Thank You

First, I want to say thank you to all of you who have commiserated with me with good wishes for my sister. She will be having a double mastectomy on Oct. 9th, so we would appreciate any good thoughts & prayers you can send her way.
Below is a copy of a clipping from our local paper. The title said this little girl wanted cards from Alaska, but what the article really said was from all over the US. Well, I know there are folks from around the world out there who might be willing to send this little girl a card, so I thought I'd put this here & hope some of you will. I'll be making one of my quards for her.

I've mostly been working these past few days, but got to spend a little time in my studio today, & Broccoli helped to entertain & chase some of my worries away for a few minutes. He went berserk over some soft Menkie fabric that I bought.



In the morning we will be heading down to Homer. It's about a 5 hour drive south of Anchorage. It'll be beautiful this time of year.We'll be staying at the Old Town B&B. I love Homer, Alaska. It is such a beautiful place. It's a small town, mostly supported by fishing & tourism, & it's full of artists. I'd love to live there, if only I could talk my DH into moving one last time.
I'll be taking a painting class from Stewart Cubley, & best of all, I get 14 nursing CEU's for it! I could hardly believe my luck when it came in the mail. I suspect it was the hand of Fate in play though, because this will be just the therapy I need right now. Don't expect any pictures of great paintings from me. This is paint therapy, it's more a process than a technique.
So I'll leave you with this image shot from my back door this evening. I'll be back October 5th.

Sometimes Life Sucks

If you heard a sucking sound from the north today, it may have been my day you were hearing. The best thing I can say about today, is that it was a day off work! It started with my fancy-dancy buget breaking dishwasher not working. I Called Meile, & told the man I'd like them to take it back & give me my money back, so I can buy a Maytag! It's the 3rd time in less than a year that this machine has quit working.

THen I tried to make my 2 stars for Debra's Quilt of Valor. Well I've never claimed to be a piecer. There is a reason I don't like piecing. It's because I SUCK at it! I managed to mess up 3 blocks before I got one that I'm not completely ashamed to send.



The first completed will go into a quilt for this little bear, to be donated in November for the Teddy Bear Tea, that will go for gifts for kids in the community here. It ended up a little short, & the points weren't very good, but I figure the teddy bear won't care.

These next 2, well a picture is worth a 1000 words........none of them good!
The last, well it's not perfect, but it's ok, so I guess this will be it. I've run out of time, & can't do another.
The worst part of the day though, came while I was trying to finish these. My dear sister, & best friend, Melodie, otherwise known as Em, called me to say her breast cancer has come back. That sucks more than I can say. I'm so MAD! She's already been through this once before, in 2002, & then helped my sister-in-law as she was dying from breast cancer, then lost her husband to cancer, all while raising 2 grand daughters (9 & 11), & now she's trying to build a new home, & this happens. She has taken everything in stride, with such grace, I hate that this is happening to her.

Termination Dust The Definition

This little quilt was my very first Batik. It's heavily quilted in Glow in the dark threads, so you still see the picture when the lights are turned out.
I Can't seem to find the photo of my large quilt named 'Termination Dust', eventually I'll find it & get it posted, but several have asked what I mean by "Termination Dust". It's what people in Alaska call that first snow that dusts the mountain tops 'terminating' the seasons without snow. They say we only have 2 seasons here, winter & road construction, so I guess it means that the snow is the beginning of the end of road construction.

Termination Dust & Sept. Journal Quilt

Here is my September Journal Quilt. I used Lutradur (which I painted) for the backing, then layered on a piece of my rust dyed fabric, followed by a crinckled layer of tissue paper, which I had used to mop up some of my fabric paints, topped with a layer of antique gold Tulle, then layered on burned strips of lame' fabric, & leaves made from painted dryer sheets. The edge is a chenille-like thing with wire in it's middle.
It rained all day yesterday, until the evening. When the clouds lifted a bit, there was Termination Dust on the mountain tops behind us! I was happy to see it! I love this time of year, the colors, the smells, the cool fresh air. Fires in the wood stove, & cozying down at home. I spent the whole day cleaning up my studio space, so now today I'm going to go & start messing it up again! & hope & pray I don't get interrupted by getting called into work! It's a shame we have to work for money, isn't it?

Threadplay & crazy clock updates

Allie asked me what sort of hoop I used.
This is my favorite hoop for threadplay. It fits easily inder the pressure foot, & I can spin the metal part around out of the way when needed.
These are my earrings, bracelet & pin/slide that I made to wear at my son's wedding. It's threadplay/painting with a little bead embellishment.
The last few pictures are closeups of parts of my Crazy clock, that are finished. I seem to be becoming a beader as well as a quilter!

Quilt Guild Annual Meeting

We had a hat party for our quilt guild meeting today. It was Mary Lee's last official day as our president, then someone else will take over.
She was given a quilt made by the group, & pieced together & quilted by Jackie Carley, who is presenting it here. I loved the black & white check she used to put it together. It's the lattice strips.
Lynn looked cute in her Kuspuk & her hat. & when she took her hat off to show us her new growth of hair, we thought she looked like a Kewpie Doll! She had chemo for breast cancer recently.
On the road home I stopped to snap a picture of the mountains with the clouds looking a little brooding. I liked the shadows & colors.
On the same road is my friend Sue's house, where she has been selling specialty threads & yarns for the last few years, but has decided to stop her business, so she getting rid of inventory.
Her garden is always beautiful.
I decided it was my duty as a friend to help, so I bought 2 bags of stuff!

Preparing for Winter

Here I am, thinking of winter (I'm actually looking forward to it this year), & it was a glorious Autumn day. It was nice out, sunny but not too hot. No biting bugs. A perfect day.

The birch tree in the center of the driveway looks like something took a big bite out of the top of it.

I snapped this picture of my quilt-mobile to show Rian, she's not the only one that drives a big rig. It's ok Rian, you don't have to feel guilty about it.

Warren took advantage of the nice day, & got the base for the new deck screwed down. Then we layed the boards on top of it to get them off the ground for the winter. If he has any more nice days off, he'll start cutting & laying the quilt pattern, but for now, we just layed them her to get them out of harm's way.

This last picture is the view off the back of the deck today.

Flames of Autumn

I worked on another purse yesterday, but didn't get it finished, because I ended up going into work. My friend Judy was on call, but got sick, so I went in for her. So I haven't got anything quiltly to show for my weekend yet, but I decided to jump into the circle of bloggers showing their Flames of Autumn. I found it on Emmy's blog, but it originated on Maria's.

My 1st flame picture is the Soy Basic candle in my bathroom. It is Macintosh Apple scented, & it says AUTUMN to me, because it smells like my favorite apple, the ones that old Mrs Wright used to put in our Trick-or-treat bags, & you didn't need an xray to know it was safe to eat.


I also lit a fire in the woodstove this morning to help take the autumn chill out of the air. Broccoli really loves it on the back of the couch, especially when the fire is burning in the stove.

I love autumn. Can you tell?

A Nod to Autumn

It's a blustery Fall day here in Alaska, & it has inspired me to post some of my older autumn pictures, so I apologize if you're familiar with these things & don't want to look at them again, but autumn is my favorite season, & has inspired me to make several pieces.
This 1st one is made from hand-dyed wools, using natural dyes. My friend Kathy Jolman & I dyed all the wools over a span of 2 summers when we were living in Michigan, for my DH to go to school. After we moved back to Alaska, Kathy & her DH John, came in the early Fall here to visit, & while we spent 3 weeks traveling around Alaska together, I hand appliqued & hand quilted this little wool quilt.

The next one, is one I did, my last summer in Michigan. I made it in memory of my Mom & Michigan, & the neighborhood I grew up in. The brown fabrics are sun prints made from trees & bushes around the yard & neighborhood & yard where my Dad still lives. I hand quilted this with a sparkely thread, to look like frost. It's name is "First Frost", & the name of the street is Frost Street.

The next quilt started ou as a challenge quilt for Keepsake Quilting, but the rule was it had to be 30 x 30, & as I worked on it, I felt I had done so much work I didn't want to enter it, & I wanted to frame it differently from the 30 x 30 requirement for the contest. It's all hand applique, & hand quilted.



The next piece is "For Autumn Antie". It's all done by machine, when I first switched over to primarily all machine work, & I started this piece in a Caryl Bryer Fallert workshop in 1997. We were supposed to find a picture from a book or magazine for inspiration, & I knew the picture I wanted to use, but couldn't find the book as we had just moved back to Alaska, & the book was still packed away. My inspiration was a painting by Robert Batemen, & I'm glad I couldn't look at it, because my quilt looks nothing like the painting, & it may have looked a lot like it, if I hadn't been relying on my faulty memory for the inspiration piece.




Here are a couple of pictures for inspiring anybody who needs it. I love fall leaves. Both of these were taken here in Anchorage. The red is something we don't have a lot of, mostly we have golds.


These last 2 are my vest. I made it to use & highlight my Threadpainting, which is a class I love to teach.

Alyeska Prince Hotel

Our night at the Aleyeska Prince Hotel was lovely. The hotel is beautiful. It would be a great destination for a Quilting Retreat!! Hmm, anybody interested?


The Fireweed has all gone to seed, which means there should be snow falling soon, although it all seems to be rain right now.Below was the view from our 7th floor window.

I guess there were a lot of people checking out as we left. I found the sight of all this luggage stacked together amusing.

It was choppy along Turnagain, on the way home. Last night we saw some Beluga whales popping up their big white heads from that gray water.