Candy, a Quilt, a Quilt Pattern

When I was in grammar school, there was a 'candy closet' at the back of the room, where we could buy penny candies during recess. At that time, concerns over hyperactivity or dental hygiene were non existent :-)

One of the candies I loved were Circus Peanuts, those weird orange things made from some sort of sugar and orange coloring with an interesting, not-to-be-found-anywhere-else texture.

Those colors, textures and memories made their way into my Circus Peanuts quilt.

Circus Peanuts, Diane Weber, 48" x 48"

More New Toys!

At the Long Beach Quilt Festival, I watched a quilt artist making Artist Trading Cards and larger quilted pieces with a very light weight product called Misty Fuse. I do like my Steam a Seam 2, but sometimes my machine doesn't like it, so time to try something new!

New Toys

I almost made it out of Long Beach without buying anything, but then I visited the Artist Trading Card area. Found a great set of green, pink and turquoise mini metallic paintstiks that will go nicely with my gold, silver and copper ones.

And oooh, my new rubber rubbing plate! Can't wait to try it out!

Another View of Long Beach Quilt Festival

Yet another view of the booth after some rearranging; note DayZ BloomZ now showing on the back table.

More pics of Long Beach

Here is another shot of my booth at International Quilt Festival in Long Beach, showing my Hanafubuki quilt in the corner, Haiku and Diamond Delight on the table.

International Quilt Festival Long Beach

Here is a shot of my booth at the inaugural International Quilt Festival in Long Beach, which ran from set up on July 23rd through close down on July 27. It only took about 10 hours to set up this tiny space, but it did look good!

Black Eyed Susans... and an ACEO

Remember those black eyed susans I photographed the other day? The purity of color, the perfection in the petals, the contrast of the yellow and black, all in the bright sunshine under our beginning-to-return-to-blue sky... and thus we have some serious inspiration.

I printed the picture on fabric, then embellished with thread leaves, hand-appliqued petals, hand sewn beads. Rather a nice rendering, n'est-ce que pas?

Black Eyed Susan, Diane Weber, 3 1/2" x 2 1/2"

Starting the Heart Cards

More work in progress on my grand scheme to produce a whole deck of ACEO Artist Cards, with prints of my first 54 cards on one side, and simple textile art on the back.

Here are the ace, 2 and 3 of hearts.

A Little Bit of Paradise

I have a little bit of paradise in my back yard...


Pink plumeria, grown from one of those plumeria sticks you can pick up at Hilo Hattie's.

This is the first year it has flowered... too bad I took a blurry picture.

Black-eyed Susans, the state flower of Maryland.

This coral rose was one of those hot house gift roses, but it's happy in the yard.

And year after year I am rewarded with these lovely hummingbird feeders :-)

And here's another little bit of paradise, a little Hawaiian quilt I call Mimi's Muu Muus.

Mimi's Muu Muus, Diane Weber 21" x 53"

ACEO YBAC Time

It's the 15th of the month and so time for the Year's Best ACEO Call to Art Challenge (YBAC).

This month the theme is domestic animals. When I found myself stuck for an idea, it was a fellow artist who suggested doing something traditional, and what could be more traditional than a quilted Scottie dog block, or two...

Bling me up, Scottie #1, Diane Weber 3 1/2" x 2 1/2"

Bling me up, Scottie #2, Diane Weber 3 1/2" x 2 1/2"

OK, so I love making Note Cards

Whenever I find an artist whose work I love but cannot afford, I try to buy a note card from them.

I hope people will feel the same way about my work, and so I create note cards.

This one is a print of my "Boat in the Yard" painting I did for the New Year's challenge. I love this painting, and would be sorry I sold it if it hadn't gone to a good home, and I get to make prints and cards.

More Love Notes

In keeping with the 'do sometihng creative every day' motto, here is another note card created from a print of one of my original asian ACEOs. I added some of the fabric used in the original, and a copper cording on the side.

Love Notes

Not only do I love the music of Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, but when we went to see them at the Paramount theater in April, Glen said something that touched me deeply.

He said, "Write letters. There is no more intimate way of sharing what's in your heart, and the recipient gets something that you not only thought and felt and wrote, but something you also touched. So much more intimate than an email." OK, so maybe I don't remember the exact words, but they were to this effect, and I so agree!

And use pretty note cards and stationary! These are made from prints of my ACEOs on beautiful yellow cards bought at one of my new favorite stores, Paper Source on Santana Row, where their motto is Do Something Creative Every Day!

Yes, I DO do Appliqué

Many quilters who do primarily machine work don't even use the "A' word. But I love appliqué, and it does my heart good to bring out these old blocks and see how patiently and beautifully they are executed!

These Japanese crest blocks are based on the work of the exceptional quilt artist Kumiko Sudo.

Blue Willow Quilts

I never knew the name for this pattern, but always knew I loved blue plates like this one:

Well, it's called Blue Willow and when Holly Holderman of Lakehouse Dry Goods designed a line of Blue Willow fabric, I made a couple of quilts to showcase the line.

They're called "White Willow"...

White Willow, Diane Weber, 48" x 48"
and "Butter Willow".

Butter Willow, Diane Weber, 62" x 74"

And are featured on the cover of my Shadow Boxes pattern.