Meandering Threads

Views from Bennington College

2012-01-31T18:19:00.006-05:00

Here are some views from around the college.

This one is from the dining hall looking towards the building that the bookstore is in.

This is one of the views from the arts building where we had classes.

Our last morning there we saw a beautiful sunrise.

Then just a couple of views from around the campus.

I'd really like to see the campus in the fall when all the leaves are in color.

Sue Benner

2012-01-30T10:29:00.006-05:00

I'm back from North Country Studio Workshops and my class with Sue Benner. What fun!! We worked our fingers to the bone but learned so much. Sue is such a great teacher. I would love to be able to take one of her other classes sometime.

This was the first time I've taken a class that was longer than 1 day. What a difference that makes!! You can cover so much more and really work on your projects. I still didn't finish any since we made 3 different quilts. This was her Composition Trilogy: Three Techniques for Fused Quilts. This was also different for me in that there weren't just quilters there and the other classes were other art forms (pottery, book making, encaustics, photography, etc)

Onto what we did in Sue's class:

This is the first quilt we worked on. We cut rectangles of different fabrics, kept some of them whole and cut the others into "frames" and then moved the pieces around. I decided to cut my frames with wavy edges. Since mine are so busy, I decided to add sashing between the blocks so it would be a little less confusing. I started trying out just one type of fabric (the one here is blue). I tried a couple different colors but nothing seemed right. I had it sitting up in the design wall and kept looking at it but nothing hit me as being right until the third day when I picked out the red fabric with the square spirals. I cut the squares out in a strip. I liked that and looked through my fabric and found the black fabric with white circles. There is a blue fabric with brown squares but it doesn't really show up. I will use the circles between the square and the squares around the outside of the quilt.

On the second day we worked with curvilinear shapes. We started out with an inspiration photo. That day my photo just wasn't really inspiring me so after staring at it for quite a while, I just tossed it aside. Found the black and white fabric in the pile of shared fabrics and decided to make a vase out of it and just have fun playing with a nonrealistic flower arrangement. I freehand cut and placed things and had fun.

The third day we worked on landscapes. I didn't find an inspiration photo to bring with me. Instead, I took a picture from the parking lot where we parked at the art building. I drew a rough little sketch that night, taking out the building and adding in the mountains that were all around us. I'll put up some more of those photos tomorrow.

This was a fun landscape to make. We used some of the scraps of the edges we cut off and then fused more fabrics to cut into strips to use. During the critique, Sue suggested adding little slivers of lighter brown to the edges of the trees to highlight them and make them stand out a little more. I also decided not to add all the trees from the photo.

Now to finish these up. Need to quilt the flowers and landscape and put the sashing in for the squares and then quilt that.

I took today off of work to give myself a chance to come back to reality and work on the quilts while I was still energized from the workshop. Tomorrow it is back to work and reality.

Off to Bennington

2012-01-22T22:28:00.004-05:00

Marilyn and I are off to North Country Studio Workshops in Bennington, VT tomorrow. I'm really excited. Can't wait to start the class with Sue Benner. I had a hard time paring down my fabric to take. I wanted to make sure I had enough selection to work with for the 5 day workshop. This is the first time I've taken a class that is longer than 1 day.

This is a piece I started working on. It is a lot darker than it really is and a lot more red. The actual color is sort of a dusty pink and brown. I want to try adding something to the pieced background before quilting it with the cheesecloth over it. Here, I've cut out some leaf shapes and put them under the cheesecloth. What I actually do will have to wait until I get back from Bennington.

I do have a new finished piece but I can't show it since it is a present for my sister. Hint, Hint, Debbie!!!

Happy New Years!!!

2011-12-31T21:14:00.004-05:00

Happy New Years!!!

I don't make resolutions for the new year but I try to set goals. I haven't really had a chance to sit down and think about my goals for 2012 yet. I do know that one of them will be to continue working on my quilts, trying to do at least a little each day, even if it is only 15 minutes.

Here are a couple of new quilts I've finished up. This first one is a little quilt mounted on a quilted background. I've been trying to figure out a way to display small quilts and I like the way the small quilts look on a larger quilted piece.

Here is a closeup. Once again, I've used painted cheesecloth over a strip pieced background. I think it gives it sort of a painted look.

This is one of the circle pieces I started a while ago. I experimented with using the decorative stitches on my sewing machine.

Three Trees

2011-12-11T22:36:00.004-05:00

Here's my latest project. I just finished it up tonight. Wanted to post it tonight before I go to bed or I don't know when I'd get a chance to.

Now I've got to get to work on a piece for the silent auction at the North Country Studio Workshops in January. I'm really looking forward to my class with Sue Benner.

In the Works

2011-12-09T09:50:00.004-05:00

Just a little teaser of a new project I'm working on. Have to get ready for work so can't say much about it yet.

Tuesday was the Fiber Divas Christmas party. Lots of fun, food and friends. I was so inspired after getting together that I spent the whole evening down in my work area. I also spent most of yesterday down there too. Now back to reality for a little while. Work and Christmas stuff to do. Gary set up our old tv and a dvd player for me downstairs so now I can play movies while I sew. I'm one of those people who works better with something to watch or listen to. Sometimes music is ok but other times I want something more especially when I'm downstairs for a long time.

Better get moving. More later.

Work Space

2011-10-28T16:25:00.003-04:00

We have the town sand pile at the end of our road. The other morning when I took Alex to catch the bus, he noticed this face in the sand. Thought it was funny so made sure to take my camera the next time I went out.

This is what we woke up to this morning. SNOW!!! I'm not ready for it! Although the trees did look pretty outlined in white.

This is my sewing area. I decided I might as well take pictures of it now because it will never be really picked up since I'm always working on something. I'm still figuring out how to arrange it best for me. On the right behind my chair are a couple of small bookcases. Someday I will have better lighting but we only have 2 outlets in the basement, so I have an extension cord running from halfway across the basement for my sewing achine and iron. Because it is a Habitat house the basement had to be unfinished, so we only have an outlet for our washer and dryer and and outlet for the cold air exchanger. Gary is planning on putting more outlets in as we get money and he gets time. Someday we will also have finished walls but hey, the blue styrofoam insulation panels work great for a design wall! Or should I say walls since I could use the whole basement as 1 big design wall if I wanted!

This is the sewing table my sister-in-law gave me. It is great! Lots of shelves underneath to store stuff on. I used clear plastic shoe boxes to put yarns and other embellishment stuff in. I sorted them by color and even have them labeled. There still is a pile of stuff to the left of the picture that I need to figure out where to put.

And the other side. A nice place to put my Matchbox Car storage containers which hold my thread. On the other side of the chair, I have some baskets to put things in.
What a difference this is from having all my stuff in the living room like I did at my parents or sharing the loft with Kara when she was home from college. The loft was really tiny and putting all my sewing stuff and all her furniture and stuff in there, it was cramped!! Now I can leave my projects out and can just start where I left off when I come back.

I keep forgetting, my exciting news..... I'm taking a 5 day class with Sue Benner this January. Its the North Country Studio Workshops in Bennington, VT. I've never been but Susan and Marilyn from the Fiber Divas go just about every year. I received a scholarship which made it possible for me to go. I'm so excited! I don't think the end of January can get here fast enough! I have really admired Sue's work for years and never thought I would have the chance to take a class with her.

Work in Progress

2011-10-23T11:22:00.002-04:00

I'm still here. Just been working on a couple of things but don't have anything finished. After pulling out that piece from my scrap bag (see here). I decided to pull out this piece that inspired it. I started this one in a class called Still Life with Bottles. I can't remember who the teacher was but she taught a lot of hand applique. These bottles were hand appliqued on. I took the class a long time ago, before I started blogging, and never finished the piece. I always like the colors and the look, I just didn't know how to finish it since it needs something like plants, flowers or branches in one of the bottles. The 2 small squares on there are just stuck on to test some colors for borders. I didn't remember to take them off! I do have borders added to it now. I thought whatever I put into the bottles, I might like going off into the borders. Just need to figure out what is next. I'm now thinking maybe I should have shortened the top a little before adding the borders! Oh, well, guess I can always rip out and resew if that's really what I want to do.

At the last Fiber Divas meeting, Susan was getting rid of some of her fabric and we all went through it. I decided I wanted to use some of the oranges I picked up from her. Once again, I decided to use colors I don't usually use and picked purple and green. I just needed something I could sew without really thinking about it so I decided on circles. Because I wasn't thinking I made this project a lot harder than it had to be. I wanted each piece different so instead of sewing circles together then cutting them in quarters, I cut circles out then cut them into quarters before sewing them together. I was going to fuse this together but was so into getting it started, I started cutting out before I put the fusible web on. I tried sewing one together with raw edges and didn't like it, so I'm now turning the edge under then machine appliqueing it. Oh, well.

Well, I'd better go. Have to take Alex to the Tilton Outlet stores to look for some casual dressy shoes that he needs for Tuesday. Of course he didn't tell us this until Friday night!! If I had known Thursday, we could have stopped at the outlets in North Conway when we went to his ortho appointment.

New Quilts

2011-10-04T09:45:00.007-04:00

Here are some of the new quilts I've made. This is the sketch that the first quilt was made from. Doesn't really look like much. I drew this after looking at pictures of our house construction. All the framing for the walls both inside and out gave me the idea for this.

This is the final quilt from the sketch. I went with totally different colors than I usually use. I always fall back on the colors I'm comfortable with and find easy to use and wanted to challenge myself to use something different. That was one of the first comments the Fiber Divas made that it wan't my normal colors. This one I called Construction.

This is actually 2 separate quilts. I took the idea from Jean Wells book, Intuitive Color & Design, Adventures in Art Quilting. She calls it Portrait Finish, where you make a simple quilted piece to mount the actual quilt on. It acts like a mat for a painting. I think it gives smaller pieces a much more finished look. Some people mount their pieces on painted canvas or mount the actual piece onto stretchers. I've always thought some of the smaller pieces that I've done look unfinished and needed to be presented differently. They needed something more so people would think of them more than just fancy potholders!!

This is a closeup of the quilting in Construction. The quilt itself was made with hand-dyed and painted fabric. The background piece was made from batik and hand-dyed fabrics.

I have always wanted to try my hand at more abstract work like Jean Wells. I've also admired Robin Ferrier's work and Liz Berg. Theirs is more abstract also.

After I finished Construction, I again hit a blank. I'd go down and pull fabric out, move it around and nothing! Didn't help that I had an awful head cold and was all stuffed up! I finally decided to just start pulling stuff out of my scrap bag and just start sewing. Well, as I was pulling stuff out, I found the piece with the vases on it. I had started it years ago and never did anything with it so finally just tossed it in the scrap bag. I also found the pieces to this border in the scrap bag. Something I had started in a class I took with Carol Taylor 3 or 4 years or so ago. I started by sewing all the pieces to the border together. Had no idea what I would do with the finished piece but just started sewing. I then decided that the border would look interesting around the vase piece that I had pulled out. The border might be a little too big for the center but oh, well, at least I was sewing again!! I do love how the colors of these went together. I doubt I ever would have thought of doing this if I hadn't come across them in the scrap bag. It did need something between the center and the border so I picked out the tan and black batik. Now to just finish it. I think I need to add something on the upper right to fill in a little of the space. I'm thinking some sticks (not real, maybe embroidered) or pussy willows. Something simple.

Last Saturday the Fiber Divas went to the Belknap Mill Quilter's Guild Show in Laconia, NH. Lynn Elkinton, one of the Divas, was their featured artist. She does such lovely work, it was great to see it all in one place and see some pieces we hadn't seen before. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera!

I just took a look at Carol Taylor's site so I could put the link in my post. I love the new work in her linear series!!!

Beth Who????

2011-10-02T20:06:00.006-04:00

Yes, I really am writing on my blog. In case you have forgotten, I'm Beth and I live in NH. Life has really been crazy! We finished building our house and moved in the end of last October. I can't believe it has almost been a year. Took us a while to get settled and organized and get back into a routine. But lately I really haven't had an excuse. I even have less of one since I now have my own sewing area. I thought when we moved here I would have to share my daughters bedroom and use it for sewing while she was away at college. Neither of us were really excited about that idea! Our basement is unfinished but they put so much styrofoam insulation panels up that it stays really warm in the winter even with no heat and stays nice and cool in the summer. To top it all off, my sister-in-law moved and didn't have room so she asked if I wanted her sewing table.. Let me say that this sewing table is really NICE!!! Her husband, Brett made it for her. At first we thought there was no way I would be able to get it, because we didn't have a truck or van to drive out to Syracuse, NY. Was I really excited when they called to say that Brett and their daughter were driving to Maine to visit relatives and could bring it out!!!! I will have to take pictures of it and my sewing area to post.

I haven't done too much quilting. I did make curtains for our dining room and living room. Really simple, just valences. We live out in the woods and want to see out. Still have fabric that I need to make valences for Kara's room! I did finish up a couple of pieces to put up in the house since they went so well together and with the wall colors.

This first one, I started in 2006? Give or take a year. It's been sitting around as a top that I kept pulling out to try and decide how to quilt it. Right now it is just quilted in the ditch but when and if I decide to, I can add more quilting to it. It is over my couch. I have always really liked this one.

This second one, I started out just playing with colors, I think I had posted it when I finished the top. I finally quilted it. I still have trouble deciding how to quilt things and then hesitate because I worry that I will mess up and ruin it. I'm trying to push past this! This one hangs in the dining area on one side of a window.

On the other side of the window hangs my Birches quilt. This is another one that I always liked and am glad I finally have a place to hang it up.

We still have a lot of empty wall space. I found that a lot of stuff that had been in storage for 14 years wasn't really my style anymore.

I have one piece that I have recently finished and need to get a picture taken. After that piece I really had a block and couldn't come up with anything. I would go down to my sewing area and just move fabric around and not come up with any ideas. I finally decided to pull things out of my scrap bag and just start sewing without any idea of where I was going. I found a couple of pieces in the bag that I had started sometime and never did anything with them. I decided to put them together and finally have something going!!!

Even though I haven't gotten much done I have, I think, defined my "style" a little bit. I have done a lot of exploring, trying new things, mixed media techniques, etc over the years. Just in this last year, I realized I wanted to pretty much stick with fabric maybe with a few added embellishments if it needs it. I tend to like simpler quilts and simple quilting, I like to let the fabric talk and be an important part of the quilt. You tend to see a lot of heavily quilted pieces and I always struggled because I felt that is what I had to do but I've come to realize that No, I don't. I prefer my pieces quilted simply. I also like to make and use my own fabric whether by dyeing, painting, discharging, etc. This is almost as fun as making the quilt itself!

Well, I've rambled on enough for tonight. Now to get some other things done. I will be back soon with more stuff!!!

New House, New Blog

2010-05-02T20:10:00.003-04:00

Once again I will say, I can't believe it's been so long since I've posted. I've been busy here. Just not quilting and it will be getting even busier. Kara came home over Easter and went back to school. She's now home again with all her stuff but will be leaving again for a month traveling in the Balkans with her honors program class. They get to see what they have been studying. In between her coming and going and coming again, Gary, Alex and I went out to Ohio to Gary's parents house. Their tree was in bloom outside their house. I just had to take some pictures of it.

We spent a day touring through Amish country.

And the big news, just before we left for Ohio, we found out that we had been picked for the Habitat for Humanity house that is being built this summer in our area. Since we live the country, they only build one a year. We are so excited!!! It's going to be a busy summer between work, family stuff and the build. I've started a blog to journal about it and to keep friends and family updated (and anyone else who would like to follow along).
If you would like to see it go here.

Well, I'd better go get some sleep. Work comes early and it's getting late. I hope to have some new things to show soon, since I want to make some new things for the house.

Finally Framed

2010-03-23T09:58:00.004-04:00

I finally finished up a piece I started in a class last year on Joggles with Jane LaFazio. I knew I had this frame and it would be perfect for this piece, I just couldn't find it. I bought this frame 3-4 years ago at a yard sale for $1. I new it would be perfect for something sometime!
It has glass in it so I couldn't take the picture so that it looked square. But I was able to take it at an angle so you could see the work and not the flash from the camera.

And, no Kara, you can't take this one back to college with you. I'm finding a place to hang it here at home!

Just a Little More Snow Dyeing

2010-02-21T14:47:00.005-05:00

Here are the results of my last batch of snow dyeing. Really nice colors! I'm always so amazed at how different they come out than what I think they will. This first one was a combination of black and fuschia. I thought it would have more black in it. There are a few spots with black. The rest turned out more blue gray. Next time I will add more black and a little less fuschia.

This one was a combination of orange, fuschia and brilliant blue - I think. Of course, I didn't write the colors down. I thought I'd remember them but did I? I should have known better! The colors are a little off in these photos. The actual piece makes me think of a flower garden.

These were some cloth napkins that I picked up at the second hand store with the intent of dyeing or painting them some day. I used fuschia, sun yellow and indigo.

This closeup shows the pattern in the weave of the napkins.

I probably won't have a chance to do any more snow dyeing for a while. We are getting a little short on snow outside! Pretty sad for New Hampshire. I think we are one of the few areas in the states that hasn't gotten a lot of snow recently. We can see bare ground outside. The upside to not much snow will be that mud season shouldn't be too bad this year!

Some more Snow Dyed Fabric

2010-02-20T16:59:00.007-05:00

The Fiber Divas met last Wednesday. It was fun. Anita showed off some larger pieces that she had snow dyed. It made me want to try my hand at dyeing some larger pieces. I always stick to fat quarters when I dye and there are times I wish I had more. Here are a couple of 1 yard pieces.

I froze the fabric before covering it in snow and then dyeing it. The snow was very wet, so I packed it down on tip of the fabric. I don't know if that had anything to do with how "crackled" these came out.

I'm having so much fun doing this that I did a couple more pieces yesterday. They are down in the basement sink soaking. By the time I finished work yesterday and got everything ready to dye, I was out in the dark collecting snow. I was hoping I didn't scoop up any doggy surprises! I will post pictures of the fabric when I get them.

I love the colors and the patterning of these but I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them. Dyeing them is addicting. I enjoy painting and dyeing fabric just as much as quilting with them. Has anyone made anything with their snow dyed fabric?

OWOH Winner

2010-02-15T13:26:00.002-05:00

I had a fun time visiting all the blogs in the One World, One Heart Giveaway this year. I wish I had more time to spend on each one.

I used a random generator to pick a winner and the lucky winner was comment number 73, Lavender Dreams. I've already e-mailed her for her snail mail addy and will get the fabric sent off to her.
Her blog is: www.lavenderdreamstoo.blogspot.com

More Riley

2010-02-10T07:48:00.003-05:00

Here are a couple more pictures of Riley. It is so hard to get pictures of him since he is just go, go, go when he is awake! Here he had slowed down long enough to chew on his toy! Still he was flopping around enough with it that it was hard to get pictures that weren't blurry.

Not quilt related, but sooooooo CUTE!!!!!!

More Snow Dyed Fabric

2010-02-09T16:17:00.006-05:00

I snow dyed a couple more pieces of fabric the other day. With these ones, I froze the fabric before I dyed them. This one was the fuchsia and ice blue. It's interesting how different this one is from the one I dyed with fuchsia and ice blue the day before.

This next one was seafoam and ice blue.

I had extra dye so I decided to dye some fat quarters. The colors came out really yummy. Will I be able to duplicate them again? No but I can get some that will be similar using the sam e parent colors. I did try to get some colors that were lighter than I usually make. I think I did that.

Now to think of a project to use these in. I think they need to be used together. I also need to actually make something with my fabric. Not just make more fabric!!! But making the fabric is so much fun!

Snow Dyeing

2010-02-06T19:14:00.009-05:00

There's been a lot of talk on the Quilt Art list about snow dyeing so I decided to try my hand at it. I know there was an article in Quilting Arts about snow dyeing but I couldn't find that issue so I followed this tutorial.

Since I was only dyeing fat quarters I used little Rubbermaid disposable containers to dye in. They seemed to have worked out fine although I might try something a little deeper another time.

This fabric is my favorite one. I think this is the one that I froze the fabric in the freezer before dyeing. You freeze it after soaking it in the soda ash solution. With the other 3 pieces, I was too impatient and packed them in the snow after pulling them out of the soda ash solution. This piece was a combination of fushia and ice blue.

This one was fushia and seafoam.

This next one was a combination of fushia and citrus yellow.

My first reaction with this green piece was that it was too light and I would have to over dye it but then I remembered that I had just been going through my fabrics and realizing that I don't have many light colors, so it will stay like this. This was a combination of citrus yellow and seafoam.

I decided to throw some cheesecloth in with the fabric being dyed. Here are those results.

I love the one above the green. It was dyed with the first piece of fabric above. Here you can see a little more of the purple color.

I dyed a couple more pieces of fabric today and am impatiently waiting for the snow to melt.

Our new addition to the family

2010-02-02T16:56:00.008-05:00

I've been busy playing and taking care of Riley. I can't believe it will be a week tomorrow that he came home. He sure is a lot of work but also lots of fun and what a character!!

These are pictures that we took a couple of days ago. He is really starting to fit in and get comfortable here.

Ginger still hasn't gotten used to him although she tolerates him more now than when he arrived home. At least she can be in the same room as him now. She has the attitude of "If I can't see him, he isn't there" She spends a lot of time studiously looking the other way.

So, needless to say, I haven't spent much time working on any projects. I have been watching Quilting Arts TV DVD's (series 400) which my mom got for me for my birthday. I also been watching Quilting Arts Workshop, "Print, Collage, Quilt" with Melanie Testa and Cloth, Paper, Scissors Workshop, "Layer by Layer" with Beryl Taylor. It is great to see some of the things actually being done in "Print, Collage, Quilt" that I read about in Melanie's book " Inspired to Quilt".

For my Birthday, Kara, gave me "Art + Quilt, Design Principles and Creative Exercises" by Lyric Kinard. It has some great exercises in it. I just have to take the time to actually do them.
Before Christmas, I bought myself "Intuitive Color & Design" by Jean Wells. This also has some really go exercises in it. I love the abstract look of her quilts.

Time to get to bed so I can get up at 4:30 to go to work.

One World One Heart

2010-01-27T19:36:00.005-05:00

Where did the year go? I didn't realize that the One World One Heart giveaway had started until I saw it on a blog yesterday. Since I don't have time to make anything, I decided to giveaway a fat quarter of my hand-dyed fabric. If you click on the One World - One Heart logo above, you will be taken to a list of all of this years participants. So go have some fun and spend some time looking at other creative blogs.

How do you enter my drawing you ask. Well first this is open to bloggers everywhere. Just leave a comment to this post by midnight February 14 and I will use a random number generator to pick a winner on February 15th. Please make sure there is a link back to your blog so I have a way to contact you or leave your e-mail addy with your comment.

Thanks for stopping by!!

Riley

2010-01-25T15:39:00.005-05:00

Kara was getting after me the other day about not having anything new on my blog. I told her I didn't have anything new quilt related but I guess I could post a picture of Riley. Riley is the Shih Tsu puppy we are going to be getting. If everything works out we will be getting him this coming weekend. I really hope everything works out! Riley is supposed to be my birthday present but I think that was just the excuse so Gary could get him and Alex keeps saying that Riley is going to be his puppy! We'll see how long the puppy newness lasts when he has to keep getting up in the middle of the night to let Riley pee!!! We'll see how long it is until I'm the one getting up in the middle of the night and how long it is until I'm the one cleaning up the accidents!! We'll see whose puppy it ends up being in the long run!! Gary will just sleep through all the crying puppy nights like he did when the kids were little!

I haven't been really inspired to do much of anything lately. I have gotten my sewing room organized now that Kara is back at Houghton. I did put together a sewing package for her. She asked for some fabric squares, thread, embroidery floss and other things so she could try her hand at hand sewing when she was sitting around with her friends.

After seeing all the posts on Quilt Art about snow dyeing and seeing different posts on blogs, I've wanted to give it a try. Now that I have time, it's too warm and the snow is melting with all the rain. Just have to wait a couple days and it should get colder. Can't go too long in NH without cold winter weather!!

Let It Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!

2009-12-11T15:58:00.005-05:00

Just a quick shot of what it looks like outside. Thought the birdhouse looked cute out in the snow.
Finally, here you go Kara, my challenge quilt all put together. Mine is on the top that all the others hang from. Starting from the left is: Anita's, Marilyn's, top: Susan's, botttom: Lynn's and the final one on the left, Carmen's. I found copper colored circles with holes in them to hang everything from. I really like the way it came out.

Fiber Diva's Challenge Quilts

2009-12-09T17:07:00.010-05:00

Here are the quilts that we had displayed at the exhibit at the Gilford Library. I remembered to take pictures when we took it down. This first one is Anita's her theme was Ecclesiastes 3. Starting at the top and going clockwise, the quilts were made by: Susan Wei, Marilyn Mason, Lynn Elkinton, Carmen Burns and mine is in the middle. Anita wasn't able to make one for her theme.

This one is Marilyn's. Her theme was sashiko. Unfortunately, you can't see the stitches in this picture. The stitching really adds a lot to these pieces. Starting at the top left and once again going clockwise: Anita Furbush, Marilyn, Susan, Lynn, Carmen and mine. I have some other pictures that show the stitching, I'll try to get them posted in the next couple of days.

This one was Lynn's. Her theme was a song that had to do with rolling down the river or something. I can't remember exactly made which one but I'll try. Once again starting in the upper left: Susan?, Anita?, me, Carmen, Marilyn?, and Lynn.
These two photos are Carmen's. Her theme was also Ecclesiastes 3:1. Upper left: Anita, Upper right: Lynn, Lower left: Marilyn and Lower right Susan. I didn't take a picture of mine. If you want to see it again you can go here.

This next one is Susan's. Her theme was The Moon. Starting at the slice with the 2 people and going clockwise: Susan, me, Lynn, Marilyn and Carmen. Susan's actual piece hangs sort of like a mobile but to display it at the library, she had to display it like this.
I don't have a picture of mine yet. It was too big to get a picture at the library and I need to get it hung up on the wall to get a good picture. I will get it taken tomorrow after work. Sorry Kara! I know you wanted to see it!

Follow Me Blind

2009-11-13T16:01:00.003-05:00

Here's a new piece I've been working on. It started as part of a 5 day Follow Me Blind Challenge on Fiber Art Traders. Each day we had directions to follow without knowing what we would be doing the next. Day one we picked a piece of fabric and had to do some sort of surface design. I just used a piece of my hand-painted fabric. The second day we layered it with batting and quilted a piece of synthetic sheer fabric to the top. Then we used a heat gun to melt the sheer. I have been wanting to try that for a long time but never got around to it until now.

Day 3 we cut it up, rearranged it and sewed it to a backing fabric. Day 4 we embellished. I beaded it and made little green x out of some silk embroidery thread. Today is day 5 and we are now supossed to put a new backing on to cover up the stitching and then fold and manipulate it into some type of vessel. I'm not going to do this since I'm not really into make vessels. Maybe if I had a place to display stuff but I don't so it would just get put away and forgotten. I think I will cut the piece out of the felt and then mount it somehow to an artists canvas. I don't know if I will get a canvas that is already stretched and paint it then attatch this or get stretcher bars and sew this to a piece of black fabric and then attatche the fabric to the stretcher bars. I'm also thinking of extending the beading and x's off of the quilt and onto the background.

I really like the way this has come out and want to try doing some more pieces like this. It looks much better in person.

More Playing

2009-11-06T20:02:00.003-05:00

I spent some more time playing. This piece turned out sort of balh, but at least I'm playing and trying some new things. I used 2 layers of white fabric on this quilt. The bottom layer was a heavier fabric. After stitching the design and practicing more free motion quilting, I cut out the top layer of fabric from the circles. Then I dyed the quilt by applying the colors directly to the quilt surface. Once I rinsed it out, I found I had tried to use too many colors and they didn't blend well. Decided to dye the whole piece in red dye. It helped but I still didn't really like it. I decided to cut the fabric out of the "stems" don't really know what to call them. I found it interesting that the fabric that was on the bottom, didn't take the red dye a lot. I'm thinking of experimenting with oil paint sticks to color the circles or maybe I'll try rollering color on like Linda and Laura Kemshall show in their book "The Painted Quilt".

I'm really trying to let go and experiment with different techniques and not worry about if they will turn out or not. I need to learn to let go and try new things or practice things I don't do well, like free motion stitching.

Play Time

2009-11-03T12:14:00.003-05:00

I've just been playing the last couple of days. No finished projects. In the top piece, I practiced free motion quilting. Need lots of practice with that!!! I decided to use a drawing from my sketchbook that I'd like to turn into a hanging. I used white fabric and with inspiration from "Stitching to Dye in Quilt Art" by C June Barnes, I dyed the piece after doing all the free motion stitching. Even though this isn't a great work of art, I decided to add the beads to start getting an idea of where I want to go with it. On the right hand side, I used some spacer beads from a bead shop that was in town that is now out of business and now I used the last of these. I tried to find some on-line but haven't had any luck. These ones were gun metal gray. I also picked up some in bronze and one other metal color. I love using these in small projects and wish I had some more. I did find some that are similar in gold and silver but nothing like what I have here.

This piece, I was just playing with my hand felter. I really would like an embellisher but I will make due with felting by hand at this point. I used wool roving, sheer fabrics and yarns. I wanted to just practice blending them together to see what I could do other than just making rows like I did in these hangings. One of the things I like about felting with different materials is all the different textures you can get into a piece.

New Book

2009-10-31T10:48:00.003-04:00

I don't have any new work to show but I ran across this book, "Stitching to Dye", by C June Barnes. I don't know if it has been reviewed anywhere and I just missed it but this book is great!!! She creates quilts with different white fabrics, stitches it, manipulates it and creates texture in the fabric then dyes it. The pieces she shows in the book are wonderful. So much color and texture. So many possibilities to play with!! I love her use of zippers in her work.
If you haven't seen her work go here to her website.

Felting Experiments

2009-10-22T15:11:00.003-04:00

I felted these 2 pieces back in May but never decided how to finish them. Here's where I posted about them. I made them after watching a couple segments on Quilting Arts TV about needle felting. On the show, they used an embellisher machine but I did these with a hand felter. I was playing with felting different fabrics and yarns to painted cotton batting.
These were really fun to make. Just playing no thinking. They've been sitting around since then because I just couldn't decide how to finish them. I finally decided to sew them onto a piece of black felt. I started out with a rectangular piece of felt but it just didn't look right. So, I cut the black felt about 1/2" beyond the felted piece. Looks much better. This gives it a much more finished look.

Foliage Pictures

2009-10-13T19:24:00.006-04:00

Between work and rain, I didn't have a chance to go out and take some pictures of the fall colors until yesterday. There won't be too many more days to take any. The colors around here are just about past their peak. I thought Kara might like to see what it looks like back home now.

These were all taken on one of my favorite roads near our house, Old Hebron Road.

Kara, this picture on top is from Old Hebron Road looking towards Texas Hill Road, somewhere near the christmas tree farm.

Fiber Diva's Exhibit

2009-10-08T14:43:00.009-04:00

Here are some pictures of the Fiber Divas Exhibit at the Gilford Public Library. Thanks you Lynn for letting me use them!!! The library has a great area for displays and exhibits. These are the first two cases you see as you walk into the exhibit area (not really sure what else you would call this space. Having the glass cases made it really great for displaying small items. Besides the quilts, we also have sewing items like colorful spools of thread, pincushions, chatelains (not sure of the spelling), felted wool balls and fabric beads. These small things are spread out among the 3 cases. The case in the corner has Susan's challenge quilt which had moon as the theme. She also has 2 three dimensional pieces in there. Lynn has 2 pieces on top of the case.

This case is the biggest and has my circle themed challenge piece at the top. You can see the 5 pieces the other Fiber Divas made that are hanging off of my piece. At the bottom is Lynn's challenge piece. I can't remember the words from the song she used for her theme but it had to do with a river. Sorry Lynn!! She also gave each of us a piece of blue fabric that we all thought was really pretty and then found out it was one of the hardest shades of blue to work with!!! We all managed to get a piece of that blue fabric in there somehow. On top of the case is a purse I made and a mixed media piece I made also. Lynn has a couple of her quilts in the bottom of the case.

Closeup of Susan's quilt above the fireplace at the library. I will have to get the name of the quilt from her since I can't remember it and add it later. Ok, somehow I've lost the picture showing the quilt and all of the fireplace.

Here is the 3rd case in the display area. This has Anita's challenge quilt in the top. Her theme was Ecclesiastes 3:1. Marilyn's challenge piece is in the bottom half of the case. Her theme was Sashiko. I wish I had remembered to take pictures of everyones quilts before we put them in the cases. I'll have to remember to take some when we take the exhibit down. I have a couple of quilts laying on the bottom of the case and Lynn has the 2 pieces on top of the case.

Here is Carmen's challenge piece. Her theme was Ecclesiastes 3:1 also. There are only 5 pieces here. Carmen didn't get a chance to make one for her challenge.

Here's a closeup of 4 of the pieces. Left to right are: Marilyn Mason, Susan Wei, Anita Furbush and mine. Lynn Elkinton's is the one missing from this picture.

If anyone is near Gilford, NH, stop by the Gilford Public Library and see the exhibit. It will be up for the month of October and it looks like the exhibit for November fell through and we will be up for November too.

Gilford Public Library
31 Potter Hill Road
Gilford, NH 03249

M, W, Fri 9am-6pm
T and Th 10am-8pm
Sat 10am-2pm

Two More Circle Quilts and Geocaching

2009-10-07T13:41:00.006-04:00

Here is the quilt I did for my "Going in Circles" theme. It makes me think of pictures taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. This is 7"x39". I had to make it really long because all the other circle quilts hang off of it. It looks really great with all 6 quilts put together. I found copper colored metal circles to attach the quilts together.

This is Carmen's quilt for my circle theme. I love all the machine quilting in the background.

A closeup of Carmen's piece.

Melanie, you asked what geocaching was. We use a GPS to find hidden caches all over the place. These caches are lock n lock boxes, ammo boxes or some other type of box that will keep the inside dry. Inside is a log book that you sign when you find it and some little trinkets that you can trade for. We go to the geocaching site (click on the above link) to find coordinates for caches that are hidden all over the world. I found a couple on my way back from taking Kara to college. It is fun and something that the family can do together and we get to explore places we never would have gone to before or never knew they existed. We've been doing this for 4 1/2 years now.
Sharon, I found 2 out of 3 caches that day. Of course, the one I couldn't find, my husband said was easy to find.

Geocaching Days

2009-09-27T19:24:00.008-04:00

I had last Thursday and Friday off work and managed to do a little geocaching. Both days were really nice. The trees are starting to turn color. My pictures are a little out of order. These first 3 were taken in Hebron, NH on Friday. There is a marsh here with a couple walking trails. I took Ginger with me.

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There was an old apple tree. I tried to get some nice pictures of the apples but between the wind and Ginger pulling on the leash, this was the only one that wasn't blurry.

On Thursday, Gary, Ginger and I went geocaching and ran into this little guy. I don't like snakes but think their patterning is neat. Ginger kept trying to sniff it. I was waiting for her to get bitten on the nose!

Play Day with the Fiber Divas

2009-09-25T21:29:00.008-04:00

I meant to post these pictures a while ago. The Fiber Divas had a play day and tried gelatin monoprinting. We took the idea from the August/September 2009 Quilting Arts. Frances Holliday Alford, had an article about monoprinting.

To make the smaller monoprints, above, I cut the gel with a biscuit cutter.

We found that the monoprints came out really cool on black fabric.

This was a really fun project and could get really addicting!!! Before I knew it, I had a good size pile of monoprints. It was interesting to see how different each divas monoprints came out. Now, I just need to find some time to embellish these and decide what I am going to do with them.

To make these bigger round monoprints, I set up the gelatin in a 9" cake pan.

Carmen's Challenge Quilt

2009-09-16T10:13:00.004-04:00

I finally finished Carmen's quilt for this years challenge. Her theme was Ecclesiastes 3:1, " There is a time for everything and a season for every purpose under heaven." The name of my quilt is "Letting Go" I thought it was appropriate with Kara going off to college.
Here's a closeup of the piece.

Ok, Can anyone tell me why I keep getting parts of my text that is underlined. I don't know how to get rid of the underlining and as I typed, it just stopped. I don't know what I did but it started back up under the second picture and stopped again. Again I don't know what made it stop.

Kara is now at Houghton College. She and I had a good 10 hour drive out there. I took 2 days driving home and had a sort of vacation for myself. Although it does seem strange without her here at home, I think we are adjusting. We bought a webcam so we can talk to her on the computer. Alex started his freshman year in high school and is really surprising us so far. He seems to be taking on more responsibility for himself this year. We'll see how it keeps going.

We are moving Kara's stuff out of her room and moving Alex into it. It's time Alex has a real room to himself and not just the loft. We are planning on painting the loft once it gets all cleaned out and putting new flooring in it. I'm thinking of a nice green color. It has to be a color that both Kara and I like since the loft will be my workroom and Kara's room when she is home. It will be nice to get all my stuff out of the livingroom.

Anita's Quilt

2009-08-01T15:01:00.006-04:00

I finally finished Anita's quilt for the Fiber Divas challenge. I can't believe how long it took me. I thought Anita and Carmen's theme would be easy for me. Was I wrong!! Both of them picked the same theme, Ecclesiastes 3:1. "There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven." This was my third attempt at Anita's. I do have an idea for Carmen's. Just need to get moving on it! We were supposed to have these done back in June. At least I'm not the only one still working. Once I finish Carmen's I can start working on mine and putting all the pieces I've received together.

Here's a closeup of a couple of the trees. I used two pieces of Elin Nobles fabric for the background. The blue one, Anita supplied. The gold bottom piece was some that I had. I put a piece of painted cheesecloth over the top to help blend the two pieces together. It gives it a sort of painted look.

We haven't had much of a summer here. Just a lot of rain. My garden is water logged and starting to rot. I'm finally starting to get some cherry tomatoes but I don't know if my big tomatoes will ever ripen. They are rotting before they get ripe. We have a lot of flowers we started but we never got the chance to plant them!

I'm getting ready to take a class at the World Quilt and Textile Show in Manchester. I'm taking "Up Close and Personal" with Rosalie Dace. I'm really looking forward to it. Just wish I could go down the day before and stay over night like I usually do. But it just isn't in the budget this year. So I will get up at 0'dark thirty (5:30am) so I can be down to Manchester and all set up by 9am. At least I'm used to getting up early but it will be a really long ride home that evening and I won't be able to take my time looking around the show. Might not get to see everything. Might be a good thing, I won't be tempted to spend money at the vendors booth, if I don't have the time to look.

More from Jane LaFazio's Class

2009-07-01T20:16:00.002-04:00

Here's another piece from Jane LaFazio's class, Mixed Media with Paper & Cloth, at Joggles I still need to find something to put in the center where the 4 squares meet. I also need to decide if I want to frame it or figure out some other way to display it. Jane had a piece like this in
Cloth Paper Scissors. I forget which issue.

Some New Pieces for the Fiber Divas Challenge

2009-06-16T10:11:00.004-04:00

I'm behind getting work done for the Fiber Divas Challenge this year. I finished up Lynn's a while ago but just hadn't got around to posting it. I finished up Susan's piece last week for the meeting on Friday and I wasn't able to make it. Susan's theme was the Moon. I decided to make mine "Howling at the Moon" All her pieces were pie shaped.

This is Lynn's piece. Her theme was based on a song. I can't remember what the name was but it had to do with going down the river. We each had a piece of blue fabric that Lynn gave us to use. We all agree that it is the hardest piece of fabric to match. I finally strip pieced the background and then covered it with painted cheesecloth to blend all the blues together. I then couched and needle felted yarns and fibers to the top. The leaf, I cut out of painted Lutrador.

One Small Piece and Graduation

2009-06-14T20:52:00.004-04:00

Here's a piece I'm working on in Jane LaFazio's class. I have another one that I'm working on but don't have a picture yet.

I kept forgetting to post this. This was Kara's graduation. She was the valadictorian and did a great speech. She was very nervous but you would never have known it, she came across as very confidant. She worked very hard to be valadictorian!! That will be the last time we see her in a dress for a long time!! Alex is standing with her. He's off on his 8th grade class trip to Montreal tomorrow and he has 8th grade graduation on Friday.

Jane Lafazio's Class

2009-06-03T14:22:00.005-04:00

I'm taking Jane Lafazio's class "Mixed Media with Paper & Cloth" from Joggles. I saw her episode on Quilting Arts TV 300 and loved her mixed media work. When I found out she was teaching this class at Joggles, I just had to take it. One splurge this year since I am cutting back on what I spend and trying to use what I have on hand.

This week we started making the backgrounds for our pieces. I was good and used what I had on hand. I used white on white fabric instead of artist canvas. I also used my fabric paints instead of acrylics. I did use gesso (had that on hand too).

I stenciled, stamped, sponged, used found object what ever I could think of to try. I love the look of the torn pieces that have been sewn back to gether on Janes work, so I tore my fabric up and sewed it back together. Made some irregular pieces.

This piece with the leaves, I experimented with freezer paper stencils. It worked out good. I think I will make this design into a stamp so I don't have to keep remaking in out of freezer paper when I want to use it.

This piece I'm not so thrilled with, I'll have to see what I can do to it. Or maybe it won't matter so much as we start the next steps.
I have trouble making packground pieces. They always seem to end up brighter than i intend. I'd love to make some more backgrounds but my in-laws are here for Kara's graduation so I have a lot to do and had to clean up my work area.

Kara is all finished with school. She has high enough grades that she doesn't have to take any finals and she is valedictorian!!! She has worked hard for this!!! Alex is a little jealous since the focus is more on her right now even though his birthday is on Sunday. We will have a nice birthday dinner on Friday night while Gary's parents are still here. Alex graduates 8th grade on the 19th. BUSY, BUSY, BUSY!!!!

Fiber Divas Challenge

2009-05-17T21:42:00.010-04:00

Meant to post these a long time ago. These are the quilts that I've received from the Fiber Divas for our yearly challenge. My theme is "Going in Circles" This first one was made by Susan.

This was made by Lynn.

Marilyn made this one.

And finally, Anita made this one.

Now to start figuring out how to put these together. I had an idea when I first started, now I just nee to figure out how to get all the colors to work together. I still need to make mine, which I was waiting to do when I got all mine back.

I'm still working on the pieces for everyone else. I finished Marilyn's a while ago and have been working on Lyn's for a while. Hers should be finished for the next meeting. I'm finding it harder to get things done now that I'm back to my normal work schedule. I have alot more energy than I used to but I still get tired out.

The Prom

2009-05-04T09:59:00.003-04:00

I can't believe my baby girl is 18 and graduating high school this year!! Where has the time gone?? Kara's friend, Sarah, actually talked her into going to the prom. I think this is the first dance that Kara has gone to since jr. high. Sarah also arranged for Kara to go to the local beauty school with her and have her hair, nails and makeup done.

The next picture was taken after she got back home so her hair is falling down but it shows the shawl that she and I painted the night before. (See this post does have something fiber related in it!) Thursday night when I was shortening the straps to the dress, I realized she didn't have anything to wear over her sholders if she got cold. Friday, after work and before I went to the Fiber Divas meeting, I ran around town trying to find something. All I could find was a white shawl (scarf) that didn't really go with the dress. After I got back from the Fiber Divas meeting, Kara and I pulled out my fabric paints and painted the shawl. Talk about waiting till the last minute!!

It really went great with her dress. As soon as these pictures were taken, Kara got out of the clothes, took out all the bobby pins, took off the make-up and washed her hair. She's a jeans and t-shirt girl and doesn't wear make-up normally so she couldn't wait to get out of everything. She did look beautiful though!!

Kara said that her favorite part of the whole day was the looks she got. People would walk right by her and not know who she was. Then they'd turn around with a suprised look on their face, when they realized it was Kara.

Where's Beth?

2009-05-01T22:08:00.007-04:00

I'm right here at home. I can't believe how long it's been since I've written. Just been so busy - no quilting really but busy. I'm back up to a normal schedule at work and get home too tired to do much. I have to get working on the Fiber Divas project. I've only finished Marilyn's quilt.

Two weeks ago, Kara and I went on a girls weekend to Houghton College in Houghton NY. Where's that you ask? It's south of Buffalo. Ten hours west of Plymouth. I was really happy that Kara and I made good time getting to Houghton. I drove the first 5 hours and Kara drove the second 5. She picked out her classes for the fall semester and lined up a work study job. I sat in on talks about financial aid and other talks about Houghton. Kara stayed in the dorm while I stayed with Gary's younger brother and his family.

Geri Ann leant the Fiber Divas the 3rd season of Quilting Arts TV. I ended up with it first and really enjoyed watching it. A couple of my favorite episodes were the ones with Beryl Taylor and Melanie Testa. There was a third person who I really liked but can't remember her name right now. Watching Beryl's episode on machine felting with unusual fabrics is where I got the idea for these pieces. I have a collection of scarves and other fabrics that I've been wanting to use in something. I experimented to see which ones would felt and which ones wouldn't. I used my hand felters since I don't have a machine and it worked!! I added some beading and big stitching.
I painted warm and natural batting to use as the backing for the felting. I had been wanting to try painting the batting for a long time. Just hadn't taken the time. I also wanted to see if these different fabrics would felt to the batting.

These were fun projects that I could make without really thinking about. Which is great when I'm really tired.

This blue one isn't quite finished. I still need to add some more beading. I took these pictures before I started the hand stitching and beading on the blue piece.

Now I just need to figure out how I want to finish these. I think it would be neat to leave the edges of the different fabrics sticking out. Before I thought of that, I cut a couple off on one side.

Circle Doodads

2009-03-08T19:43:00.003-04:00

I know, same picture as the last post. Lorrie asked what the circle doodads are. They are Clip O's (paperclips) that I picked up somewhere, probably a scrapbooking store. They are made by the American Tag Co. There were circles, hearts, stars, diamonds and triangles in the container.
The Fiber Diva meeting was fun. Everyone has been working hard on our challenge. I forgot to bring my camera, so I don't have any pictures of them. I'll try to remember my camera next time.

New Quilt

2009-03-04T19:52:00.002-05:00

I finally have something new to show. This is Marilyn's quilt for our new challenge. Her "theme" was to use a technique using big stitches to sew all the layers together, instead of sewing by machine or fusing. The background is a piece of my hand-painted fabric. I finished the edge with a zigzag stitch and then ran a piece of yarn around the edge. The fiber Divas meet this Friday. It feels good to have something to show this week. I've been having trouble getting into my quilting lately. I think part of it is the time of year. I seem to have trouble each year at this time.

The "I don't Know What to Call this Post" Post.

2009-02-19T09:05:00.005-05:00

Haven't been doing too much with quilting lately. Been too tired from work. I'm still only working part-time but get tired easily. So haven't had much energy to do what I like to do. I did make this ATC for a swap with Terri Stegmiller. I know it's a little late for Valentines Day but I did get it done and it is on it's way. At the last meeting of Fiber Divas, we decided on our challenge for this year. It's sort of a take off on cutting up a picture and each person making a piece of the picture. Except, we aren't using a picture. Each person decided on a shape for their quilt and cut it up into 6 pieces we also decided on a theme for the quilt. Now everyone has 1 piece from each quilt. So at the end of this, each person will get back the 6 pieces for their quilt and have to figure out how to put them together to make a whole piece again. Then to add another part to the challenge, some gave out fabric that each person had to use in their piece or drew some sort of line through the pattern pieces that have to be included in the finished piece.

I decided on a theme of "Going in Circles" and made a big rectangle that I cut into 6 unequal pieces. On each "pattern" piece I drew a circle for the person to include in the finished piece. At this point I'm thinking of attatching the pieces together with some type of rings but that may change when I actually get them back.

I've been working on Marilyn's piece and really need to get going on it. Her idea is to use a technique that she and Sue learned at a workshop called chopsuey sashiko. We are meeting tomorrow and I don't have anything to show. I have some ideas for Carmen's and Anita's pieces but am not quite sure how I'm actually going to execute the ideas. They both picked Ecclesiastes 3:1 for their theme (I almost picked that too!). Sue picked the moon for her theme and Lynn picked the song "Ride the River" by Eric Clapton.

The Winner Is......

2009-02-12T15:07:00.003-05:00

Finally got home from work. I decided to use Random.org to pick the winner.

The winner of my post card was comment #32, Lorri Lennox. I have sent an e-mail off to her letting her know that she is the winner. As soon as I hear from her, I will get the card sent off.

This was my first year doing One World One Heart and I had a lot of fun. I hope everyone else did. It's hard to believe that there were over 900 participants. WOW!!! Many thanks to Lisa Swifka for hosting this event. I still have a lot of blogs that I want to return to and take a closer look at! There just wasn't enough time to do it before today.

Congratulations Lorri!! I'm looking forward to hearing from you!

Drawing Later Today.

2009-02-12T05:10:00.003-05:00

Just a quick note. I will be drawing the winner for the postcard when I get home from work today. Don't have time to do it before I leave for work this morning. Check back later to see the winner. I will also be contacting the winner by e-mail.

One World-One Heart Giveaway

2009-01-26T14:45:00.006-05:00

Time got away from me and I missed the beginning of the One World-One Heart giveaway. If you haven't heard of it before, click on the logo below to learn more. This will also take you to a list of other blogs that are participating in the giveaway.

I finally decided on this postcard for my giveaway. It is one of my favorites.
If you'd like to enter please leave a comment on this post and only this post. You don't have to have a blog to enter but please leave me your e-mail so I can get a hold of you if you are the lucky winner. Leave your comment by midnight Eastern Standard Time on February 11th to be entered in the giveaway. I will draw a winner on February 12th.

Thanks for taking the time to visit my blog. I hope you enjoy it.

New Book

2009-01-21T08:56:00.003-05:00

Yesterday I recieved Gloria Hansen's book, "Digital Essentials". I've started reading it and love it. It's written in an easy way for the normal, non-techie person to understand. Having a book that is directed toward quilters is great. It answers questions that a quilter might have about printing onto fabric, putting photos up on the web, submitting images to a quilt show and lots, lots more. This will definately be one of the most used books in my digital library! If you are interested in it, go to Gloria's web site at the link above to learn more about it.

The Fiber Divas get together this afternoon. I'm really looking forward to it! We will try to figure out our schedule for this year and plan our challenge. The sky is nice and clear so we won't have to worry about cancelling again because of snow!

Thinking of Warmer Things

2009-01-18T15:30:00.003-05:00

Like alot of other people, we are in the middle of another snowstorm, although it seems to have stopped for now. Luckily, I didn't have to go into work today so am keeping nice in comfy in the house.

Here is the piece I've been working on. I found a bag of "stuff" tucked away upstairs. Must have been put there when I was in the hospital. I found some things I have been looking for and I also found the blue background piece that I used here. I used up some more scraps from my scrap bag for the flowers. The blue piece is postcard size and the backing is 1 1/2 inches bigger on each size.

Time to go start dinner. Hope everyone is staying warm!

Play Time

2009-01-16T10:29:00.004-05:00

I have 3 words for you today. It is COLD!!!!!!! I just can't get warm today. I'm really glad I didn't have to go into work at 5:30 this morning. It was -18 when I got up at 7:00. Don't want to know what it was at 5:30.

I did manage to get some play time in on Wednesday. I played around with felting some more. Used the hand felter to felt different items to the background. I experimented with yarn, recycled wool, roving and cheesecloth. Some of the recycled wool didn't felt so great. The edges started to look like they were fraying. One thing I want to try out is to compare recycled wool sweaters and recycled wool fabric (like from a skirt or jacket) and see how they each felt with the handfelter. I'm having fun with this - just playing around, not worrying about making a finished piece. Although at some point it would be nice to have something nice to display. I did play around with a wet felted piece but have lost it in the mess of my sewing area. Will show it when I find it.

This is a postcard that I made Wednesday. Just played around with pieces from my scrap basket and didn't worry about making a great piece. Just wanted to create something, anything to get myself going again. I have another small piece I started that I need to finish. It sort of reminds me of trees or fence posts. I wanted to play around with working more abstract. Didn't have trees or fenceposts in my mind when I made it. I was just playing with shapes.

I remember now, why I don't use variagated threas on my postcard edges - I don't like it! I think it distracts from the rest of the postcard.

Better get moving, I have to eat lunch and get ready for work. Working 12-4 today.

A Fiber Diva Christmas Party

2009-01-13T19:34:00.003-05:00

Haven't had a chance to post lately. Friday the Fiber Divas had our Christmas party. We had a great time. Carmen still had her tree up and the house was still decorated. The food was delicious. On my way over I realized that I had forgotten my camera. We chatted alot and shared new projects and ideas and exchanged presents. It is so much fun getting presents from like minded friends who know what you like. Fabric, thread, yarn and other fibers, tea, homemade blueberry chutney, beads. You would think that everyone coordinated their presents, everything goes together!

Anita gave us all wool squares which I have been playing with.

I started work on Monday. Only 4 hours but I was really dragging by the time I got home! I'll only be working part time for a while until I get my strength back.

I've been having trouble starting a new project. There are so many things I want to do that I just don't know where to start. Tomorrow I have the day off and will set aside some time to myself while everyone is gone and make myself start something - anything. It doesn't matter what I make just as long as I make something.

Birds of Change Exchange and too Many Projects

2009-01-07T20:38:00.008-05:00

I've signed up for Birds of Change Exchange over at Creative Kismet Blog. It sounds really fun. Click on the above link to learn more about it. I've been trying to get the button up on my blog and it just won't appear. Since I've managed to get other buttons to appear, I'm assuming it has something to do with Blogger. I'll try again tomorrow and see what happens.

Lately, I've been thinking about what I want to do creatively. There are so many things that sound fun and that I want to try that I don't know what to do and get nothing done. I love quilting and anything fiber related. But I'd also like to do some mixed media things, some easy jewelry things, more explorations with felting(wet, needle and recycled) and I have the new Photoshop Elements program to play with. So, what to do. Do I just do whatever hits me ? Or do I make a descision to focus on one thing at a time to get proficient at something?

Today was supossed to be the Fiber Divas Christmas party but guess what happened today! If you guessed snow, you got it! We have now rescheduled the party for Friday. Looks like the weather will be ok. Hope we don't get any suprises!!

School was cancelled today. At least that means that Alex didn't miss another day. He's feeling better but still has a bad cough. Don't know if he will be going tomorrow or not.

It's finally happening, I'm going back to work. It's been 9 months. I've been having much more energy and feeling much more like my old self so I decided it was time to go back part time. I'm not sure I really want to go back. I really enjoy being a full-time mom, cooking, crafting, etc. but we could really use my income. Now it will be back to juggling everyones schedule and having to fit my projects in between everything else. I am grateful though that my job is still there to go back to - especially with the economy the way it is.

Playing with my New Toy

2009-01-04T22:50:00.008-05:00

Happy New Year!!!

I meant to post before this but have been having too much fun playing with the kids and my new "toy", Photoshop Elements 7. I've been wanting this program for a long time and finally used some Christmas money to get it. There's a lot to learn with this program but it will be worth it. Learning this program is one of my goals for 2009.

Here is a photo I took a couple of years ago, that I played around with.

Love the new color. It might not be realistic but hey I like the brighter more vibrant look.
Then I applied some filters and got these next two looks. A quilt or fabric like these would be really neat.

Kara goes back to school tomorrow but Alex will be home another couple of days. He spent the second half of Christmas vacation sick. Poor kid!!! Went from a fever and chills to a bad cough. He is getting better but still not his best. He went to bed before 8 tonight (on his own). This from a kid who will try and get away with staying up as late as he can.

The Fiber Divas are getting together this Wednesday for our Christmas party! Our date before Christmas was snowed out. Hopefully Wednesday will be good weather! I haven't looked at a forecast in a while. I'm really looking forward to this, we haven't gotten together as a group for a long time - can't remember when.

It's almost midnight now, so I'd better get to bed. Lately, I've been finding that late at night when everyone else is in bed is a good time for me to get some things done. That will change when I go back to work! I really enjoy having quiet time by myself.

More Felted Balls

2008-12-30T16:25:00.005-05:00

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

2008-12-26T08:47:00.004-05:00

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!!

2008-12-25T18:27:00.005-05:00

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

2008-12-22T16:30:00.005-05:00

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

2008-12-20T21:48:00.004-05:00

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

2008-12-15T21:32:00.006-05:00

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

2008-12-09T13:29:00.002-05:00

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

2008-12-04T14:07:00.003-05:00

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

2008-11-27T12:03:00.004-05:00

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!

2008-11-25T10:18:00.002-05:00

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

2008-11-22T14:15:00.006-05:00

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

2008-11-21T21:09:00.002-05:00

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

2008-11-20T09:05:00.000-05:00

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

2008-11-18T09:59:00.001-05:00

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

2008-11-16T18:28:00.000-05:00

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

2008-11-10T10:19:00.000-05:00

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

2008-11-03T13:28:00.000-05:00

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

2008-11-01T11:37:00.000-04:00

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?

2008-09-26T11:05:00.000-04:00

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

2008-06-11T20:12:00.000-04:00

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

2008-05-19T19:19:00.000-04:00

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

2008-04-06T20:44:00.000-04:00

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

2008-04-06T15:41:00.000-04:00

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

2008-03-09T19:20:00.000-04:00

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!!!

Lost Fabric - Found

2008-03-07T19:21:00.001-05:00

I finally figured out what I had done with the fabric I had misplaced. I had put it in my totebag to take to the meeting last Friday that was cancelled! These are the pieces that I dyed using Robbie Joy Eklows technique. These are only fat quarters - biggest I could do inside. I'd like to try some larger pieces in the summer when I can dye outside. The first one is my favorite.

I was feeling well enough that I made it to the art quilt group today but I'm really feeling tired tonight. I have a bunch of pictures of the round robin quilts that I will post tomorrow. I also have more of the pictures that we are using that I need to scan. It was fun to be able to get together again - had the meeting just in time, we're supossed to get more bad weather tonight.

Better go and rest. Tomorrow is my last day home then it's back to work! Although I would rather have time off of work when I was feeling good!!!

More Dyeing Results - Finally

2008-03-06T08:51:00.001-05:00

It's been a while since I've had the energy to post. I ended up with the crud that is going around work, although I don't seem to have gotten it as bad as others have. Just hope I don't speak too soon and end up getting worse.
I finally got up enough energy to take pictures of some of the second batch of dyeing I did. Although, I can't find the pieces that I dyed using Robbi Joy Eklows technique. I don't know what has happened to them while I've been sick. Frustrating!!!
This first piece was a cloth I used to pick up the excess dye on one of those misplaced pieces.

This was a run of fabric going from fuschia to sun yellow. Again with this, I added a second piece of fabric to the bag 15 minutes after the first piece went in. This was a light to dark run of raspberry dye. The 3 darkest, I added a little black. I had done this run once before and really liked the colors. This was a light to dark run of some blue color. Can't remember the name.

I haven't had the energy to do anything else since this. I'm hoping I feel well enough to go to quilt group tomorrow. We had to cancel the last meeting because of snow and rescheduled it for last Friday. Had to cancel that one because we were meeting at Lynn Elkinton's house again and she became sick. Hopefully tomorrows meeting will work out.

I find it very frustrating to be at home and not feel well enough to work on any of my projects. I was doing so well and have so many things I need to be working on!!

Dyeing Results

2008-02-27T15:01:00.000-05:00

Here are the results from the dyeing I did on Monday. I think the second and third pieces from the top actually belong in the purple run in the next picture. In each group I did I put 1 piece of fabric in right away and then waited 15 minutes and put a second piece in. It's interesting how the different dyes are used up at different rates.

The gray piece on tip is a gray piece I over dyed with black. More interesting. It's also interesting how the pieces that have more red in them are more mottled than the bluer ones. I don't know if the colors would have come out differently if my dyes weren't so old but since they look fine, I'm not too worried about it. I just won't do anything that I'll want to duplicate down the road.

This piece and the next I put dye in the bag directly onto the fabric and then added the soda ash solution. I love doing this because you never know what the results will be but they are almost always really neat!!

I did some more dyeing today. Started out early in the morning since everything was already out. Couldn't go anywhere since we got at least a foot of snow last night. Now just have to wait to rinse everything out. I also tried Robbie Joy Eklow's method for direct dyeing but did it on a lot smaller scale. I should have taken a picture of my set up with everything draped in a plastic tarp. Still have some dye left over that I may use to over dye some pieces but had to quit for the day to get something done around the house!! What am I doing? Blogging - not housework!!!

Dyeing Day

2008-02-25T20:06:00.000-05:00

This is what I have to show for today. I've been really wanting to get some dyeing done but it takes so long for me to get everything set up that I keep putting it off. I don't have a space that I can use just for dyeing so everytime I want to dye I have to pull everything out and set it up. I will rinse these out tomorrow after I get home from work. I've kept everything out so I can set up easily again on Wed. and dye some more. I have the bags sitting on top of the pellet stove so they would stay warm.

I'm really hoping these come out ok. My dyes are getting really old. I can't believe some of them have 1/02 written on them!!! I also want to see if I have some fabrics to over dye. I should be able to get more dyeing done this summer since we shouldn't have to worry about the water level in the well with all the snow we have!!!

Old and New

2008-02-18T19:10:00.000-05:00

The kids had another snow day from school!! They are never going to get out for the summer the way things are going! Alex doesn't care but Kara is really getting frustrated. It was so icy last night that Gary couldn't make it home from work. He made it part way and ended up having to stay with some people we know. There were lots of accidents and I93 was closed. Glad I didn't have to go into work today!!!

I already showed this postcard in an earlier post but I really like it and decided I would finish it up and send it to Susan Lenz for the Cyber Fyber swap. She really has put alot of work into this swap and exhibit!!

This is my piece that I made from Anita's picture for our round robin. I had a lot of trouble figuring what I wanted to do for it. I finally decided to to do a sillouette (spelling?) of the mountain against a night sky. This picture came out lighter than the actual quilt. For the mountain, I fused stips of blue fabric to some muslin and then put black tulle over it. I made wrinkles in the tulle to make it look like shadows on the mountain. Once I had the mountain sewn onto the background, I added gold beads for stars. You can see a few of them on here.
I'm working on my quilt from Marilyn's picture. I used Shiva Paint Sticks to make the ridges for the shutters. I couldn't remember how long it had to sit before I could iron it so I let it sit 48 hours. I now have to figure out how I'm going to put this together.

Tomme Fent is doing the Grab Bag Challenge again this year. I'm really excited about it. I had a blast doing it the last time. Each person puts together a grab bag of fabrics and beads, yarns, found objects, etc. This must fit into one of the cardboard Priority Mail envelopes. We send this to Tomme and she swaps them out. We then have a couple of months to make a quilt using someone elses grab bag. You can add from your own things. Once the quilt is done, you send it back to Tomme and she sends it back to the owner of the grab bag. I've already sent my grab bag off to Tomme. Can't show a picture of it though since we don't know who's grab back we get and we don't know who has our grab bag until the quilts are done.

Pictures from Quilt Group

2008-02-13T23:23:00.000-05:00

Well, a week after our meeting I'm finally getting pictures posted of our round robin. This first one is Lynn Elkinton's picture. It was taken up in Maine. She e-mailed us this picture and I already know what I want to do for it but have others I need to get done first.

This is what Lynn did from her photo. This was done on her embellisher. She did a really great job with it. Really makes me want to go out and get an embellisher. I can't though. I have enough I need to focus on and perfect right now as it is. Don't need to add something new!

This is Lynn Elkinton's piece from Carmen's picture. I don't have a copy of Carmen's picture yet. Again Lynn used her embellisher. Lots of texture to her pieces.

This is Carmen's piece from her own picture. Hers also has a lot of texture in it. She used all sorts of neat things in hers. A crumpled paper bag painted green, cloth wrapped pipe cleaners for the logs, 3-D leaves that she made. The red one was out of some silk paper she made at one of our meetings and alot of other neat stuff.

I did this backwards, this is Anita's quilt from her picture. Her picture is at the bottom. It came out really good.

This is Marilyn's piece from Anita's picture. She used all sorts of different kinds of fabric for this. I can't remember what they were though.
Here is Anita's picture. I think she said she took it in Nepal. I have her picture now and am stuck on what to do that isn't just a landscape. I'm still working on Marilyn's picture. The nice thing about having the pictures on my computer is I can pass on the original and still be able to work from them.

For Marilyn's I'm making a piece of paper fabric for the background, which is a building. I will add a door and windows with laundry hanging out. It took me a while to come up with the paper fabric for the building. I wanted to do something different for the building instead of just plain white fabric. Took the liberty of changing the building color from white to a brownish tan but it does look more interesting.

Better stop blogging and go and actually get some stuff done!!

Cyber Fiber and Round Robin Quilt

2008-02-09T19:30:00.000-05:00

My card from Susan Lenz for the Cyber Fyber swap and exhibition came today. I really like it!! Now to finish up mine to send to her!

This is my quilt I made from my photo for our quilt group project. It's a little dark since I forgot to take a picture during the day!! You can see the actual picture I used here

I will be posting more photos from our meeting soon. I forgot my camera so Lynn Elkinton took them and e-mailed them to me. There are so many creative ideas and quilts coming from this. It's really interesting to see all the different ways the photos are interpreted.

Cyber Fiber Trade

2008-02-06T22:12:00.000-05:00

No pictures today. Just wanted to let everyone know about the Cyber Fiber Trade that Susan Lenz is organizing. I've already signed up and and will recieve postcard number 96. Now to get busy and make a postcard to send in exchange. What a great idea to organize a trade and exhibition like this!! Click on the above link to get more info about it.

Mixed Media Quilt

2008-02-05T19:38:00.000-05:00

I was inspired by the "Go Green" article and challenge in the newest Quilting Arts Magazine and made this 5"x5" quiltlet. I call it Remnants of the Past. I made paper fabric from old patterns for the background. I colored it with some paint and when it was dry, I went over it with my ink pads in brown and tans to highlight some areas. I added old lace that had been cut off of some piece of clothing. This I also highlighted with the ink pads. The old buttons are from my button box. I added some cross stitches to hold the lace down on the button side but you can't see then very well in this picture. I used a piece of old linen from a stained and torn dresser scarf for the back. The binding is an old paper tape measure. The tape measure was folded in half down the length and sewn together. I was able to take the stitching out and open it up and use it for the binding.
I even have a square frame that I picked up a long time ago at a yard sale or second hand shop that would work perfectly with it. I'm always keeping my eyes open for frames at second hand shops or yardsales. I have found some really neat ones this way.

Fabric Fun

2008-01-30T10:36:00.000-05:00

Here are some of the fabrics I made at the class with Jane Balshaw. This first one was using gutta resist. It would really take practice to get it so the paints don't bleed through the gutta lines. I would love to do more but don't think I will. My hand was really bothering me with squeezing the gutta out of the bottle. Because I do alot of cake decorating at work, I'm really aware of what bothers my hand.

This is a piece of painted shibori. The blue/green fabric was a piece I had painted. I added dark purple paint (looks black) when I did the shibori. I love the look.

This is another piece of shibori and a piece that I discharged with Jacquard Discharge Paste. When I was ironing out the shibori piece at home, I just happened to put it next to the discharge piece and loved how they looked. The discharge piece wasn't quilte the right red so I set out to see if I could make a similar piece to go with the shibori piece.

This is what I came up with. I just love how they look together. Now I just need to figure out what to do. I'm thinking some sort of collage so I can leave these pieces whole.

This is my work in progress for the round robin. It's all fused together, I just need to figure out how to add some highlights to the vases and add lines to the bottle to show the square corners. I'm using paper with a rectangle cut out to figure out how I want to crop the piece.
I'd better stop procrastinating with my blogging and start working on something befor I have to go to work at 1.

New Round Robin Started

2008-01-28T08:53:00.000-05:00

I haven't had a chance to post anything since we had our meeting Friday. It was so nice to get together again. We showed what we had picked out for our pictures for this years round robin. A few of us had the chance to get pieces made. We took the idea for this round robin from the Frayed Edges "5 Artist's 5 Views". We Changed their idea to fit our group. Each of us has picked a picture and everyone will make an interpretation of the picture. Each person will recieve all the "quilts" made from their picture and will figure out a way to attatch them so they can be displayed as 1 piece. We can interpret the pictures literally, crop them or make an abstract interpretation. Anything goes. So we don't have a certain size we have to make each piece. Will be interesting to put these together at the end. We are hoping we can have a show this year. We are still trying to figure out where. We don't have alot of options in rural NH.

This is my picture. I decided to go with a simple still life.

I didn't get a chance to finish my quilt to go with my picture but this is how I cropped the photo to make my interpretation. I think I will cut out the small bottle on the bottom. I love the shapew of the vases and the shadow in the back.

This is Susan's interpretation of her photo, which was a field of lupine.

Meant to show Marilyn's picture first but here is her quilt. The picture is below. She took the picture in Italy (I think) and always wondered what was happening behind the shuttered windows. Her quilt show what she imagined. If you can't tell, it's a lady bathing in a tub.

I have Marilyn's picture to work from next. I have and idea just need to finish mine and then get started on Marilyn's. I do have an idea.

Saturday, I took Painting 2 at Jane Balshaw's studio. It was a fun day and I have alot of ideas from that. Too many ideas swimming in my head and not enough time!!!

I will post more about Saturday when I get some pictures taken.

Something New

2008-01-20T20:42:00.000-05:00

I made these postcards last week. This is part of a class I'm taking with Myrna Giesbrecht. We were supossed to create 3 postcards and pick a theme to work with and create a little series. I started out with a theme of "houses" but the cards developed a mind of their own and my theme became "pathways".

This one is one of my favorites. The backgrounds for all of the pieces started out with strips of fabric from my scrap bag. This one I stenciled through sequin waste and then added some painted cheesecloth and some beads.

This one, I quilted the background and didn't really like the results so I added cheesecloth to cover it up. As I was playing with it, I put a folded strip of cheesecloth on top and thought it looked like a path. This is where the "pathways" theme came from. I decided to add the black and tan fabric as "trees"

This is one I didn't like. I made a path out of gold fabric. I like the path but then I decided to quilt it in circles but really didn't like the way it looked with the cheesecloth. Also, the bottom tension was off so the stitching on the top half is funky. I decided to try coloring over it with Shiva Paint Sticks. The side with the bad tension turned out terrible. The stiching pulled up to the top. The path and the bottom half looked good so I cut off the top half and will put the part I like into my idea notebook. So even though I didn't like the piece, it wasn't a waste. I did learn something!

This is the piece with the house on it. It's ok but sort of blah. Maybe if I add some hand stitching to it.

Friday, my art quilt group is finally meeting again. It's been a long time since our Christmas party. I'm really looking forward to it. Although, I still haven't picked a picture out and made a quilt from it for our next round robin. I just can't find any of my pictures that I want to use. I have tomorrow off and I think I will make a still life with some bottles or vases or something. It's amazing that you can take a picture and instantly print it from your computer. Lucky for me!!

New Work

2008-01-05T14:45:00.000-05:00

This is what I've been working on the last couple of days. Although I did start it months ago. I applied wrinkled tissue paper onto a mounted canvas and painted it. The colors here are alot duller than the real piece. After I painted it, I couldn't decide what to do with it. I brought it out from the cupboard the other day and just started playing. I added the red stenciling through sequin waste and then stamped gold leaves on with a stamp I had made a while ago.

After finishing the background, I made 3-D leaves and added some twigs. This is a close-up to show the details. Not the best but my batteries died so I can't try again. I think I will make the middle leaf again. The veins are a little funky and even if no one else notices, I will.

The colors in the close-up are a little better but still not as bright.

2008 Goals

2008-01-02T17:11:00.000-05:00

I lied yesterday, I did make this over the holidays. It wasn't much but at least I did something. I pulled out tissue paper and grabbed the closest thing on hand - my journal from Sue Bleiweith. I had colored a few of the pages with water color pencils before Christmas so the pages wouldn't be blank. On the first page I made this flower with torn tissue and used colored pencils to highlight it. Not a work of art but at least I did something creative.

At the beginning of each year I try to set some goals I want to try and achieve during the year. I don't hold them like resolutions where you either do them or you don't. During the year, I will review them and modify them as needed. If I decide, my work is going in a different directon than I had written at the beginning of the year, I will change them to reflect the new direction.

Some of my goals are as simple as taking a class to less concrete like developing my own style more.

I write these goals down in my journal - don't know if that is really the word for it. I keep ideas, pictures, samples, drawings, doodles, etc. in it.

It's interesting to look back at some of the goals I had a couple of years ago and see how different they are to what my goals are now.

Goodbye 2007, Hello 2008

2008-01-02T11:58:00.001-05:00

I can't believe another year has past. The older I get, the faster time goes!! I haven't had a chance to make anything over the holidays. I actually cleaned up my work space for my husband. Since my work space is in the livingroom, I cleaned and picked up my stuff so the livingroom was neat and tidy over the holidays. My husband is a neat and tidy person and he married me!!! Having a neat and tidy livingroom meant I couldn't do much. Really didn't have the energy to do much anyways. Working in a bakery at our local grocery over the holidays is exhausting. This year was really bad because of all the snow! The snow is fine but it brought up all the skiers from points south and made us busier than usual for the holidays!

I entered a contest on Terri Stegmiller's blog for naming one of her paintings. I won! I couldn't believe it. This is the paper painting that I won. I love it.

My friend, Susan, who is one of the ladies in our art quilt group, has a website now. Click HERE to see it. Her work is great!

Merry Christmas

2007-12-23T17:36:00.000-05:00

Don't know if I will have time to post again before Christmas so just wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas! We will finally have a white christmas like I remember from when I was a kid! It's been so long. This is what it looked like from our deck after all the know we got Thursday when the kids had the day off of school.
I don't have anything quilt related to post about. I gave myself permission not to work on anything until after Christmas. Just too much going on. Also gave myself permission not to stress out over not doing anything!!

Hope everyone has a fun day with their family and friends!

2007-12-14T20:03:00.000-05:00

Stopped to check the mailbox on my way to the christmas party today and this journal was in the mail. It was from Sue Bleiweiss. She had a drawing on her blog and I was picked for this one. What a nice suprise!! She had so many people enter that she picked 3 winners! I love the button!

This is the inside. There are 3 signatures of different sizes and a pocket on the cover with fun paper stuck in. Some of the pages have pockets and the pages on the middle signature fold out. Now to figure out what I'm going to use this for.

The Christmas party was really fun. We had lots of food, talk and presents. Of course, I forgot to bring my camera. We decided on a what to do for our next round robin. We used the idea from the Frayed Edges of their five artists five views grid display as a starting point then we changed it to fit our group. We are each going to pick a photo and a maximum size we want the pieces to be. Each person will make their interpretation of the photo and make it the size they want up to the maximum size. So when I get my round robin back, I might have 8 pieces that are all different sizes. When I get it back, it will be up to me to put the quilts together some way to display them as a unit. We are hoping to have a show to be able to display them at.

Now to pick a photo and make my quilt from it. We don't meet until January 25 so we have time to get started. I'll miss that meeting since I will be taking a painting class with Jane Balshaw that day. I'm disappointed that I won't be at the meeting but I'm really looking forward to the class. It was my birthday present to myself since my Birthday is Jan 27. She also has a class on color theory that I want to take when she offers it next. I had a hard time choosing between the 2 classes and only picked the painting one because it was closer to my birthday.

Blue Box

2007-12-13T16:30:00.000-05:00

I haven't had much time to make anything lately. Been too busy!! I did manage to make this box last week. Used the pattern on the Fiber and Stitch site. It will be filled with chocolate and given as a gift. Tomorrow my quilt group is meeting for our Christmas lunch. Wish you could be here Geriann!!! I'm really looking forward to this. I always look forward to our meetings. I'm making a spinach salad with pecans, dried cranberries, red onions, and crumbled bacon. I have poppyseed salad dressing to go with it.

2007-12-03T19:30:00.000-05:00

Fridays meeting was fun. We had show and tell. All I had to show was the pieces that I made for Fast Friday Fabric Challenge. Lynn E. showed us some experiments she had done using the new paints she bought when we went to Lowell. Susan, showed us the new quilt she is working on based on dance. It is a lovely quilt. We made plans for our Christmas party in 2 weeks. Wish you could be here Geriann!!!!
After dessert we went to Susan's wet studio and played with Shiva paint sticks. The jagged stripes were done using torn pieces of paper as a mask. Before I went over, I cut a couple of small paper stencils to use. The vase was made using the stencil cut out as a mask.

These vases were done with the stencil onto painted fabric.

These were done using the stencil cutout on darker painted fabric.

I had seen the stencil idea in Linda and Laura Kemshall's book "The Painted Quilt". The torn paper idea I saw in Ruth Issett's book "Print, Pattern & Colour".

After playing with some of these ideas, I came home and ordered some paint sticks. Told Gary they were one of the Christmas presents he was buying me. This way I will get what I want!! He doesn't know what to get me in the way of sewing supplies, mixed media supplies, etc unless I go and show him or buy them myself. The hard part will be waiting until Christmas to use them.

Speaking of Christmas, it looks like we will have a white one unless we get a lot of really warm weather to melt the snow. School was cancelled today and both Gary and I just happen to have today off of work. Good thing, I wouldn't have been able to get out of our driveway at 5:15 this morning!

We are also hoping that our oven will be working by Christmas or we will be thinking of alternatives for Christmas dinner. Gary and my Dad think they know what is wrong and have ordered a part. It's been interesting to come up with easy meal idea that don't involve the oven!! I keep wanting to make something and then realize I can't because I have to bake it. Today, I even looked up a no bake cookie recipe and made those. I knew Kara would like them because they used chocolate and peanut butter.

2007-11-29T19:07:00.000-05:00

This piece I did for the November challenge of the Fiber & Stitch Yahoo group. This group is for anyone who has a subscription to Fiber and Stitch online magazine.
Novembers challenge was to make a piece showing what home meant to you. To me home is a place where you feel safe, loved and accepted. Something I try to pass on to my kids. The background is a piece of paper fabric that I made, then painted. I then stamped on top of it. The heart is from a piece of silk paper that I made. I may try to stamp a few more words around the heart. When I did the stamping, I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it and now there are some empty space.

Tomorrow my art quilt group meets. I'm looking forward to it.

Challenge Postcard

2007-11-28T14:52:00.001-05:00

Today I attempted another quilt for the Fast Friday Fabric Challenge. This challenge was to use size and/or proportion in your work. I used a photo that was provided and attempted an abstract from it. I find it very hard to make abstracts. Pictoral quilts come really easy but working with abstracts I find very difficult. I keep second guessing myself and questioning my decisions. I even question my color choices. The landscape I showed in the last post came much easier.
Wish I had the original photo to show but that is on our yahoo group.
I had planned on doing alot of things but sad to say this little post card took most of my time. I did paint and stamp some paper fabric for another project but that is it!

Fast Friday Challenge #15

2007-11-26T16:41:00.000-05:00

Fast Friday Fabric Challenge, isuued it's new challenge on Friday. Make a quilt keeping scale and proportion in mind. I made this in response. I still need to add some details like grass around the fence. I also think I will crop out some of the sky. I really wanted to do something abstract for this challenge but I really have a hard time making abstact quilts.
Right now especially, I seem to be in a funk. No matter what I start working on, I keep second guessing myself, telling myself it's not good enough. I had so much I wanted to get done today but it was so frustrating to have to clean an area off to work in and move my ironing board and table to get to my fabric cupboard. Now that I've done that, the livingroom is a mess and the kids will be coming home and messing everything up since this is where they do their homework and watch tv. Just really frustrated. I even got the new Quilting Arts Magazine, which usually inspires me but this time I leafed through it and just got depressed. Made me feel like I'll never be good enough. I know that I shouldn't be comparing myself with others, just focus on myself. But today I really feel like I should just stick with crafty stuff and following someone elses patterns.
Sorry about the ranting, I'm just really in a funk and can't seem to get out.