All posts by Katiepm

Happy March!

Happy March! It has been raining and raining up in Northern California. Good for our trees and makes it so green up here but its a little old after a few weeks. Rivers were at flooding stage last week and my little creek on my property was up to the edge of the little bridge several times. Fascinating to watch the creek rise!! I can see it from my sewing machine window. I cleared all of the berry bushes out of the view path before it even started raining so I am enjoying it now, even if I got a bit of poison oak!! I have been very busy finishing up quilts before I display them at my Alegre Retreat in April. www.alegreretreat.com. We have a few spaces left in Cynthia England and independent study classes if you would like to join us at the last minute.

I have also been working on a quilt that uses my new fabric line with Free Spirit. I would love to show you but then I would be in big trouble. They won’t let me reveal it until just before it ships in November!! but I will be going to spring market in Kansas City to Premier it. So exciting. I just love it.

Our local Fortuna guild has a fun challenge going on. In January you gave a dollar for each UFO you were planning on finishing by the end of March for each piece you finished you would get your dollar back. I gave 10 dollars as I had a lot of pieces that I had started in my design course from Hudson River Valley art workshops in Greenville NY and I have them almost all finished!! Yahoo. then you bring all of the pieces you finished for a huge show and tell. That will be fun to see what everyone accomplished.

My brother Mark who wrote the Rose Quilt Mystery is working on his second book in the series and I am working on making the cover quilt which is a map of where the hidden money is from the civil war!! fun fun fun.


have a great spring! I am sure that it is right around the corner!!
love and hugs
katiepm

Happy New Year to Everyone!

Happy New Year to everyone. I had a very special Christmas celebration with my daughter, husband and 9 month old grandson. It was delightful to watch a young child enjoy the Christmas tree. In February I am teaching in Santa Fe so will get to spend time with 4 of my other grand kids so that will be exciting then in May we are all going to Disneyland!!!!!! That is my line up for family enjoyment so far for 2019.

In between I will be teaching around the country. I love teaching and traveling so it looks to be a good strong year ahead of me. I am diligently working on getting some old projects off my design wall so I can once again work on some new pieces for my still life series.

I have finished some pieces from my new class “Jumpstarting your Creativity” a five day course where each day we do different design explorations.

One lesson is using lines to create composition

One is using an inspiration photo to create a grid composition based on the colors and directions of movement from the photo

Another lesson is Distorted still life. where you start with a fused still life then cut it up and arrange it


In my painting series I finished a stitched painting from black and white and red painted canvases

I also finished a quilt from a water color painting

And two Artful log cabins were completed. One inspired from the stitched painting above, and one from an inspiration photo of a plant in purples and greens

A New Titanium Knee

I have been recovering from a new titanium knee!! Lots of therapy and I am almost ready to walk my dogs again on my own. Three big dogs are a bit scary when you are not sure of your strength and stability. Here is a picture of them waiting for me to get up and take them.

At this moment I can take one at a time. which they do not understand at all. Three fifteen minute walks around the neighborhood a day is all I am allowed at this time.

Not much sewing going on as my studio is up a flight of stares. But I took my painted canvases down stairs before the surgery and I have been making stitched painting still life to keep my creativity going. Summer is coming to an end! It has been beautiful weather in northern California and I am well away from all of the fires. Firewood has been delivered so I am ready for the winter to settle in and start some new quilts.

love and hugs
katiepm