Transition

My mom passed away peacefully. She had been sick for several years and we knew this was coming, but it feels strange and sad to think she's really gone now.

The whole family had a beautiful celebration a few days after her passing.

Life has to go on now. I am slowly going back to the studio. I finished my super-secret quilt that I can't talk about until next year. I think I'm going to take a break from art quilting for a couple of months. I want to concentrate on painting, weaving and reading this summer.
I also need to go back to my Japanese studies. Did I tell you that I did really well at my end-of-year exam?

This is a mixed-media painting, using acrylics, collage and my own calligraphies.

Hello 2012!

First post of the year, at last!
This week, I am having fun doing Carla Sonheim's Imaginary Creatures online class, as a belated birthday present to myself.
Here are some of the creatures I painted yesterday...
This class is wonderful. I'm so glad I finally decided to sign up.

I haven't started to work on my Metamorphosis quilt yet. But I'm seeing change and impermanence everywhere...
Yesterday evening, I somehow forgot a pot of rice on the stove... I can tell you that the lovely whiteness and fluffiness of cooked rice is highly impermanent... I'm not yet finished cleaning the ugly black hard stuff that's now sticking to my pot...
Anyway, one of the ideas I had for this Metamorphosis quilt was to transform one of my rejected quilts.
This dandelion was a candidate quilt for the first Twelve by Twelve challenge back in 2007. I finally made another one featuring a white dandelion seed head. But now I am thinking of recycling this yellow flower and using it for the new challenge.
I like this idea because it would involve many layers of metamorphosis.

More autumn colours

The weather here has been so incredibly sunny and mild for the season that I can't resist posting another autumn photo.
Last summer, I enjoyed reading Tammy's blog, especially her posts about ICaD, and I played along a little bit, in my own corner. I didn't feel like showing my index cards here and didn't post about them, but the other day, I found Tammy's blog again, with this post here, and I just couldn't resist making a little mess too...
This print is my favourite...
especially this close-up...
and this is what happened to the sheet of paper that what protecting my desk...
The watercolour marks under the paint splotches come from sketches I did for a new quilt. Here's a little peek at one of the sketches...
The quilt is well underway, but I can't post about it yet.