A closeup shot of the mobile.

The baby mobile is finally finished! I think it turned out great. Jr Bower hung the little fish quilts from a copper hanger and added some copper wire, beads and copper washers. It is adorable. The crystals on the fish sparkle nicely in the sunlight. You can also see the wall behind the baby's crib with his name and more tropical fish. My son and daughter-in-law (Ron and Kate) did the wall mural using decals specifically designed for walls.

Here is a fish print I collaborated on. The print is of a silver salmon and was done in Alaska by Nick Bower. Nick's brother, Jacob Bower (of Seattle) then added some final touches with paint. I added the quilting and beading on the edges. I used a mirror for the eye. It measures about 24x40".

It snowed last night! I think we got about 10". It is hushed and beautiful...

Merry Christmas to one and all!

It snowed last night! Here are some of the little visitors to our bird feeder this morning.

Also show is the town of Leavenworth, WA on Thursday evening. Leavenworth is a small town located on the east side of the Cascade Mountains on Hwy 2. As you can see, it has a "Bavarian" Theme and is a very popular tourist attraction, particularly in the winter when they hold the "Christmas Lighting" festival.

Detail shots of various fish. The first little fish is embroidered with free-motion embrodery on my sewing machine, the other two are machine appliqued.

Here is a quilt I made for my, hopefully, soon-to-be-born grandson. His nursery has a tropical fish motif. "Cohen's Quilt" is 36x42".

I am making little starfish Christmas ornaments as gift tags this year. I beaded the edges, hung a small charm of each and used embroidery thread for a hanging loop. I made four, with different colored beading on each one.

Here is the cake I baked for my daughter-in-law's baby shower, which was held last Sunday. It turned out "okay", but I can see I have a lot more practicing to do to get this cake decorating thing right...

I used pound cake with buttercream frosting between the layers (with coconut). There are two 8" layers on the bottom and two 6" layers on top. The peals are edible.

Here are some of the baby clothes I've been working on for the grandchild-to-be. I haven't knitted for YEARS, but it was fun. I love the little fleece outfit. Very fitting since it snowed for the first time today and is expected to drop to 20 degrees this week. The fleece coat and bibb overalls are reversible.

Below are the finished fish for the baby mobile. After quilting them, I put a beaded trim on them (picot stitch) and embellished them with crystals. They are now ready to be mailed back to JR for assembly into the mobile. This was a fun project and I look forward to another collaboration.

One fish,
Two fish,
Red fish,
Blue fish.

Here's the first little fish mobile disc. There will be 7 total. Since the circle measures a little over 7" across, I decided that in order to make it stable enough so it wouldn't fold or collapse, I needed to make two little quilts, and fastened them together with a red beaded picot edging. I used a blue batik for the back to give it a little color when it spins. I quilted with a blue Sulky rayon thread and satin stitched the edges with a variegated blue cotton thread. I will add some crystals to give it a little sparkle later.

Here are more little fish. I think I will use 2 layers of cotton batting. I want them to be soft, but firm enough to hold their shape. They are 7-1/8" in diameter, so I don't want them to be too floppy. I want to lightly quilt them, perhaps with quilting lines that evoke a feeling of water. Then I will affix the crystals, cut out the circles and satin stitch around the edges, and perhaps do a beaded picot treatment around the edges.

Here is a little fish which was painted by Jr Bower, a very talented artist living in Worland, WY. He and I are lucky enough to share the same grandchild (due to be born around Christmas this year!) and have decided to collaborate on a mobile for the baby's room. Jr has painted 7 fish (more photos to follow) and I will quilt them, embellish them with crystals (of course!), and cut them into circles. He will then assemble them into a mobile.

Jr is the maternal grandfather and I am the paternal grandmother. Is this correct?!? Anyway, my son is the father and his daughter is the mother...

Here is one side of the yard, with a view overlooking the Columbia River. I built the arbor this summer using Western Red Cedar. I like the way it turned out. The climbing rose growing on it is a David Austen rose, "Teasing Georgia".

Here is a photo of my house, which I recently put up for sale. It is one of 7 homes which were built in 1926 as houses for the supervisors on the Lake Chelan Dam project. My home was the head electrician's home.

Here is my latest quilt, "Sheer Moonlight".
This quilt was made for the 2006 IQA Silent Auction. It measures 8-1/2 x 11" and is made with cotton and sheer fabrics. It is machine appliqued and quilted, and embellished with beads.

The wavy "stripes" are actually sheer fabric. This quilt looks best when hung where the light can filter through it. This is the first quilt I have worked on in over 9 months. It felt good to start creating again.

Actually, this took me about 3 weeks to finish. After gutting the entire room, I had the plumber come do a rough-in for a tub/shower. Then I put up the bead board wainscoting, painted the walls, put down new flooring, put up cement backerboard on the tub surround, tiled it and trimmed it with a really cool platinum metallic tile (even tiled the window frame) and put in a new vanity with a super cool Moen Eva faucet. I put in new towel bars, etc. I managed to save the original built-in mirrored medicine cabinet and linen closet (this is a 1926 brick home), which I was very happy about. The walls are painted a really soft "hickory smoke" color. I found little glass knobs for the new vanity which perfectly match the glass knob on the original mirrored medicine cabinet.

Okay, I think it is time to remodel my main floor bath! This room has been used for nothing except my kitty litter box since we moved in. We've had a shower curtain hanging across the tub. The rest of the room really didn't look as bad as the tub surround!

After three days of walking 20 miles each day, camping in a tent city, using porta potties, truck showers and eating food in a tent café with 2,700 other women (and a few men), my friend Carmen Andonaegui (on the right in the photo) and I ended our Breast Cancer 3-Day Walk tired and sore, but happy to have contributed to the fight against this disease.







At the University of Washington closing ceremonies on Sunday it was reported that our efforts at the Seattle 3-Day effort raised $6.9 million dollars and was still counting. Your donation helps the fight against breast cancer. More than 200,000 new cases will be diagnosed in the United States this year and more than 40,000 American women and men will lose their lives to the disease. Every 13 minutes, the disease claims another life in the United States.

My mother, Virginia Mae Grooms (nee Capper) died of the disease when I was only 16. I decidated my walk to her and carried a picture of her over the three days. On the flip side of her photo, I carriend the names of other women who were victims of, or survivors of this terrible disease. I also wore my pink "Jake's Plumbing" cap. Jake, and his mom Vivian, were my top corporate contributors and greatly helped in my fundraising efforts. (Jake is a cancer survivor himself, and had to have a leg amputated a couple years ago due to cancer- Jake is also a dog! Good dog!)

Another photo of "Kashmir" in France. It's way in the background in the center of the photograph.

Photography by E. Lomax

Here is "Kashmir" hanging at the Patchwork & Quilt Expo in France.

Photography by E. Lomax

Here is a detail shot of "Kashmir".

Here is my latest "large" work, "Kashmir", 54x24" (2005). It is named after the Led Zeplin song and is intended to evoke the feeling of a belly dancing costume. The sheer circles, which are made of purple silk oganza represent the veil. This quilt is heavily embellished with thousands of crystals, beads, mirrors and copper crescent moons. The quilt actually makes a sound not unlike a belly dancing costume when jiggled. This quilt won a first place at the 2005 IQA show in Houston for small abstract quilts, and was also shown in the Spring Quilt Festival in Chicago. It also was invited to the Patchwork and Quilt Expo X in Lyon, France. It recently returned home after taveling the globe. I usually sell my work, but have decided to keep this one. It is now in it's place of honor in the living room of my home.

"The Wind Cries Mary" was made in 2004 and measures 52x44". This design was inspired by the Experience Music Project (EMP) building in Seattle, which was designed by architect Frank Gehry. The EMP is a tribute to Jimi Hendrix, and the quilt was named for the Hendrix song. It is machine pieced and quilted with rayon thread. It is embelished with pearls, beads and copper. The little squares on the right side and bottom are all individual little quilts, each with its own binding and embellishment.

This quilt won first place in the Wall Quilt Amatuer category at the AQS show in 2004 and was also juried into the 2004 IQA show in Houston. It sold in July, 2006, and now resides in Tennesee.

Here is the first "art" quilt I ever made. It is a portrait of my son as he was in high school. He'd be mortified if he knew this was out there in cyberspace! He likes the quilt, but hates his hair! So, if you run into him on the street, don't mention this!

Welcome to Jo Grooms' Designs. Here is a photo of where I live in Chelan, Washington.

It's a great place to live - beautiful lake, apple orchards, vineyards and clean air (except for now during the wildfire season).

I am an artist, using primarily fabric as my medium. Most of my work is very detailed, and is usually comprised of fabric, beads, found objects, metals and mirrors. More on that later...