Snowflakes, Grosbeaks, & a bit of Barcelona

I've been working on snowflakes for my friend Christy's Irish dance dress. I started with the simple one first, just to see how it would go with this unusual material, & it didn't go too bad. I decided after this one though to use black Totally Stable instead of white, because the blue fabric is a little transparent, & I think the black behind it looks better. I am leaving the stabilizer in place. It would be a nightmare to try & remove it from this stretchy fabric. Si I guess it's dry clean only.
This snowflake is a stylized French horn, as Christy plays the French horn. Below I've blocked it for you so you can see it better.

Next are wee-bitty fairies, cause don't you know they come from Ireland!
See them there?
Next are just some birds.

Simple.

And speaking of birds....these guys entertained us during dinner today.

He kept digging his beak down in the snow,

& his girlfriend came too.

Aren't they a cute couple?

I'm back to my usual set up, with my mouse pad to the side of the computer instead of on top of it. Much easier to type this way.

Kim commented on it in my last post. It was a souvenir from my favorite place in Barcelona, Spain. The Palau De La Musica Catalana.

The ceiling in the auditorium is the most fantastic stained glass I've ever seen in my life. When you stand under it & look straight up you see this beautiful image of the sun, but from the balcony you see the picture above, where that sun looks like it's going to drip. It was one of the most inspiring places I've ever been in my life. I thank God & Husqvarna Viking every day for that opportunity.

Oh, & the other thing I did today.. I made my reservations & bought my tickets for my Whidbey Island trip in April-May. I'll be teaching (hopefully there will be students), & then taking classes from Rayna Gillman the following week. Can't Wait! I also get to see my kids in Seattle too!

& here's one of those silly things that's fun to do when you don't feel like doing anything productive!

I found the link on Kim's post.
I apparently am an INFP

The IdealistYou are creative with a great imagination, living in your own inner world.Open minded and accepting, you strive for harmony in your important relationships.It takes a long time for people to get to know you. You are hesitant to let people get close.But once you care for someone, you do everything you can to help them grow and develop.You would make an excellent writer, psychologist, or artist.

What's" Your Personality Type?

Dealing with it! & Spambot?

Well, it's not ideal, but I'm staying on line! The leak above the computer isn't as bad as it had been, so here's me, squeezing in to blog while the roof leaks. :)

I'm trying to stay optimistic. We're still getting snowfall, & have a few feet of the whit stuff on the roof. & no dear sister, we aren't going to get up there & remove ALL of it. There's too much. As it is we spent all of our daylight hours last Friday removing the ice dams along the edge, as far as Warren can reach, & it was cold a scarey work. We are raking the snow off the edges regularly, but our carpenter /builder experts both say we just have to wait until the ice that's worked its way under the roof has melted.
So here I am. blogging next to my favorite large pottery bowl.

I'm really sorry to hear about the Spambot bug that got Allie's blog. Our hospital is saying we will no longer have internet access because the bugs are getting harder to block. Apparently you can catch one just by clicking on the wrong thing while exploring the interenet. Are we all going to be out of comission soon, due to these nasties?

We're still here!

Last Friday, Warren & I spent most of the daylight hours putting Icemelt on the roof ice, & then cracking the ice, & knocking it off the roof. It was cold & a little frightening work, with Warren 20 feet in the air, on the extension ladder, & me on the ground making sure it didn't fall over. We took care of the ice dam, but it took a few mores days before it stoped dripping in the living room. We will continue to sweep new snow off with the roof rake, & 2 of our builder friends claim an heater wire along the roof edge with a thermostat to make it turn on only when needed will take care of future problems, but can't be palced until summer. I put my furniture back in place yesterday, & hung a quilt made by my friend Ruth Simpson, on the screen door, for a splash of color in these white winter days.

The world outside my window looks like a black & white photo.

ARRRGH!!! As I'm typing this, I heard a sudden drip, drip, drip again! It's dripping on my loveseat! Guess I better go ! ARGH, DARN, DANG!!

Drip, drip, drip!

Sorry folks. I'm at work again, just letting you know, my leak is back, & I don't dare plug in my computer at home. Hopefully this weekend we'll be able to remove the ofending ice dam & stop the leak completely. I miss reading your blogs & getting your comments. See ya when the drips stop dripping!

Life Happens

Well, I think we're back on track. The Pineapple Express wind blew most of the night last night, taking care of the drips . Warren had gotten a roof rake, & pulled off a lot of snow, in an attempt to get rid of the ice dam that was causing it to rain inside our living room. I had disconnected the computer to get it out of harm's way.We had to move everything away from the north wall. I finally got it hooked back up, but for some reason couldn't get on line with the old configuration of wires. I ended up plugging a USB port into my DSL box to get on line, which I never had to do before. The biggest problem with this configuration is that I have to unplug my printer to plug in my camera. Before I was able to leave myplug in for the camera. Oh well, at least it's working.
These sweet little surprises came in the mail this week from Sandy. I'm not sure why she sent 2, but I do love them. They're my favorite colors. I have several in these shades now. Thanks Sandy!
Another package that came was a gift from my DS & DDIL. These are going to hang over the larger window & closet doorway in my studio. Now all I have to do if figure out what I want to hang on them.

I finally finished the Iron cozy. I now think I have the best dressed Iron in town!

The face is a little gardian sprite, to help keep my studio safe.

Did you notice the little mousy?

I thought I'd add him for my DD Michelle, who loves all the little furry creatures.

These next few pictures are some of my thread painted jewelry, & mostly I was playing with another of my new lenses, to see how much detail I can get.

The problem with this lense is if it isn't a flat surface, the background will be blurry....

but look at the detail!

This last is the first snowflake cut for my young friend Christy's Irish Dance Dress. It took me about 2 hours to cut this snowflake. Hmmmm...how many more do I need to cut?

I also made a muslin of the dress bodice. Now all I need is Christy to come try it on to fit it, then I can actually start working on the dress!

Just want to let you all know, I'm off line for a while because my roof is leaking! Yes our brand new roof has an ice dam, & it's leaking right over where my computer normally sets, & I don't have another place to put it!

see ya later !!!!

the Birds & the beads!

I got these cool beads from my friend Kathy Jolman as part of my Christmas gift from her. The podlike bead, is a vessel that can hold something like an essential oil. I got a2 new lenses for my camera from my DH, & played with them yesterday & today.
I just stuck my head out the door & snapped pictures of the Redpoles,

Nuthatch,

Chickadees,
& Grossbeaks.

Inside Broccoli was being teased by the squirrel...

Iron Cozy Progress

I've made a little progress on the Iron Cozy . I still have half way around one side & the back end to complete. I'm actually enjoying this little project. I guess it's a bit like taking a lemon & making lemonade!
Several of you comented on the difficulties of living with so much snow, on my previous post. We got several more inches during the night. It's so beautiful, & I love being home on days like this. They cancelled our quilt guild meeting today, due to the road conditions. Warren will be snow blowing today. The snow is so light & fluffy, it's like feathers. It's easy to shovel or plow through. I would like to do a little snow shoeing, but doen't know if we'll have time. Quilting is my favorite winter sport though.

I need to get started on Cristy's Irish Dance dress, I'll make a muslin form for the top first, to see how it fits before I cut into the special fabric we got for it. I'm getting anxious to get it going & get it done, as I've got a couple of big quilting projects I want to get going on, #1 being my how to book on my Reversible purses, & #2, the Syncronicity quilt, which is nothing but a large piece of paper on my design wall right now.