Quilting Design, Mystery books & a gift

Vivika DeNegre sent this little Prayer Flag to me, as on the the Fiberactions group. Isn't it sweet? It's always fun to get a little surprise bit of art in the mail. Thank you Vivika!

I've been eating up the books lately. As I quilt on Lily (my longarm), I like to listen to books on my Kindle. Recently, I received an email from Mary Pomponio, who is a publicist for Clare O'Donahue.

Clare is a quilter who also write Mystery books. She has a new book coming out soon, & Mary is asking some quilters who blog to read her new book. Well, since the new book is the 4th, Z& even though she offered to send me all 4, I decided I wanted to get started on them now. The first 2 aren't available to my Kindle, so I'll have to read those the old fashioned way. I found them at Titlewave today. The 3rd,"",Double Cross I was able to get on Kindle. I've already got started on "Lovers's Knot", & I'm already hooked. This will be my bedtime coffee in the morning reading for now. Since I'm a Gemini, I can continue listening to the "Anna Pigeon Series" by Nevada Barr, on my Kindle when I want to quilt. There will be a give-away here soon for the newest book, along with something made by me.

For what I'm working on next, is a quilt by Tracy. These are the designs I offered her, & she chose B (my favorite). She wants it double batted, so it'll not only be really warm, the quilting will stand out well. I loaded it today, tomorrow I hope to start quilting.

As far as what is TERMINATION DUST: it's the first snow on the mountains in the autumn, that marks the termination- hence the end of summer. Time to get ready for winter.

Autumn Inspiration

This fella took a nap in our yard yesterday. Isn't he handsome in his homely moosie way?

Today I took a little walk around our yard, looking for a little autumn inspiration.

Termination dust has been on the mountains behind the house for a few days now.

This is what I made after my walk.

Oh, by the way, ...If you want to be my neighbor, this house is for sale!

The Case of the Mysterious Oompa Loompa...

      

Yesterday my DH went into his closet to pull out a shirt. Weather is getting cooler, so he went for long sleeves. The shirt he chose, was one he hadn't worn in a long time. This Oompa Loompa doll was neatly buttoned under the collar of the shirt. Neither one of us recall ever seeing this thing before. We have no idea how it came to be in his closet, or on his shirt. I find this a little creepy....

Catching Up

One of the things I finished recently was the quilt for our past quilt guild president, Pam Harris. I didn't want to post about it until we gave her the quilt, as she reads my blog pretty regularly. The blocks were made by lots of the members of the Anchorage Log Cabin Quilters.(You should check out the quilt show pictures too). Jackie Carley put them together into a top. We gave Pam the top a year ago, & I promised her I would do the quilting for it. She added the small green & wider purple borders herself, & with the help of Sandy Winfree & some extra blocks, pieced the back.

I did all the quilting, & made the binding, put it on by machine, then Jetta Brewer- Huber, Donna Evans,

Marge Seidler & Barbara Clinton hand finished the binding.

I took one of my photos from the front of the quilt, & made a label for it using the Colorfast Printer fabric.

I cut it into a circle & hand appliqued it on at the meeting just prior to presenting it to Pam.

Today we had breakfast at the Meyn's house. Their youngest, Hope is going off to Southern Oregon U. in a few days.

Next to her is her BF Ethan.

Pete & Lily came too. (Pete is the Orho Doc that fixes our arthritic joints).

I made 2 pans of sticky, gooey, oh so yummy carmel buns. They were gone pretty fast.

Texture

Today is the reveal day on the Fiberactions Blog for the word "Texture". Above is my completed piece. I finished the quilting on it this morning. I started with the black satin background quilt. I finished the edges with a nubby black yarn Already that's 2 different textures.

Detail shots from left to right, & top to bottom below. I made 9 white wool mini quilts 3 1/2 x 3 1/2 inches. Each has a Timtex-like stiff batting for thier center. I painted green or orange around the edge of each block after blanket stitching each edge with a white wool yarn.  In the center of each little wool square, I did a small study of different textures.

The first, below was done by sewing a grid on wash-away stabilizer, then weaving my hand-dyed cotton string left-over from a shibori dying project that I did about 8 years ago. This took me back to those little pot-holders we all made as childeren. After the weaving was complete, I free-motion stitched another layer of threads to anchore the piece together, & washed out the stabilizer.

The 2nd is a piece of fused glass made by my Mindy. She's the best! Always giving me little beautiful bits, that I can include in my pieces. I did some simple thread-play on the wash-away stabilizer, rinsed, & hand sewed it to the top, trapping the glass underneath.

This on is a bit of silk chiffon that I simpley pole wrapped & dyed, & dryed.

The green is another Thread-play on Wash-away. I did 3 layers, washed them out, & layed 1 on top of the next to give depth.

For the center block, I did a little bead scene with a mirror sun cabachon. 16 hours of beading & all I have to show for it is a wonky 1 3/4 inch square. Maybe I should take a class to learn how it's supposed to be done.

For the next one, I got out my wool rovings & a felting needle. I sculpted this little flower in a very short time.

It's hard to tell here, but it's very dimentional.

The next is another little bit of silk that I hand dyed, & pole wrapped with little beads inside, to give the fabric shape & dimension. This was after my friend Sandy showed me how to wrap rocks under fabric & on a pole.

I dug into my botton collection for the next square. I love sorting through old buttons.

For the last of the 9 squares I painted a bit of Mulberry bark, & added some hand embroidery stitches for a different texture.

In the empty space at the bottom, I did 3 squares of free-motion machine quilting. All in Sulky Holoshimmer thread, 2 green & one Copper.

                                             Check out all the others on the Fiberactions Blog.

A week with Quilters

Thursday we had our Calendar Girls Meeting at Mary Gerkin's house. Mary always serves up a gourmet meal. This time it was Paella & antipasto. Her sweet dog Scamp looked on, longingly from the door on the deck.

Don & Marilyn Locke were our special guests.

Dessert was a lovely Flan.

Mary's view from her deck was lovely. On the way down the mountain, we got to see a big black bear. Don got a picture of it with his camera, but I was too busy driving to try & take a pic.

                           

Friday we set up the quilt show. Here are Don & Marilyn with his very first quilt.

& Don with "The Supper", when we got it hung.

Saturday, on the 1st show-day, he wore his hand-dyed shirt that matches the back side of the quilt.

Bryan stopped by & did this little pose for me, so I could post it here for his mom, Anita Heady. I know how it is to have you kids so far away Anita, so here he is for you. He very sweetly offered to make dinner for us on Sunday, & I took him up on it. See below!

I introduced Bryan to several of my quilter friends. They all loved him. This is our guild president Rena, who he is talking to.

Here bidding was ending at the small quilt silent auction.

For the first time ever, I actually got a quilt that I was bidding on. It was made by my friend Sandy Winfree, who taught me how to tie the rocks into the fabric for Shibori.

Bryan came over after the show on Sunday, & brought these WONDERFUL Knishes....Oh boy, were they good! I made his favorite bacon wrapped dates for an appetizer, & pear salad.

For dessert we had vanilla ice cream, with warm caramel, & Brandied Rainer Cherries, made by my friend Rena. She had given them to Don & Marilyn. It was a great meal, & so nice at the end of a great week. Thank you Bryan, Don & Marilyn, & Rena!Now we will all go on a diet!

Don & Marilyn are off to Texas again. I'll miss them.