Starting countdown!

Well, Dec.1st will be the start of our countdown for Florida! Christmas shopping, thinking of packing up, etc. Bob has an alarm system coming for the house so that will keep him busy for awhile!
In between cooking and cleaning and doing some quilting last week, I did play with lutradur, fabric crayons and disperse dyes.

I did a funky tree using fabric crayons on plain paper then painted on the disperse dye. After the dye dried, I transferred to the lutradur. It's a funky tree, as I said, but I think I can do something with this piece.


I did the same technique except made some hearts and again transferred to lutradur (this is the lightest weight).

This piece has two different transfers from using the disperse dye and crayon piece.

This piece I forgot what I was doing and I use the fabric crayons and started to do a rubbing on it! hmmmmm That's ok, I'll just use disperse dye transfer on top of it.

Yep, lost my head again and did rubbings with fabric crayons direct onto the lutradur. I like the intensity of the crayons and if I use a pastel or light hand on transferring the disperse dye, I think the piece will turn out quite nice.

Hopefully, I can take one of these pieces (funky tree??) and start on my BJP for January. I thought of keeping with the art of nature theme and the 'tree' would fit in?? I can see beading swirling around the tree. I need some hand work..although, I sliced (and I do mean sliced) my finger on my right hand over the weekend on my rotary cutter. I'm getting some super glue today to hold it together.

Also, we had 7 turkey in the yard today! We saw two the other day and that was the first for this winter. I'm sure the rest of them will be forth coming! Still no snow! Whew!

Another Thanksgiving!

What another great family time with had yesterday! Kids were in from Indiana along with dogs and it was so much fun!

Here's the 'watch dogs'! Ben, Cody and Mandy. They all got along SO well and are the best dogs around.

This is Cody and Gabe, Kayla's friend who came to visit. This is our 2nd meeting with Gabe and he's such a nice gentleman. Not such a good Monopoly Deal card player! But he was a good sport, so we let him win one hand! This card game is so much fun! A lot quicker then Monopoly. actually Ian, Kayla, MaryJo and myself (along with Gabe) each ended up winning a hand.

We combined Thanksgiving with a surprise 'pre' BD party for Bob. He turns 70 this Dec. 18th and I thought since kids were in town I'd invite Diane and Don (Bob's daughter & hubby) to join us for dinner. Just another surprise for Bob as he didn't know I invited them. Kids decorated the dining area before dinner.

Ian, Kayla and Gabe doing the honors.

This was Ian's first time at tying balloons! We had a balloon tying session. The green balloon behind him has writing on it stating this was his 1st tied balloon. Ian is getting so tall! He's taller then I am!!

This was Grandpa coming up into the kitchen area! He was a bit surprised and didn't know what all the decorations were about! Yes, I got a lecture afterwards but it was worth it to have both his son and daughter and families together for a change.

And a carrot cake for the birthday boy!

We were downstairs having dessert. Not sure what he wished for but it won't be heading to Florida early...although that's what he said he was wishing for!

So that was our day and it truly was great to spend this week with family. I did miss seeing Dawn and Jeff as they went to Jeff's family for Thanksgiving but they did cook dinner for me this past date night so I got to spend time with them.

I am so thankful for the family and friends I have.

Another Thanksgiving Dinner!

The kids drove in from Indiana on Wed. and will be here today for our Thanksgiving meal! We're looking forward to the time with them and Kayla is home from college so it will be good to hear all about school. Ian will play pool most of the time and might even beat Grandpa once in a while!

So here's an interesting video to watch. This is art for sure! I'm off to do some more cooking!

What a Thanksgiving!

Nothing quilt related today on this post...just family stuff. It is after all my journal so every once in awhile it will be all about family!

Well, our Kris outdid herself again! She really should be on Martha Stewart or have her own show. Kris is a WONDERFUL hostess and pictures don't do her justice on how she prepares the house for her guests and family! This is just one seating area Kris had set up for dinner. She and Amber made everyone their own place card. You can just about see the little turkey on the plate that had each of our names on it. Just another nice touch. Amber knew where everyone was sitting and it made it nice to fill up drinks! This was another table set up. Starting with Amber peaking out of the corner (left), Katie, Kim (Kris' sister), Kim's husband Tom and their daughter, Lilly. I never could get a picture of Nick or Amber without them moving. But Amber does have a nice smile on her! Kris is in the background working away!

And this is Ginny and her friend, Mike. A nice young man and it was good he was able to join the family for dinner. Ginny was the 'live in nanny' this past summer replacing Katie from the year before. We had fun both years and I hope Ginny will be a 'nanny' again this summer! I'll have to come up with some new, exciting things to do on Wed.!

Just one picture of some of the food! I think there were two turkey's as Kris' mom, Nancy made a turkey too. Nancy is a good cook as well so Kris gets it from her for sure. Everyone (women!) brought something to add to the dinner. So many choices!

This is Wesley, Kris' nephew. Nick is hiding in the left hand corner! He's usually pretty good about getting his picture taken but not today! That's OK, I still got a shot of his head!

And of course we had to have dessert! There was chocolate cake (made by Nancy!), sweet potato pie (by Lisa), pumpkin squares (I'm assuming Nancy), lemon pie (me), pumpkin pie (me) and a trifle (I think by Kris??) but I didn't get a picture of it. I was too busy eating!

It was a very nice Thanksgiving with family, friends and of course food! Again, thank you Kris (& Darrin!) for another wonderful meal. Kris, you certainly put forth so much effort to make each get together the best for everyone!! You are a sweetheart!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING ONE AND ALL!

I couldn't resist this little guy! One day he might be on someones table! I just hope it not ours! Enjoy your day with family and friends.

Transfers & fiber cards

I'm off to meet a friend for coffee/breakfast...but thought I'd post two transfer fiber cards I mad this weekend. I printed pictures on tissue paper then embellished and finished.

I took a photo of some quilting I did as a sample piece. Then I printed the picture on the tissue paper and fused to a piece of background quilting I already had sandwiched. I quilted it and then added some fabric paints to some areas as well as french knots.

This one was a picture Dawn took at Belle Isle. Again, I just printed on tissue paper and fused to a sandwiched piece. I did some free motion quilting then added french knots in the middle.

I really have to get better at taking pictures. My work always seems distored and I know they are square (ok, rectangles) but they never appear that way. Great...another hobby to get into - photography! No, wait...that's what my daughter does. Guess I'll just have to have her take all my pictures for me. I'm off to eat and talk! Until tomorrow........

Beading, beading and more beading!

Most of my fiber friends know I'm crazy about beading and enjoy every moment that I do bead. Lately, I've been working on beading my Frankenthaler (for the Inspired by the Masters exhibit). This is one of Helen Franenthaler's paintings that inspired me to create my Frankenthaler quilt.

I finally finished beading the bugger! It's 16" x 20" and has LOTS of bugle beads in it.

I was getting bored with just bugles and it just so happened one of my favorite beaders, Margaret Ball, posted on her blog directions for beading 'lacy looped fringe'. I thought, heck, I'll use it in my Frankenthaler! You'll have to click on the picture to see the beading closeup.

The green fringe beading included bugle beads in addition to the seed beads and I followed Margaret's directions for adding several loops. I alternated between 2 and 4 bugles then added the seed beads as loops.

The blue was again replacing the seed beads with bugles but keeping the seed beads for the bottom loop. I like the different embellishment this pattern gave to the piece rather then just having all bugle beads staggered throughout the piece. Thanks, Margaret for sharing another technique! Can't wait for her next book to come out! I reference her book 'Embeadery' often and it travels to Florida with me every year!

I also had finished this lace scarf a few weeks ago and I added some beading for fringe. I only had a few of the pink seed beads left so I used Margaret's directions and added some of the lacy loop fringe until I ran out! I think it adds a little something to the small amount of fringe I did have.

So now to work on some more of my fiber Valentine post cards. I did make two fiber cards yesterday but I have to finish the edges on them, then I'll post pics. I was playing with printing on tissue paper. Actually, it's tissue paper that was in a gift bag Carolyn gave us on Friday at the Guild workshop. "Waste not, want not" Grandma always said!

Better picture!

Here's a better picture of the raffle quilt on our bed! Perfect for Christmas! Yes, I'm still excited about the 'win'!!

Just my lucky week I guess!

I WON!!! I WON!!! Yep, I won the GSQ raffle quilt!! Isn't it great! It's all hand appliqued and machine quilted. I wanted to get a quick picture and didn't know where to hang it so I just laid on top of our bedspread. I think it looks so nice so I'm going to get my green pillows out and use it as a spread for the holidays. It's also traveling with us to Florida to be shown to my friends there! Thanks Shirley for drawing my name!!! And thanks Mary for giving me the brown paper bag when I started to hyperventilate! (Only kidding...I just felt like I was).



Just a few closeups of the blocks....

Just beautiful....

I'm not a traditional quilter by any means but I certainly do appreciate traditional work. I do so love this quilt.

So at the guild meeting in the afternoon, four of us put on a 90 minute workshop. Mine was using Shiva Paintstiks. I think the ladies did a great job! It's hard to cram a full day class into 90 minutes but they did it! I had 13 in the workshop but I didn't get pics of each of their work, darn! But here are some pictures I did get.

Check out the landscape Wilma did! This was using a strip of paper for the edging.

We did 'masking' first to get them used to working with the paintstiks. This was Evelyn P's piece.

Evelyn B. used one of my hand carved stamps and the stencil brush rather then the paintstik direct on the fabric! I think the colors are beautiful and very subtle. Each print could be used to make a fiber postcard just by adding a border. I love this effect.

Maryanne did a rubbing using another one of my hand carved stamps and some larger leaf store bought stamps I had. You really can get a great textured look with the rubbings.

Maryanne was busy! This was her 'masking' piece then she laid a place mat under her painted piece and did the rubbing. Pretty cool!

I think this is by Lillian. She just used the paintstik direct on the rubbing but she kept moving the rubbing at angles. Nice effect isn't it! The blue paintstik really stood out.

Diane used another one of my hand carved stamps. Maze and blue!! Go Blue!! I love these colors together. Nice contrast and rich looking.

Amy did a really nice masked piece but I didn't get a picture of it. Then she got out her black fabric! I didn't get a picture of her finished black piece but it was amazing!! Amy did rubbings with some other leaves and a rubbing plate. It will make a very nice small quilt for her. She gave me a great idea for a quilt using the black and white! Remember, Amy, 15 minutes!! Just for you!

Vera's piece came out great I thought! I love her colors and the blending she's doing. Almost looks painterly (hmmmm is that really a word??).

Holly did rubbings with the cardboard cup holder from Starbucks coffee (I save these like crazy! They're great for using in scrapbooking or cardmaking as well!). She also did a rubbing with a larger stamp and a rubbing plate. Didn't she blend the colors well on the leaf!

Wilma got really creative didn't she! I love this piece as well! She used a mixture of items to create this one of a kind piece of fabric.

And last but certainly far from least is my buddy, Carolyn! This was her masking piece. After she did the masking and coloring with painstiks she then covered the painted areas and applied a new color to fill in using a rubbing plate.

Here's her finished piece. She also added some stenciling using the torn paper. I think it turned out great! These are my colors!

Carolyn is the program chair for the guild and she does a bang up job!! She's so organized and works so well with professional teachers and 'little' folks like myself. She organized the four workshops today and had something for everyone. The guild would surely miss all the effort she puts forth to keep the programs interesting and appealing to all. THANK YOU, Carolyn!!

And thank you ladies for a great afternoon! Hope you all had as much fun as I did!

My 'hole in one'

I received my copy of the 'Sense of Humor' and SAQA @20 combined journal today! I was so excited to have my 'frogs' juried into this exhibit and now to be published in the SAQA journal is like getting a 'hole in one'. This is the only way I could explain it to Bob! And hopefully this will make sense to my non quilting family and friends! Also, on the 1st page, curator's statement, there's an insert small picture of my orange frog! Now that's really exciting!


The catalog flips over and each section is like its own book so both exhibits appear to have their own journal.

You can purchase the catalog on the SAQA web site for $20. I just started looking at some of the art quilts in the SAQA @20 and they are exceptional!! Talk about inspiration.

Anyway, here is my 'frog' quilt that is in the catalog and will be on exhibit at the IQA show in Chicago in April 2010 and then on to California in July or August..the frogs travel more than I do!
My friend, Carol in Florida, gave me the suggestion to put the 'rejected' frog on the back. I thought that was a great idea so here he is! He's saying 'I didn't make the cut'.....

OK, so enough of my frogs...but don't golfers talk about their 'hole in one' all the time! This is my 'hole in one' and probably my last!

Book Review and old work!

So my week has been busy so far...can't show much in the way of art work because what I'm working on is Fiber Valentines for the exchange we do yearly. Hence, can't show pics! Plus, I'm still 'bugling' my way on Frankenthaler! I have to pick up some orange bugles today on the way to pick up the little ones. I hope to be finished with the beading this weekend (while watching the Lions!).

So just to put a picture or two on my blog post for today...here's a piece I did in 2004 for the MQAI exhibit, Out of Africa. I found a 'tiny' picture in one of my old embroidery catalogs (that's when a business sent catalogs in the mail!) for an embroidered piece. I just loved the picture of the woman and decided I wanted to make her into a quilt for this exhibit. I scanned in the picture and enlarged to 8 1/2 x 11 then I took it to Kinko's and had it enlarged to 20" x 24". The piece was then traced onto white fabric and I painted it with thickened dyes (Hollis Chatelain's technique).
I added lots of embellishments to this piece starting with creating lace for her headband, braiding lots and lots of fibers to create her hair and of course my beading! I call her "Aisha - She is Life'

Now onto my book review! I don't know how or why I even ordered this book from our library but I so glad I did! It's a great read, well written. It's about the life of 3 women in the early 60's during the civil rights movement in Missouri. Two women are maids and the other is a woman who writes about the lives of maids. It is 'thought provoking' and a book I'd recommend.

Weather has been decent in the 50's but sure cold early in the a.m.! Carol T. and I met yesterday to do some Christmas shopping for me but I only ended up buying two gifts! But we did spend lots and lots of Carol's money on some outfits for her. She did get some really cute things. Now she's looking for a place to go to wear them! Carol works at Border's but that isn't a good place for her to wear her new outfits! I'm sure she'll come up with someplace to go! We did have a nice day out. So nice to have friends, isn't it!