The Sentinel ~ my final Fiberactions Challenge

 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmnm   

That first line was from Broccoli. He has missed me, because I was working the past 2 days, & haven't been home much.

Below is the piece I made for the last Fiberactions Challenge.  The word was 'Structure', & I chose to build a 'Cairn'. It's a rock structure that hikers build to mark paths, or spots to alert other hikers. This one is placed by a river to mark a safe crossing.  

The first photo  shows the quilt how it looked when I first finished. As I had it hanging on the wall, I realized there was a hole in my stack of 'rocks' , & it bothered me. I made the rocks from the Shibori pole wrap process that my friend Sandy Winfree taught me this past summer.                                                       

After contemplating how I might fix that hole, I found a real rock that looked very much like the ones I made from silk. I threaded some long pieces of thread through a button, then glued the rock to the top of the button, & stitched the threads through the quilt (a process I learned from Allie Aller).

The raven standing guard by the Cairn is the one I made entirely from thread, free-motion on wash-away stabilizer.

The leaves are all from fabric that I straw dyed this past summer, appli-quilted in place over the couched yarns for branches. The challenges have been a lot of fun, but I've decided to challenge myself this next year. Changes are in the wind for us. Warren will retire. I will have to go back to full time. I am thinking about what I'm going to do next......we'll see.

In the meantime, I'll warm myself by the fire.

A Fond Farewell

Today I made the above card for our friend Elle. Her husband, our dear friend Dr. Richard Neubauer, died recently. Today was the Memorial service. The service was nice. There were about 300 people there. Several people I hadn't seen in years. Afterward, we went to the Bear Tooth Grill with Mindy & John, Kate & & Brooks, & Grace. All us girls had worked together in Richard's office about 20 years ago. It was a nice reunion.

To-Do list finished.

I feel a nice sense of accomplishment. My 'To-Do' list is completed. (Now I need to make a new one). I got all the stuff that my friend gave me sorted & organized. The ribbon reels & put on dowels & placed them under the shelves where I keep my larger cones of thread. Now Lily is clear so I can load the next large quilt, which will be Shirley's. I'll photograph the top today, & start working on quilting designs for it.

This last photo is a sneak peak of the 'Structure' quilt, that I just finished for the Fiberactions final challenge. I've enjoyed doing the challenges, & they've forced me to produce when I probably would have just worked on customer quilts. It's always good to stretch my inner artist!

New To-Do list:

1. make 2 cards

2. Photo Shirley's Quilt top

3.draw designs for above

4. work on quilting Tracy's bear quilt

5. Write holiday letter

Crow Vs Raven

In my last post I made 2 Ravens out of thread. A few of you thought they were crows. I wanted to show you the difference between the 2. This first little video shows the 2 side by side.  The Raven is a bigger smarter bird.  I have been lucky enough to have some close encounters with Ravens, & I have a real  affinity for them.


They have  a voice like no other bird, & this next video is the only one I could find that captured it.
It starts at 5:18 in the video. Enjoy.



                            

Threadplay RAVEN

I have done a little Threadplay this week. For my first attempt I used one of my Raven photos. (I always use my own photo or drawing, so I don't infringe on anyone else's copyright). As you can see, the first bird didn't end up looking at all like the original. My problem? Well, the hoop I was using for my stabilizer was a little loose, for one thing. The stabilizer also has a little grain line to it, & I was only using one layer.

So I tried again. This time I used 2 layers of stabilizer, laying them perpendicular to each other, & stitched a grid pattern on the 2 layers before chalking my outline on the whole thing, & stitching out the bird. The bird on the left, is still a little smaller than the original, but he's proportioned much better. I'll keep the one on the right, & call him a baby bird, but he won't be used until I find the right project for him.

Yesterday I taught my Threadplay With Wire class at Quilt Zone. My students all made Dragonflies. Kathy here sews fast, so she decided to make a Star too. It was her own idea, & I thought it turned out really cute.

Thursday, when I went to my Quilt Guild meeting, Pat came in with a large garbage bag full of stuff that she thought I might like. It included several rolls of white wire ribbons, & white silk floral bits. Also bags of lace & embroidered trims. All great fodder for Crazy quilting.  I'm thinking I can paint or dye the white stuff any color I want. Even some of the trim would be fun to over dye. Now that I've sorted it all out, & made a big mess of my studio, I want to get down there & clean & do some rearranging....Hopefully I can get there, just as soon as the other things on my To-Do list are done....

1.Make bread ~DONE

2. take down Halloween & put out Thanksgiving decorations.~DONE

3.Post ALCQ blog for this week.~DONE

4.Finish project for Fiberactions due on the 15th.DONE

5. Clean up this mess!DONE

Too bad I have to go to work tomorrow!
to be continued Tues....

It must be winter.

It must be winter, because Broc is back to sleeping in his bed, & there is white stuff on the ground & trees now. We woke up the the world of new snow yesterday morning. This looks like it's here to stay, & more is falling today. I hung the bird feeder up yestrday, & the birds are enjoying the feast.

Tracy's latest quilt

I finished Tracy's quilt this morning. Here is the final result.

The back is pretty too.

I have to tell you, I broke down & bought these tension guages from Superior Threads, to use on my  longarm. It has made my life SOOooo much easier. I found that even I had my thread tension balaced, I was having trouble with skipping stitches. When I got he tension guages, I discovered I was running with my thread tension way too tight. When I turned it down to the reccomened tension on both the top & bobbin, it made all the difference. So much better. No more skipping & breaking.

I wanted to tell you about the visitor I had at this window this week. It was a young black bear (sorry no picture, the camera was upstairs at the time). I was setting right there at the machine when the bear litlerally walked right up against the window. It was so cute. It had thick fur, ready for winter. He looked like a giant teddy bear. The mama was in the yard too, but further away.

It's chilly outside. The ground is frozen, with ice puddles in the driveway, but no snow here yet. It seems to be coming later & later. I guess it's the global warming.

A Quick Pumpkin Quilt

Thursday, when I went to Quilt Guild, there were little white pellets on my windshield cover. by the time I got back home from the meeting the white stuff was all gone. It seems like the snow is coming late again this year. I believe global warming really is affecting our environment.

At the guild, April talked about her project, "Pedals For Africa". She founded a non-profit organization, to raise funds to buy bicycles for students in Africa, to ride to & from school. This needle work was donated to her, by ALCQ member Clara Jo, to be used at one of her auctions.

Friday evening we had Kathy Kansier for a lecture. She is an AQS certified quilt appraiser, & judge.

She also gave classes on Saturday & Sunday, but I didn't take any of them, because I was teaching classes, myself, at Quilt Zone. Sunday evening my friend Mary G. brought Kathy up to my house for dinner, & to appraise 2 of my quilts. We had crab with lemony-butter, pumpkin soup & home-made rolls.

I had Kathy appraise my "Oh! to Dance With a Dolphin!" & "Ravages of Time~Port Townsend truck thread painting".

I had a vacant space about my front door, & threw together this little pumpkin wall hanging to fill it for the autumn months. It is simple raw edge machine applique', & a bumpy yarn edge instead of binding. I made it in just a few hours.

Quilt- purse & Autumn Bits

I've been busy working & quilting. I have 3 borders left to quilt on Tracy's quilt, which I will post when I've finished. Below is the "Cool Cat" card I made for my DGD Darian. She turned 17 yesterday.  I can hardly believe she's so old!

I taught my Basic Threadplay class on the 8th. This coming weekend I have Advanced Threadplay & Free Motion Machine Quilting to teach on Saturday & Sunday.

I always enjoy sharing the fun of free-motion with my students.

Today I made a small purse for the ALCQ to give to Kathy Kansier when she comes this weekend. It started with an experiment with a bit of gold polyester fabric. I tried to see if I could dye it. I couldn't. It didn't take any bit of the dye, but it did hold the shape of the rocks when I tried the pole wrap with rocks. I used it for the front flap, & added burned silk for leaves. I'm pretty happy with the final results.

Autumn being my favorite season, I enjoyed making my pumpkin soup for my DH & 2 of his fellow RT's  who came over on Sunday. It was a farewell dinner for James, who is a traveler that Warren has worked with once before. James was brought up to Alaska this time, to work while Warren was off for his knee surgery.

For dessert, I made another Esspresso Cheesecake. This one cracked a bit on top, so it got a heavier coating of coffee frosting than the last one. (Not an all bad thing).

Birthdays

Today is both my DH Warren, & my DS Brandon's birthday. Brandon is far away in Kwajelein, but Warren & I went to Girdwood, to the Double Musky for dinner to celebrate. The drive down the Seward Hwy is always beautiful.

There was an unusual sight in Turnagain Arm. 2 boats. I've never seen boats out there before. They just don't go up the Arm. It's  tides are dangerous, & there are spots that are shallow. I'm not sure what they were doing, but it was a strange sight to see boats there.

The bushes along the road were colorful.

We saved dessert for home. I made an Espresso Cheesecake, that was really good.

Other projects I've been working on are Tracy's quilt is on Lily right now (pictures later), &  dyeing some silk.

                     Below are some grapes I dyed, by the shibori wrap method that I learned from my friend Sandy Winfree.

This was the card I made for Warren.

Quilting Design, Mystery books & a gift

Vivika DeNegre sent this little Prayer Flag to me, as on the the Fiberactions group. Isn't it sweet? It's always fun to get a little surprise bit of art in the mail. Thank you Vivika!

I've been eating up the books lately. As I quilt on Lily (my longarm), I like to listen to books on my Kindle. Recently, I received an email from Mary Pomponio, who is a publicist for Clare O'Donahue.

Clare is a quilter who also write Mystery books. She has a new book coming out soon, & Mary is asking some quilters who blog to read her new book. Well, since the new book is the 4th, Z& even though she offered to send me all 4, I decided I wanted to get started on them now. The first 2 aren't available to my Kindle, so I'll have to read those the old fashioned way. I found them at Titlewave today. The 3rd,"",Double Cross I was able to get on Kindle. I've already got started on "Lovers's Knot", & I'm already hooked. This will be my bedtime coffee in the morning reading for now. Since I'm a Gemini, I can continue listening to the "Anna Pigeon Series" by Nevada Barr, on my Kindle when I want to quilt. There will be a give-away here soon for the newest book, along with something made by me.

For what I'm working on next, is a quilt by Tracy. These are the designs I offered her, & she chose B (my favorite). She wants it double batted, so it'll not only be really warm, the quilting will stand out well. I loaded it today, tomorrow I hope to start quilting.

As far as what is TERMINATION DUST: it's the first snow on the mountains in the autumn, that marks the termination- hence the end of summer. Time to get ready for winter.

Autumn Inspiration

This fella took a nap in our yard yesterday. Isn't he handsome in his homely moosie way?

Today I took a little walk around our yard, looking for a little autumn inspiration.

Termination dust has been on the mountains behind the house for a few days now.

This is what I made after my walk.

Oh, by the way, ...If you want to be my neighbor, this house is for sale!

The Case of the Mysterious Oompa Loompa...

      

Yesterday my DH went into his closet to pull out a shirt. Weather is getting cooler, so he went for long sleeves. The shirt he chose, was one he hadn't worn in a long time. This Oompa Loompa doll was neatly buttoned under the collar of the shirt. Neither one of us recall ever seeing this thing before. We have no idea how it came to be in his closet, or on his shirt. I find this a little creepy....