Round Robin Explained & art pins

Tickets for the Double Wedding ring quilt are $1.00 each. If anyone wants tickets send me a check & I'll send the tickets. The drawing will be at our ALCQ show September 10, 2012.

 To answer Kathy's questiion on the previous post, I am re-posting this first round on the Round Robin my Calendar Girls group is doing. We each started with just s piece of fabric, the piece above is the fabric that my friend Mary Gerkin painted, printed & embossed in my Embellishment class. Our only rule is "ANYTHING GOES". We are doing whatever we feel like with each piece in turn. There are 8 of us involved.. Below is what I did with Mary's piece. I actually pieced the pieces on a layer of batting & backing, so the other quilters will probably continue to embellish this until it gets back to Mary. On Jackie's I just did a vertical row. We're letting each piece speak to us, & we'll do whatever we feel  like doing.

These are 3 pins that I made recently. This one went to Vicki Welsh.

This next one went to Kathy Jolman.

& the last one I kept for myself.

& that's the bear facts!

a view from my kitchen window!!

Fused Glass, summer plants, & Double Wedding Ring Quilt

My wonderful friend Mindy made this beautiful fused glass plate for me for my birthday. It has an iridescence that is difficult to capture on film, but I gave it a good try.

My DD, Michelle gave me this reflector/diffuser that helped a bit. I think I'm going to enjoy experimenting with this.

Out in the yard the Bleeding heart I planted last year in memory of my Dad is doing well,

& Warren has been busy planting new gardens.

I've finished quilting & binding this Double Wedding ring quilt that was made by my friend Jan Wills, & it will be our raffle quilt this year at the ALCQ guild show in September. Tickets will be $1.00 each.

This last little piece is round 2 on the Round Robin that I'm doing. The reddish fabric with the black figures is a screen print that Jackie Carley did. The letter print fabric is what Mary Gerkin added.

I added the pieces down the right side, using some of my own hand dyed fabric, & the print is a piece that Jackie gave me years ago, because she said she knew I would do something with it! So I did. For her!

Thanks for so many happy birthdays everyone!

My Birthday

Today was my birthday. My DH took me to dinner at the best restaurant in Alaska, the Double Musky. Food Net calls it one of the 10 best restaurants in America, & I have to agree it's my favorite.

He also gave me this beautiful set of Helenite jewelry. It looks a lot like my emerald birthstone to me.

It happened to be my day off today, & I spent it working on the pins for Vicki & Kathy. I'll post those pictures after they get them.

Over all it was a very nice day. Thanks for all the Facebook birthday wishes.

Rabbit Creek Snow Classic winners..

The snow in the yard has melted. The photo above was taken on the 16th. When I awoke on the 20th, there was just a small snake of snow, that was all gone by afternoon, therefore the winners of the Rabbit Creek Snow Classic, are Vicki Welsh (who guessed May 18th), & Kathy Jolman (who guessed the 22nd). The date landed smack in the middle of their guesses. I would have thought it would last longer because there was such an excessive amount this year, but it has been pretty warm lately, & has melted quickly.

We've been taking advantage of the sun, & using the deck. We have a baby gate at the top of the stairs, so Broc won't escape (too many predators to let him run outside). He really loves getting out on the deck with us.

Thursday evening we went to the Organic Oasis, had a great dinner, & listened to some really good Bluegrass music. Our favorite orthopedic surgeon plays a pretty darned good base, & the rest of the Full Sail band was wonderful too.

Friday night we went out to dinner at the Glacier Brewhouse with Bill & Anita Heady, & Anita's son Bryan.

It was fun finally getting to meet Anita after all these years of blogging back & forth. Anita's son Bryan has been living up here for a couple of years now, & we get together fairly often. We've adopted each other.

Saturday they all came up  here for grilled salmon, roasted garlic potatoes, a nice fresh tomato/corn/sweet onion & cilantro salad with lime juice & I made coffee ice cream, & Basil ice cream for finishers. Anita & Bill brought a very nice loaf of bread, & some wicked fudge from the Saturday Market downtown Anchorage, & I still managed to drop 1.6 pounds at Weight Watchers tonight! Sometimes the scale makes no sense at all!

Visitors

My son Brandon & his wife Laura, came in for 2 days while moving to Edmonton for new jobs.

The girls got introduced to snow.

Carys cot a big kick out of throwing snowballs at Poppy.

Even Zoe like playing in the snow.

They also brought Twiggs, the cat.

Broccoli spent the whole time hiding in the bedroom.

A black bear showed up to say hello.

We really had a good time with the kids.

Double Wedding Ring Raffle quilt

I have been working on this Double Wedding Ring for the next Anchorage Log Cabin Quilters raffle quilt. I hope to have it done by the end of May. The raffle will be in September.

This is a little pin & ear-rings that I made recently, from my own hand-dyed cotton batting & fabric. The little "jewel' in the center is abalone with a threadplay circle to hold it down (cabochon style).

In my Calendar Girls group, we have just started a Round Robin. Above is the piece of fabric given to me by my friend Mary Gerkin. We each just passed a piece of fabric from our stash for the start. Several of us used fabric we painted, printed or manipulated in some way. Mary did hers in my class. 

Below is what I made out of it. There are no rules, we just had to do what ever we felt like doing, & then we will pass it on to the next person next month. I layered this on to backing & batting as I pieced it together, so it is already partially quilted. Now when I pass it on, Carol may quilt, or embellish, or do what ever she wants.

Today when we were having our dinner, this poor squirrel decided to come for dinner too. He looked like he was shirtless! I think he must have Mange!

Photos were taken through the window with the sun shining right at me, so I got a lot of reflection, but can you how bald the poor thing is?! I feel like I should knit him a little sweater!

We had our Calendar Girl's group at Rena's house today. Rena is the red-head in the photo above.

Mary P. Lee on the far left, Rena Brinker, Carol Wight-Jones, & Jean Ferguson. Jean is leaving us soon & moving to Oregon. 

Above is the scarf that Rena Dyed in my "Straw Dyeing class",

& below is another piece of fabric she did in the class, using my potato masher for a stamp.

The next piece was done by Mary Gerkin, her nod to Van Gogh.

Rena is a terrific chef, & we always look forward to whatever she makes. It not only tastes good, but looks beautiful too. We were all impressed with the apple swan,

& the radish mice.

I thought I should also show out deck on Easter Sunday. We got the snowfall that put us over the record set in 1954-55. Warren had shoveled all of the 4 feet deep snow off the week before. This was all Sat. night. It has since all melted.

The Easter Bunny left us a fun basket of goodies. Thank you EB!

There is still plenty of snow in the north-west corner of the yard, plenty of time to pick dates for the Rabbit Creek Snow Classic!

Jackie's Quilt

I just finished (on Sunday) quilting this quilt for my friend Jackie.

It has a mice plushy back. Ohhh so soft!

Quilting with Snow

Have you heard of Simon Beck? He is a "Snow artist" from France. Check out his  work, it's amazing!