Texture Challenge Reveal

This is my 'texture' piece for the online blog challenge for Art Quilts Around the World!  I don't know for the life of me why my quilts look so crooked in pictures!  It honestly is not crooked! Maybe because I take the picture from 'above' instead of hanging them up!  Hmmmmm  Anyway, the piece measures 11.5" x 16.5".

It's always interesting when I show my art quilts that have beads or hand embroidery on them...folks want to touch the piece!  Which, is fine with me! I think it's because the beads or threads appear to add texture!  And texture is tactile, right!

I don't mind folks handling or touching my quilts.  Let's face it...I don't plan on being here 50 or 100 years from now so if they fall apart..so be it!  You can see some of the french knots I embroidered here in this pic as well as some of the stab stitching and beading.

I think there's enough 'texture' in this piece!

Sure hope so!

Beads are around the inside of the circle and each of the larger fused squares

The gold pieces of fabric are leftovers from one of my 3D snowflakes I made, which I had cut before I had fused them together!  Oops. So, having two pieces of fused cut squares I just took some red fabric (yep, leftover from the snowflake) and wove it in and out of the square, fused them together then laid on another leftover piece of fabric.

This was a fun piece to work on and I actually finished it the weekend before Thanksgiving!   Hope you head over to check out the other 'texture' pieces from these talented artists!  It's always interesting to see how we each interrupt the theme!  Next up is 'song'...hmmmmmmm

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Happy Thanksgiving from our house to yours!  We have so much to be thankful for!!  Our family...our friends...our health...and our fur babies!

We are looking forward to the 'southern' kids (they live in Indiana!) coming for a visit this weekend!  I'm cooking for Bob and I on thanksgiving day as well as prepping some food for their visit!  I love to cook and it will be fun to visit with the kids!!!  

Hope everyone has a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving!

Nothing but snow! Still!

Yep, we still have snow and cold!  It was 25 at 9:30 last night and just felt bitter cold!  But it's suppose to be warmer later this week so the snow will melt.  I'm sure!  Or, I'm hoping!  Today is Kalee's 'spa' day and my day to finish up grocery shopping for Thanksgiving and the weekend with kids.

Now that I'm winding down to get ready to be a snow bird, I don't have much to show in artwork!  But I do have an old piece I did from November of 2009!   I was playing around with bleaching fabric and this is what I wrote:

After rinsing and washing here's the bleached piece. I really liked the colors in this piece and thought I should do something with it.

So now for my 'project' part of this blog. I know..the colors are different but that just depends on whether I've used the flash or not! Sorry about that.. I think this is more the true color of the piece. I had a piece of hand dyed fabric in a similar color so I cut up the bleached piece and added a small strip just to break up the piece. I thought this would make a nice Art of Nature journal piece for November.

I wanted to add some other color to the piece so I made a stencil from a Dover book of a flowers and used Oil Pastel crayons to add the color.

I sandwiched the piece and started stitching away. Here's the stencil part just outlined with stitching.And here's the finished stitched piece. I just did free motion stitching to fill in areas. I didn't care much for the green I used on the leaves and wanted to change that. So I found some old painted fusible webbing I had on hand and I ironed that on top of the green leaves. I think it looks much better. I really liked how this turned out and I decided I'm not cutting it down to the 8 1/2" x 11" journal size. It's 10" x 12 1/2" and I think I'm keeping it this size. I'll just have to make another AON journal for November. So guess that's what I better get moving to do, right!

Winter Wonderland!

It's a winter wonderland!  Well, it is Michigan after all!!  Yesterday it was snowing when we got up a little after 7 a.m. and continued through the day and night!  BUT...it was beautiful and the dogs loved it!  Go figure!

These were our girls footprints around 9 Saturday morning.  Gigi loved the snow!  Who knew!

This was taken around 9 Saturday morning too.

Later in the afternoon.....

And this was around 5:30-6 p.m.  You can barely see our container on the deck!



We had to keep shoveling snow just so Kalee and Gigi could play!

It was beautiful out but I also missed Amber's Lacrosse game on Saturday.  I've yet to see her play since we were in Florida last spring when she first played. She's now participating in another Lacrosse group, outside of the school team.  It will be good experience for her and so far she seems to really enjoy playing.  Maybe in two weeks I'll get to see her play.  Until then...it's shoveling snow, watching football (Sunday) and preparing my menu for the kids visit next weekend!  We're really looking forward to seeing all the kids.  Snow should be gone by then...let's hope!

Just an old piece of work

Since I can't show my current piece I'm working on until November 30th, how about a look back at one of my larger pieces.  This was a piece from 2009 where I used some sun prints I did while at a workshop by Mickey Lawler.  May be hard to see but I have beads on the upper borders and some larger beads along the bottom.  Surprise!  Right!

Nature Becomes My Muse

Measures 36" x 55"

I'm not sure what the leaf was I used to sun print with but it was huge.  I ended up with four prints but for the life of me I don't know what I did with the other two!  HA...in my stash somewhere I'm sure...or perhaps I made a quilt with them.  Guess I should look into that.  The leaf blocks are 19.5" x 15.5".

Anyway, I made the raw edge applique leaves by layering fabric onto some type of batting or backing.  For the life of me I can't remember...but they aren't flush on the quilt...and actually I sewed them on after I quilted the piece.  Might be hard to see them here...they are on the bottom as well as around the borders.

I painted over my free motion quilting words and flower edges as well as the leaf quilting.  Just gave it some glitz!  HA 


There's a great book called 'Fall Photographs' by Christopher Griffiths that I used to make my leaves. This is a fantastic book that displays one leaf on each of the large pages of this book. Really cool if you're into leaves or just photography.  





Speaking of leaves....Linda McLaughlin does wonderful hand stitching and this is her second or 3rd  year of creating a "weekly leaf" stitching project (along with her daily stitching project(s)!).  I commented on one of her blog posts recently that starting in January 2016 I am going to create a weekly stitched leaf.  You have to head over to Linda's blog and see her stunning work!!!  My followers know how much I love hand stitching  and seeing what Linda does on a daily/weekly basis certainly does get me inspired.  To get an idea of her weekly leaf pieces, go here.  And when you are finished viewing her beautiful work for the weekly leaves for this year, then go to her home page and check out all her other posts/tabs.

I think you'll see how she inspired me to get started on my own weekly leaf project!!  How about you???  Up for a weekly or eve daily stitching project!

The countdown begins!

Well, we'll be heading south six weeks from this past Monday!  YIKES!  I always say that every year....it's not that I have that much to do before we leave...after all, let's face it I should know what to take and what not to take, right!  The hardest part is the day before we leave...that's when I finish all the laundry and 'help' Bob packs his clothes.  Of course, it's like a marathon the day we leave making sure everything is ready for our house sitters (thanks Lori and Randy!).

This is what the back seat and back of my SUV looks like!  yes, I take pictures each year just so I know how and where to pack items!!

It doesn't seem possible that it's the holiday season already!  Time certainly goes by so fast the older we get, doesn't it!

I'm just not ready to leave my home yet.  I love Florida and our friends but I'm getting so bad about leaving home.

I do get teased by my friends about not wanting to travel more than 30 minutes or miles!  But today I am venturing out with my friend, Carol. We're headed to Lansing to a quilt shop..no, not for me, for Carol.  She's looking for a special fabric that Country Stitches carries.  Years ago, when I still worked, my daughter and I wwould make this trip (it's over an hour from  me!) to buy batik fabric(s) when they had their big sale.  I won't even tell you how much we would spend....let's just say I still have some of those batiks in my fabric stash!

Anyway, it should be a nice day out and of course, lunch!  That will get me to travel a few miles!   HA

More Zipper Work...just not mine!

I'm finishing up some hand stitching on my 'texture' piece for our online challenge.  I hope to get the binding on later this week...maybe on Thursday since I'll be gone the rest of this week.

This past Saturday I met up with my bud, Alice and her friend to check out the ReZip-It open house!  Heather's work is amazing.

She uses zippers to make her art work and jewelry and it's so unique.  Check out her Etsy site here or if you're on FaceBook, you can check out her FB page here.  Of course, each of us did purchase some items!  Go figure!

This piece can be either a pin or a hair clip!  Heather makes these in so many different colors.  And even in black or white.

 After the open house, we had a nice lunch in the area then I headed home to walk dogs and watch the Michigan game!  Talk about a nail biter!  And then the Lions on Sunday!  No wonder I drink!

Monday was 63 degrees and sunny...I took the dogs for a ride to the bank, library and post office then for a walk around town.  It was just a beautiful  day out  and  perfect for for walking!

 Gotta love Michigan...you just never know what the weather will be...they are predicting snow possibly by the weekend...well, it is mid November, right!

Well, I am doing something!

Life is starting to get back to normal with Gigi's foot healing!  Thank goodness for that and for our little girl feeling better!!

I made another fiber card from fabric I stamped and painted using one of my handmade stamps.

and I started to quilt some fabric to make some more cards for November and December BD's.

And you know how much I love making the 3D Snowflakes...so I made another one today for a friend of my neighbor.

See I'm working!!!  Not a lot, but working!!!

This and that!

So Friday I met with the kids to celebrate Darrin's BD...it was fun to be with all the kids and grand kids.  Although, Nick and Amber wouldn't let me take their pics so I'm just showing Kris and Dawn!  (Bob was at home with 'the girls' and Jeff was out of town!).

And I am finally getting back to some of my art projects.  I'm working on a few BD fiber cards and trying to finish up the hand work on my texture piece for the online blog challenge. Pics to come later this week.
I also put up our Christmas decorations in the family room.  The kids are coming up for Thanksgiving so I like to have the house decorated as they can't be here for Christmas.  Hopefully, I'll have pics of art work forthcoming.  Until then, this is what I worked on yesterday (Lion's didn't play!).

And I gave little Gigi a bath...isn't she the cutest little thing!

She and Kalee play constantly and are becoming best buds!!

LIFE IS GOOD!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DARRIN!!

Can't believe Darrin is 47!  But then I can't believe how old I am either!!!   He works seven days a week at his job which worries me.  He needs to work a normal schedule although Dawn is just as bad.  I think it has to do with the job force and technology now a days.  You never get away from work and both kids don't take enough time for themselves.  The kids keep both Kris and Darrin also busy with their sports and school.  Nothing a mom can do, right!

 Today will be busy...my friend Carol lost her mom this week. I feel so bad for her as she lost her sister this past winter and her father this summer...now her mom.    I'm headed to the funeral home in Farmington then off to meet the kids for dinner in Lake Orion to celebrate with the birthday boy and the rest of the kids!  

I am stitching on my 'texture' piece for our online challenge that is due the end of the month.   This is a sneak peak.

 Tomorrow is bath day for the 'girls' and football on Sunday...so Sunday should be a good stitching day.  I already did my  laundry this week so that's crossed off my list!  HA

Lynn's ATC Exchange!

Look what I received in the mail yesterday!  The ATC's from Lynn's ATC exchange!  How cool are these!!!!

Left to Right:

Mary Andrews - Sherry Boram

Sona Nast - Debbie Berkebie

Lynn Krawczyk - Mari Townsend

Briana Goetzen - Jennifer Peters

Jane Davila - Rhonda Baldwin

And this was what I made to exchange with each of the ladies.  You can see my process here.


This was so much fun and I keep going back looking at each of the cards!   The one criteria we had was to screen print on our card(s).  This was the interesting part to see how each person met this criteria!
Thank you one and all!!!!  This might be a yearly exchange we need to have!  Just sayin!

Blah, blah, blah....

I know my life isn't really hard compared to so many I know...but this is my blog so I can complain if I want to!  I am just way too busy right now - as the saying goes:  too busy for pin curls!

I've posted on this saying before and I don't know what it means either!!!  I just know I'm busy, busy but with nothing to show!


Poor little Gigi's toe was doing better but then yesterday she was licking it and I saw it was bleeding again.  Grrrrrrr  So we are back to wearing socks or her collar again.  Poor little dog...makes me feel so bad.  Plus, she's now back to not wanting to walk on the wet grass again in the morning(s).  UGH...it's almost as if we are back to the first month  we adopted this little sweetheart.

So...my daily dog training has been put on the back burner with the dogs...just because!  Our walks are quite short but are still needed just to get me/dogs moving. I'm out of the training mode other then trying to get the little on to walk on wet grass in the a.m. or night time!

The girls did get dressed up for Halloween!  Although, Gigi just wanted to bark at all the kids.  Kalee on the other hand just wanted to go see all the kids!!

I made a nice dinner (stuffed jalapeno peppers and cheese for appetizers; pork tenderloin/au gratin muffin potatoes/roasted vegetables/homemade applesauce/and homemade German chocolate cake for dessert!) for Bob's daughter and her hubby yesterday!  I've been trying to get them over  here since we got back from  Florida!  I bought this statue for Diane at an art fair this past spring and it's been at the house since we got home in May!

Isn't it a cute statue!  It's made of cement and weighs over 25lbs.!  It's a big bugger but I think he/she is adorable.  I think Diane liked her and hope she can enjoy it!

Today I went to the movies with my friend, Joan, to see The Intern.  A really cute movie and DeNiro was great, as usual.  Just a light, fun movie...just what I needed to refresh my psyche!!  I even did some dog lessons today with both Gigi and Kalee...simple collar grab and nose touches.  Hey, it's a start!!