Room with a View...

I'm spending the next several days with this as my view.

Ocean City MD, May 2008

The sky is clear, the breeze is fresh, the sand is fine and warm,

and calm has descended.

Blog Tag

My first blog tag... from crazygalJenna, oh my, what if I don't have 6 blogging friends? I guess this is my chance to make a few new friends!

Here are the rules:

1. Link back to me for tagging you
2. Post these rules on your blog.
3. Share 6 unimportant things about yourself.

4. Tag 6 blogging friends.

Six Unimportant Things About Myself...
1. I own 7 sewing machines, and use them all!
2. I don't like telephones or talking on the phone.
3. I'm a FogHead (listen to KFOG San Francisco).
4. When I go to the mall, I park near Nordstroms so I have to go thru the shoe department.
5. I'm a fussy eater, but I never knew it.
6. I love Anthropologie and would love to live in a store.

Thanks for playing everyone!

Okay...my tags, I hope you don't mind playing along!

It's actually fun and kind of releasing :-)

Allen of Eating Out Loud - gotcha!

My wonderfully talented friend of The Creators Palette

Hey Megan, how are you??

Amy Weber who is not related to me :-)

Monty and Rosie, the cutest blogspot ever

My new friend Helen

Phew, 6 friends accomplished, now how to actually tag them...

Pixie Stix... Candy to Quilt

Back in the old days, when I was in grammar school, at recess time the back closet would be unlocked, and out would come boxes of penny candies for sale. Mary Janes, Circus Peanuts, Swedish Fish... I don't recall any chocolate, just the pure sugar kind of candy, like Pixie Stix!

By the time I was done with grammar school, I had like a million cavities, but I remember the candy closet fondly!

These memories make for good inspiration when it's time to design a quilt.Pixie Stix Quilt Top, Diane Weber, 48" x 48"

Another "Under the Sea" ACEO...

More sea life artwork popped out of my studio today in preparation for Theme Week on June 1st.

I think I will call this one "Fish Bubbles II". The background is a bit of a bargello, with 1/4" pieces of dark green, dark blue, aqua, light green and pink fairy frost fabric. Again I quilted wavy kelp lines with variegated metallic thread. Then I popped two iridescent fish buttons in place, secured with floss. Swarovski crystals form the fish bubbles!

It's pretty and shiny, just like I like things!

Fish Bubbles II, Diane Weber, 3 1/2" x 2 1/2"

I Love Gnomes

My love for and interest in gnomes originated with my favorite movie, Amelie.

I think it was shortly after that I acquired my first gnome, Pierponte.

Being my first, although he is a garden gnome, he is also a house gnome... can't risk him running away. He lives inside among the house plants.

But he does get out for adventures. Here he is on a hike through Rancho San Antonio, looking a bit startled by the flash of the camera.

My love for gnomes also extends to art. I find it very hard to resist gnome art. I have a lovely collection of five Artist Trading Cards depicting gnomes through the holidays.
Recently I was given a little friendly challenge to create an ACEO of a gnome, in my medium, of course. And so here is Pierponte in a fabric and ink ACEO:

Pierponte the Gnome, Diane Weber, 2 1/2" x 3 1/2"

From the Jungle to the Sea...

OK, the little Jungle Life series is over, so now it's time to work on my Sea Life series.

June 1 marks the start of the next Theme Week. The theme is "Under the Sea".

There is no lack of objects available for representing sea life.

In this first piece, I started with a great fabric, a light aqua fairy frost, and quilted wavy kelp shapes with variegated metallic thread. Then I added a string of perfectly-colored green-to-aqua pre-strung seed beads along the bottom edge (phew, this was tough to do!). Next, three plastic fish buttons are seen swimming out of the kelp bed, spouting glass crystal bubbles!

Does it sound like it was easy to make? It wasn't! But I love it!

Auction starts June 1, 2008.

Under the Sea I, Diane Weber, 3 1/2" x 2 1/2"

Love Letters, Part III

Here's another take on my Love Letters pattern, this one made into a "Love Runner". Just three fabric envelopes, arranged vertically. This is a nice size for the back of a door or inside a closet, where it can hold all sorts of little treasures.


Love Runner, Diane Weber, 14" x 42" (SOLD)

Community in a Cup

Spent a few lovely and productive days "on the hill" this week, with afternoons spent at my favorite coffee shop.

No, not Starbucks (despite how much money I spend there), but Farleys on Potrero Hill, where the coffee is good, the internet is free, the magazines and art are entertaining, the scrabble tiles are awesome, and the people watching is the best!

It truly is "Community in a Cup".

Jungle Weave ACEO

One of the great things about ACEOs is their small size enables experimentation without huge investments in time and materials. I have been wanting to try weaving on an ACEO. So picking up with the strips left over from Jungle Bargello, I created Jungle Weave.

The background layer or "weave" is an animal print of gray and black on cream. The "weft" fibers are the same print in deep red, orange and green. On top of the weave I free-motion quilted a tree with brown and green variegated threads. Two metal elephant buttons complete the scene.


Jungle Weave, Diane Weber, 3 1/2" x 2 1/2"

Here is the back view:

Nibblefest Art Festival

Once per month, on the 20th of the month, the Nibblefest Art Festival is held on eBay. This is a themed art contest, judged by the number of unique bidders. Everyone starts their artwork at $.99, so it's a fabulous opportunity to win some great and affordable art. Search NFAC on eBay for lots of these art treasures.

I was privileged to have won 2nd place in this contest in March.



For May, the theme is "Jungle Life". I created this little bargello quilt with five different jungle theme fabrics.


Jungle Bargello, Diane Weber, 6" x 4"

Hamster Dance ACEO

Remember the Hamster Dance??


Well, apparently rodents in general, and hamsters in particular, are hot once again!

So here is my ACEO version of the Hamster Dance.

Hydrangeas & Quilts

In front of our house is the most glorious hydrangea bush.

We lovingly feed it aluminum sulfate to turn the flowers blue.

The glory of blue hydrangeas shines through in this little quilt called

"A Tale of Heather & Butter".


A Tale of Heather & Butter", Diane Weber, 42" x 42", December 2004 (SOLD)

"I want to live on a blue willow island
Amidst a butter yellow sea
I'll grow heather blue hydrangeas and dark blue raspberries
In the butter yellow sunshine
Blue monarch butterflies will visit my island
And rest on my blue hydrangeas
I'll build a blueberry wall around my blue willow island
And plant blue hydrangeas all around it. "

Green Reflections

I am feeling so "green" after biking to work yesterday. I can't wait to do it again! So I emphasized the green in this ACEO, another in my "Reflections" series.

The image is from a picture taken of my garden, printed on fabric, embellished mostly with green thread, and backed with a great green striped fabric. I placed a little mirror for the mirror ball.


Green Reflections, Diane Weber, 2 1/2" x 3 1/2"

Bike to Work Day

I love to ride my bicycle, I love to ride my bike.
And so I am so proud to have biked to work today!
Less then 6 miles, the ride there was pretty easy on a beautiful morning.
The ride home in the 98 degree heat... well, it was hot!

When I grow old, I shall paint my bike orange and have baskets decorated with flowers. That would be hot!



Also hot... my orange Asian Japanese Kabuki quilt!


Kabuki Slider, Diane Weber, 38" x 39"

From Glass Art to an ACEO

Recall that incredible glass art I posted about, at the Legionof Honor?
I said I would do an ACEO inspired by it.
Well, here it is:


"Sun ACEO", Diane Weber, 2 1/2" x 3 1/2"

And just a refresher, here's that Sun glass art:

Glass Art and ACEOs

Today's visit to the Legion of Honor not only provided a wonderful chance to view the photography of Annie Leibovitz, but the surprise was an amazing piece of glass art called"Sun" by Dale Chihuly.


I must do an ACEO inspired by this!

Meanwhile, the colors at least are reminiscent of these abstract ACEOs I did earlier in the year.

Golden Rain, Diane Weber 3 1/2" x 2 1/2"

Crossroads, Diane Weber 2 1/2" x 3 1/2"

Amsterdam... and an ACEO

Row after row upon canal after canal. Brick, gables, windows...Amsterdam!
The narrowest house in Amsterdam, the red one in the center, is only the width of one window and door, at least at the front of the house.
These and similar images are the inspiration for my latest ACEO...

Amsterdam ACEO, Diane Weber, 2 1/2" x 3 1/2"

ACEO Awards, Part IV

Well, it seems the Little Red Riding Sue Artist Trading Cards were a hit!
This Sue in the flower field won third place in the ACEO Theme Week contest. Winners are judged by most unique bidders. Thank you bidders!


Little Red Riding Sue, Diane Weber, 2 1/2" x 3 1/2"

Color in Rows

I cannot imagine a place where the color, the frangrance, the multitude of flowers is as intense as in the tulip fields of the Netherlands. So excited to finally be among the beloved tulips in the fields, I didn't even think to take off my dorky helmet... I was in tulip heaven!









OK, by the time we got to the hyacinth fields, it was time to really stop and smell the flowers... finally the helmet is off!



But although we are talking about flowers, like any good crop, they are grown in neat and orderly rows, just like in my Panel Panache quilt.


Tuscan Villa Panel Panache, Diane Weber, 64" x 84"