The Sentinel ~ my final Fiberactions Challenge

 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmnm   

That first line was from Broccoli. He has missed me, because I was working the past 2 days, & haven't been home much.

Below is the piece I made for the last Fiberactions Challenge.  The word was 'Structure', & I chose to build a 'Cairn'. It's a rock structure that hikers build to mark paths, or spots to alert other hikers. This one is placed by a river to mark a safe crossing.  

The first photo  shows the quilt how it looked when I first finished. As I had it hanging on the wall, I realized there was a hole in my stack of 'rocks' , & it bothered me. I made the rocks from the Shibori pole wrap process that my friend Sandy Winfree taught me this past summer.                                                       

After contemplating how I might fix that hole, I found a real rock that looked very much like the ones I made from silk. I threaded some long pieces of thread through a button, then glued the rock to the top of the button, & stitched the threads through the quilt (a process I learned from Allie Aller).

The raven standing guard by the Cairn is the one I made entirely from thread, free-motion on wash-away stabilizer.

The leaves are all from fabric that I straw dyed this past summer, appli-quilted in place over the couched yarns for branches. The challenges have been a lot of fun, but I've decided to challenge myself this next year. Changes are in the wind for us. Warren will retire. I will have to go back to full time. I am thinking about what I'm going to do next......we'll see.

In the meantime, I'll warm myself by the fire.

To-Do list finished.

I feel a nice sense of accomplishment. My 'To-Do' list is completed. (Now I need to make a new one). I got all the stuff that my friend gave me sorted & organized. The ribbon reels & put on dowels & placed them under the shelves where I keep my larger cones of thread. Now Lily is clear so I can load the next large quilt, which will be Shirley's. I'll photograph the top today, & start working on quilting designs for it.

This last photo is a sneak peak of the 'Structure' quilt, that I just finished for the Fiberactions final challenge. I've enjoyed doing the challenges, & they've forced me to produce when I probably would have just worked on customer quilts. It's always good to stretch my inner artist!

New To-Do list:

1. make 2 cards

2. Photo Shirley's Quilt top

3.draw designs for above

4. work on quilting Tracy's bear quilt

5. Write holiday letter

Raven the Collector

This was a 2 for 1 Challenge. I had the Fiberactions Challenge word "Departure", & the Calendar Girls challenge "Our Inner Animal".  I decided to make a Raven, who has been very special to me ever since I came to Alaska. I do like to wear black, but love other colors too, so I started on him by thread painting with neon brights, then over laid them with the blacks. I surrounded him with bits & baubles of fused glass made by my BFF Mindy, & friendly plastic, & a bit of jewelry. The background includes Angelina Fibers under black Tulle. I did Thread play on Wash-away stabilizer for both the Raven & the cabochons to hold more glass galaxies on the upper left. The background moon is glow-in-the-dark fabric.

Check out the Fiberactions blog for all of the other Departure pieces.http://fiberactions.blogspot.com/

Sneak Peek

I have been busy in the studio, working on my "Departure" piece, for the Fiberactions Challenge. It's done, but can't be shared until Friday. Above is a sneak peek of a small portion of it.

Below are some of the local wildlife taking a respite in my back yard a couple of days ago.

Yesterday Byan & Brandon came over to help Warren finish the skirt on our deck. It took 2 to hold while one ran the drill. I fed them well afterward.