another week has flown by!

the garage workshop has been very busy!

our daughter asked her dad to put this Ikea chest together for her

what she got was not only a chest put together, but one with a nice stain, several coats of sealer and a wax job on top

lovely!

and that's not all he's been up to

he built these two "park benches" for me so I can display my doll and bear collection on the ledge in our living room

I hope to get those installed in the next couple of days

meantime, I've been working on projects too

the beading is coming along on this -- stitching down bugles in concentric circles is pretty time consuming, but this piece does not have a time deadline, and that stitching has a sort of meditating quality that is good at the end of a long day

another shed door is done!

there is still one thing I'm going to do to this -- ink the edge so the white batting doesn't make that white halo around the edges

one more little design change got made here, but I'm now happy with it and ready to get serious about the quilting

but to do that quilting I needed a specific color and type of thread

which I found at the quilt show that was held right here in my home town on Friday

of course I also did a bit of shopping for another project that I'm working on (and can't show you pictures of yet!)

yesterday our SAQA region hosted a workshop by a local (awesome!) artist who did a workshop on hanging textiles in dimensional ways

I volunteered to take one of my pieces to be experimented with

what an amazing impact hanging this piece that way had -- WOW!

made me think about doing something like this for a future piece too

putting the rubber where my mouth is

I know, it sounds like a really mixed metaphor --

last year at this time my friend, Barbara Beasley, was part of an open studio with Heidi Kummli

at the time I was still living at the other end of the state, and making that trip just was not in the cards, and I did a lot of moaning about not getting to go

this year was a whole different story -- I had no such excuse -- and it was a huge adventure!

you see, Heidi lives off the grid -- up in the mountains on a dirt road that Google Maps doesn't even recognize exists

and I'm a city girl -- yes, I grew up in Colorado, but I didn't go off driving the hills on my own, and then I spent a lot of years driving in freeway traffic -- a whole other kind of scary

so the drive there was one of the more nerve racking I can remember --- but the open studio was awesome!

I got to spend a lot of time talking to Heidi, one of the bead embroidery artists that got me started doing that work as well as enjoying conversation with Barbara and other folks that had made the trek up the mountain

and I came home with some goodies from Heidi's stash, a new book, and 60 photographs of the leaves turning gold here in our mountains -- and those photos will no doubt result in a number of new art quilts

it was great to go and "fill the well" creatively after a week that had included

putting up tomatoes from my daughter's garden

finishing another shed door piece

(and entering 3 of those shed doors in a quilt show that will be held in October)

completed the inking of the ghosts on this piece, so now it is ready to be quilted!

did more work on the Halloween costume for Mr Cute -- and had him here for a "fitting" which he was very excited about

worked on the piece of jewelry that is currently in process --- several of the items that came home with me from the open studios will be used in this piece

 last night I went to one of my art group meetings and was treated to this amazing sunset outside the windows as the meeting was going on

and had another friend drop this little bundle of goodies into my bag during that meeting

WOW

it's been a great week!

lock obsessed?

I've been working on this series of small art quilts for over a year now, and it finally feels like I may actually get them all done

I'm soon going to have to actually put sleeves on each of them

and I'm thinking about entering three of the finished ones in my local quilt guild's show

so which three of these five should it be?

or maybe I'll get another one or two finished before the deadline!

this week I spent some time working on how I want the ghosts on this piece arranged

the paper layout works well for this purpose, and it will protect the fabric underneath while I am applying the paint to the silk overlay

progress being made on the sewing project -- the costume shop is working steadily along!

and I'm doing a little beading work too

this one has already been through several "re-design" stages -- we'll get it right eventually!

Labor Day Weekend is for laboring.....

or so it would seem

hard to believe that this time last year I was painting rooms in a house we no longer live in

this year's painting project was to paint the front porch and the trim around the back door -- both of which were showing a little weathering, and I wanted to get them protected before the bad weather sets in

we've been hauling in more boxes this weekend too -- I'm getting close to being able to park in the garage again!

some of what we hauled in this week has made it's way into the places it will be -- like this bookcase, that fits perfectly in the space there next to the closet -- nice to have someplace to put a few more books!

when we moved here, I joined the local quilt guild

next month we have a show and boutique, and they were still looking for folks to put together banners when I was at the last meeting

this was something low stress, quick and fun

I finished the quilting on the test piece

and I have decided that I will be doing this big piece with just the line drawings -- no color -- because I feel that gives the best "ghostly" impression

this week I hope to get back to working on this piece

the quilting on this shed door is now complete -- and in the end I added some additional inking below the latch on this one because it needed the look of more depth

the next thing to do is finish the edges

which I will be finishing the way I did this one!

it was suggested to me that because the whole look of these was weathered and rustic that having an irregular edge would be in character to the piece

and I agree

this was a whole new thing for me to try -- and I'm really pleased with it

and the last of the pumpkin pieces for the ArtWalk show I'm doing this month is complete

I don't have another beading project started, or even planned right now, but I'm sure I'll come up with something soon

I do have this project in the works, however

Mr Cute wants to be a Ninja Turtle for Halloween, so we've started working on a costume --

the pattern calls for this to be made out of felt -- gramma thinks corduroy is more interesting, and a little fabric paint more interesting still -- and yesterday his mama brought me some glow in the dark paint to add to this -- a really good thing for the evening of Trick of Treating!

something different and fun

we'll see how much work we get done this week!