Neck Purse for R & post #699

Saturday I made this little neck purse for our ALCQ Guild gift for our next teacher, Robbie Joy Eklow (shhh, if you know her, don't tell her). She will be up here teaching next weekend. It's my own hand dyed silk chiffon, done shibori wrap on a pole with small stones. The silk retains it's shape nicely. I filled each little stone shape with bits of black batting & Angelina fibers to pick up glints of light. I also trapped Angelina under black chiffon, layered on black cotton for the body of the purse. I like it so much, I'm tempted to keep it & make another. (But I won't).

When I first learned this rock wrap technique from my friend Sandy Winfree, I wanted to do it to make a quilt with wild  (purple-blue) Lupine with it. I still have the silk ready to use, just haven't found the right moment to make it yet. 

Here is the last bloom in our summer garden, white Lupine standing tall against the white snow. Since the snow fall, it's grown colder (in the 20's this morning), & the snow is still on the ground, but the good news is that we've had 2 days of sunshine since the snow dropped. The snow & sun are a welcome reprieve after several months of wet rain.

I just realized this is post # 699, so the next post will be # 700. Leave a comment on one of the last 3 posts & when I post # 700, I'll draw a name for a winner of one of my pins & earring sets.

Bad Grandma

I just realized, I hadn't posted this momentous news on my blog! I had Facebooked it when it happed, but hadn't done any blogging in weeks!

Introducing our first grandSON... Sean Patrick Bates Jr. with his mommy, my DD Michelle. We will be flying down to Seattle to see them soon. He was born 10 days ago already!

He is grandchild #5, but the first boy.

First Snow/Fresh Face

This is what we woke up to this morning. Yes it's snowing in September.

Frost  Snow on the pumpkins!

Sun is starting to come out now, so it probably wont last. It's 42 degrees & starting to slide off the new roof.

This is the next Round Robin quilt top I had to tackle. It belongs to Mary Lee. There will be one more round on it after me. Hmmmm....

Here is where I went with it.... Yikes! I added the strips down the 2 sides, & blanket stitched the appliques that Mary G. had just fused on.

I also added a little free-motion threadplay around the guys in the boat to reflect the flowers on the upper area added by Jackie (to help tie them in & make more sense).

Hopefully Carol will be able to add something good to make it finished. I kind of wanted to chop it up & re-sew ala-Rayna Gillman, but didn't have the guts to do it on someone else's piece.

You might also notice that I'm playing around with the blog. Thought it needed a fresh face, & a bit of updating.

Quilt Show Weekend

Last weekend was sunny, but chilly in the morning. We had to scrape the windows.

The annual ALCQ quilt show was lovely.

The Conoco Phillips Atrium is a beautiful venue.

Barbara Lavallee was there signing posters that she did to support our "Teddy Bear Tea". We are celebrating our 10th anniversary in February, & Barbara did a special poster to help raise some funds for the Tea.

We had over 60 quilts in the small quilt auction.

Here are a few of the quilts in the show. This one was by Sandy Winfree.

Bryan came to the show & hammed for my camera. He's growing a beard for the Fur Rondy beard competition this winter.

I loved seeing this girl's hair in front of the quilts.

This quilter used Shiva Paint sticks.

There were several of Carrie Payne's girls around, & here is Carrie. This was the first time I actually got to meet her. I've read her blog, but she attends the night group, & I never get to the night meetings (too tired in the evenings to function).

Here is a shot of the last minute bidders just before the bidding closed. Cathy on the right, holding the sheet, bought my crazy quilt.

Follow the link below to see the viewers choice quilts.

 ALCQ quilt show.

I've been busy working in the studio on my days off. I've finished 2 projects & started a couple more, but can't show them until next month.

MY LABOR DAY WEEKEND

I had a productive weekend over the Labor Day weekend. I steamed & added a few last touches to "Simply Crazy", a 19"x19" wall quilt for the small quilt auction coming this weekend for my quilt guild. I did my piecing & quilting all at the same time, just like the quilt I made a few years ago for the Alliance for the American quilt auction, that Allie Aller ended up owning, & putting in her beautiful book. This one is similar to that quilt, some of the same fabrics, but ended up a little crazier.

Some progress was made on my back entryway project too. Warren hung the little chandelier.

I made 3 tiny little quilts (about 5x7), to fill a space on the wall. I used some upholstery samples for the fabric, & made some leaves from the very same 36 mil copper that I put on the lower walls.

I found an old board & put some rust colored screws in it to hang keys on. I hate hunting for my keys. We got stopped by the fact that we didn't have long enough finishing nails for the trim....so next weekend we hope to get the trim up, around the door.

Warren got some outside painting done on Monday.

Trees are turning color. Last night we had 131 mph winds that blew things around. We were without power for several hours. Thank goodness I had a French Press this morning, so I could at least get some coffee in me! I put my pants on backwards trying to dress by my 1 battery operated candle (that my DD gave me after we nearly set the house on fire at Christmas time). I also found that I had my watch on upside-down when I got to work... doing my hair in the dark was a challenge too.

This poor little guy was a bit shell shocked by the winds on Monday. They were mild compared to what we had last night.

This happened to my planter, before the BIG winds.

We also have termination dust on the mountains tonight.

This weekend coming up I have the ALCQ Quilt show. 10-4 Sat & Sunday.

Come on over! 7th & G st downtown Anchorage, at the Phillips Conoco Atrium.