More Fiber Valentines! And beading, of course!

I received my 2nd and 3rd Valentine from friends!! 

Check out the fiber card from my Florida buddy, Susan!  Isn't it great!!!  I love the fabric she chose for the flamingo!    The background fabric was something we made a few years ago at one of our weaver meetings we attended.  It's using chalk on milk soaked fabric!  Pretty cool isn't it! 







And check out how Susan scanned in the heart center from her flamingo fabric above to use for her stamp!  Such a clever lady!!  Thanks Susan!!  Love my flamingo!

And yesterday I received this collage Valentine card from my friend, Carol, back in Michigan! 

 

 The card is made up of different fibers/papers and collage...it's adorable!  The card was made by Sandy Mooney, a fiber artist back home.   I love my cards that I receive!  Thanks, Carol!!

 

For those who follow my blog, you may remember seeing this beaded bird.  I had two of my pieces framed back home a few months ago and I just happen to bring the other four with me to finish some hand stitching on the painted leaves.  My Q buddy, Susan, gave me a $25 gift certificate she won for one of the local art/framing stores.  So...I got busy finishing two of the pieces by adding some shading to the leaves and stitching.  

Here's one of the pieces with the stitching and shading finished....

 And the 2nd one...I dropped off both of these yesterday to the framing shop.  We picked out a great frame that is the same green family as my leaves.  It also has some yellow on the frame but it really looked good against the two pieces.  I should have them back within a few weeks!  I'm really excited to see these two framed.

It isn't cheap to have your work framed (these are only 8 1/2" x 11") but I've invested so many hours of beading into the pieces I do want to preserve them and at least be able to hang them.  You can't see your work if it's hidden in a container in your closet!  

Today, Carol and I are off to library, run some errands and then to do our grocery shopping.  Appears to be our day for food shopping! 

One of our most memorable nights

Welcome to the Freezer!!!  I was too busy reading the menu as we walked into the Freezer to take a picture of the outside or entrance...but more on that later! 
This was one memorable night!!!  Yesterday afternoon we took off with Patricia & Pat to meet up with the Miller's then off to The Freezer!  I'm not sure if it was the food or the company, perhaps both! that gave Bob and I one of our most memorable days in Florida!!

The Freezer is a Tiki Bar so perhaps that explains the menu on the chalk board or on the walls...or the paper towel roll on the tables - which you need!!!  We started off with a pretzel...you get the size of it above compared to the cup of beer...the pretzel is baked on site and laid ontop of melted butter!!!  I'm not a butter eater, no butter on my toast or sandwiches, etc., BUT I did dip the pretzel in the butter and WOW!  I'm hooked!  Oh, and this pretzel only cost $1.95!  Each of we ladies ordered one and THANK goodness Bob ordered his own (thanks, honey!)!  I ate the entire pretzel!!

The rest of the group enjoyed pitchers of beer but I prefer wine so my gallant hubby splurged and bought me 2 glasses of wine!  At $2 each!!  $2!  OK, it wasn't the best red wine but it was good enough to go with my pretzel!

This was Bob and Pat waiting for our dinner.  You have to go up to the bar counter to order and pay for your dinner.  You then get a ticket with your name/number on it...if you lose it, you're out of luck!  It's the only way they know you've already paid for your dinner. 

You can see the paper towel on a roll on the table!  I didn't think much about whey they would have a roll of paper towels but....

This is what we were waiting for!!!  Steamed shrimp and the best shrimp Bob and I have had!!!  You had to peel the shrimp but the way they remove the vein the shell just falls off with a flick of your finger.  You also get more butter sauce and cocktail sauce! 
When I order shrimp at a restaurant and get 6-8 pieces, I usually stop at 3-4..depending...sometimes I'll eat 5 but never more than that.  I don't know how many of these shrimp I ate but let me tell you it was WAY more than 5!!!  I'm almost embarrassed to think or count how many I ate.  Plus, this was 1 1/2lbs of shrimp Bob and I shared, which is their half order which cost a little over $10!!  $10!!  You are served in a Styrofoam container which you need to put all the shells into!  that's what you see in this next picture!  One of our scrap containers!

So here's the procedure...pick up a shrimp, flick off the shell, dip and eat!!!  What can be better!!!  We each had a half order but Larry ended up ordering one more half order for everyone to share!  Thanks, Larry!

We had such a great time with everyone and definitely will go back before we head home in April.

We laughed, ate, laughed and ate the entire time!  But wait!!!  There's more!!!

On our way out, this was the sight we ran into!  What a sight!!  The lights were flashing on these beautiful bikes!  We had all we could do to  keep Patricia off one of the bikes!

I tried to lighten the picture best I could...this is Patricia almost getting a leg up on the bike!  We all had visions of bikers coming out to prevent it but Jan and Larry mentioned dessert so Patricia came along quietly!

Bob was driving so Larry was giving him directions.  He kept telling Bob to turn right, but Bob couldn't see a road....but he did what he was told and low and behold we ended up at another favorite Florida haunt!  DQ!!! 

Yep...we all had dessert!  Bob and I each had a small blizzard!!  What a great ending to a great evening.  We can't thank Jan & Larry for setting up this night for us!!!! 

And so I'll close this post with a picture of our 'welcoming host' at the Freezer!!!  If you are in the Homosassa area or close to it, definitely head to The Freezer.  It's not easy to find but it will be a night/day you won't forget...although, our friends won't be with you so you might not have as much fun as us but you'll still have great steamed shrimp!   Oh, and make sure you try  the pretzel too!

It's going to be a shrimp night!

Before I post about the 'shrimp' night...look what I got yesterday!  It's my first Valentine card from my Florida friend, Carol.

Isn't it great!!  Carol made it herself and even did doodling around the border on each side!! 

Carol is really good at keep scrapbooks of her grand kids (they have four little ones!) and now she's working on cards!  I think she did a great job and I'm happy to have received one from her too!!!

So tonight, we are heading out with another couple to meet up with Jan and Larry to go to a place called 'The Freezer Tiki bar'!

  From what i understand, it's a bar/restaurant that used to be an actual freezer for keeping fresh caught fish and shrimp.  The shrimp is suppose to be the best around and Jan said they serve both a butter and horseradish sauce with the shrimp!  They also have crab and other fresh caught fish but I'm sure bob and I will go for the shrimp.

This is just a picture I found on the web...go figure!  So it will be interesting to see what pictures I take tonight of our food.   We'll be driving over to the Miller's house and then the six of us heading out to Homosassa for drinks and food at The Freezer! 

Hmmmmmm  I wonder if margaritas go with shrimp!  Hope I get to find out!  If not, white wine will do!  Yes, retirees sure do drink a lot here in Florida!  Heck, we live each day like it's our last so why not!!!   Might as well be happy at Happy Hour!

Finished!

I finished all 23 cards yesterday and put in the mail.  In fact, my friend, Carol, here in Florida, just called me and she received her fiber card today!  Wow! So here is a preview of the cards! 

I mentioned that I use a heavy weight Pellon interface(71F) on the back to give my cards some oomph!  And I also use Sulky Totally Stable stabilizer     to print out my labels.  I think I may have said in a previous post I use Solvy...it's SULKY....duh!  I buy this by the bolt and only brought a small piece with me so I couldn't remember the name!  But I was close...

Anyway, if you want to print out a label just create your label in word or other document software.  I then use my chalk pastels (make sure it's the chalk) and rub the side of the chalk along the entire piece.  I like to color at least a yard to have  on hand.  Next, using  a foam brush dipped in water, wipe over the chalk.  The chalk will blend just like watercolor and gives the stabilizer a nice color.  Once the Sulky is dry (I usually hang on a pant hanger!), I cut to 8 1/2" x 11" and iron lightly onto copy paper and feed through my printer.  Works great.   Just make sure you don't use a really hot iron to iron onto copy paper...it will stick.  

After printing out your label,  cut to size and iron onto the back of the pellon/fiber card.  I finish the edges by painting the batting/pellon with fabric paint, so you don't see much white...then stitch around the edges with a decorative machine stitch. 

 

This year I ran out of my Sulky and had to buy another iron on interfacing.  I used  Pellon 809 Decor Bond which worked through printer too.  I just put two pieces of double sided tape on the top of my copy paper, attached the cut 8 1/2" x 11" piece of pellon and fed through printer. I didn't color these pieces but I'm sure process below would work.  

 

So now on to some other projects!!!  Wonder what I'll do next!!!!  Too many ideas and too much social activity!  

 

I finished placing the extra firm pellon on the backs of the fiber cards yesterday and then ironed on Solvy interfacing that I printed address labels on.






Next step is to paint the edges. 

Of course this step isn't necessary but it's nice to have some color so the batting and white interfacing(s) don't show through.  You can't color in all the white but works good enough.

This was my production line all set up! 





You can see some of the edges colored in below.

So after I walk Kalee, I'll start edge stitching the cards.  I had a target date of Friday but I might be able to get the out of state cards in the mail on Thursday!  Yippee!!

On to next phase!

I finished all the hand stitching on my fiber Valentine post cards!  Yippee!!

So now I have to put the backing interface, labels and finish stitching around the edges.  Whew! 

I need to at least finish the ones going out of state and have in the mail by Friday...my target is Thursday but just giving myself an extra day to finish all 21 cards! 





The other morning I noticed these Egrets, I think!, walking across the street.  I grabbed my camera and headed out.  You have to check out the video at the bottom of this post.  What a hoot!!!  Gotta love Florida!

Goodbye to a gentle giant....

Goodbye to Ben - the gentle giant.  The kids had to put Ben to sleep yesterday and as we all know this is one of the hardest events in our lives to do.  The kids adopted Ben from a rescue several, several years ago and Ben instantly became one of their family.  You never would think a dog this big could be as sweet and so well mannered but  he was.  I just know in my heart he and Mandy are playing together...they were two of the best dogs anyone could ask for.

This was the first time Ben and Kalee met in '2011.  It shows how sweet he was....we'll miss you Ben but you'll always be in our hearts and thoughts.

Fiber card for a post office!

My friend, Mary, back in Michigan sent an email the other day from Jane Davies blog, from Rupert, Vermont. 

It seems Jane owns the local post office and as she states on her blog, "It is one of the smallest, and definitely the cutest, post office in the state, and probably in the country.  It just missed the small post office closures by the skin of it's little postal teeth, but they are cutting the hours it will be open. "

So Jane was asking for folks to send her a fiber cards so there will be an increase in the amount of mail passing through this "cute" little post office!  We have two smaller post offices back in our area and I just love them!  You never have to wait in line and they always know your name!  Sure hope Jane can keep her post office going! 

You have to go to Jane's blog and check out the video of the post office!  Scroll to the bottom of her post here to see the welcoming committee they even have!!  Just so cute!

Self portraits revealed!

It's reveal day over at Art Quilts Around the World!  The Art Quilts blog is a  "group of 30 art quilters from Australia, Canada, Colombia, Singapore, and the USA. Every two months we make a small art quilt on a designated theme, and we share our quilting journey and its results here with you. We welcome your feedback/comments." 
Our first challenge was a 'self portrait'...and here's my self portrait!  

I'm a 'spring' kind of gal who loves, loves, love hand work and beading!  So of course I had to include those elements in my self portrait!


BUT...I dislike drawing intensely...so this is my first and last attempt at drawing!!  I used the technique of putting tracing paper on the mirror (read this in a mixed media book but I forget the name of it!!) and then tracing your face!  Well, this was still no easy task!

I created the background piece by painting diluted fabric paints onto Radiance white fabric.  Then, I scanned my portrait tracing and printed onto the painted Radiance.  After stitching the commercial fabric to the portrait,  I stitched around each painted area to give the appearance of patchwork.  The entire piece was then free motion quilted.
Of course I had to add some beading around the portrait because it's all about me and my beading! and handwork! And here is a pic showing more detail of the edge beading and handwork. 


It was fun to work on once I had the 'drawing' part finished....but I'm looking forward to our next challenge, which is 'Carnival'!  That should be fun!!


So if you get a minute, head over to see some of the great self portraits on the Art Quilts Around the World blog!  Each piece is really nice, unique and an insight to each of us participating in this year's challenge.

Progress

Another beautiful day...I headed off to WalMart this a.m. to run some errands and now plan on working on more Valentine fiber cards.  I would like to sit and read!!  My friend, Carol, here in Florida, loaned me the book, Two Graves, by Preston & Child.  I love their books and have read every one they wrote together.  This is their latest book and it's hard to put down!  If you read mystery books, theirs are the best!  Start with their old book(s) as the characters continue in each book.  I read out of sequence and I still got the 'drift' of what was happening! 

BUT...no reading for me.  I have to get stitching!  I'm only making two like the one in this pic.  It has lot of outlining and hand stitching on it.  I'll be hand stitching and/or machine stitching on each piece along with other embellishments but i don't want to put a lot of hand work in these.  I don't think it's necessary.

Have to say now that I've decided on what I'm doing, I enjoy the process of creating this years fiber cards!  Guess that's always the way.  The design is the hard part isn't it!

So here is some of my work!!

Yes there is some metal hearts on some cards along with machine stitching and who knows, most likely, some beading too! 

Another warm day today...should be in the 80's today and tomorrow then we have what Florida calls a "cool down"...in the high 60's or low 70's!  That's called perfect weather for me! 

Back to work?

Sometimes I think I never get a vacation!  Spoiled aren't I!  This a.m. after feeding the dog, bird, Bob; taking Kalee for a one mile walk, I changed sheets and started laundry; went to the post office and now I'm going to try, I say, try to work on my fiber cards!  Guess "woman's work" is never done is it!  Hubby has it made, as do most men...he doesn't even have to do lawn work here in Florida...just eat and golf!  What a life!

alright, I'll stop complaining!!!  I did get to 'play' with dyes yesterday.  Michael's had some good $1 buys on embellishments so I picked up a bag and dyed them.  Thinking I might use them on my fiber cards...but then again........

I still haven't a clue as to what I'm going to make this year.  I printed onto fabric my Flamingo doodle I posted about last time and then started some hand stitching on it. 

Not that folks who receive these cards aren't appreciating them but it takes so much time to embellish by hand I'm just not sure I want to hand stitch 20+ flamingo's!  Last year I did add beads by hand on each card but I must have been in a better frame of mind!  Yes, I'm getting lazy in my old age but that's what old folks do.  We get lazy, grouchy and just want to do what we want to do, when we want to do it! 

This is a piece of paper fabric I made on Sunday.  I picked up some muslin, painted on a layer of matt medium, then layered tissue paper and some of my doodles I printed out. 

So now I'm going to try and put my thinking cap on and see if or what I can do with this piece of fabric.  I actually made two pieces so we'll see. 

It's another beautiful day today...slight breeze and in the 70's.  I guess back home they had freezing rain and schools are closed.  Sure don't miss that!  Guess doing laundry, cooking, cleaning and playing with fabric "ain't" so bad after all!  could be worse...I could still be working! 

Quilt show and some art work!

Well, I have been working on my fiber cards the past few days...I did a 'doodle' of a Flamingo but I'm so tired of the doodles...but I still might use it! 

I printed some on fabric to do some hand stitching, but it's so predictable. 

Boring!

Today I played with making some paper fabric using some of my doodles.  I'll post those pics tomorrow. 

Susan and I headed off today to the Villages for a quilt show w/vendors!  And we didn't buy anything!  go figure!!!

There were some really nice quilts and workmanship to match.  I did take many pics with my phone so they may not be that clear.





I really liked the quilting in this quilt so I had to take a snippet pic.

This was quite pretty and workmanship very nice as well.

The workmanship on this quilt was beautiful, as was the quilt.  You keep seeing little touches, embellishments the quilter added.

Just some of the detail above!  Beautiful.

This is another very nice piece...again, workmanship is outstanding!  Almost...I say, almost, as nice as my friend, Susan's, workmanship!

and of course, I have to show my dinner from my "date" last night!  We had dinner at Harry's and it was spectacular!!!  I had crab cakes and snow peas and yes, 2-4-1 margaritas!  Yes, I drink margaritas with everything or anything!