Lunch with some buds!

This past week I met up with some friends for lunch and show and tell!  What a fun afternoon we had.

 Next to me was Nancy, Beth, Kay and Beth's friend, Bonnie, who was visiting from Michigan.  A great group of women...very talented and just fun to be with! Bonnie is only here for another week or so, but we might get to meet up with her one more time before she heads back to snowy Michigan!

Kay showed one of her great quilts she finished.  I'm sure you've seen her work before but if not, head over to her blog...grab a cup of coffee/tea/whatever and feast your eyes!

This is a piece Beth is hand stitching!  She originally had a rust piece which she added some stenciling and painted washers onto. I think this is a really cool piece and cant wait to see if finished!

Dang! I didn't realize I didn't get full shots of Nancy's fabrics she's been dyeing!  Some great pastel shades and beautiful organza dyed pieces.  Use your imagination!

Nancy did finish this kit piece which is outstanding!  Love the design placement and patterns.  She needs to replicate the patterns next time she's painting fabric!







I showed some of my shibori pieces and talked about my next project!  Which is beading a squirrel!  Yep...and guess what color he's going to be!  BLUE!  In our traveling exhibit in Michigan, one of our artists is George Rodrigue who created the Blue Dog.  Well, I know most in our group will be doing a 'blue dog' so I thought I'd mix it up and bead a blue squirrel!  Why not...right!  Here's my pattern that I'm going to bead......

I think it's kinda cute...he measures 8.5" x 11" and I've already started to outline him with some of the blue beads given to me by the Fiber Art Bee group.  You can read about my great gift here!  I'm putting to good use some of those beads!!!

Laughter aids digestion...

Well, I have heard that statement for years and I think it's true!  "Laughter aids digestion".   Thursday night the 'gang' (only 12 that night - missing Jan and Mac) ate at Savannah's Restaurant at Ocala National.  What a fun night and the food was great too!

I actually ate a burger!  The whole burger!!!  It was the Mexi Burger and delicious.  Bob had a beef/mushroom dish with cream sauce and mashed potatoes.  Others enjoyed their meals as well...but the most fun was paying a visit to the rest room with Jan M., Marilyn and Patricia!

 Of course the rooms looked more like someone's living areas....and this next picture you need to use your imagination and see Jan sitting on the couch!  I'm a good friend and will not post the picture I took...but for those who did see it, the picture will remain in our minds for a long, long time!

 We laughed so hard..we cried....but our food was digested well!!!!

 So next time you are at dinner with friends...don't go to the rest room alone...make sure you take at least 3 other woman with you!  I'll guarantee you that you'll laugh...especially if one of those friends is Jan Miller!  Just sayin'!

12" block process

Earlier this week I posted on the blocks I received from our 12" block exchange this year.  I love each of the pieces I received.  But, I did struggle making my five blocks.  First, because I thought we weren't doing the challenge...hence, I didn't meet the February 14th target date!  Where was I! Oh well...they are all finished...and here's my process! This is one I kept and the other four were the same layout using the same fabrics. Pics are at the end of this post.

Fortunately, I brought with me a yard of my hand dyed mono printed fabric I made a few years ago...as well as some cotton suede all in the same color!  So, I set off making a pattern up in patchwork, thinking I'll add a 1/4" strip of black in between. Talk about struggle...for some reason, I couldn't figure out my blocks!  What's up with that!  I finally had to shut off the TV, IPOD and dogs! so I could concentrate!  HA  Here are two pages of my patterns!  Yes, I made it more difficult than it needed to be...duh!

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I decided to stamp the solid cotton suede with a stamp I had made awhile back.  The fabric at the top is the mono print.
So once all the pieces were finally cut to size!  and sewn together,  I started to hand stitch the mono printed designs.


Not sure why that picture looks purple!  But I kinda like it!

More hand stitching!

And more stitching.  I just couldn't come up with a design to free motion stitch...glad I stuck with hand work.




And here are the four I mailed to Tommy, Gayle, MaryAnn and Irene!  Hope they enjoyed them!

They look alike but each one is different...does that make sense!

12" Block Exchange

Here are the blocks from our 12" exchange this year.  They are in order I received them!  I finally got mine in the mail!  Geeeezzzzzz

This is from Tommy

This is from Gayle

This is from MaryAnn

This is from Irene

And this is mine!

I'll be doing a blog post on how I made mine later this week.  Until then, hope you enjoy our little show and tell!

One Shiboi Result!

I posted last on the process for creating a shibori 'test' piece.   I posted on the process.  These are the results!  This is about 36" long and 8-10" wide.  Should make a nice panel or table topper.

 I'm happy with how the leaves turned out.  Lots of detail!  Circles...I only sewed around the circles and then only wrapped part of the 'excess'.  Next time, I want to stitch several rows within the circle.

Tuesday I'll be meeting up with some other ladies for us to do more stitching!  Should be a fun time!
I'm happy with how the piece turned out.  I think by adding some type of a border and doing some hand stitching or even beading it will make a nice piece.  This is at least 36" long x 8 or 10" so a good size to start wih!

Saturday...back to art work!

 I really have been creating art by creating  the blocks for the 12" block exchange.  Now that they are finished, I can start some new projects.  Blog post on process will be later this week after they are mailed. Woo hoo!
I created these shibori designs back in 2009 (you can see post here).

  I used templates and patterns from Jane Callender's Callishibori web site.  She has some great patterns and good instructions.  Of course, because it's all hand stitching, it's right up my alley!

So today I grabbed a strip of fabric, traced some circles and added a few leaves using Jane's templates.

And here was my little bundle after pulling all the threads.  I forgot how much my hands hurt pulling threads!
My fabric is now in the dye bath and I hope to have the threads all cut out sometime tomorrow!
You are never sure what you'll get or not get!  Let's hope I get what I think I'm getting!!

Outing to Trenton!

Today, Susan, Verna, Marilyn and myself headed out to one of our favorite quilt shops called the Suwannee Valley Quilt Shop.  What a great store and they have a wonderful cafe in front of the shop to boot!
So after some fabric shopping and lunch, we walked to the Quilt Museum a block away.  What a great museum.  Such interesting quilts...here are a few!

This was an amazing quilt.  You can see how large it is...it's almost up to the ceiling!  What great depth Ann achieved!  And she goes herself "not a quilter".

This next quilt, again very large!, contains all of the presidents up to Obama!  Each picture of the president was cross stitched on tiny canvas!  They were about the size of a playing card!  Another wonderful quilt.

This next quilt was a beauty and all hand quilted with tiny, tiny perfect stitches!

This gives you a better look at the hand quilting.












And to boot, check out the date (below) it was made.

This may look like a corner in the room but it's not!  That's a tube of lipstick Verna laid next to the 'room' for scale.




Susan is working on an apple core quilt, which is on this bed so we wanted to show her that she could work smaller!



And check out the little hex quilt on the bottom right (white piece).  I can't imagine working this small!!!  Amazing!

















The quilter of this miniature pieces is Carol Henry from Florida.  Her work was amazing.  Susan said she has a book and has also seen her on TV.

There was a lot of lace work and crochet work that was beautiful.  I don't remember the date on this piece but it was old, old and in mint condition!  What a beautiful piece of work!    We had a really nice afternoon and got to appreciate some wonderful history!

Nothing beats family!

 I had a great Valentine's Day celebrating with my sister and Nancy, along with my nieces, nephews, great nieces & nephews and friends!  What a fun time!!!

Leigh, Mike, Erin (my nieces and nephew) my sister MaryAnn and Nancy!

Jordan (far left) and Rileigh (far right) are my great nieces!

Family time!
Aren't they cute!!!

Erin, Leigh, Mike and Dianna Lynn 

The gangs all here!

A delicious breakfast on the lanai!  

Love my sis!  Thanks for a great time!

Happy Valentine's Day!

First off, this was a fiber Valentine I received from my Q bud, Susan, here in Florida!  She said she only makes one a year and I'm the lucky recipient!  Thanks again, Susan!

As you read this, I'll be heading to Apollo Beach to see my sister and some of my nieces and nephew!  My sister and Nancy are having a big celebration and the kids are flying in to see their mom!  I'm so excited to see them as I haven't been to Pennsylvania for about 15 years...or more!  All but one of my sister's kids, Mike, live in Pennsylvania.  Mike and his family just moved to Tenn.

I ended up making 36 Valentine fiber cards this year. The process was the same but the background fabric was different for about half of them.  I used either painted canvas or hand dyed cotton velveteen for the background.

I had two of my zentangle designs made into a thermofax screens through Lynn's web site and they came out great!  THANKS, Lynn! 
I screen printed the designs on top of one another.  I didn't just want the design to show totally.  In some cases you can see parts of the design and others just vague images.  

Lynn has made thermofax screens for me in the past and I've always been very, very happy with the results.  If you haven't tried thermofax screens to print with or you use them often, do check out Lynn's web site and have her make them for you! 



This group was the painted canvas that was screen printed, before I did the labels and edging.

Just some closeups of the printed design.

 This group is the painted cotton velveteen that was screen printed with the thermofax screens.

And this was the stack of cards ready to go.  I've heard from most that they have received them...which is better than last year!  

I mailed them out early (before Feb. 1st) just to make sure they arrived by Valentine Day.  One card I sent last year took a month to arrive!  At least it was stamped with the mail date so my friend knew when I sent it.  

So Happy Valentine day!  I'm off to be an Aunt again!