Sunny Play Day

It was a beautiful day today, so I decided to take advantage of it & go out on the new deck (or at least part of a deck), & play with paints & fabrics. I hadn't realized until reading Vicki W's blog that Dynaflow paints can be used for sun printing. I knew it was possible with Seta color, (& I have some small bottles of that too), but I have big bottles of Dynaflow, so that's what I decided to play with.

I looked upon it as sort of a Mad Science experiment, nothing really specific in mind,
just wanted to see what I could do. The doily on fabric, made a great sun print.

So did these paper cut snowflakes I made.

I think this will be the beginning for my auction quilt for our quilt show at Conoco-Phillips this year.

I just found out that Jeri's son is working there now!

I also did a couple of paintings of my favorite wildflower, Fireweed.

They don't look like much now, but when quilted & dimensional flowers & leaves are added they'll be beautiful.

I also painted up several pieces of silk organza for layering, & some batting & cotton scraps for art quilts.

Now I need to go bleach my hands, & shower, & get supper going!

PS-thanks for all your healing wishes. My shoulder is coming along nicely. Aches when I do to much, but really isn't bad.

4 blocks done & 7 random things

I made a little ATC today to trade with Nadia Bekker from the Netherlands. Nadia found me here, & emailed to ask if I would trade with her. She says if anyone else out there would like to trade with her give them her email address, so give a shout if you'd like a trade.

Here is Warren's progress on the deck. He says 4 down & 12 to go. So in about 2 weeks I should be able to plunk a lawn chair out there without being in his way!
I worked on the Irish dance dress today too. I'll save that post for tomorrow.

Oh, & Vicki W tagged me for 7 random things about me...Gee thanks Vicki...hmm,...

1. I won an Abominable Mention in the 3rd World's Worst Quilt Contest, by entering my 1st quilt. Ami Simms nearly fell off her chair laughing when I showed it to her. Fortunately I'd already improved quite a bit by that time, & realized it was really baaaad!

2. To counter balance #1, I'll tell you I've won a Best of Show in the international Feel Free Contest, sponsored by Husqvarna Viking in 2002.

3.I was a synchronized swimmer in high school. It's the only sport I was ever any good at. I'm a major klutz, my DH says I trip over color changes in the carpet, but I'm graceful in the water.

4. I had a woman tell me I was a Dali lama in a past life.Ha!

5. I love my vegetables so much, when I was a kid, my mom would cook 1 head of cauliflower for me, & 1 for the rest of the family, & I don't eat beef, or pork.

6.I am afraid of spiders.

7. I believe in Aliens, & I think Criss Angel has to be one!

I'm going to say if you'd like to play along with this feel free. I don't know who'd like to be tagged, so if you would, then do it!

Garden Tour

We had a nice weekend. Saturday Warren worked on the Log cabin quilt-deck.

He got his first block completed & is anxious to do the rest now. This is the FUN part!
Sunday it rained, & was a good day to take a stroll. We got about a 3 mile hike in, with umbrella in hand, & went to the Outdoor Art Show at the Botanical Garden.
There were 60+ vendors, showing their stuff. I loved this little potting table,

& these architectural birdhouses, but we were on a mission.

There were, of course, lots of flowers. These are the columbines that grow wild around here.

I loved the yellow foxtail grass in this garden.

The smell of the wild Sitka roses were Heavenly.

Forget-me-nots, are the Alaska state flower.
I love daisies.
This arbor was made by Brenda Milan, one of my favorite Anchorage artists. Brenda has been doing trellises with willow & copper wire for a LONG time. Her art has been copied by a lot of people. She also does fantastic metal works.

I thought this bird was great too, though I'm sorry I didn't get the name of the artist.

This fancy fused glass bird bath was pretty. The gal that made this also had a little Bistro set that we are very interested in. We will probably have her make one for our deck once we get it together. She asked I not take a picture of it though, so you'll have to wait until we buy it!

Her name is Laura Mendola.

This piece below is FELTED WOOL! By Lucy Zercher. Isn't it a HOOT?!!

Below is Paul Dungan. He was our "mission".

I had bought this sink for our master bathroom from Paul, & warren liked it so much he had gone & given Paul money for another sink, to put in his bar, last October when we were in Homer. Later Warren found a hammered copper sink that he liked better for the bar (it seemed safer for the sink to be non-breakable). He called Paul & cancelled the order, & told him to NOT refund the money, we would buy something else from him the next time we saw him.

These stumps have nothing to do with Paul, I just love stumps....

well Paul maybe likes them too, because here's one he made for the garden (no we didn't buy it).

He also made this piece he called the Cairn, (I thought it was funny because it looked like a pile of giant moose droppings to me).

This is what we got from Paul. A platter that I loved. A bowl that matched, so Warren said we needed it, & 8 wine glasses with pottery stems, so the next time someone wants a glass of wine here they can have it in a real wine glass. Auntie Ethel had broken all of our wine glasses, before she'd moved out. Not intentionally of course. She just had shakey hands.

Speaking of Auntie E, we visited her after dinner, if you want to see how she liked her book, look here.

Solstice, & Alaska is on Fire

We had a pleasant Summer Solstice evening watching Beatrix Potteron DVD with our friends John & Mindy Meyn. It was a beautiful evening, & they had taken their daughter Christy & some friends to climb Flattop Mtn. which is just a short drive behind our house. The climb takes just a couple hours.

We enjoyed the movie, I would highly recommend it. Beatrix had an interesting life, & Renee Zellwigger did a beautiful job playing the part.

It doesn't really get dark here this time of year, but this morning the sky was a greenish gray & very gloomy. At 3 a.m. I was awaken by the smell of smoke. Initially I was a little worried until I realized it was a campfire smell, not a burning house smell. Actually it was more the smell of 1000 campfires. 1000s of acres on the Kenai peninsula are burning right now, & the smoke had drifted into Anchorage during the night. We're all praying for rain to still the fires & clean the air.
This picture in my back yard this morning shows some of the gloom.

The soy wax I've been playing with, I added wax over the whole piece, let it harden, then crackled it & painted black over the whole thing.

After pressing & washing out the wax & excess black, I added more color. It's still an experiment in progress.

This is the finished cape, for Christy's Irish Dance dress. I've started on the dress now too.

Here's a detail of the light bit of quilting, & the piping I made for the edge. I found I can't quilt very smoothly with my bum shoulder . Speaking of which, I had a Dr visit today, & he said it looked good. He gave me some simple exercises to do, & by the time I left there, I was aching pretty good. Tonight I will take a 1/2 of a pain pill.

We went to lunch & then to the movies. We saw Nancy Drew. It really is a cute film, & if you want a nice clean movie, it's a good one.

Below is the cover of a little picture album I put together for Auntie Ethel. Her mind is slipping, & I thought she might be helped by looking at some of her old photos, that I found in the dresser of her old room here. This is the cover I made from a newspaper add she had saved, & a little thread heart I made a long time ago.

Here are just a couple of her photos, of her & her husband Jack.

This last was her sister Nellie. She died about 5 years ago at age 90.

I have to do a Grandma brag here too. My DD called me tonight to let me know that Darian got straight A's again! She's brilliant!

Moving Right Along

Here's my gardener. She doesn't charge a cent, she prunes & fertilizes & seldom makes any noise.
And here's my crazy cat. He has just recently started using his paw to scoop up the water when he drinks. Is that odd, or what?!
The quilt for the next grand baby is done. It just needs washing to defuzz & fluff the cut edges.

Here's the oh-so soft back side made from Minky soft velvety fabric. Little miss Carys will love this. It isn't going to be a prize winner, & it's lucky to be done since Grandma only has 1 good arm right now.

I also played around with some of the soy wax I've been saving from candle leftovers.

I just did a little doodling on a scrap of fabric, with the wax, & some Dynaflo paints.

Not exactly your usual way of Batiking,
but I was just playing around.

These will probably end up as backgrounds for quards & ATCs.

Speaking of ATCs, I bet nobody else out there has one like this. My friend Lindsey made it for me, out of fused glass. It really is pretty, better than it shows in this photo. I'll have to try again under natural light & see if I can do better.

I even put the stays into this cape for Christie's Irish Dance dress. That's the next project I will be concentrating on. I will not waste these days that I can't work, by sitting idle.

Lastly, this is what's on my bulletin board right now. Counting down to the opening of Order of the Phoenix. I've already got my tickets for opening night.

I know you all probably think I'm nuts, but I love those stories, & going to that opening midnight show with a theater full of die-hard fans is really a fun experience. I'm really looking forward to this movie more so because of the introduction of my favorite character Luna Lovegood. I fear though that Luna will be the sacraficial lamb in the last book. She's just too sweet, & I know I'll cry, just like I did when Dumbledor died.