Spring Day & QOV

It was a spectacularly sunny day today. Warm & beautiful all day. The leaves are starting to pop up here now. Soon everything will be green. I wanted so bad to stay outside on the deck, but had indoor chores that HAD to get done today.

The Birch next to the deck is starting to green too.
I promised Warren I would make bread. He had to slum it this week with store-bought bread, poor baby. The sunny kitchen window was the perfect spot for raising the dough.
While down in the studio working on Lily, this big guy walked right by my windows. I ran to the back door to catch him walking away. Don't you love the little Bullwinkle rack? I'm sure it will be huge by fall. This was a BIG bull.

I've been working on a Quilt of Valor. Debra sent it to me when I volunteered to quilt one.

I'm pleased to say that Lily & I are getting better. She seems to be moving a little smoother, & I'm starting to get the hang of things. I'm actually going to do a customer quilt next!

I actually made 2 of these red star blocks, over a year ago, & Debra included them with this top. They came back to haunt me! After doing the tight grid for the background, the stars popped out quite a bit. I plopped a red button in the center of each of them, & did just a little decorative hand quilting in the the centers of each of these red stars. I really enjoyed the process of this whole quilt.

Now all it needs is binding & a label!

I stitched the words "Thank You" over & over in the plain black border.

Synvisc & Spring Chicken

I worked all day on Mother's day. There were 5 emergency surgeries in our little hospital. Yesterday I gorked out most of the day. I quilted on Dori's whole cloth piece, but still have about 2-3 more hours of work to do on it.

Today I worked an 8 hour shift. Tomorrow I'm quilting again!

I'm supposed to be getting Synvisc injected into my right knee. It is made from cocks combs. That red thingy on the rooster's head. Yep, chicken cartilage. I already walk kind of funny, so it can't make that any worse. The insurance was slow to approve it, so I won't get started until next week. It has to be injected once a week for 3 weeks. Something to look forward to!

The rooster above was a Maggie Walker pattern, that my friend Mary Lee did the applique', & I did the quilting. It won an Honorable Mention at APNQ 2004. I hate to post without a photo, & I didn't take my camera with me today. I know it's a stretch, but hey, I'm trying!

Speaking of spring chickens, I'll be turning 54 soon, & my youngest child Corey's girl Tasha turns 24 this week. We decided to go out to dinner with them (Corey & Tasha), to celebrate, Mother's Day & our birthdays, & say good-bye to Corey for the summer, as he works up in Nome most of the summer months. It was also a good excuse to eat at the Glacier Brewhouse one last time until the summer is over. We don't go there in summer, because tourists pack the place so full, there's 1 1/2 hr waiting to get a table. Dinner was great. We had a good time talking with the kids. Corey wants us to take a trip to Nome to go fishing some time this summer. Apparently that's all he does in his spare time up there, & knows all the best places to fish. He also thinks we would enjoy the history of the town, & the little Wyatt Earp's wife's museum.

On the way home this evening, I noticed the trees along the Seward Highway now have little tiny bright green leaves on them, that weren't there this morning on the way into work!

As we were driving up our hill, there was a moose eating freshly sprouted grass along the side of our street. He was so into it, it didn't bother him when we drove past just a few feet away.

Ahh, spring, it must finally be here!

Happy Mother's Day

It's another Mother's day. I'm afraid it makes me a little sad. My mom has been gone for almost 16 years now & I miss her.

Happily, another bouquet of flowers ended up being delivered to me on Saturday afternoon, from my DS Brandon, & Laura, & Carys. I thought the iris was particularly pretty in this bunch. It does feel very good to have happy spring flowers sent with love from my kids.
Below is a piece of fabric that I have been quilting for my customer Dori. I have been quilting for her for a couple of years now, & this piece was just a yard of fabric that she fell in love with, & didn't want to cut up. She asked me to quilt it, then she will bind it & give it to her daughter for a center piece for her table. She asked me to quilt it on my Bernina, because I told her I'm not so good on Lily yet.
I'm basically just outlining the design in gold thread, & doing a watery feeling meander in black on the black background.

What I'm not so thrilled with is the batting that Dori likes me to use. I don't know what the brand is, but it's very flat, felt-like, but has a fuzzy surface that is bearding through on the black.

I don't think I've ever had bearding from any other batting that I've used. I will be glad to finish this piece & get back to practicing on Lily! If you didn't look at the previous post, check out the flowers there too. Both real & thread!

Flowers on Friday

Yesterday afternoon, this lovely spring time bouquet arrived from my DD Michelle, & Jon, & Darian, to wish me a happy Mother's Day. It was a real pick-me-up. My tummy was still feeling a bit off kilter, & I mostly spent the day laying down & reading. It gave me warm fuzzies to get this delivered to my door. Thank you kids. I love you too!
The rose is particularly pretty.
This week I also picked up the post card I'd bought from the last Alaska Fiber Festival. This one was made by Debbie Boyce, one of our board members, & it was always my particular favorite, so when they decided to start selling them as a fund raiser, & spoke up for Deb's first.
It's 5"x9", & I just loved the colors & textures & detail.
Happy Mother's day to all you moms out there.

ART SCAM

It seems that Ms.Nicole Roane whose email address is nic_ane01@yahoo.com

has also gone by the name "Lisa Benson" using this email lisaben100@googlemail.com

The email was identical to the one I found here.

So no sale, but I'm glad I found out before I got sucked in any further.

I wish there was some way I could burn this BOZO! & get him or her caught!

The up side to this is I get to keep 2 of my favorite pieces :~)

& life never gets dull!

I have logged a complaint with Internet Crime.

Here is another link to a whole list of scammer names targeting artists.

A Better Day & art Scam!

Well, I feel like I'm going to live. The stomach flu or whatever it was, seems to be subsiding. Temps are back to normal, though appetite isn't (which is OK with me, I've always said I wish I could develop a short case of anorexia!).

On the quilting front, I've done nothing but doodle on paper while feeling ill, but I got a nice e-mail surprise today from someone in London who wants to buy 2 of my Art quilts for her new home in South Africa. I almost hate to let them go, but it will make room for new pieces , & that is what being in the business of Art quilting is about. Selling them.

This is my Tree of Life. A whole-cloth quilt, that I made from one of my hand dyed clean up cloths. I did the design in thread, completely free motion, then inked in over it for more definition. I covered a curtain rod to match for hanging. The quilting is tight in this one, & I really loved it.

Sulky Holoshimmer threads really pick up the lights & sparkle on this quilt.

The other one that she wanted was this one, Primordial Soup...Fiber & Ice. The wood hanger is driftwood I picked up on Lake Superior. It looks like it was chewed on the ends by a beaver. The background is Rabbit fur that I bought here.

It's a mix of hand dyes, hand painted fibers, machine & hand stitched, beads & wires. The 2 large beads were to represent the Raven & the walrus, air & sea, the beginnings of time .

Later the same day: Delta made the 1st comment on this post telling me this is a scam. Well after doing Google search on the name used by the scammer "Nicole Roane", it turns out this little missy has been very busy trying to scam people. I've only seen the tip of the iceburg, but will try to dig up links & post a copy of her email so you can all BEWARE..& THANK YOU DELTA!

Off Kilter

It all started on Sunday. Warren was working, so I went to the Irish Dance Spring Fling by myself. After driving in circles trying to find the place, I found it, & parked here by this young moose treating himself to a little pine breath freshener.

I really don't know why I bothered to take my camera along. I knew the pictures wouldn't be good, because of no flash photography rules, & of course my own operator ignorance.
The auction was packed with people, & things to bid on. I thought these funky fleece fish hats were quite amusing.

When I got home. My arms were full of stuff. I had my camera slung over my left shoulder, as I juggled the keys, purse, bags etc., & when I got the back door open, the cat was there to greet me & try to make a quick escape (we live in bear & moose & large predatory bird country, so he has to stay inside). My camera bonked against the door casing, & my heart sank, because I knew it was a hard hit. So this is what the next pictures all looked like.

It made me very sad. My Rebel XT has a head injury!

Well maybe it's just the auto focus part of the lens. I did manage today to figure out how to take a little better picture on manual. This is a post quard my big sister Em made for me. Isn't it cute? It's needle felted & free-motion stitched, & machine applied the beady eye. Several firsts for her. I love it!

Monday I felt kind of funky all day. I worked, slogging through my day, energy feeling low. I had a Dr appointment about my knees at 3, so I went & saw Pete, the Orthopedic surgeon. He said he'd be happy to replace my left knee, & give me a new better bionic one. I was hoping he'd do both at once, as both hurt all the time, but the left is worse than the right by maybe 1 point on my pain scale. We left it at just the left knee, scheduled for May 20th. I went home & worried over it.

When I got home, I was feeling like I really wanted something chocolate. I decided to make my Mocha cookies. They're only 1 point a piece on Weight Watchers. I use 1 cup of coffee in them, & rather than brewing an entire pot, I decided to haul out my little espresso maker from under the counter. I pulled it out by the top, & the little glass pot slid to the floor. CRASH! It shattered. #@!_% so I cleaned up that mess. I just used the measuring cup for the espresso. When it was done, or maybe I should say, when I thought it was done I cranked off the part that holds the grounds, & BOOMF! Very fine Coffee grounds were everywhere! What a mess.

I finally baked the cookies, ate a couple & went to bed.

At 3 a.m. I woke up & couldn't get back to sleep. My stomach was cramping, & I figured it was all because of the knee worries, & maybe the high fiber cookies. I got up Tuesday morning & went into work at 730. I was only working until 330, I had a pre-op physical scheduled for 4, but I called & cancelled it. Pete came into the recovery room where I work at 10 after his first surgery of the day, & I sat down & told him I've chickened out. I want to be sure that it's the right thing to do, only the left I mean. I explained how when I go down stairs I have to lead with the right, one step at a time, because it hurts to bend if I try to lead with the left, & leading with the left is what I would HAVE to do after a left knee replacement. He said we can do an MRI, maybe the cartilage is worse in that knee than what shows on xray, or maybe Synvisc is worth a try. So Surgery is on hold for now, but will probably be in the near future.

By the time I left the hospital, I seriously considered calling Warren & asking him to come get me. I was feeling AWFUL. I had thought it was just a stomach tied in knots over the worries, but after talking to Pete, then talking to my friend Mindy, I figured the stomach would be better & it wasn't. I didn't eat anything all day either. I drove myself home. Made it into the back door, put on my pajamas, & crawled into bed at 4 in the afternoon. By 7 p.m. I decided to check my temperature, & it was 101.7. No wonder I felt so rotten. I called in sick to work for today. I stayed in bed until 1045 this morning, then spent the day on the couch. A little Ibuprofen, some fruit, crackers,& water, & now I'm heading back to bed.

Oh, & speaking of off kilter, Vicki was right on my previous post, the backing was short, but no, it wasn't upside down. I had to add another piece of fabric before completing the quilting.

Yesterday evening, as I was leaving my house to go to Kathy & Judy's show opening, then to the Marci Tilton lecture, I had checked the thermometer to see what sort of jacket I should wear. It was 61 degrees, & these 1st 2 pictures are what my yard & pathway looked like. I carried a sweater, but really didn't need it. It does amaze me though, that snow can still survive with air temps that warm.
Kathy & Judy's opening was a great success. There were a ton of people there. When I got over to the church where the Marci Tilton lecture was going to take place, I was delighted to see that the daffodils had opened up, literally over night. When I went there on Thursday for guild they weren't yet blooming.

Ahhhh, it's good to see a little spring actually happening!

I love the daffodil. It's such a happy little flower!

Marci's lecture was really interesting. I learned some hints on handling knit fabrics that will come in handy on the next Irish Dance dress, as it's a knit that Hope has chosen for the dress.

Marci uses a lot of silk chiffon's, & layers her clothing much the same way I've been layering parts of my quilts for the past few years. I really enjoyed her, & wished I could spend some more time with her, but didn't sign up for the classes, & they are full.

This piece below is a close up of some hand embroidery & bead-work she did on a beautiful coat.

I was tickled to see her face when she opened up her gift neck purse, that I'd made for her. She looked genuinely thrilled, & put it right on. I like to use tone for travel, to carry thread, & needles, & thread cutter. It's also handy for your ID.

Today I practiced again on feathers on the longarm. I think I'm getting a little better each time.

but still having learning challenges. Can you tell what's wrong with the next picture?

Oh well, live learn, & practice.

I went to Quilt Guild this morning, but had to leave before Show & Tell. I did get a picture of this year's raffle quilt though. Made by Rosemary Slisz & quilted by Sheila Crum.

I took off before the business meeting was over to drop off my Emerald Isle piece for the Irish Dance School auction, & went over to Terra Bella, to help two of my friends,

Judy Wedemeyer , & Kathy Harte, hang their show for this month.

Botanicals and Food For The Soul

Here I am with Kathy up on the ladder, placing quilts around their Artists Statements.
Kathy's Tea Time series went well in the shop.

Of course the pictures NEVER do justice to the lively pieces.

There was a lot of sparkle & dimension that can't be seen through the camera's eye.

Subtle threads change colors across the front of this quilt.

The back wall makes a bold statement with work from both Kathy & Judy.

Salt of the Earth hangs directly over the salt shakers used by patrons.

Judy's applique' is probably the most traditional piece in the group.

This last one of Kathy's has sparkly threads outlining her painted fabric design, & her quilting on this piece is beautiful leaves with echo lines running all around the borders.

If you can get into Anchorage before June, stop by!