Christmas

I hope everyone had a great holiday! We had a nice quiet Christmas which I really needed after the weekend we had at the bakery! I thought we were supossed to watch what we spent on Christmas so I picked up some little things for Gary, but he spoiled me!! He gave me 2 quilting books: Creative Quilting: The Journal Quilt Project and Collage Unleashed by Traci Bautista. He and the kids also gave me some jewelry that I had on my list and some I didn't.
Here is Kara showing off the fused glass earrings she recieved from her brother. I picked them out for Alex to give.
This is Alex playing with the Kinex that he got. He recieved alot of Legos and Kinex. We stayed away from Playstation games since he just gets sucked into it and you can't get him to do anything without a big fuss.
Last but not least is Ginger with her new bed and toys. My friend, Debbie, gave Ginger her favorite toys. Tennis balls with a squeaker inside. She loves tennis balls and toys with squeakers and these balls combine both of her favorite toys.

Keepsake Quilting

I forgot to include this in my last post. After we had lunch and exchanged presents, we all stopped at Keepsake Quilting and the yarn shop. Of course, I forgot to bring the piece I wanted to find yarn for. I took a guess with the green and the purple yarn and they both worked. I ended up using the purple to finish the edge and sewed it on with green floss.
The multi colored yarn is recycled silk. I want to try using some small pieces of it when I make silk paper. I did find a couple pieces of fabric at Keepsake. I've been trying to be good and not buy much new fabric. I'm trying to use what I have on hand or paint/dye it myself. It has helped that the new quilt shop in Plymouth doesn't carry much fabric that I would use! It is a nice shop but just isn't what the Calico Cupboard was.
While at Keepsake, I found a pair of fused dichroic glass earrings for Kara. They are her favorite shade of green. I'd show you a picture but they are wrapped up under the Christmas tree.

Christmas Party

I can't believe that it was over a week ago that my quilt group had our Christmas party. We went to a Thai restaurant in Center Harbor called the Lemongrass. Lunch was really good but dessert was even better!!! We had a gift exchange and came away with all sorts of things to play with. I don't have too many pictures. Susan brought all of us bags, a pincushion, and a thimble from her trip to China. All the bags were different and we got to pick one. The pincushion I have hanging on our tree as a decoration.
Here is a close-up of the front of mine.
Carmen's gift was a variety of different beads to play with. I can't show you a picture of Marilyn's present since I have eaten all the chocolate!!! They sure were good!!!
Lynn Elkinton had packages of ribbon that she found at a small shop that sells just ribbons. She had told us about this shop before. We now need to make a special trip over to Wolfeboro to see this shop ourselves. I couldn't get a good picture of them.
Lynne Rand wasn't able to make it and was missed.
The fabric that I have been painting was part of my present. I also included yarns, beads and variegated embroidery floss. I wanted to give them something they could have fun with. It was fun for me to put it together.

Our next meeting is in January and I will show everyone how to make silk paper. I bought a kit in August at the Mancuso show in Manchester. I have always wanted to experiment with making silk paper. I made a couple basic pieces and now want to experiment with adding other fibers and molding the silk paper so that it dries into a bowl or vase or something.

Down time!

You never really realize how much you depend on the internet and e-mail until you don't have it anymore!!! Our internet was down since Sunday night and we all were going nuts here at home. Of course, I had the last 2 days off and had planned to post some pictures of what I had recieved when my quilt group got together last Friday. I don't have tome tonight to download the pictures but I will get them up as soon as I can. I did find some yarn to finish off the edge of my new piece. Well, I'm now off again to finish going through the 250+ e-mails I recieved this evening!!

This is the other piece of work I was talking about the other night. It is all done except for finishing the edges. I don't really want to put a border on it. I'm thinking of using some fibers but I don't have any that I feel work with this piece. Friday my quilt group is getting together for lunch and then stopping at Keepsake Quilting. I'm hoping Keepsakes yarn shop will have something. I forget what the yarn shop is called but it is run by the same people.
I keep forgetting to put in a link to my Mom's blog, so here is Mom's blog.

New Work

This is a new piece I'm working on. Nothing is sewn together. In this picture, I just grabbed the fabrics and layed them on top of each other. I think I will change the shape of the gold pot and use a different green and add leaves to the flowers. I may not put in the flowers at all since they sort of match the background shapes. Maybe I'll put in some tall leaves or sticks. I now have the background sewn together and can play with the actual pieces that I will fuse down. Here, I just quickly cut some pieces to see if I liked the idea that was in my head. These were all pieces from my scrap bag. I've been trying to be good and use up fabric that I have on hand. I have a huge garbage bag full of scraps and would like to see what I can make from my scraps.
I had a picture of another piece that is almost done but when I went to rotate the picture in my computer, it resized the picture and I couldn't get it back to the size I wanted. I gave up playing with it so I could at least post this one. I will have to take a new picture tomorrow and post it.

I hope I made sense tonight! I'm getting really tired and and having trouble thinking and typing!

New Quilting Arts Magazine Came

My new Quilting Arts Magazine came yesterday. I think it is one of the best issues yet. I was going to blog last night but got too caught up reading! Then I got inspired and had to get out my notebook and make some drawings and jot down some notes.
I'm still trying to make myself read Quilting Arts slowly so I can make it last. It always seems like a let down when I realize there is nothing new to read in it!! Here's a picture of Kara, Alex and Ginger. Ginger is 7 months old now. We've had her 3 months. She's become such a big part of our family that it seems like we've had her alot longer than 3 months. She has learned how to bark, although she is a very quiet dog and doesn't bark much. She won't bark when she has to go outside to pee so we have taught her to ring a bell that we have hung up at the door. It's nice to have a dog you don't have to keep on a leash all the time. We've actually been able to play fetch with her and she doesn't run off. We always had to keep Tufy on a leash. If he got loose, he would be gone!!

More Playing with Paint and Fabric

The pictures aren't that great, but they give you an idea of what I've been doing. These yellow and blue pieces I did Thanksgiving day. This first picture shows most closely what the colors are like.

This piece, I scrunched up while it was still wet to get the darker "wrinkled" areas.
These red, orange and yellow pieces I did today. I think after I finish painting fabric, I will need to buy my mom a new clothes drying rack!!
This is another piece that I scrunched up shile it was drying.
I still need to figure out how to upload the pictures so they are in the order I want them to be!

Painting Fabric

I decided to do some fabric painting and experiment. I went to Sonji Hunt's blog and read her tutorials on how she paints fabric.
www.sonjisays.blogspot.com
If you go down the page to "some favorites" you will find some fabric painting tutorials.

These are my experiments. I didn't have much time and want to try some more. I may add something to the 2 blue pieces. I dont' really like the last piece of fabric.


Last Friday was my quilt groups meeting. It was fun getting together again. Marilyn brought a book called "Foliage" by Harold Feinstein. Lots of inspiration!!!! He photographed leaves, veggies, fruit, etc. The detail of these was amazing. I NEED to get this book. Maybe I should put it on my Christmas list.

Art Share

OK, I've been bad. I read about this Art Share a while ago on different blogs and decided to do it. I signed up on Teri Springers blog and then forgot all about it. So better late than never!!

Be one of the first five people to post a comment on this blog entry and I will be thrilled to send you a small piece of original art. Then you simply must make the same offer on your blog! (So, yes... only other bloggers may play at this point.) Just make sure I can email you back from your comment. None of you anonymous or no-reply folks, please. Then I'll email you and we can exchange snail mail address.



Tomorrow, my quilt group is getting together. The first time since we had the show. I'm looking forward to it!! Now I just need to figure out what I am going to make for dessert!! I think I hear chocolate calling my name!!

Displaying Fabric Postcards

On the Quilt Art list we've been talking about how to display our fabric postcards that we have accumulated.
Some display them in bowls on a coffee table, some in little photo albums, some have made wallhangings that you can attatch the postcards to.
I found this wooden insert for windows at a second hand shop. It's to make your window look like it is made of individual panes of glass. The openings are just the right size for the postcards.With this one, since I have so many landscape cards, I painted the frame green.
I cut a piece of foam core board to fit the back of the frame and then attatched the post cards to it. I started out poking holes through the foam core and tying the cards to the board with thread but lost patience and used double stick tape. The double stick tape makes it easier to change the cards to display different ones.
When I did this, I only had white foam core. I think sometime I will change it for black foam core. Last year, my small quilt group displayed fabric postcards and trading cards at our quilt show. I displayed this. We wanted to show people other things that were being done besides quilts. The postcards and trading cards drew alot of attention.
I don't remember the names of these cards but the makers are, starting top row:Beth Mastrude and Robin Morgan; middle row: Beth Mastin and Julie Wolkoff; bottom row: Jennifer Parr and Diane Becka.

There was also talk of the Art2Mail postcard exchange and I gave into the urge and joined in their next swap. Maybe this will help get the creative juices going again!!
www.art2mail.com

Fields and a Shed

I've been working on the leaf quilt that I posted last spring. I didn't have a chance to do anything with it over the summer and have now pulled it back out. Will try to get some photos of it soon.
The other day I went out to take some pictures of an old shed and some fields that might make their way into my quilts someday.
I love this window with the reflection of the red tree in the glass.
Here's the window again. I didn't notice the reflection of the car until I loaded it onto the computer.
This is the other side of the shed. There used to be an old barn here that was torn down a year or so ago. The old house has been sitting empty since then. Someday, I'd expect the house and shed to disappear too.
Just up the road are these fields. I took a bunch of photos at different angles. Some of these will probably be used sometime for my landscapes.

More Exhibit Photos

Here are more pictures from our exhibit.
These are the finished pieces from our round robin project. Lynn Elkinton's cat quilt turned out really neat.
These are the last 2 round robin quilts. I love the way Marilyn finished hers. She added robin fabric and made it round. We also displayed the journals we wrote in as we worked on the round robin project.
This is Carmen Burns quilt. This picture doesn't do it justice. You can't see all the details in it.
The post cards on the table are mine and Lynne Rand made the pillow with the circles.
This is one of my little quilts that I framed. It is a little bigger than a postcard.
The top quilt on the left was made by Marilyn, the rest I made. That is it for our exhibit. I did forget to take a photo of a little vessel that Lynne Rand made.

Fiber Explorer's Exhibit

Here are some pictures from our exhibit that opened this week at Artistic Roots Gallery in Campton. I have some more that I will upload tomorrow. We set up on monday and had our opening reception Tuesday night.
I forgot to write down the names that everyone put on their quilts, so they won't have titles.
The quilt on the left was made by Marilyn Mason and the one on the right was made by me.
This is a close up of my "Purple Leaf" hanging. I got lots of remarks on the colors and simplicity of it. I am finding that when it comes to quilting I like to do less. Alot of quilts have lots of quilting and I like them but when I go to quilt, I just can't seem to do lots of quilting.
The top quilt and the middle quilt on the right were done by Lynne Rand. The bottom seascape was done my Lynn Elkinton.
I wish I had taken a close up picture of Lynne Rands strippy quilt in the middle. You can't really see the scene in this picture.
These are two leaf pieces. Lynne Rand did the top one and I did the bottom. I posted pictures earlier of this piece as I made it. I had lots of comments on this piece also.
Here is a close up of Lynne Rand's piece.
This is another by Lynne Rand
This is a piece by Susan Wei. It's the piece we used on our postcards and flyers.
I did this one. The wings of the butterfly and dragonfly are 3-dimensional. I started this a long time ago in an on-line challenge that I had to use the fabric that I made the wings out of.
This one was done by Marilyn Mason. You can't see all the thread work in it. It is really gorgeous. The rest of the pictures, I will try to get up tomorrow. I didn't want to risk having the computer or blogger lock up on me. Now I just hope this will post all right. there were a couple of pieces I wasn't able to get pictures of. Susan had some pieces that weren't quilts hanging in the windows and I wasn't able to get good pictures. Either the light coming in washed the picture out or at night the flash showed in the picture.

Ginger

Here's a picture of what Ginger really looks like. We've had her 2 weeks now and she is such a great puppy. She's about 4 1/2 months now. For never having seen her in person when we adopted her, we couldn't have gotten a better dog. She loves her crate and will go in there when she is done playing and wants to sleep or just wants to be left alone. She has only had one accident and that was by the door so we think we didn't hear her when she had to go out. She is very quiet. She's only barked about 6 times and that has been at the guinea pigs and the rabbit. She loves going for walks out in the woods behind our house but doesn't like going outside at night. Best of all, she sleeps through the night!!!!
Alex is a little disappointed because she isn't a rough and tumble puppy like Tuffy was but Alex is learning how he can play and have fun with Ginger in her own way. With Ginger around, I haven't spent much time on my quilting but I have to get started to have things ready for the show at Artistic Roots Gallery.

Exhibit at Artistic Roots

My quilt group (we've changed the name), Fiber Explorers is having an exhibit at Artistic Roots Gallery in Campton, NH for the month of October. We are having an opening reception October 3. Here's a write up that Lynn Elkington wrote for the local papers. It will be easier than trying to tell you everything myself.

Campton, NH
What is fiber art? If you’ve heard the term and are curious about quilted art forms, a good place to explore will be Artistic Roots Gallery in Campton, October 3rd through 30th. The Fiber Explorers, six friends who have a love of working with fiber in common, will present a exhibit entitled "Texture-Textiles-Techniques". The opening reception is set for October 3rd, 5pm to 7pm, where visitors can meet with Susan Wei, Lynne Rand, Marilyn Mason, Carmen Burns, Beth Mastin and Lynn Elkinton to view their work and chat about what went into creating the individual art pieces. Often the works are primarily created from fabric. But other materials, including paper, paint, beads, metal, wood or plastics may also be employed. A prominent feature of the display will be a Round Robin collection that the group worked on this past Spring. Each member was to begin with a piece of fabric measuring 12" x 18", and establish a theme for the piece. Every two weeks the group met and passed each piece to another in the group to add their special touch, keeping within the theme, and trying techniques with which they might have been unfamiliar. Small journals were kept with each project to chronicle the progress and decisions of each artist. The quilts were eventually returned after 12 weeks to the original owners to complete. The results were a creative collaboration of the six women, each piece a special work of art created from six points of view. The idea for the project was conceived when several members of the group read about a similar project in the Spring issue of "Cloth, Paper, Scissors", a fiber arts magazine.
Anyone interested in more information about this exhibit may call 603-726-7101. Artisitic Roots Gallery is located at the intersection of Routes 49 and 175, near the dam in Campton, NH.

If you happen to be up in this area in October, we would love to have you stop in and see the exhibit.

Ginger and World Quilt & Textile Show

Our application for the puppy was accepted. This is Ginger. We will be picking her up next Saturday. I feel like a kid waiting for Christmas!!! I don't know how I will make it until Saturday! The rescue society we went through is from Maine and they rescue dogs from shelters in Arkansas. So when we pick Ginger up she will have been travelling for 3 days on a USDA transport with a truckload of other dogs and puppies.

She is somewhere around 4-5 months old. It's amazing how much you forget about training a puppy. I picked up a book to review obedience training and crate training.

I had a blast at the World Quilt and Textile Show. I'm not going to post any pictures from it because of all the problems with copyright. Better safe than sorry. When I get further along, I will post a picture of the quilt I made from the class with Linda Cantrell.
Thursday, I drove down to Manchester and took my time going through the show. I ran into Carmen from my art quilt group. It was nice to go throught the show with someone. Usually I go to shows by myself. I found the exhibit by the Seacoast Association of Fiber Artists very interesting. The quilts from the UK got my attention. I'm not really sure why. I was hoping to get back and look at them again but didn't get the chance.

There was another exhibit of smaller art quilts that Carmen and I really liked. I can't find my brochure so I can't find out who did it. When I do find the brochure I will put down who did the exhibit.

That night I had planned on doing some sewing up in my room while I had no kids or husband who wanted my attention but my allergies made me so tired that I went to bed early!!! How pitiful that was!!! So much for my plans.

The next morning, I had room service, something we never do. Since I was by myself, I figured I might as well eat breakfast in my room watching tv instead of eating by myself in the restaurant.

"Still Life with Bottles" with Linda Cantrell started at 9. It was a fun class and I really enjoyed it. She talked about her quilts and showed how she made them and went over the applique technique that she uses. Then let us go and encouraged us to go ahead and start cutting bottle shapes out of the freezer paper without drawing patterns first. She said she used to have patterns for this class but wanted people to make their own design so she stopped having the pattern available. She was there if we needed help but let us go at it. What's really funny is as much as I hate hand quilting, I really love to do hand applique and find it relaxing.

The class ended at 4 and I had to head home. I was really tempted not to return home!!

I never found a website for her but if you go to this address you will go to a page with the classes she taught. Go to the description of "Still Life with Bottles" you can get to pictures of her bottle quilts.

http://www.quiltfest.com/workshop_detail.asp?id=579

Still need to learn how to do links! I don't know why but for some reason this started double spacing. I really hate using Gary's laptop. It tends to do some funky things on me but it's the only place I could down load Gingers picture from since it is no longer up on the rescue site.

One of the things I bought at the show was a kit for making silk paper or cloth. I had today off and played with that. It is fun. Will have to do some more playing with it.

Goodbye Tuffy

Last Monday we had to put our dog, Tuffy, to sleep. It was a very hard day for all of us. We took pictures of all of us with Tuffy. It now seems so weird not to have a dog great me when I get home from work.
We do have an application in for a rescue dog. A lab mix. We're just waiting to see if we get approved. I know they want to make sure the dogs go to a good home where they will be taken care of but they sure make it hard. You'd think we were trying to adopt a baby! We're still waiting to have someone come out and do a home visit. Alot of the rescue societies that I looked at wanted a home visit plus they want to talk to your vet, etc. The local humane societies are just as hard to adopt from.
The kids made stepping stones with Tuffy's foot prints in them. We also stuck his dog tags on them. Alex's is on Tuffy's grave and Kara's will go in the garden.
I went to the World Quilt and Textile show in Manchester on Thursday and Friday. It was fun! My own private retreat. I took a class with Linda Cantrell on Thurday called "Still Life with Bottles". It was a fun class. I will post more in the next couple of days, I have to leave for work now.

Computer Troubles and Quilty Stuff

I've been having trouble connecting to the internet on my computer. Very frustrating!! I'm hoping we can get things figured out. Until then, I guess I will have to use my husbands laptop. I have to figure out how to get my pictures downloaded from his laptop. He has things set up differently. So, no pictures today.

I'm almost done with my Grab Bag quilt and then can start working on some new things or I should say finish some things I've put aside! The busy season will be over at work after Labor Day weekend, so I will have more time to quilt!!!!

This Friday, my quilt group, Fiber Art Friends, will be meeting again. We haven't been able to meet for a while due to everyone's summer schedules. We are meeting at Lynn's cabin on Lake Winnepesauke. I'm looking forward to this. I have really missed getting together with other quilters.

Next week I will be spending 2 days in Manchester at the World Quilt Show. The first day, I will be attending the show and then going to a lecture by Marjan Kluepfel. That night I have a room at the hotel and will watch tv and quilt to my hearts content. The next day, I'm taking a class with Linda Cantrell, called "Still Life with Bottles".
I would have liked to take a class with Marjan Kluepfel, but the class I wanted to take was on a day I couldn't be there. I used 2 of my floating holidays at work to go to the show and we have to pick out all our floating holidays and vacations in January. So I had picked Thursday and Friday to come to the show and had to arrange lectures and a class according to this. "Still Life with Bottles" sounds fun and I love the pictures of the quilts she has done.

I'd better get moving and get some things done here before I go to work. I'm working a 6 day week which doesn't leave much time to get stuff done around home.

Some Flowers and a Deer

Once again I don't have anything quilt related to show. I'm still working on the Grab Bag Challenge quilt. It's coming along really nice but going slower than I'd like. Have to fit it in around work and doing things with the family. I get much more quilting done when the kids are in school.
Yesterday, Gary, Kara and I went to hide the cache that Kara has set up. Then we showed Gary where the trail head was for Rainbow Falls in Plymouth. These flower pictures were taken there. I didn't notice the bee(fly?) in this picture until I downloaded it onto the computer. Not a bad shot for no tripod. I would like to find a small light weight tripod that I can carry with me when we go geocaching. You never know when you will need one.

Just thought the Tiger Lilies were pretty by this post.
As we turned the corner to park the car, this deer was in the road. It stood there for a long time but as soon as I got my camera out, it went into the woods. It stayed near the edge of the woods where I was able to get some pictures of him.
We did all this in the morning before it got too hot. The rest of the day we basically sat in front of the fans reading, watching tv and quilting.