I have a favor to ask of all you quilters & artists...

Thank you to all of you who sent us your concerns over the fire. It really wasn't that bad, & my blisters are healing quickly. 

Now for my question. ..I am presenting a lecture in February. It is "Inspired Design-Finding your Own Voice". Part of it will include photos of design inspiration, along with some of the things that I have made from that inspiration. I was thinking it would be fun to include the work of others in the photos. If you have a photo of something that inspired a piece that you made, & would like it to be shown in a slide presentation during my lecture, please email your pictures along with the info you want shared. I intend to make a handout with web addresses for folks to take home, so they can explore more too.

My email is akquilter1@acsalaska.net

For each person willing to share, I put names in for a drawing. I will make 2 quilted clocks, to be sent to 2 people whose names will be drawn January 20th.

We have been getting a lot of snow falling this winter. My brother said there was nothing for cross-country skiing in Michigan this year. You should all come to Alaska if you want to play in some snow!

I thought I should show a couple of back side views on the 9 patch quilt that I made for my DH.

I got a wonderful pile of beautiful stuff from my girlfriend Kathy (the Woodland Quilter) in Michigan, for Christmas. It is a Crazy Quilt just waiting to be made. It was all wrapped up in a yummy silk Pashima that goes perfect with my favorite brown slacks.

The little bags held, beads & trims,

There was a pair of little scissors, with a thimble (that fits perfect), & a needle case, & a luscious bundle of velvety fabrics, in my favorite color group.

Below is my cup of tea,(fancy tea from my DD for Xmas). The tea bags are so cute, they make me happy just looking at them. It's "Tea Forte". In front of the tea, is my Kindle. I'm still loving it 3 years later. Just under the Kindle is the new gift from my DH, an iPad 2. Yes I will still use the Kindle. The iPad is something like a fusion between the Kindle & my computer. I'm still learning how to use it. I haven't been able to set-up my email account on it yet, but have realized that it will make keeping up with all the blogs I like to read much easier.

I loaded my Kindle contents on to the iPad, & bought a guide book to help me learn my way on this cool tool!

Here are the pin & earrings that I was making. I wore these to Doriola's, a little artsy restaurant here in Anchorage.

Our Calendar Girls group met there for lunch. That's me back in the corner, center. Left to right is Rena Brinker, Mary Lee, Carol Wight Jones (former cover quit from Quilters Newsletter), Me, Jackie Carley, Betty Bivens, & Mary Gerkin. They are a FUN group.
The food was excellent too.

This is an collage that I put together in my last ABC's of Embellishment class. I am making it into another Book Cozy. It will be one of the things that will be for sale in the show I am getting ready for in July.

Here are some details. I did a combination of free motion machine work, & hand embroidery

I used Angelina sheets & Fibers both. Plus hand painted fabrics, & tulle.

I had a lot of fun with this piece.

I also rust dyed this fabric to use for a base in my "About Time". I think it will be "The Ravages of Time".

The other thing I did this week, is a customer quilt, for a group of women in Aviation. One of my students, Kate Bebee pieced it all together. It will be a raffle quilt for their group. Proceeds will pay for a scholarship to their conference for someone who needs it.

Here are a few details.

I have to say that this was the easiest quilt that I've done on Lily so far. It seemed like everything went smoothly (for a change).

Getting back in the groove

On Friday I cleaned my studio. I hadn't been able to get in there & do anything since I finished the few small Christmas projects I had done. It was too messy, & I just couldn't get going, so I cleaned. I sorted. I tossed out old junk mail & Christmas cards from 2 years ago. It felt good to get things in order again.

Saturday I was able to put a quilt on to Lily. It is a small Grandmother's Flower Garden, that my oldest sister Vicky made, several years ago. It is the first quilt she ever attempted. All hand pieced. She didn't know how to finish it, so I brought it home with me, & quilted it for her. I'm going to send it to my other sister Em, & let her bind it. If my camera gets here before I send it out, I'll post some pictures.

I also had plenty of spare room on my backing fabric, so I added a 17"x17" square of Warm & White batting, & put together a crazy quilt for the Alliance For American Quilts 2009 Crazy for quilts contest. It's all Allie's fault. She made me do it.

I had been kicking around an idea, of doing the actual piecing & quilting at the same time on Lily, so I thought a small size like this (actually it's 16x16, I trimmed it down), would be a good size to try out. I started with the back & batting, then laid the first piece in the center, & quilted it in place. I then placed & quilted each piece until it was done. Now I will bind it, & hand embellish the seams.

I used my flat bed scanner to show you what it looks like right now. The white center piece was cut from an old blouse, the embroidery was there, all I did was quilt around it.

I think this is going to be fun!

Yippie! Yippie! No More Skippies!

Here is what Lily was doing. Don't worry the ink is on a practice piece, not the customer quilt. That dot in the upper right corner is a permanent dot in my camera. I can't clean it off. Every time I'm headed into the 11 o'clock position I got the big skipped stitches.

I had tried all the trouble shooting suggestions in the book, & on the DVD that came with Lily. Finally I called Megan Best, & her first suggestion worked!
I managed to get a whole side done !

We are HAPPY!~D

I was doing a curvy leafy design like the leaves in the print fabric. Apparently the problem was the white on white fabric, it has a slightly rubbery coating to the print, & it was enough drag on the needle to cause trouble.

Such a simple & elegant solution. Sewers Aid added frequently to the thread guide just above the bottle here, & an occasional dab with a cotton swab, on the needle itself, & life was SEW MUCH BETTER! I've always used it on metallic threads, I just never thought to use it on cotton!

Now if I could just fix my camera!