Taking time to take a deep breath and say thank you!

I have been at the International Quilt Show in Long Beach, CA the last three days working the show with Gingers quilt shop showing my patterns. I saw so many great friends and met new ones! I had so much fun sharing my "Fabulous Folded Bag" pattern which was well received. It's so much fun to be able to make such a unique gift in such a short amount of time! They loved it! I can't wait to see what everyone makes with it!

Today, feeling a bit tired I decided to take my paints outside and paint my yard which looked so beautiful with the morning light glistening off the leaves and water in the pool. I sat and drank coffee while painting in the early morning sun. It is a beautiful day and it was so nice to sit outside and enjoy the beauty and thanking God for all the wonderful blessings he has sent my way!




- Desiree

My recent endeavor

4"x 10" Dahlia Quilt

I have been working very hard on my class projects for November scheduled classes. Got them all mailed out yesterday. Did do a small quilt with some painting.  As a result of our macro class a couple of months ago, I painted (with seta color on fabric) the center of a Dahlia flower I photographed  as a close-up here in Oregon.  I bordered it and continued the quilting of the flower and leaves into the borders.

Kind of in a creative slump right now, trailer is getting a little confining and weather has been cool and overcast everyday.Tried some watercolor in m sketchbook the other day and just wanted to trash it! All will pass - hopefully weather will change - I like Oregon in the summer, but this year it is really different, cold and misty most of the time. Everyone enjoy the Long Beach show.

What are you doing this weekend?

This weekend is the international Quilt Festival at the Long Beach Convention Center! It's filled with amazing quilts, Exhibitions, fabric, patterns, notions and so much more. I hope you will get a chance to come by and what me demo my amazing Fabulous Folded Bag Pattern! I will be working all week in Gingers Quilt shop booth in the 1500 aisle. Come by and say HI!
I am also honored to be a part of the "Ritual" Exhibit by the dinner at eight artist. The quilts are all wonderful and they each tell a story of how the artist interpreted the word "ritual". There is even a book available at the blurb shop.
Hope to see you this weekend!




See more on Jamie's blog!
http://JamieFingalDesigns.blogspot.com
Book cover art (Left to Right) by - Susie Monday, Susan Fletcher King, Judy Coates Perez, Desiree Habicht, Yvonne Porcella, Gerrie Congdon, Gayle Simpson RITUALS An exchange between friends.



- Desiree

Hello, anyone out there?

I have posted so many things and have yet to see anyone else posting. I know that many of you are intimidated by the whole blog thing but it isn't worth sweating over. To post you make sure you are signed in and then up in the upper right hand side you will see "new Post", click on that and it will take you to the screen I am on now. In the box at the top of the page, next to the "publish" button you will type in your title for title for the post. Now in the big box you can type in a message. If you want to add a photo make sure the cursor is on a new line and click the little picture icon under the "Save" button, it has a blue sky. When you do that a box will pop up and ask you to choose the picture. It should be somewhere you can find it on your computer.

I always have to look at these after church when I am hungry and weak, so I took their picture instead of eating them!

double click on the picture you want to add and it should be highlighted, it is possible to add multiple pictures if you like, but that is for later. Now it will upload the photo to the blog and you push the button, "add selected", it will have a blue border around it showing it is selected. Now it will drop it into the spot on the blog that your cursor was in. If you click on the photo you will get a option menu where you can select the size, the placement, add a caption or if you want to remove it. I like to have the pictures large and centered but its up to you. You can even add a caption, which I did to the donuts.  Now hit publish, the orange button at the top and you are done!!! Yeah. Ok, please, I want to see some of you guys try and post, this is a learning experience, practice makes perfect!!! Paint a donut!

New goodies!

Yesterday I received my package from Moo! I treated myself to new business cards,postcards and some stickers for the backside of my artwork. Although the business cards were printed on the wrong paper the vibrancy of color and the images turned out amazing! At Moo.com you can put up to 50 different images on each set of cards so for us artists it's a perfect way to advertise your artwork. I also have ATC collectors who ask to go thru my cards and select one for their collections, but be careful, they aren't cheap! Next weekend I will be working the Long Beach Quilt show in Gingers booth, booth #1300 something,can't remember the exact number, if you are in Southern CA for the show stop by and say Hi and get a card or postcard from me!










Happy Moo cards!

- Desiree
www.desireesdesigns.com
www.artboxcsa.com

Taking time to smell the roses or daisies!

When life gets crazy, and your time seems to keep disappearing, your priorities get all jumbled up due to deadlines it's time to just stop and take a moment to be still. I had one of those weeks and by Sunday I was tired and felt drained but I gathered my sketchbook and paints and walked around the garden looking for inspiration and picked a beautiful gerbera daisy. I got a cup of coffee and settled down in my chair outside to just relax. I sat for the longest time just looking out to the yard and thinking about how thankful I was and how blessed I felt for my life. In all it's craziness I still love my life,don't you love yours?! I then took my sketchbook and started to sketch and paint, the little still life of brushes,paints and my daisy were perfect. Here is my breath of renewal, my moment to regroup and feel grateful for everything!



- Desiree

The good, the bad and the ugly

Our sketchbooks are a place where we should feel free to sketch anything we want to, life as we are seeing it. Life isn't always roses and sugar, it can be hard and ugly sometimes. Today as I was sitting outside enjoying the beautiful morning weather I received a bit of the ugly. Our neighborhood has been overrun by crows, they are raiding the smaller birds nests and stealing off with the young birds. Today we found another casualty of our crow verses bird war. A small baby bird was laying on our concrete, probably dropped from the sky. I decided to stop my pretty flower sketch and paint the baby bird. I thought it would be better in just black and white, a bit more serene and creepy! Then at the end I added just the hint of color. Here is my casualty of war.

This months sketchbook lesson! Color, collage, and composition

Saturday was our monthly sketch group. This amazing group of talented
women get together every month and I teach a new technique for our
sketchbooks. This month I did the sketchbook challenge tutorial I shared
 last week on the sketchbook blog. This time we used sketches of flowers
to do our two page layout.  I really love the layers and textures you can
achieve with this technique.  The pages can be done ahead of time, ready
 and waiting for some journaling. Sometimes I just feel like painting and
sometimes I just feel like writing! You can click on the images to make
them bigger so you can see all the different layers of texture!

Christa

Deborah

Karen

Marianne

Judi

Penny

Our sketch group this month hiding from the heat!

My contribution and demo piece

Yesterday we had another great day playing in our sketchbooks!! We used tissue paper, watercolors, watercolor pencils and pens to create great texture and color. Everyone had a wonderful time!! Thanks Desiree for another fun day of learning.

A quick pencil sketch

You don't have to always drag out your paints. Sometimes I love just taking my pencil and sketchbook outside at dusk to sketch. Here is a quick sketch I did of Chloe awhile back. It's not perfect or great but it's what was happening that day! I love to look at it and remember playing "where's your toy?!"
Next time try a pencil sketch.

Hollyhocks

My hollyhocks were beautiful this year, they must have gotten 8' tall. They are on the side yard and sway in the breeze. The flowers are doubles and almost look like peonies, I got pink,dark pink and white this year. I am waiting to collect the seeds now. The blooms start opening at the bottom of the long stem, as those get old new ones continue to bloom so you end up with a blooming bunch somewhere on the long stalk. Here is my international postcard that I sketched and sent to Liz last month. I need to do this months and get it in the mail.
- Desiree