Kenai River Bears

http://64.202.191.247/soundslides/catchingthebears/index.html

The link above is to a slide show made by a former student of my friend Margaret & her husband Nelson. It's the Kenai Peninsula Clarion newspaper web page. Scott is the head photographer for the paper. He got some unique bear shots while at the Kenai River watching the combat fishing.I don't think Scott was doing any fishing that time. Hope you enjoy it.

We're getting ready for our vacation. I made a simple top to wear, that will be loose & cool. I want to get a skirt made to go with it, but doubt I'll have enough time between now & then, as I have to work the next 3 days.

Play Day Again, ATCs for trade

Well I spent most of the morning working on some ATC's for trade. Then I went out to the local bead shop, & the fancy fabric shop near here. I found some crystals, so now my July JQ Dragonfly has eyes! They look blue in the picture, but they are both blue & a violet, depending on how your looking at them. I stopped by & saw Auntie E. She's looking pretty good.
One of these will be going to Margaret, but the other 3 need homes. Anyone interested?
They are made from my hand painted fabrics, & a little bit of my black silk shibori wrapped, discharged, & overdyed fabric. Shi-sha mirrors held in place by thread painting, & some hand beading, & a little bit of wire & painted dryer sheet.Just as I went to post this, we had another earthquake! Only a 3.0 this time, & it didn't last but a few seconds. Not nearly as exciting as yesterday's quake.

All Shook Up!

We Had quite the morning wake up call at 518 this morning. It was an earthquake of 4.89 magnatude, centered about 15 miles directly below our house. I had been laying awake for a couple of minutes (I wonder now if it had made a grumble that may have awoke me, before the actual big roar & movement). It was quite a ride for a minute there. I heard a few things fall, so when it stopped I went up stairs to see what it was. Loni & Don were both standing bewildered looking at their bedroom door, & all Loni said was "Wow!" It was cute. The only casualty was a tile that had been a gift from my freind Ilene. It cracked it good when it fell off the shelf, but can be glued & will not be seen without my glasses! I also threw away a handfull of toothpicks that landed on the floor along with my antique toothpick holder (it survived intact though).

Below is a Postquard I recieved from Pat in an exchange. I hope she gets hers soon, I don't want to post it here until she's seen it. Isn't it cute?Below is some progress on the Crazy Clock.

July Journal Quilt

Here is my July JQ. As done as it's going to get until I can fine the exact pair of beads or crystals that I want to use for the eyes. I actually enjoy looking for that 'just right' something, & will probably take it along with me when I go to Seattle, to aide in my search. It'll be fun. The background fabric is some that my friend Kathy J. from Michigan made for me by stamping the ferns & dragonflies on, then I 'overdyed' it using my Dynaflow paints, & stamped the words "warm summer breezes", & "dappled sunlight",
This is my 1st attempt at'real' beadwork. I've never taken a class, & have always just added a bead here & a bead there, free forming it. It didn't turn out perfect, but I learned from the process, & will do better next time.
I will be posting our weekend adventures on my Dark Side. & Aunt Ethel is going back to her ALF today.

The Latest Happening Here

Here's some of the bead fun I've been having on my Crazy Clock. The watches are all old dead watches from mine or my family member's past.

The DGD has flown back home to Seattle. The cold is getting a little better. The Niece & nephew have arrived safely from Michigan. In the morning we will head down to Seward to to go fishing.

We moved the trundle bed for the day bed that resides in my studio, back here where it belongs. It was the bed Aunt Ethel had been using, but now they're getting a hospital bed for her, & she will be getting out of the hospital on Monday.

Head Cold in July

Sounds a bit like Christmas in July, doesn't it? Several people have noted the old TV with the Rabbit ear antenna that we had. Well yesterday we had this HD TV delivered. Of course now we're going to HAVE to get a Dish, because we can't get anything of the local channels on this TV. We watched 'Lady & the Tramp', last night, & put Yanni on today in honor of poor Aunt Ethel. He was her favorite, after Lawrence Welk of course!

I have a terrible plugged head now & a hacky cough. I'm hoping it doesn't turn into a full blown sinus infection. I had one of those last year, & don't care to repeat it. Darian leaves this evening & my niece Loni & her new hubby's flight has been cancelled, so last I heard she is stuck in Grand Rapids, MI & isn't sure when they'll get here. So I guess that means she won't get to meet Darian. I told her not to expect any kisses at the airport. I don't want to share this misery with someone I love. I've also already called in sick for tomorrow, because I don't think I should be spreading this to my post op patients.

Aunt Ethel's hospitalization may effect our vacation plans too. We may end up having to stay here & be out the tickets & reservations in Seattle, (Ilene & Stu you can still use the room if this happens), but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it doesn't come to that. My friend Mindy will do a temporary Power of Attourny if we need, so that we can still go. I'm hoping that will be enough. She'll be 2 weeks post op when we go, & Mindy says that's the usual length of stay for BKA. Mindy works for an Orthopedic surgeon. She said he was glad he didn't have to do Auntie's surgery since he knew us all socially, it would've been a tough one for him.

I've gotten a little bit of bead embellishment done on my clock. Maybe I'll post some of it later. I worked on it while waiting at the hospital yesterday for the surgery. I also stopped 2 places on the way home yesterday to find the fuse on crystals for my July JQ. I only need 2 dark ones. All I could find was a tiny little package for $60.00! Even with my teacher discount, that was way more than I want to spend just for 2 little crystals. So my July JQ may lay slightly unfinshed until I can find a small package.

Playing with color

I want to do some experimenting with silk chiffon, & decided to paint several small pieces different colors. I used the Dynaflow that I just bought. I like the fact that it's thin & flows nicely. It also looks neat when spritzed with a spray bottle. I wonder if salt works on it? I didn't feel like running upstairs to get any, maybe next time. In the photo above the 2 smaller pieces on the far right are dryer sheets that I used to mop up paint off the surface underneath, & the 2 pieces of fabric below are pieces that my friend Kathy gave me. The 1st is one she bought in Holland. It hand a clear white background, with splotches of bright yellow & blue on it. The one below is a piece that she and stamped with green ferns & black with blue winged dragonflies on white. I used both as clean up from the painting, then sprayed with water & smooshed them around in a plastic bag to get fuller coverage. I'm laying them out on the hot tub to dry. ( I did ask her if she minded if I color them up a bit, for some reason, I don't use much white).

This last photo is a PINK Yarrow. We have Yarrow growing all over. It's a weed in Alaska, but mostly you just see white. I was tickled Pink (groan, I know bad pun) to find pink in my yard. In Michigan you have to buy Yarrow at the nursery & plant it in your garden. Of course there you find Queen Ann's Lace growing as a weed in the fields & ditches. Here you find it in fancy bouquets for lots of money from the florist! One man's weed is the next one's wildflower!

A little Warmth

While much of the rest of the country is sweltering in the heat & humidity, we in Anchorage are having a wet, rainy, & chilly day. I closed the windows & built a lovely fire in the wood stove. The fan on top is actually spinning from the heat rising, I was surprised it didn't come out all a blur in the photo.
Down in the studio, Broccoli hung out with me for a while this morning while I painted with some warm colors. More fire. At the top of the photo are 2 pieces of silk organza. The next 2 down are Lutradur & the 2 on the bottom row, plus the photo below are Warm & White batting (wadding).
Below is the Lutradur. All have been painted with Dynaflow that I bought from Dharma Trading Co.
Now I just have to wait for them to dry, & maybe I'll make something out of them!

Barn Quilt Finished!

I'm hearing the Hallelujah Chorus! My 1st of the pick 4 to finish is done! Well at least my part in it. Now I can pass it on to one of the other Calendar Girls to add the sleeve, label & binding.
It has taken me FOREVER to finish the quilting.

To Celebrate, I took Darian to an Anime Convention! It was in the paper this morning, & since it's her favorite thing, I decided to take her. We met some unusual folks there. Chewie dropped by even. His language was a little hard to understand, but he was very friendly.

& of course, Darian did a little shopping, & we watched a few Anime flicks. I'd never seen them before. They were actually pretty funny.

Here's her bounty.

Darian Gets Glasses

Since staying here with us, we realized a couple of days ago, that there were things that Darian couldn't see. I'm not even sure how the conversation went, but we were talking about a poster on the wall, maybe 15 or 20 feet away, & there was a line that Darian couldn't see. She didn't even realize it was there. So today we went to the optician, & a few hours later she can see! Isn't she cute in her new glasses?

 

CrazyQ Clock Mounted on Frame

Happy anniversary to my Michelle & Jon. 2 years ago today they got married, & the worst thing that happened was the tux shop gave them the wrong tuxes, & Jon's had to be made smaller with staples by his Mom. She did a pretty good job making it smaller considering it was about 8 sizes too large. I still wonder what the guy at the other wedding who got Jon's too small tux did!
Today we hiked out in to our favorite fishing hole, & again the fish were missing, but we had a great time, & I got to do a little hand work. I finally got the Crazy Clock mounted on to a canvas covered frame, & have started the really FUN part, embellishing with the old watches & beads!
The working clock face will go in the middle of the spider web, & if I can find a spider that doesn't freak me out too bad, I'll glue it on to the second hand.
I've been following several other blogs like Rian's , Allie's, & Debra's & Suze (whose link doesn't seem to be working tonight) that have been doing such lovely neat stitches. I mostly just had fun, adding strings that were incidentally dyed when I used them to bundle fabrics that I was dying. & fun yarns, & ribbons, which I just did a little rusching & gathering on. I wanted this to be more organic, something different.
I've really only just begun!

The other thing we did tonight on the way home, was stop at The Double Musky in Girdwood. It is my most favorite restaurant in the whole world! We all 3 had the Gahhrrlic Seafood Pasta!

Not one of us finished! We've got the next 2 days dinners waiting in the fridge, ready to just heat up! & we won't have to worry about vampires for a few days. If only mosquites would hate garlic too!

Another Reverse-A-Purse Vintage Shibori

My good pal Kathy Jolman gave me these little vintage Shibori silk pieces a couple of years ago. I finally decided to cut into them & use them for something besides decorating my counter top. I used a vintage red button (which may be Bakelite, I'm not sure, can anyone tell me how to tell?). The bag part on this side is a vintage velveteen.
The reverse is a crinkled silk that Kathy also gave me.
I used a heavy Candelight thread in the bobbin for the flap on this side, & the button is a beautiful Dichroic fused glass button that I love. Mindy didn't make this one, but she could've!

A day with my DGD

Last night Darian worked on making a pillow case for herself, with a little bit of help from me.
She finished in no time at all. She's getting pretty good on the sewing machine. Today we drove to Girdwood, for the Forest Fair. Unfortunately I had a dead camera. We bought some fused glass from my pal Mindy & her daughter Lindsey. & on the way home we stopped for dinner at Turnagain House. Darian was the only one with room for dessert. Oh & by the way, have any of you discovered the Quilters News Network? I saw an ad for it in my latest AQS magazine, & checked it out. I love it! Now I'll never need cable TV!

My Studio Rearranged

After we moved the Queen sized bed beck up to the guest room yesterday, I worked on reorganizing my studio.This 1st photo is how it looks going into the room. The bed used to be where my sewing table is now.

The table behind the ironing board can be folded smaller, or made a lot bigger for pinbasting as needed. It's actually 2 craft tables. I bought them a while ago when the Dark Side (Joann's) had them on sale.
Fabric is all organized. I think I actually KNOW where most of my stuff is now! What a relief after years of everything being packed away & cramped.
This is the daybed, & can be used for an extra guest. & yes I did have the Snail Trail quilt on the guest bed upstairs, but it's really too small for that bed, so I put my 1st hand quilted queensize quilt up there after it was washed yesterday, & put the snail trail on the daybed. It's an antique quilt that I bought from a friend.

Guest room is ready

The guest room is ready. Broccoli has given the new carpet his ok.
We like it! & it smells clean too!
We book a year in advance, so if you want to come, just let me know!

$th of July Anniversary Dinner

This restaurant is one of the best kept secrets in Anchorage. It was built just this past year, & business hasn't picked up yet, but we love this place. It's The Bridge. Built right over Ship Creek, in downtown Anchorage, the bridge above it is highway into downtown.
We were the 1st to get seated for dinner. We chose to come here to celebrate out 16th anniversary. The food is excellant. Beautiful to look at as well as eat.
This picture was shot through the window by our table. They fish for king salmon out there in the creek.