Borders and Backs

After 2 weeks of big fabric purchases my total stash busting is looking pretty low. The end of April is 1/3 of the year and I am far behind my goal for the year. So this week I thought I would challenge myself to a week of borders and backs. I'm going to dig out the quilts I have almost done, sew up the blocks, add the borders and make up some backs. With hope I will be at 50 yards busted by Sunday so I will be right on track for the year.

First I made a back for this quilt.

I then sewed these sawtooth blocks together added a couple of borders and made a back. "That red, white and blue strip has been looking for a home for quilt awhile. Glad to get that one out of the stash.

Borders and Backs

After 2 weeks of big fabric purchases my total stash busting is looking pretty low. The end of April is 1/3 of the year and I am far behind my goal for the year. So this week I thought I would challenge myself to a week of borders and backs. I'm going to dig out the quilts I have almost done, sew up the blocks, add the borders and make up some backs. With hope I will be at 50 yards busted by Sunday so I will be right on track for the year.

First I made a back for this quilt.

I then sewed these sawtooth blocks together added a couple of borders and made a back. "That red, white and blue strip has been looking for a home for quilt awhile. Glad to get that one out of the stash.

Bad news/good news

The Bad News:

We are going to Minnesota in August. No, that's not the bad news. It's actually really good news because we get to see our friends, go to Mark's class reunion, and I get to meet in person someone I've been getting to know via email and I'm really excited about that.

No, the BAD news is this: What is up with the air miles you earn on your credit card and seat availability? We have lots of air miles. We wanted to cash them in to make our flight to Minneapolis/St. Paul. We wanted to fly for FREE. That's why we HAVE a card that earns air miles. So when I tried to make the reservation the other night, there were no seats available. Correction: there were no air mile seats available for the days were wanted to travel, nor the day before or the day after. There were first class seats available on a flight coming back, but not at a time we wanted to fly, and we were not about to bankrupt our air mile account anyway by using it to fly home first class. There were a lot of seats available on the flights we needed, just no air mile seats. When I asked about this, the reservation person said, "Well, it IS summer, and it IS Minneapolis." Don't get me wrong. Minnesota is a beautiful state and I love going there. But August in Minnesota? Hot, humid, mosquito-swatting August in Minnesota? A popular destination in August? Really?? So we had to fork over hard cold cash, ahem, credit card, which will earn us more air miles...that we probably can't use when we need 'em.

Now the GOOD news:

While we are there, we get to go to the Fairmont County Fair and see these guys! Phenomenal musicians! Never thought we would get to see them in person. And the price for this stellar entertainment? Free with paid admission to the fair...a whopping $6/person! Woo hoo! Almost makes up for having to pay for our plane tickets. Almost. Not quite.

Fund Raising at its Best

Today is the first day you can preview the wonderful donated art work for the fundraiser known as Collage Mania. The proceeds of this fundraiser go to the American Cancer Society. I can't believe all the gorgeous work many generous artists have made for this event.

This is my second year to donate an art work and the photo below shows the piece that I made for this year's fundraiser. You can see all the beautiful art here. And this page tells you how the fundraising event works.

It's pretty rare these days that a person hasn't been affected in some way from cancer. Whether it is/was you, a relative, a friend, or casual acquaintance, you can help by considering the purchase of a piece of art and the money you pay goes directly to the American Cancer Society for all their wonderful and ongoing efforts.


And in other news....I completely forgot to boast about my fantastic news that I got recently. I submitted an art quilt entry to a juried show and found out I was accepted. YAY! The show is Focus on Fiber II - Small Art Quilt Open, a national juried small format art quilt exhibition held on these dates: May 16-July 4, 2009. Here is the web site if you would like further information.

I am unable to share my quilt with you at this time, although I didn't find any language in my paperwork that stated I couldn't post a photo of the quilt. Perhaps I missed it or they didn't say, but I'm not taking any chances. I will say this, my quilt is small. I'm sure you've got a great image in your mind now right?? LOL! I will definitely share the quilt with you here when I get it back after the show, some time in July.

The next photo shows what I've been painting on the last couple of days. Frames! Over the course of the past year or more, I've purchased some art prints by artists I admire. I really want to get these prints framed and up for display. So this is my start.


Here is a photo of my studio today. I've been working on my Twelve by Twelve quilt that is due on June 1. I have conveniently blurred it out (it's sitting under the needle of the sewing machine), so that you cannot see it yet.


And just look at how my little sproutlings are doing! I've actually got two trays of sprouts going and today I had to put some artificial lighting on them as we are having a very gloomy, rainy day.

Baby Love

This is Baby LuLu and Baby Alfie. Both are very gentle and oh so child friendly... made of vintage table linens, which I quilted all cuddely, and then lovingly free-motion machine stitched all the details with dark brown thread.


I gifted baby Alfie to a friend who is expecting her first child, (a baby boy) next month, but here is a little info on him anyway:

Extreme pacifist...
Has yet to utter a word...


Can sit for hours, perfectly content, in a field of buttercups...
Very observant.

Baby LuLu is a bit sad now that Alfie has gone to live elsewhere, but hopefully she will be adopted soon. Here's a little bit about her...


Baby LuLu:

Likes ginger flavored zwieback...
hearing stories about Amelia Earhart and Eleanor Roosevelt...


Sandboxes...
and trees, especially Oaks.


Baby LuLu is available in my Silly BooDilly Shop.

Our boots went boot-scootin'...

...but with someone else's feet in them.

The Clovis Rodeo is always the last weekend in April, and for the last couple of years, Valerie has borrowed my beloved red cowboy boots. I love these boots. Love.Them. I may never wear them again, and while I am the first person in this household to donate/throw out things that will never be used again, such will never be the fate of these boots.

So...my boots...on Valerie's feet and off to the Clovis Rodeo.

And then our next day neighbor, Kyle, knocked on the door and wondered if Mark had any cowboy boots he could borrow to wear to the Clovis Rodeo. What size? 10 1/2? Bingo.

So...Mark's boots...on Kyle's feet and off to the Clovis Rodeo.

Turns out Valerie and Kyle have friends in common, so they met at the rodeo to take this picture....

...in our boots. Having a good time. With someone else. I'm afraid that now our boots are gonna want to keep on walkin' and not come back.

Mixed-Media Paintings are Done

I have completed the mixed-media paintings that I've shown bits of progress of along the way. There are six pieces in this group. The first four pieces shown below will be going on a trip in late May to the BECA Gallery in New Orleans. They will be part of an upcoming exhibition called 12x12x122. The exhibit will start in early June and end in July. If you are interested in obtaining one of the first four paintings, please contact the BECA gallery at becagallery@gmail.com. The last two canvases will be placed into my etsy shop in a few days. I need to get some better photos of these as the day here was gloomy and rainy. I really need to pull out the photo tent.

Garden Song, Mixed-Media Painting
12" x 12" x 1.5" gallery-wrapped canvas

Garden Sonata, Mixed-Media Painting
12" x 12" x 1.5" gallery-wrapped canvas

Garden Aria, Mixed-Media Painting
12" x 12" x 1.5" gallery-wrapped canvas

Garden Melody, Mixed-Media Painting
12" x 12" x 1.5" gallery-wrapped canvas

Garden Meditation, Mixed-Media Painting
12" x 12" x 1.5" gallery-wrapped canvas

Garden Reflections, Mixed-Media Painting
12" x 12" x 1.5" gallery-wrapped canvas

Remember my Rusty Tiles quilt I showed a couple of posts ago? Well I got it all done. Here it is hanging on my bathroom wall. It's difficult to get a straight on photo of the quilt hanging in the bathroom because of the dimensions of the room.


But I figured out a great way to photograph the quilt was to point the camera at the mirror on the opposite wall. You can even see the mixed-media canvas I had made for this room a few weeks back.


Ooooo, and lookie here! New life just bursting out of the soil. Okay, that was a little dramatic huh? Anyway, I've planted some flower seeds in these little seedling starting containers and I was so excited today when I found some of the seeds had germinated.

Fabian

Fabian often dreams...



That he is on the Most Wanted List...

...of every hot-blooded Female in the world!


Introducing... the one, the only, the original Mr. Cool...

Fabian:


- His real name is Dwayne Yoder, but he won't admit this to anyone, except to his employer and the IRS.


- Wishes he was English and often talks with a phony English accent.


- Works weekdays as a waiter and plays the drums every weekend in a Journey tribute band, gig or no gig... (usually there's no gig).


- Considers himself a real ladies man, and dreams of someday owning his own boat, and sailing the 7 seas, with a girl waiting in every port, (check out his snazzy vintage sailor button... helps him to remember his true life's ambition).

To learn more about Fabian, his construction and special features, click on the link... (Okay Ladies, I know Fabian is a real stud muffin, but it's time to collect your wits and stop your swooning!)

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One more thing... I really got a lot of enjoyment from my last post when some of you picked which odd sister you were most like, personality wise. I just thought that was wonderful and I thank you for sharing! Of course some of you have figured out that I share a bit with each of the four sisters, but for the record I am most definitely like Odd Elsie and Odd Sally!

CreativFestival

I spent yesterday afternoon at Toronto's CreativFestival mainly looking for beads, but at this show small beads were missing. There were lots of larger ones for jewellery. There are lots of classes offered and I spent one doing a little crochet rose in wool, which I am going to try in a crochet cotton. I signed up for another - Cast on stitch, and for the first 15 minutes I was the only student. The instructor was very good, Erla Wilson, and I certainly improved under her guidance. I began with 2 strands of DMC floss just to get the idea of it, and then progressed to Iris (the wriggly stuff!). She tamed it by running it through a little moistened folded piece of sponge. After the last cast on stitch goes on the needle, she advised me to bring my thread under the needle to the back to help stop the "petal" from twisting. Also, keep a firm hold on all the stitches on the needle until the thread has been totally pulled through and the petal is sitting where you want it. Cost for materials and instruction $3.00 for an hour - well worth it in my book!

Live Chat Today!

Sue and I are the featured chat guests for the live monthly chat on the Fiber Arts/Mixed Media Group run by Susan Sorrell. It starts at 5:00 p.m. eastern time today, Sunday (April 26th) and runs for an hour. We'll be taking questions and talking about our new book, time management, creativity, what makes a good partnership and anything else that you want to talk about! We'll also be doing a surprise giveaway, so I hope you'll join us, it should be a lot of fun. And to make it easier to participate or just watch you don't even have to leave my blog, you can access the chat right from here!

 

A few notes about the chat and how it works: This is not a video chat, it's a text chat only. You type in your questions, if you have any, read, watch and occasionally send in a comment or vote in the polling questions.

Questions about the chat? Send me an email.

I've Been Bitten--The Party Edition

First let me make it perfectly clear. I am not a party planner. While I admire those people who can come up with an idea and then carry out the whole creative invitation/decorating/menu planning scheme, I am not one of those people. But here's a secret I learned this week--sometimes all you need to do is offer your place as party headquarters to one of those people and you can get in on all the excitement yourself, with just a fraction of the work. Party on!

Jessica decided to have a "Twilight" party and invite people who had read at least two of the four books in the series. She did all the planning and we had it at my house because there was a bit more room.

I can tell you right now, this girl needs to seriously think about party planning as a career option. For all you Twilight lovers, she made amazing invitations and then sent them to Forks, Washington, to have the stamp canceled there so that it actually said "Forks, Washington" on the envelope. Talk about attention to detail.

The book covers themselves are just beautiful. Jessie had gotten some great ideas from different places and put them all together with her own special touch.

All party-goers were instructed to wear black and red, and we took individual pictures of each of them, with an apple, of course! Here are just a couple of them (Jessie has them all posted on her blog):

Jessica, the party planner:

My beautiful daughter-in-law, Christa (who also knows how to give an L of a party):

My friend, Sue (and mother of the party planner):

All the food in the carefully planned menu was red and black. Jessica found black squid ink pasta and red chianti pasta. And while the whole squid ink thing really doesn't sound that appetizing, at least to me, once you saute the pasta in olive oil and add some sundried tomatoes, it's really yummy.

Cherry tomatoes with kalamata olive spread, black and red corn chips with salsa, and black bean spread, red licorice "bites," red velvet cake, chocolate-covered strawberries, strawberry ice cream with chocolate chunks...mmmmmm.

And the drink selection--all you had to do was pick a "type"...

...and pour it into one of these glasses dripping with "blood."

You gotta love Jessie's red stilettos:

And our finale: a group photo.

I'll be happy to co-host a party at my house with you any time, Jessica!

Scrappy Mountains Majesty

After a couple of weeks of quilting and putting off quilting I have it quilted. I just love the way it turned out. I think I will dig into my stash and see how mush of these fabrics I still have and make a companion quilt same fabrics different pattern. It's for the camper and I could put 2 quilts on the bed in there.....

The pattern and directions I followed exactly from Bonnie Hunters Quiltville HERE

Now looking at her quilt mine is about the same colors she used greens and blues I used blues and browns/creams. Most of the fabric is from used clothing and a few quilt fabrics thrown in to get the right color scheme a couple ugly fabrics too. I used a few shirt pieces and some odd blue fabrics for the back.

And there was the batting deal. I had this batting and it was the same size as the quilt. I knew it would be short, but I didn't want to buy one when I had one that would almost work. So I dug into that over flowing drawer where I put all those left over batting pieces I keep almost all of them. And just added them in when I needed them. Now I need to trim it and put the binding on before we go camping.