Have to Share

I just have to share this image. My friend sent me the article with this picture. The article talk about two white tiger cubs who had to be separated from their mother after Hurricane Hannah, because she became stressed. So the woman who took the cubs, who is a professional animal care giver, also had this two year chimpanzee, who helps and mimics her. This picture was just to precious not to spread to a wider audience.

I Wish

I wish I could figure this all out. What is blogging really and this whole ranking stuff. And how do you find out how you are ranked. How does this affect by ability to sell my quilts. I'm feeling good about stuff - but I still feel a little lost about all this networking. Hilary, however seems to have it all down a lot better then me. Designing Hilary is ranked two, if I read her blog correctly. Now don't get me wrong. I do understand that a higher ranking means that more people will possible visit your site - so forth and so on, but I still feel like I'm missing something. Either that, or I am not giving enough time to the computer. Honestly - I am so very busy doing other stuff.

Maybe I am a little old fashion (she says as she sits munching on bread that she made Saturday - yum). I have been trying to be more self sufficient - cooking my own meals, planting fruits and veggies. Believe it or not I occasionally receive a free rabbit from my neighbors hutch. I try to be more conscious of how and where I travel, use things that are more user friendly to the environment - which, actually, sometimes, requires more work. I putter around the house and yard so much when I am not at work and I have had to resort to going to a sewing room to get my sewing done. I say resort - but I love it - really allows me to concentrate, away from everything and just sew.

So how to get a handle on this blogging/networking thing and move it forward is all I'm asking. Is there some kind of thing that really aides a person like me.

Oh well - here are some pictures that I took today. My quilt guild does an opportunity quilt every year, which is raffled off. We are doing an art quilt this year based on orange blossoms, because we are the Orange Blossom Guild. Also in my area of California, we grow a lot of citrus. I have lemon blossoms right now and we needed examples for the quilt. I also attempted to photograph a butterfly - not easy.

Some things Feel Great and Others Feel like a Challenge

The Seasons change and life speeds up and slows down. Everything ebbs and flows. Just when you think you can not take one more moment of the day in and day out, something happens to remind us that we do count and mean something and that there is something to be said about the lives we are living. Check out Eight is Not Enough and you will come to realize that every life is different and challenging and a blessing.

For me - just when I think I don't want to sell my quilts anymore I have a great moment. This last month was pretty productive.

I delivered a commission,

sold another quilt, finished two charity quilt tops,

and am almost finished with a spur of the moment of inspiration. I may have gotten a little over the top with embellishments - but it is a work in progress.

Continued Look at Early Art

Below I have and excerpt from the series How Art Made the World, which was shown on PBS a few years ago. I use it in my class room. The episode poses the question of how, we, as human beings, began making images and uses the early image of the cave painting, found in Europe, and the Drakensberg rock paintings done by the San people of West Africa, to begin to examine that question. On their web site they have also focused on the study of the rock paintings that have been found in California. But we must also be aware that, in reality the last of the great rock painters are found in Australia, to the best of my knowledge. And we must tip our hats off to the Aborigines, for trying to maintain the traditions of their ancestors.

Aboriginal rock paintings appear earthly and innate to their surroundings, yet often mysterious and supernatural. The naturalness is partly due to its unique ragged canvas. The rock or cave wall is from nature, formed from various stones, surfaces, consistencies, heights and lengths. Wet ochres and rocks as the painting tools also signal an attachment to the tangible world(S. Haider. "Ancestral Rock Paintings The Wandjini figures." Aboriginal Culture & People Articles. http://www.aboriginalartstore.com.au/aboriginal-art-culture/aboriginal-culture/ .

Whether in the prehistoric caves of Europe or the Drakensberg Mountains of South Africa, artists saw visions and recreated them on rock walls. But the act of making these images seemed to be the exclusive preserve of a select few. So how did we get from there, to today's modern world where just about everyone can make a picture?

The rock art was part of a site reserved for an initiation ceremony for girls.
David Whitely, an expert on California rock art sites, became fascinated with ancient rock images painted in the heart of the Cahuilla Indian community in Riverside County. Images not hidden away, but seemingly painted for everyone to see.
The rock art was part of a site reserved for an initiation ceremony for girls. The ceremony began with the girls being placed in pits and given hallucinogenic tobacco.
"The idea being that…would ultimately cause them to have visionary images, one of which would be their spirit helper, they would obtain supernatural power that would help them not only through childbirth but throughout their lives. "
"At the termination of their puberty initiation, they would run up to these sites, these sites located centrally in their villages…and then they would paint the spirit helper that they saw during their visionary experience on the wall."
At other sites, boys went through a similar ritual at the onset of their puberty. It meant everyone had this experience. In other words, pictures had gone from being the exclusive property of a shaman/artist, to being owned by the entire tribe ( N. Spivey. "David Whitely - the Cahuilla People." How Art Made the World. http://www.pbs.org/howartmadetheworld/episodes/pictures/whitley/).

It is very interesting contemplation, from my point of view. Is this how we began to make images and the lasting beauty they have brought as we have rediscovered them.

Newest Quilt - and it was commisioned

Here I present my newest creation. This is a baby quilt, which was commissioned by a local person. The theme that her daughter came up with was a beach/ocean bedroom for her soon to arrive baby boy. So i took examples of the crib sheets that she had picked and came up with this really cute and cool surfer quilt. Personally, i love it. I don't always get overly excited about one of my "creations," but this one was fun to think about, pick out the fabric for, and then create and make. And it is really ooohhh soooo soft. I hope they enjoy it.



Another of our artist seems to always be full of great ideas, which she gets really excited about. Meet Corinne Sullivan (Day Dream Art Studio Blog ), who love to make sunshine and cheer with just about everything she does. She makes jewelry and here she is adding her style to her display walls for her booth, for her next craft fair. They are wonderful.

And to top that all off she loves to give that joy to her children and their friends by passing on her love of creating. Great job Corinne.

Well I'd Love To Say....

...that I have been on the ball the last two weeks. But the reality is that I have been somewhat on vacation.. Mostly in my mind, but still after teaching solidly since January and finally getting two weeks completely to myself has been too tempting. So again I make up for my lack of diligence and want to express my delight with Flory's poetry, which was featured last week and Teresa this week with her beautiful jewelery. It looks like all of us have been having varying degrees and heavy work and blissful quietude.

A Little Naughty But NICE

I don't know, there seems to be a allure in the air. Have you ever wondered why certain things seems to happen in synchronicity with one another?

I was thinking about what to write about in my blog this week and checking out all my different ports, if you will, on the Internet, when I came across my friend Laurie's plea to buy her corset. It is just adorable. So I decided to help out in a little promotion for her and I thought that I could tie it into Skwigga-zine blog ring promotion, when low and behold I discovered that we are promoting our own Skwigga-zine this week. Today when I went to our front page there was all the eye candy of wonderful bits and pieces that we all work so hard on and one in particular that went with my idea was Corinne Sullivan's new painting, which she was showing us on our magazine. Just what I needed. So now I am really thinking out three different elements of promotion. Laurie and her great designs in corset and just about anything else you might want (such a talent), Corinne and her new painting, which is flirty, sweet and a little naughty, and Skwigga-zine, because it really affords us the opportunity to get out there and hopeful encourage us to be seen!!!!!!

"This is a blue and white vinyl corset lined with corset weight coutil. It is boned with Rigelene so it is great as a fashion top or as a corset. It is bound with red bias tape and laces up the center back with 12 silver eyelets "

Badger Couture

Corinne's newest painting.... "Everyone Found Her Charming... 'But She Was A Mess Inside'. 16 x 20, mixed media.This painting is a mixed media experiment where I painted an under painting in acrylic, collage translucent paper over it and painted the pinup and border in oils. I then set Swavorski crystals into the painting for a little extra sparkle. This painting will be in the PAPA Gallery in Paducah starting today through the end of October."

Day Dream Arts

So enjoy and give all these artists your sincere contemplation. They are all very talented and without Missy of Skwigga-zine some of this might not be possible