Catching Up

One of the things I finished recently was the quilt for our past quilt guild president, Pam Harris. I didn't want to post about it until we gave her the quilt, as she reads my blog pretty regularly. The blocks were made by lots of the members of the Anchorage Log Cabin Quilters.(You should check out the quilt show pictures too). Jackie Carley put them together into a top. We gave Pam the top a year ago, & I promised her I would do the quilting for it. She added the small green & wider purple borders herself, & with the help of Sandy Winfree & some extra blocks, pieced the back.

I did all the quilting, & made the binding, put it on by machine, then Jetta Brewer- Huber, Donna Evans,

Marge Seidler & Barbara Clinton hand finished the binding.

I took one of my photos from the front of the quilt, & made a label for it using the Colorfast Printer fabric.

I cut it into a circle & hand appliqued it on at the meeting just prior to presenting it to Pam.

Today we had breakfast at the Meyn's house. Their youngest, Hope is going off to Southern Oregon U. in a few days.

Next to her is her BF Ethan.

Pete & Lily came too. (Pete is the Orho Doc that fixes our arthritic joints).

I made 2 pans of sticky, gooey, oh so yummy carmel buns. They were gone pretty fast.

Texture

Today is the reveal day on the Fiberactions Blog for the word "Texture". Above is my completed piece. I finished the quilting on it this morning. I started with the black satin background quilt. I finished the edges with a nubby black yarn Already that's 2 different textures.

Detail shots from left to right, & top to bottom below. I made 9 white wool mini quilts 3 1/2 x 3 1/2 inches. Each has a Timtex-like stiff batting for thier center. I painted green or orange around the edge of each block after blanket stitching each edge with a white wool yarn.  In the center of each little wool square, I did a small study of different textures.

The first, below was done by sewing a grid on wash-away stabilizer, then weaving my hand-dyed cotton string left-over from a shibori dying project that I did about 8 years ago. This took me back to those little pot-holders we all made as childeren. After the weaving was complete, I free-motion stitched another layer of threads to anchore the piece together, & washed out the stabilizer.

The 2nd is a piece of fused glass made by my Mindy. She's the best! Always giving me little beautiful bits, that I can include in my pieces. I did some simple thread-play on the wash-away stabilizer, rinsed, & hand sewed it to the top, trapping the glass underneath.

This on is a bit of silk chiffon that I simpley pole wrapped & dyed, & dryed.

The green is another Thread-play on Wash-away. I did 3 layers, washed them out, & layed 1 on top of the next to give depth.

For the center block, I did a little bead scene with a mirror sun cabachon. 16 hours of beading & all I have to show for it is a wonky 1 3/4 inch square. Maybe I should take a class to learn how it's supposed to be done.

For the next one, I got out my wool rovings & a felting needle. I sculpted this little flower in a very short time.

It's hard to tell here, but it's very dimentional.

The next is another little bit of silk that I hand dyed, & pole wrapped with little beads inside, to give the fabric shape & dimension. This was after my friend Sandy showed me how to wrap rocks under fabric & on a pole.

I dug into my botton collection for the next square. I love sorting through old buttons.

For the last of the 9 squares I painted a bit of Mulberry bark, & added some hand embroidery stitches for a different texture.

In the empty space at the bottom, I did 3 squares of free-motion machine quilting. All in Sulky Holoshimmer thread, 2 green & one Copper.

                                             Check out all the others on the Fiberactions Blog.

A week with Quilters

Thursday we had our Calendar Girls Meeting at Mary Gerkin's house. Mary always serves up a gourmet meal. This time it was Paella & antipasto. Her sweet dog Scamp looked on, longingly from the door on the deck.

Don & Marilyn Locke were our special guests.

Dessert was a lovely Flan.

Mary's view from her deck was lovely. On the way down the mountain, we got to see a big black bear. Don got a picture of it with his camera, but I was too busy driving to try & take a pic.

                           

Friday we set up the quilt show. Here are Don & Marilyn with his very first quilt.

& Don with "The Supper", when we got it hung.

Saturday, on the 1st show-day, he wore his hand-dyed shirt that matches the back side of the quilt.

Bryan stopped by & did this little pose for me, so I could post it here for his mom, Anita Heady. I know how it is to have you kids so far away Anita, so here he is for you. He very sweetly offered to make dinner for us on Sunday, & I took him up on it. See below!

I introduced Bryan to several of my quilter friends. They all loved him. This is our guild president Rena, who he is talking to.

Here bidding was ending at the small quilt silent auction.

For the first time ever, I actually got a quilt that I was bidding on. It was made by my friend Sandy Winfree, who taught me how to tie the rocks into the fabric for Shibori.

Bryan came over after the show on Sunday, & brought these WONDERFUL Knishes....Oh boy, were they good! I made his favorite bacon wrapped dates for an appetizer, & pear salad.

For dessert we had vanilla ice cream, with warm caramel, & Brandied Rainer Cherries, made by my friend Rena. She had given them to Don & Marilyn. It was a great meal, & so nice at the end of a great week. Thank you Bryan, Don & Marilyn, & Rena!Now we will all go on a diet!

Don & Marilyn are off to Texas again. I'll miss them.

Autumn in Alaska

I didn't realize until I unloaded the pictures from my camera yesterday, just how long it's been since I'd done a blog post. Like the fungi in my yard, my blog has been growing pretty stale!I have been working on some quilts, but can't show them until after Sept. 15th.

Sorry folks! I've realized that part of my incentive for posting, was my Dad reading my blog regularly. He would call every Sunday & comment on what I had posted during the week. I think he was the biggest reason I tried to blog regularly, because I knew he enjoyed reading about what was going on in my life.

We have had a wet August, & are still in the season of Road Construction.

Marilyn & Don Locke (both quilters from Texas), are here staying with us right now. Don made "The Supper" quilt, which is how I first met him, back in Barcelona, Spain, in 2002. Yesterday we took them down to Seward for the day. We stopped at Beluga Point along the way. Beluga whales were in the inlet, & I was lucky enough to see them, but not get any pictures. Don & Marilyn have been braving the elements here without complaint. When the left Texas it was 110 degrees!

I did all the driving, Warren is doing better with his right knee, but hasn't dared try driving yet. I had to make this "truck stop", photo opportunity along the road. I thought it was a beauty. This will definitely have to go into my truck series one of these days!

We stopped at "Sew & Bee Cozy", the local Seward quilt shop, where Don & Marilyn both bought fabric & tools, & had a general good time. Next we ate a late lunch/early dinner at our favorite restaurant, "Rays", where we all had great food,

& decadent desserts.YUM!

The local entertainment outside the window was great too!

After filling our tummies, we made a stop at

Softly Silk, where we were just lucky to find Kerry Cline in the shop, & willing to open the door for us.

I bought a couple of small gifts for Christmas, & Marilyn got herself a lovely sweater vest.

We made one last stop at my favorite coffee house to get our driver (me) a good cup of coffee to help keep me from going into a food coma of the 130 miles return trip home, & Don & Marilyn got to check out a little more of the local art.

He's Home

I brought Warren home today. We made him comfy in the recovery recliner. We bought it for me when I had shoulder surgery, & have gotten a lot of use out of it ever since, for every surgery & bronchitis that we've had since then. It was well worth the investment. It's in our bedroom.

Broc was happy we were home. He's not used to being home alone for so long. He liked the bag that Warren had his robe in.

       I did get some quilting finished this week. I finished Wendy's Reindeer Runner, while I watched over Warren in the hospital. I'll try to get a photo of it tomorrow before I deliver it over to Wendy, & post it later. I'm going to be early tonight. We're both whipped.