The Giving Quilt

Jennifer Chiaverini has written another Elm Creek Novel. I read it while I was on vacation. It makes me wish that Elm Creek & all it's quilters were real. I'd love to sign up to go to this place & meet these people. She has moved back to the present time, & a week of camp centered around making quilts for Project Linus. The project is real, & the characters feel real. She weaves a beautiful story with new characters introduced, & old friends brought back. 

I picture Sylvia much like Helen Kelly, who used to write articles for Quilters Newsletter. I went to one of Helen's lectures once, & learned so much from her.

It's another warm cozy, easy read. I really enjoyed it.

I got back from Seattle over a week ago, but it feels like only yesterday. We had a great time, & I'm already looking forward to our next trip. I'll post photos later. Spent a lot of time holding the baby.

I worked hard this past weekend on the biggest quilt I've ever worked on, & it's been a somewhat trying experience. I'm not sure how I'm ever going to photograph it, unless I can go with Mary when she hangs it at the Airport.  I haven't forgotten about the prizes I owe, they are on my "To Do" list.

 Happy Halloween all!

Christmas is done

Christmas is finished for us, as of last night.  The quilt pictures here is the one I finished for my friend Kathy Jolman. She was happy with the finished product.


The Grosbeaks have been visiting our porch this past week.

Youngest son Corey & his girl Tasha came over for dinner .

This was our tree on Christmas Eve.  I took it down today.

Below are the scarf & little table topper that Kathy sent me for Christmas. The scarf is made from some of her sun died wool, done in a pickle jar with Cochineal & Osage Orange.
The table topper trees are from hand woven fabric that she got from Guatemala. They look so nice on the bench made by our friend John Meyn. We use this as our coffee table in front of our couch.


Kathy also wrapped the package in wool that she had pre-mordanted. I decided to take advantage of the wool & 2 pomegranates that were getting a bit dry, along with inspiration from Kathy…..

I sliced them up & laid them all over the wool.

Rolled it up as well as I could, & tied it up with some left over red raffia, from Christmas packages. I put it in the steamer, & let it steam for a full hour.

I put the whole bundle in a plastic bag & let it set by the wood stove for 2 days, then today unrolled it & washed it all out.

This is how it turned out,

& the end with the raffia, looked a bit like a red bamboo print.

Last night we did our ornament exchange with our friends the Meyn family. Warren got this cool ball made by Hope. She is always collecting bottle caps & turns them into all sorts of things.

I got these glass & stamp ornaments made by Mindy.
I can even wear them as necklaces.

Mindy also gave me these lovely hand blown glass balls that she made.

Christie ended up with this threadplay Amaryllis that I made.
Warren took a photo of one of his Santa drawings, & had it reduced to a 2 inch photo, then put it in an ornament- frame. Unfortunately I forgot to get a picture of it.

Today I did a quick project for Broccoli, & made a new catnip toy for him, which he made it very difficult to sew a straight line!  He wanted it NOW!

Aurora Postquards

These are multi-layered , starting with handdyed fabric that I used Shiva stick rubbings on, then hand painted old lace & painted fusible webs (2 kinds), hand painted silk chiffon, & some Angelina fibers.

These are 4 postquards I made for my Art Meme. I realized I needed a 5th when I finished putting these in envelopes, but I think I'll wait until my new iron gets here, because right now I'm having a heck of a time pressing anything, & my Timtex needs steaming before I can use it.

My old faithful Rowenta steam generator iron bit the dust, & can't be revived again, so I ordered a new one from Joann's on line. They were on sale, & the shipping was free, so it was the best deal I could find. I can't wait until it gets here.

Sunday Afternoon Quilting

I took one of those red & white not so perfect star blocks, & turned it into a little quilt to go with a little teddy bear, for the ALCQ Teddy & Friends Tea coming up in 2 weeks.
The back side shows the quilting design. I think the teddy likes it, but she needs a little sweater too, so I'll get out the crochet hook, & whip one up for her, then she'll be ready to find her new home & new friend for Christmas. This was a fun little quilt, From start to finish (not including the star block piecing) it only took me a couple hours.

Here are the fabrics, & my design for my friend Christy's Irish Dance dress.
Sketch colors =fabric color:
Black=black
Silver=light blue
blue=dark blue
white= the holographic white squares

Mindy stopped by with Christy & Hope to drop off the fabric, & sketch, & Mindy wanted snowflake lessons. She's going to try to use some of them in her fused glass designs.

Guess I better go get ready for bed. "Sigh" , back to work in the early morning. I'm really hating my job these days.

A Winter Saturday

Here's a quick post about what I did yesterday.

This little quilt top was made by Bonnie Walker, a member of our quilt guild, ALCQ . She donated it, & I took it home to finish for the Teddy Bear & Friends Tea that happens in November. We make little quilts to go with teddy bears or other stuffed animals, & they get donated to local organizations to be given out to kids in need for Christmas. I thought the flying geese top would be perfect for the little gray goose/ugly duckling that I had. So in just a few hours I had it quilted & bound. I have to say, I felt really rusty when I first started quilting on it. It's been a while since I'd quilted anything larger than my Journal quilts!

Broccoli was setting in our bedroom, bird watching again. The bird feeder is on the upper level above this window, so the birds frequently spend time on the ground here, by this window. When we start our landscaping, I want to put a little water feature outside this window. Moon rise was beautiful last night. The photo is a little blurred, but it gives you an idea of how pretty it was.

Threading a Needle

Today after getting my hair done & running errands, I went downtown to the Anchorage museum to help with a group of 50 Brownies (the Girl Scout kind, not edible), to learn how to quilt. The did a very simple applique', postcard size quilt.
It was fun, & Pat, the gal running the class is a very experienced quilter. She's been quilting since the 70's. She had the girls threading embroidery floss on to their needles, short pieces & tying a knot at just one end. Of course they were having trouble not pulling their needles off the thread with the very 1st stitch. Which is the biggest reason I always hated sewing that way, until I took a little handwork class this past March with a little Korean lady.She taught me a different way to thread my needle, to keep from having the thread slip off. I'd actually learned to thread it this same way for silk ribbon embroidery, but never thought to apply the same method to regular thread. In her class we used very fine, #100 silk thread. I took pictures using a large needle & yarn to show you how it's done.


That's it, just 1,2,3, simple as can be, & you never have to lose your thread again. Even Pat hadn't known about this, so I thought there may be a few of you out there that might like this technique.
Warren took the summer screen door off the front of the house, & I decided to have him put it in the corner of the living room, rather than out in the leaky garage, where it'll get damaged. I went to Michael's today, & got some fall silk leaf bundles. They were all 50% off, then put together a wreath, to decorate the door. We did a little furniture rearranging this week too. Just traded the couch & love seat around & moved an end table to spread the table lamps around a little more evenly. It made a big difference in how the living room feels & looks. It's more open & comfortable.

Another Postquard

Today I made a second Postquard to send to Switzerland. I took pictures of each layer to show you my process. I get teased a lot by friends for using things like this piece of paper towel, that I used for my 1st layer. It was from cleaning up after painting. I even cleaned some of my stamps off on it. I thought it was too pretty to throw away.The dark green on the left is a strip of fabric. I used BoNash to fuse this all down to my Timtex base.

Next is my silk organza, that I painted with Dynaflow fabric paints, & the little green ginko leaf is from a rubbing I did with a Shiva Stick & my toothbrush holder in my bathroom.

After layering the silk on top of the paper layer I quilted it with Holoshimmer thread in a Copper color.

Last I layered on the Ginko piece, fininhed the edges with a dark green holoshimmer, & stamped the word "DREAM" in copper paint. I tried a little embossing powder on it to make stand out a little, but it wasn't very successful. It didn't stick very well to the silk & copper paint.

The Hurrier I go The Behinder I get...

I always liked that saying. It's so true for me. As usual I'm always behind. I don't know how I actually get anything done. The shoulder is feeling better all the time. I saw the Dr. today & he wants me to stay off work 1 more week. I feel bad for my co-workers because working short all the time really stinks. But I'm afraid if I aggrivate it again I'll be off even longer, so I'm being good. I don't dare work on anything big, so I've been doing very small things like Quards. The 1st is a belated birthday for my DSIL, Jon. Next is for my DGD, who loves all things Asian. Her birthday is the 18th.
"The Last Leaf of Autumn" is a postquard I made for a donation in Switzerland for the fight against breast cancer.
Lastly is the sunset from my front porch looking toward the Cook Inlet. Our veiw is mostly obscured by trees, but once the leaves have all dropped we can see bits of the inlet & nice sunset colors.

Happy Birthday Warren & Brandon

You all had such nice comments on what a babe my Brandon is. It's funny because the card I made for Warren says," Beautiful young people are accidents of nature, but beautiful old people are works of art."-M. Breenbie... It seemed appropriate. Brandon is a good genetic blend of his father & my father, who Brandon looks a LOT like.
Inside I wrote "Happy Birthday to my favorite work of Art!" Warren appreciated it. :)
For you who are interested in the technical details of this Quard....I started with a piece of hand-painted cotton Batting (wadding for those of you who use that term), layered on a piece of paper towel. Yes, I said paper towel. It was one of the towels I used for clean up after one of my fabric painting sessions & it was too pretty to throw away! I sprinkled on thread bits (I save everything!), & 3 little pieces of Whisper (that cellophane like stuff Florists use to make bows for plants),a piece of painted Bounce (dryer sheet), the little quote (from my Cryptoquote that I do every day in the newspaper), & a piece of gold Tulle to hold it all down. Quilted with Sulky Holoshimmer Copper color thread, then a few more Bouce bits for frame & stitched right on to a card blank.
I just finished another Reversible Purse. I sent the last to my DDIL in Kwajelain. This one will be a sample for my class at Coupville Arts in the spring. (If you want to check out the classes, go to "workshops", Mine are Threadplay Apr. 28 & 29, then April 30 & May 1st, for free motion quilting & the reversible purses).
I really like the button detail on this side. It is fused glass from my friend Mindy Meyn. It took me almost 4 hours to get the beading done to my satisfaction, to hold it in place.
The reverse side includes a bit of the Calendar Girls Challenge fabric, just like the last, & I used several pieces of my hand painted Sheer silk to layer over the top of commercial prints to make them softer looking.
I used one of my Thread-paint Flowers, that will be part of another class at Coupville in April, for this side of the purse.
This last photo is just a little detail shot of some of the quilting.