Calendar Girls Meeting

This is my friend Jackie. She is one of the neatest women I've ever known. We had our Calendar Girls meeting at her house today. Jackie & her hubby Gene are going to be snow birds & head south to Texas for the winter. I am going to miss her a lot. She has been a friend & a mentor for me . I'm trying to convince her she should blog from TX. so we can keep up on what she's up to.

Gene participated in our meeting today, because we were playing with jewelry, which is his specialty. He used to make silver & gold jewelry. He helped us with making jump-rings,
& drilling with a dremmel.

I've come to the conclusion that we're all a bunch of Magpies, because we all collect lots of stuff!

I'm not quite done with the things I worked on there, I'll post them later when I'm finished.
When I came home, I HAD to take some pictures of the wonderland of crystals we have outside right now. We've had over a week of low temps, & no breezes. Eveything is covered with the snow that fell before the temps dropped, & crystals of ice have grown all over everything.

I thought the Cowparsnip made a lovely crystal flower.

The blanket of crystals cover everything.

When I brushed them off of my car on Monday, they just floated like delicate feathers, & made a fine crackely noise like corn flakes being poured, as they landed on the ground .

The dishwasher man came to repair the fancy dishwasher. Now it needs a new motor! So another couple weeks of waiting, GRRRRR! I think Meile should give a whole new dishwasher!

We stopped by & saw Aunt Ethel this evening, she's doing well.

ART MEME

OK! I'm in on the Art Meme. The 1st 5 people to respond to this post will recieve a piece of my Art.

As I'm at work right now, I'll add the link to others later.

Ok, it's later now, here's the link from Debra's & Kim's & Linda's.
I think I goofed. Sorry folks.

Now what I was supposed to say was if you accept this challenge then you too must make 5 pieces of art & offer it up to the 1st 5 people who respond & they inturn do the same. This way it spreads the love, the art & the fun. If I got it right. Guess I better write to those who replyed already. & I should've stipulated NOT MINDY! You've got something coming already! & besides You have to have a BLOG! Come on Min, start blogging your glass! Mindy does beautiful fused glass. So if you want in on this Min, you have to make 5 pieces, to give away to the 1st 5 people to respond on your blog! Some of your Pins would be perfect for this!

So if you sign up on ...say 3 of these offers, does that mean you meust offer 15 pieces ?

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.

Experimental Felting & Lampshade

Yesterday I did a little playing & some experimenting in the studio. I also just now found out, that in using Beta blogger I can post more than 7 pictures in one blog! I have 8 here. The 1st is just a few fabric beads I made, in prep for part of my lecture & demo next weekend at the Anchorage Museum.

The 2nd is a piece of cheese cloth right after I painted it with fabric paint.

Then I layered on bits of silk rovings & a little bit of Angelina Copper Flash (not heat bondable type). I've never done regular felting, & don't know if this is even how it's supposed to be done, but I was experimenting, & this is what I did.
I used some Orvis soap in a little warm water, drizzled it over the whole mess, rolled it up in a plastic bag, then kneaded & rolled it for about 15 minutes.

It was something of a matty mess when I finished, but I liked the texture & color. Note I had to repaint some of the cheese cloth, because I hadn't waited for the paint to dry, & it washed out!

I dried it out, formed it over some copper mesh, & stitched it around the edge on my sewing machine to keep it on the metal. Made a couple of little beads from some of my painted & burned dryer sheet, & stuck them in between the fibers.

& turned it into a lampshade for my little Fenton glass lamp, whose glass shade was broken in our last move!

The little bowl, next to the lamp is one of my threadplay bowls that I made a while ago.

Winter Day in Alaska

You know winter is really here in Alaska when the bird feeder can go back up. We HAVE to take them down in spring time because of the bears.
My Brocolli cat loves bird watching.


It was such a pretty day yesterday. I spent most of the day near the fire watching tv & just vegetating. I found the Beta button last night & switched to Beta. It does seem to be easier, & I don't seem to have lost anything by switching. I had saved my template just in case, but when I logged on this morning, it looked the same on the surface, & loading pictures was much faster.
This last image is a set of 7 antique copper stamps thatI got from Ebay. There were 2 sets that I wanted, but somebody else wanted them too, & after I bid high enough to get this one, I decided I didn't want to spend that kind of money to get both sets.

ChEMo & WIP Wed on Thur

My sister Em, gets her 1st Chemo today. Please whisper a little prayer for her that all goes well.
Sorry I didn't get my WIP Wednesday posted on Wednesday. I worked the past 3 days, then we went to the Moose's Tooth for soup & breadsticks for supper. The gAHrlic-tomato soup was good, & so were the warm cheezy bread sticks.
When we got home, we went out & soaked in the hot tub under a lovely moon. It was a chilly 18 degrees Farenheight (what's that in centigrade? about -10?, I used to know the calculations). Needless to say, by the time we got in the house I was so sleepy I couldn't keep my eyes open, so I'm posting it today.
I'm staying home today, even though it's a Quilt Guild day. I'd rather hibernate. I've started a fire in the wood stove & will enjoy every minute of staying home!

For my WIP (works in progress), I don't have much exciting to show. The white paper on the wall has some pencil sketching on it. Can you see it? Not done yet.

The green thing will be a small lamp shade when I'm done. It may stay in the shape it's in until next weekend when I do my lecture at the Anchorage Museum. I'm talking for the local Weavers & Spinners Guild. They were interested in some of my threadplay & embellishment techniques, so I'll be doing a trunk show & Demo for them.
The last 2 pictures are my young friend Christy, (from my last posting), wearing her friend's Irish Dance Dress. She borrowed it to show me an example of one, so I could see how they're constructed. I've drawn up a design for her, & last Sunday we went & bought the fabrics. She has them all, right now. I let her take the drawing home so she could study it, while she fondles her fabric for a while. Christy is a quilter too. I taught her & both of her sisters how to quilt years ago, so she appreciates a good fondling of fabric.

So that's all that's happening here. I had decided I would switch to Beta Blogger this weekend, & the button is no longer on my blog! It's been there for weeks, when I didn't have time to mess around with it! Oh well, such is life.

Psychic Connections

These pictures were taken Friday. We have big fat flakes of fresh snow falling right now. I'm happy to see it, because if we don't get a good covering early, then it usually turns bitter cold, & things freeze & ice. It's much nicer to have a little fluffy white to insulate things.

Our friends Mindy & John came over last night again, for a relaxing meal. It was a last minute thing, so I pulled a big bag of chicken wings out of the freezer & tossed them in the oven. Mindy brought fixings for a pear salad, & Warren went to the Flying Dutchman, & got a Pumpkin Flan. It's the best bakery in Anchorage. The wings were tequila-Lime from Tyson. He got them at Costco, & if you ever see them, get some & try them. We all loved them!

Christie, Mindy & John's middle daughter, won a Regional Irish dance competition in Arizona last weekend. Now we have to make a dress for Nationals. The dresses they use are like very fancy applique & embroidered quilts built into the shape of dresses. Christie borrowed one from a friend, to bring over to show me, so I could see how it's constructed. I've always told them I would make one for them when they needed it. John did a lot of construction on our house, & wouldn't let us pay him, & Mindy & the girls helped insulate & paint, & nail & screw, & sand & strip paint on old furniture, so I feel I owe them. These dresses sell for over $1000.00, so it's not your every day dress. I was amazed at how heavy it was. The skirt has big box pleats, that flash when they dance, & it has a stiff batting, like Timtex, & it feels just like Lutradure in the back side of the pleats. Christie wants snowflakes on her dress, to represent the fact that she's from Alaska, & since I'm the snowflake Queen, it'll be easy for me to include snowflakes on her dress.
Christie & I have an interesting connection. I went on the internet, & did a search for dresses. I printed out 3 that I thought were similar to what she would like. When they got here, they were amazed, because there were 4 she had found on the internet, that she liked the style of, & I had printed out 3 of the 4. That may not sound that amazing to you, but there were hundreds of dresses, on about 30 web pages that I looked at, & Mindy hadn't told me which web pages to look on!
Once when we were in Michigan, for Warren to go to school. I had injured my back when lifting a 450# person at work, & was laying on the floor at home, trying to make the pain ease, Mindy called me to find out if I was ok, because Christie had woke up from her nap (she was 2 years old at the time), & told her mom I had fallen down. She insisted "Debbie is hurt". Now what's really remarkable about this, Christie hardly even knew us at the time, because she wasn't even a year old when we left Alaska, to go back to school.
Another time, we were planning a trip back to Alaska, & we wanted surprise everyone, so we hadn't told them, & as we were getting ready to leave for the airport, the phone rang & it was Mindy. She said Christie had woke up that morning insisting that she should call me. She wanted to know if everything was all right. Mindy nearly fainted the next day when we walked into her office at work. That was a fun surprise!

Just Call me Grace!

Well, I had my first week back to work. I do 12 hour shifts, usually ON my feet! Last night in my 13th hour, I was trying to get out of there. I'd stayed overtime, & was taking an Artline cable to put it away. Walking fast, trying to coil this long wire, I caught it in my left shoe, my foot rolled, & I was flat on my face, before I knew what hit me!I hurt my pride more than anything else, though I feel a bit bruised & battered today. I awoke at 4a.m. with the ankle aching, & worrying about my sister, so I got up & called her. We chatted for a couple of hours. Her Oncologist is still undecided as to the best course of treatment for her, & is awaiting more test results.

On my previous post, there was a comment about me being handy with tools. Yes I have gotten probably more experience with power tools than your average homemaker. I've actually helped to build a few houses, & am well acquainted with a skillsaw, table saw, drills, & nail guns. I LOVE power tools. I've looked at construction as just another form of quilting, using really firm fabric!

This is a picture of what our little house looked like September 2005. We moved out Sept. 2nd, 2005, & didn't get back in until November 30th, 2006. The contractor had said it would take "Three weeks".

They cleared a lot of the trees away from the house, then lifted it, & moved it over. We built a full basement, added on a new bedroom.
During the time of this construction, my DH had to go through radiation therapy,(which left him exhausted, & feeling bad) & later ended up tearing up his knee when he slipped at work, & had to have surgery, so I did a lot of the finishing construction myself to get us back into the house. I guess I have to thank my Ex. for teaching me about house construction.
I ended putting about two-thirds of the tongue & groove cedar on the walls of out new master bedroom.
And I did all of the tile work in the house. This is a shot of the upstairs bathroom that we remodeled. I did all the painting.
& in the Master bath down stairs, I constructed the cedar cabinet behind the vanity, to have a way for the plumbing to be attached, since the 1st idiot plumber our contractor brought in refused to listen to any of my instructions. He had a 'thing' against women.
I also did all the wood wainscoting & trim in this bathroom.

So cutting a ladder in 1/2, & screwing it on the wall, was nothing for me.

We finally had some snow fall. With the global warming our winter has come late. We had just a few inches over the past couple of days. I always love to see winter come here. It's a cozy stay home & quilt time of year. Things usually slow down a bit. Fewer visitors come, & we can settle down & get some work done inside. So I think I'll limp down the stairs, & see if I can get something done. I'll keep you posted!

Home Decorating

Yesterday I got a decorating bug. Too much sitting around watching H&G TV. I went looking through my old quilt & quilt top collection to bring some more color to the living room, & the minute I flipped up the 1st quilts, Broccoli jumped up & held it down for me. Isn't that sweet of him?
I went out to the garage & got the other old ladder that we had. It was too tall to stand up anywhere inthe house, so I cut it in 1/2, & screwed the shorter end up on the wall behind the wood stove.
I covered the rungs with some layers of cheese cloth to protect the quilt tops, then just hung them on the ladder.

THe other thing I did last night, was take some sheets that I've had for 16 years, & never used, & cut off one end, made tie-backs with the extra fabric, & turned them into curtains for the living room. I'm still not satisfied with them, but they're better than what was there before.

Today I head back to work. Resting the shoulder has been a little boring, as I couldn't do a lot of things, (like quilt on a large quilt), but I'm sure I'll be worn out by Friday, since I've gotten used to just relaxing at home. No rest for the wicked I guess.

The Next Big Quilt!

Well, here it is. The next BIG quilt! Exciting isn't it? HA!

It took me a couple of hours & much rearranging just to get the paper up on the wall. Now I have to start drawing it out. I have it drawn on a regular sheet of paper, & will start by projecting just the center of the drawing on to the paper, bu I think I'll freehand the rest, once I get the center finished, just because I think it'll be easier that way. I wish I had a real classroom overhead projector for this part, it would be simple with one of those. Oh well, you can't have everything! It will probably take me a year or 2 to get this one done. I have a couple of other projects that I need to get finished first, including my dear Michelle's wedding quilt! Since she was married , what it is now? 2 1/2 years ago? Then there's the baby quilt, for the baby who will be 2 soon! Boy am I behind!Sigh........

Better get back to work. Speaking of work, I have to go back on Tuesday ..bummer.

October Journal Quilt

Here is my October Journal quilt. It's made with real leaves, that I collected outside. I layed them on a piece of a potato bag (it was a colorless mesh bag), then I used Modge-Pdge on them. It's for decopage. You could probably use white school glue too. After bothe sides were covered & dry, I layed a piece of gold tulle over the top & quilted around the leaves. I put a few bits of painted, & burned dryer sheets for borders, did some hand beading, & a bit of funky yarn for the edges.

It was fun!

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.