Fiber Artists/Charity Fundraiser

One Cause, One Wednesday, One Hundred Collages One Cause – The Fight Against Cancer. One Wednesday – February 16, 2011. One Hundred Collages – Created for this event by an all-star team of artists: Natalya Aikens, Pamela Allen, Laura Ann Beehler, Liz Berg, Pokey Bolton, Laura Cater-Woods, Jette Clover, Jane Davila, Jamie Fingal, Gloria Hansen, Leslie Tucker Jenison, Lyric Kinard, Jeanelle McCall, Linda Teddlie Minton, Karen Stiehl Osborn, BJ Parady, Judy Perez, Cynthia St. Charles, Virginia A. Spiegel The goal – Raise $8,000 for the American Cancer Society in just one day. More details and a preview of artwork: http://bit.ly/ciJ0TN Fiberart For A Cause has already donated over $205,000 to the American Cancer Society through the generosity of fiber artists and their patrons.

Beyond the Rail

Someone asked me why I was using the title Beyond the Rail. The simple answer is that on a trip to Hawaii with 53 high school kids I learned that I like "going beyond the rail". I had been to Hawaii 9 times without really seeing it. We did the usual fly in, stay in a luxury resort or an upscale condo and do the tourist things on those 9 trips. On the 10th trip, I drove a car full of 17 and 18 year olds for 4.5 wks. We camped and hiked in places that I knew were there but had never "gone over the rail" to see. You know what I'm talking about...that rail at the end of the parking lot where all the tourists stop and take pictures. This time we went around the rail and up or down the mountain to see the sights. And oh what glorious sites there are on the other side! Places where tourists don't go or at least not the non-adventurous tourists. I came back a renewed person with a totally different perspective on life. I learned that I can hike mountains for 12 mi.; I learned the hard way about going down the slippery sands on the crater, and I can even sleep on the floor and like it! Diving at night with the manta rays was the thrill of a life time. It just doesn't get much better than this.

Artists Do Lunch

Artists Do Lunch (Connie Hudson, Frances Holliday Alford, Barbara Forrester, Leslie Jension, Sherri McCauley, and Kathy York)

Our Austin Art Quilt group met at Frances Holliday Alfords' one day for lunch. Ever the doodler, Frances pulls out a piece of white cloth, throws it on the table and handed us all paint pens for doodling. After a few visits, food, and lots of doodling, we cut the tablecloth into six pieces and we all went home with a piece to paint and "work on". My piece is the top photo. After seeing it put back as one piece the decision was made to slice it up even more. We ended up with 12 pieces reattached. A black and white border was added by Leslie Jension.

New Machine

The New Machine

I finally decided to trade in my Janome 6500 for the new Janome Horizon 7700. The old one worked very well but the new one has some amazing new features. The wider throat helps with shoving lots of fabric around when quilting. It also has a straight stitch plate built in as well as a zig zag plate already attached. With the click of a button I can switch back and forth between the plates. The satin stitch is even better than on my Bernina QE. I particularly loved the ease at which I was able to free motion stitch. The speed control works very well in helping to keep the stitches uniform. I'm sure I'll discover even more as I play with the machine.