Side 6

Side 6 with two more to go. Getting closer...

Side 5

Fifth side of eight. At this point what I'm building becomes a little more clear, but I've still got a trick or two up my sleeve.

And, yes, here are some bugs -- you knew I wouldn't be able to create something without them.

Part 4

Part 4 - halfway there on this project. On to the bigger pieces now...

Part three

Part three, this time with a carved stamp.

Walking the dog tonight was like running a spring-peeper obstacle course. Those little frogs were everywhere, including stuck to the outside of the glass front door and all over the steps and walkway. The rain brings them out in droves (in flocks? in gangs? what do peepers travel in?) and the outside lights lure them all up from the creek. They are so cool. This little guy was about an inch long. The first view is from outside looking in and the second from inside looking out. His belly was bright lime green, which totally washed out in the picture. Happy spring!

Joyeux Anniversaire

Happy birthday, Matias! You totally rocked that skateboard, dude.

Side 2

Here's the second side of the new project. The pear is a print from an actual pear.

A new project

I've started a new project (that needs to be finished this week) with multiple pieces. This is the first part. More to follow...

Illustration Friday - primitive

cotton fabric, linen and cotton thread, bamboo batting, acrylic ink, printed mulberry paper, stamped letters and acrylic paint on 6" x 6" stretched canvas

After a few weeks' hiatus from IF, I'm back -- it feels good to have time for art again. I used thread and my sewing machine to sketch a "chapulín" or grasshopper in the Toltec style. The Toltecs were the (perhaps mythical) ancestors of the Aztecs and a pre-Columbian civilization of Mesoamerica. A favorite author of my formative years, Carlos Castañeda, uses the term Toltec with a different, shamanistic meaning. The sculpture and paintings of the Toltecs (and Aztecs and Olmecs) are highly stylized and powerfully graphic.

There is a beautiful park in Mexico City called Bosque de Chapultepec. The word chapultepec is a combination of Spanish and Nahuatl and means Grasshopper Hill. The park is home to one of the best anthropologic museums in the world, a zoo (with pandas!), a museum of modern art, a natural history museum and the residence of the president of Mexico. My husband and I spent our honeymoon in Mexico City many years ago and stayed in a hotel on the edge of Chapultepec Park. Grasshoppers are a pretty ubiquitous symbol in the area.

Today's the day

The episode I taped for the Quilt Show with Alex & Ricky last August starts airing today. It's number 208 and is called Principally Speaking - A Firm Foundation for Good Design. You'll see a lot of the quilts from the book I wrote with Elin Waterston, Art Quilt Workbook, a fun exercise and more.

There will be a live "Meet the Guest" chat on the Quilt Show website next Wednesday night, April 23, at 8 pm edt, and I'd love it if some of my blog readers could join me!

Last week I was out in San Francisco visiting our publisher, C&T, to work on an upcoming project. It's always great to meet in person the people who you've talked to and emailed with for a long time. C&T is one of the most environmentally conscious companies I've ever seen. I'm going to work on implementing some of their ideas in the shop to save energy and resources.

Rolling...

I haven't posted much art lately and with good reason - Elin and I have been preparing to shoot a dvd for C&T Publishing based on material from our book, Art Quilt Workbook. We've been working on samples and step-outs, and gathering materials and supplies, and writing the script for ages. The shoot was this weekend at my house.

Got Moxey?

We worked with our awesome director, Jane Moxey, on Thursday and Friday rehearsing and getting ready, and then first thing Saturday morning the crew showed up at my house. We asked a good friend, Karen, to be our trusty personal assistant and we couldn't have chosen better. It was a pretty intense 16+ hours. The crew, Sean, Pat, Steve and Chris, was amazing. It was cool to watch them set up all of the equipment in my studio.

Chris connecting cords


Chris, Pat and Moxey shooting my stash with Karen looking on


Karen helping Elin set up a scene

We couldn't have done it without Karen. She kept us organized and centered. She even earned a cool nickname from the crew, Slate, because one of her many jobs was slating each scene with its number and take. We're so grateful to her!

Steve, Moxey, Sean and Chris check out a shot


Karen and Pat help me lay out a demo


Elin all super serious right before a take


And not so serious. Smashing!


Nearly done... It was a long day when we finished at almost 2 AM.


The dvd, Jane Dávila & Elin Waterston Teach You Art Quilting Basics, part of C&T's At Home With The Experts series, will be out this summer.