Food, Fun & Felting

Yesterday we went out to Girdwood , to one of our most favorite restaurants, the Double Musky Inn, to celebrate both my birthday, & Tasha's (my son Corey's girl). Hers is just the week before mine. Corey just got back into town from Nome & will only be here about a week before he heads back out for the summer.

Speaking of summer, we're all a little worried that ours might be over already. We've had a glorious spring & now the last 2 days have been cool & rainy, & there's fresh snow on some of the mountain tops!
We got to the restaurant right when they open (a smart thing to do), & got seated in the atrium.

I even had a real drink, a peach Cosmo. It was tasty!

Corey says "Hi".

The food there is spectacular. I ended up having most of my meal for dinner today, because I couldn't begin to eat all of it.

I love the fused glass fish here.

& here. All the Mardi Gras beads are fun too. It's a Cajun menu.

Today I went to my friend Kate's house for a play date. Around the corner from her house I saw these little guys just sitting on these blocks like they were little yard art.

Kate's kids were all home. Hannah made popcorn the old-fashioned way, & Kate put a few too many kernels in the pot. It was pretty funny when the lid blew off.

For hand work to do at Kate's I took my needle felting supplies, & we had a great time playing. Kate had never needle felted before. She made this little Forget-me-not pin for her sister-in-law.

I decided that I should try to be a better Auntie, & make graduation cards for my 2 great-nephews that just graduated, & 2 friends girls here that graduated too.

This was the first, symbolized the "road of life",

then I switched to the "river of life" on the next 2.

The last one I made a Pansy pin,

& mounted it on top of a goofy looking butterfly, that started out as leaves, & morphed while I wasn't looking.

Wendy's Poppy

Gee, Thanks for all of the nice birthday greetings! You are all SUPER!

This is the customer quilt that I've worked on for the past week. I went for quality, not speed on this one. I delivered it to her today & she was very happy with it.
I used Holoshimmer threads on the flower petals to give them more life. I also did the complete binding & sleeves for her, as she is going through Chemo right now, & just doesn't have the energy to do it herself.

55 & Still ALIVE!

It was my 55th birthday today. I spent most of it hand finishing a quilt for a client. (I'll post it tomorrow). My DGFs Ilene & Mindy both called to wish me happy BD.

My DH spoiled me rotten, as usual. I love brown paper packages. They always make me want to sing!

This was the first thing I opened. I wasn't sure what it was at first. It's my own personal library. Like something out of Star Trek! I've already loaded the "Twilight" series into it. Another series I told him I would want to put into it is Madeline L'Engle's "Wrinkle in Time" series.
This was the next package I opened. I've read these books about every 10 years of my life.

One new summer outfit from Coldwater Creek.

& I love these shoes he got for me from REI.

Broc enjoyed the wrapping paper ,

boxes,

& ribbon.

It was a lovely day.

Busy-Busy

It's not that I've had nothing to blog about, I've just been BUSY! Busy with the business of quilting. I was overstaffed the last 3 days I was scheduled to work at the hospital, but I've been working every day on customer quilts. I turned 3 quilts over to Margery Waggood on Sunday. They all turned out well, & she was very happy.

Last Thursday my Calendar Girld group met at Margaret Gingerich's. Here she is showing a piece she did in a class recently.

She wasn't quite happy with it. We discussed it, & thought maybe a bit of green in the upper left corner might make it better balanced, so she thought she might have some beads that would work.
She also did this , inspired by a photo she took of some lichen.

Her husband Nelson, took a class on inlaying in wood. This was his piece.

It was so light & smoothe. It was amazing.

Friday I had Kate & Boots, 2 of my Embellishment students over for a catch -up class. We squeezed into my studio & played for a few hours.

Boots used all sorts of techniques she had never tried before. We all had a lot of fun.

I did another book cover collage, layering it togehter for my demo, then quilted it later.

It's from my own hand painted fabrics.

I did a lot of heavy quilting on it. Minuscule feathers around the edge are less than an inch wide.

I also finished quilting my friend Kate Gardner-Chandler's yellow-black & white quilt. My eyes felt strained after quilting white on all that yellow. I had trouble seeing what I was doing.

I practiced my feathers a lot on this quilt, & I see a big improvement.

I have to say thanks Deb G. for recommending Kim Brunner's DVD. It worked! I really thought I knew what I was doing, then I watched her DVD & learned a lot in the first 10 minutes! I was amazed.

Urban Wildlife

This evening we went to the Peanut Farm for supper. It was another beautiful day so we wanted to take advantage of the deck outside. We sat right next to the creek.
We were there until 1015 pm, & the sun was still quite high in the sky. It's easy to lose track of the time when it's light so late. As we sat, we saw what looked like a piece of brown wood float past. A second look , & we realized it was a beaver.

He stopped & climbed out of the water on the opposite bank. Note the metal flashing around the tree trunk.

I love Alaska.

Walking & Quilting, Business is good

I like to carry my camera when I take my walks. This is the Quonset hut on the corner of 142nd & Goldenview. It has a certain charm. The view below is looking down Goldenview toward the Kenai mountains.
Yesterday I delivered this 94 inch square quilt to it's maker Dr. Shirley Fraser. She is a Neurologist here in Anchorage. The nicest lady, & a very good Doctor, though she is pretty much retired from medicine these days. She was thrilled with the quilting I did for her, & gave me another quilt to do when I can. I have 10 in line now.

Today I headed into the woods to hike toward my friend Kate's house. Where there was a path 2 weeks ago, there is a pond with ducks living in it today. I tried to walk around but sank to my knees in icy cold water & muck.

The rest of my day was spent loading this 106"x114" quilt on Lily. I managed to get started quilting on it. Half way through the first bobbin my tension spring broke. Luckily a spare came with the machine, & with one call to Megan, & a few minutes of watching the DVD that came with the machine, I was able to replace the spring & keep on sewing.

I switched gears after the bobbin ran out, & worked on one of my Threadplay pieces. This is "The Ravages of Time #1". I started with a photo of an old cabin that I took years ago in Hope, Alaska. I have a lot more work to do on it, but my eyes are dry & tired. I don't blink much when I quilt! The border around my picture is some of the rust dyed fabric that I made recently.

I heard from The Alliance For the American Quilt. They received my crazy quilt, "A Modern Romance". It's always nice to know that they made it where they were supposed to go. I have a history of quilts lost in the mail.