Gifts

My dear, sweet, whacky sister Em sent me a surprise package in the mail. It's a Girl! I honestly found it a little bit freaky when I opened it. It looked so much like a dead baby laying in a casket. I lost a child about this size, so believe me, I know what they look like!
But when I picked her up, & held her, I cried.

She has soft mohair eyelashes, & fuzzy hair on her head. I'm not sure what to name her yet. At least she doesn't require hiring a babysitter, or diapers, & I'll never have to worry about who she's dating.

My new iron came today! That made me happy. I hope I love it as much as my old one. The one thing I noticed that's different, & I think I'm not too crazy about it, is the sole plate is different. It has more holes & grooves. I liked the flat center on my old iron. When fusing fabric flat is sometimes better than steam holes.
Another little gift I noticed today is this magnet of kitties drinking from a bowl. My DH says he has no idea where it came from. The bowl is one that my friends Trace & Dave gave me, from an old restaurant here in Anchorage. I keep water in it here for Broc to drink when he's in my studio with me. So where did the magnet come from? Mindy, or Judy? Was it you?

WIP Wed Not much progess here

Ok, I know it's supposed to be WIP Wednesday. Sorry folks for not having much to show. I spent all day Sunday working on my Cristmas cards. I got them finished. I wrote a short poem, printed it, & then made cards, embossing them & making a lovely glittery snowlike mess in my studio.
On Saturday we went to a wedding reception. It was supposed to be the wedding, but we read the time on the card wrong, & arrived in time for the reception! Ooops! This picture is our good friends Trace & Dave Walker. It was their daughter Melissa who was the bride.
Dave is the best cookie baker in Anchorage. He owns Illusions Bakery & supplies cookies for a lot of the coffee bars in town. The wedding had a snowflake theme. It was very pretty.


Adam is in the Air Force, & they will be shipping out to Germany next month. Melissa's dress had furry trim. It was so pretty.

The beautiful cake was made by Adam's mom who used to be a professional baker. The frosting was realllly good!
When Dave danced with his daughter, we all ended up crying. It was a really sweet moment. He married Trace when Melissa & her brother were just little kids, & he'd been a great Dad to them. He really married the whole family when he married Trace.

Things lightened up when the grandgirls started dancing with their grandpa.

Aurora Postquards

These are multi-layered , starting with handdyed fabric that I used Shiva stick rubbings on, then hand painted old lace & painted fusible webs (2 kinds), hand painted silk chiffon, & some Angelina fibers.

These are 4 postquards I made for my Art Meme. I realized I needed a 5th when I finished putting these in envelopes, but I think I'll wait until my new iron gets here, because right now I'm having a heck of a time pressing anything, & my Timtex needs steaming before I can use it.

My old faithful Rowenta steam generator iron bit the dust, & can't be revived again, so I ordered a new one from Joann's on line. They were on sale, & the shipping was free, so it was the best deal I could find. I can't wait until it gets here.

Consumer Warning! Miele Dishwasher!

My least favorite household chore is washing dishes. When we started our remodel I looked for a dishwasher that would last the rest of my life, be quiet & a low water user. I thought I'd found the best. I paid top dollar for it. Decided I wanted this worse than my granite counter top & a new refridgerator. Those things could wait. So, do you see the dishes stacked up here? My cuticles are cracked & bleeding.
My lovely fancy dishwasher is NOT WORKING, AGAIN! The Miele people have not responded to my complaints other than an email to tell me the repair man would be contacting me within 24 hours. I feel like I should put Darren the repair guy on my Christmas list! He's a nice guy, but we've had to spend way too much time together.

See no dishes in there? It's certainly not using much water! & it doesn't make a sound! So I can't complain there, now can I!!!

I really think for the amount of money I spent on this machine that Miele should replace it. I should not have to wait another day for more parts to be sent. It's been broken for more time than not, I haven't even used it for a whole year. They are replacing the motor next. It apparently has not been right from the beginning. Don't you think for a machine that you pay > $1700.00 for you shouldn't have to get a rebuilt????!!!!!IT"S A LEMON!!!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving Day

I woke up early this morning (4 a.m.), laying flat on my face & my nose running..yuk! I think a virus may have found me. I feel fine though, but couldn't get back to sleep, so came to browse on blogger. It's like having an extended community of friends & closer access to family who live far away. It's one of the many things I'm gratful for.

Please know that my heart is full of love & gratitude for every one of you.

Happy Thanksgiving !

I got Mail, & WIP Wed.

I got lucky with the mail today. This really cute wrist pincusion & postquard came today from Jen. I really love them, thanks Jen. Broccoli was really interested in the pin cushion. He sat in my lap sniffing it intently for serveral minutes, I think he must smell Max on it!

The next package was a beautiful glass bead from Sarah Hornik in Televiv. I found Sarah through the blogs, & went to Ebay to buy this. It will inspire a beautiful purse some day.

I woke up early this morning. It was about 445, & I couldn't fall back to sleep. I started thinking about the mess in my studio, & wanted to get some work done, but just can't until I get it organized again. I messed it up on Saturday before my lecture at the museum. I started looking at my yarns which were overflowing 3 baskets, so I sat for at least 2 hours roling yarns into balls, until they all fit into 1 basket.

Then I put all of my metallic threads into a basket that used to hold rubber stamps. I put all the stamps into the map case, so now they're all in one area. So with all this reorganizing, then going out to dinner with Warren, I didn't get very far on my next little project...

but I started by cutting out some whacky cup shapes from some Angelina Fibers, ready to be featured on my next small works, for the Art Meme.

& as for WIP (works in progress) I have a stack of them..... here are the ones under the table, & then there's the ones that I want to do for Christmas, which of course I CAN'T show, so sorry for being a WIP DUD! But th..th..that's all folks!!!!

What's in Your Purse?

To answer the burning question that Rian threw out there.....here it is. The complete contents, checkbook, calendar, change purse, inhaler for those wheezy moments, pill bottle with a few Ibuprofen, Tums & Coricidin D, & my one excess, TWO pairs of reading glasses, in case I lay one pair down somewhere & forget where I put them. I can't read a thing without them!

I find that because I change purses frequently, since I make them all the time, I don't keep a lot of junk in them. My keys stay on a little shelf by the door, next to my gloves. When I'm out somewhere & I'm driving, I keep them in my pocket, never in the purse. I used to carry a big purse, but with neck & back problems I've pared that down. I do still carry a backpack though, for my current book & lunch when I go to work.

Client's quilts

I'm on call this weekend & had to work the last 2 days, but I did manage to work on some of my client's quilts thismorning. she did 3 dogs, for gifts for friends for Christmas. Here are 2 of them. Dory does her own designs, & likes to do applique', but doesn't want to quilt them. The 1st image is the back side of the 2nd image.


& look who was standing at the top of the stairs when I came home a few days ago!

Teddy Bear Tea

Teddy bears & their friends gathered with much excitement.
Each one anxious to find their new favorite person.
Even one of the owls from Hogwarts flew over to join in the fun.
Quilters ooooed & awwwed.
Josetta's little wizard Pooh was the first chosen for a new home, by a young boy who was invited to come & choose one, by one of the adoption organizations here in Anchorage.

Gail's quilt had a disclaimer written on the back side, "There are no tigers in Africa".
I thought these guys were cute.
Lin always has a fun hat on, so her bear had to have one too.

Maggie brought this little postquard she made for her sister. She took my Threadplay class, & she wanted to show me what she did with what I taught her. Isn't her cardinal great?

I'm Having Another Grandbaby!

Here they are the new parents to be, on their wedding day nearly 2 years ago. Brandon & Laura.

He is my firstborn son, & now he's going to be a daddy in July. Guess I better get busy with my quilting, because another grandchild means more quilts to be quilted! This will be the first on Laura's side! 2nd for us.

To answer questions about my previous post, Michelle wanted to know how I made the pin. It was just hot glue actually. My friend Jackie had a tiny hot glue gun & these neat glittery glues that I wanted to try. I figured if I didn't like how it turned out I could just peel it apart, but it seems to hold pretty well, & I'm not sure I could peel it apart unless I warm it up with a heat gun or something. I think if I understood the other question correctly, the answer is the Teddy bear's coat is made from a crocheted from a chenille yarn.

What I've Been Doing With my Weekend

This 1st photo is the collage pin I made on Thursday at my Calendar Girls meeting.. The little Miss Teddy has had a bath & I crocheted a coat for her, as she was getting cold with nothing but a hat to wear. Now she's ready for next Thursday, & the Teddy Bear Tea, where she'll get sent to a local charity, to be given away for Christmas. I've enjoyed having her here.

I was up early this morning, to pack up & get ready for my TrunkShow/Lecture at the Museum.My studio is a mess now.
I did a pared down version of my trunk show, & a short demo on threadplay & fabric beads.
This was during a break, before my lecture for the Weavers & Spinners Guild. I think that all of us that are addicted to fibers of all kinds, must also be afflicted with ADHD. These people were knitting, or weaving, or tatting, or something... throught their whole business meeting. I'm the same way. I can't focus without keeping my hands occupied with needle & thread or beads or something.

This gal, Sally Schoenberg was making this amazing bobbin lace.

Those are straight pins that the fine thread is being woven around. It blew me away.

My lecture went well. I got lots of laughs, & lots of"thanks for being inspiring". They were a very nice bunch of people.

Warren & I went to the movies this evening. We saw "Stranger Than Fiction". I've never been a Will Ferrell fan. Most of the time his movies are a little too whacky for my taste, but this one he was more the straight man. It was a low key, sweet & funny (not hilarious) movie. Just a nice

film. I really liked it.

We saw the "Santa Clause #3" last night. That was cute too. Better than the 2nd Santa Clause. So if you loved Santa #1, you'll like this one too.