I am sitting in the Historic Taos Inn enjoying dinner - my three days off…yeah! Yesterday I finished taping The Quilt Show with Alex Anderson and Ricky Timms….it was too much fun. I took lots of photos but those are to come tomorrow - hopefully I can get them downloaded...I also have a painting date with Katie...we are going to go out and do Plaine Air (ok I know I misspelled that one) painting - you know where you set up in some place beautiful and paint what you see. I have never done that and am so excited for the challenge......
I went for a hike this morning up to Taos ski area - the hike was to Williams Lake. It was a 2 1/2 mile hike to the lake - I figured no big deal…..well as I was huffin' and puffin' my way up I couldn't help but think I am not out of shape what is my deal…..well as I reached the lake there was a sign - Williams Lake 11,040 feet. Well no wonder I was out of breath!!! I don’t think I have ever hiked at that level before…..beside the altitude I was alone and a little nervous about bears so I was singing the girls favorite song…."I love you bushel and a peck, bushel and a peck and a hug around the neck"……if someone would of come up on me they would of thought I was some crazy girl. I did meet a great couple from Portland of all places. I had lunch with them at a great little German restaurant at the base of the chair lift. One of the better Caesar salads I have had. Maybe it was the altitude at any rate a great time. I will get some photos posted soon. I took a lot with my Roliflex (medium formant, twin lens camera that takes film) I shot black and white...
I have lots to share today…..before I got on the plane on Saturday I finally finished my newest collection of fabric - the ones with the Dahlias…I am still trying to find a name for the collection…maybe you all can help. I am just horrible with names. Carolyn and Mom helped my name the designs and the come up with color names. The designs are painted in the Mediterranean Palette - clean clear colors. Like the photographs that I took of the dahlias last summer. The second palette I am calling High Desert - it is reminiscent of Central Oregon with a little sass….anyway I took some quick - I mean quick not great - snap shots of the designs before they went to get scanned. They are not the best quality but it will give you an idea of what they will look like……….
First we have In Full Bloom….this is a big design - like most of my designs but very colorful and clean lines. This is how much these are snap shots the background of this is white.....
Pom Pom - this is my new favorite Dahlia…..they are so cool - I painted this on canvas because I wanted a bit of a different look - I am excited to see what will happen in the printing process…….
Can't wait to see this in all blues….wouldn't that be cool!
This design is called Tango - it is one of the last ones I did - I just wanted to incorporate butterflies….I had been seeing so many around the house that they were inspiring…(again White background)
This is the Paisley….I wanted to create a design that looked like my drawings before they are painted - the lines with a background color. One of the colors I want to do is white lines and a red background….I have a lot more strike-offs that I am going to have them do than I can actually have in the collection but I just want to see what will make the best variety and outstanding collection.
Ok….you might have seen Tapestry before on one of my other posts….I just love how this one turned out. I haven't done a design like this before and it worked just like I imagined - is always so cool when that happens…….
Chandelier - I had to look up how to spell that one - is one of the elements from Tapestry….I love how it turned out.
Flora is another element from the Tapestry - I actually did a sketch of these flowers about a year ago and thought it would be a great element to the Tapestry.
Monarch is another of the designs I just did - I wanted to make the butterflies look like they were all flying in different directions….yet still make it simple and stylized. 
The last design is Stones…..the other day I had cut up some of the roses from Olive Rose and one of the pieces was just the dots…I loved the look so I took that idea to create the stones. You can never have too many dots…..and these dots are defiantly not perfect circles so I thought stones was more of an appropriate name.
I feel like I have to say these are my designs and unpublished (so to speak) at this time - Please don't use them in any form.....I want to share what I do with you, my process - the whole package so to speak I hope that this is not misused - Ok, I had to get that off my chest......I hope that I didn't offend anyone I just felt that I needed to say that....so I will quit going on and on......
I hope every one is having a great September - can you believe it is September!
More to come later.....
Valori