own rubbing surface. Come by, say hi and put your name in the lottery to take the workshop.

Mundo Lindo

Mundo Lindo! I created an afterschool art program 3 years ago, and it's one of the things I'm most proud of. It's free, to 4th and 5th grade kids, who attend Escondido schools, and are recommended by their teachers. Our new session started up yesterday with 27!!! kids! (The limit is 20) So, we'll be adding another session. I post pics and write about the project every week on my Mundo Lindo blog.

rusty bucket

 "Sketching & Watercolor: Journal Style"

The Small Art Quilt!

fruit

 Usually, when I teach "Sketching & Watercolor: Journal Style" I start with either a leaf or fruit. I'm teaching a 2 day workshop on December 2 & 3 at the San Diego Watercolor Society. We'll start in the classroom, and then spend most of our time outside, drawing and painting small vingettes. It's geared for beginners, but everyone is welcome!

tiny pumpkin tree

 I'm preparing for the Sketching and Watercolor: Journal Style online class I'll be teaching.

garden sculpture

 San Diego SketchCrawl today, at Alta Vista gardens.
I'm teaching a 6 week online class in "Sketching & Watercolor: Journal Style," starting next month and also at San Diego Watercolor Society in December.

banana tree blossom

 Another from the sketchcrawl today at Alta Vista gardens. Years ago, I did a very large painting of a banana blossom, it was fun to revisit the subject matter, this time start to finish about 45 minutes in my Moleskine journal.

The Start of Spring ~ detail

 Finished this one. Details here and here. You saw the start of this here. I'm going to the Houston Quilt Festival in November, and I'll teaching two Make It University workshops...I'm thinking of doing one with needle-felting/embellishing...I'll keep you posted.

basillica di san marco~ detail

basillica di san marco ~detail

 Almost there........

Me

 Wearing my Punjammie pants (buy some, it's a good cause) and the scarf I tye-dyed.
 

creating ART

 Here's another section of the quilt I'm working on, "Basillica San Marco" and I'm pretty proud of it. I wanted to depict Byzantine brocade, as I imagined it in Venice in the middle ages. Starting with dupioni silk, I overlaid rusted organza, then free motioned stitched it, cut it to expose the silk, then hand stitched with gold thread. One of the hallmarks of making ART is that first, you think of what you want to say, or portray, THEN you select the materials to create your content. That's what I've done on this quilt, rather than let the techniques drive the piece. And frankly, I very much like the way the piece is coming together. It's very true to my goal, which is to portray my impression of Basillica San Marco and old Venice.

red rock ~ start

 Another needle-felted start. I free motion stitched some shapes to begin. Now to the hand sewing.

Come and hear me speak September 19 in San Diego

Quilt Visions Annual Member’s Meeting

Quilt Visions members and guests are invited on September 19th for our annual meeting held in Room 1 in the Command Center Building next to the Visions Art Quilt Gallery, in San Diego (Point Loma area). You will meet the new Quilt Visions Board members and hear about exciting changes for Quilt Visions and the Visions Art Quilt Gallery.
After the meeting artist Jane LaFazio (that would be me) will give a presentation about her role as the SAQA SoCal rep and her observations on current trends in art quilting. She will also talk about the benefit of social networking and how she has used it to her advantage.
If you haven’t already seen the terrific traveling exhibition, “Transformations: Reflections” from SAQA,(Studio Art Quilts Associates) you’ll want to give yourself plenty of time to see the 34 breath-taking quilts in the gallery.
1:00 Annual Meeting
2:00 Jane LaFazio

esperanto chinese ~ start

WORK in progress: I did some machine stitching on this monoprint, now I'll start hand stitching. (this is a gelatin mono-print..several sessions worth of printing.)

BIG BOOK

 Just finished a proposal for this workshop, entitled "BIG BOOK." You can see the pages of the book here. Hope to be teaching it, near you, in 2011.

Needle-felting

 This is how all my needle-felted pieces begin...with color! Some bits from Suzanne Morgan's everything kits, and sheers, ribbons etc from my own stash.

The start of Spring (working title) ~ in progress

 I'm starting a bunch of new pieces. Four needlefelted pieces, and two monoprints on fabric. They are all ready for me to begin hand-stitching. And, I'm preparing another 'machine needle-felting tutorial' so stay tuned!
Meanwhile, this one started with a beautiful 'everything kit from Suzanne Morgan (Roses). I don't usually work in pink and green, but it looked so good in her little bag, that I went for it! I'll keep you posted on the progress. Oh, and you can see details of this here and here.

airplane doodles

 Doodling on the airplane. I will probably add some color to this page....I'm working on some proposals for workshops, incorporating elements of nature.....I'll use these designs, somehow, in my sllyabus..

detail in progress

 Remember, I tried my hand at a Gloria Hansen inspired digitally printed quilt. Here's a corner of it. (It's only 8x11") I have a new appreciation for Gloria's work. I've stitched the heck out of this, and you can tell, it's just not makin' it. No "reason for being" as I tell my students. I did add some additional color, with color pencils, but I need to rethink this piece. It's in seriously need of a focal point!

By the way, note on the upper right hand corner of my blog, you can sign up for my emails. I'm sending occassional art-related spiffy new email newsletters now, so, if you're interested, please sign up. THANKS!
 

Me and Melly at CREATE

 Clearly this photo was taken BFP (before food poisoning) at CREATE, by Pokey Bolton no less. Melly Testa has created a way cute video of the CREATE experience, and since I'm was lame at documenting it, go check out her take on the fun.

Tree of Life: Oaxaca needlework

 This is a needlepoint (partially stitched) based on my original painting . My friend and needlepoint designer Cassandra Prescott created it. She is Sundance Designs and you can see the canvas here. Cool huh? I did needlework for nearly 25 years--from kits--and now I have one created from my artwork! cool!  

Jenn Mason and me at CREATE

 I'm home. CREATE was a great mixed media retreat with soooo many exceptional teachers and open, sharing students. Unfortunately, I got food poisoning the second day I was there. I was able to teach all my classes, but it was difficult, as you can imagine. My students were wonderful. I'm still recovering. Luckily, I got this photo of Jenn Mason and I before I got sick---cuz it's the only one I got!

My friend is flying first class to CREATE...

 I'm off to CREATE and will return early next week with photos and stories to tell!
You can see my the photos from Montecito Sequoia Family Summer Camp here.

Montecito Sequoia 2010

 This is the my third year as 'artist of the week' at Montecito Sequoia Family Summer Camp. It's really a fabulous place! I taught 'sketching and watercolor: journal style' every morning for two classes, then husb and I  participated in any of the activities. This year, I tried archery for the first time. We canoed, hiked, attended cooking classes, danced, sang along. I also did some arts & crafts, including tie dye and painted boxes. All in the beautiful setting of Sequoia/Kings Canyon National Park.
These are the 5x7" pages I did in my morning classes. Plein aire, of course!

online class! Sketching & Watercolor:Journal Style

 Dear readers, you've been so complimentary about my watercolor journal pages, and those of you who have taken my workshop Sketching & Watercolor:Journal Style have seemed to really enjoy the process. Well, I'm going to teach a 6 week version ONLINE! Yup. Sketching & Watercolor:Journal Style starts on October 14, through joggles.com and you can sign up now. It should be lots of fun! 

Casa hot chili peppers and fiesta ~ detail

I've been working on my free motion stitching. It doesn't happen overnight, and takes practice. I'm quite pleased with my latest effort! this is a detail of the quilt below. I've free-motioned chili peppers all over the background of the quilt! 

Casa hot chili peppers and fiesta

The incomparable citizen Jamie Fingal is coordinating another project. She asked a few artists to create and donate quilts for some new homes being built by Habitat for Humanity in Orange County. The new resident specified the mood and colors and then we create a 12x16" quilt for their new house. My residents wanted "hot chili peppers and a fiesta" feeling to their new home. This isn't quite finished. You can see details here and here.

BeBop

Husb and I leave tomorrow for wonderful Montecito Family Summer Camp in Sequoia/Kings Canyon National Park. This is my third year of artist-in residence and it's just a great experience!  BeBop and Buddy will be well cared for while we're gone by Mark, our most wonderful pet sitter.

Basilica di San Marco ~ detail

If you've been to the Basilica di San Marco in Venice, you know the interior is filled with gold mosaic tiles. It's certainly one of the most beautiful cathedrals in the world, and that's saying something! I've changed the name of this work in progress to Basilica di San Marco since it depicts the horses, some of the architecture and now the golden tiles.


I'm proud to announce that I'll be part of the opening weekend events at Quilt Visions: No Boundaries 2010 at the Oceanside Museum of Art. (My quilt, Zen Eucalyptus was juried into the exhibition!) The opening reception is Saturday, October 23. On Sunday, October 24, at 2pm, Judith Content will moderate a panel discussion “Balancing Act: the Art of Being an Artist” featuring Deidre Adams, Gloria Hansen, Katie Pasquini Masopust and ME! 

stargazer

Did you know I'm teaching a two day "Sketching & Watercolor: Journal Style" on December 2 & 3 in lovely San Diego, California? Check it out.

Shop JaneVille.

I added a few things to my JaneVille Etsy shop.

'Venice' in progress

Continuing working on this quilt inspired by my trip to Venice, in June. You can see how this piece started here. The size (now) is 22x22 inches.

Art Unraveled 2010

I had a small class for "Duet: Watercolor Flower & Hand carved stamps" at Art Unraveled so they put us in a small room. Here's our cozy little group. I've posted the work from this class, and my "Sketching and Watercolor: Journal Style" class here.

Art Unraveled (Phoenix)

Home from Art Unraveled! This is the third year I've taught there, and it's really a wonderful retreat with great people. So good to see so many returning students! This is me, at my booth on Saturday, at the Shopping Extravaganza. Look here to see photos of the fabulous artwork my students created in my "Recycled Circles" workshop. Keep in mind, these are pieces at the end of the 6 hour workshop and they will be adding and embellishment. GREAT work!!

Digitally printed quilt in progress.

 I've never done a digitally printed quilt. But Gloria Hansen, the queen of digital, has inspired me to give it a try. Using photoshop, and the feathered edges command (I've never used feathered edges before, it's pretty fun and easy!) I literally threw together this montage of images from another, larger quilt "Venice" that I'm working on. It's only 81/2 x 11" and I printed it on fabric prepared for inkjet printing. I'm going to back it with batting and machine and hand stitch it. I can't wait to get started! I'll keep you posted.

Medium Tall

I feel that I am medium tall. (I'm 5'9") By the looks of this photo of my good friend Melanie Testa and I at Art Unraveled, I look giant! Or she's more of a shorty than I remember. OR, my husband (6'3") took the photo... anyway, we were happy to see each other ~ though briefly. I know I'll see her again when we both teach at CREATE, in Chicago, later this month.

my purse

Treasure of the Heart ~ Tesoro del Corazon ~ workshop in San Miguel de Allende

I am excited!! I'll be one of three artists teaching a fabulous workshop in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico April 13-20th. Tesoro del Corazon will take place during San Miguel's wonderful Night of the Altars, and Palm Sunday. Not to mention you'll get 4 days of wonderful workshops and make ALL the items in this photo! The website has all the info you need to sign up!

Buddy

I'm off to Art Unraveled, in Phoenix and will return next week. If you're near, sign up for one of my workshops, or come by the Shopping Extravaganza on Saturday, August 7. I'll have lots of my artwork for sale. I'll post on facebook while I'm away.

Indigo. work in progress (day two)

I love indigo and I love hand stitching. About 5 years ago, I first heard the word the Japanese art of sashiko, patching with white thread on blue cloth and I made this piece, that I attached to my levi jacket. I'm inspired again, after I bought a selection of indigo dyed fabrics and threads from Glennis Dolce at the Long Beach Quilt Festival.
Shown is day two of my current project with a detail here. I'm working intuitively, just placing the fabric as I go, layering and stitching. It's got a long way to go, and I'll keep you posted!

Indigo- work in progress (day one)

Here's the first day of my Indigo piece.

Long Beach Sunset

Here's the piece I was working on at the Long Beach Quilt Festival. Finished, I think... (Size is about 10x12")

Long Beach Sunset ~ detail

And a detail shot and more here and here.