This is a fused glass dish. It's a sample for my class next month, at 212 Arts. Come and make your own. It's about 5 inches. This is number 194.

Thank you for commenting! I got several ideas while touring studios today. One of them is, "I'd better get some of this stuff cleared out!" I do want to have some room for people to enter my studio. Since my friend Deb came over to help me, I have made a new quilt. It's already a better space. I feel like the dust in my brain has been swept out.

Make Happiness Fresh Daily, a new art quilt.
I have been feeling like I was talking to myself on this blog. It is nice to get feedback from people who see it occasionally, and I have not had much. So, I took a break to see if I missed blogging. Am I doing it for myself, or others?
If it's for me only, why publish it? I guess I decided it makes me happy to share the things I make. But I would be glad to have comments sometimes. This quilt says we are all responsible for our own happiness, so just make it. Whether or not anyone replies, I will do it for me. I hope you enjoy it too.

I just had a lovely day, in the company of friends. The second 212 Arts studio tour was today. We had a progressive lunch, and marveled at the ways other artists use their space. The camaraderie was great. Big thanks to the hostesses, and to the wonderful people who fed us all. There were 20 artists on the tour, and we saw 3 studios. This was a special group of people called CakeEaters. They are warm, generous, and welcoming.

I'll be taking a break from blogging for a while. Check back in a few weeks.

 Yesterday we went to ArtPrize in Grand Rapids. It is a city wide art show, open to all artists, which is displayed all over downtown. The winner is chosen by the viewers. You have to be there in person to vote, and the top prize is $250,00.
It was an incredible experience, which we plan to repeat next year. I recommend you see this show. It is up until Oct. 9th.
We saw art made by people from all over the world. There was a large variety of media represented. From the felted gowns, as seen here....

 acrylic and oil and watercolor paintings, like this...

 knitted 1 inch squares, which made this picture, about 7 by 9 feet, and other fiber arts,

 kinetic sculptures, like this, which was a whirligig,

 chalk drawings on paper,

 art made by homeless people,

 living sculpture, like this, in which the 2 men moved around and struck poses, but when they were still looked just like statues,

 rolling sculpture, like this Geo Metro,

acrylic painting, like this one a day series,

to this coffee stirrer building, completely woven and held up by tension, no glue.
For more views go to this blog.

Mini Bags, they hang around your neck, and hold the phone, and a bit more. I just had to do something with the gorgeous yarn. This makes 192

Another in my white on white (not) series, Patience. It is made of cotton and silk, with a zipper bit. I like this one a lot, and I'm thinking it might be the contrast that I like. Or it may be the tidy edges, and straightish lines of stitches. Number 187
I just added the buttons, like it better now. The little jolt of gold on the opposite side from the zipper bit is nice.

Do you want to take a Greek holiday? Go here..Greek Holiday

 I sewed some more tiny art quilts to canvas. I am really enjoying painting the canvases. I use about 5 colors on each one, layered and wiped. This makes 186.

Today I will give you a recipe. My friend Susie gave me one for German Apple Cake. I modified it by reducing the flour, sugar and oil, and adding oats for fiber. I also increased the nuts. The original recipe called for walnuts, but I only had 1/4 cup. And I eliminated the frosting, and will dust with confectioners' sugar instead. I also added the banana and raisins, because they were here. Please tell me if you like it. (We just ate some, and damn, I'm good.) There is only a hint of banana taste, it's mostly toasted pecans, apples and cinnamon flavors. My house smells like heaven.

Kats’ Apple Cake

1+½ cups flour
½ cup oats
1+½ cups sugar
2 tsp. cinnamon
1tsp. soda
½ tsp. salt
4 apples, chopped
1 banana, chopped
1/3 cup raisins
2 eggs, beaten
¾ cup oil
1Tbsp. Water
Mix all dry ingredients. Add all wet ingredients, and mix well.

Top with:
¼ cup walnuts
¾ cup pecans
Bake at 350* for 45-60 minutes.

Sprinkle with confectioners’ sugar before serving.

A new way of looking at them. These are mini art quilts, sewn to canvas. Numbers 175-177

Two more new quilts. The left one will say Energy, when finished. The right one says Renewal. Numbers 173, 174

 This is my creative act for today. An 8 quart pot of stuffed cabbage, just put it on to cook. Number 172, even though we'll eat it.

And a 5 quart pot of stuffed cabbage. This one has all the small rolls, made with the inside cabbage. I hope I remember to take some over for Deb, who also loves to eat good heritage-flavored food.

 I took the silk scarf dyeing class at 212. This is my first tied marbles scarf. Isn't it fantastic?

 I also made a striped one.

This is Blue Moon art quilt. I think that makes 171.

 Yesterday I had an art day. My friend Kathy came over, and we painted fabric. The first thing I did was make a face stencil.

 I painted some faces with my stencil. It looked pretty good, so I filled this cloth. All the fabric I used was stuff I hand dyed in the past. This one may be a whole cloth quilt.

 Not sure what I wanted to do next, I made plus and minus signs and curls on this dotted piece. I think I'll probably cut strips from it.

 The stamping and squares here were started at an art getaway a couple summers ago. I added the bottom rows, and did a little more painting.

 More curls, another face, and I'm getting in the groove.

The last thing I did was paint a pear. I saw a picture in a book that I liked, and wanted to make a pear like it. I have a long way to go to feel skilled at painting. But this was a very fun day. This makes 168 pieces this year.

You Hold the Key, my newest quilt. The funny thing about this and the last one, is that my intent was to make a white on white quilt. I like the interplay of texture, and small differences of color. But I don't seem to have a choice what comes out of my hands. My eye is irresistibly drawn to color, and this happens.
 Number 161

A new quilt, Lucky Day. This is a departure for me. I usually do modern looking, colorful things. But I've been reading all my collage books, and this is the result. It's an amalgam of velvet and linen drapery fabric samples,old lace, new muslin, very old buttons, and messy hand stitching. It was fun to do, a fabric collage. Number 160
That is an antique button card sewn on. The name on it is Lucky Day.

 I worked on two paintings today. The flower I made in a class 2 years ago. I lightened the background, and added a stem and leaves. Not sure you can see them at the bottom.

This one I started in February, but deepened the colors today. Needs more work.

 Another Bird Bag. This one has the bird as a flap to close the bag. 159

Prairie Songs, a quilt in a shadow box. About 19" square. 160

Another quilt in a shadow box. This one is called   Alphabetica. About 9" square. 162

Today I spent some creative time recording my expenses. It's creative because I had to sort the whole years receipts, and do them over. I accidentally saved the wrong document as expenses, and lost everything I had already done for the year. Surprisingly, it didn't take very long, maybe an hour. I kept all my receipts together in an envelope, so although they were mixed up, I had them. Don't want to do that again. I feel like it's torture to sit at a computer for an hour.

This is the same collage I added a few days ago. I have done some more work on it. Is it getting better? Or worse?

I have some exercise advice for you. Go shopping at IKEA. I got almost 7000 steps there today, and didn't even notice.

Is this better? I added an interesting strip of buttons.

This is a BirdBag. I am very disappointed with it. I made the bag, took it apart, and resewed it, took out the pocket, folded and resewed it, and then put the bird pocket on crooked anyway. Some days are like this, can't do anything right. But I do like the quilting on the bird pocket, and the fringe. Number 158