Post #499/Friendship Quilt & Threadplay

 

 

We have had a lovely peaceful Christmas week. Exchanged gifts late Christmas eve. My friend Carol was discharged today, so I’ll go spend some time with her tomorrow, since her DH has to go to work.       

These pictures are one of 2 quilts that I’ve been working on this week. Both are due Jan 15th. This will be shipped out this next week. It was a commission piece from my friend Ilene (Pictured on the left in the quilt), for her friend Eileen (on the right).

It’s another crazy quilt doing piecing & quilting all at the same time, then embellished both by hand & machine. I did a little silk ribbon embroidery.

& or course I had to do some Threadplay! The feather was stitched with a variegated rayon thread over a center wire, then stitched on to the quilt.

I also did 6 of these funky flowers in a Copper Metallic thread, with yellow rayon leaves.

Ilene sent me this saying  to be printed on fabric .

I also woke up early this morning with a desire to use some of my UV sensitive thread for another Threadplay sample. It’s actually 2 different colors of thread, but looks white until it’s exposed to direct sunlight. The leaves & curls will turn pale green, the rest will be lavender.

The center is a mirror, about the size of a Quarter. Maybe if the sun comes out this week I can get a picture to show the difference.

Thanks for all of the nice comments on my Thread Angel. Carol was very happy with her.  I’ll have quite a few names in the basket for my drawing! Next post is #500!

The other quilt I’m working on is my “Initiative” challenge quilt. All I have left on it is a little hand work, which I will probably take with me to Carol’s tomorrow.

Christmas Eve Threadplay Angel

 

My friend Carol has been in the hospital almost a week now. She had surgery & later developed complications . I feel so bad for her being sick & having to be in the hospital, especially this time of year. I decided to make an Angel for her.

Here is how I did it: First I made a design out of plain paper. I cut out the pieces & taped them together just to see how they would fit.  I could trim the paper & retape until everything fit together well.

Once I was satisfied with her dimensions, & took her apart.

Using a wash-away stabilizer (Aqua Magic) in my hoop, I laid the paper piece on top & stitched around it.

After I got the initial outline done, I laid wire over the stitched line, & did a zigzag stitch over the wire.

I left wire tails on the ends for attaching pieces later.

I filled in the design. That thing on top is hair, to be flipped down in back of her head.

Here are all 3 pieces after the threadplay is done.

Next I trimmed away some of the Aqua Magic, & attached the 3 pieces together, then ran warm water over her, until the stabilizer was washed away.

 

Here is how she looks finished, front, side & back views.

This is post number 498. Remember I’ll be giving away a Threadplay piece to one of you who comments on post 496 up to & including post 500.

Merry Christmas my friends!

Winter Solstice – Lucky Day

 

 

This is my 497th post. I’ll be drawing a name from the comments in the last 5 posts leading up to & including the 500th, to give someone a prize. A piece of my Threadplay.  Today is winter Solstice. That means that from now until June 21st, every day will get brighter & longer here in the North country.  We had this snow storm on Friday. It was a good day to be home.

We wondered why we were only getting local TV stations when we first got up, then Warren went outside. Once he raked the snow off of the tree by the dish, all our channels came back.

We finished putting the second layer of mortar between the stones in Warren’s bar today. It was a messy job, but we finally got it done.

 

On Sunday we had friends over for dinner & an ornament exchange.

Food coma started to set in.

Afterwards we played “Catch Phrase”. It was a lot of fun.

 

Why am I lucky? Because I have wonderful friends & Family. & Because today my sister Em called me to let me know that I won the Quilt Raffle for her Grand-daughter’s band. It is a Queen sized quilt, that my sister made. I bought 10 tickets. I think it’s the first quilt raffle I’ve ever won!

Countdown Begins

 

I’m talking about 3 things. The countdown to Christmas, to the New Year, & to my 500th posting. This is post # 496, so starting now, I will keep a list of all who post comments on my postings, & when I get to #500 I will draw a name & send a  threadplay prize.

Here is a little tour of just a few of our decorations.

I have 3 small trees around the stairwell, along with all of my teddy bears & friends.

 

A Santa train along with Pluto behind it are resting on the bookcase that my DH built.

Above left is the main tree, & right is a smaller one by the back window. Below are the gifts I just finished wrapping & embellishing with Embossed snowflakes, for my DH.

 

The Sugartown Village is set up around the TV (DH was watching ESPN), and in the kitchen Santa stands guard over the streusel cake I baked for tonight’s dinner.

My baby, Corey came over with his girl Tasha for dinner & gifts. Christmas has officially begun for us. Happy holidays to all.

Xmas Threadplay

I’ve been doing some more Threadplay with wire for Christmas. I used small bits of Lame’ fabrics on each petal, besides metallic threads. I love playing with thread!

You can click on the images for a larger view.

Calendar Girls Xmas & Ice Fog

We have had several days of Ice Fog, here in Anchorage. That happens a lot here in the winter, & I think it’s beautiful.

The ice fog in my back yard inspired this ornament, that I made for one of my Calendar Girls packages. We do a “White Elephant Exchange” each year, & get rid of old stuff that we don’t want any more. It’s a lot of fun! I like to put something nice on the outside of the package, because what’s inside isn’t always that good.

Jackie broke her toe, at the last Quilt guild meeting. She had kicked off her shoes, then proceeded to run into a chair leg, so she kept her foot elevated for the duration.

Below are photos of each one of the Calendar Girls, that Jackie put into her computer & manipulated into a kaleidoscope.  We may use them in our next challenge.
 
We did our traditional calendar exchange before lunch.

Jackie got the one from me, & was quite excited over the handmade quilt-jewelry that I tucked into the calendar package.

Betty  made a wonderful seafood lasagna, with an Alfredo sauce. Oooo it was good.
 
After lunch we did the White Elephant/Chinese Auction. It was a lot of fun. The way it works, is each person can bring up to 3 packages. It’s supposed to be stuff you really want to get rid of. I gave away a stack of books & about a dozen little fabric cows, & a funny little sign. I wrapped them in nice fabric & put something handmade in each one.
 
Below, Mary shows a funny plastic purse-monkey that Jackie bought at a garage sale for this exchange. She stuffed it with nice little scraps of fabric.

Rena got this UFO block made by Mary Lee.
A Mobius scarf made by Jan,

& I’m not sure what the little hearts are actually for, but..well Rena is a lot of fun!


 
That’s my usual tongue out expression.


A singing fish!  “Oh. I’m wrapping this back up & giving it to my husband for Christmas!”
 


Ice fog & blue sky is what our yard looked like today.

I did another tree for my new store sample,

as well as a dragonfly, (all inspired by the colors of the world around me)

to go with the blue lily for my Threadplay with Wire class, starting in January at Seams like Home.