Fiber Festival Board, & Creative Solution

I'm still worried about my sister Em. She isn't answering her phone right now, which makes me think she must really be sick.

Last night we had a meeting of our Alaska Fiber Festival planning board. I'm in charge of dolls, so if any of you out there do dolls & would like to be in our March 2008 show, please let me know.

We spent about 5 hours, & still don't know for sure who all we'll be having for teachers. We're looking for a needle felter who makes spectacular dolls & teaches. Do you know any?

We have a Haute Coture Designer who will be teaching. & we think we have the quilting teacher chosen.

Our theme, I think I can reveal now, is "Half Baked Alaska". We will be having several challenges, including 'Tundra Trench Coat' (must be below the knee), & 'Trendy Tundra Boots'.

The Aussie Challenge will be on again. I'll show you the fabric in another posting. We've dubbed it the Ugly Fabric.

We will be having a 'Barrow-more Album' challenge, & we're hoping to include a venue of antique quilts for store displays with our Quilt Walk downtown. We'll have a 'Half Baked Challenge' which will be art quilts no larger than a cookie sheet. There are more things, but that enough to start.

This is my package for the Salvation Army Angel Tree. I picked a 13 year old girl. It didn't give any sizes or suggestions, so I decided to try & inspire her creativity. The bottom is an art kit with paints & colored pencils. I included, watercolor paper, & a sketchbook, a very inspiring book on papercrafting, & another on drawing, & one of my reversible purses, & a barrett that my friend Mindy made. I put a handmade card inside, with a note that I wrote, that just said "Creativity feeds the soul".

While I was working on the bow, Broc went into ecstacy over Jen's bracelet pin cushion again. Did you put catnip in there Jen?

While in the shower yesterday morning, I had sudden inspiration on how to handle the meltdown on my new iron. I had called the repair people & it will cost $98.00 to replace the housing. I also talked to Rowenta, & since it's damage due to user error, they won't cover it. They are sending me a nice coupon for about 1/2 the cost though, & the guy told me they have a new design coming out soon that won't be able to have this happen, so I'll wait & buy that with the coupon. In the mean time, I'm making a COZY for my iron! 1st I took a transparent plastic bag & made a pattern.
Cut it to fit.

Took my old Fiberglass press sheet,

& taped my pattern in place.

Cut the fiberglass to fit.

then cut a piece of wool. Next I needle felted around the edges, & took 3 glass beads, to cover the area where the melting occured. Surrounded each bead with more needle felted wool. Now I just have to trim it up & finish the sides on the cover. It's a WIP, but I'm almost finished already! & It won't effect the warranty, if anything goes wrong I'll send it in & get the housing replaced then, but for now this is my creative solution, & when the new model comes out, I'll buy that & keep this for backup.

I know a lot of you think I'm crazy for wanting an iron that's this costly, but you have to try one. They make ironing a dream. It's so much better than even the top of the line Black & Decker. I had one of those too, & hated it. This iron really makes ironing a pleasure.

Now for my dishwasher woes. Keep your fingers crossed, the repair guy is coming today! & I found out yesterday, Mercury was in retrograde! I may be out of the woods now!

PS Please remember my sister Em in your prayers.

Edit: Em called. She's feeling a little better. The doctor is holding her Chemo for this week. Thanks for all your concerns. She lives with her daughter, so I knew she wasn't alone, & they would've called me if anything serious had happened. Sorry to raise your concerns so much.