Back to hex horse!

So today I decided to start piecing the background for my hex horse!  I've shown this 'hex' fabric I made

  

which will be placed under my background piece..yea, that's the scary part is cutting away the horse...I plan to fuse the background (after cutting out the horse!) to my hex fabric...well, it's my thought so far!

I think some of this fabric I dyed and stamped will work good  for the background.  It's a good contrast that's for sure!

So today I started to slice and stitch up the background.  I'm about 1/4 of the way finished.  I need at least an 18" x 22" background piece (my finished piece needs to be 16" x 20").

I cut out the horse to create a pattern to drawn onto the background..yep, that's the scary part I mentioned above.  Anyway...it's getting there.  I hope to finish it up tomorrow sometime then draw on the background and add fusible webbing to the back.
I'm planning on fusing the background onto my hex fabric.  I was going to needle turn but I think it will be best to fuse then I can stitch around the horse or not!
Who knows until I finish!

Also, today I was 'clearning and clearing' out my sewing room!!  I can't believe all the quilts I have finished the past few years!  Geezzzzz   What to do with them!!!   I did decide for my smaller pieces (12"  -14") I'm going to add some D rings to them and make another quilt book!  You can see the diary I created a few years go which was my inspiration here.  Otherwise, these little quilts just sit there!

 Anyway, thinking off my Mandy girl and came across this small quilt I made in 2009, 'Our House is Now a Home'...it was for an exhibit, Lynn Krawczyk curated for her exhibit, Breaking Traditions.   It's a picture of my Mandy girl....she's always in my thoughts....I cried when I found it today.

I used light weight metal for the house designs and of course there are a few beads on it...but mainly stitching and printing on fabric.

Tomorrow I'll post pics of my clearing out I did today!  I'm pooped!!!

Embellish Magazine

I've posted about the online group I belong to, Art Quilts Around the World and our challenges.  Well, one of our members, Neroli Henderson, wrote an article on our blog group which has been published in Embellish Magazine!  How nice of Neroli to do this and how cool is it that our group and work has been published.  
Here are the pages from the magazine and guess what!  My little quilt, Carnival, is in the article!  

You'll have to click on the pictures to read the article.  It's very well written by Neroli...if I'm not mistaken, I believe she has written or is writing more articles for Embellish.  I think she did a great job explaining our group.  

Check out Neroli's page (on the Art Quilts Around the World blog) and her blog/web.  She has a great story on how she got started with art work and her work is outstanding!!


Embellish is a fiber/textle magazine which is published in Australia so I'm currently trying to find out where/how to purchase it here in the states.  One of our members suggested, worse case, to have someone from Australia purchase several copies and mail to one of us here in the states.  That's a great option in case we can't locate or have the magazines purchased here.  I'd prefer a hard copy vs digital so hopefully we'll find copies here.  I've emailed a distributor here in the states so waiting to hear from them.  
Another beautiful, cool, summer/fall day!!  Check out this tree I took a picture of while walking Kalee...it's at a house here in our neighborhood!!!  Fall is coming!!!!  OH NO!!!  I love fall but don't want winter to come...I'm not ready to head south!!!

Who has time to read!

I love books...reading or listening to books via Ipod....and want to share one of my latest "finds"!!  Actually, this book was a recommendation by AARP!  It's called The Martian and it's one of the best books I've read in a long time!  It's not about a 'martian'...although, I guess you could call the character a martian!  It's about an astronaut who gets stranded on mars!  I can't sit and read during the day...just too busy doing other things but I read in bed at night or while watching the Tiger's play on TV!    It is hard to put this book down... it's fiction and written so well!!!  I'm a mystery or biography reader but this one had me at "Log Entry: Sol 6"...you know what I mean by that if you read the book...and do read the book...


I've been busy working on the projects that can't be revealed yet but have also started to play around with some background fabric choices for my hex horse.  I get bored working on the same project!

The printed/dyed/stamped fabrics I created back in July (you can see post here)  should/will work great for the background for the horse.  It's hard to tell by this pic but I think I'm on the right track.

Now to decide the size of strips and start piecing the background.  Worse case, if I don't like the horse on the background, I'll just use it for creating a hand stitched quilt or for another project.

Weather is BEAUTIFUL here today!!!  Sunny, breezy and only in the high 60's!  Now this is my kind of weather!!!  I could handle this year round!!!  So could Kalee!!!

What a great end to summer with kids

I am hoping I can show some 'corner's' of the projects I'm working on!!  It's so hard not to post pictures of my work on my blog!!!  I like to see the progress on the piece but....guess I'll just have to start some new projects that I can share!  Until then...it's all about my family!  Which isn't all bad!

We had a great day today, grand kids and I!  We played0 Putt Putt, then the kids hit balls on the driving range then off to Culver's for a great lunch!  OMG...talk about so much food!  I couldn't even eat dinner tonight...although, I'm sitting here munching on some pretzel sticks...OH...and grandma even got a hole in one on the 1st hole...after that it was downhill!!  Kids start school a week from today....they are each going to new schools...Nick the Middle school and Amber the High school....

Amber aiming high!!!  It was 88 degrees today...seems more like Florida weather..humid too...

Nick had a good swing

He actually beat Amber and I at Putt Putt

Our balls were this close on one hole

Just a fun day!

Just like a walk in the woods!!

A great end to our summer long days together...more memories.....

What? Really....

I can't believe I haven't blogged in sometime!!  I am here...but I've busy working on projects that I can't post pics of ending the end of October!!!  I am busy, busy...lots of hand work which is fine with me.  And of course there's the dog online class...geeezzz...plus my general everyday housework...and Kalee's walks twice a day.

Walking Kalee and my neighbor's dog, Logan

What else do you do with a toy train!

And a good card game is always fun!

Of course, there's one day a week that I spend with the grand kids...just hanging...lunch out, movie..shopping, which is Amber's favorite...Nick not so much!














Hope this video comes through...it's the kids great dane puppy (yep, he's not even a year old yet!).

Today, I'm meeting up with my bud, Alice and the daughter of my friend, Patty, who passed away a few years ago.  Should be a nice reunion and nice lunch.  Bob is off for his fantasy football draft so Kalee is in charge of the house...but before I go, it's Kalee's lesson time...we have an extra lesson this week!!

Screen Printing Sunday

A few weeks ago, I posted on my blog some fiber cards I  made using engineering drawings from my friend, Carol T's father.  I loved looking at his work and Carol was kind enough to give me several! of them so I could play!

 Well, I sent pics of some drawings to Lynn K. to create theromax screens for me.  I just rec'd them earlier this week and I've been itching to try them out!!

So, with Lynn's book, Intentional Printing, in hand,  along with some scrap fabric, I headed to the dye room!!

 I just happen to have some old, old, old (yes, really old!!) thickened dye in the frig so figured I'd give it a try!  I wasn't sure if it was black or dark, dark blue!  Turned out it was black...but that's ok...

This is one of the screen I had printed....I forgot to take a pic of the other screen...but you'll see results below! Pretty cool isn't it!  Well, I think so!!!  I see lots of hand stitching and possibly some beads!!

And this is another screen Lynn made.  It's larger than the circle screen.


I really like this one as well....

Thanks so much Carol for sharing your father's work with me!!  I know I'll use these in my art work...in fact, I already have an idea for an upcoming project that is due in Sept.!!

And, a huge thanks to Lynn!!!  She had to do a lot of cleanup on the pictures I sent her!!!  I didn't realize the quality of your pictures could or would impact creating screens.   You can see on the circle printing some little fuzz's...but to tell the truth, I like that little distortion!!  I think it adds to the print!!  I am very happy with my screens!!!!

Now to go fold that laundry!  Boring!!!

And I bet you didn't even miss me!

Just noticed that I haven't blogged since last Wednesday!!!  I think that may be the longest I haven't spilled nonsense words on my blog!!  But I have been busy...doing what!  Well....I think my last blog had to do with me cleaning out the garage...next was picking up my new car (yep, another Buick Enclave which I love, love, love!), then Amber had a sleepover last weekend, which was fun!

We did a lot of running the first day I picked her up...off to Walmart for some shopping, had lunch, then meat market then home to wait for grandpa.  We made taco's for dinner then took Kalee and my neighbors dog, Logan, for a walk!  He's a hoot and I just love that guy, as well as their other two dogs...yep, they have three!!

On Saturday after making breakfast, we headed off to the Farmer's Market, Miejers then for a Starbucks to get us through the rest of the day.  I did take Amber home late afternoon when Nick's two football scrimmage's were over with.  Yes, JV football has started!!!

Sunday was my catchup cleaning and laundry day...for some reason I don't remember what Monday held!  Tuesday it was Nick and I alone as Amber went camping with a friend...so we went to a movie.  We saw Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and it was great!!  Special digital effects were wonderful!  We then had lunch out then back home to let out Brody and get Nick ready for football practice.  Wednesday was spa day for Kalee but I did have a chance to meet my bud, Mary, at Panera's until Kalee was ready.  Nice chatting with her.
Yesterday I worked some more on hand stitching projects.....this is a 12" square I did for the Singer/Quilting Daily challenge.

Well, the picture only shows part of it!  I you're so inclined, you can go to this link and vote for your favorite...so far I have ONE vote!  And I didn't even vote for my own piece..I liked 'Modern Circles 3' and 'Circles Take the Square' and I did vote for the Modern Circle piece...can't believe some of these lady's have over 100 votes!
So at night or before dinner, I've been hand stitching two other projects and  trying to decide how to hand stitch my peacock quilt...all the free motion quilting is finished and now I'm having 2nd thoughts about the background for my beaded leaf.  Decisions, decisions...tomorrow I am going to play (after my cleaning is out of the way!).  I'm going to do some screen printing with some new screens I had made by Lynn K. over at Smudged Textiles Studio.  I am really excited and hope the screen turned out as I think they might!  The designs are rather different....you'll see in a future post!!!  Have a good weekend all!!  I'm sure going to try!!

What's up?

I don't usually have many issues with Blogger...but sure have the past two days.  Couldn't even get to my dashboard or blog for that matter to post earlier.  Appears that issue is resolved now...but then in my Reader List I have this unknown (to me!) blog post showing up!  It's called "lori - juz 4 fun dot blogspot dot com" and it's for a Cinema Movie Online web site!   I had about 12 posts from them giving you a description of movies!  What!!!  Apparently, from what I researched on Blogger forum, another blog that I follow has been hacked but how the heck do I find that out!!!  Hmmmm   I have over 100+ blogs I follow so I'm not clickiing on each one to try to find who has been hacked!

Anyway.....not sure if anyone has heard of or used Kraft-Tex (a paper fabric)...

My thought was, based on reading the material description, it would be perfect for beading.  Well, I received my roll from Amazon, well really from Gold Cloud Products through Amazon.  This stuff is really interesting...you can wash it and tumble dry!    It feels rather stiff so not sure it will work for beading.  I am going to cut a square piece and wash to see if it softens up somewhat.  Just not sure how much of a struggle it would be to bead through.  I'll have to test that as well.


So, I am working on another hand/beading projects..it's a small piece and I'm almost finished.  It's been one of those that I stitch on when I have a few minutes.

Just adding some beads now.....I plan on stitching more on this when I finish this post.












 Earlier today I decided to clean out the garage!!  So I moved everything and I mean everything out of the garage!!!  Whew....then I hosed off everything that needed to be hosed!  Spiders and spider webs all over!!  UGH...

Looks nice and neat now and CLEAN!  No spiders...well, ok, there may be a few lurking around but at least its nice and clean and it only took me a little over 3 hours!!!

 I just finished my shower so now its time for hand work and to catch up on my favorite new show!!!  Married at First Sight! Gotta love it!

I'm not a math wiz...but....

So, I'm working on the beaded leaf piece...today I cut away the excess fabric around the beads and actually glued the edges to the back of the piece, which measures 12" x 12".  This will make it easier for me to stitch onto the background piece.

 ...in between this and other projects, I've kept recalculating how many beads I have in the leaf!  So off to Google I went to see how many seed beads are in a gram.  I went to Auntie's Beads and here is the info I used to calculate (actually, I didn't believe my math so I had Bob even calculate!).

• 11/0 is approx 110
• 8/0 is approx 40
• 6/0 is approx 12

I decided to only use '100' 11/0 seed beads per gram to allow for spillage!  So based on my using 6 1/2-25 gram tubes (11/0) and 1 1/2 10 gram (15/0) beads there are approximately 17,750 beads n my leaf!  Holy Batman!!  And more calculations....I sew 2-3 beads at a time..so let's say 3 beads being sewn at a time I have lifted needle and thread 5,916 times!  OK, enough boring stuff...so here's the background piece...I feel like it's finished but I'll take it to our fiber group meeting this month and get feedback from the rest of the group.

Now the more I look at the piece it may or may not work as a background!  REALLY!!!  Well, I won't know until I start playing with the placement.  I still want to attach it to canvas.
My Blog Bud, Mary Stori, uses a wood panel for mounting her wonderful pieces. I thought this was a clever idea but I need to do more stitching with the leaf (Mary drilled holes into the wood to attach her laser piece) to attach to my background, so I'm back to doing a gallery wrap on canvas.

Who knows!!!  Now to do more hand stitching on other projects.  It's a heat way again here in Michigan so staying inside except for morning and evening dog walks!

Happy Birthday, Amber!!

Can't believe Amber turns 15 today!  Where has the time gone!  I won't embarrass her this year by posting baby pics of her!!  Instead, here are a few of my favorites.  She is a beautiful young lady...inside and out...and one of my best friends!!

I enjoy being with Amber so much.  She can by a  lady, a best friend, a big sister, a wonderful niece and a grand daughter any grandma would love to have.  AND she's mine!!!  Happy Birthday!!!  Love you!!

Grandma Nancy made this cake for Amber for her BD party last weeknd!  Yum!

3 Rs Challenge

The Art Quilters Around the World Blog Challenge is here!  Our challenge is 3R's (Reuse, Recyle and Reduce)  This is what I came up with for this challenge.

For those who follow my blog, you may remember this 'hum bug' bag I made last fall for a buddy.  

I love cutting up my old quilts...my bud, Mary Andrews, actually got me started doing this a few years ago...or should I say 'gave us permission' to do this!!   I haven't stopped since! Mary was and still is cutting up her quilts, so she is my inspiration!

The original piece was a bleached shibori piece of fabric my daughter made several years ago.  I had hand stab stitched along with some embroidery stitches.  

Also, back in 2010, I was playing with burning Tyvek for another exhibit, so thought I would combine both of these left over pieces in our challenge!  

So from all of these pieces...

..this is my finished piece.....11.5" x 16.5"  

There are a lot of hand stitches in the black background...And the orange/yellow area was free motion quilted.  I joined each piece using some leftover binding I had from another project.

This was a fun challenge and I had an opportunity to Re-use (old quilts), Re-purpose (quilt pieces) and Re-duce (my stash)!