Remembering my Grandmother

My grandmother dressed for her high school graduation in Midvale, Idaho

A quilt I made about her for the ‘I Remember Mama’ exhibit for the International Quilt Festival in 2005/6. The background is a watercolor and transferred to fabric to recreate my parents kitchen in their first home. My daughter helped make this quilt too with some quilting and sewing on the pink rose buttons. A story of her life on the binding and my memories of her on the inside border. 

Last week I started a series of ink and watercolor paintings dedicated to my grandparents who were such a positive influence on my life. I drew their house from memory. Her favorite flower was a pink rose. Pink was her power color!

She taught me how to sew with all of her love and encouragement. She made quilts by hand in her youth and made all of her own clothes. I made all of my own clothes until I was in my early 30’s. 

These are all of the lasting memories that I have carried with me throughout my life. She was a positive influence. I did live with them when I was 18 while attending secretarial school for over six months. It was the highlight of my life. So thankful! 

8 months safe at home. These last few weeks have been a struggle, but today the outlook seems brighter! 

Back to Drawing and Painting

Over 8 months staying safe at home. I decided to paint some happy illustrations to help myself stay positive and hope that it helps others during the time of Corona

I have several of these birds that carry different notes that I really enjoy making

Even though life throws it’s curve balls once in awhile, we can still find some good

Coffee...the nectar of the gods. I am a big fan of Lady Falcon Coffee Club. Based in San Francisco and is women run! 

No other words to say 

I love how the paper towel dabbing cloths look after painting sessions. Time to get some fresh towels out!

I don’t understand why people can’t wear a mask. 

I’ve been making hand painted cards on Strathmore watercolor cards. These give me joy!

Little Drunk Monday

I started this project in August. Two friends Leslie Tucker Jenison and Michele Muska started this sew along using these small templates made by BettyCrockerAss

And since I don’t piece ever with fabric, I decided to use wool blended felt. I wanted to join in, but on my own terms

The first few sets

Then thought that printed felt would be fun and add a lot to the piece



My foundation is a piece of wool blended felt that I Mistyfused and pressed it with a hot dry iron from the front and the back to give it an extra hot fuse. This photo is the back and I love the pattern from pressing!

Nothing is falling off! So no straight pins needed.

Let the fun begin with more Perle cotton and wool embellishments 

We are now in October and hand sewing. I really like how it looks!

This is November and being the artist that I am, I ask myself - does it need more? 

A close up on where I am now. I love the bright colors! Oh those polka dots!

This is completely hand sewn! Perle Cotton 8 and two colors of Perle Cotton 5 

Another view of the details

This is where I am now. 14 inch square. It might need more hand sewing! 

Family History and Me

I have moved all of my family history to my art studio to work on so I can utilize several tables. I started with 8 boxes of photos, albums, newspapers, notes, memorabilia that my grandparents and parents saved. I am down to 2 boxes and 3 photo albums and it feels good

I love finding treasure among the daunting chore of reading everything. My GG Grandfather led 108 wagons from St. Joseph’s, Missouri to Colorado, Idaho and some went onto Oregon. My family settled in the Middle Valley, which became Midvale in Idaho. 

My great grandmother was a force! 

I was so taken aback by this lovely poem written in 1897 by my GG Grandfather when he was 24

My grandmother on the day of her high school graduation. 

Home drawing and painting studio is coming along

Bought this cool cardboard organizer for my artwork. It’s actually for construction paper storage.

We got a new desk for our desktop computer and I got the hutch which gives me more shelf space. 


I’ve been playing around with crayons and watercolor paint!

Going into the holidays and how important it is to wear masks to shut down the pandemic


Less than a week away from the most important election of our lives. Get your ballot in by dropping it off in an official ballot box, or an open voting location in your community. Let your voice be heard.

Back in my Studio

I dug out this old embroidery design for a house and tulips and decided that I wanted to add some fabric

I made a pattern of the house using my light box, paper and a pencil 

I do have a bunch a pre-Mistyfused fabrics from my Hopscotch line

Let the fun begin! This is a good start!

And the tulips, but the tulip on the left might need some tweaking



Now making a pattern for the landscape 

I eye balled the stems, chimney and front door. Then trimmed the edges so they would be free from threads

In hindsight, I should have cut the thread ends before I fused the back, so they wouldn’t show through. So I cut them and didn’t lose much of the web, fortunately 

Working with white fabric, I need to have a really clean iron, so I use Dryer Sheets

It didn’t look like there was this much gunk, but apparently there was! Then I slide my iron over a scrap piece of fabric to remove the residue 

I pressed this to a piece of white wool blended felt and trimmed the edges all around




I pinned the house and white felt to a piece of pink wool blended felt. Now it’s ready for some fun embroidery! 

Let the fun begin!