Getting Ready For Christmas

I’ve been working on 2 different customer quilts this weekend. Both are going to be Christmas gifts. This little one belongs to Wendy. She is new to quilting. She likes the McKenna Ryan patterns, & wanted to give this to her daughter.

I’ve been working on it between working on Kate’s big quilt. When my knees start to ache from standing, I sat down & worked on the small quilt. It’s complete, now I just have to finish Kate’s.

I’ve also been trying to decorate the house too. I put the little ceramic tree in the kitchen while I was talking on the phone to my youngest son.

 

We had quite a bit of snow over the last couple of days. Warren went out to snow-blow the driveway today, but the old snow-blower died. He says he will try to find a new one tomorrow.

Kate’s quilt has been pure pleasure to work on during the gray winter days. It is so sunny & warm. The Minkie on the back is behaving just fine. I am also loving the green batting. It’s very nice.

Broc has wanted a little attention too. He gets so goofy at times. Yesterday Warren went shopping, & picked up Broc’s free gift from the Pet Zoo. When Warren came in & sat down the bags, Broc had gotten his & tried to take off with it. He knew it was his present!

Happy Thanksgiving Eve

I feel like my blog has been low on art & fiber content, so today I’m posting several pieces by friends. Above are some fused glass tiles that my dear friend Mindy made for me. Aren’t they wonderful?

Below are all silk pieces batiked my my friend Kate. Kate had never tried batik before, & she loved it.

 

The ties are for her lawyer husband Brook.

The B below is for Boston. Brook, & daughter Hanna’s favorite ball team.

These last few pictures are of Kate’s quilt, on my machine. Kate pieced it for Hanna, & I’m quilting it for her. It seems only yesterday I was making a baby quilt for Hanna, & now she is in High school. She is 6 foot tall, & beautiful.

The back of the quilt is Minkie-dot fabric. Very plush & soft. I was a little worried about how it might stretch on the frame, but so far, so good. I have decided to break up the design a little. Not do all continuous lines, side to side. That way, I figure I’ll have less chance of getting peats in the back. The area I have showing below, was just my initial test stitching. The orange above is how I am actually quilting the border. Just click on the pictures for a closer look.

Last, I just had to show you what my electronic clock said the outdoor temperature was just before we left the house this afternoon. Talk about Global Warming! I to think we’re having a snow storm!

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving day! Cheers!

ABCs of Embellishment Class

  Today I taught my ABC’s of Embellishment again. One product I showed was “Texture Magic” . Last night I did a few experiments with it. First, below show a simple grid quilted piece from the back side. The white material is the Texture Magic. It feels like a slippery light-weight fabric similar to what my tent is made out of.

 

I tried a second, free-motion quilted design too.Both designs, I did one with batting between the fabric & TM, & one without batting.

Then you apply steam, without touching it with your iron.

LOTS of steam! Superior threads sells a special steamer for this. I don’t think a standard iron has enough steam.

 

Below is the original before it’s steamed on the left. In the middle is the grid-quilted design with the batting after steam. The far right is grid quilted without batting after steam. You can click on the pictures to see better.

The next picture is the free-motion design with circles & squiggles.

Same order: far left-before steam; middle with batting; right no batting.

We did a little more painting, adding Lumiere paints to the mix. Painted dryer sheets, fabric, Lutradur, & Tyvek.

We embossed directly on fabric, we did some foiling, & played with Angelina sheets, & fibers.

Natalie had fun with her fabric.

A Better Day

Today I managed to bake bread without setting anything on fire!
Thanks for all the concerned comments. All is well. My kitchen is possibly a shade grayer than it used to be, & I still smell an odd odor (though Warren says it smells fine…of course that was about the time the bread came out of the oven).

While the bread was rising, I sat by the fire (in the wood stove this time), & did a little hand work on the next crazy quilt. It’s some of the same fabrics as the last one I did that was donated. This one is for us. No time limits, no deadlines, just relaxing hand work when I can.

 
I even listened to a little Christmas music on TV today. Trying to get into the mood.

I’d Have been better off staying in bed all day.

 

I spent most of my day working on making bread.

While it was baking in the oven & went into the living room with my DH, to relax before he had to go to work.

The smoke alarm went off, & this is what I found.

I realized afterward that I had left the foil in the broiler below the oven that I had broiled bacon wrapped dates on a couple of weeks ago. It had been too hot to remove at the time, & I had just forgotten it was there. So it was a grease fire. I consider myself lucky that it wasn’t worse, & will be more careful to check the broiler before I turn on the oven from now on! That’s one way to get me to scrub an oven!!!

 

Got Quilt, Need Dolls!!& a nice sunset

 

This is the kind of sunset we are having most every evening. I snapped this as we were heading down our hillside road yesterday.

We had meeting for the Alaska Fiber Festival last night. Below is a preview of a wearable art piece that will be in the show in March. It came from an artist in Ketchikan. Sorry I didn’t get the name. There was an interesting Raven head-piece with it.

My job in the AFF is to get some dolls for the show, & if the doll makers would like to sell them they can. Entry fee is $20.00 per doll plus shipping to (& from the show , if they don’t sell).  There is a $250.00 viewer’s choice award that will be given to the doll with the most votes. If a doll sells the AFF retains 20% of the sale price ( not a bad commission considering most venues here take 50 to 60% now!)

  If any of you would like to come to Anchorage for the festivities the downtown Sheraton is renting rooms for AFF attendees at $79.00/ night for a nice room with 2 queen beds. Classes are going to be in the Sheraton. Quilt Walk will be Fri. March 5th. Classes are all the next week. There is a fashion show, which will have pieces included from Fantasia. The Fiber Show will be the next weekend,  March 13 & 14 at the Conoco-Phillips ATRIUM downtown at 7th & G St.

OK, enough plugging, here’s what I’ve been busy at this week.

I finished Shirley Fraser’s quilt. I started by quilting all of the strip-pieced areas with black thread, &  stitching in the ditch around every triangle, & black sashing strips. Then I did the feathers in the center with yellow. Next I did pink flowers in all the triangles touching the center. Followed by purple circles (I was thinking nickels, dimes & quarters for those). The Next row I did stars, Then the 3 triangles in each corner I did sort of a feathery leaf hybrid. In other words I just had fun!

Click on any image for a bigger picture.