Off to camp!

My flight to San Jose CA leaves at 6 AM tomorrow, and it takes about an hour to get to the airport from our new house. I am going to be one tired, but happy, puppy when I arrive there! I get to spend an entire week with my girlfriends, sewing, laughing and just generally being friends! I've already sent a project box ahead, and now I've got the suitcase packed with my Words project. There's still room for a few clothes, too. Of course, Clyde knows something is up!

I think the house we rent is right there on the coast where the white houses end. Do you see it?

Have fun while I'm gone - will be back on the 30th!

Yard work and quilting

I've been getting ready for my girlfriend retreat in Cambria, CA. I've gotten a pedicure, had my hair cut (decided to leave the gray alone), and I've even shaved my legs! GASP! I'm leaving Sunday, returning the following Sunday, and we'll be sewing and laughing the entire time.

I've gotten started on my Words project at least 3 times (and more in my head), and so far I haven't liked a single experiment I've tried. And the pressure is mounting to land on something that I like so I can work on it in Cambria, and have it ready to be submitted by the middle of April. Well, I hadn't found anything that I like that is, until this morning.

I know we get inspiration from the strangest places, but I have to tell you that this is my strangest one of all. Here's my story of how I got from A to Z.

Chapter 1
My first inspiration for the wavy words was from my bathroom rug. I like the rug:

I don't like the wavy words:


Chapter 2:
I have a "Hubby-do" list (as I'm sure many of you do) for while I'm gone. This is our first spring at our new house, and what we've discovered is that we have the worst of the worst CLAY dirt here. So much clay, I think we could sell it off for the stuff they use to line ponds with! At any rate, it wasn't draining off the house correctly, and I couldn't plant my old fashioned flower garden out my stewdio window, nor could our new vegetable garden get dry in order to till. So, Hubby rented a "cutter", and started in making french drains away from the house. All in all there is about 400' of drainage between all the lines. Here's Hubby with the new toy - Watch out, though, he is cutting through everything that isn't moving!


Illustrations:





Chapter 3
Arches
As I was documenting the work for posterity, it came to me how lovely that arch is in cut through the dirt. The water that immediately started running in the grade just emphasized the curve of it, and my brain ran away with me back to the stewdio to try out something. Ah, success, I think!

And the eye candy working in my garden (a local college boy) isn't too bad either!

Saturday Stitch Day

Today was our Stitch day with the Amazing Quilt Babes. We all worked on bits and pieces of UFOs. I worked on bindings. Shirlee worked on her next applique project, and Vicky worked on the Bunny Hill BOM brought her Simple Gifts (the one with the flowers and insects), and her Bubbles and Pinwheels. Aren't they beautiful?

Carol brought her Roses and Chocolate for me to look at to figure out the construction. I love these colors!

And the last picture? Well, that's my first cut through for my Measured Words. I don't think it's going to be like that....


Make a Smilebox slideshow

She's Happy!

Dana stopped by after work to retrieve the memory quilt made from her mother's blouses, jackets, blouses and t-shirts tonight. I'm so happy that SHE'S happy! One last photo of it with her before it leaves my stewdio.

Saturday is a stitch day here at the house with the Amazing Quilt Babes (minus one). We will be doing our own thing with UFO's, and I plan on working on bindings. I also have a plan of attack for my next art piece Measured Words. I might even get around to starting some cutting for that. Stay tuned!

Bonsai Complete

Bonsai is now completed and has been shown to the client (who cried). If you'd like to see a close-up of the beading and quilting, you can double click on the pictures. It is constructed of batik, thai silk, vintage kimono and yukata fabrics, fabric mat (fabricated), hand beaded with pearl seed beads, swarovski crystals, and hand quilted. It is about 30" wide by about 42" tall (estimates). My personal "chop" is located on the lower left side in red/white silk.

Time for a change of pace

I've finished the beading on the Bonsai finally, but I won't post it until next week. It took me a while to decide that it was actually finished - no more beading, no more embellishments and what kind of edge finishing I would do for it. The client gets to see it Thursday, and I want her to get the full scope of it in person, rather than on the blog. I will show it at Guild tomorrow though.

Today, I spent quite a bit of time unpacking and organizing my stash, tools and supplies. At our other big house (2.5 times as large as this one), I had a lot more space, with cabinets build in for my stash. Now, I am not complaining - no siree! Hubby was so sweet and built some shelving for me, and is just about finished with it. Here's a few pictures of what it looks like.

The picture below will be my fabric work counter. This is where I will pull fabrics for a project, then put the tubs away. Of course, I still have more fabric to put away; I just tucked the extra stuff under the counter to make some room!

This is the "L" side of the area from the picture above. A lighting fixture will be added in this area, too.
This is my wet area to play. The sink and counter tops were recycled from the kitchen upstairs, because I wanted Corian counters with an embedded sink. So, now, I have a place to dye and paint and silkscreen without worrying about the mess inside the house. I plan on putting curtains in front of the open shelving later.

To the right of the "cubby" area of the first two pictures, is this unit. It goes all the way to the ceiling, and I will be able to store batting on the very top most shelf. I sort of rushed it by putting the tubs onto the shelves before he had the bracing on. I don't think he knew just how heavy fabric can be!
And of course, what would be a post without a picture of my helper? Here's Clyde making sure that the latest quilt I put on the guest bed for my BIL's visit is just right!

Do you have the key?

Maybe I dreamed it. Maybe I thought it. I have no idea. What I do know is that I don't have a picture of it. Has anyone seen something like this:

A quilt that has a "picture" hole in it where there are quilted raw edge flaps folded back (and sometimes buttoned back). Where the flaps would have been (if left in place) is yet another quilted "picture" within. Some of them were straight edged (cut like and X) and some were curvy shaped.

I might have seen several of these small art quilts when I went to the Minnesota Quilt Guild's show last year in Rochester, MN. I didn't have my camera with me then, and that might be why I don't have pictures.

I'm looking for the technique to do this. I think I have something figured out, but if I could find a picture of one, or the actual instructions of how to do this, it would be great.

Anyone?

Where to now?

Hot irons, hot fusibles and hot mama! First phase under construction...

Duct Tape???

I am just fascinated by the way we learn things.

Language in and of itself is just wonderful, isn't it? The reason I am talking about that here today is because I am working (in my mind) on my next "art" piece for the Kansas Art Quilters group. The theme is My World, and I've narrowed and narrowed and narrowed down my ideas to this: words.

I love to read; I love to hear different languages; I love the play on words. Words soothe me; words inspire me; words transport me; words lead me to new and different things.

Just this morning, I was Googling my thoughts to see if I could expand them further, and what did I find but this funny little video on YouTube.

Now, what in the world does this have to do with words? Nothing - nothing at all! Except that the way I found it was a string of words meaningful only to me - my own language of sorts: much like diagramming a sentence in the English language did for our English teacher. Does anyone remember doing that? Did I just age myself? LOL!

Now, just in case you are wondering. I have always wanted a dress form, but since I don't make clothes, what good would it do me? And do I really want to see a replicated form of my body sitting in my stewdio? LOL! But for those of you who do, that video is just the ticket!

At any rate, words are what I live by - and I'll bet you do too!

Sew it's done!

Here's the finished baby quilt center for Deb's Pregnancy Project mentioned in the last post. I decided I would send the fabric for the borders and the backing and let her finish it to the size she'd like.

Now, I need to pick up all the pieces on the floor, run the vacuum, sort the scrap tub and begin all over again. My stewdio is starting to fold me into it, so I guess it's time, eh?

Next on the list is to sketch out my design for My World. An art quilt piece that I need to get finished by April 17. Actually, well before that so I can quilt it, and get photos taken for submission. I belong to the Kansas Art Quilters organization and this is our annual submission that will travel about the country for two years. The hardest part of this particular project for me is that I need fabric that has writing on it, or numbers or letters or hieroglyphs - and I can't just print it off, or write it myself. I'd like to have the various types of prints and colors in manufactured fabrics. I have some in my storage tubs, but I'm sure it will require a collecting venture as well. Anyone want to contribute some strips? I think I might even use some selvage edges that have writing as long as they have 1/4" seam allowance.

The next thing after that is to get some projects together for my Cambria retreat with my girlfriends in March. So far, I have some fabrics cut for one of them - French Roses. I need to cut at least another 26 squares, and probably more. I know that I'll find the fabric I need for THAT project as I clean up the scrap basket and the stewdio, so off I go! I sure hope the mess in the stewdio doesn't get me bogged down, and I can't escape!

Just a little something

I've been pretty busy lately, but I can't tell you or show you what I've been doing. Instead, I'll show you a little project that I'm working on for Debra's Pregnancy Project. This is in exchange for some embroidery work she is doing for me.

I am using the X-Block template for this, and it's going pretty darned fast! Too fast, actually. If I would have stopped and read the instructions when I started this so long ago, I would have realized that the nine patch blocks I made weren't sewn in the correct order. Leave it to me to make it far more complicated than it needed to be!

I am certain no one else does this but me, right?

First, I made the green ones, then I reverse-cut the purple ones. Then I gave up, put them in a box, and moved on with something else. So, yes, I know they would have been better all one color or the other, but I have so many of them made....and her project really needs another baby quilt, so off it will go this weekend!

Happy Valentine's Day

I hope you all have a loverly Valentine's Day!

Hubby Honey has already showered me with my favorite flowers and he has a special date for dinner at Le Fou Frog and an evening with the Czech Orchestra planned for Sunday.

What good be better than that?

And sew it goes

So, today I am straightening the stewdio, working on bits and pieces here and there. I've got sofa pillows to make smaller, a cat bed that needs mending and a couple of new projects to plan. Between the rain, the snow flurries, the 70 degree days turning to 70mph winds and dismal skies, I've not managed to do much of anything. Or so it seems.

These are the fabrics for my next 5 projects. Yes, I said 5 projects. You see, I am going to go to Cambria, CA in March with 4 of my best quilting buddies for a private retreat (like last year). So what are these projects? Uh uh - not going to tell. You'll just have to wait and see what they are next month!

And this little nine inch block is quite a beauty. One of my stitch friends has been working on these for the last year. They are from a LQS BOM. They will make an absolutely stunning quilt when all completed!

Quilts and updates

So many of you have asked me what I am reading now days, and or to give them a good book recommendation, that I thought I would add a new little widget on my sidebar for you! I've joined Goodreads where I am tracking the books I've read, the books I am reading, and the books I want to read. Thanks to Ms. Jan, this is a great way to track them all quite handily. Now, you can see at least four pages of my highest rated books that I've been reading right from my blog.

Now, for the quilts!

This is the finished quilt top that I was commissioned to make out of "grandma's clothes." This picture is before quilting.


Here's is a surprise cuddle quilt for a friend of mine that an on-line group made for her (before quilting). It's made of all civil war fabrics, which she loves. I got to set it together, take it to the quilter, and bind it. The pattern is quite pretty, called Carolyn's Stars and can be found on quilterscache.com


She received it Saturday after I picked it up from the quilter. You can also see Shirlee's 2006 Birds of a Feather quilt hanging on the wall behind my friend looking at her quilt.

More beads and Bonsai

I've been busy beading the Bonsai lately (sounds like a new dance, doesn't it?) and I've made some great progress. Last night I got all but three lines done on the background. So far, I've spent about 60 hours all told on the pearly background parts.

So many people tell me they couldn't do this type of work. But here's my secret: I either have a 12 pound cat sitting ON the work or under it - and she makes me smile!

Next I have to get the rest of the embellishments in the leaves and make sure all the three dimensional parts are secured. Then I'll be back to quilting on the borders. I've inked the kanji script label onto Habotai silk and it will be attached on the front left lower border, backed with Thai silk and more of the cream vintage kimono. Think how a label on a man's suit is attached on one of the sleeves....

You can double click this picture to see a closer view of the beads and the designs in the silk kimono piece.