Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day

Just pictures of the last of the Valentine's I've made this year..only problem some haven't received them and they were mailed on Feb. 4th! Boo Hoo..at least I hope someone is enjoying them!

December's BJP Finished!

BJP December 2010

Finally!

Well, sometimes other life's happenings get in the way of us working and finishing our art work. I didn't start on my Dec. BJP until the 1st week in January but I had to put it on hold due to other art work priorities and of course playing with art work.

This was the start of my tree. I traced the outline of the tree onto some Friendly Felt. Next step was to figure out what color beads to use. All beaders seem to have those tubes just filled with left over beads from other projects

and I'm no different. Fortunately, I had over four and half tubes of mixed beads. Add some old bugles to the mix and I had enough beads to fill my tree! A big WHEW! At one point I did have to add some green seed beads to the mix. I also used some of my nice bugles for the tree stand, which I didn't mind. I've had these for awhile and I think they made a nice fill for the stand.

Here's a closeup of the beads. Yep, there is a mix of beads and there are LOTS of beads in this piece! LOTS!

So now on to the BJP for 2011! I did start on my January BJP and beaded part of the letter 'T' (you can see the start of it at the end of my post here) but now I'm rethinking what I'll do each month. My first thought was to bead a letter each month, then at the end of the year, the letters would spell out a sentence. Now I'm not so sure....I have two other ideas in mind but still not sure.

I did want to share two blogs with my readers. First check out, Dolly, from the Fiber Place and some of the dyeing and fabric painting she does. Turns out, Dolly, lives not far from me in Michigan and we've even attended the same fiber guild, Needlework and Textile Guild of Michigan. I haven't been to a NTGM meeting in several years, but I'm sure I've seen Dolly and most likely some of her work at show and tell. I'm fascinated by her hand dyed cheese cloth (in addition to some of her other pieces)! Really nice!!

The 2nd blog is from a friend of mine back in Michigan called Notes from Peaceful Steps. Teresa doesn't blog that often but she's very deep in her thoughts and writes quite well. I was particularly moved by her post today where she talks about the book 29 Gifts: How a Month of Giving Can Change Your Life, by Cami Walker. What a moving story and a book that I do want to read. I just checked and the library here in Florida doesn't have the book but B&N does carry it (no Border's close by Ocala!). I'm going to pick it up this week.

I hope you enjoy reading both of these lady's blogs. I think you'll get inspiration from both! Now off to watch a little TV and do some hand embroidery.

Lesson 3 and more hearts!

Still following along with Anne and her different uses for gel medium. This is my WIP collage (it's on a foam board, background is a piece of glue/painted fabric - see previous post). I added some green/black foiled dots to it and have some more to do.
We needed a substrate for creating a heart using the sand/bird grit/medium so I had to dig in my Florida stash! I'm running out of 'stuff' to put these hearts on! But I did find a piece of copper and this old heart with foil from candy sewn on it.
The pic on the right is sand from my hubby's golf cart! It was a little dirty with specks of the golf course! in it so Bob sifted the sand to remove the junk. Isn't he a nice guy!











Next we mixed sand with some gel medium and bird grit with gel medium. And yes, I mixed it on my 12 1/2" square ruler!
I stenciled my heart using the bird grit on top of the heart and on the bottom is the sand/medium. To be honest, I think the sand and the grit were the same consistency as I can't tell where one started and one stopped. This picture is just as I lifted off the heart stencil. Today the heart looks more like oatmeal in a heart shape!
I am getting the feel of using gel medium other than to attach collage pieces, which is nice!
Here are some more of my fiber hearts my friends have received from me.


I also finished my bead journal project for December! Yippee! I'll post pics tomorrow when I get home from our Weaver's meeting. We had rain on and off yesterday and it's still overcast today but not cold. AND MY BIKE BROKE!!! I took off this a.m. and just got on my bike, shifted gears and CRUNCH!! My bike STOPPED! I almost fell off..couldn't turn the pedals at all. Dang! So back home and then I just walked my 'path'. Bob will check it out tonight when he gets back from golf. I feel lost without my bike!!

More hearts

As well as playing along with Anne, I've been working on a donation quilt for Ami Simms, The Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative (AAQI). I called the piece 'Never Forgotten' and the great ladies over at Thr3fold Journal gave me permission to use Catherine Nicholls 'face pattern' in my donation quilt. Catherine's silhouette of a face just reminded me that even though we might not remember the face of ones we've lost, we will never forget them.
If you're so inclined, take a peak at some of the donation quilts that are up for bid on the AAQI site or make a small donation piece! It's for a great cause and a good way to practice a technique on a smaller quilt (this one is 9" x 11"). I'll put in the mail on Monday, as I want to take to the Weaver's meeting on Sat.

Tomorrow I'll post lesson 3 with Anne using sand and bird grit in our gel medium! What fun!!

Here are a few more of my fiber Valentine's that family and friends have received from me! They are slowly arriving!

Lesson 2 and more hearts!

First, a big Thanks! to Jill over at the Quilt Rat for sharing her feathered drawing with her blogger friends! She posted a few days ago her drawing and said we can do what we wanted with it. So I decided to make Bob a fiber Valentine! I couldn't decide whether to use red or another color so I ended up using a purple ink. I think Bob will like it since he has always liked the fiber cards I make and receive.

This one did come in the mail today so I'll have Bob get the mail and hopefully he'll be surprised! Be sure to check out Jill's blog and some of her doodling! She does some fantastic drawings in addition to quilting and other fiber art work! A very talented lady!! Jill was also one of the artists showcased in the latest Zentangle book by Suzanne McNeill, Inspired by Zentangle.

I also received in the mail some fiber cards from friends! The one on the left is from my friend, Lois Ann who now resides in Italy. The one of the right is from my friend, Mary, back in Michigan! Aren't they great fiber cards! Thanks, ladies! I love them both!!!




















I'm still following along with Anne (uses for gel medium) and wanted to use a different substrate for this lesson. I found this piece of glue/painted fabric I did last May (you can read how here). I attached it to a piece of foam board using Misty Fuse! Hmmmm Well, so far, so good!
Then I started to dig in my 'stash' of 'stuff' I brought with me and I added the piece of music and these two figures that I had printed on organza several years ago! They were from the Kemshall's Thr3fold journal.

Next I followed Anne's post and made another heart stencil, this time adding some gold glitter to the gel medium. I was running out of my semi gloss gel so I picked up the gloss medium (recommended by Anne) and used that. It will be interesting to see if the previous heart I made and this one are much different.
I did make this heart a little thicker than my last one. Which, by the way, I'm going to use my blue, beaded, gel heart on a project we're doing this Sat. at the Weaver's meeting. At least that's my plan!
Gotta run now...bird is screaming so I'm either going to start drinking a margarita early or take Mandy to the park for a walk. Guess the walk is a better idea since we're going out to dinner with two other couples tonight for Italian! I'll wait for the wine!

Friends & Valentines

My friend send me this card for my BD but I thought it was so cute and wanted to share it!

The following pictures are some of the fiber Valentine's I made this year for my friends (& family!). These folks have received their cards so I'm showing them. Others still haven't received them so I'll wait to post pictures of them!! Now I'm getting worried as the cards were sent over a week ago!! Yikes! In the past few years I've sent fiber cards (Valentine's, birthdays, etc.), only two haven't made it. And I've sent lots of fiber cards over the years. Let's hope everyone gets their card this year!! If not, I have pics so they'll have to settle for that!
In the meantime, here are some of the fiber cards I made. Hope you enjoy the show! And hope my friends enjoyed their cards!

Post 500!

It's hard to believe I've had something to post about 500 times! But it's true! OK, some of my friends (Susan, stop rolling your eyes!) aren't surprised that I can talk that much! But 500! That is a milestone isn't it!

I still look at my blog as documenting my life and bringing along my family and friends on my blog journey!

One of the blogs I've been following is Anne, from Little Miracles of Art. Anne is one of those artists that just keeps amazing you with her talent and as well as giving you chuckles with her humor! She's a treat for sure and now she's giving us all another treat! Anne is now 'gellin' with posts on the uses of Gel medium! How cool is that!

Of course I had to play along with Anne and being the good student I am here's pics from her first 'lesson'!

I used a foam food tray to cut out a heart shape. Next we mixed glass beads with Soft Gel (I used semi gloss) and filled in our stencil. I know, who uses blue for a heart! But you use what you have!

"Waste not, want not" (I think this is also Anne's mantra!) we painted our leftover pieces cut from our stencils.

These are out of order as the darker pieces are after I painted over the lighter blue with Indigo paint. Anne used black ink which really showed up the texture in her pieces.

My cut outs painted with Golden's fluid acrylic paint.

The funny part is when I first applied the gel/bead mix to fill in my stencil, I did it on a glass plate..but then I thought, heck, how will I get my heart off! Duh! So I went into my stash and found a piece of Lutradur, scraped off the gel mix and redid the process! Hope that's right!

So here's my gel heart drying on my painted lutradur. Anne noted that the dye from the acrylic beads sinks to the bottom of the gel. I noticed that she's right (did I doubt Anne! Nope!). I can see the difference from my gel mixture to my heart drying. I can't wait for our next lesson!!!

If you don't 'play along' with Anne, just check out her blog and enjoy her work!!!

And before I forget, I have to say congrats to our grand daughter, Amber! She got 4 A's and 2 B's on her report card (one of the A's was an A+!). CONGRATS,honey! Grandpa and I are so proud of you!!!

Just thinking....

I finished the edging and adding my closure to the beaded bracelet. It's nothing spectacular but a fun piece to make....and I can see using this pattern as a fence on a quilt! Later on that....

While I was beading on my Christmas tree (BJP Dec. 2010), I watched a documentary on Netflex. What an interesting and thought provoking movie. Touching the Void is about two mountain climbers whose trek goes bad, to put it gently! One of the climber falls and breaks his leg and his buddy, who's tethered to him, attempts to lower him to safety but fails, forcing him to make a pivotal decision that may or may not save both of their lives. This movie sure got me thinking about what would I do. Is it because we are just selfish or is it just survival...what would I do? Thankfully, the majority of us will never have to make decisions or be put in situations like these two or others that have been in similar situations (127 Days).
And on that same note...a friend sent out this You Tube. If you watch this and don't get the 'bug' or inspiration to get off the couch and get busy or do something productive or for someone else, then I'd say your pulse is at 'zero'!

Back to Beading finally!

Before I show the two beading classes I took today, here's my Christmas tree for my Dec. BJP 2010.
Yes, I'm a tad behind in the Bead Journal Project 2011 but I only have myself to report to, right! I'm usually pretty good at meeting my own target dates but since mid summer I've let outside issues interfer with my art work (e.g. dog surgery, hubby hip replacement, etc.). OK, so I can't think of another excuse! I started back on quilting the background fabric then cut out my 'tree' and now I'm back to adding beads to the tree. You can see I've started at the top filling in the tree with what I call my 'extra junk' beads. Fortunately for me the 'extra junk' beads are the perfect colors!
Last week I signed up to take a bead class today, at my favorite bead shop (The BeadStrand) with one of my favorite instructors, Lynn H. Last winter I took several peyote classes from Lynn and she certainly got me hooked on this stitch. Today's class was called One Drop, Two Drop Peyote Bracelet. Right up my alley, plus I thought I could use the stitch for my art quilts.

These are some of Lynn's samples of her bracelet from today's class.

I feel bad but I forget the lady who sat across from me. Her colors were very pretty in this piece.

And my bracelet - yes, I beaded in yellow..not sure why but I liked the look!

And, as we were finishing up our 1/2 drop peyote bracelet, Lynn talked about her Herringbone Hills bracelet class being offered next week. Long story short, another lady came in, Iris, so Lynn taught us the class in the afternoon! Check this out! This is Lynn's sample. Click on this picture to really get a good look at Lynn's work.

Iris used some really cool beads and I'm sorry my camera just didn't show them as they look in person. Iris used black, crystals, and a dark, dark brown (called by another name I forgot!) which look spectacular!

Lynn decided the shape looked like a crocodile so she chose these colors. Doesn't it look like a croc!

And my little 'snake'! He does look a bit like a snake, doesn't he?? I love the pattern even though it's not a quick and easy piec. Lynn's instructions are very detailed and easy to follow so I know I can finish it. And I know where to find her if I run into a problem! Now you know why I might not finish my Dec. BJP or my Jan. and Feb. BJP's! Finishing these two pieces will be priority one for me!

It's been nice and warm here and still 68 @ 7:30 at night. I've got the fan on overhead and Bob's in his sweats! Go figure! Still it's great to have nice weather compared to some of the states. Just hope the Super Bowl fans keep warm and are safe this weekend!