Mary Hertert Show & Student Work, Melanie Ver Duin

This is Mary Hertert, friend & local fiber artist. She owns Color Creek. She has a show along with my friend Kathy Harte, that opened this evening at Terra Bella. Warren & I stopped by, & he indulged me by buying this luscious 4 yards of silk hand dyed fabric. I think I may make a kimono to wear with slacks. It is a yummy piece of fabric.

Melanie Ver Duin took my Embellishment class last September in Grand Haven, Michigan. She was kind enough to send me these pictures of a small quilt she finished from a piece she started in my class. It's titled "Embellished Fall".

Thanks Melanie! I love it when my students share their work!

Quilt Deck Views & Today's Quilting

Here are some views of our deck as it is today.

The salmon used to hang on a fence downtown. The got rusty & were replaced. Our friend was given several of them, & he gave them to us. We took them & had the rust sand-blasted off of them, them they were powder coated in a copper. These photos don't do them justice. They sparkle & shine in the sun.

Now for today's quilting. This is a customer quilt by Kathy Murray. I had a time quilting it. In the first 10 minutes of quilting, I knocked my timing out of balance & had 2 days of frustration before I got it working again. Thanks to Sheila Crum, another A-1 long-armer here in AK. I called her & she helped me over the phone. I could've gotten the same help from Megan, but I wanted to talk to someone withing driving distance in case I needed hands on help.

I ended up stitching around some of the big lumps where too many seams converged. I had to get creative.

I used Madeira metallics on the center gold circle, & the red areas.

I made this bunny for Carys while we were driving to Denali. Yesterday I needle felted the eyes, nose & heart on her. Now I need to make her a dress.

I think she looks like she might be related to Elmo.

I did a little needle felting while in Homer too.

Both of these were inspired by our trip there.

Tonight my friend Judy Evans came over. She had made this little quilt top a long time ago & wanted some help getting it finished. I told I owed her a favor for taking my call one Saturday when I was sick. She used my Bernina to do the blanket stitch on all of the applique' pieces,

then I quilted it for her.

She still has some beads to put on it & needs to finish the binding, but now she's all set for Christmas!