getting tickled

the feather quilting is progressing 

three of the feathers are quilted, just two more to go

I need to get another package of water soluble stabilizer before I can finish this --- which I plan to do today

errands to run today -- need to get moving!

another finished object

I really enjoy making these bracelets

this one is the fifth one, each one unique, using different colors, patterns, etc.

I did decide to go with the magnetic clasps on this one

listed it this morning in my Etsy store
 


while we were away from home there was a lot of time for us to talk about things (it's about 18 hours drive time from us to the area in California we were going to) --- one of the things that was decided on the road was that it is time for us to hire someone else to come and mow the large yard

yesterday afternoon I hired a young man to do that for us  --- he'll be here this afternoon to do the first mowing (and believe me, it's a jungle out there!) -- this will make things easier  for me every week -- hurrah!!

 

 

bead embroidery done and notes from the road

 the bead embroidery on the surface of this piece is finished 

because I did not have a color map when I started this piece, I was not sure what color would be the dominate one --- in the end there are about an equal number of spaces of each of the three colors

today I hope to get the backing on this and make a decision about the clasp -- in the past I've done these with a beaded toggle, but recently I had a customer ask me to replace that with a magnetic clasp, so now I'm trying to decide if I'll just do that on this one from the beginning

while we were out on the road I took a lot of landscape photos that I hope to use for future quilt projects

this little sketch, however, resulted from something I saw while it was my turn to drive --- a large RV built on a bus chassis with the mounted metal frame on the back end that you usually see ATVs or bikes on --- except this one was sporting a Smart Car!

you just never know what you will see out on the road

 

Back to artistic endeavors

I've begun the thread painting of the feathers on the peacock --- looking good!  

one complete and four to go

since I had finished the special order just before I left, I went back to this project yesterday 

the bead embroidery is moving right along

I might actually finish the front of this today

the DH spent some time doing creative things too

these are the tulips he made for my flower garden -- I love the bright cheerful colors


today we need to make our monthly Costco run, and I have a tub full of mail to sort through, but I hope to get back into the studio and get some work done later today
 

a little explanation

I realize that the last time I posted here was on Mother's Day

two weeks is a very long time for me to be away, so probably some sort of  explanation is in order

on the Monday after Mother's Day a long time friend of mine died of ovarian cancer -- we took off for California so we could be there for the funeral -- I was very glad that the week before I had called to talk with her

while we were in California, and not knowing when we would be again I took the opportunity to go and visit with my 90 year old aunt --- this experience teaching me that when I feel prompted to do something like that I should listen and do so

we got home yesterday, and I'm working on figuring out just what it was I was doing before we left -- which will take me a day or so -- at least

while I was away, my son-in-law took care of my dog, so we stopped at their house first

this was Mr Cute yesterday morning reading the automobile section of the Sunday paper -- so adorable!

just a reminder that my daughter is participating in a fundraising event for ovarian cancer awareness here in Colorado on Saturday, June 1

to those of you who have donated already, let me say thank you very much --- if you didn't see my first post about this, you can find the link to support her HERE
  
every dollar counts!

tomorrow I'll try to get back to talking about art here 

Happy Mother's Day

when my daughter was a little girl, every mother in the congregation was given a violet on Mother's Day during the Sunday service

my daughter sent me this photo to my cell phone with a text message that said "Happy Mother's Day"

it's my new cell phone wallpaper

now I'm sharing it with all of you

to all of you who are mothers or have ever cared for a child -- Happy Mother's Day!

mermaids and dragon flies

the "chain" pieces are all stitched

I finished that part yesterday afternoon 

they still need to be attached to the mermaid piece and I need to create the loop and toggle, but I'm pleased with the progress

I'm hoping that the charms that I have ordered arrive today so I can start on the fringing

the applique work on the dragon flies is done  

my attempt to create stitched and turned wings out of that iridescent fabric was a total failure, but I do have some ideas to try to create a second set of wings for the biggest one

I need to do some research on how to use some materials that I've had for a while and see if that works

 

yesterday afternoon I started doing the quilting of the peacock piece -- I had some concerns about the part of the tree branch that extends beyond the edge of the piece, but inserting an extra piece of stiff pelon between the batting and the backing combined with the quilting stitching did the trick --- this is pretty exciting as this is the first piece bigger than 12" by 12" that I'm actually machine quilting -- looking forward to getting back to it



off today to Denver for a Regional SAQA meeting --- and perhaps to do an errand in the same area (depending on how long the meeting goes)

time to get moving

odds and ends day

Last night was my local quilt guild meeting

we had a guest speaker that talked about the Modern Quilt movement and had some of her work to show us

these two quilts are pretty typical of the genre -- strong colors, clean graphics -- and they are usable objects, intended to be put on beds or laps or couches

it was interesting to hear her talk and to see her work

of course a guild meeting means a trip to the "put and take" table, and I brought home these pieces to put with some other fabrics to make up a couple more charity quilt tops

I worked on the mermaid piece yesterday, but since I'm only working on creating the chain, I don't have any pictures yet

also got the basting of the peacock done so I can start doing the quilting -- which I hope to get to today after the errands are done
 

I did this piece of the crocheted Christmas project on Wednesday -- sort of like making tiny little baby booties!

this is a fun project, and so far I'm still just trusting in the pattern writer that all of these disparate parts will all come together


today I need to run some errands and get ready for a meeting tomorrow, but I hope to get to the sewing machine to do some stitching on that quilt!

beginning again

when I ordered the mermaids, I got ten of them

a good thing

yesterday morning I sent the picture of the first version to my customer, and she felt that it was too dark for what she had in mind

okay then, let's try this one

which she has already given me the "thumbs up" on

so today I'll start on the "chain" parts

that first one will get finished and listed, but this one gets done first!

I have finished the swatching for the Christmas sweater project, and since I could not get the needles I need in a local shop, I have ordered them and they are on the way (I did the swatching on a pair of straight needles, but I need a long circular to do the actual project)

so while I'm waiting,  I started on another Christmas project that is crocheted

I know, it's odd looking, but I'm trusting to the designer that it will all work out in the end

this is a picture of my daughter and her Aunt Lori on my daughter's second birthday

on June 1 my daughter will be doing a 5K run for ovarian cancer awareness in Lori's honor

if you can spare a dollar or two, would you consider supporting my daughter?

the link to her page is  here

thanks so much -- it means a lot to all of us
 

doing the packing chant

the quilt show came down on Sunday afternoon, which meant that I had quilts that had to go back to their makers

yesterday I spent most of the morning sorting, packaging and getting this group all ready to go

there are quilts there, and a donation I'm making to a charity auction, a box of afghan squares that are going to Close Knit Hugs, and a stack of letters to the donors of last year's charity auction

all merrily on their way this morning!

after all that packing work, I worked on this

this is a special order for a customer, and it's coming along nicely

just need to add the fringe and it will be ready to go --- just a day or so to finish it

the dragon fly piece is moving along -- two stitched and one to go

cool!

time to get at it

Paperwork and packing up

the quilt show is all done -- yesterday afternoon we took all the quilts down

today I'll be packing up the ones that need to be mailed back to the artists

and there is paper work to be done too

just because I was actually working at this quilt show does not mean that I didn't have time to shop!

the top row of folded fabrics are the ones I picked up from one of my favorite vendors

the bottom row of rolled fabric  are some pieces that the DH picked up from another vendor while I was working

cool stuff!!  new fabric beckoning as a "reward" for getting the paper work done!!

 making those trips to Denver over the weekend did result in my finishing a couple of afghan squares

better get to that paper work!!

a shopping trip

ta da!

this is the fabric I picked out to use on the back of the peacock piece -- it is one of the coordinates for this year, but when I was picking fabric for the front of the piece it just didn't fit my design scheme, so I didn't really "see" it

it is perfect for the back -- and the facing -- and the sleeve

I hope to get to work on this piece on Monday

the bead order arrived yesterday!

so the purple/green/orange bracelet has been set aside so I can finish this piece for my customer

the bezel around the mermaid is done, one of the strips of right angle weave "chain" is ready to be "zipped" and I've started on the second strip

not bad for just one afternoon's work

probably not much will get done today -- I'm off to work my shift at the quilt show -- which should be fun -- more hob nobbing with the wizards!!

stitching along

the green pieces of this project are done now -- I think

as I said yesterday, I'm doing the color of this on the fly, so I may yet go back and put in more purple or more green, but for now I'm going to work with the oranges for a while

that order I'm waiting for hasn't arrived yet, so until it does I'll just keep working on this piece

last night I finished quilting this piece --- WHOOT WHOOT!!!

time to trim it and face it and get on to the embellishment

it's really exciting to reach this point after working on it for three years

the applique work on this piece has been done for a couple of weeks

I'm hoping today to get the fabric to use on the back of it so I can start on the quilting

the stitching on the dragon fly piece has begun

actually, this is attempt number two --- the fabric that I had originally wanted to use was just too thick and "ravelly" to use for such small pieces

all of this progress on these pieces means the printing of the pattern for the next quilt will probably be done sometime in the next few days 

lots of errands to get done today -- time to get to it

finished work, progress and a rough round trip

May 1 might seem like an odd time to be finishing up the knitting of a sweater, but it's still downright cold here (at least today), so it doesn't feel so odd to me

after completely removing the sleeves, ripping them out and re-knitting them, I can at last declare this item FINISHED!!

I'll start doing the swatching on the next project soon

 this piece is moving along nicely 

when I stitched the previous ones I had a very planned color map to work from

this one is being done "on the fly" which is interesting

the supply order for the new beads I ordered should be here today, so this one will probably get set aside while I make up the order for my customer -- it's keeping me hopping!

the weather yesterday was more like January than May -- except that in January we were having record high temperatures 

it made the 144 mile round trip to Denver a bit of  a pain 

there were times we could barely see the cars ahead of us

ick!



 

we did manage to get to the Denver Mart and get the majority of this weekend's show hung

there were a few artists that could not get their quilts to us, so those will get hung today (or whenever they can dig out and get there!)

today I'm not going anywhere --- need to recover!

I'll be back at the show this weekend though

A short update

from last Wednesday until Sunday I was off to hob nob with the other art quilt wizards -- in Santa Fe, NM

this photo was taken on Sunday as we were driving home -- and these shapes may end up in an art quilt in the future (not a bad picture taken from inside a moving car with a cell phone!)

while we were in Santa Fe I did a little bit of shopping between meetings

and some things (like the blue fabric and the spool of thread) were part of the conference activities

on Saturday we went into the shopping district downtown and I picked up some materials to make some more pieces of jewelry


I especially like that piece of quartz and amethyst crystal there on the far right side of the picture

and while I was gone, this piece, that I had been waiting on to make up a special order, actually arrived!  

so of course I needed to order some beads to finish that piece, which I did yesterday, but that means I still can't start on this project --- grrrrr!

on the other hand, it might be just as well -- today I'm headed off to Denver to hang an exhibit in a quilt show that will open tomorrow morning and run through Sunday afternoon, so I'll be in and out

and of course, since we'll be back on the roads today, and to celebrate May Day --- it's SNOWING in the Denver area -- ACK!!

time to get moving