Neck Purses

I had a bonus day yesterday. I was supposed to work & be on call. My boss called me just as I was getting ready to leave for work, & asked me if I'd like to stay home for the day. I still had to be on call last night, & did have to go in at 1030 pm, & got home a little after midnight.

For my bonus day I made little neck purses. The 1st one is for a sample for my class. It can be used as a sewing bag, or to hold ID & cell phone. Good for travel.
The bead doesn't show very well here. It's blues & orange, matching the fabric perfectly.

The next one down, is for my DD Michelle. She wanted something to hold her little Ipod.

Here's the back side.

My DGD Darian needed something for her Ipod & cell phone both, so this is what I came up with. Shown here holding my cell phone.

Back view.

These were really fun to do, & take so little fabric.

Red is a favorite color in this family. I wonder if that's genetic. It's my sister Em's favorite color too.

I Can't leave well enough alone!

The Muse made me do it! It said it needed some beads,
& some hand stitches for embellishment.
I could've gone further, but I think I'll fight the urge, & call it DONE!
Except for the sleeve & label of course! (Cliick on the image to see it better)

A Creative Day

I started out the day by stringing beads for my reading glasses. I was getting tired of looking for them, so I made the idiot strings to wear them around my neck. I did them in 2 different colors, one for each pair of glasses.
Then this little piece made itself. It started with the little black sqaure of silk fabric. I played with a Clorox Bleach pen, to see how it worked. Afterward I walked away & forgot about it. Later I found it dry, & I rinsed it out, then started layering it with other fabrics.
There are several layers of my hand painted silks, & some Angelina fibers, & some painted dryer sheets, all sandwiched in under the sheer silks. The background fabric was a raw silk that I painted about a year ago.

This was a fun & spontaneous way to work. I listened to several movies while making it. All with fun music. Newsies, Phantom of the Opera (I cried again watching it, I always feel sorry for the phantom). Also O Brother How Art Thou! & Holes.

Here's a picture of my youngest son Corey. He's living in Nome right now. Yesterday he turned 30. It's been since last April that I've seen him. He works all summer in Nome & Barrow, but decided to stay in Nome this winter to experience the winter there, & to see the Iditerod Sled dog race end. He isn't sure if he's going to come home until next winter now. So happy birthday kid! I miss you.

We finally came up out of the deep freeze again yesterday, then had a slippery wet snow. I got out of work early yesterday evening, & we went to the Bear Tooth Grill for dinner. I had a nice salmon. Afterward, on the way home we were amazed by how many people who had forgotten how to drive. There wer 10 roll over accidents yesterday. Most were along the Seward Highway, which is what we have to drive to go home.

On Sunday I made 4 ATC's. I had gotten an email from someone in France who wanted to do an exchange. I made 4, because it's just as easy to do a group as it is to do 1, so I have 3 more if anyone else wants one, otherwise they'll probably end up as greeting cards eventually!

I have the rest of the weekend off, so I think I'll go down to the studio & try to get some work done. I think work on samples & handout paperwork for my classes at Whidbey Island.

I Can't Wait Until Spring

"I Can't Wait Until Spring " , is the title I gave this little quilt. I made it to go into the little group exhibition of outhouse quilts that our guild is sending to Florida for an exhibit. I plan to add a border when I get it back. The fringe at the top is supposed to represent icicles.
I added this glass tile to the sky. I cut a hole all the way though the quilt to accommodate the tile. I used a fabric glue on the corners in the back to help hold it, then hand appliqued a square of fabric on the back to hold it secure. The sky is a batik, with an overlay of a net that has sparkles.

To answer Rian, the foreground opalescent fabric is a slippery, stretchy holographic fabric, that I overlayed with a shiny sheer. The outhouse is the same material, folded to make it 3 layers for opacity. The darker path is the only area where the sheer has been removed.

As for our indoor plumbing, is fixed! Thanks!

Life in the Last Frontier

Sometimes living through an Alaskan winter can be a bit of a challenge. Yesterday morning I took my shower, & when I finished, I stepped out & dressed, used the toilet & flushed, & water started flowing from under the toilet. Yikes!

I also found water standing on the floor in the mechanical room. Warren was out running errands, so I called him to tell him about this new development. He said to call our plumber Dave. Well, we've been having a long very unusual very cold, spell of below zero weather, & Dave the plumber is a really busy guy right now. After Warren got home we discussed the situation, & he called Andy, the sewer guy. Andy came within an hour & pumped out the septic system. It seems the builder put in the new system without pumping the old, & with all the rain we had last summer, our drain field was full. Hence the back up. So it seemed our problem was solved.

We heaved a sigh of relief, & then went to an Irish dance festivel/dinner/fund raiser with our friends Mindy & John.

There was lots of fun Irish music, & performers...
& of course the girls performed....
they were spectacular! This is Christy on the end above, & Hope on the end below, right in front of my camera.
The feet flew & their curls bounced.
We had a good time. Dinner was a traditional corned beef & cabbaged. I skipped the beef, as I'm not a red meat eater, but the veggies tasted good, & dessert was lovely.

This morning I was sitting & drinking my coffee,the temperature outside has warmed up to a balmy 17 degrees.

When Warren got up, & used the bathroom, he flushed the toilet, there was a loud hissing & running water noise. A pipe broke in the mechanical room. Suddenly there was a flood of water running into Warren's workshop & heading toward the carpet in my studio. I dammed the way with towels, while Warren waded in & shut off the water. I had to plunge the drain on the floor to get the water draining. Thank goodness that whole area is cement & unfinished right now. I'd hate to see what a mess we would've had if Warren's laminante flooring was down there. Dave the plumber was called again. He's got one lady with heating problems that he has to see to first, then we're the 2nd most urgent call on his list, so hopfully he'll be here to get our water running again.
In the meantime, I drove down to the grocery store to use the bathroom, then bought 4 gallons of water to use while we wait.

& here I thought I'd give you a sneek peek of what I'm working on in my studio. Oddly enough it's an Outhouse Quilt!
The white thing at the top is Broccoli's toes. He wanted to hold it down for me while I snapped the picture.

Happy St Patty's day!

Friends, Fiber & Family

This was last weekend, we had our friends Holly & Bill, with their 2 beautiful daughters Heather & Kim over for dinner. The girls have grown up suddenly! How does that happen?
Yesterday Warren & I spent the day running errands, & then went to see "Music & Lyrics". Now that was a feel good movie. It was very cute. We both really enjoyed it. Afterward we went to the Bear Tooth Grill for dinner (or Warren would say suppah)-note that's his east coast accent, not my poor typing! On a lark after dinner, we decided to go into the Bear Tooth Theater, & watch "Casino Royal". It was entertaining, but I like M&L better.

Today we had Calendar Girls, combined with one of the other satellite groups from our quilt guild meet at Jackie's house to make hats.
Well Judy & Ramona (on the floor worked on some),

& I brought my felter , & started a hat, & got Carol here to try it. She's ready to get one now too.

We presented Mary Lee with the Barn Quilt, that we made together last year.

It was funny because the quilt has been at Mary's house for the last several months, while we debated as a group what we wanted to do with it. Betty had to tell Mary that she wanted to take it for a while to show some friend who was coming to visit, so that we could wrap it up to present to her. Mary lost her husband less than 2 weeks ago, & we just wanted to do something nice for her. We also felt she deserved this quilt, as she did most of the piecing on it. I did the quilting. We all did blocks.

I had also brought my Iron Cosy, which Mona decided should be used as a collar. Actually Mona could wear rags & bags & still looks good! Can you believe she is 73? & proud of it!

Here's the hat I made today, after washing out the stabilizer. I will still do a little more work on it. I need to get more wool rovings, I'm getting to the bottom of my stash already!

This last is a picture of the birthday card I made tonight, for my baby boy, who will turn 30 this month! He's up in Nome waiting for the Iditerod to finish up.

Oh & Rian wanted my Curry Halibut with Coconut Rice Recipe:

Prepare coconut rice first:

3/4 cups uncooked Brown rice

1 (13.5-ounce) can light coconut milk

1/4 tsp salt

3 tbs flaked sweetened coconut

1. Combine rice, coconut milk, & salt in a heavy saucepan. Bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat to simmer about 35-40 minutes until the rice is cooked. Remove from heat, & let it stand for about 10 minutes. Add cocnut & fluff the rice with a fork.

Halibut (about 14 oz.)remove skin & cube in ~1"sqaures

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp curry powder

1 tsp ground Allspice

1 tsp ground Ginger

1 tsp salt

1 tsp black pepper

4 tsps olive oil, divided

2 tsp Chili Oil

8 cups fresh baby spinach

4 cloves garlic, minced

cashews for garnish

1. Drain halibut on paper towel , to remove some of the water.

2. combine Cumin & next 5 ingredients in a large plastic ziplock baggie; add halibut squares, & shake to coat with spices.

3. Heat 2 tsp olive oil & the chili oil in a large non stick pan (or spray with cooking spray).

Heat on med-high heat. Add halibut & saute' until it's just cooked. Remove it from the pan & place it in a covered dish to keep warm.

4. Heat the rest of the oil in the same pan, add the garlic, & spinach, cook stirring constantly until the spinach is wilted.

To serve, place a scoop of rice on the plate, top with spinach, halibut & cashews.

Here's a picture of it.

http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7688/2337/1600/tn_DSCN1968.jpg

Movie Night

Well, we went to see "Bridge to Terabithia" last night. I thought it was supposed to be a fun kiddy flick! It turned out to be a TEAR JERKER! Bring your tissues if you go see it. I ended up with a headache, trying not to sob! I heard a little girl behind me whisper to her mom, "Why are you crying mommy?", that made me want to cry harder! So much for a fun feel good flick.

Sooo, we went & saw "Ghost Rider". Now that was a comic book movie. It was silly & creepy & funny, & it ended on a good note, with a peppy, updated version of the old song "Ghost Riders In the Sky". I felt better after that.

Right now, we're waiting for our company to show up. I've made Artichoke dip, Pear Salad, Thai Halibut with spinach & cashews on cocnut rice, & more chocolate dipped strawberried for dessert. It's actually a pretty Weight Watcher friendly meal. The house is full of the smells of garlic & Allspice & curry & ginger. My mouth is watering, & I'm hungry!

It's sunny again today, but not a cold. We're finally above zero! Maybe spring break-up is just around the corner. Yesterday was the start of Iditerod. My youngest Corey is in Nome right now. He called yesterday to say they were gearing up for the influx of people to come for the race end in about a week-10 days.

SAD

My friend Mindy wanted to know if I was ok, as I haven't blogged much lately. Maybe I do have a slight case of SAD, otherwise known as Seasonal Affective Disorder. Nothing serious, just no drive. I have been doing a lot of running around town, & the weather has been bitter cold, which saps a lot out of me. I manged to make it to Quilt guild on Thursday, which was nice to see all our friends.

Our fearless leader, this year's president Kay Fiero, has been busy.

The old-fashioned girls below she finished, & will be a raffle quilt .

I'm not sure who made this block, but thought it fits how I've been feeling lately.

The things I've been working on, are little gifts for Easter, & a piece that is for a contest that can't have been published, so sorry, but there's nothing of my own to show right now.

Last night we went to Bartlett High School to watch their talented kids do a great music program. 2 of the girls that were soloists, sinnging & dancing were our friends Holly & Bill's girls. Tomorrow they're coming for dinner.

Tonight we're going to see a movie. I'm not sure which yet, but will try to get back to posting more frequently.

As for questions on the last post, I'm not sure what Jim wants for the cruise. I think his idea is to get Alaskan cruising togehter in a warm place, but I'm sure anyone who wants to come is welcome. I think it's one of those going from island to island cruises. There wouldn't be a lot of time at sea. I can't see using Alaskan teachers for Alaskan cruisers to be much of a draw, since these people could come play with me anytime (or at least they used to be able to, when I was still teaching locally, which is something I've not done lately). I don't know the answers I'm afraid. I'm not really that excited at this point, since I don't really even believe it yet, & nothing has been set in stone or even on paper yet!

I've been playing with my needle felting a lot lately. Both by hand & with my machine. I may come up with some new embellishing classes, using felting needles, I'm purposely avoiding tutorials, & books by other artists, because I want to do my own thing with this. I don't want to risk being influenced by others on what I'm doing.