It must be winter.

It must be winter, because Broc is back to sleeping in his bed, & there is white stuff on the ground & trees now. We woke up the the world of new snow yesterday morning. This looks like it's here to stay, & more is falling today. I hung the bird feeder up yestrday, & the birds are enjoying the feast.

Tracy's latest quilt

I finished Tracy's quilt this morning. Here is the final result.

The back is pretty too.

I have to tell you, I broke down & bought these tension guages from Superior Threads, to use on my  longarm. It has made my life SOOooo much easier. I found that even I had my thread tension balaced, I was having trouble with skipping stitches. When I got he tension guages, I discovered I was running with my thread tension way too tight. When I turned it down to the reccomened tension on both the top & bobbin, it made all the difference. So much better. No more skipping & breaking.

I wanted to tell you about the visitor I had at this window this week. It was a young black bear (sorry no picture, the camera was upstairs at the time). I was setting right there at the machine when the bear litlerally walked right up against the window. It was so cute. It had thick fur, ready for winter. He looked like a giant teddy bear. The mama was in the yard too, but further away.

It's chilly outside. The ground is frozen, with ice puddles in the driveway, but no snow here yet. It seems to be coming later & later. I guess it's the global warming.

A Quick Pumpkin Quilt

Thursday, when I went to Quilt Guild, there were little white pellets on my windshield cover. by the time I got back home from the meeting the white stuff was all gone. It seems like the snow is coming late again this year. I believe global warming really is affecting our environment.

At the guild, April talked about her project, "Pedals For Africa". She founded a non-profit organization, to raise funds to buy bicycles for students in Africa, to ride to & from school. This needle work was donated to her, by ALCQ member Clara Jo, to be used at one of her auctions.

Friday evening we had Kathy Kansier for a lecture. She is an AQS certified quilt appraiser, & judge.

She also gave classes on Saturday & Sunday, but I didn't take any of them, because I was teaching classes, myself, at Quilt Zone. Sunday evening my friend Mary G. brought Kathy up to my house for dinner, & to appraise 2 of my quilts. We had crab with lemony-butter, pumpkin soup & home-made rolls.

I had Kathy appraise my "Oh! to Dance With a Dolphin!" & "Ravages of Time~Port Townsend truck thread painting".

I had a vacant space about my front door, & threw together this little pumpkin wall hanging to fill it for the autumn months. It is simple raw edge machine applique', & a bumpy yarn edge instead of binding. I made it in just a few hours.

Quilt- purse & Autumn Bits

I've been busy working & quilting. I have 3 borders left to quilt on Tracy's quilt, which I will post when I've finished. Below is the "Cool Cat" card I made for my DGD Darian. She turned 17 yesterday.  I can hardly believe she's so old!

I taught my Basic Threadplay class on the 8th. This coming weekend I have Advanced Threadplay & Free Motion Machine Quilting to teach on Saturday & Sunday.

I always enjoy sharing the fun of free-motion with my students.

Today I made a small purse for the ALCQ to give to Kathy Kansier when she comes this weekend. It started with an experiment with a bit of gold polyester fabric. I tried to see if I could dye it. I couldn't. It didn't take any bit of the dye, but it did hold the shape of the rocks when I tried the pole wrap with rocks. I used it for the front flap, & added burned silk for leaves. I'm pretty happy with the final results.

Autumn being my favorite season, I enjoyed making my pumpkin soup for my DH & 2 of his fellow RT's  who came over on Sunday. It was a farewell dinner for James, who is a traveler that Warren has worked with once before. James was brought up to Alaska this time, to work while Warren was off for his knee surgery.

For dessert, I made another Esspresso Cheesecake. This one cracked a bit on top, so it got a heavier coating of coffee frosting than the last one. (Not an all bad thing).

Birthdays

Today is both my DH Warren, & my DS Brandon's birthday. Brandon is far away in Kwajelein, but Warren & I went to Girdwood, to the Double Musky for dinner to celebrate. The drive down the Seward Hwy is always beautiful.

There was an unusual sight in Turnagain Arm. 2 boats. I've never seen boats out there before. They just don't go up the Arm. It's  tides are dangerous, & there are spots that are shallow. I'm not sure what they were doing, but it was a strange sight to see boats there.

The bushes along the road were colorful.

We saved dessert for home. I made an Espresso Cheesecake, that was really good.

Other projects I've been working on are Tracy's quilt is on Lily right now (pictures later), &  dyeing some silk.

                     Below are some grapes I dyed, by the shibori wrap method that I learned from my friend Sandy Winfree.

This was the card I made for Warren.