Signs of autumn are already starting to pop up here & there.
I love these mushrooms that grow in the yard every end of summer.

The elderberry bushes are ripening. Soon the birds will eat all of the berries.

I went to Physical therapy today, & when I got home there was a mama & baby moose in the back yard. I honked & hollered trying to get them to move on so I could get out of my car. It spooked the baby, but I got the feeling the mama might be deaf. Finally my DH came to the back door & told me to run! Now picture this. I just got finished with physical therapy, so by the time I got home from downtown Anchorage, my knee was pretty seized up & I could hardly walk! I ran like a gimpy turtle! The moose didn't seem to care, thank goodness!

I got a back end shot though the bedroom window. Below is the baby, I took that from the deck.

The last couple of days I've worked on the 2nd set of ABC's. I'll be taking this one to Michigan with me.

I made it longer & narrower than the 1st set, & embellished with some beads along with the silk cocoons. I dyed those with inks.

I also finally found a use for the Egyptian beetle wings that I'd bought years ago. They are the iridescent green.

I painted some more Tyvek & sprinkled it with embossing powders for texture, then heated with the heat gun after cutting out the leaf shapes.

FUN, FUN, FUN!

Calendar Girls Meeting at My House

It was my turn to host Calendar Girls. No that guy on the couch isn't my DH, it's George Taylor. George called me right before the ladies started arriving to ask if I had any DMC wool embroidery yarn because he knows I save EVERYTHING, & of course I happened to have some. He needed it for the classes he's taking with Gail Harker, so I told him to bring his stuff along & join us. So he added a new dimension to the Calendar "Girls". He didn't want to stay & join though. The funny part about the yarns he needed, they came from Jackie. She gave them to me several years ago, because she felt she'd never use them, & thought I would.
I was hoping for a sunny day, but it was the same gray cool summer we've been having all summer. A few of us still went out on the deck & did a little fish printing.

Mary Huey had never done it before . We had a good time with it.

The Old Crazy Quilt on my bed

The old crazy quilt on my bed that Amy asked about & Kathy recognized, is one that I made from some old blocks that were raffled off at a guild meeting when I was living in Michigan. They were given to a guild member by the family of a lady that had passed away, & they knew she was a quilter. She didn't really want them, I think she kept one to put in a frame, & the rest were divided into groups of 4. We bought tickets for 25 cents each, & I bought $10.00 worth. I NEVER won raffles, but wanted to win at least one group of these, & everyone there knew it. They were going to draw 4 tickets, & mine was the LAST ticket drawn. In the end everybody gave me the blocks they won too, because they felt that I wanted the the most, & they said they knew I'd actually do something with them.

I ended up making this quilt, that I use maybe 3 months out of the year. & it's sister lives with my friend Kathy, which I made for her out of the 4 blocks that she gave me. Maybe we can get her to show that one!

What I've been up to

Besides watching the Olympics, this is what I've been doing these past couple of days. I've packed up 4 boxes of "Stuff" for classes in Michigan. Most of which will be left there.
& one big box of quilts for my Trunk show/ Lecture. I'm afraid the postage is going to be more than I'm making!

Today I had my Physical Therapy appointment. Ginny , my PT, says I'm a little bit ahead of where she would expect me to be, & that I am a good poster child for the knee surgery. I was pretty achey when I left there though.

She suggested I get a big ball & use it in the evening before bed to loosen up my Quad muscle, & maybe then I'll be able to sleep better.
So here it is. My big ball. Poor Broccoli is freaked out by it. I guess I won't be seeing him much at night with this in my bedroom!

End of the ABC's

Here it is all finished. The ABC's of Embellishment ready to go to Seams Like Home for the class sales next weekend. I mounted all of the letters on to a Vinyl background, with a fabric sleeve. On the sleeve I put a few Tyvek leaves & some Shiva stick rubbings.
The second set of letters I made , I put in an album to take to Michigan with me next month.
This week after I get everything packed & shipped I'm going to see if my knee can stand long enough, or if the saddle seat will be OK to work on Lily again. I want to get Margaret's quilt quilted, then I need to get going on that Irish Dance dress! Hope will be coming sometime next weekend for the next fitting.

The rest of the ABC's

Tuesday we did a lot of running around town. Wed. I had my Dr. appointment , & all is good with my knee. I also renewed my driver's license, I forgot it was due in May. The pharmacy pointed out that is was expired. Yesterday we went out for an early supper & the movies. We saw "Mama Mia" & I LOVED it. Very cute movie. The music was still running through my head when I woke up this morning. We also saw Journey to the Center of the Earth. Unfortunately they don't show it in 3 D here, but it was cute, & short.

Today I had intended to go to Quilt Guild, but woke up late, so instead I got busy working on the rest of the ABC's.

R is Rusted fabric, & a Rock.

S is Singed Silk on top of Sandpaper, a Stamped Silver Star, Six Sequins, all Stitched with Sulky Silver Sparkly thread, & a Sea Shell.
T is Thread on Top, & Trim, which I used a Sacking needle to bury the ends.

U is Ultrasuede.

V is Velvet & Velcro.

W is Wool strips Woven together, & Washers.

X is Xpandaprint in white, applied over a stencil cut from an old X-Ray. I dusted a little Pearl-ex powder on top too.

Y is Yarns.

Z is Zipper.

Now I'll edge each individual card, & make a background quilt to attach them to, & I'll be done.

Happy Birthday Dear Daughter & more ABCs

Today is my beautiful DD Michelle's birthday. Happy birthday Michelle! You were a beautiful baby & you still are! I wish I could spend this day with you.

I've been feeling a bit like a mad scientist lately with the crazy stuff I've been playing with in the studio. What a mess!

I Embellished E with more Embossing powder in the background, then added some Embroidery. Thanks Anna.

Some Green Gauze jumped on with the Gold G, & the Glow-in-the-dark Glass Glob.

My sister Em thought I should add an Insect to the letter I, & what better insect than the Alaska State Insect, the dragonfly? I also Inked a few more I words on to it.

J was made from Jute. I added some Jewelry & Joy too.

Keys made K.

Lace & Leftover Lutradur made the Letter L.

Moss & Mirrors are M.

N is Needlefelting & Nuts.

O is an Ornament & Orange Oil painted dots.

P came from a Purple Paper Paint sample with Pearl Piping & a Pin.

Q is of course a Quilt. I thought about adding a Q-tip, but even I have my limits!

This afternoon we went out for a lunch at Applebee's & a movie. We went & saw the Batman movie," The Dark Knight". It was quite dark. Don't take your kids there. I like Christian Bale, but this movie seemed sadder to me. I was disappointed in the trailers at the beginning too. I had read that the next Harry Potter trailer for "Half Blood Prince" would be on with Batman, but it wasn't. It was Warren's turn to pick. Next time we're going to "Mama Mia!"

ABC's-I Embellishing Cont.

Thanks for all the commiseration on the sleep issues. Hormones aren't an option for me because of family history. My dear sister has had breast cancer. I will continue to use those sleepless nights to my advantage, by thinking up weird things to do on quilts!

Back to my alphabet. I worked a little more on the letter C. Not only is it Copper, but it has a Checkerboard background Colored from Crayola Crayons!

D got a face lift too. Denim!
F is Fusible web, Foil & a Feather!

G is a Glitzy Gold mesh fabric, Gold thread, & a lovely Glob of Glass that Glows-in-the dark! (Made by Mindy of course)

H is Hair (doll Hair), a coil of Hemp, & Happy!

I is looking a little plain. I is INK. I Inked the fabrics.

This is really a lot of fun. Oh & Anna, thanks for the suggestion on E. I was thinking so hard outside of the box, I don't think Embroidery had even occurred to me. I did some more to E too, but I'll publish it next time! Thanks again ALL of you!

ABC's of Over the top Embellishment

The knee was aggravated by my Physical Therapy, so I'm 2 steps forward & one step back. I still can't sit or stand at Lily the Longarm, but will go crazy if I watch any more TV, so I went into the Studio & started working on 2 Examplers to be used as samples for my Over-the-Top-Embellishments classes. One to take to Michigan with me, the other to hang here in the local quilt Shop where I'll be teaching this fall.

I decided the ABC's would be any easy way to sort through & organize the class. In Michigan I'll skip over the obvious things, like B for buttons, but for here I've decided I'll split the class into groups of 5 or 6 & make it separate classes to cover everything & then some.

A is for Angelina Fibers. Texture added with rubber stamp.

B is for Buttons.

C is for copper. Needle punched on the machine, then hand stitched into place.

D is for Dreaming up new ideas, unless I can think of something better. A paper keepsake scrapbooking word was added.

E is for Embossing powder. I think it needs something else, but this is as far as I got yesterday.

Ever since I turned 50, sleep has been difficult for me. I just don't sleep well & I can't figure out why, but now pain adds to the fray, & I'm lucky to get 3 good hours before I'm up & down & tossing & turning. I really wonder what it would be like to sleep well for a change. Melatonin & Benadryl help me get to sleep, & Ibuprofen & a pain pill help ease the pain for maybe 3 or 4 hours, but after that, it's flip, toss turn, mind race, ideas that I should write down but never do. My friend Kathy says she wants to know how my mind works. I thinks this must be the answer. Sleep deprivation . It causes the mind to spin in all sorts of strange directions.