Sunshine & Hearts quilt done

We have been blessed with some beautiful days this week. It has been warm & sunny. I think we may have green leaves in the next day or 2, which is really early for us. We don't usually turn green until mid-May.

Today my youngest son Corey came over to visit & have an early dinner with us. He's getting ready to go back up to Nome for the summer. We spent some time out on the deck enjoying the weather,
& his girl Tasha, & her 8year-old daughter Lakota (visiting from the bush) came & tried out the hot tub. The girls had a great time.

I just finished this customer quilt today. It's another of Margery Waggood's. It was a lot of fun to quilt. I enjoyed the whimsical pattern & happy colors.

Business has picked up enough, that I think I will be only signing up for 1 day a week at the hospital, because they want me every time I put down that I'm available, & now I feel like I may be getting behind in the quilting, with 3 more customer quilts hanging in my closet, & 5 more to be picked up. I'm not complaining! I'm happy!

Sunday Visitor

It was a typical Sunday in Anchorage. The alarm cat woke me up at 5:41, & I couldn't figure out what his problem was. 10 minutes later we had an earthquake. It was only a 3.54, Warren snored through it, but I was wide awake.

Later in the day we had our first bear siting of the year. He was chilling on out front porch, among the hulls left from the bird feeders, which have been put away a couple of weeks ago.

He obviously thought they should still be there. He was looking for them. He moved some of the wood slats that are for finishing the deck. Now if we could just train him to help.

He did do a little sweeping for me.

Then he walked off in a huff.

Maybe down the hill will have better pickings. It is garbage night tonight!

Winding Ways & Wed. @ Pat's

I've had a busy & productive week . I finished "Springtime", this small quilt featuring Angelina Fibers in the center, looking icy blue, surrounded by springtime green, & bordered by the darker greens of summer.

I had fun free-motion quilting this little piece.


The fuzzy stuff on it is from a role of batting I unrolled from a bolt that I bought. It was folded in half, & I wanted to roll it flat on the bar under Lily, my Longarm machine. I spent over an hour crawling back & forth (actually it was more like crab walking), under Lily, trying to get the 40 yards of batting, rolled out smoothly. I was smart enough to wear a mask. Good thing too. There was white fuzz everywhere when I was finished.

I also added another layer to finish off this "About Time" piece. I actually made a whole cloth quilt for the last border, & just sewed the yarn edged piece to the top.

Here are some details....

I got 5 customer quilts this week.

This is a Winding Ways quilt from Margery Waggood. I did winding random feathers all over the surface..

It's all finished & gone home to Margery now.

On Wednesday I went to Pat Sim's house. Here she is (center), showing us her latest creation. It was magnificent!

Nancy Perry showed these silk fusion bowls she made, from an on line class she took. I guessed correctly, as soon as I saw the bowls, that it was Sue Bleiweiss's class on Joggles. Nancy was surprised that I knew her.

Nancy is most often known for her spinning & weaving textiles. Here, Pat is modeling a richly textured shawl that Nancy just finished.

Suzanne Koch showed 2 more of her beautiful little journal quilts. This she made about her feelings after the sale of her house.

This one was inspired by a visit to the museum & interaction with several different artists. She said it's her Grey matter popping with new ideas.

Nancy liked my rusted piece of fabric. She thought it would make a lovely scarf.

Our snow is almost all melted. The driveway is a mushy mess. There is volcanic ash all over outside, & I am hoping we get some nice spring rain soon to help wash things off a bit (though it will probably make the driveway worse). I keep telling myself we should plan our vacation for this time of year.

Mountain Views

I went to my Quilt Guild meeting today, & picked up my friend Kate to go with me. After I dropped her off at home this was my view of Mt Redoubt, our active volcano, as I was coming down the hill. I checked on a map today & realized that Kate is just 1/2 mile away from me as the crow flies. It's a little over a mile by road. We're going to have to explore & see if we can find a path that connect our houses.

This evening I went out to take a few pictures around the neighborhood, & my neighbor Carol was doing a chalk drawing on her driveway. She said she likes to do them all summer when the weather permits.

This was our sunset this evening over the Alaska Range.

Happy Easter 2009

Have you ever had one of those projects that took you 10 years & 2 days to finish. This was one of those for me. It all started in Feb. or March of 1999. My friend Kathy Fitzsimmons was visiting from Michigan, & we went to Hope, Alaska with our friends John & Mindy Meyn, & their 3 girls, for a weekend at the Methodist retreat cabin in Hope. The plumbing & water were shut off for the winter, so we had to use the outhouse in the back for the weekend.

I brought along fabric, & textile paints, thinking it would be fun to have everyone do a painting of something that we saw while hiking around Hope. Outhouses became the central theme for several of our campers.

Later Mindy & the girls & I pieced random patches to put it together, & then it got put in my UFO basket for several years. Friday I finally pieced a last filler strip for one side, then the borders, & yesterday I quilted, bound & added a sleeve.

I love children's art, & here is nearly 6 year old Hope's painting of the rainbow she saw when we walked out by the inlet.
Christie who was 8 at the time, saw a sea-shell, & gull.
Lindsey at 14 already had an artist's eye, painted the river that runs to the sea.

Their mom Mindy, did Birch & pine trees, & the ever important outhouse.

John did mountains & trees.

Kathy got the mountains, trees & outhouse all together.

My DH, Warren did the view from inside the outhouse.

I did the Retreat center cabin itself.

I bundled it all up last night & left it on the porch for the Easter bunny to find.

This morning this was in it's place. Isn't it cute? I love the curly handled basket, & the little chicken. All the perfect size for our little house.

This was the prettiest egg I've ever owned. I hope to keep it forever just as it is. It is too pretty to eat.

This is the center piece for our quiet Easter Sunday. Warren is on call for the hospital today, so we are staying home. I'm making bread & starting other projects that need to be finished by July.

Warren is busy putting his drill press to use, & drilling holes in the posts for our deck, so he can put the copper pipe in for the rails. We want to have it done so we can feel safe to use the deck this summer when company comes.

Here are the pin & earrings that I was making. I wore these to Doriola's, a little artsy restaurant here in Anchorage.

Our Calendar Girls group met there for lunch. That's me back in the corner, center. Left to right is Rena Brinker, Mary Lee, Carol Wight Jones (former cover quit from Quilters Newsletter), Me, Jackie Carley, Betty Bivens, & Mary Gerkin. They are a FUN group.
The food was excellent too.

This is an collage that I put together in my last ABC's of Embellishment class. I am making it into another Book Cozy. It will be one of the things that will be for sale in the show I am getting ready for in July.

Here are some details. I did a combination of free motion machine work, & hand embroidery

I used Angelina sheets & Fibers both. Plus hand painted fabrics, & tulle.

I had a lot of fun with this piece.

I also rust dyed this fabric to use for a base in my "About Time". I think it will be "The Ravages of Time".

The other thing I did this week, is a customer quilt, for a group of women in Aviation. One of my students, Kate Bebee pieced it all together. It will be a raffle quilt for their group. Proceeds will pay for a scholarship to their conference for someone who needs it.

Here are a few details.

I have to say that this was the easiest quilt that I've done on Lily so far. It seemed like everything went smoothly (for a change).