post 599- Still here

 

Yes I’m still here. I am having hand issues still. It has now focused into my right hand & is a case of De Quervains  tendinitis. I will have to call my pal Mindy & see if Pete can help, because it has been going on since Jan 4th, & isn’t getting any better. It’s interfering with everything.

 

On a more fun note, this quilt, that is featured in my header, is now in Allie Aller’s book, on page 64. I was very honored when Allie told me she was going to include it in her book, & a wonderful book it is! I’ve already bought 4 copies to give as gifts! I also showed it to Diana Bradley at Quilt Zone yesterday, so she is going to order some copies to sell in her shop.

I was teaching my Minimal Marking Free Motion Machine Quilting class.

Below are 2 samples that I demonstrated on. I like the #12 wgt. Aurifil thread , it shows up well against the black fabric.

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Below are 2 cards I made this week. The Raven is for a friend who is in the hospital.

& the flowers for a childhood friend, who just lost her father. Both are needle punch with a small bit of quilting, on wool.

Last, I wanted to show you Broccoli, keeping my chair warm for me.

Next post, will be #600. 24 hours after I publish it, I will draw names for a prize. It will probably be some time next week! Until then, as my friend Sue Hausmann says, “Happy sewing!”.

UFO’s on Valentine’s Day

 

Actually this post starts on last Thursday. We had our Calendar Girls meeting at Rena’s house.

Jan was working on a dog applique’ above.

Below are pictures of Dean & Betty’s owl. Dean carved it, & Betty painted it. It’s wood.

Rena served a lovely lunch, on these cool plates.

I love the UFO.

Speaking of UFOs. I started going through a box full of them today.

I found these blocks from 1996! Quilt camp in Michigan. I had completely forgotten them.

I played with layouts, & I think I may make them into a table runner for Fall.

I also found this little block that my daughter made. I added the borders, & have started quilting it.

Here is a project that took me about 30 years, & 15 minutes (as my friend Kathy would say).

I colored this fabric book 30 years ago, & today I trimmed up the pages, & sewed them together, in about 15 minutes. I had intended it for my kids, but will send it to Carys & Zoe (the youngest grand girls).

I started pinning some of the UFO’s to my wall. Plenty to be inspired by, when I hit a dull day.

I am avoiding my latest customer quilt, until the Milsoft gets here, from Dharma Trading Co. Thanks to a suggestion from Deb Levy.

Here is the UFO box, AFTER I went through it. Several more UFO’s remain in the box. Oh the joys of having ADD!

The Teddy Bear Tea is coming this Thursday, so I had to make a couple of small quilts to go with this gorilla,

& Sully. Sully has been in my studio since last year, & I have fallen in love with him, so I’ve ordered another just like him, for myself. I just couldn’t live with out his sweet smile in here.

This Chickadee, is the last of today’s post. I was watching them yesterday at our bird feeder, & did a quick pencil sketch of one, the put him on to wool. with my felting needles, & a little quilting for finishing, plus a few beads. So this is my sketch for this week, & my DH’s valentine.

#597 Progress

 

Above is a small portion of the customer quilt that I am making slow headway on. This fabric is causing skipping of stitches, which always seems to be my biggest headache when quilting for others.

 

On the home front, my DH Warren finished getting the flooring on the stairs, & this past week, our electrician/all-around Handy man, Richard came over & got the  lights installed on the stairway. This is Richard.

& below, is how the lights looked after Warren placed the final trim piece, over them. It makes for a nice glowing, well lit stairway.

Sunday we packed a bunch of our friends into the living room, & had a Super Bowl day. I cooked, fed people & did Sudoku, while they ate, watched the Super Bowl, screamed at the TV, & napped off & on. At least 3 people fell into food comas & slept while others screamed at the TV.

It was also Mindy’s birthday, & her youngest, Hope made the cake.

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In closing I want to show just a wee bit from my next Fiberactions piece. I completed it today.

Virtual Craziness

I was on call last night & got called in. I can’t complain, it’s the first time I’ve been called in on a call night since before Thanksgiving. I’ve never had such a good long run of good Call Karma.
I only got 2 hours of sleep though. The cat & life just conspired against me, so I’m a little punch drunk today, & don’t have any ambition for anything.
I decided to do another quilty sketch today. I guess my computer is my Sketchbook. I went a little Crazy with this one. It was simple, mindless fun, which describes me pretty well right now.. Simple, & mindless!


PS. this is post #596. I think it's time for another little give-away, to celebrate when I reach # 600. So leave comments on this through # 600, & 24 hours after posting  #600, I will put all of the comments in the drawing & draw one out for a prise.Something handmade by me of course.

I do value all of your comments! Thanks so much! Warm hugs from Alaska,
Deb

The Hurrier I Go the Behinder I Get

I realized how far behind I was on posting when I saw these photos from2 weekends ago.

We had breakfast at the Meyn’s.

The photo above is some of Mindy’s glass tiles.

They reminded me of the quilt I was working on at the time.

On Wednesday we went out to dinner at the Bear Tooth, one of our favorite places.
While there, the table next to us was seated one of our ER Doctors, with his wife & little boy.
As they were leaving he introduced us to his wife, & mentioned that their next baby was due any day.
Later when we asked for our check, the waiter told us the Dr. had paid for our dinner. There were 5 of us.
To say thank you, I made these 2 quilted pads, for laying under the baby when changing his diapers . This is the flannel side showing. On the reverse is a Batik. The one on the left was a good exercise in all-over
feathers (something I need more practice at). That one took 3 bobbins of thread. The one on the right only
used 1, & took 1/4 of the time to do. They are about 22” x18”.


These are 2 blocks I made from pieces of fabric collected at the last quilt guild meeting. They will
be used in comfort quilts at Guild.


The biggest project I was working on, was this “rag” quilt for the next grandchild, Zoe.
She is due the end of April. I made the “rag” side out of Minke (far left polka dots, pink, green,
& black). The other side is batiks. Lots of x’s & o’s, & fun designs quilted in.



Below are clean-up rags (left), & Tyvek (right) hanging to dry on my wall.
I’ve been working on the next Fiberactions challenge.

I also started another customer quilt on Lily. I worked on it until I lost patience today.
There is one tight batik on it that wants to make the stitches skip. Other areas seem ok,
but the border fabric is KILLING me! Am I the only long-armer that has this problem?

Feather Doodling

I’ve been doing a little doodling in prep for a feathers class I will be teaching in the near future.

Small Quilted clock

 

My DH is my biggest promoter. He recently went to the owner of his favorite Brew-Pub with an armload of my quilts. He walked out with an agreement that I will be doing a one woman show there in a couple of months.

After my initial panic, I sat down & started counting how many pieces I have that I would be willing to sell.  I have several that if the price is right I could part with them without too much heartbreak, but nothing I would sell cheap. I decided I should make a few small pieces just for the show, that would be readily affordable for most people.

This is the first. A little 5 inch square, quilted clock. I used some of my gel-printed fabric, that I did last summer.

Now I better get going on the next grandchild quilt. She will be born the end of April.

Snow Storm- Environment Challenge

 

This is the latest challenge I have been working on, for the “Fiberactions” group. The Challenge word this time was “Environment”. Well this is my environment for about 2/3  of my year. SNOW!

I used Glow-in-the-dark thread & fabric to create the snow & snowflakes. Below is a picture I took under black light to show the detail of the Glow-in-the-dark parts.

This really was a fun project. Please check out the others at Fiberactions.