Thursday, September 30, 2010

Another Lady needs a quilt /Mckenna Ryan pattern

 

I got this email today, & told Barbara I would post this for her. Please contact me if you are interested in the job & I will give you each other’s contact info :

Hi there, I have a pattern by McKenna Ryan that I want to have made into a 60”w x 68” long wall hanging.

http://www.pineneedles.com/SuperStore/SuperStore-Assortment.asp?AssortmentID=33

It has a fair amount of detail, some of which I want removed, like the fisherman and the fish in the sky.

I would also like to trade the cotton flowers for pink fireweed.

Anyhow it does involve cutting and fusing.

I cannot find anyone willing to do it.

I went over to Seams Like Home and the person they recommended has never done fusing.

Quilt Tree recommended Linda P. but she does not do other folks’ patterns.

Can you make any suggestions? I am willing to pay whatever it takes.

 

Monday, September 27, 2010

Wildlife in my backyard..& need a quilt-Piecer

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Yesterday I made a wish on my blog, & today like a good fairy, he showed up & my wish came true. Yeah!!!
While I was outside talking to him, this fellow showed up.
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There were also geese making all sorts of noise. What a beautiful autumn day!

In regards to "NEED A PIECER", I have been contacted by a woman who sent this request:


"Hello,


I am looking for someone to finish a quilt for me.

My mother was in the process of making a quilt for me when she passed away. She finished 18 squares of the courthouse steps pattern. I would like to have those pieces and a star pattern (to join the courthouse steps together) made and then quilted to make a queen-size quilt.

Is there anyone who does this kind of work?

Thanks for your help.

Kathleen"

If you know of anyone who can help her,please contact me & I will send you her email address. Thanks!

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Termination Dust 2010

 

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Those white spots in the picture are not on the lens. Yes it’s snow. Termination Dust. So, yes Rian, it’s Fall already! At this northern latitude winter moves in quickly.  The snow didn’t last long, for which I am grateful.  I am afraid the ice melting wires that need to be hooked back up on the roof, & the electrical wires that I have been tripping over outside the back door still won’t get buried before it snows again. We are waiting for our favorite electrician/contractor to come finish the job. I fear another winter will crawl by with me worrying over the snow load & possible leaks in the roof.

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This was the accumulation on the driveway. Tomorrow we could wake up to real snow.

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At least the stone work was finished before the snow.

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I got all of the autumn quilts up for the next couple of months, before I change over to the winter decor.

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I am trying to move ahead on Shirley Fraser’s latest quilt, but still feel the need to study for PALS too.  Gosh I wish I didn’t have to take these classes!

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Thursday, September 23, 2010

Neck purse & Fall Clean-up

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I usually make a neck purse as a gift from our ALCQ quilt guild, for visiting teachers. Tonight is our lecture from Sharon Schamber, so this will be her gift. I decided to do a crazy log cabin front on it, since we are the Log Cabin quilters.

We are having another spectacular autumn, (which helps make up for the lousy summer we had this year). A couple of days ago we found our deck decorated for Halloween already. There must’ve been a spider jamboree out there! UCKY! I HATE spiders!

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We have been very busy this past week, between my working extra days in the Recovery room, studying for my PALS exam coming up in another week, & cleaning out our garage, of all of Aunt Ethel’s old things. I hope to give away or sell most of it.

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Cleaning out the garage exposed me to more molds, so I’ve been coughing a lot, & ended up sleeping in the recliner last night.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

STRETCH A leaf Study with Gel Printing

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On the Fiberactions blog our current challenge word was ‘Stretch’. For myself, I wanted to do something I had never tried before. I started by getting out my copy of Rayna Gillman’s book “How to Create your own Hand-Printed cloth” and looked at her directions on Gel Printing. I used textile paints instead of mixing dyes, but the gelatin was the part of the process I hadn’t done before, & it was fun using such a squishy surface for the printing. I picked leaves from my yard, & laid them on the gelatin, then rolled the paint over them, peeled off the leaves, laid down the fabric for the mono-print, then also used the leaf to print an image too.      
I sewed the front & back fabrics together like a pillow, turned it with the batting in place, & closed the opening, then arranged the green pieces & 1 brown on the surface, sewed them in place, & machine quilted until I felt it was time to add another layer of texture.
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I added lots of big stitches, French Knots, x’s, & a scattering of seed beads.
You can click on any of the images to see close-ups.
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ALCQ Show2010

 

mi&qshow2010 246 Harmony Moser was our featured quilter for this year’s ALCQ show.

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I was delighted to meet Mary who traveled all the way from Ireland to come to our show. I was demonstrating free-motion machine quilting.

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My “sister” Carol Wight Jones won viewer’s choice in the large quilt category, for her exquisite hand appliqué's & hand quilted quilt. The detail below is the nest with little eggs that I made for her from polymer clay.

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mi&qshow2010 213 This piece by Sandy Winfree was really beautiful. I love the silk textures. She hand dyes it, & ties rocks in it while wet, then lets it dry to retain the interesting shapes.

 mi&qshow2010 218 his was another of my favorites. Linda Postelwaite hand appliquéd all of theses squares, & hand quilted this, all during the Olympics. Detail pics below.

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mi&qshow2010 221 This won Viewer’s choice for small wall quilts. It is ‘Painted Feathers’ by Cindy Rainey. She used Shiva sticks to paint it, & Sharon Schamber’s cording technique.

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Jan Wills got the Viewer’s Choice for her appliqué’ quilt, that I quilted for her! We were both tickled pink!

mi&qshow2010 240 The final Viewer Choice for wearable art, went to Connie Cloud, for her Puppies jacket.

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Some of my other favorites were:

Pam Harris’s ‘Fan Fungi’,

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& her ‘Postcard from Bonaire, Netherlands Antilles’. She credited me with teaching her the Treadplay “cup corals”.

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as did Jackie Carley for the threadplay trees she did.

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These purses were made by Pam Harris, & Joyce Webster.

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The doggie coat by Elaine Fergen.

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Done with the show report, at home now, I want to show you all the scarf that my DGF Kathy Jolman dyed for me using Eucalyptus leaves. She wrapped it on the stick with leaves tucked into it, & let me open it up to reveal the print. The other thing she did the same way was this hank of wool yarn shown in the upper left corner of the scarf picture.

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This is how our nasturtiums look today.

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And last, as I ate my breakfast this morning, the sun was shining, & a mist rolled through, giving me the most ethereal view. Beautiful day!

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Monday, September 13, 2010

Michigan Visit

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We arrived in Michigan on Sept. 2nd, which was my Dad’s 90th birthday. We waited in Grand Rapids until my eldest son Brandon arrived from Kwajalein with his family, then met Dad for dinner.

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We had a nice dinner with Brandon & Laura & Carys.

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The next day we visited my brother & his family, walked out by the Lake (Michigan), & the waves were pretty big.

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This is the lighthouse near my brother’s place.

mi&qshow2010 049  This was our accommodations at my sister Em’s house. We loved sleeping out on her porch. The first night there was thunder & lightning, then when the storm passed the frogs & crickets sang a great lullaby.  I could see the stars, it was perfect! I loved this bed.

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on Saturday we had a family reunion & big birthday party for Dad.

I’m not sure how many we had that showed up, but I would guess around 150.

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My niece Leilani made the cake. BTW, I only gained 1 pound on this trip. Not bad for  10 days with my family!

mi&qshow2010 115 Two of my girlfriends showed up, left to right is me, Kathy P. & Kathy F. It was so good to see them.

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Later in Em’s kitchen I got out the Stackabubbles, & had some fun with the kids.

mi&qshow2010 124mi&qshow2010 122Jenny played make-up on Carys, & Kadee, then she gave Carys a bath & turned her into a Kewpie doll.

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Kamie & Carys played well together.

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We had dinner with sister Vickie, & Al one evening.

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Laura was excited the day we went to our favorite Muskegon pizza joint, “Someplace Else”, because they serve Gluten –free pizza, & she said it was the best she had ever tasted.

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After pizza we drove around town & went out to Pere Marquette to play on the beach.

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We met the next day at niece Kim’s house to catch up with Katie who flew in that day from Texas.

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On our last day we drove by the lone tree that I took a picture of back in February 4 years ago, so I could catch it in it’s leaves. I already did one small quilt with this tree, & I want to do more.

If you click on it, you’ll see a dragon fly just above the tree.

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This was the sunrise on our last morning, looking out over White Lake, from my brother’s front yard.

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Next post will be about yesterday’s quilt show.