Overcoming Fear

I have a fear of heights, especially in open spaces. I don't do chair lifts, overhead cable cars, ferris wheels, and don't even care much for high rise buildings.

So how did I manage this??

Tram to Mt Pilatus, Luzerne, Switzerland

Well, if you want to see this, the only alternative was about 4 hours of uphill hiking!

View of Luzerne from Mt Pilatus

Luzerne

One picture says it all. Lovely river, cosmopolitan city, grand old bridge. Nope, not a postcard, but taken by yours truly, on location.

And here's another classic shot in Luzerne, the Lion carved into the mountain, Loewendenkmal. Oh and Cedric of course.

Travel Time

It's once again Travel Time for Cedric. He's not sure where he's going yet, but he likes United's new business class. There are these cool TV screens where you can watch TV, watch movies, or play games, even sudoku!

Pretty nice digs for a gnome, n'est-ce que pas?

Quilt House Tour (cont.)

Still continuing down the "gallery hallway" filled with mini quilts is yet another hand-appliquéd Japanese mini quilt based on designs by Kumiko Sudo.

Quilt House Tour (cont.)

We're walking, we're walking, slowly down the "gallery hallway", filled with mini quilts. This one is another hand-appliquéd Japanese mini quilt based on designs by Kumiko Sudo.

Quilt House Tour (cont.)

Exiting the family room, and walking down the 'gallery hallway', one encounters nearly a dozen smaller quilts.
This first is an abstract Japanese appliqué scene started in a class with Kumiko Sudo. It is hand-appliquéd, mostly with vintage silk fabrics.
The background and the frame are cotton fabrics.

It tends to remind me of the Golden Gate Bridge.
The Japanese writing was added by Ms Sudo, and somewhere I have written down what it means.

An ACEO Collaboration

My latest set of artist cards were inspired by a fellow ACEO artist, David Venne. I love the colors and forms he uses, so we've decided to do a little collaboration, developing the same subject in different media.

Here's one of David's that I particularly liked:

And here's my fabric, thread and ink version of the same subject.

Apple Tree, Diane Weber, 2 1/2" x 3 1/2"

I liked it so well, I decided to do another.

Lemon Tree, Diane Weber, 2 1/2" x 3 1/2"

ACEO Awards, Part VIII

Elephant Walk garnered a 3rd place award in the August Call to Art contest!

Must go for the gold next time!




Elephant Walk, Diane Weber, 3 1/2" x 2 1/2"

Quilt House Tour (cont.)

Still n the family room, two 'related' quilts, Moon Spots and Moon Spots II.

Moon Spots is on the right, and was the first quilt created. The circles are hand appliqued on the backgrounds, then the backgrounds beneath the circles are cut away, and become the basis for the next 'generation' quilt, Moon Spots II.
Next I'll have to show some of the quilting in these two quilts.

Quilt House Tour (cont.)

OK, time to move into the family room on our quilt house tour.

First up, Yellowstone Falls. This was created after a trip to Yellowstone around 1998, using a 'fractured landscape' technique.

Yellowstone Falls, Diane Weber, 32" x 38"

August Nibblefest

It's Nibblefest time again!

This month was a seemingly easy theme... "A Dog's Life".

I decided to wax poetical to tell the story behind this creation.

A Dog’s Life

Throw me a bone.
Fill my water bowl.
Take me for a long walk.

I care not what color you are,
And size doesn’t matter.

I’m here to love and be loyal.

Brush my coat.
Dress me pretty.
I don’t know embarrassment.

“Work like a dog”…do you pull sleds too?
“Dog Days”… must be good ones.
“Doggie Bag”…sounds yummy to me.
“Dog Pile”…sounds like fun!

Throw the ball, please throw the ball!!
Throw the stick, I’ll run after it all day!

Pat my head, scratch my ears,
Give me a nudge under the chin,
Let me rest at your feet.

Ah, a Dog’s Life!


A Dog's Life, Diane Weber, 7 1/2" x 5 1/2"

Quilt House Tour (cont.)

Continuing on our Quilt House Tour, and now flipping to the opposite wall in my studio, are two of my newest and favorite quilts, Yukata Cut It and Yukata By Numbers.

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These are the two quilts that are closest to me when I am at my desk, so I look at them a lot, and am so happy with the designs, the choice of fabrics, and the beautiful quilting. I also love the way they look side by side, even though they were designed independently.

Quilt House Tour (cont.)

Continuing on our Quilt House Tour, and moving counter-clockwise in my studio, are two of my early and favorite quilts, Boy's Day and Girl's Day.
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These are samples of my Dancing Diagonals pattern, made at the same time, to show off pretty Japanese fabrics. Each is about 42" square.
And there in the bottom corner is my latest painting experiment.

Quilt House Tour, or House Quilt Tour

I thought it might be fun to do a virtual tour of the quilts in my house. It is after all the most special quilts that have been chosen to hang.

Let's start in the studio.

On the back wall is the Double Wedding Ring I made as a wedding present for Tod. It was mostly hand pieced, and machine quilted on the Viking 1+ that he gave me for a wedding present (yes, I asked for it and specifically picked it out).

The fabrics are a combination of 30's reproductions in soft pastel colors, which I love, set against black and strong solids for the 'guy look'. It's about 70-80" wide and maybe 50" long, and was made in 1996-97.

Journey to a New Hobby

How did this get started??

Well, there was this store group, and they opened up their membership, and I snuck in, and learned a lot about running an eBay store. And there was this nice woman named Martha, and she sells this beautiful china with writing on it, which I wanted, but I don't need any more china.

But she mentions that mosaic artists are buying her china and breaking it up. Hmmm, I have always admired broken china jewelry and mosaics. So I ask her if she has any broken china, and of course she does.

Next, bunches of books on mosaics from the San Francisco library. I need tile nippers. I need more tiles to fill in between the china. So I search on eBay and of course I find tons, but one particular store catches my eye over and over. So I buy a bunch of stained glass tiles.

"Come and join the mosaic artist group", says Melanie. And so I do.

Then there are multiple trips to the hardware store for adhesive or mortar, a surface, what about grout??

Look what I found at the Goodwill store! Perfect!

Designing... the fun part! Oh, the beautiful glass rose in the center was a gift from sweet Megan, bought at Mendels Far Out Fabrics (only in San Francisco!).

Gluing, what a mess...good thing I didn't get a manicure this week.

Got it all glued! Bad picture, but I think it looks kinda cool blurry.

OK, top is all glued, just have to finish the sides.

All in a day's work! Next step, another trip to Home Depot for grout!

Monthly ACEO Call to Art

It's the 15th of the month, and time for the Year's Best ACEOs Call to Art, aka YBAC!

This month the theme is Wildlife. I was stumped for quite a while. But a couple of months ago I did an elephant card, and I quite liked it. So another trip to JoAnne's for another set of elephant buttons. This time I made a bargello background, and free-motion thread-painted a tree, before punching a couple of holes for the buttons.

Elephant Walk, Diane Weber, 3 1/2" x 2 1/2"

And a view of the back:

Journaling (cont.)

If I could do realism, and I could do collage, I would create a collage of a jungle scene, with maybe a jaguar, maybe some other wild animal, saying,

"Hey Babe, take a walk on the wild side...do do do do do do do do do ..."

Toucan Sam is so saying this...

Journaling

As if I don't have enough balls in the air, I think I should be doing more journaling. Especially to try out collage techniques, doodling or generic creative expression.

Here's a sample:

A tribute to Anthropologie, Wheezer and doodling...