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Tech Tuesday: Google IS Human!
What a crazy idea for Tech Tuesday, but we just had to tell you about our recent interaction with Google and why we love Google even more than before. It’s true, we can’t wait to check in and see if Google has changed its banner to some special doodle. Did you know you can peruse…
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Bilbergia Design
When the world is fast asleep, I sometimes have spurts of creative energy. Or was it because I had lunch with mega-creative Carla Barrett? Or perhaps it’s because I should be doing some accounting work and am just a great procrastinator? Whatever the reason, I had fun playing with Photoshop last night. I decided I…
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Tech Tuesday: Creating A Pattern That Repeats Seamlessly
People have been asking what we’ll learn in the Designing Fabric with Photoshop Elements that starts on Monday. Well, we always say lots of things, but that’s not really a good answer. Besides adjustment layers, blend modes, and defining patterns, we also show you some tricks to making your own seamless repeats. You do so…
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High Tech Quilts
Welcome back. Today you can see what fun I had with parts I gleaned from taking apart computer hard drives, cd burners and cell phones. At our Studio Art Quilt Associates convention in Santa Fe, we’re going to have a silent auction of miniature art quilts just for people at the conference. This will be…
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Cool Computer Parts
I suppose I should title this post getting to know the Pixeladies—or, specifically, learning more about Deb than she wants you to know. Hi, my name is Deb, and I’m a packrat. [Audience: Hi, Deb] It started during the holidays. I was cleaning up the studio and throwing things away. [Audience: (applauding) Good job, Deb!]…
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See Us In “Metropolis” at the Blue Line Gallery
Kris likes to celebrate her birthday MONTH (January), but sometimes the DAY (Jan 10) can also be extra special. This is gonna be a good one. Our piece, “Hong Kong in Yellow” opens today at the Blue Line Gallery in Roseville, CA. The exhibit, Metropolis, focuses on cityscapes. “Hong Kong in Yellow” is really a peek…
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Designing Fabric with Photoshop Elements Begins Jan 28!
There’s no better way to start a new year than with a new class. If you’re looking into checking designing fabric off your bucket list, we’d love to see you in our online class: Designing Fabric with Photoshop Elements.Want to learn how to turn a photo into a border print, design fabric for that special…
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Happy New Year!
The Pixeladies started the new year in traditional fashion – on vacation, spending time with our families. It’s always nice to take a little break. We come back refreshed and inspired to create anew. For Kris, New Year’s is spent at the big dinner with her mother-in-law’s family. There’s a lot of preparation involved, but…
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Don’t Forget to Wrap Your Holiday Gifts in Furoshiki!
If you’re a regular reader of our blog, you already know that we love furoshiki – the Japanese art of wrapping in cloth. Now that the holidays are upon us, we’ve started wrapping our gifts up – in furoshiki of course. What we love about furoshiki is that the object actually determines the type of…
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Going Local
The Pixeladies have gone local! We decided we haven’t done much on the local art scene, so we decided to go very local. Deb spent most of her adolescent years in Rancho Cordova, a former suburb of Sacramento and now its very own city, so we submitted three of our scarves for its first digital…
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Houston, We Have Our Reservations!
For those of you who don’t yet know about it, the International Quilt Market and Festival begin this weekend in Houston! Market, which is not open to the public, is a trade show for the fabric inclined. It will be our first trip to market! We will be giving a furoshiki demonstration in the C&T…
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Photoshop Elements 11 Has Arrived!
All I can say is WOW! Adobe has been listening. The Photoshop Elements (PSE) desktop has been completely revamped in Version 11. Here are some of the changes I’ve noticed: PSE has now gone back to the light gray desktop. (Finally!!! People have been complaining about this since the change—was it around version 7?)…
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Tech Tuesday: Top Ten Reasons to Take Our Online Photoshop Class
Our online class, “Photoshop Elements for Fiber Artists and Sewing Enthusiasts,” starts on Monday, September 17. Some of you out there might be considering whether to take the class or not. We thought we should help you decide by giving you our top 10 reasons to take the class: 10. This class really is for…
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SAQA Auction Starts Today!
If you’ve been following our blog, you might remember that we both wrote about our dream collections from the SAQA auction. Studio Art Quilt Associates holds a yearly online auction to benefit its programs. You won’t believe how many great pieces of art are available! Here are our dream collections again. But don’t trust us…
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Tech Tuesday: Why We Love Our Google Calendar
We’ve been working as the Pixeladies since 2003 (wow!) and started off with our nifty online Yahoo calendar that we used for everything. It seemed to work just fine, thank you very much, and I (Kris) had no need to change. Deb, on the other hand, is always rooting around the technosphere looking for ways…
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Tech Tuesday: Using the Clone Stamp Tool
In Photoshop and Photoshop Elements, you can “paint” over something with any part of the image you are working with. In other words, you can clone one part of an image onto another. There are lots of uses for the clone stamp tool. In this video, we’re going to show you one way to remove…
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Tech Tuesday: Photoshop File Size Limit
It finally happened. After using some version of Adobe Photoshop for 17 years, I finally hit the file size limit. I don’t mean the “no vacancy on the old hard drive” message or the “you’ve done something that’s using more computing power than your computer has” message, but the real “your file has too many…
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Tech Tuesday: Help! My Paintbrush Isn’t Working!
We got that frantic Photoshop message in an email last week. You know, the one that says, “Help! My brush has gone haywire!” You go to paint, and you can’t see your drawing line or it’s really faint. Has this ever happened to you? Well, there are some common things to check before you tear…
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Curating a Dream Collection Part II
Well, Deb had so much fun curating a dream collection of 12″ sq. art quilts for SAQA’s Benefit Auction (the online auction starts September 10, 2012), that I just had to try it, too. Where to start? I could have just stayed on the first auction page and created a dream collection from there, but…
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Tech Tuesday: When Your Enlargements Fall Flat
Here’s the creative idea: You’ve got a great photo you want to enlarge and print on fabric for some great wall art. (You don’t have to work in fabric, we just teach a lot of fiber artists so we like to keep them in mind.) Here’s the problem. You go to some Internet company to…
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Curating a Dream Collection
Kermit the frog sang about how it’s not easy being green. Well, it’s not easy being a curator either. Just try choosing six 12” square quilts from the 394 quilts donated to the Studio Art Quilt Associates’ (SAQA) benefit auction. That was the opportunity given to us by Executive Director Martha Sielman. Six quilts, SIX,…
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Tech Tuesday: Changing Your Brush Size
Sometimes I really hate drop-down menus. Take the example of changing brush sizes in Photoshop and Photoshop Elements. I have to move my mouse, stylus or finger all the way to the Options bar, then click, then decide what a good size would be, then move my mouse, stylus or finger back to the image…
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Beatrice Lanter, Masters II, and Titling Artworks
We received our copy of Masters: Art Quilts, Volume II a while ago but have yet to review it on our blog. Of course, lots of people have beaten us to the punch because it’s such a rewarding find: good quality photography, well chosen photo details, and helpful essays on 40 accomplished artists. Martha Sielman…
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Tech Tuesday: Keeping Transparent Images Transparent
Many bloggers have Wordless Wednesday, when they just post a photo. If you know us, (and when I say us I mean me, Kris), you’ll know we’re never at a loss for words. With that in mind, Deb suggested we start Tech Tuesday to address some of those random Photoshop questions students often ask…
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Amber Waves of Grain: Tetsunori Kawana’s Bamboo Sculptures
For this post, we’re heading back to Denver again. I just love it when you go to a favorite spot and there’s something new to capture your attention. The Denver Botanic Gardens has once again come through for me. For the past few years, they’ve commissioned site-specific art for the garden. This year, in the…
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Denise Wallace
Okay, I’ve got to add a museum to our list of favorite museums. Denver Art Museum has been one of my faves for quite a while. Last month I went to DAM with a friend to see the Yves St. Laurent show and Madeline Albright’s collection of pins. Both were good, but I have to…
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Pixeladies Piece Party
We’re getting ready for the Northern California Quilt Council‘s “Meet the Teachers” event on July 18 in Castro Valley, CA. Each one of the 30 teachers has three – yep, three – minutes to tell the attendees what they teach and why any guild would want to hire her or him. It’s no easy feat…
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Top 10 Reasons to See the Gaultier Exhibit in San Francisco
The Pixeladies met up with fellow artists Dee Danley-Brown and Susan Else as well as Kris’ big sis, Noni, to take the trek over to the city to see the Jean Paul Gaultier exhibit at the De Young Museum. As the four of us left the exhibit, we all just looked at each other and…
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Working with Mokuba
We have been prepping for our upcoming class with the American Sewing Guild – Sacramento and wanted to share some of that with you. We are making scarves using Mokuba free lace. Mokuba free lace is a water soluble stabilizer that allows you to create beautiful lace projects. You get two sheets: one sheet is…