Author: Judy Coates Perez

  • The most beautiful train ride I’ve ever taken

    The most beautiful train ride I’ve ever taken

    The day after Phil joined me in Christchurch, we boarded the Tranzalpine train to Greymouth on the west coast of the southern island of New Zealand. This is a 3 hour train ride that begins by crossing the lush green farm land of the Canterbury plains dotted with sheep, then over the majestic southern alps,…

  • My big adventure down under began with teaching at Quilt Symposium, Christchurch

    My big adventure down under began with teaching at Quilt Symposium, Christchurch

    I’m back from a month away and am finally getting back on top of things. I have so much to share from my trip to Christchurch; teaching at Symposium, then traveling through New Zealand for 2 weeks, teaching another class north of Auckland, and then flying to Australia to visit friends in Adelaide and Melbourne…

  • A trip to Denver and the Arapahoe Quilters

    A trip to Denver and the Arapahoe Quilters

    Last week, I flew out to Denver to teach a workshop with the Arapahoe County Quilters, but left a day early to get in a visit with my good friend and old art school roomie Tracy DuCharme who lives on a ranch south of Denver with a pack of llamas, a flock of chickens and…

  • 10+ Techniques with Acrylic Inks workshop in Sacramento

    10+ Techniques with Acrylic Inks workshop in Sacramento

    As much as I love traveling to fun places to teach, there’s nothing better than teaching close to home! This weekend I taught a 2 day class at Meissner’s Sewing in Sacramento. This is my second time teaching at Meissner’s, it’s such a great place for workshops. They have a nice big classroom with a…

  • I speak the language of color

    I speak the language of color

    Polychromatic Predilection 40″ x 40″ whole cloth painted with acrylic inks, free-motion machine quilted. Over the last month, I’ve tried going on a news diet, limiting my intake of news to brief morning and evening reading. I think this is mostly because no matter what happens, nothing seems to change, and the frustration is overwhelming.…

  • Hot off the Press!

    Hot off the Press!

    It’s been a while since I last checked in with you, since I’ve been really busy working on producing the catalog for the Threads of Resistance traveling exhibit with my daughter Indigo. We put in many hours designing, and producing the artwork, editing photos and sending it off to print, but now I’m happy to…

  • A trip to teach in Marin and a Threads of Resistance update

    A trip to teach in Marin and a Threads of Resistance update

    I just taught a workshop over the weekend at the Marin Needle Arts guild in San Rafael, CA which happens to be the town my friend Cara Gulati lives. Cara kindly offered to let me stay over to avoid a 2 hour early commute from Sacramento and the opportunity to hang out. Cara and I met…

  • SLO Creating

    SLO Creating

    Do you feel like life is moving too fast? I know I do. I propose we all do some slow-creating, kind of like pro-creating, or giving birth to artful things on a slow, but regular, basis. A true labor love. A way of being. This weekend, I was able to do some   SLO-creating in San Luis…

  • Liberty Assaulted

    Liberty Assaulted

    Liberty Assaulted 26” x 34”   I feel very strongly that racism, calculated deception and dishonesty won the presidency for Trump. His administration is an assault on people of color, women, the poor, education, science, facts, the environment and the personal freedoms and rights that made America the land of the free.   This is…

  • Unique and beautiful hand painted and printed fabric

    Unique and beautiful hand painted and printed fabric

    What a treat it was to be able to teach a 3-day version of my Paint & Print-a-palooza workshop locally at Meissner’s Sewing in Sacramento. This was my second time teaching the class. The first time was at Craft Napa as a 1-day class. 3 days was great! It gave students enough time to take the…

  • A call for entries in a time of political upheaval

    A call for entries in a time of political upheaval

    If you’re on Facebook you’ve probably already heard about a new exhibit opportunity called Threads of Resistance organized by a group I belong to called the Artists Circle. This is an opportunity to create textile art that will go on tour throughout the US over the next 2 years, with 12 venues already on the…

  • Painting with the Fresno fiber arts guild

    Painting with the Fresno fiber arts guild

    This last weekend I drove down to Fresno to give a lecture and teach my workshop Painting Imagery with Textile Paints with the Fresno FiberArts guild. What a lovely time I had, this is one creative group of gals! They are knitters, weavers, beaders, sewists, felters, art quilters and all around textile artists. We had a great workshop, as…

  • 10+ techniques with acrylic inks in Mobile, Alabama

    10+ techniques with acrylic inks in Mobile, Alabama

    What a great week I had in Mobile. I have never spent any time in Alabama aside from driving through it on a road trip when I was 13 so it was fun to see this part of the country. The 3 day acrylic inks workshop was booked by a group of art quilters that…

  • And the winner is…

    And the winner is…

    Gabriele! She is lucky number 5 . and she has won a free copy of Melanie Testa and Carol Soderlund‘s wonderful new book; Playful Fabric Printing!   Stay tuned for my next post from my recent 3 day workshop 10+ Techniques with Acrylic Inks in Mobile, Alabama. Keep creating, Judy ABOUT JUDY Judy is an artist, explorer, image wrangler, knowledge seeker, instructor,…

  • Making prayer flags at Craft Napa

    Making prayer flags at Craft Napa

    This has been a very hard week with trumps assault on our civil liberties. It has been stressful, anger inducing, frustrating, painful, and scary. I feel traumatized, as each day the news got worse and worse. But as I write this post I feel renewed. My heart and spirit is lifted with each photo that I edit.…

  • My turn on the Playful Fabric Printing bloghop tour!

    My turn on the Playful Fabric Printing bloghop tour!

    Melanie Testa and Carol Soderlund have written an amazing resource book! There’s nothing like it on the market, and I want to share with you the samples I made in a special Playful Fabric Printing playdate that I had with the masters themselves at Pokey’s barn in Napa. This was really fun, because I haven’t worked with dyes for about 10…

  • Paint & Print-a-palooza at Craft Napa

    Paint & Print-a-palooza at Craft Napa

    I was so excited to teach my new Paint & Print-a-palooza class at Craft Napa. It is a take off of my 10+ Techniques with acrylic inks class with a focus on creating colorful patterned fabrics that can be used for piecing, appliqué or any way that you enjoy working with unique and original textiles. This is a…

  • Painting torches and my first day at Craft Napa 2017

    Painting torches and my first day at Craft Napa 2017

    What a week it’s been! After coming home from Craft Napa, the first thing I had to do before sorting unpacking supplies and writing a series of blog posts about our marvelous adventure teaching at this fabulous retreat again, was get my roof fixed in the studio and get the ceiling repair scheduled. And being the political minded…