Messy Room

Today it stopped raining enough to pick some roses and enjoy the spring colors. This pot started out as a fairy garden but now is just a succulents garden in fabulous greens, that looked just perfect on my broken dish table. I know there is a fancy name for broken dish art, but i haven't had enough coffee to remember what that is.
This is my Aunt Mindy's Flower Basket pattern done in all blue's. The border reminds me of the broken dish table. I used Alex Anderson fabric by P&B. Which is the perfect color of blue.
The pattern has 10 embroider blocks. I just did 4 blocks for a mini quilt that hang over my blue denim sofa.
My studio is so messy right now because i am finishing up my quilt to enter into Houston. At the same time working on new designs and packing for my up coming retreat at Quilters Escape. Today I hope to have time to clean it up so I can start another project i have in mind. Its a doll.

Its funny, but my mess (work in progress) on my table, caught my eye. The colors and composition reminded me of the succulent garden on the broken dish table.
You can find beauty every wear, even in a messy studio if you are looking closely.
Don't miss these moments.
O.K. my moment is over, now back to cleaning up this messy room.

My Kind of Town!

So there we are in Chicago, "Our Kind of Town" stuck at a Quilt show. I'm in heaven because these are my people. But my sweet husband has had enough of me winning awards and looking at quilts. So on Saturday we ditched and went into the City. Joe figured out our route with the hotel's concierge and off we walked to the Metro, taking the blue line. As we approached the platform to wait for the train, I hear a "Melinda!". Oh, no, we've been caught ditching the show. No, it was just my friend, Mary Kerry, from California, another quilt artist. The last time we ran into each other was in Morro Bay at a quilt shop.
Mary and Joe on the Metro. Is he holding my purse again?


We walked to the Navy Pier. You can't leave Chicago without having a hot dog. We stopped at this place called Billy Goat Grill for a dog and by chance it just happens to be the place made famous by John Belushi and Dan Aykryod on Saturday Night Live. "Cheezborger, cheezborger, chips, chips, no Coke - Pepsi."
Then we where on the search for Bob Newhart's apartment. Joe informed we have now been to all of Bob Newhart's television home towns. How exciting for us.

This sculpture is at Millennium Park. What a beautiful park. Its called the Bean. Can you find us in the reflection?

Spring Has Sprung!

Today is the first day that I really feel that spring has arrived in Northern California. Beside all the sneezing that is going on in my house. My roses are full of blooms and the pollen is falling by the bucket load.
Today I am working on a new floral bouquet quilt. I hope to enter it in Houston this fall. I was taking picture of it and realized that this would make a beautiful new header for my blog. So welcome to the new look.
There is a new magazine or should I say it is really like a book. It's called the Artful Blogger. It's really cool with great ideas and writing from other blogger. The one I liked the best was an artist that said " I'm not much of a writer so here are my pictures." I can relate to that. I love to write. It's just time consuming because I can't spell. I have to re check the words about 10 times before I post and still I get it wrong. The other day I was writing up a flyer for my up coming retreat in Tahoe and put down lesion instead of lessons. So for that retreat you can have 4 days of Lesions for only $600. Such a deal!!!



I have this little pillow on my bed. I made it about 7 years ago. It's my design but somebody gave me this anonymous saying. I turned it into a cross stitch pillow so I would never forget these very true words. Here they are:

Dear Lord,
So far today I have done all right. I haven't gossiped, haven't lost my temper, haven't been greedy,nasty, selfish or over indulgence. I am very Thankful of that. But Lord in a few minute I going to get out of bed and from then on I'm going to need a lot of help!

Splendor In the Grass truly is splendid!

I just bought the most beautiful purple rose on a recent trip to Southern California. The girls, my mom sister and nieces’, went on an outing to Rogers Garden in Newport Beach last month. The roses where all blooming and there she was, the most perfect color of purple rose I have ever seen. Thanks god that I had driven down this time, because I was not leaving without that rose. I picked the bush that had lots of little buds ready to bloom. When I got home this Sunday from IQA Chicago Show, they were all in bloom. I have never seen a rose this color. I know she will have to be a quilt someday, just like I knew that Splendor in the Grass needed to be created. It’s funny to see your creation (quilts) win awards. When I was making Splendor in the Grass, I never thought about what will happen after it was done. It just had to be created in cloth. I get a little artistically obsessed.

I took a picture of 3 red day lilies at Bushnell’s garden center in Granite Bay. They have a beautiful day lily farm in the back. I always miss the blooming season but this day I hit gold! And I just happened to have my camera with me. For 3 months I longed to make this quilt but I was on a dead line to finish my first book, Cutting Garden Quilts. I place the picture up on my computer and starred at that picture of 3 months. Every day I longed to be up in the studio. But, I was learning how to be creative with words instead. When I would hit a blank wall with the book writing, I would look at my beautiful lilies picture, get inspired and continue the writing process. My reward for completing the book was that I could finely make the quilt.

So the day I put my last word on the page, sealed the envelope and return from the UPS store. I grabbed my scissors and started this quilt. I work on it nonstop for about 8-9 hours a day. Joe brought home a lot of take out. i finished the quilt top in 7 days. The thread work took another 5 days. Then I was done. I was overwhelmed and I fell on my knees and cried. I knew it did not come from me but from God. It just flew out of me. Like a exploding volcano. My finger tips where on fire. I knew then that I had had one of those rare artist moments that may never happen again. It still makes me cry. But it happened, that is why it is so sweet to have won “Best of Show” with this quilt. Not because I had any intention on winning anything, but that this quilt was meant to be in the world. It’s also nice to know that I am not the only person that thought it was special.

Summer Rose

I am working on a new pattern. Just in time for spring. Its called Summer Rose and I am in the process of adding beads that look like dew drops and other fun embellishments.
This is going to be a great quilt class to teach. It comes with a color chart, of course. And I am pretty sure you can turn it into what every color of rose you like.
I have just been asked to teach at Road to California in January 2010. It looks like it will be 2 classes, one on Saturday and one on Sunday. One class will be this new Rose. I will also be doing a luncheon Fashion Show which will be fun. I may even have some new outfits to show.
Summer Rose will be available soon, So keep checking my web site shop.
www.melindabula.com

Visiting the Old West in La Veta, Colorado

I wake up most days and can’t believe I do this for a living. No, not misspelling words on my blog but being able to create every day. Although the business of creating is an art form in itself, I think its called marketing out in the real world.
I find it almost as challenging and fulfilling as painting with colorful fabrics and threads, but not really.
This month has been filled with new adventures that started off with a trip to beautiful Santa Barbara, Ca. I drove down in one day, did my lecture that night. The next day it was an all day class. The girls made beautiful flowers. After class at 3:30 I drove home. “Why the rush?”, you say. I was flying out the next day to La Veta, Colorado via Denver. I rented a car and again drove 3 hours south of Denver to La Veta, almost to the New Mexico border.
You see so much from the front seat of your car.if you are looking. The mountains where full of snow and the landscapes color palate was so beautiful in shades of blue, taupe, sage with hints of pink and lavender.
Again, I started taking pictures from the car.

I pulled into La Veta about 2:00 pm. The town was more than small. If you blinked you'd drive right past it. It was like driving into the old west. Only my trusty steed was a Nissan. Where were Gary Cooper and John Wayne?
And there it was, the Ricky Tims Studio in the middle of town. I parked the car (Lightning) and followed 2 of the local town folk through the front door of the studio. I had no idea what I was doing.

It was surreal. I went from the old west to The Quilt Show out on the prairie in the blink of an eye.
They were just starting to shoot the next show. The audience was in place, about 50 people and I could see Ricky and Alex through the all the lights, cables and cameramen.
Someone said "Hello, Melinda” and it was Judith Baker Montano. WOW.
They got me a seat in a section called the "Queen's Box". Which I loved.
I looked around and there was Esterita Austin getting ready to shot her segment. Carol Doaks had just finished. And there was Joanie Zeire Poole, award winning heirloom quilter. They where interviewing Jan Krentz via satellite. I couldn’t believe I was there. Somebody pinch me.
If you are not a member of The Quilt Show you need to join. This is just the beginning of exciting things happening on Web TV. Plus you get to see my segment in a few months. So stay tuned - there is more to come.

Stormy Seas

Winter at the beach is so mysterious. I love it. My beach experiences have always been on the Pacific Coast or Hawaii. I don't really know the east coast shoreline but I hope to visit someday. I just spent the last 5 days teaching in Pacific Grove, CA at Empty Spools Seminars. Wow, what a place. It’s held at the Asilomar conference grounds right next to Pebble Beach.
During this stay a rainy storm blew in and dampened the grounds and all of us. That doesn’t stop quilters one bit. In fact, it made the smells stronger and sweeter and the colors where brighter. In my class I am trying to get the students to look closely at colors and values in just one flower petal at a time. It can be very challenging. So the rain was an added blessing. The waves at the beach where breaking at least 6 feet high at times. Then the sun would peek through the storm clouds and let a little ray of light shine onto the front of a breaking wave as it crested. The wave would glow with a deep turquoise blue green, edged in white froth. I couldn't wait to plant my bare feet in the cool wet sand and squish it between my toes. Which I did while taking pictures of the stormy sea. I see a wave quilt in my future.
My room was so sweet - it even had a romantic fireplace. Too bad I was alone. But I was there to teach and encourage although I was having a secret romantic interlude with the ocean. Don't tell my husband!
With each teaching venue I try to push up the ante for myself in developing my teaching style. This time I became the “Queen of the PowerPoint.” Each day I could show the students visually what I was talking about. The first day was finding your inspirational photo. Second day was how to paint with fabric. On the third day, I taught how to use color and value to create realism. The fourth day they got a break. My girls did tease me about "where is our PowerPoint?" But that night I had a surprise for them. It was my turn to do a short presentation to a very artsy crowd of about 300. They had 3-4 teachers present each night and I was the last to present. By the last day, I knew the crowd was getting very wary of one more presentation. I seem to always be last and I wanted to do something that reflected me and my art. It had to be dramatic and memorable but short, no more than 9 minutes. So, in true Melinda style a great idea came 3 days before I left for the retreat. I had a dream about this PowerPoint presentation. Even the song I used was in the dream. I was very nervous about the timing but my friend, Dawn, helped me along the way. I have found out that I like working with this new computer techno stuff. It’s just a new art medium. So I have put up the presentation on YouTube for you to view and enjoy.

Next time I do this I will try and dream up my PowerPoint at least a week before I leave. NOT