Progress and playtime

Yep, I'm making progress with my 'Georgia' piece working on it at night watching TV. I still have to decide what to do with the border and I might have to either dye/paint fabric or make a trip to our local quilt shops. We have two nice shops within 5 miles from here and one is next to Panera's!
I'm also 'beading my bird' but I got bored with the browns so I started outlining with the green and orange. Doesn't look like much progress but I have spent several hours on this guy already.

Today the guys are taking the day off from golf and taking Carol and I to The Villages. For those of you not familar with The Villages, check out their web site here. We always have a fun day walking, eating and shopping at The Villages. This town is composed of two town squares and shops and restaurants galore! Always entertainment at the town square as well as markets from local vendors. You just never know what you'll find. Of course they have upscale shops as well (Chico's, etc.).

I'm off for my bike ride, then make some breakfast, shower and I should get some beading in before we leave. Temps are suppose to be in the 80's again today with a slight breeze. Perfect Ocala weather..although, the weather man just said we'll have a cool spell in the high 70's later this week. I'll settle for the cool spell..don't you love a Floridian's perspective on the weather!

Tioga Winter Art Fair

Today, our day trip was to the Tioga Winter Art Fair. Carol and I left at 9:30 so we could get an early start so it wouldn't be so hot (sorry for those having cold weather!). It was a beautiful day and the vendors at the fair were wonderful. There were over 75 vendors and each tent had amazing art work and jewelry.
The tents are set up in the street in this so called 'town' which reminds you of Louisiana and plantations. The houses are so cool looking with large columns out front and wrap around porches. Trees lined all over and just looks like something from Gone With The Wind. I didn't take any pics of the houses this year...I'll have to remember that next year.
This is where we sat outside to have lunch which consisted of sharing a grilled 3 cheese sandwich and a turkey/avocado/corn/you name it! sandwich. Yum!! Plus, they had the veggie crisps which looked like french fries but made of vegetables. SOOOO good too!! At least we did lots of walking to work off our lunch (no bike ride this a.m.!).
There were a few vendors that I was totally fascinated by their work. I'm listing their names and web sites for you to check out their work...They are each worth a few minutes of your time. Grab a glass of wine and take a peak at their work.
Mono prints on paper & canvas & other works: Bob Senesac Images
Mixed media work that will knock your socks off: Roz Miller
Beautiful photography on canvas! Jack Wicks
Chinese Art Work which is beautiful: Godwin Kou

One of the best parts of the art fair today was Tim Decker, an artist who was a crowd pleaser for sure! I've seen YouTubes of Tim's work and I'm sure you may have at some time as well. Tim does speed painting and the first picture we watched him do was of Bono..check out the next few paintings and watch the progress!! See if you can guess who he's painting.
Can you guess who this is going to be??
Getting a better clue?
How cool is that! Jimmy Hendryx!

I took this video of him when he was finishing up the Bono picture. We had a great day and I still had the afternoon to do some beading, sit on the porch, take Mandy for a golf cart ride and have a margarita! What a great day! It can't get any better than this!! And yes, I did my 'gift' for today!

Encaustic Artist

Today, Peggy and I went to the Ocala library for the lecture and demo of Encaustic Art by Ed Franklin.

What an interesting hour!! Mr. Franklin certainly was entertaining and so was Dominic, who played piano. Dominic is only 16 and a classical pianist and he was great!

So back to Mr. Franklin's lecture. We started off with a slide show of some of his work and video from his opening in southern Florida earlier this year. He had some great pieces in that exhibit but the video showed more people than it did his art work but that's ok. He had some of his art on display at the library and we were given handouts.

This picture is after Mr. Franklin demo'd using a blow torch to make his designs on the canvas. The heat melts the was and creates a wonderful flow to his pieces.

These were really delicate looking but all done with wax!

Another landscape/seascape piece.

See the four faces in the middle..this was a huge piece and I only got part of it in the picture.

Some of his geometric pieces...

another...

and another.

Here is a quick video of Mr. Franklin using the 'torch' to move the wax on the first picture I showed in this post.

The first cut is the deepest..or can be!

Yep, "the first cut can be the deepest", at least that what my friend/mentor, Susan, taught me yesterday! I took my stained glass piece, Georgia on my Mind, over so Susan could guide me on my next step.

First step, is to cut ONLY your 'leading' fabric that's on top. Fortunately for me (not for Susan!) she allowed me to cut into her practice piece. The first cut and stitching was fine but then Susan suggested I do the other side to see the leading and yep, I did cut into her background fabric. I felt bad but it is a practice piece, per Susan. She's using this piece as a place to try stitches, etc. and she did show me other areas that were cut or just practiced on. I still felt bad but moved on!

So, with Susan by my side I did make my first cut!!! Here it is!! The lighter blueish color is my background peaking through. It's hard to see but you'll get a better look at the stitching I did in the afternoon and for 3, yes 3 straight hours last night!
Here's my progress so far!!

I was so enjoying my stitching time soo much I forgot to put my wrist brace on and wow! I sure felt it last night!! I can't wait for TV time tonight to sit and stitch!

I also 'unbeaded' the original beading on friendly felt I started for my BJP and quilted up this background piece to bead on.

And here's the start of my BJP/Jan piece! The tail is started and now I have two hand projects to work on.

I love hand work but have to say I'm really enjoying Susan's stained glass 'technique'. But today I'm going to be good and do my laundry and cleaning. Tomorrow I'm going to the Ocala library for a demo on encaustic art, by Ed Franklin. I'm really excited about seeing his work and perhaps pick up some tips on working with fabric vs his canvas medium.

Off for my bike ride then to start the rest of my day! It's day 23 of '29 gifts'!

Busy weekend

Check out this 'spaghetti' cake my daughter and her friend made this weekend! Dawn is in Boston visiting with her friend and their family. She said this is a cake she's going to make on date night this month with Amber and Nick! Dawn said the recipe was in Food Network Magazine (March, 2011) issue (Dawn downloads the magazine on her Nook!). I just ordered this magazine after picking one up a few weeks ago and made at least four recipes from the issue I bought.


I also started beading my bird onto friendly felt. I'm not sure if I'll 'unbead' and then stitch directly on my background. I like beading on the friendly felt but unless I can bead the edges of a piece onto the background, it might not work out. I had a tip from Kate on outlining your piece with smaller beads then filling in with beading. If I bead on the friendly felt I outline with beads after I've done all the 'filling in'. I'm going to quilt some background pieces today and decide what to do. I did buy a yard of very nice background fabric that I want to use for all my pieces this year.




I wanted to get a few donation quilts made so I started on these two pieces. I had some old fused dupioni silk fabric (dark purple circles) from another quilt I made so I stitched those on each one.
They don't look that interesting yet but I'm going to CUT holes in each purple circle and background then add beading. Yep! I love cutting holes in my quilts and of course I love adding beads so, go figure!

This is a piece I did for our Inspired by the Masters. It's my interpretation of Friedensreich Hundertwasser's work. You can see one of the holes I cut into the piece (click on picture) and you can see another one of my quilts with a hole here! It was scary the first time I did this but I figure you can always cover up a hole with something if you don't like it! Let's hope!

So today I'm going for my bike ride (up to 2 miles now!) then I'll start quilting the 'hole' pieces and backgrounds for my BJP's. I might end up doing some 'unbeading' too! Who knows! Temp is already 60 and should get into the high 70's again today. Just beautiful Florida weather! I'm on day 4 of '29 gifts'! So far, so good!

Georgia on my mind

Another beautiful 75+ degree weather today! I took our little parakeet in for a beak trim. Not sure what's up with him but he just had a trim on Jan. 4th and needed another one already. I used to trim our birds but it's a lot easier to have someone else do it! 'NoName' is 19 years old and still kicking! After making a stop at the library and grocery store on my way home, I hurried in to my sewing room to get to work on Susan's Reverse Applique method! I'm using her technique to create my piece for the Inspired by the Master's exhibit back in Michigan.

The picture on the left is the actual stained glass piece that I'm using as my inspiration. This stain glass was beautifully created by Valerie Keenan and she has kindly allowed me to use her piece and recreate it in fabric. My finished piece will be 16" x 20" and Valerie's piece is 22" x 32".

These are the fabrics/colors I'm using. I do plan on doing some pencil or paint to add depth or the color where needed, but I'm happy with the fabric selection (finally).
Susan's reverse applique method is a little complicated but worth the work! This method will allow 'leading' to sit on top of your fabric vs behind your work.

This is the BACK of my piece above. I've traced all the lines so I can see where I need to stitch (pay attention now!) my leading.
Not sure why this turned out yellow...but my layers are all basted and now I'm almost finished stitching all the lines so I can see them on the 'front/leading'. I fyou click on the picture you can see my red lines and stitching.
Here's my piece all ready for me to start cutting away and stitching!!! If you click on the picture, you can see the pattern. The lines are the center of where the leading will be reversed appliqued. My fabric is actually black with blue highlights but the camera has picked up on the blue.
I'm really excited about working on this piece. I can't thank Susan enough for guiding me through this process! Susan's work and workmanship is amazing so I hope to pick up some good pointers from her. THANK YOU AGAIN, SUSAN!

Just a side note..Bob just called me outside to see the Space Station going overhead. We've actually got out of bed at 3 a.m. to watch it back home! Nice that it's only 7:25 p.m. for a change!

29 Gifts!

Before I get into '29 Gifts', I wanted to show my drawing I'm doing for my BJP 2011. Yep, FINALLY I decided on what to do. I've had 2 or 3 different ideas and finally decided my theme is Nature. I'd really like to learn to do more still life or real life beaded pieces and thought this might be the way to learn. I'm going to start with a simple beaded bird. OK, I'm hoping it will be simple! Yea, right! If it doesn't work out, then I'll go back to doing a different leaf each month. That's still nature, right!
Today was beautiful again with temps in the high 70's! I left early to go to the Pet store, bead shop (of course!), Lowe's to get some cheesecloth to paint, then home to clean the Lanai floor and mop other floors. Two loads of laundry then I played in my sewing room working on my stained glass Georgia O'Keeffe! I've got all the pieces cut out and ready to get to the basting lines where the stain glass will go. I'll post pics tomorrow on this project. But it was a good productive day!

Check out the Valentine I rec'd from my friend Carol T. back in Michigan yesterday. Isn't he cute!!
Also, on another note, Carol T. is going to be published in the Lark book, The Natural World. She's not sure which quilt will be published but I'm thinking it is her wonderful lizard she did for our MQAI exhibit last year. I won't post pic until the book comes out in the fall, but isn't that exciting! Congrats, again, Carol!

And here's my finished envelope/box that we did this past weekend at the Weaver's meeting. I had to go and buy some more envelopes because I forgot about the top!
This is the inside of the box. Kinda cute, isn't it. Not sure what I'd put in the little box inside but nice to know it's there!

Now on to my '29 gifts'! I mentioned in a previous post a friend of mine who blogged about the book '29 Gifts: How a Month of Giving Can Change Your Life'. I purchased the book and decided to print out the calendar and start my own '29 days'. I'm only on chapter two/day '2' of gift giving but I'm enjoying the book (I just don't read during the daytime...only at night in bed, so it might take me awhile to get through it!). But I have been inspired to start 'giving' more or at least recognizing when I do give a 'gift'.

So today I was during laundry, cleaning, etc. and as I was coming in and out of the house and I kept watching this elderly couple across the street working in their yard. They were laying new sod down where the old grass died out. That doesn't sound like a lot except they had to dig out the old dirt/lawn, carry it away then place the new sod down. I was feeling so guilty watching them and thought I should go over and ask if they wanted help. Well, to be honest I really didn't want to offer mainly because I didn't really think I could do what they were doing! Call me a wimp but all I could think of was "yikes', my hands"! They hurt so much now that using the shovel and trying to lift the dirt, yada, yada...YES, I was using my RA as an excuse. I stood in the garage for a few minutes and thought...if this elderly couple can do all that, then at least I can do is offer to help just for a little. Maybe I could just be the foreman and tell them how to do it! OK, I'll off to help shovel and lift the sod!

So across the street I went! I introduced myself and asked if they could use some help. I told them I had been watching them work so hard and hoped I could help them just a little. They were the sweetest couple and the wife said, "that's so nice but we were just thinking about going inside to clean up as we have a Dr. appointment" (heart Dr. to boot!). We stood and talked for several minutes and they were just delightful.

As I was walking back to our house, I have to admit I was a little relieved! I did thank the 'big guy up above'! Is that bad of me!! I thought about the '29 gifts' and I'm wondering if I can count this small offering as a 'half' of a gift! I think it might count a little...guess another one of my 29 gifts for this month might have to be a tad bigger to make up for this 'half' one!! But the thought was there!!! So what gift did you give today? A kind word to someone, a smile? It does make you feel better doesn't it. I just hope this couple finishes up quickly! Or I hope I'm not home the next time they are replacing sod! Oh, gosh..this karma and gift giving might just bite me in the butt!

Warped Weaver's Meeting Pics

These pictures are from the Warperd Weaver's meeting this past Sat. Lots of great show & tell..some pictures are out of order and I'm not moving around..too much time downloading the buggers tonight. Guess lots of activity on blogger tonight! Do click on the pictures to get a better look at every ones work!

This is Susan's latest project she's working on.

Susan's needlecase made by yours truly..

This is another quilt Susan just finished! All hand work!

This large quilt Susan made for her son. Pretty cool design with the colors isn't it! Again, click on pic to get a better view!

Is this Susan's 'Spring' quilt? No, it's the real stain glass piece that is in a local museum and featured in the current issue of 'Ocala's Good Life' magazine. Doesn't it look just like Susan's quilt?

AND Susan's 'Spring' hand applique piece was juried into the big IQA show in Cincinnati this spring!! How cool is that!

These are some towels woven by Betty! They were so soft!!

Here's Betty at work sewing seams on more towels for the weaver's exchange.

These are Betty's finished towels. Again, click on pic to see the pattern close up.

Pat K. has been busy, busy!! I don't think I got pics of all her so called practice pieces. Pat did some really interesting patterns. She's getting ready for a weaving class at the upcoming weaver's conference.

Click to see the patterns in this piece Pat did.

I love this design/pattern.

The Queen of Purple was busy sewing hems on her woven towels for the exchange.






Caryl has been busy with her doll making.

This is a chair she's making to sit her doll on.

Batting wrapped around wire then strips of fabric wrapped around the batting.

Caryl's latest project is making stuffed horses for an auction at the school. She had to struggle to find the pattern online but finally found one at a reasonable price even!

Some more of Caryl's dolls that were hiding in another room!

This 'rocker' lady doll was even in the closest! I think she'll find a new place to sit in Caryl's room soon!





Caryl showed us how to make on of these envelope boxes. This was Caryl's.

Susan was a good student and finished her box.

This is the inside of Susan's box.





Pat was making a Christmas envelope box.

And yes, I did finish my card yesterday but I forgot to take pics. I'll have to do that tomorrow and post mine. Now I'm pooped and I still have to download some books to my Ipod..everything is taking forever tonight. Must be the heat!