Gifts From Chris; Art with Marjan; Davis Bikes

I came home yesterday after an awesome day out in Davis (I'll tell more about it later here) and got our mail. The box in the mail box was from Chris D. in WI. She and I had exchanged some art together and the earrings I wanted finally arrived! They are from her ETSY store (GO SEE) Shady Glenn; and are tiny Flying Geese fabric quilts inside glass with soldered frames. I am amazed at how she could do this intricate work in such a tiny space. They are lovely to look at and very very light weight as well so easy to wear. Thank you Chris. What I was not expecting was this huge bundle of her hand dyed fabric pieces that she just threw in extra. She sells this fabric on her Dyed Candy Blog/store. And now I have a ton of it to add to my art pieces. I am so lucky. So many beautiful colors, washes, batiks, etc. What a heaven of fabrics have landed in my lucky lap. Bless you Chris, I am forever grateful. I went to Davis today to sit at the feet of a wonderful art quilter, Marjan Kluepfel, a fiber artist originally from the Netherlands. Now living in Davis, CA. Her website is http://marjankluepfel.com if you want to check out her work. I got to sit with a small group of other women while Marjan explained and showed how she did her work. I knew more than the other's there having been working at this for the past nearly two years now, but she had some tips to share that one learns over many many years of art quilting. And I was there with pad and pen in hand scooping them up. Could not wait to get home to try metallic thread in my bobbin and flip a piece and have the metallic thread show on top when done sewing. It worked!!! No more broken metallic threads (something that has been a continual headache for me and NOW I have a solution). Thank you Marjan. I apologize for the few shots I took from outside the window. Why I didn't take any while inside is beyond me but I didn't. So do go to her website to get a much better idea of how good her work is. These last three shots are of man made bamboo bikes outside a barber shop next door to the art gallery. They are used for the barber to run errands around town. I was sitting there looking at them while waiting for my friend, Diane to show up so we could go to lunch together. She did, we did, we had a delicious lunch and nice chat and then I came home to Chris' box!!! ;~) Happy Friday that was!