Finally, back to some art work!

It's been a busy few weeks so I am glad I finished my MACRO challenge piece several weeks ago!  Today is the reveal day!  So take a peak at Art Quilts Around the World to see all the unique art works!

This is my contribution!  It's a sunflower (in case you don't recognize it!) which was hand beaded (2 beads at a time!), background and sunflower petal fabric was created using Setacolor paint then fused/stitched, silk  leaves were stitched and background free motion quilted.

UGH...colors look really bad in this next closeup...the beads are really brighter....

And one more closeup.....

I got to pick our next challenge and I decided on Art Nouveau!  It's not due until January 31, 2014 so I should have time in between making my fiber Valentine cards!  Yikes!  Can't believe it's November 30th already!!  Where does the time go!!!!

New additions....

Well, first have to show who will be joining Darrin and his family this weekend!   Brody is a Great Dane and the kids are all so excited!!!    No, Brody isn't so excited that  he has to wear a party hat!  He just had his ears done.  Darrin said Brody is very sweet and passive and will make a great dog!  He is adorable...can't wait to  meet him, which will happen next week!

And I picked up my glass from my glass workshop at Pine Lakes Glassworks a few weeks ago!

This is the glass mug Mr. Hilty made!  I love it!!  Actually, I'm going to use it as my own private wine glass!!

This was my paper weight and the first glass piece I made!  

and this is the cooled finished piece!!!  Isn't it great!  Well, I think so!!!

Of course, sometimes you have a failure with your successes...and this was my ornament...actually, my 2nd one...I dropped the pipe holding my ornament and it broke!!!  This one was a challenge for Mr. Hilty to try and blow to form the ball from the heated glass...why you ask!  Because I was squeezing the end so hard it closed off the hole for him to blow into!  Hmmmm  So, I ended up with this!  And it's heavy!!!  It's glass folks!!

Actually, I rather like it!  It can be out all year long...looks like an egg for Easter, an ornament for Christmas and a beautiful piece of glass the rest of the year!!!    Gotta look at the positive!!!

What a weekend!!

It was a really fun weekend with the kids....I think I ate a lot but I also did a lot!!!  Or should I say moved a lot!!  Yikes!  They sure keep you busy...although, I cheated yesterday and watched the entire Lions game with Nick!  Amber was watching YouTubes and some of the game....I compromised by playing several games of Monopoly (the card game, which is wonderful!!!!  love that card game!).    Makes a great stocking stuffer!  It's a quick game with all the same real estate of the original game.

I'm reposting video's of the kids and I from the weekend.  These are the actual video's..only about 30 sec. but kinds funny!   We just have some more memories of our time together....Kalee is still sleeping, although i did take her for a 1/2 mile walk about two hours ago!  She loves those kids and cats!!

And look what Darrin and Kris dropped off at the house!!!  Yum...I also got a bottle of wine!!!  But I love my cherry pie!!!  And it came from Traverse City!  Can't get any better than that!!!  Thanks, kids!!!

Start of Grandma's Weekend!

My weekend with the kids started with picking up kids from school, having dinner then playing with the Wi!  Nick challenged me to a football game on Wi, which doesn't work out so well for this Wi challenged grandma!  I did get two interceptions!  WooHoo!  I sill don't know how I did but I did and that's what counts!

This was kids doing the Wi Dance Challenge!

Of course the kids had to get Grandma involved in the Wi Dance Challenge!  Yikes!  None of my kids got any rhythm from their 'mum'!!!
Today Nick has a BD Nerf party to go to so Amber and I are going shopping!!  Let's hope my energy level keeps up!!!  More coffee, more coffee please!!!!

More QAYG

I've been working on my QAYG panel and having a ball!  I guess I like patchwork and geometric work better than I think.  Funny, most of my work is pictorial and I don't like doing pictorial!  I always compalin that I can't draw so end up tracing pictures!   Hmmmmmm  So why do I end up designing most of my pieces that way.  Beats the heck out of me!!

I looked back at some of my favorite works and none of those (other than two!  My wolves & African lady) are pictorial.  My favorites have no identifying pictures in them!  Interesting...I decided I'm going to use the QAYG process for my Ugo piece (you can read about him on my post here).  The QAYG  patchwork will be perfect for creating the background I need.

Anyway, here's what I've been working on.  I finished adding the last border tonight, even though you don't see that in this picture!  I took this earlier this afternoon...

The lower border isn't quilted yet in this picture

Now that the quilting is done all  I have to do next is square it up (again!) then add facing and sleeve and hang!  Not sure how much I'll get done tomorrow.  I have some other to do items on my list but I should get it squared up at least!

Temp started out at 19 degrees this a.m. but it was 40 later this afternoon when I took Kalee for a walk.  Sun was out so it seemed warmer, except when you were walking into the wind!  Brrrrrrr

Monday and Aussome Ladies!

Today was our Aussome fiber group meeting....we scheduled to meet at my house this month as one of our members had some fabric to sell....so we set up her fabric bins downstairs.  It was fun shopping for fabric in my own home!
We had a great show and tell, as always....and of course lots of talking!  But of course we had to finish out the day with food!!!  So we headed 1/2 mile away to John's Restaurant for lunch.  Yum!!!

Starting on the left is Carol, Chris, Karen, LoisAnn and Mary - she wanted to eat and not have a picture taken!  Who can blame her.  Check out her lunch!  It's called John's Famous Meatball sandwich!

And this was Carol's Stromboli....Chris and LA also had Stromboli....

I brought a Stromboli home for Bob to eat since it was almost 3:00 p.m.  Saves from cooking and he really enjoyed it.

I'd love to show some of the show and tell from today's meeting but I better double check with the ladies to make sure that I can show their work!  Hope the say OK!!!

Until then...I'm off to do some sewing or beading....

What a Wednesday!

It's been a great week and yesterday was another great day!  It was my baby's 45th birthday!!  And I got to have dinner with all the kids (minus Amber who is in D.C. on a class trip!).  

This is my baby with his baby!  Although, don't let Nick hear I called him his dad's 'baby'!!  I was at my glass workshop (more on that later in this post) and after I picked up Nick at school we met Darrin at Sagebrush Mexican Restaurant in Lake Orion, in came Kris (my DIL), next was Uncle Jeffie then Dawn arrived after getting out of a meeting at work around 5:10!  It was so nice to be with the kids again...grandpa was back home meeting with his pals at the local pub then he headed home to take care of Kalee and Gracie.

So now...about my workshop!  The kids bought me a workshop about two years ago for Mother's Day...due to my schedule and the glass works schedule, it was put off until yesterday.

I arrived at the Pine Lake Glassworks at 1:00 p.m. for my three hour workshop!  And we worked the entire 3 hours...well, the owner Dave Hilty worked hard!   Mr. Hilty is very organized and had a great workshop outline which he followed easily.  He's quite knowledgeable and obviously quite good at this art form.  Just look at some of his pieces on his web site here.  Anyway, he started out showing me the basic principles, safety and tools of glass making.

Next, he got right to work making a paperweight!  He explained each step, which i tried to maintain in my mind, as I was up next to make a paperweight for myself!  It really was intimating reaching the pipe into the glass furnace to capture some melted glass...

Obviously, I couldn't take pics of myself, so just replace Mr. Hilty with me!  OK, so I wasn't that good at capturing the glass or controlling it but I did make a paperweight!!  There are several steps to just make a solid paperweight!  You start with glass, gather more glass pieces, add more clear glass, shaping..yada, yada...there's a lot to it!!!!  Who knew!

Yep...that's my paperweight!!  All of the pieces we made went into another oven that is lower in temperature and continues to drop in temperature to allow the glass to cool.  The glass has to cool down over a 6-8 hour period otherwise the glass would crack.

Next up Mr. Hilty showed how to make a Christmas ornament.  This really is an art to master!  You have to gather your glass, then 'puff' into the blow pipe to create a small bubble.  Then it's on to gather more color or 'frit' as it's called...more heating...more shaping and blowing to achieve the size you want!  Whew!  It was so amazing to see Mr. H. make the glass turn into a thin, delicate ornament!

If you look close you can see a small bubble started!

So now it's my turn...and we were working pretty good!  That is up until it was back in the furnace to heat the glass ornament and I let the pipe fall to the ground...YIKES!!!!  Oh no!!!  I felt so bad because, first, it was my ornament and second, I don't like to waste anything...all I could see was the glass on the cement floor.

Mr. H. was so kind and said, "no, we'll do it again.  No problem."  And that's what we did..but once again, I caused a bit of an 'oops' by squeezing the tongs too much...I closed off the opening he needed to blow into the bubble to increase the size!  But, hey, that's ok. I ended up with a cool shape for an ornament...actually, it looks more like an egg shape so I figure I can have it sitting out all year long!!!    These are some pictures of Mr. H showing me how to shape pieces of heated glass.   This was his paperweight.

Actually, I think this is my paperweight...I had lots of glass on the pipe!!  The round area at the bottom is actually my paperweight...now you can see how much extra glass I grabbed from the furnace!  

Around 3:30 Mr. H. said he would show me how to make a cup and if I wanted to make one I could.  I opted for him to make it for me!  This is a video of Mr. H. shaping the glass mug!  Cool isn't it!

So THANKS, first to my kids for getting me this gift of a workshop and thanks to Dave Hilty for being such a great instructor!!!  Anyone interested in purchasing or just seeing some of his work can do so this coming Saturday, Nov. 9 from noon - 5 p.m.  He also sells some of his glass at other galleries...check out the pine Lake Glassworks web site and sign up for emails so you know where they'll be next!  We attend their open house every fall and always find great gifts!

Busy week ahead!

Yea...something different...another busy week...how did I ever get anything done when I was working!  At least I did get some more sewing done on my QAYG squares this weekend!

Still working on circles

Close up of one block that's finished

This block is all done...once I finish the other two I can join the strips together.  This is really a fun process...although the circle quilting does get a little tiresome after awhile!!

Next big decision is what fabric to use for joining them!  And I may attach to canvas or stretcher bars vs facing and attaching a sleeve...just not sure....more decisions.....

Busy week this week...I'm really excited about Wednesday!  A year or two ago, the kids gave me a gift certificate for a glass blowing workshop!!  And Wednesday is my workshop day!  I am really excited about this...just can't figure out how I'm going to take pictures while I'm blowing glass!!  Hmmmmmm

What a Sweet Day!

Yep, it sure was a sweet day with my daughter today!!  I had so much fun just being with her...I can see why she has so many friends and why folks want to hang with her!!  Only problem, I didn't get any pics of her and I!!!  Selfie's...didn't even think about it!!!  Dang!!!  Next time...and there will be a next time!!
But...check out what my daughter chauffeured me around in today!!!  No, we didn't do any off road driving but by the looks of her car (and my pant legs - that's another story!), you'd think we did!

This is what my daughter is driving...at least until Monday when she gets her Jeep Journey!  It was fun to ride in...I just wish we could have gone off road and taken the doors and roof off!  NOT!  But I'm sure Nick would have liked that!!!

So back to our day...we started off with a COSTCO visit!  I think I've only been to a COSTCO once before...have gone to SAM's but.... of course, I had to navigate towards the candy...and I came home with these two sweets!!  My favorite Dark chocolate caramels with sea salt...and Bark Thins, which are delicious!!!  OMG...they are broken bark pieces of dark chocolate with almonds and are SO good!  I am in trouble now...I may hold off opening the caramels until Florida...the bark thins will give me enough calories for the next two months!

After Costco, we headed to Panera's for soup and sandwich!!  Yum!!!  Then to Ulna's (beauty products), Michael's, then to the open house for Pine Lake Glassworks.  We've gone to their open house for the past several years and always seem to come home with something!  Great gifts and really unique glass works.  The kids bought me a workshop from Pine Lake Glassworks for Mother's Day and I should be taking my workshop this coming Wed.!  Not sure what all I'll be doing but can't wait!!

 We didn't stay to watch their entire demo as we've seen it several times.  I think it was last year or the year before we took both Amber and Nick.  I think the kids enjoyed watching how they make some of their beautiful pieces.

Below are two pieces I copied from their web site.  Just beautiful work...

 

Anyway, it was a fun day and I so enjoyed spending time with Dawn.  She said other than the glass exhibit, it was a normal Saturday of shopping for her.  No wonder she needs to go home and take a nap!  I sure was tired on the way home...but after a few pieces of the bark candy, I'm ready to go again!!!