The Sum of Parts and Process

June 21, 2026

Last Friday evening, when my solo exhibit at the Museum of Art - DeLand was scheduled to open, I showed up a few minutes early just to walk the galleries alone and soak it in. Oh my.

It was a very emotional experience.

First, I was looking at collection representing work I’ve created over the past dozen+ years, a body of unified work, and I was proud and a little amazed to see it all together. Moreover, I was so appreciative of the care and attention the Museum has given this presentation. I think the exhibit is stunning.

Here are a few peeks.

Once people began to arrive, and I could see the interaction of people and artwork, I realized how much all the details matter, and how important the collaborative process is.

Effective Promotion

This is the banner that hangs in the stairwell leading to the second-floor galleries. It is about five feet tall and displays prominently. The Museum did a great job with the on-site signage as well as all the expected print and social media advertising in advance. I am very grateful to be working with such a professional organization.

Artistic teamwork

After I delivered the quilts a week ago, I left all the display decisions to the museum’s exhibition staff. I did not decide what would hang where. That was their job, and another level of artistic contribution to the whole. I created the art. Now somebody else would put into being their vision of how the work should be experienced. (That’s why I was overwhelmed in my pre-opening walk-through. It was the first time I had seen the display as a whole.)

Delightful details

Just a few days before opening, the exhibit curator contacted me wondering if had preliminary sketches of any of the works. I searched my sketchbooks and found a few that I found interesting and thought might add something to the experience. These hung on the wall next to the quilt. I loved what this added.

Preliminary sketches for the quilt *Lillian’s Expectation*s

*Lillian’s Expectations* Textile Collage / Art Quilt 2014 41” x 30” A memory portrait of my Grandmother, Lillian

And, knowing how tempted visitors are to handle textile artwork, the staff asked if I could contribute some fabric scraps for that purpose. This gave attendees an interactive experience with fabric like those I create to incorporate in the finished quilts. I saw people doing that and enjoying it.

Finally – most importantly – people!

This is the most exciting of all to me. I enjoy watching and talking to people who are interested in and involved in understanding what I’ve created. The night was filled with great conversations.

Allow me to end with an invitation. For those near Central Florida, I would be honored if you would visit DeLand, see this exhibit and experience DeLand’s outstanding museum, right in the heart of historic downtown. The works will be up through August 16, and there are a few special talks and programs during this time. Learn more at moartdeland.org.

For all of us: focus each day
on the good that needs to be done in the world.

Be part of doing it.

Thank you for reading. I always enjoy questions and comments.
--Bobbi

bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

How I keep in touch:

BLOG POSTS - once a week: Mostly about what I am creating in the studio. If you would enjoy receiving blog posts by e-mail, please subscribe here: I post and send by e-mail each Sunday evening. BLOGS-BY-EMAIL

NEWSLETTER – about once a month: Mostly news of exhibits and my way of introducing new work. You’ll get FIRST LOOKS at new artwork and members-only discounts. You’ll hear from me about once a month. NEWSLETTER

Light needs Shadow. Negative needs Positive

June 14, 2026

This week I returned to the project I began in May: tree patterns formed by pattern and light.

(If you would enjoy going back and reading what came before tonight’s blog, you can find it HERE.)

At the beginning of the week, here’s what I saw on my easel.

At this point, I’ve accomplished what my original experiment was for: creating light patterns in the very background and having them show through transparent color overlays. Inside the color blocks, I’ve used my tree stencils as a negative. That is, I put the tree down on the surface and painted around it. What you see as trees are voids where the paint was blocked out.

What does it need now?

Because it’s so bright and light, with such intense color, I feel like I want some shadow, or darkness.

And, because all the images so far have been created as negatives, I want to add some positives.

Time to stencil the positive tree images.

I laid them out on the quilt surface to determine placement.

And then I painted them. (I used a foam roller and just a very light touch of paint.)

These less-intense trees will be a middle layer: between the background trees and the to-be-created foreground. To make that foreground, I painted some sheer fabric purple.

You can see that this yardage is very lightweight, and also semi-transparent, even when painted.

A few notes about paint on sheers:

You can see from the loose, watercolor-looking edge of the paint, I was putting it on pretty wet. I spritzed the fabric some. I dipped my brush in water before each big stroke. It was a fast and loose process.

If I were to use this fabric for collage or other purposes, those intriguing bleeding edges would be wonderful design elements.

But, for this project, I will be cutting out the fabric into tree shapes.

The stencils are now tracing patterns. I’ll draw around them, cut to the shape, and collage them with matte medium onto the surface of the quilt.

Once glued in place, I will have added shadow to the lights and added positives to the negatives.

After that, I’ll hang it up and let it speak to me, to see what comes next.

. . . . .

For all of us: focus each day on the good
that needs to be done in the world.

Be part of doing it.

Thank you for reading.

I always enjoy questions and comments.
--Bobbi

bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

How I keep in touch:

NEWSLETTER – about once a month: Mostly news of exhibits and my way of introducing new work. You’ll get FIRST LOOKS at new artwork and members-only discounts. You’ll hear from me about once a month. NEWSLETTER

June 7, 2026

This week I’ve been doing a LOT of reconnecting with works I’ve created over a period of about twelve years.

I’m putting together the quilts I’ll be exhibiting at the Museum of Art-DeLand starting later in June. Some are new works. Some are works I created a number of years ago.

My reconnection has occurred first in the process of getting quilts down from the shelf (which involves taking down a lot of work that I won’t be exhibiting, just to get at the ones underneath!). Then I am bundling them for delivery. Making a list. Checking it twice.

And, for works that I haven’t looked at in a while, it’s a process of remembering.

What was the experience of making that artwork like?

How have things I’ve thought about in earlier works affected the work I am doing now?

Do I see anything I like that I could develop more? Did I go astray in some way?

This is one of the works I reconnected with this week: So It Will Not Break in Two.

**So It Will Not break in Two Art Quilt** **33.5”H x 42.5”W**

Revisiting earlier ideas — the finished works, or even the sketchbook beginnings, is a good artmaking practice. Periodically I’ll spend an afternoon with a cup of coffee and some of my older sketchbooks.

When you need to know where to go next, or just want to deepen your understanding of what you make, taking time to look back can be a great experience.

. . . . . . .

As I was writing this morning, I encountered a thought that I am just compelled to share.

In my news feed was this description of what Congress’ recent expenditure on Immigration policy actually means. Government appropriations reporting throws around millions and billions sometimes like leaves blowing in the wind. It can be hard to grasp what it means. So, let this sink in:

“Senator Raphael Warnock (D-GA) notes that the $70 billion in tax money Republicans just gave to ICE and Border Patrol could provide free childcare for 1.3 million children through September 2028, cover the annual cost of groceries for about 10.7 million U.S. households, provide a year of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits to 31 million Americans, expand the Affordable Care Act premium tax credits for at least a year, cancel about 31.5% of Americans’ medical debt, and end homelessness for about eight years.”

Reported by Heather Cox Richardson, reference: https://www.warnock.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/what-70b-could-do-for-the-american-people-instead-of-more-money-for-ice-and-cbp/

My take-aways:

Elections are critical. Paying attention is critical.

And, if the reality of what our current administration is doing with taxpayer money is appalling to you, as it is to me, don’t give up the fight!

. . . . . .

For all of us: focus each day
on the good that needs to be done in the world.

Be part of doing it.

Thank you for reading. I always enjoy questions and comments.
--Bobbi

bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

Layers - to give voice to color

May 31, 2026

What began several weeks ago as painting a group of fabrics in connected yellow hues, then screen printing limb patterns over all of them, has progressed this week in my studio.

I shared in that post that my vision was to have these bright colors serve as a background, with stenciled positive and negative tree shapes in the foreground layers.

The background colors will peek through the foreground layers.

The background colors will also affect the foreground layers.

In both ways, the layering gives new voice to the background colors.

I created a mockup in PhotoShop as a rough guide of where I wanted to go with the composition. (The background is a photo of the actual fabrics, stitched together into 3 panels and already quilted. All the trees and foreground rectangles I have created in PhotoShop, as a way to envision where I’m headed.)

The computer work was worth doing. But it is only a rough guide. Everything else along the way has been experimental. (That means I am learning as I go!)

I learned I needed to cut some new stencils to fit the scale of this quilt.

I taped together some pieces of card stock, then coated both sides with gel medium before cutting. VERY glad I did that. Plain cardstock would not have held up in this process.

I learned about working a piece in sections, seeing the composition develop as I go.

Above, I am masking out rectangular shapes with masking tape to crate the shapes to paint in The size of this piece exceeds my worktable, so referring back to that little mockup helped figure out what I was doing.

I learned about the chaotic nature of painting with stencils.

Below, I have a section masked out an stencils held roughly in place ready to work a section.

After adding my first section of color, it begins to take shape.

I learned the magic of transparency.

In the Styrofoam palette I used to mix this color, you can see a section of the paint at full strength. You can also see the same color mixed with a good dollop of matte medium, to make it transparent. This method is allowing all the limb energy in the background to show through.

Finally, I am learning to delight in little unexpected places of magic.

Here’s one I love.

The screen printed limb pattern, in a pale green that I had created with some white mixed in, now functions in this section in three ways: they show up faintly through the transparent overpaint, they show as a pattern inside the stenciled tree shape, they extend beyond my overpainted rectangle into the border, creating an interesting connection.

I’ll work on this a bit more tomorrow, then I have to put it aside. This week I need to assemble and prepare the 21 works I will be delivering to the Museum of Art DeLand for my upcoming show. I am thrilled at this opportunity, so I’m just going to happily plug it again, and send with this a sincere invitation for folks in Central Florida to attend. I am very proud of the body of work I am showing.

For all of us: focus each day
on the good that needs to be done in the world.

Be part of doing it.

Thank you for reading.
I always enjoy questions and comments.
--Bobbi

bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

How I keep in touch:

Just Remembering

May 24, 2026

My driving trip last week through mostly rural South Carolina became a wonderful opportunity to remember.

I take the Interstate from Florida for only about half the drive. It’s stressful and I can’t wait to turn off at Hardeeville. From there, I have about three and a half hours of two-lane roads, small towns, farms and interesting things to see. On previous trips I’ve used this part of the drive to stop to take photos of abandoned homes and businesses.

The captured memories have become inspiration for some of my favorite quilts.

In the studio, I turn the photos into transfers onto fabric.

But, before that, I had spent time exploring. Standing on abandoned porches and outside windows looking inside.

I remember, particularly, this back door. The house was set back from the street. The day was quiet. I heard my footsteps on the leaves and pine needles below my feet. As soon as I saw this door, I also saw the family who once lived in this home.

I rearranged the windows and the back door. I added fabrics and painted details to give voice to the traditions and hospitality that once inhabited this home.

The Lord Giveth and the Interstate Taketh Away 2020 41” x 55”

In preparation for my exhibit in June, I took this quilt down from the shelf in my studio and looked at it closely once again. It is a record of memory – on memory – on memory, layered in fabric.

There are the memories of the life in the home – all of which I can only create in my imagination.

There is the memory of being in that place and recording photos.

There is the memory of being in the studio, putting the parts together and creating a new reality.

All these things are in the finished work – a record of the creative process.

. . . .

Memorial Day is set aside to make room for very specific memories, honoring members of the Armed Forces who have lost their lives in combat. For many Americans, this day also has a sweet nostalgia, the beginning of summer and patriotic images melting into hot afternoons, cold watermelons on picnic tables and evenings filled with fireflies.

My best wish to you is for memories filled with meaning. . . and inspiration.

. . . .

Plans – and Agency

May 17, 2026

I remember the first time I got in my car and drove on a long out-of-state road trip, by myself.

I was nearly sixty years old. I was thrilled.

“Agency.” The capacity for action.

Everything about the word “agency” is powerful. It says you have the capacity to do things. Even those limited by physical issues, who cannot do everything, or maybe not everything you used to be able to do; remember: you can do SOME things.

And if your limitations are not physical but come from within: the accumulations of self-doubts and hurts that can be debilitating; please hold on to the healing properties of artmaking.

And the result: action. Action in any amount. Action that you choose. Action that you direct.

The whole process of artmaking. The vision. The plan. The materials. The physical doing. The evaluating. The sticking to it when it does not turn out as you hoped. The doing it again.

It is, for me, still thrilling.

I have projects in the works in my studio that await my action.

I will enjoy jumping back into them next week.

For now, I am on an out-of-state road trip, by myself, to visit my daughter and grandson.

Till next time: Happy creating.

Bobbi
bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

Pattern and Color Conversations

May 10, 2026

Last week I was beginning a new project which will be built on tree patterns.

This week: same project. But I’ve gone from blank colored fabric to color and pattern working together.

In my artmaking, I like to think of things in terms of conversations. One color talking to another color. The underlying story or message talking to the artwork surface. The same image on two different fabrics talking to each other.

Here are color and pattern conversations hanging on my easel earlier this week:

Working in a limited palette, I’m creating varied fabrics that will work together and complement one another as the underlying layer of the tree-based composition.

COLOR:

As shown above, I’ve worked in a variation-on-a-theme approach to create color variety and unity. (Just a note about olive greens: They begin with yellow plus black. They can be wonderful and subtle or garish and ugly. The olive you can create can also be a base to transform into variants, as I’ve done in this project. It’s a wonderful world of color mixing and experimentation!)

PATTERN: I’m creating tree-limb patterns with screen printing, using two screens from my working stash.

Screen printing is a great way to get images with photographic detail. These screens were made from an original photo I shot and cleaned up. They depict a very nice pattern of limbs. You’ll notice I have two versions. One screen prints the positive image: the limbs. The other screen prints the negative image: the background behind the limbs. Used together, they create diversity and unity across the composition.

SERENDIPITY: As I was creating these patterns, I wondered about the big picture. What color could I overprint that would tie all these parts together but maintain their liveliness? I was leaning toward blue-black. Then, this splotch of deep blue-green appeared on the back of one of my fabrics.

It had pulled off from a vinyl drop cloth I had on my worktable. And I think it will be the perfect color.

Now I have parts. The next few weeks will consist of putting them together. The finished work will be created in three panels (so I can handle the stitching,) with the finished size 46”H x 76”W. I’ll need to do all the quilting before I do the final surface painting so I can be painting on a dimensionally stable surface.

I look forward to being part of these conversations.

. . . . .

MY UPCOMING MUSEUM EXHIBIT:

For all of us: focus each day on the good
that needs to be done in the world.

Be part of doing it.

Thank you for reading. I always enjoy questions and comments.
--Bobbi

bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

How I keep in touch:

Tree Patterns Revisited

May 3, 2026

A plastic tub of various blank fabrics called to me this week. “Do some experimenting,” it said.

These are mostly yardage lengths that have been given to me or I have picked up from giveaways over the years. So, I can jump into a project without fear of wasting the “good” or expensive materials. These lengths are variations of what I use all the time – some cotton muslin-like opaque pieces, and some shiny/sheer lengths.

I am thinking about tree patterns.

This is a piece I created several years ago. I liked the finished quilt (and was happy that it sold!) What interests me is the way I created yellow patterns on the trees, then brought them to life by masking out tree shapes and overprinting.

I don’t want to duplicate this exact palette again. I want my new work to be built more on mixed hues, not quite so close to the primaries of yellow-yellow and blue-blue.

And I also want to experiment with some new tree shapes.

This is a detail of a work currently in my studio, ALMOST completed. I used simplified, abstract tree shapes in this work. I like the way they work. But I will need to modify them some, to make them wide enough that the yellow patterns show up well on the trunks.

Finally, I am envisioning adding story elements of home into the new work with the addition of some house forms. How that happens will, I hope, reveal itself as I concentrate on the tree patterns and see how they develop.

For now, I’m at the beginning creating variations of yellow yardage.

I used a base of yellow, then for each section modified it by mixing in varying amounts black + white (to yield olive hues) or mixing in burnt sienna to yield golden hues.

Here are a few pieces hanging outside to dry. It’s amazing how different the colors are from one another.

Next up: I’ll be printing patterns onto these sections, which I hope will make them less brash. And I’m working on defining some new tree shapes.

At the beginning of a new project . . . anything can happen.

For all of us: focus each day
on the good that needs to be done in the world.

Be part of doing it.

Thank you for reading. I always enjoy questions and comments.
--Bobbi

bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

How I keep in touch:

Row, Row, Rowing our Boat

April 26, 2026

For several months—alone in my studio, here, writing on my blog—I’ve been working through the parts.

The flag stripes.

The birds and the stars.

The sky.

The boat.

The family.

Then I stitched them all together.

Now, completed, it is a finished work that’s a portrait of my family, and a portrait of what I knew of America as I grew up.

Row, Row, Rowing Our Boat is currently hanging in my studio. It’s 67” x 42”. I look forward to showing it in person for the first time this summer as part of my exhibit, Beyond the Surface: Symbols and Stories, at the Museum of Art DeLand.

About my family: I created these figures on fabric beginning with an actual photograph, small and grainy, from a family scrapbook. I enlarged then transferred the photo to fabric, using gel medium to pull the image off a laser color copy on paper. It took a lot of surface painting to get the images discernible, allowing me to be intimately involved with bringing these people I know to life on fabric.

About America: As I have written before, the status of this family in a too-small boat is rocky, as I have come to see much of the post WW-II America as rocky. The dreams were real. The intent was often good, and sometimes innocent. But the realities of economics and not thinking through deeply the forces at work have taken a lot of families down.

If you have worked on large pieces that take a lot of time, you know that at the end there is both exhilaration and letdown. Exhilaration: “It’s done!” Letdown: It’s done; (implying the inevitable questioning, “Did I get it right?” as well as “What do I do now?”)

There are, I am grateful to say, still more stories to tell.

. . . .

Sharing happy news: I am so pleased that the work currently showing in TRIO, the juried Regional Exhibit of SAQA FL-GA-SC, has sold: Three Yelow Doors was purchased at the exhibit opening at Lighthouse ArtCenter in Tequesta, Florida. It is also an autobiographical storytelling work, depicting the households of my life in the language of memory and dream.

. . . .

UPCOMING EXHIBIT: The Museum of Art DeLand is a 75-year old vibrant museum, with a first-class exhibition space, newly renovated, right in the heart of downtown DeLand, my hometown.

For all of us: focus each day
on the good that needs to be done in the world.

Be part of doing it.

Thank you for reading. I always enjoy questions and comments.
--Bobbi

bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

How I keep in touch:

Turn it over one more time

April 19, 2026

I’m giving the family in the rowboat a week off. (They are on my worktable resting, glue on the felt backing drying.)

What I want to share is some thoughts I’ve had about turning an idea over and over again. Looking at it in more than one way. Continuing to look for more things to see in a single idea. Finding out if there is more.

I know that many artists struggle with “What should I depict?” It can be tempting to search for new and different subject matter. Sometimes that’s a good choice.

Sometimes, however, I think there is real value in focusing on a single idea, or a single subject, or a simple set of visual symbols and continually revisiting them.

There is probably more to see with each revisit.

A house. A tree.

2013 Art Quilt *So It Will Not Break In Two*

2014 Art Quilt *And the Trees Were Stronger*

2014 Art Quilt *From the Place Where We Landed*

2017 Art Quilt *This is the Way to Get In*

This week I have been looking deeply at the body of work (21 quilts) I will be showing in a solo show this summer. (More details at the end of this post.) What I see in the work is my interest in the emotional pull of home—a house—viewed alongside an image of other forces at work—a tree—explored over and over again, over an artmaking journey of about twelve years.

2024 Art Quilt (Detail) *Living in the house of Blue Shadows*

2025 Art Quilt (Detail) *American Dream Dream*

2026 Art Quilt (Detail. Work-in-Progress) *Following the Path Home*

I did not begin with the preconceived notion of depicting houses and trees. I began by listening to the stories inside me that I wanted to tell. This is how they have evolved.

Simply looking through a folder of jpegs in my computer has been an emotional journey. I have remembered what each work meant to me as I created it.

Whatever is in your soul that you want to communicate through your artmaking; don’t be afraid to look at it and address it.

And don’t be afraid to return to the same idea over and over. It will grow, just as you are growing and increasing in your understanding.

. . . . . .

I am thrilled to announce this upcoming exhibit. The Museum of Art DeLand is a 75-year old vibrant museum, with a first-class exhibition space, newly renovated, right in the heart of downtown DeLand, my hometown.

For all of us: focus each day
on the good that needs to be done in the world.
Be part of doing it.

Thank you for reading. I always enjoy questions and comments.
--Bobbi

bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

How I keep in touch:

Bird Symbols

April 12, 2026

I woke up this morning with my “gotta-get-in-the-studio” impulses fully charged. I was anxious to pick up where I had left off yesterday. (Ony a walk out to the driveway to pick up the newspaper and pouring a cup of coffee came first.)

I say this just to let you know that what has interested me from the beginning, seeing this story take shape and seeing all the parts fit together, is pretty far along. It’s exhilarating! But this evening, I’m going to go back in time to earlier in the week and the creation of the seagulls, just to bring us up to this point.

A reminder of my overall vision: A family in a little boat, rocking in the waves, in the water near a beach, with seagulls overhead. But, more importantly, I am working out at each stage the issue of representational-but-not-real and things depicted as what they are and as symbols at the same time.

My family’s story is placed within ideas about the American story. To do that, I am introducing elements that suggest an American flag into the picture elements, without actually showing a flag. The birds contain the stars.

I had a reference image, a cartoon-like illustration of a flock of seagulls, depicted as white shapes with a darker shadow within them. That’s what inspired me to create the gull shapes then use that shadow area to introduce the stars.

I drew the bird shapes onto muslin I had prepped with a wash of white latex paint and water. My plan was to put these in the sky as raw-edge appliqued shapes. So, my paper drawings are cutting patterns.

I prepped to paint some blue yardage. I am mixing cerulean blue + pthalo blue + black to create a deep, interesting blue. I mixed the colors right on my vinyl drop cloth, and painted the fabric loosely: brush dipped in water, then in the paints, then a little more water.

While that dried, I cut some star stencils. By cutting a small section of stars, with the spaces between them not in a straight line, I can stamp-and-repeat this patterns by tucking the stars into the blank space of the previous batch of stars.

Here’s a detail of a bird in the sky.

Already I am seeing contrasts that interest me. The sky is monotype printed on shear fabric—very light and watercolor-like. The sand is opaque muslin. The figures are photo transfers in black and white. And the boat and flag-stripe-waves are patterned muslin.

And, of course, I am interested in this family. It is my family. This awkward little girl squinting into the sun is little me. As I am printing fabric and sewing shapes, I am making parts that will help me to tell a story.

It’s the story that wakes me up eager to do more.

. . . .

America —as I am sure you have noticed— is still in a rocky place. Amazingly, we got through this week without completely capsizing. But each day feels precarious. All of us, every day, do what we can to get us back on course.

. . . .

For all of us: focus each day
on the good that needs to be done in the world.

Be part of doing it.

Thank you for reading. I always enjoy questions and comments.
--Bobbi

bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

How I keep in touch:

Putting together wood patterns

April 5, 2026

Last week I was drawing the boat for my “family-in-the-boat” quilt.

This week is what happened next after the drawing, plus a few simple surface design experiments to create the wood.

At the end of last week, I was here: a sketched boat on kraft paper, enlarged (using a grid) from my smaller reference drawing:

Now I would cut that drawing into pattern pieces to sew back together again to create the boat from fabric.

I had painted about two yards of muslin in brown washes a few weeks ago, thinking at the time that it would be sufficiently interesting to use as-is.

Now, turning back to it, I thought, “Really? What was I thinking?” It was pretty boring.

To have more interesting brown fabric, I went first to my fabric stash to see what I might find. I like how these colors and patterns look together.

But, except for the piece on the far left, they connate rocks or seeds more than wood. So the stash would not be my fabric source. I’d have to create something new.

I had a little wheat paste left over from another project and decided I’d add crackle to my not-very-interesting brown fabric. I like this much more:

Then it happened I was at an art event having a nice conversation with an artist who works with indigo dyes and shibori patterns. The process involves folding and tying fabric in particular patterns then immersing it in fabric dye. They were lovely.

I remembered one of the sentences I read in a surface design book around 2010, a self-guided study that changed everything in my artmaking. I circled the words in red and highlighted them with great big asterisks. It said “Generally, any surface design technique done with dye can also be done with acrylic paint.”

Ting! Lightbulb moment.

I knew I would not get the full shibori patterning using the heavy cotton fabric I had in mind, and that was fine. I am looking for that beautiful characteristic shibori patterning of waving parallel lines.

I had seen an online tutorial some time back about scrunching and painting. I gave it a try: My fabric cut to a long, thin rectangle (which worked because I was going to cut it out for my boat pattern pieces) with the width about the circumference of a 4” PVC pipe I found. I wrapped the fabric around the pipe, tied it with twine by wrapping all up and down the length of the pipe, then scrunched the fabric down to about half its original height, then wrapped the scrunched piece.

Then I spritzed the whole thing with water, then painted it loosely with a darker brown and some splashes of blue. Let it dry. Open – unwrap the twine. The result:

Between the wheat paste crackle, one piece from my stash and this newly printed piece, I had enough to put together a more interesting boat.

See the family just peeking into this photo, placed into the boat? They are coming along too, and the work is becoming more and more interesting to me. Stay tuned.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

My spring renewal thoughts – for a troubled world

I shared with a close friend yesterday how heavily I am feeling the weight of world events. It can lead easily to despair. Some days I feel like I can hardly take a step.

But I also believe that – at the same time – it is not wrong to find beauty and meaning where we can. In fact, it’s essential. It’s the seed of the artist’s heart.

As I sat on my porch this morning, deeply enjoying the magnificent green of sunlight on the shrubs right near where I sit, I was grateful for renewal and insight when it occurs. For those who follow a faith tradition, I wish you Easter Blessings, Sweet Passover, and renewal from your understanding of God at work in the world.

For all of us, I offer these words I also discovered this morning while reading Native American poet Joy Harjo:

“It’s possible to understand the world from studying a leaf. You can comprehend the laws of aerodynamics, mathematics, poetry and biology through the complex beauty of such a perfect structure.

It is also possible to travel the whole globe and learn nothing.”

. . . .

My best wishes to you all. May your work and your creating be happy and meaningful.

Building the Boat

March 29, 2026

This week in the journey of the family-in-the-boat quilt, it was time to turn my attention to the boat.

This will involve some math, and some drawing.

MATH: ENLARGING WITH A GRID. My little rowboat shape is deceptively simple. From experience, I know that freehand drawing a curved shape like this, I can easily end up creating a banana or a gourd shape. I’d much prefer to get the shape right.

So I began the enlarging process by drawing a rectangle around the boat to get its actual dimensions. Then I divided it into four equal parts that will define the drawing area.

On my paper mockup the rowboat is 6”W. On the final size I want it to be 42”W, or 7X the size. On my mockup the rowboat is 2.75”H; I will need to increase that by 7X also to maintain the Height-Width aspect ratio. So, I drew a rectangle 19.25”H x 42”w, then divided into quarters. If my drawn boat fills that space the same way the small mockup one fills its small space, it should be correct.

(I’m drawing onto upcycled kraft paper packing material.)

DRAWING: A few drawing notes (because I don’t want my angled photograph to be unintentionally misleading.) When you measure and when you draw the grid, it’s best for your paper to be flat. You want the angles to be true 90 degree angles.

But, when you do the drawing…

You do not want the paper to be flat, with you leaning over it. You’d be seeing a distorted image. Freehand drawing should be done with the paper vertical (as on an easel) or – at least—on an angle that matches the angle of our body as you work, so your view isn’t distorted as you draw. I prop my drawing board on a few large paint cans.

If you ever need to enlarge an image that is a lot more complex than this little boat, such as a portrait, it’s really helpful to divide your drawing into more blocks. Maybe 8. Maybe 16. As you draw, the grid device keeps your mind from interfering with the process. Instead of drawing what you THINK should be the shape (often wrong,) your job is just to fill in squares with the same lines at the same angles as they are on the small version.

After I drew the boat I tacked it up on my easel next to the family that will go in the boat to be sure they fit

Already, I like the way it feels. This begins to communicate real-but-not real. The boat looks enough like a boat that a viewer would not be confused about what I’m depicting.

But, the proportion is clearly not realistic. The boat is way too small for an actual family of kneeling people to fit it in.

Just what I wanted. Not we are in the realm of storytelling and imagination.

My next stage will be to cut up the paper boat into pieces that will be pattern pieces for the fabrics I created for this quilt section, then sewing those sections together.

And, of course, I’ve got to get the family down into the boat.

See you next time.

For all of us: focus each day
on the good that needs to be done in the world.

Be part of doing it.

Thank you for reading. I always enjoy questions and comments.
--Bobbi

bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

How I keep in touch:

Sprint – Trudge – Sprint

March 22, 2026

I’m working step-by-step this week on the next stages of the story quilt I posted about last week.

A reminder: here’s my final vision. A symbolic portrait of my family, an American family, in a rocky little rowboat.

Two things about this project:

First: It interests and inspires me a lot. I have a strong compelling vision of how this will go together and how I want the finished quilt to feel. I have to return to that regularly, to reconnect to the soaring feeling of sprinting towards an interesting artistic goal.

Second: This is a pretty big work with a lot of parts. (I expect the finished size to be about 60”H x 44”W.) That means that part of the process will be a slow trudge. There are things I just have to do to put it together, and some are more motivating and pleasing than others.

Here’s how I’ve progressed this week.

I quilted the sky. When I wrote before about the process of printing the sky, (acrylic paint monotype on shear polyester fabric,) that process was a sprint. It went fast. I really enjoyed it. Stitching the sky section, however, was just work. I chose not to adhere the printed shear to the felt backing before I sewed. That fabric wanted to move and have its own way! It was part sewing and part wrestling.

To quilt it, I used long parallel lines, but wavy, not straight. That helped me control the fabric. And I describe this as a reminder to those who think you need big, fancy equipment to create large quilts. Not so. My construction and quilting are all done on a small portable Pfaff regular sewing machine. That does mean there are some effects in free-motion stitching that other quilters may excel at using that I can’t do. But there is plenty I CAN do, so I choose those stitch patterns.

I mocked up the next section. Now that the sky is quilted, I can begin to design precisely how the other parts will fit on it. In the picture above, I have pinned the section of the family figures onto the sky where they will go. I’ve put a large piece of clear vinyl over that so I can draw the number and location of the seagulls that I’ll create. I’ll use this to create paper patterns for each bird.

I quilted the family section. (Most of it. Not quite done.) The family figures were created as a photo transfer onto muslin. Now I’m quilting that onto a kraft felt backing.

Aaaahhh! Stitching on muslin. So nice. So easy to control. Nothing shifted or buckled. This actually allowed some sewing hours to be contemplative. I am using long running stitches once again, in curved arcs back and forth across the characters. This photo will need a good deal of overpainting to bring it out to become discernible. Now, from some angles it’s actually hard to tell what it is. But I could see them in there, looking back at me as shadowy characters.

Here I am stitching across my Mom’s arm. Here I am stitching across little me. Here I am stitching across my sister’s hair. It was another opportunity to connect with the story I’m creating.

I think my next stage will be to work on the surface painting of the family over the stitching. I am looking forward to that as a “sprint” section – where I can see the idea take shape.

I’ll let you know how it goes.

For all of us: focus each day
on the good that needs to be done in the world.

Be part of doing it.

Thank you for reading.
I always enjoy questions and comments.
--Bobbi

bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

How I keep in touch:

Memory – to Story – to Artwork

March 15, 2026

This week’s writing will involve some time travel.

It goes back to a childhood memory, then to parts of the memory being created in my studio, then back to the thoughts that preceded that artmaking as I developed a vision for this work in progress.

I am creating a work based on a family scrapbook memory. Memory is a good place to begin the artmaking process.

This is my family on a beach vacation when I was about four. The image speaks to me as a personal remembrance of me and the other three members of my family. But I see more here.

I have come to understand my family’s history in the context of our time. I’m a baby boomer, born into a young family after WWII who wanted to live the simple American dream. Two kids. A house. A picket fence. A nice American life. It was not a bad dream.

But it was rocky.

If I want to tell a story based on my family, I want to express that maybe the dream itself was rocky. There were a lot of forces at work both within my family and in the country and the economics of that post WWII American history. It was not as idyllic as it appeared.

When you have the idea for a story, how to express it might come to you all at once. Or it might take some time and some thinking through of options. The second method is how this one has come together for me.

I want to show my family as a universal American family. So I put us in a rocky rowboat. The color and pattern I will put in the seagulls will suggest the stars of the American flag, and the waves of the boat will be red and white stripes, further communicating flag imagery. The rendering of the family will be less representational than in the PhotoShop mockup shown. My hope is that other people can see this group and possibly see their own family experience too. It’s not just about these four particular people.

I already experienced time travel as I’ve worked on this piece. As I’ve had time, I’ve worked on the various pieces. (I have already written about creating the FLAG PARTS and THE WATERCOLOR SKY in recent blog posts, in case you’d like to re-read those.)

From here to the completion, I’ll be working in order: step-by step. Based on the memory, expanded to a story that interests me, using the parts I have created, I am now ready to start building this piece of artwork. (A nice visitor to my studio during the tour photographed me with the quilt parts, as I told them the story of the piece.)

I hope to write more about this work and how I experience putting it together in the weeks ahead ‑- as I shepherd that initial memory through the process of becoming art.

Thanks so much for following along.

. . . . .

For readers in the Central Florida area, I hope you’ll have a chance to visit Artists In The Garden this Saturday, March 21, 10am – 3pm at Select Growers on US11 in DeLeon Springs. About thirty artists (including me) will be exhibiting in beautiful outdoor pavilions. It’s a lovely event and benefits the educational programs of the Museum of Art DeLand. It’s free to attend. Food and mimosas available! See you there.

. . . . . .

A reminder for those who care about the direction of our country and who are deeply concerned about where it is going: The simple citizenship act of writing to your representative is still a powerful and important act. Compose a few words. Put them in a document you can cut and paste into the “contact form” on your representative’s site. Find your senators and representatives and copy their email addresses into your working document so it’s an easy task. Write. Repeat.

Find your US representatives’ contact HERE: https://www.house.gov/representatives.
Find your senators’ contact HERE; https://www.senate.gov/senators/senators-contact.htm

. . . . . .

For all of us: focus each day
on the good that needs to be done in the world.

Be part of doing it.

Thank you for reading. I always enjoy questions and comments.
--Bobbi

bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

Monoprinting a Watercolor Sky

March 1, 2026

This week I made some sky.

This is one of my favorite methods of hand printmaking: organic, filling a large piece of yardage by print-move-print-move-repeat printing, and creating an ethereal, watercolor-like allover pattern.

Time to get started

I’ve got my jars of paint ready to roll, and a vinyl cover over my workspace. I put a second piece of smaller vinyl on top and I’ll use that as my palette: mixing right on the tabletop.

I scoop out my paints a few teaspoonfuls at a time, mixing just what I need for a project. My plan was to make a neutral grey. The best way to mix beautiful neutrals is to mix across the complements. Here, I made some orange to mix into my cerulean blue. Then add just a bit of white.

(You will notice that in the finished fabric this has turned out more blue than grey. That’s because as I was mixing I changed my mind. Adding just that little bit of orange to the blue made a nice hue, so I decided to go with that color. But I decided to share how to create a more neutral grey just in case you would like to give that a try.)

Now to print.

I have rolled the paint out onto my gelatin printing plate, and I’m pressing the fabric down into the color with my hands. After a little gentle rubbing, I pull the fabric off.

By now you may have noticed in the photos that my printing plate is not pristine and blemish-free. True. This is a homemade plate which I have had for at least two years. Unlike the commercial plates, after a lot of use, a homemade plate will begin to show some wear and tear. It may create bubbles and cracks.

I love these imperfections1 They create the most interesting organic splotches, which I don’t t think I could create any other way. Here’s how my current plate is printing on paper:

And here’s the fabric I just printed this week for my watercolor-look sky.

I am excited about my plans for this fabric, and in the next few weeks I will share more about the work in which I’ll use it.

But for now, it’s time to CLEAN MY STUDIO! I’ve got visitors coming next week for the DeLand-Area Studio Tour.

If you are near Central Florida, I hope you will come to DeLand, plan an itinerary to visit all or some of our 29 artists, and – especially—I hope you will visit my studio. I’ll have lots of finished work to share. And you can peak behind-the-scenes to see how work is made.

Find me at stop #2. See you there!

For all of us: focus each day
on the good that needs to be done in the world.
Be part of doing it.

Thank you for reading. I always enjoy questions and comments.
--Bobbi

bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

DIG DEEPER

February 22, 2026

This weekend I did a little website cleaning and rearranging. Whenever I do this, it provides an opportunity for me to look back at work I may not have looked at in a while.

I like to revisit work and see if something I made a few years ago still interests me, and if I can learn anything from it.

This is a work I re-discovered: Dig Deeper

This is monotype printed rice paper, ripped and cut to size, collaged to 140# watercolor paper and mounted in a shadow box oak frame.

Creating this work recalled the pleasure I had as a young girl completing my assigned daily job: setting the dinner table each evening. I love putting things around the table in just the right order. I loved putting the knives, forks and spoons in their correct place.

This composition has that kind of orderliness. The elements are contained within imaginary rectangles. It does not depict much depth. The graphic arrangement makes me contentedly sigh “aahhhh.”

Sometimes, forms in a row feel just right.

But, at the same time, I think I created some interesting contrasts.

In the “above” section, large leaf stencils create static leaf shapes. I enjoyed creating four in a row, each same-but-different.

In the “below” section, I printed from roots pulled from my garden. I like their liveliness, and the way they contrast the leaves.

Finally, I rediscovered how much a simple palette speaks to me. All the colors I mixed in this work contain some portion of raw or burnt umber. The Cerulean Blue plus brown becomes more subtle. The Cadmium Red plus brown loses its brashness. And, because all the sections were printed as monotypes, there are slight variations in each patch of color. Nothing is too flat.

The demands of framing keep me from creating paper pieces more frequently. (Frames are bulky to store and can be costly.) But I do love the beauty of a genuine deckle edge watercolor sheet, floating in a frame that shows it off.

Everything in its place. . . aaahhh.

Thanks for re-visiting this paper artwork with me. If you’d like to learn more about it, please visit my website HERE.

For all of us: focus each day
on the good that needs to be done
in the world.
Be part of doing it.

Thank you for reading. I always enjoy questions and comments.
--Bobbi

bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

How I keep in touch:

. . . . . . . . . .

EXHIBITS AND COMING EVENTS

STUDIO TOUR – IN DELAND, FLORIDA
Come visit my studio
Saturday and Sunday, March 7-8 2026 10am – 5pm

Visit local artists’ studios and see how they work. Information about the artists and map of studio locations: www.artstours.org

In Ormond Beach, Florida . . . TRIO
through March 1, 2026 at Ormond Memorial Museum of Art

My work, Three Yellow Doors, is part of this SAQA juried regional exhibit

In Lewiston, Idaho . . . SAQA GLOBAL – PRIMAL FORCES: FIRE
January 6 – March 28, 2026 at Lewis & Clark State College

My work, Nothing Remains But the Loss, is part of this SAQA juried Global exhibit

In DeLand, Florida . . . A SENSE OF PLACE
January 8 – March 30, 2026 City Commission Chambers, DeLand City Hall

My work, Escape to Quiet Waters, is part of this exhibition by ArtsEtc Surface Design Group

Hello Sunshine

February 15, 2026

A rare day of medium warmth and sunshine arrived this week.

I used the opportunity for some work outside in the sun.

This simple act was energizing! And it reminded me of some good basics in creating fabric.

Here I am ready to begin:

The tools are simple: I have some blank yardage. I used a combination of unbleached cotton muslin and a recycled bed sheet. I am creating a quilt back; this became a good way to use up fabric scraps that I had available.

(An aside: If you follow my artmaking process, you’ll not this is an oddity for me. Generally, I back my quilts with a nice grey felt. But I am upcycling a previously-made quilt with some new sections and it’s already quite heavy. I need something lighter.)

Good Basic reminder 1: Organic shapes in stencils will step-and-repeat well.

Notice that the stencil I’m holding is fairly small. But, using the print-move-print again method, I created a nice length of yardage pretty quickly.

You can see the the colors are variable and loose. I had some of each of two browns in my paint tray and a bit of blue. I kept the roller pretty wet, and just rolled up paint on the roller loosely through the three colors.

You’ll also notice I have a makeshift workspace outdoors. That is:

Good Basic Reminder 2: Sometimes you have to create a space that works.

My studio is the size of a one-car garage. Sometimes I need to spread out. I use these metal sawhorse legs – very lightweight and very easy to store – and put a piece of plywood on top. Instant worktable. I use my fence as a place to hang fabric to dry.

Here’s a section of the fabric I stencil-printed:

I think the rock shapes work as an all-over pattern. If you thought ahead even more, you could cut a stencil where organic shapes tuck into each other on each side fore less noticeable start-and-stop points. For this application I’m happy with the result.

I remembered a stencil printing project from several years ago based on leaves.

Leaves are some of the most interesting shapes to play with. You can layer them in pretty endless variations. From that day working outside, I created paint-only leaves (the green ones) and then a pattern with more depth using wheat paste and black over-painting.

And that reminded me of

Good Basic Reminder 3: Fabrics that are same-but-different speak well to one another in a finished work.

This is Overlooked, the quilt using those leaf patterns.

The weather has lost its bitter nastiness – at least for now – and I look forward to enjoying more outside work time.

For all of us: focus each day on the good
that needs to be done in the world.
Be part of doing it.

Thank you for reading.
I always enjoy questions and comments.
--Bobbi

bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

. . . . . . . . . .

EXHIBITS AND COMING EVENTS

STUDIO TOUR – IN DELAND, FLORIDA
Saturday and Sunday, March 7-8 2026 10am – 5pm

Visit MY STUDIO and other local artists’ studios and see how they work. Information about the artists and map of studio locations: www.artstours.org

In Ormond Beach, Florida . . . TRIO
through March 1, 2026 at Ormond Memorial Museum of Art

My work, Three Yellow Doors, is part of this SAQA juried regional exhibit

In Lewiston, Idaho . . . SAQA GLOBAL – PRIMAL FORCES: FIRE
January 6 – March 28, 2026 at Lewis & Clark State College

My work, Nothing Remains But the Loss, is part of this SAQA juried Global exhibit

In DeLand, Florida . . . A SENSE OF PLACE
January 8 – March 30, 2026 City Commission Chambers, DeLand City Hall

My work, Escape to Quiet Waters, is part of this exhibition by ArtsEtc Surface Design Group

How I keep in touch:

Mostly Hidden

February 8, 2026

This week I’ve been working my way through a large quilt inspired by a home in my neighborhood.

It’s mostly hidden. Trees are untrimmed, vines are overgrown, shrubs abound in a wild tangle, and the house seems to exist mostly in shadows.

What’s visible reveals a person who finds it meaningful to adorn his compound with a pirate’s skull-and-crossed-swords flag and a variety of signs and flags from the Confederate Army. Symbols of intimidation and defiance. Together with some American flags, the symbols poke through the overgrown vegetation.

There’s lots to think about.

The mechanics of the work are challenging for me. It’s big, and it has a lot of complex images to somehow bring together into a unified composition.

And, of course, the ideas are big. What compels a person to define himself and his home with controversial symbols? Staking out a claim? Identifying with a tribe?

I don’t claim to know the answers to those questions, and the quilt will not attempt to answer them. It will be, I hope, a way to invite thoughtful response.

(This work is intended for a show to take place later in 2026 and, for now, I can’t reveal much more about it.)

But, I can show some of the details in the artmaking that are interesting to me. I am developing the concept of rocks and cave-dwellers in the quilt imagery. I printed up some fabric with wheat paste resist to communicate that feel.

Here is the tension that’s the heart of artmaking to me: LARGE working in relation with SMALL.

What’s LARGE – what’s actually the heart of the work -- is the idea. It’s what I hope to explore and think about in response to my neighbor.

Meanwhile, the SMALL things, the nuts-and-bolts of the artmaking, deal with creating a vocabulary of fabric pieces, sewing them together and creating a 2-D surface full of images.

The LARGE idea is the reason to create. The SMALL parts of the process are what accomplish the communication and make it successful, or not.

This process keeps me interested and keeps calling me back to the studio.

. . . . . .

For all of us: focus each day
on the good that needs to be done in the world.
Be part of doing it.

Thank you for reading.
I always enjoy questions and comments.
--Bobbi

bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

How I keep in touch:

. . . . . . . . . .

COMING EVENT

STUDIO TOUR – IN DELAND, FLORIDA
Saturday and Sunday, March 7-8 2026 10am – 5pm

Visit local artists’ studios and see how they work. Information about the artists and map of studio locations: www.artstours.org

CURRENT EXHIBITS

In Ormond Beach, Florida . . . TRIO
through March 1, 2026 at Ormond Memorial Museum of Art

My work, Three Yellow Doors, is part of this SAQA juried regional exhibit

In Lewiston, Idaho . . . SAQA GLOBAL – PRIMAL FORCES: FIRE
January 6 – March 28, 2026 at Lewis & Clark State College

My work, Nothing Remains But the Loss, is part of this SAQA juried Global exhibit

In DeLand, Florida . . . A SENSE OF PLACE
January 8 – March 27, 2026 City Commission Chambers, DeLand City Hall

My work, Escape to Quiet Waters, is part of this exhibition by ArtsEtc Surface Design Group

Color Exploration: Red /Not Red – White / Not White

February 1, 2026

This week I’ve worked on painting up some yardage for a work-in-progress. A portion of the quilt will represent an American flag. So, of course, I’ll need some red and white stripes.

One of the things I enjoy in planning a composition, then collaging from printed fabrics, is the chance to play with color and pattern. Yes, in a real flag a red stripe is just solid red. But in my depiction, there is no need to be quite that literal. Or quite that boring.

I’ve created some white (but not all white or just white) yardage that will function as white stripes. And I’ve created some red (but not all red or just red) yardage that will function as red stripes.

Cut into waving strips, sewn together in that waving flag pattern, this will read visually as “flag.” (In the same way, if you create a landscape with trees, patches of green-blue-black-yellow-blue patterns can read visually as “leaves.” ) Mixing it up some is much more interesting.

To begin: I created the white yardage first. When I paint fabric, I like to tape it down to a working board so it doesn’t wrinkle up as the paint gets water and paint on it in varying degrees.

Here’s a little section I like. On top of the white underpainting, I just smudged a very pale bit of olive green (made my mixing yellow + black + white) with a large brush. I like the parchment-like feel of this. A very little paint goes a long way with this technique. You want just a blush of color.

Next I worked with an all-over pattern stencil from my stash of well-loved hand-cut stencils. Again, I mixed the yellow + black to make olive, but I added that to a larger quantity of white.

To create a larger piece of yardage, I just repeated the stencil by moving it down the fabric: paint, move, paint, move.

Here are some nice little squares added from a found object: this is a rubber mat intended as a shelf liner. This mix of larger shapes with smaller ones keeps things dynamic.

Now I’m adding some triangular shapes with a stencil I cut from a plastic deli carry-out lid. The nice thing about plastic stencils is that you can see through so you know where you ar placing each image. (The bad thing is that they are harder to cut.)

Using the edge of a piece of that clear plastic I added some linear elements

Now It was time to move onto the red fabric. I followed a similar process, working spontaneously. Least intense color in the background: a pale red wash. More intense colors on top: a mix of various mixed reds, in large and small shapes. (the piece in this photo is about 36”H.)

What if, when I cut it in strips to sew into the flag, the patterns are too overpowering and distracting? That could happen. If so, I’ll work over the area with light washes of varying red hues till the patterns speak in the appropriate volume.

This artwork will be on the back burner for a while as I work on other things. But, I’ll write about it again when I get back to it. Stay tuned!

. . . . . .

For all of us: focus each day
on the good that needs to be done in the world.
Be part of doing it.

Thank you for reading. I always enjoy questions and comments.
--Bobbi

bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

How I keep in touch:

EXHIBITS AND COMING EVENTS

STUDIO TOUR – IN DELAND, FLORIDA
Please come visit my studio!
Saturday and Sunday, March 7-8 2026 10am – 5pm

Visit local artists’ studios and see how they work. Information about the artists and map of studio locations: www.artstours.org

In Ormond Beach, Florida . . . TRIO
through March 1, 2026 at Ormond Memorial Museum of Art

My work, Three Yellow Doors, is part of this SAQA juried regional exhibit

In Lewiston, Idaho . . . SAQA GLOBAL – PRIMAL FORCES: FIRE
January 6 – March 28, 2026 at Lewis & Clark State College

My work, Nothing Remains But the Loss, is part of this SAQA juried Global exhibit

In DeLand, Florida . . . A SENSE OF PLACE
January 8 – March 30, 2026 City Commission Chambers, DeLand City Hall

My work, Escape to Quiet Waters, is part of this exhibition by ArtsEtc Surface Design Group