Holiday's End

We had a great time with my son Brandon & his lovely Laura. We enjoyed their company for our holidays. They left early on Wednesday, & I've been working.
Today I played a little in my studio. I pulled together a few items to submit to Somerset Studio. They are asking for things to go into their "Nature Preserved" theme. I thought my October JQ fit the theme, & had a couple of other things that might work, so I'll send them all. Below is the card I made to go with the items, I used a piece of my rusted fabric, & some hand painted cheese cloth, along with one of my calling cards cut up.

This is a wall hanging, I made a while back, using shells & coral bits that Brandon had given me from Kwajelein.

This little Birchbark angel was a gift for us this year, from our friends John & Kathy Jolman. John made her, & then embellished her with some vintage beads that they got at a Pow-Wow.

This is a full view of the basket we got from Brandon & Laura. I think I should wrap it in cotton & turn it into a snowman for the holidays next year.

This ceramic plaque came from my dear friend Ilene. Just thinking of her & her hubby Stu, makes me smile.
Speaking of hubbies....my DH was playing Paul Bunyun today, & sliced a bit of skin off of his finger with a saw, while trying to cut a piece of firewood. Lucky he has a nurse for a wife!

I hope you'll all have a safe & Happy New Year! Love & Best Wishes to all!!

In His Shoe

This shoe was one of my oldest son, Brandon's 1st walking shoes. I only had the one, I don't know what happened to the other one, but I painted it with copper paint, & felted a wool ball to fit inside for a pin cusion. It was one of our gifts to him & Laura for the new baby to be.

Merry Christmas

Christmas has sped by so fast. It's been fun having the kids here, Brandon & his sweet wife Laura. We've gotten to know her better, & she's such a funny girl, I really love her.

My DH was razzing me for not refilling the paper towel. I hate my paper towel holder , I have trouble screwing it back together.
I got a case & these lenses for my camera from my DH.
& I took pictures of this neat basket from the kids, & them relaxing after our gift exchange,using my new lenses. Laura in her new fleece top, & Brandon playing with the X-Box that Laura gave him.

The owl came back this evening, while we were eating dinner. Brandon & I tryed taking pictures, shinning a big flash light on him. It was fun, but this was the closest thing to a picture that we got. Looks like Ghost Owl!

Merry Christmas to all!

Christmas Eve 2006

I hope you're all having a wonderful holiday time. We're enjoying our company, & fresh snow (we've gotten a couple of feet of the white stuff). Brandon & Laura went snowboarding at Alyeska Resort yesterday. It was Laura's 1st time, & she did great. They had a great time.

I wanted to show you a couple of the things I made as gifts this year, now that I can. This 1st is a quilted clock that I made for my friend Judy, whose name I drew at work. I was glad to get her name, as she is my closest friend at work. I used a piece of my hand painted fabric, & stamed silver cups on it, & little sayings for the number places. I thread painted a teapot for the center, using Holoshimmer threads & bits of red wool.

For our feast last night, I finally tried Naomi's pie. It was from Allie's Thanksgiving . Thanks Allie, we all loved it. It was a little something different from the usual apple pie. We only ate about 1/2 of it because we were so full from the Smoked Salmon Pasta & pear salad, & rolls that we'd had .

Everyone was stuffed after the meal.
We exchanged gifts. Here's a couple details of what I gave Mindy.

She loved it.The girls liked their rotery mat, cutter & rulers too. Both of them quilt (I started hope when she was 4 years old. We had to set her on the big dictionary & put the machine pedal on a box for her to reach. She doesn't have to do that any more.)

Mindy fuses glass. This was the snowflake ornament she made for me this year. I have quite a collection of them from her. I keep them in my kitchen window.

Here's the fused glass plate she made for me, from clear glass & frit. I love it.

She also felt compelled to add to the chickens in my kitchen, with this cute wooden plaque

& this metal chicken, who has already found a roost in my chicken coop.
So this is only the begining of my Christmas & it's already been great. I am very blessed to have my good friends & family.

Happy holidays to all of you out there.

Home for the Holidays

Here are the things that my secret Santa from work gave me. We had our exchange yesterday. I was thrilled with the whole package. Loved the snowmen, & the red silicone bread pan.
Brandon & Laura made it in from Kwaj . Brandon picked the shells off the beach last week & brought them for me to play with. The little Pooh ornament came from my friend Judy.

We had a nice snowfall over the last 2 days, & Brandon was like a kid, getting out there in it, to dig out his old Landrover, & get his snowboard & some of his winter gear out of it, so he can use it while he's here.

Laura enjoyed the fire. She's gotten used to the warmth of the equator living, so it's a little cool here, but she's a good sport about it.

Aren't they a cute couple? So far her pregnacy is going well.

Brandon shoveled the front steps for us.

Here he is geared up & hamming it up for me. They are going snowboarding tomorrow. Laura's OB-Gyn Dr. told her she will be fine snowboarding in the 1st trimester, so she's going to take a lesson at Alyeska (on the bunny hill of course).

Wip Wed, & hearing things

Having my morning coffee, I turned on Carol Duavall, & began to wonder if there was something wrong with my ears, or the TV. Then I turned down the TV & heard the Owls.

There are 2 of them, hooting away in my yard. They've been out there for at least an hour now, hooting back & forth. I trying to take a picture, I can see them both setting in the tree tops, but can't figure out how to shut off the flash and all the auto features that wouldn't allow the picture I want to take. Oh well.

As for a WIP, I thought I'd show you my iron cozy. I'm still felting an edge on it. I don't want to cover the entire base, as it would likely cause the iron to overheat, so I'm just covering the top of the tank to protect it from another meltdown!

It actually covers better than it looks in this shot, I didn't realize I'd pulled it a little sideways when I turned it for this shot, & have to get going to work, right now, no time to reshoot.

Working today & tomorrow plus oncall tomorrow night, & Brandon, my DS & his wife Laura, are flying in tonight for a week long visit. See ya all later!

Roving & ramble

This is a somewhat random post. I worked today, we had 18 patients. Now realize, Saturdays are supposed to be emergency surgery only. Well it's becoming a regular day for us.

After work I went to a Weaver& Spinner's house to buy wool rovings for needle felting. I got a big bag full of fun fiber for just $20.00! That's a bargain for me!

This little 5"x7" clock is something I made for a friend. I used some of the rust-dyed fabric I did this past summer. I tried quilting on it, but found that the rusted areas were impossible to quilt through! The rust in the fabric actually cut my thread when ever I tried to stitch through it. I tried several things including loosening my top tension, & changing my needle, but every time I hit a rusty spot it cut my thread. I know it was the rust, & not rotten thread, because I thread painted the medallion behind the hands on the clock with the same needle & thread, without touching the tension again, after I gave up on the quilting, & never broke the thread once with that. The fabric also split along the stitch line in the rusty areas, so I'll have to use this for things other than quilting it directly. The fiber on top of the clock is silk rovings, which I needled into the fabric with a felting needle. The whole thing is mounted on a pre-primed canvas.
Here is a look at the "Ugly Fabric" that I promised you earlier this week. It's the Aussie Challenge fabric. The quilters of Queensland, Australia, do a challenge every year, & they've invited the Alaskans to join in. My last entry won a viewers choice. I don't have high hopes for this one though. I keep seeing wild pink flamingos, wacky toucans, & green gaters with big eyes!

Fiber Festival Board, & Creative Solution

I'm still worried about my sister Em. She isn't answering her phone right now, which makes me think she must really be sick.

Last night we had a meeting of our Alaska Fiber Festival planning board. I'm in charge of dolls, so if any of you out there do dolls & would like to be in our March 2008 show, please let me know.

We spent about 5 hours, & still don't know for sure who all we'll be having for teachers. We're looking for a needle felter who makes spectacular dolls & teaches. Do you know any?

We have a Haute Coture Designer who will be teaching. & we think we have the quilting teacher chosen.

Our theme, I think I can reveal now, is "Half Baked Alaska". We will be having several challenges, including 'Tundra Trench Coat' (must be below the knee), & 'Trendy Tundra Boots'.

The Aussie Challenge will be on again. I'll show you the fabric in another posting. We've dubbed it the Ugly Fabric.

We will be having a 'Barrow-more Album' challenge, & we're hoping to include a venue of antique quilts for store displays with our Quilt Walk downtown. We'll have a 'Half Baked Challenge' which will be art quilts no larger than a cookie sheet. There are more things, but that enough to start.

This is my package for the Salvation Army Angel Tree. I picked a 13 year old girl. It didn't give any sizes or suggestions, so I decided to try & inspire her creativity. The bottom is an art kit with paints & colored pencils. I included, watercolor paper, & a sketchbook, a very inspiring book on papercrafting, & another on drawing, & one of my reversible purses, & a barrett that my friend Mindy made. I put a handmade card inside, with a note that I wrote, that just said "Creativity feeds the soul".

While I was working on the bow, Broc went into ecstacy over Jen's bracelet pin cushion again. Did you put catnip in there Jen?

While in the shower yesterday morning, I had sudden inspiration on how to handle the meltdown on my new iron. I had called the repair people & it will cost $98.00 to replace the housing. I also talked to Rowenta, & since it's damage due to user error, they won't cover it. They are sending me a nice coupon for about 1/2 the cost though, & the guy told me they have a new design coming out soon that won't be able to have this happen, so I'll wait & buy that with the coupon. In the mean time, I'm making a COZY for my iron! 1st I took a transparent plastic bag & made a pattern.
Cut it to fit.

Took my old Fiberglass press sheet,

& taped my pattern in place.

Cut the fiberglass to fit.

then cut a piece of wool. Next I needle felted around the edges, & took 3 glass beads, to cover the area where the melting occured. Surrounded each bead with more needle felted wool. Now I just have to trim it up & finish the sides on the cover. It's a WIP, but I'm almost finished already! & It won't effect the warranty, if anything goes wrong I'll send it in & get the housing replaced then, but for now this is my creative solution, & when the new model comes out, I'll buy that & keep this for backup.

I know a lot of you think I'm crazy for wanting an iron that's this costly, but you have to try one. They make ironing a dream. It's so much better than even the top of the line Black & Decker. I had one of those too, & hated it. This iron really makes ironing a pleasure.

Now for my dishwasher woes. Keep your fingers crossed, the repair guy is coming today! & I found out yesterday, Mercury was in retrograde! I may be out of the woods now!

PS Please remember my sister Em in your prayers.

Edit: Em called. She's feeling a little better. The doctor is holding her Chemo for this week. Thanks for all your concerns. She lives with her daughter, so I knew she wasn't alone, & they would've called me if anything serious had happened. Sorry to raise your concerns so much.