A Star is Born

Update: "A Star is Born" is hanging in a show at the Vacaville Art Gallery until Jan. 24, 2009. I put her in a black shadow box and with the light shining on her and reflecting of the Angelia fibers she stands out and shines beautifully!

I belong to an art quilt group called Around The World In Twenty Quilts, which can be accessed via my sidebar "other blogs". We have a quarterly challenge to make a small approximately 8" X 11" size or A4 as the Netherlands/Australian and UK folks call it. One member picks a challenge theme and we have a few months to produce it. The first challenge was Trees seen below this post, and this one is Stellar. Be sure to go to the ATWI20Q site to see all of quilts. You will be glad you did.

I enjoyed making this small quiltlet using Angelina fibers which I hand felted using a four needle hand punch I bought last summer. This was my first time felting using it and the fibers. The black background fabric is fleece. I free motion top stitched and hand embroidered french knots. I sewed on tiny red beads and some larger circular flat beads that I picked up at the bead store for the adjoining stars. The binding is a black satin ribbon. It is within the challenge size of A4.






I based my quilt on this information and photo found on line: Emission nebula NGC 604 lies in a spiral arm of galaxy M33, 2.7 million light-years away in the constellation Triangulum. This is a site where stars are being born. Though such nebulae are common in galaxies, this one is particularly large, nearly 1,500 light-years across. At the heart of NGC 604 are over 200 hot stars, much more massive than our Sun (15 to 60 solar masses). They heat the gaseous walls of the nebula making the gas fluoresce. Their light also highlights the nebula's three-dimensional shape, like a lantern in a cavern. The image was taken on January 17, 1995 with Hubble's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2.
CREDIT: Hubble Space Telescope, photo PR96-27B
SOURCE: http://grin.hq.nasa.gov/BROWSE/gallaxies_3.html
COPYRIGHT: This photo is not copyright.

East End Cake Decorators - Sunday, December 14th, 2008

NEXT MEETING will be held at St. Margaret's in the Pines Church, Lawrence Avenue and Kingston Road, from 2pm to 4pm.

Gift Exchange:
Those wishing to participate in the gift exchange will bring a wrapped gift purchased for not more than $5, or homemade.

Treat Table:
Members wishing to do so are encouraged to bring an item for the treat table.

Show & Tell:
We will have a show & tell relating to tools or techniques. Anyone with a new tool to show and perhaps demonstrate, an old tool now out of use that would be of interest, a favourite technique, or a problem is encouraged to bring them.

Workshops:
There will be two workshops: Graham wafer houses, and Graham wafer sleighs. Members are asked to bring royal icing, bags, tips, small pre-made decorations, dragees, sugars, sprinkles (basically whatever they brought to the cookie-decorating day), and a serrated knife for cutting the crackers. The Graham wafers will be provided.

Hope to see you there!

Diane M.

Welcome Brynn!

This little sweater has been tucked away for a few years just waiting for that first grand daughter. Well Brynn arrived on the 15th November. She's in Quebec so I won't see her and the family until Christmas, but in the meantime I'm wrapping up a Welcome parcel to send to her and I'll include this and a pair of frilly tights!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope you all are having a wonderfully thankful and happy day this Thanksgiving Day! As I write this I have my turkey in the oven and the dressing/stuffing all ready for baking in a while. The pies are made and other preparations will be done soon. There will be just three of us around our table this year...hubby, me and son.

I'm thankful that we've gotten through the week just fine without our furnace working and tomorrow the new one will be installed.

Here are a couple of photos showing my progress on the project I've been working on.


It's a pretty lazy, sleepy day around our house this afternoon...

Oh wait a minute, that's what it's like for kitties all the time...silly me!

In other news, I was so jealous of a fellow TwelvebyTwelve member recently that she was the lucky winner of a large sum of money. Well I just received my notice this afternoon that I, too, have won. I won £(250,000.00GBP). Can you believe it? Gosh, there must be a lot of money going around out there that many people can win. I'm just thrilled. YEAH RIGHT!!!!!!

Well anyway....enjoy the rest of your holiday. I better go check the feast...I don't want it to burn.

Gobble, gobble...

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend.

A Penguin Tutorial

What a day I've had with these cute little guys! Wednesday afternoons are my sugar days with my friend Verdie. Today our mission was a flock of penguins for my grandson's birthday cake in ten days time. As we were experimenting with the little creatures I took photos, so it is going to be a tutorial of sorts. I will start with the finished flock.

To start, using gumpaste or a mixture of gumpaste and fondant, or fondant with some tylose or gumtrag, measure some pieces of white paste about 15 grams each for the bodies.



Form them into the shape of the body, as above and push a toothpick into it to hold the head later.

Next, using black paste, make pieces 4 grams for the head and roll into balls. Next, make the eyes and beaks. For the eyes, roll white paste very thinly and cut circles with a #6 piping tip. The little circle will be the cornea. Cut the same out of black paste and divide it in two, make a ball and flatten it for the pupil. Stick in place on the head. For the beak, cut a small square, I had to trim it smaller than the cutter below. Press with a pin to fold it in half. Press the pin flat into the head to make a small indentation. Brush a little water into the indent and gently push in the beak.





Cut out the wings and feet from black paste using small heart cutters for the feet, and an oval cutter for the wings. You may have to trim the hearts to fit. The oval shape gets cut in half, and it's glued with the rounded side to the front.

Make a small cone of coloured paste and work with a pointed modelling stick to create the toque. Push the head onto the toothpick, adding a little gum glue to keep it in place. Then glue the toque in place.

Now, aren't they just the cutest little guys!!! If you make the penguins for your own cake, I'd love to see the finished result. Leave me a message please! My finished cake is posted here on December 8th. Click on "penguins" under Labels below.

Getting Ready for Thanksgiving with More Vintage Cookbook Illustrations!

Run Turkey! Run!


Here are some more vintage cookbook illustrations, (again, from the oh, so talented Kay Lovelace) to help get you in the Thanksgiving spirit! To see more of Kay Lovelace's illustrations go here.
















Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving, and make sure to take a little time to put your feet up and relax a bit, you deserve it!

Progress Shot

Well here is where I'm at with my project:


Since you last saw this, I've added a little metallic paint, a little turquoise paint and now I'm cutting fabric into shapes.

I know what I'm getting for Christmas! A new furnace! Yippee skippy, right? It looks like the other one is not worth fixing, so we will be having a new one installed, probably on Friday. Friday will be one week that we've gone with no furnace. We have been counting our blessings that the weather has been ranging from daytime temps in the 30s to 40 during this time period. With those temps it is easy to keep our house warm enough with the wood stove. By the time I get up in the mornings, though, it's starting to get a bit chilly. Brrrr!

Oh, and I got some other exciting news today. I found out that my books have been shipped and should arrive on my doorstep by maybe Monday. YAY! So for those of you who have pre-ordered, I'm hoping to have them in the mail to you by mid to late next week, if all goes as planned.

Still sidetracked!

I knew if I kept going I would find my way to finish up these little atcs. Instead of cutting the piece of fabric 2 1/2 x 3 1/2, I added about 2" all around and just folded it back (as you can see in the photo below). Next time I will cut it a bit larger so that all the back is covered. I traded this one with Margreet.

I'm adding this on Tuesday. It started out as a piece of crazy quilting big enough to fold and completely cover the back as you can see from the bottom picture. The background fabric is three different shades of cream, and the stitching is a pretty variegated pink and cream perle 5 thread. The beads are silver, and the flowers are pink metallic on a pale pink organza ribbon. I traded this angel with Fat Quarter (Annet).

12 Days of Christmas Celebration

Sue and I are spreading some holiday cheer with a 12 days of Christmas celebration with 12 days of giveaways! In order to participate all you need to do is sign up for the Two Creative Studios newsletter. Every day, starting on Sunday, December 14, 2008, Sue and I will choose one name from the Two Creative Studios subscriber list and that person will win a handmade item from both of us. Then on December 25th, we'll pick a final grand prize winner and that person will not only win a handmade item from the both of us but they'll also win their choice of a free online class! So pop over to the Two Creative Studios website and sign up for the free newsletter and then help us spread the holiday cheer by spreading the word and telling everyone you know about our 12 days of giveaways celebration!

Here is my start on my 12 gifts:

More progress to appear soon.

Game Farm

We went to visit friends who stay on a Game Farm a couple of sundays ago and went for a game drive. We saw a 5 metre long African Rock Python. It was gliding across the road. What an amazing sight.

Notice how thick the python's body is.....

Apart from all the usual game, we saw a 1 week old giraffe calf. What a beautiful sight. The mother hides to give birth to her calf and then about 1 week later brings her calf out and introduces it to the rest of the herd. We watched the introductions yesterday afternoon - a sight to behold. David took all the photos.

In Search of Warmth

One kind word can warm three winter months.
~Japanese Proverb


The weather has turned wintery and blustery. We've even had a bit of snow over the last few days. Just like every year when the winter starts creeping in, my mind becomes consumed with how I can stay warm. This usually manifests in a compulsion to make scarves.

Years ago I use to weave them. (My beautiful floor loom sits lonely and unused these days in my basement, someday I will get back to her.) As the kids were growing up I use to crochet them, (the scarves, not the kids.) A few times I tried my hand at knitting them, but it always made me tense and I would start looking at the knitting needles more as torture devices then creative tools.


This year it occurred to me to try quilting some, (duh... seems obvious, with me being a quilter but the thought never occurred to me before.)


Here's my first one. I was very happy with how it came out, and decided to put it in my shop here. I am working on several more, and will eventually pick one to wrap around my own neck!

Getting sidetracked!

I shouldn't be spending so much time on these little ATCs! But they're fast to do (well sort of) and they're fun. I'm kind of taken with angels in general and I've found that this is the perfect subject for me on ATCs. The fun of it is looking for suitable wings, and they can be almost anything that looks right. It's easy to embroider the wings in and they look lovely with beads, but I really like the one I made with the silver leaves, and this one with the mother of pearl is really pretty even though it's not finished yet. (Note: finished now, and photo above is the finished atc). As usual, I'm struggling with the binding/finishing and have yet to find some way that I'm happy with. I did try the applique stitch on the one below, but the layers were too thick.

2009 Goals

I have been thinking of goals for 2009. Here is a shot of all my flimsies. There is alot. I have........

*5 quilts I started hand quilting more then a year or two ago before I thought about machine quilting. I my never get these done I need to push myself.

*3 quilts basted and ready to machine quilt.

*12 finished quilt tops with the backing sewed and set aside.

*12 finished tops with out backs.

*4 tops that are pieced together but need a border around the out side.

*3 tops that I have the blocks done but not pieced together.

Okay that's 39. Now that I can machine quilt I know I can do more quilts then last year. Can I do 24 yes I can. But a real challenge would be 36. I think I am going to try for 29. Let's see 2 of the hand quilted quilts are about 4 blocks from being done. I have 3 quilts ready to be quilted. 5 quilts I plan on just tying and giving to a local charity that I like. They really appreciate the quilts and put them to good use. So that would make the first 10 pretty easy I should get them done the first month or 2. It would be so great to get these done.

I also want to join in on Judy L's Stash Busting in 2009. A yardage amount is hard to decide on. I wish my stash fit on a certain shelf but it's a couple stacks from fitting. If I can use 100 yards it would fit. But I am bound to add to my stash also so if I try for 150 yards........

I'm thinking yet. If a quilt uses about 9- 10 yards ruffly that's another 15 quilts. But I have about 18 quilt tops that need backing about 5 yards each that's 90 give or take. If I would get real serious about not buying any new stash I could set my goal for 200 yards that's probably to much to hope for. I think I will go for 150 yards of busted stash for 2009.

Okay I say talking to myself.

I am going to finish 29 quilts in 2009.

I am going to bust fabric in 2009 and have a net gain of 150 yards.

And as long as I'm making goals I'll add.... lose 25 pounds in 2009.

Now I have a month to think this over and prepare.