Dollar store clay bunnies

Mimi has been asking for clay lately. I picked up some yesterday at the dollar store and she's spent the morning creating a little world for clay bunnies. These lucky bunnies are in their sleeping bags around a campfire (along with their Popsicle stick seesaw in the background).
The flowers from the first pic were crushed to make sleeping bags, but just the memory of their sweetness makes me smile.

Good morning, Z! It's your birthday!

Our birthdays around here always start with streamers and balloons in the kitchen for breakfast and lots of calls from cousins and grandparents.
We figured out this morning that we could snap pics of FaceTime calls and this suddenly made it feel like the whole family was in on our celebrating here.
Z is currently making his poster for the Laker gameS (plural!) we are headed to this weekend. (we will post pics of that for sure!)
It's a big day around here!

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"Quilting in the park on a March afternoon."

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Caught the sewing bug

Mimi the Designer has officially caught the sewing bug. She's made things before, even quilts and bags, but it wasn't until yesterday that she felt the addiction come on.
As she was making herself a drawstring tote bag, she stopped sewing, looked up at me and exclaimed, "I WANT TO SEW FOREVER!"

"Sew you think you can Sew" weekend work shots

So my main priorities this sewing weekend were to finish two pennant flag quilts for my kids' school auction. Each kid in their classes signed a piece of fabric in a triangle shape that they brought from home. (template was provided)

I had seen a wonderful pennant quilt on the Modern Quilt Guild website a few weeks ago and decided that this was my contribution to the school auction. So this weekend, both of those quilts were started and finished. (yay!)

I also did some other unglamorous work too - basting and quilting the purple speed-pieced quilt we made from scraps at the March LAMQG weekend sew (there will be another in the same color scheme)... Making this yellow quilt back for another project and attaching binding to my red/brown tumbler quilt.

There was other work done too, but these were the beauty shots I was able to take
If I ever get to go back to this lakehouse, I'm bringing more quilts just to take pics. I mean, can you believe the scenery?

Sewing weekend

My dear friend Tifanie invited me to come to her lakehouse in Lake Las Vegas for the weekend. We collected a couple of old and new friends and assembled a tiny sewing crew to join us in our adventure.
We set up shop in the house on the lake, basting in the courtyard, laughing till we cried at mealtimes and generally having an incredibly fun time.
I feel so lucky and happy to have been able to get away and have this weekend and I absolutely adore the friends that were there with us.
Next post ~ the fun projects... (my iPhone only lets me attach 5 pics at a time).

Dwindling skirt inventory

This is good. The skirts are flying out of here. And honestly, I have to thank you all because it's been the best 7 years. There have been years where Libby Dibby skirts paid the bills and now they are leaving the building... (happy sigh)
I wanted to post the latest stock inventory, since I'm getting so many emails.
As of tonight, these are the size breakdowns. (please note, in the Smalls and XLs, there are a number of multiples)
I also am considering the possibility of having a few final batches of skirts sewn up to use up the last few rolls of fabric, but I only have a few color schemes in those.
(expect to see a few more in any size of Day Journey, Blue Sky Girl, Bubble Tea)
Here are the stats for Skirts in stock as of tonight:
Small
Classic
Blue Sky Girl
Fall springs
Original
Choco Milk Bubbles
Hollywood
Out & about

Medium
Original
Caramel
Urban Jungle
Classic
Out & about
Fall springs
Neighborly

Here is what I have in large:
Coco in Love
Classic
Bubble Tea
Out & about
Urban Jungle
Day Journey

In XL, I have:
Bubble Tea
Fall springs
Choco Milk Bubbles
Hollywood
Blue Sky Girl
Original
Out & about

Glendale Quilt Show

I was fortunate to have some of my quilts hung this weekend in the Glendale Quilt Show alongside those of my LAMQG members, in a special LAMQG presentation area. There were actually also two bee quilts present that I'd been a part of as well, so it was really neat to see them in person.
It was my first quilt show where I was ever a participant and I have to say I had no idea what to do or feel seeing my works up, so I took photos of all of my friend's quilts and texted and emailed their images to them. It was different than when I have had art exhibits (haven't had many, but have had a few)... And I'm still trying to wrap my head around quilt shows in general.
One thing I know I am looking forward to is Quilt-Con - the Modern Quilt Guild Convention. I know a number of the people on the planning committee, and have already reserved my hotel room because I think that is one convention that is going to feel familiar and inspiring in a whole new way.
Usually when I go to conventions, I end up most interested in the tools and machines that people are selling. I don't really want to buy kits that help me make something look just like "(fill-in-the-blank)"... But a new tool? A new technique? A new color pallette? Sign me up.
It was lovely to see the LAMQG quilts up. It was like seeing a wall of my friends represented. I wanted to say hi to my friends through their quilts. But I'm not sure I was the target market for the rest of the show. I looked around. The techniques on some of the other quilts on display were really great. The scissors/tweezers booth was really fun. There were hundreds of quilters finding joy in the various products and fabrics that characterize more traditional quilting. It basically made me really honored that though our work was quite
different, the Glendale Quilt Guild honored us by allowing us the space to show our work. (thank you, GQG) And it made me really excited to go to Quilt-Con next year. (yay, MQG!)

Tumbler WIP

Tumbler WIP, a photo by libby dibby on Flickr.

It will have to be wider in the long run, so I may have to add a border creatively to this, but for now you can at least see the fun I've been having with these tumblers.
Huge thanks to Yolanda who started "the tumbler party" swap so a bunch of us could share and swap fabrics - which Yolanda then cuts for all of us on her magic die-cut fabric machine...

Goodbye skirts

So we've decided that 2012 is the year to say goodbye to Libby Dibby skirts. Not to Libby Dibby, just to the skirts.

I've marked all of the skirts in my etsy shop WAY DOWN - they are priced to move and they will not be replentished. When they're gone, they're gone.
Catch them while you can... it's time for me to narrow my focus a little.
In the meantime here are some of my favorite pics from over the years, and around the world.

Re•building joy - time for paper

Tonight I almost didn't go to art class. If I'm honest, the only reason I went was because I care about my classmates and it's our first class in the absence of our beloved teacher. The last time I was there in class (with Franklyn, a few days before he died), I came home and nearly cried. I hated the art I was making that night. He kept telling me there was something in it. I left it in my car for two weeks, put groceries on it, everything. I still don't see it. I was in a major funk today and thought of bringing some easy happy paper collages to work on instead of the embroidered and stitched collages I've been struggling with. My classmate/new substitute teacher, Mary (she was taking the class as a student but also teaches at Art Center and has agreed to lead us through semester) - brought me some beautiful red Chinese paper as a gift tonight.
We had been clipping creative writing quotes as inspiration pieces for our work, and I found a piece of an old piano song sheet in my collage collection file - I had to use it. It reminded me of re•building joy (of course)... The lyrics read "and I am led through tears and joy to"
I played with Mary's Chinese red paper into this tiny panel board along with clippings from Sarah's magazine, a transfer from a pic of me cuddling with Gray- and another little Chinese goodie from Mary - a ticket of sorts that she told me represents the gift of friendship.

I brought this home tonight (among other works in progress) and immediately began hunting for the right place in my house for it. Not sure yet, but this one is a keeper. It was healing to make it and it is healing to see it.

It wasn't a great day today, but something beautiful did come from it. (even if it came at 9:30pm)

A hug sent in the mail

I recently learned that the young daughter of a friend of mine has cancer. There are moments where no words can actually express the sorrow at such a statement. The only thing I knew how to do was to send her the brightest, girliest quilt I could come up with. And fast.Today they posted a photo of the quilt in its brave little owner's arms.

Z and mommy draw

We don't do it every day, but we still are doing our morning drawing times. No school today, so we are getting extra long drawing time. I just told Z, " I know it's hard for mommy to wake up to do this, but I really love drawing with you in the mornings."

7 year old girl

Tucking Mimi into bed. She wants to sleep on the floor tonight, so we've got 5 of my quilts beneath her and 2 on top. We discuss if it's better to be a fairy or a mermaid and then we sing a song together. Earlier today she made me a pair of earrings from my own supplies and wore her roller skates for a solid 10 hours, including skating through our house, a neighbors house a skating rink and a Barbie movie. Earlier this week i squealed with delight when she emerged from school covered in paint the way she had planned that day for art class. (She wants to look like her art teacher, who wears flowing skirts covered in paint) And I wonder, why did no one tell me that having a 7year old girl is the best thing ever?

The design director takes on jewelry

Mimi told me this am that she wanted to make "real" jewelry. So we pulled out my old beads and I showed her a few pointers and she was off and running.
The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

The LACMA rock comes to town

For the past 10 days, the largest mass moved since the pyramids has been traveling across southern CA. It's headed to live permanently at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, which is right here in our life... The truck carrying it is the size of a football field and it has to go between 2-5 mph in a special route through LA only moving between 10pm-6am.
It's kind of a big deal. :)
I heard it was coming just a few blocks from our house and thought I'd go see it. Then I realized this is something that will forever be a part of LA history and my kids will see the rock at the museum from now on. They'll take their kids to see the rock. "All right... They're 7 and almost 6, they'll remember this." I decided to wake them up and get them out running through LA with me to make this memory.
Daddy has been out of town for a few days and he made it in the door just as it was time to leave to go see the rock! Kendra came with us and we raced down the streets of West Adams to catch it. We got to see it cross over the 10 freeway. We chased it down the street... By the way, 3mph is fast when you're carrying a 60lb child.
As we drove home, I sighed with happiness. I'm so so glad we did this. I'm writing this at 1am, daddy is finally asleep after his long work week, the kids are trying to fall asleep after all that adrenaline... And I'm sitting here, grateful for the opportunity to give them this memory.