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!!