More Felted Balls

I haven't done any quilting but I have been playing around with felting again. I bought myself a new book called "Uniquely Felt" by Christine White and have really enjoyed reading through it. Don't have enough wool to do any bigger projects but I've been enjoying playing around with making felted balls just to get the feeling of the felting process. This first one is a felted geode where you make a ball with different colored layers. Once it is felted, you cut it in half to see all the layers. This is a small one. I'd like to make a bigger one to use as a pincushion.

The balls I showed in the earlier post, were made with a ball of yarn in the center. Here, the top and bottom one were felted around a styrofoam ball. They stayed bigger since the styrofoam doesn't shrink. On the bottom one, I felted wool yarn around it. The blue one is one I did earlier and added the wool yarn after it had already been felted to if and how well it would felt together. The yarn is felted on but not as well as the bottom one. Now just to decorate the ones I've made with beads and embroidery.

I can't believe that 2008 is almost finished!! Where did it go? It's time to look at what I accomplished this year and set new goals for 2009.

Cyber Fyber On-line Exhibition

Just recieved the announcement yesterday that the on-line exhibition of Cyber Fyber is now up. Go here for the postcards and here for the ATC's. My card is numer 96.

Off to read some of my new books. Have a great day!!!

Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas!! I hope that everyone had a wonderful day. The kids had us up early this morning. This morning Kara made the breakfast casserole which was nice for me and the Pillsbury cinnamon rolls. The kids prefer those over Gary's homemade ones! After opeing presents, I spent quite a while cooking even though I did a lot of preparation yesterday. Here's Kara opening one of her many books she recieved. Everyone recieved 1 or more books and we will pass them around. We all like the same type of books.

Here's Alex watching Kara. I didn't take as many photos as I usually do so didn't have many to pick from.

These are 3 books I recieved. I had a lot of quilt and craft books on my Christmas list. On After seeing Terri's wrapped bowls and Vicki's wrapped coasters and bowl, I really wanted to give it a try, so I put "It's a Wrap" by Susan Breier on my list. I also recieved "The Uncommon Quilter" by Jeanne Williamson and "Twenty to Make - Beaded Felt Jewelry" by Helen Birmingham.

Lots of stuff to get inspired over!!

Felt Beads, Caramel Corn and a Christmas Tree

I've been playing around some more with making felt balls or in the case felt beads. These are made from wool roving and wool yarn. The upper right bead was made from pieces of wool yarn. It has little nubs of yarn showing all over it. You can sort of see them in the picture. I'll have to make some beads that coordinate together and string them up with some of my glass beads.

Here is one of the many batches of caramel corn that Gary has made, cooling off on the counter. He still has 2 more batches to make to give away. I think we are all finally getting our fill of it. It isn't disappearing as fast as the first 3 or 4 batches!!! It is GOOD!!!!

Yesterday, Kara and I decorated the Christmas tree. Kara had to stand on a stool and still couldn't reach the top. Gary found a small step ladder when he got home to finish up. We're estimating that the tree is about 10 feet tall. Biggest one we've had yet. Kara really likes it and wants to know if we will have one as big next year. It really smells good! We still have to figure out where we are putting our recliners. Right now, they are in front of the couch, facing the tv and Christmas tree. Kara says it's like being at the movies.

Today I went shopping for food for Christmas Eve and Christmas day. Christmas Eve we're having all sorts of hors d'oeurves and sweets. Christmas day I'm making a breakfast casserole and Gary is making his cinnamon rolls for breakfast. Dinner will be roast beef (or roast beast if you are into Dr Seus), popovers, mashed potatoes, gravy, veggies and a sour cream coffee cake and pumpkin pie for dessert.

Well, I'd better get dinner started.

Felting

I've been busy getting ready for Christmas but I did try my hand at making felted balls today. I've wanted to try it for a while now and decided to try after reading Deborah Boscher's blog. She made some felted ornaments. She had a link to a tutorial on Judy Coates Perez's blog that was very helpful. I used some wool roving that I recieved last Christmas from one of the Fiber Divas. Now I just need to add some embellishment to them.

Today, we went and cut down our Christmas tree. We usually don't wait this long to get it but with everyones schedule, we couldn't go before this. Now to make room for it! It seemed to have GROWN alot since we tagged it not too long ago. I did ask Gary if he was sure he wanted one that big and he was insistant. We do have a cathedral ceiling so the height doesn't matter. It's just a matter of what we are going to do with the furniture to make room for it!! We already moved out my ironing board.

Gary was busy tonight making alot of carmel corn. Every year the list of people that want it, grows!! It is SOOOOOO YUMMY!!!!!!!! I've been busy making more homemade bread and treats for the kids. Since we don't have a big family, I like to spread things out over the holidays instead of just cooking a lot for Christmas day. I have a couple of new recipes I want to try.

Playing with Expanded Squares

Ever since I read the article by Jane Dunnewold in issue 27 of Quilting Arts, I've wanted to play with expanded squares. Just never took the time. Going through my Quilting Arts magazines recently, I came across the article again. I pulled out colored paper and scissors and went to town.

These are fun to play with and could be very addicting!! Some of them came out better than others. As I was glueing these down, Gary and Kara commented on them. They both like the effect of the square one above. I also like the one with the leaves in it.

It would be fun to make some of these into quilts.

The Fiber Divas were supossed to get together for our Christmas party Friday but the weather put a stop to that. I was disappointed. We haven't officially met since September I think and I was really looking forward to Friday. Looks like we won't be able to get together until January now.

Besides playing with the expanded squares, I've also been busy baking and cooking. Today I made oatmeal bread using my Grandma's recipe. I also made chocolate peanut butter squares from my mother-in-law. Of course, I ate more than I should have between the two. Don't want to know what my blood sugar levels were!!! I've been doing really well watching what I eat but today I just wanted to enjoy my food and not think about every bite I put in my mouth. It's been frustrating because I enjoy making treats for my family around the holidays and I don't want them to go without them becuase I have to watch what I eat!!

Blue Bag

I finished my bag up last night. I love the colors in it! The strap ended up being longer than I like but I don't want to take out all the stitching to shorten it. I can always wear it across my chest if I want to. They don't show up in the picture but I added some beads to the front of the flap.

Blue Purse

I Don't have any quilts to show but I have been working on this purse. Earlier in the year before I got sick, I pieced together some blue and green squares but then didn't know where to go with it from that point. I loved the colors but it would have been a boring wall hanging. I decided it would make a pretty purse. I had enough pieced together to make the purse body and the square for a pocket inside. Yesterday I made a shoulder strap. Today I put together the flap. Now I just need to cut out and sew up the lining .

Of course, I can't do it the easy way and use a pattern. I have to figure it out and make it on my own. I haven't made a bag in years. The last one I made used the bib from a pair of Kara's overalls from when she was little. Back when she used to wear cute clothes.

Speaking of clothes, I actually took Kara (the girl who hates clothes shopping) clothes shopping last Friday. She wanted to go looking for a suit to interview in at the college she wants to go to. She has been accepted to Houghton College in Houghton, NY. The end of January she has to go there to interview for their Honors proram and for some scholorships. Kara is hoping to get into the honors program and go to England during the second semester of her freshman year. I hope she makes it, I went to England for a semester in college and had a blast. It was a great experience. Some day I hope I can visit England again.

Back to work on the bag. I forgot I had wanted to use the bag as a pattern for the lining before I sewed it up, so now I have to measure it and figure out the dimensions for the lining. Oh, well, maybe I'll remember next time I make one.

Happy Thanksgiving

Just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving. I really have a lot to be thankful for this year - I'm here to celebrate the holidays with my family.

Here is a quilt that I finished last night. Sorry about the glare off of the buttons. It was made at the same time as the last one I posted, using some of the different ideas I came up with as I was designing. The red fabric is one I dyed and then discharged. The rest of the fabrics are batiks and commercial fabrics. Back to cooking! Have a great day!!!

Let it Snow, Let it Snow Let it Snow!

This is what we awoke to this morning. Now last year school would have been at least delayed if not cancelled since they were cancelling for just about everything. I was suprised there was no delayed opening. From one extreme to the other. At least it is pretty out but the snow is really heavy and branches are breaking off trees and the power has been flickering. Just hope it stays on long enough for me to get this posted! Kara said that it wasn't supossed to snow like this until after Thanksgiving. Most of her life that has been true but not this year! I told her this is what you get living in NH - unpredictable weather.

I still need to get out and buy my groceries for Thanksgiving. Nothing like leaving it till the last minute. I also have an appointment to get my hair cut or I should say chopped off or what's left of it chopped off. Due to being sick, the medicines, lack of nutrition or a combination of these, I have lost most of my hair. I have new short hair growing in now but what's left of my long hair is looking stringy and yucky so it's time to take the plunge and cut it all short. There are lots of women who look great with short hair but I'm not one but it's growing back fast so it shouldn't be too long before it's a reasonable length for me. I think my husband has more hangups about me cutting off the rest of my hair than I do.

Time to get to work(play), I have a small quilt I need to do some quilting on. I also have a purse that I'm designing to use a piece of fabric that I sewed up before I went into the hospital last April. I'm also breaking down and using a pattern for a wallhanging that I'm making for a present. I don't have the time to design anything for it and this pattern is just right. I haven't used a pattern in ages!

I love this "Sew Thankful" sign that Jamie Fingal made for her studio.

The No Title Post

Hit the wrong button when I went to post this yesterday. I saved it instead of posting. So here is my post from yesterday!!

This is one of the drawings I found yesterday when cleaning. I think it would be fun to play with it. It will be interesting trying to figure out all the mathmatics for it since I no longer have a quilting program on my computer. I will keep it small (similar to the 2 bottom drawings) since I get bored with making the same block over and over again. That's why I don't make bed quilts very much.

I made this eyeglass case this morning. Since my pancreatitis, I've needed reading glasses. Don't know if it had anything to do with being so sick or with having diabetes now or what. Since I just need the glasses for reading (cheap pair from the drugstore) I wanted something interesting to keep them in.

This is the quilt that Tomme Fent made for me from the Grab Bag Challenge. I really love it.
Well, off to the high school play, "Anything Goes". Kara does the lighting. She ran spot lights her sophmore and junior years, this year she's running the lighting board.

Unfinished Quilt Top

I was cleaning some drawers out today and came across this unfinished quilt top that I designed a long time ago. I can't remember when I did it. Late 90's or early 2000's? I do know that it was part of a challenge where we sent in fabrics and recieved other fabrics in return. Then we had to make a quilt using those fabrics. I think this was one of the first challenges that I did. This group (can't even remember the name) is no longer together but I did 4 or 5 challenges with them. These were my first challenges and made me push myself to design my own quilts. I also found my old notebooks in these drawers. In them are drawing for pieced quilts with more traditional blocks that I designed and lots of drawings for appliqued folk art blocks and ideas for making them into hangings. I really like some of them - maybe I'll try making them up in some of my hand-dyed and hand-painted fabrics to give them a different look. Once again I don't know when I did these notebooks but it had to be in the late 90's to early 2000's. I didn't date anything back then. Now I date the pages when I add something to my notebook (journal).

Not sure if I will finish this quilt or not.

Another Small Quilt Finished

I finally finished this small quilt. Like I mentioned before, it's not done in colors I normally use together. When I was pulling fabrics out for another project, the red fabric happened to land on some black and I loved the effect so I just had to make a red and black quilt.....plus a little yellow. The red fabric looks much nicer in person. It has some sparkle from metalic paint that you can't see in the photo. I free motion stitched the leaf - something I don't like doing. I need to get better at it so I just made myself do it. I usually try to find ways around having to do free motion quilting on my quilts but sometimes I just can't get the effects and quilting patterns I want without free motion. So I have alot of quilts waiting to be quilted. Need to finish them!!

The weather has gotten much colder here in NH. Time to bundle up even indoors. I get much colder now since the pancreatitis. May have something to do with losing 80 pounds in 4 1/2 months. Not the way to go about losing weight!!! Before, I was always hot now I get cold easily. Guess I will be spending alot of time standing in front of the pellet stove!!

Fabric Beads

I forgot to post about these beads the other day. These are another project I worked on when the electricity went out. I already had the fabric wrapped around the straw. I just needed to add the wire and beads. I may add some yarn to a few of these. I still have a few more that need wire and beads. These are so much fun to make and so easy. Now to find something to use them on!!

A Little of This and a Little of That

Here's a new piece that I 've finally finished. This is the first piece I started after getting home from the hospital. It has a lot of left over pieces from my Grab Bag Challenge bag.

Which reminds me, I need to take a picture of the quilt that Tomme Fent made me from my grab bag. I love the quilt she made. It brightened up my hospital room and my days there. Here is a picture of it on Tomme's blog. The pink piece on the bottom this quilt is a piece that I discharged last February after taking Painting 2 with Jane Balshaw. I wanted to do more with the discharging but didn't get to it before I ended up in the hospital. Need to find out where the paste got put while I was away.

Wednesday I went to the Belknap Mill Quilter's Guild to hear Karen Eckmeier talk. She's a great speaker and her quilts were gorgeous. This was our Fiber Divas meeting but only me, Anita and Lynn were able to make it. Wish everyone else could have made it but life got in the way.

I've been spending alot of time learning about diabetes. One of the side effects from my pancreatitis is that my pancreas is not producing as much insulin as it needs to soooo... I'm now giving myself insulin shots and learning a lot of new stuff. I've talked to the diabetes nurse at the hospital, have an appointment with the dietician and am attending some classes over the next few weeks. Giving myself the shots isn't as hard as I thought it would be. They don't hurt, I just don't like watching the needle go in.

We had a power outage for about 1 1/2 hours today. You don't realize how much you depend on electricity until you are without it. I kept telling myself oh, I'll do this or I'll do that and then realize no I can't because I need eletricity. Couldn't sew (don't have any hand projects started and didn't want to start a new one), couldn't make the cake I had planned on making. Would have done some fabric painting but the kids had a board game set up on the table where I paint. Ended up reading and doing some housework. As I walked through the house, I would flip on the lights and then remember the lights weren't working. Just something I do automatically. The wind must have knocked down a tree or something. Not long after the power went off, we heard a chainsaw going and the beeper from a truck backing up. Didn't bother to go investigate but it has been really windy today.

New work in progress

I've been playing around with these 2 new pieces. Not my normal colors but I like them. I just happen to lay the red fabric on top of some black and liked the way it looked so had to make something with them. As I went along, I had so many ideas that I just couldn't decide what to do so I decided to make two pieces using some of the different ideas. I think they still need something but I'm not sure what. Right now they are just layed out. Maybe if I start sewing and quilting, they will look more finished. Since my illness, I've been finding it harder to make decisions and get tired and bogged down more easily. I've been trying not to let this get me down and just work with it. I have 4 or 5 projects I'm working on right now. When I get bogged down on one, I try to move on to another one. When I get too tired, I've been rereading my magazines and books or doodling in my notebook/sketchbook. Went to Jane Balshaw's open studio on Saturday. It was great. Lots of inspiration. I bought a small leaf piece of hers. I haven't taken a picture of it yet, will do it soon so I can post it here. Guess it's time to go get out of my pj's before someone walks up to the door and suprises me!!

Fiber Divas Exhibit

I'm finally getting pictures of the Fiber Divas exhibit from the first weekend in September. The pictures aren't that great but. I wish I had more time to take better pictures. Our exhibit was at the Belnap Mill Quilter's Guild show in Laconia, NH. Lynn Elkinton spent alot of time at the show(which is a pretty traditional quilt show) to answer questions about our work. I really appreciate all that Lynn did for our exhibit this year.
The first picture shows our round robin books from last year. Unfortunatley there was no way I could exclude the raffle table from the picture.


The next 8 pictures are from this years round robin. We used the idea from The Frayed Edges quilt group in Maine. You can read about them here on Sarah Ann Smith's blog. For our challenge each of us picked a photo then everyone made their interpretation of the photo. I didn't get to make a quilt for each photo but I did managed to get 4 done before I got sick.

The next 2 pictures show some other quilts that we made. The two on the left were made by me. The top right is a round robin quilt that was made 2 years ago and the quilt on the bottom right was made by Anita.

The two quilts on the right were made by Carmen. On the left side, Carmen made the top one and I'm not sure who made the bottom one. I will have to find out. The center one on the right was made by me.

Kara's Quilt's

Time sure has flown by. I've managed to stay home for 2 months now. I'm feeling much better and have started to figure out our new computer. I still need to get a photo program onto this computer so I can manipulate them. I can't find the CD with the program I used on the other computer. Don't know if it would work on this computer if I did find it. Maybe it's time to look into a photo program that does more. I wanted to get Photoshop Elements for a while. Will have to look into it.

Here are some pictures of 2 quilts that Kara did while I was in the hospital. This first one is a small one that started out postcard size and ended up a little bigger. Kara made this for her music teacher. Last year was the teacher's last year at the high school and all the kids loved her. The picture shows the instrument toss that was held at the end of each school year during the end of year party. The kids would toss instruments that were damaged beyond repair and see who could toss them the farthest. Don't know how that got started. Kara made this while I was in the hospital so I never got to see the actual piece. I did recieve quite a few calls at the hospital asking questions while she was making it.

This is the quilt that Kara made as a project for AP U.S. History. Instead of writing a report, the kids had to make a project that showed off what they learned on their topic. Kara's topic was women during the Civil War and the ways that they helped the war effort which included making quilts. There was a lot more to her research than that. I started helping her with the quilt before I got sick and then the ladies from my quilt group stepped in and helped Kara finish up the project. We were so grateful to them! Kara probably wouldn't have finished it if they hadn't helped.

Kara plans on using this as her bedspread at college next year. I can't believe in less than a year she'll be gone!! I know I've got to let her go but it is hard!! She's looking at colleges in New York state and the one she really wants to go to is in western NY. At least Gary's brother and his famly live in the town there.

I have been busy creating. I have 3 small collage type quilts I'm working on. Just haven't finished anything yet. I get an idea and start it and then something new pops in my head and I go off in a new direction. At this point I'm allowing myself to play and have fun and not worry if it takes me forever to finish something. Last Saturday I took a class from Jane Balshaw. It was another color theory class. I really tired myself out but I had a blast doing it.

That's one of the frustrating things. Even though I feel much better, I still get really tired. Well, I'd better get moving. The kids will be home soon. Kara took Alex with her to help out with setting the lighting up for the school play. The play director told Gary that Alex was welcome to help out anytime he wanted even though he's only in Jr High. Kara offered to take him today, so off they went. We're lucky that Kara and Alex are so close and get along so well - most of the time!!!

Home to Stay?

Hopefully I am home to stay. I spent most of my summer in the hospital. The longest stay I had at home was a week before developing another infection and landing right back in the hospital. This tme things are looking good. I've been home for almost 5 weeks and have been taken off of the I.V. antibiotics and I.V.nutrients(TPN) that I was on. The Dr's also took out the Picc line from my arm. Just hope that things keep going this well.

Don't have anything new to show but since the 2007 Journal Quilts are being sent home, I thought I would post mine. I don't think I have put it up previously. I have been getting a few quilts ready for the Belnap Mill Quilters Quilt Show in Laconia, NH. I think the show is October 4th to the 5th. My small art quilt group is the special exhibit. We are exhibiting our round robin projects from this year, plus our round robin books from last year and other pieces that we've done. I wish I could have gotten more of our round robin project done but I'm just starting to have the energy to play again.

Finally Home

I'm finally home after almost 2 months in hospitals and rehab!! I had a very bad episode with pancreatitis and still have a long way to go to fully recover but at least I'm back at home. I keep looking at all my supplies sitting in my work area and my brain is starting to come up with ideas and I know there are projects that need to be finished. Just need to find them!!! It gets frustrating with how easily I get tired out. I just have to keep telling myself I've come along ways and will keep getting stronger.

I did get home in time to see the baby birds fly away from the bird house we have near our deck. It was so much fun. I missed seeing them fly away last year. Last year there were only 2 babies. This year there were 6!!!! We couldn't believe it when a new head would keep popping out. Don't know how they all fit in there!!!!

I don't have any pictures to post but I will get a picture of the quilt my daughter made for her AP US History class and post it. I am so greatful that a couple of the ladies from my quilt group stepped in and helped her finish it!!! She also made a fabric postcard for her music teacher who is leaving this year. Just have to figure out how to get the pictures of that off of her camera.

The ladies from my quilt group made a lap quilt for me. I'll have to get a picture of that also. They also put together a package of fun things to play with when I'm up to it. My daughter brought them to me in the hospital and it was like Christmas!!! Really brightened up a boring
boring, boring, BORING hospital day!!!

Well, I won't keep you any longer. I know posts without pictures aren't as interesting.

Meandering Threads on Hiatus

You may have wondered why there have been no updates at Meandering Threads for more than a month. Beth has had some health problems and hasn't been able to post.

So she asked me, Mary Emma Allen, her mom, to let you all know that she misses being here and sharing with you. We've had quiltmaking going on here at home as her daughter Kara finishes a Civil War quilt for her American Studies class. Two of the ladies from Beth's quilting arts group have been encouraging Kara.

If you'd like to send messages to Beth, e-mail to me (me.allen@juno.com) and I'll print them off for her.

Beth may have mentioned that I write the Quilting and Patchwork blog over at b5media and Beth occasionally shares her work there.

I'll keep you updated and before long Beth will be back online.

Cape Cod Memories

Here is one of the pieces I've been working on. I still need to attatch the embellishments but I'm thinking of putting this onto an artist's canvas instead of making a quilt out of it. Figured it would be easier to attatch it with out all the stuff. I like the raw edges of this and thought if I paint and artists canvas and attatch this, it will show off the edges. The background is paper fabric made out of tea bags. The fabric the tea bags were glued to was painted blue. After it was dry, I highlighted areas with Color Box inks. Then I added things that I found on our trip to Cape Cod, hence the name: Cape Cod Memories. The starfish I had to buy there since the couple that we saw were really big and were broken and smashed into the sand. I added the stitching to give it some texture.

I love the colors in this!

I'm Back

I'm finally back. I felt terrible for so long and then I had to catch up on everything. I finally had a chance to finish something and get pictures of it. This is Lynn Elkinton's picture which was the inspiration for my piece below. I went more abstract than I usually do but that was my intent. I've been wanting to try more abstract pieces. The quilting doesn't show much in the this picture.

We finally had our quilt group meeting this past Friday. This winter we haven't had much luck getting together. It really makes you appreciate it when you do get together. I forgot my camera so I didn't get any new pictures from the group. We did hear about Marilyn and Susan's dyeing class down at Pro-Chem. I forget who it was with.

Last Saturday, I had a class with Jane Balshaw. It was her Color Theory class. I learned alot and had a lot of fun. Just don't have anything interesting to show since we just made color swatches. I want to expand on what we did in the class and make more swatches to fill in my color wheels more. Also experiment with making tints and tones of different colors.

I have made a small quilt for Quilting Arts "Go Green" challenge. Just can't show it here. While I was working on that piece, I had an idea for another couple of pieces. For the background of both pieces, I used old tea bags and then used paint and Color Box inks to color them. For one of the backgrounds, I'm using my "souveniers" from Cape Cod. (shells, rocks, feathers, etc). When I collected these things, I had planned to use them in someway so we'd have a unique souvenier.

I'm not sure what I will do with the other background yet. It will come to me eventually.

I've also got to get moving on my Grab Bag challenge. I have some of the fabrics and embellishments up on my design wall. I have an idea, just need to figure out how to actually make it!!

Quilt Group Pictures

Here are the pictures I took at the last Quilt Group Meeting. This first one is Lynne Rands picture. She decided she has so much going on that she won't be able to participate this year but we all liked her picture so much that we are still passing it around.

This is Susan's version of the picture. One sign says "out of order" and the other says "waiting for plumber"

Here is a peek inside.

Gretchen's quilt. She adds alot of embroidery to her quilts.

Anita's quilt of Lynn Elkinton's picture. Lynn's picture has all the roots on a hiking path.

Gretchen's quilt of my bottle picture.

Carmen's quilt of Susan's picture. Susan's picture was a field of lupine with mountains in the background. Most of the Lupine in here are done with embroidery.

Lynn Elkinton's quilt of Susan's picture. Lynn did this one on her embellisher also. I don't know why my picture came out so dark.

Gretchen's picture.

Gretchen's quilt. Oops, just realized I have this upsidedown!!!