Author: Judy Coates Perez

  • Ty’s Origami

    My 12 year old son loves to do origami. He has been doing it since he was 4, I want him to make a blog so he can show all of the things he makes, but so far I can’t convince him. So I thought I would showcase some of his work on my blog…

  • Abby’s new sweater

    I just finished knitting this turtleneck sweater for Abby from my recently dyed sock yarn. Wearing a sweater around the house is a must for this little girl in Chicago. She wears this under her jacket when she goes outside and she still shivers.

  • Happy Valentines Day!

    This cactus was on the hillside by our old house in Los Angeles.

  • Altered Book

    The last time I was at my sisters house, she pulled out all her paints, glazes, rubberstamps, gel medium, scraps of paper and magazines and I made my first altered book. Deb gave me a book she had picked up on the discount table at a book store to use as my “canvas”. The florentine…

  • Altered book part 2

    Here is the next third of the book. The next three spreads use fabric that I made in a workshop with Niki Bonnett when I lived in Austin. Niki has a fun workshop where you create collages on transparency film and then run fabric ironed to freezer paper through a xerox machine. The angel was…

  • Altered Book part 3

    A few days before we had made artist trading cards. So I glued my cards into the book. This page has little windows cut in it like an advent calendar that reveal more pictures of my quilts.

  • Artella Magazine

    My sister Deb is second in command for a cool magazine called Artella this is a really unique publication. They bring writers and artists together in collaboration to make a full color magazine that includes tipped in photos, coins, and stamps scattered through out the magazine to be used in your own collages. There is…

  • Ay Caramba! I am crazy!

    This is who came home with us from drama class yesterday. Her name is Abby. She is a tiny Chihuahua who loves everybody. I fell in love with her during the two hours my kids were in class. It ends up her owner felt like she would be better suited to a family where she…

  • New Yarn Swift

    I just ordered this swift from Joanns.com with a 50% off coupon which made it a major deal. I was so surprised when I opened the package and I pulled out a box from Lacis in Berkeley. This is a high quality wooden swift! Now I won’t have to wind yarn on my knees anymore.

  • Tired

    My son twisted his ankle on friday night. A sort of frequent occurance that we can now blame on having EDS . Saturday he came down with a cold that turned into brochitus Monday night. After a trip to the doctor for a breathing treatment and a scrip for antibiotics he is doing much better.…

  • Yarn Dyeing

    Yesterday I had a lovely day out at The Fine Line Creative Arts Center in St. Charles dyeing yarn. What a fabulous facility, kinda makes me wish I had moved out to the burbs to have easy access to this place. They have a whole room of looms, a pottery studio, a fantastic wet lab…

  • Ehlers Danlos Syndrome

    My kids and myself (as designated genetic carrier) have just been diagnosed with Ehlers Danlos Syndrome. My sister Deb’s 25 year old son was diagnosed with this last fall after suffering chronic joint pain and weakness in his legs. For many years he did a lot of break dancing and martial arts and more recently…

  • Alien pod thing

    Alien pod thing

    I love the way this thing looks. Actually I altered this in photoshop. It originally looked like this. We used to find these on the hillsides up above our home in the canyon in Los Angeles. They grew on a vine, sometimes along the ground, sometimes hanging from a thin stem with the vine coiled…

  • The National Bisquit Company

    This is a picture of our building, taken sometime between 1910 and now. We have the top corner unit, the row of three windows in the pop up section and the row of windows below.

  • Gallery opening for my brother in law

    I am so proud! My bother in law Pablo Perez has a new exhibit of his paintings in Venice CA. Check out his work and this great article about him. I married into a wonderful family of artists eighteen years ago when I married my incredibly talented husband Juan.

  • Felted balls

    Felted balls

    Since I can’t work on any quilt projects right now I have been knitting a lot and now making felted beaded christmas ornaments. They are lots of fun to make, they feel so nice and are fun to stitch into. I would really like to start stitching with some embroidery floss on some but i…

  • Making felted balls

    Jen asked how to make the felted balls. First you order some gorgeous wool roving from somewhere like Outback Fibers. Roll up little balls of roving adding thin layers of diffferent colors you like to the outside. Be sure to spread the fibers out into very thin layers crossing each at 90 degrees. Sometimes I…

  • A perfect evening!

    I am loving Chicago. Tonight the kids went downstairs in our building and got themselves subway sandwiches for dinner and my husband and I went out for a date. We walked a few blocks to a taqueria called de cero. When we left Los Angeles we thought we were leaving good Mexican food behind. But…