yesterday's accomplishments.....

These two pieces are now complete. I have also completed half of the "chain" for the pink shell piece, so we are on target to getting all 4 of them done for next weekend's show.

I need to lay out several of my heart bracelets too, might get to those today after the yard work is done.

Began work on the first of the cars for the car quilt....I am truly amazed at how well it is going together.....one of those "did I do that?" moments.

Got the machine stitching of the binding on the cat quilt done, now its on to the blind stitching on the top side.

time to get moving

under the heading "what I did in the car"

It takes a while to drive from our house to Dallas, so I had quite a bit of time to working on things!

These are the four afghan blocks that I was able to get done while we were gone.

I also had finished quilting 3 1/2 sides of the borders for the cat quilt. I finished the last side last night, so today I will start putting on the binding. Another project nearing completion!!

Lots of things to do today, a lot of data entry for my accounting client, some lawn work, finishing the first of the magazine articles.....time to work!!

and a good show was had by all.....

at least by all of us!

Consider that we had no customer base in Dallas to send out our usual mailings to, and we did VERY well.



Here is a picture of our table set up....yes, we did forget to put one thing in the van....the poles for the lights, so we had to make do with the "ambient" lighting, which wasn't all that great, but I've been in worse ones. (next time we'll remember as one of my "to do" list items is to revise our packing list into 2 lists, one for indoor shows and one for outdoor ones, which should help)

Our birds were hot sellers....both miniature dodos, the new flamingo and the toucan flew off to new homes!

We did observe that we were the only "on the edge" artists in the group, all of the other pieces were very traditional teddy bears of various sizes and states of dress, so we really were surprised after seeing the set up that we did so well.

In addition to the pieces that we sold, we came home with a commission to make a horse for a customer, so that will be our next "engineering" challenge.

I don't take jewelry to this kind of show, but I do usually wear a piece of my own stuff. This show I was wearing the newest one (Solar Power), and gathered a lot of compliments. I may actually get a jewelry commission as well since there was a woman there that may want me to build a piece of jewelry around a stone she already has...that would be fun too.

After a long conversation with the promoter, who also is the Editor in Chief of an online magazine, I came home with writing assignments for 3 articles and a request for another set of paperdolls.....

yes, on the whole, this was a very good show!

from deep in the heart of Texas.....

ok, I'm officially an old fart! We travelled today from our house to Dallas/Fort Worth (actually Irving) Texas for a bear show that is tomorrow.

First off, let me say that I can't make heads or tails of the way Texas marks things...you have things that are called US highways, which I get (say highway 35), then there are the county roads, which I also get, but what do you make of something called F.M. 7029? and there doesn't seem to be any order (you know, small numbers to large numbers east to west or vice versa) to these either, they are just randomly assigned as far as I can tell.

Then there is the issue of highway exits....there are 7029 FMs, but when it comes to streets in a city, the exits aren't numbered so you can't even tell if you're headed the right way.

Needless to say, it was interesting.....from the time we hit Dallas until we found our motel was an hour.....not helped by the fact that the address of the hotel (according to google maps, mapquest and AAA) doesn't even exist! We finally got here by way of persistant cell phoning....I'd call the motel, tell him where we were and he'd give me a set of instructions, then I'd call him back and get another set....

I offically don't want to go anywhere without good google maps again....the AAA TripTik has too much information where you don't need it and not enough where you do!

The fun side of all this? I can report that the research continues, and the Texas racoons don't blow up on impact either......(those of you that have been reading this blog since early May know about this, my apologies to the rest of you!)

I can also report that I have one and 1/2 afghan blocks done on this trip so far and 1/4 of the border of the cat quilt quilted.....now that's progress!!

Time to go unwind a bit so I can sleep....we'll have to be up at 5:30 a.m. to go set up!

the bears are all done!

Yes, we actually managed to finish all of those "on again, off again, on again" projects for this weekend's show, and today we will be packing up the tubs for the trip.

Here are the new "babies":

This is Peaches...

...note she has her little caterpiller friend with her






And this is the DH's second bear

cute little face I think.....

notice that she's going quite cross eyed trying to follow that butterfly!




and this is my very first open mouthed bear!

This is Bearry.....note she looks like she's been eating a lot of those berries!!




I have been busy on other projects too....have finished the edge work on 3 of the 4 stone pieces (still have to do the necklaces on those).

I'm now down to quilting the border of the Cat quilt, and I have done the prep work on 6 of the 12 cars for the car quilt.

Also started another afgan square (Christmas colors!) that is about 1/4 of the way finished.

Have spent several frustrated hours trying to figure out how to be able to access my client's accounting software from my computer and finally decided its not how the softwar is set up, its how the "network" is set up....and I may well be in over my head here as I know how to use the hardware, but not how to set it up!! We will probably have to spend some time on the phone with the software vendor to get this all figured out.....ARRGGGHHHH!! Meantime, hours and hours of input is waiting and I can't do much with it from here, so I will probably have to go spend some time in the shop as soon as we return from Texas.....NUTS!!

well, those tubs aren't going to pack themselves, so I better get to it!

Another square complete......

We had to make a trip to Denver for Costco shopping, so I was able to get another square finished.

Nice cables!

Anyway, it goes off to an assembler today.


Yesterday afternoon I finished another bear. I have 2 more to finish before we leave, but both of them are very close, so I should be able to get it done.

Pictures of those (hopefully) in the next couple of days.

Meantime I'm putting in lots of time creating a new photo flip album for the bear show....found a cute metal standup photo frame at the local discount place, and it has space inside for 50 photos. The front cover is a cute little teddy bear (it was meant for a baby's room or a grandma brag book), so it seems perfect to go on a teddy bear table! I got 20 photo pages done yesterday, but still have quite a few to print today.

Time to get to it!

Birds of 3, leave them be?

Such might be the appropriate caption for this mean looking bunch!

These are the first of the totally completed critters for our upcoming show.....our dodos have been a big hit at past shows, so we're hoping they do well in Dallas where folks have never seen our stuff.

I have 3 bears that I'm working on still, and all of them are now at the face, feet and accessorize stage, so we're doing pretty well.




I did get this 4th piece of stone done.

I'm doing this is a different style than the others (you know, I get bored doing the same thing....its a character flaw I guess).

The bigger beads at the bottom are all 4mm malachite.

Right now all 4 of the stone pieces are being glued to the backing so I can do the edges next.

And of course I've already started working on yet another piece that involves size 11 delicas, nylon cord and large wood beads.....the first attempt on that one was dubed a failure, so we have moved on to phase II....success to be determined

I have finished all of the background of the car quilt and last night started with the applique that goes over it.....this morning I printed out the base pictures that I need to convert into patterns for the rest of the appliques.....here is where I get really challenged being able to manage all those little curves and angles

I'm working on the last block of the cat quilt, then on to the borders!!

Have lots of other paperwork to get done too, so I need to get busy!

under the catagory of "I can't do one thing at a time"

even tho' I spent most of yesterday afternoon madly stuffing animals, I did manage to also get another stone piece encircled with beads.



The center stone is unikite jasper (some collectors call it "spinach on a brick" because some pieces look like those two colors), and this is a very light, pretty piece.

To me some of the pink areas in the stone look like roses.

Unlike the two pieces of shell, I decided to make this one a bit more elaborate, so I have encircled it with a row of 4 mm unikite jasper beads too.....mmmmmmm, nice!

So, now I have only more stone piece to work on, and I actually started it last night too.....

I also worked on quilts and knitting yesterday, so on the whole I was pretty productive (oh yes, 4 loads of laundry!)

For those of you who know our little family, you might want to check out my other blog for an important announcement about next August!

time to get working

We're going to Dallas.....

yup, its official, we've been accepted in a Bear Show in Dallas, TX. So, I now have less than 2 full weeks to get all those critters done.

Poor things, they've been on again off again for a while here....first we were working gungho because we were gearing up for a show the second week end of October [yeah! work on critters ;^)]...then we were told the show was cancelled [boo! put critters on back burner :^( ]....now the show is the FIRST week end of October {ACK!! can I get all these critters done? =:^O }

So, I got 3 dodos stuffed yesterday, and did the head of the newest design....since I like the way the head turned out, I'll now finish stuffing the rest of it. There's one more waiting for joints too....

ARRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!

rocks in our heads?

Well, maybe!

These are the pieces of stone that I got for projects at the Gem Show (the DH got quite a few of his own for projects too!) So, this is what these are (as they appear in rows from left to right):


Jasper, Jasper, Charolite (a Russian stone), Agate


Sea Jasper, Tiger Eye, Pink Quartz, Jasper


Ammonite (petrified chambered nautalus); Ocean Jasper; Primavera


Lapis; Goldstone; Labradorite; Goldstone

And these are:

Lapis; Tiger Eye; Jasper

And a lot of variations of Agate




Here's a picture of the latest afghan block that I have completed and its on its way to an assembler.

I've started the next one which is peach colored cables and is about 1/3 done.

We have been invited to apply for a show that would be a replacement for the one that was cancelled, so we're hoping that weekend will be taken care of.

off to work I go......

and our fame spreads?

A while back I sold some of my pieces to a local bead store.

Yesterday, when we were looking through a local ad, this ad was in there.

Note the pink heart piece and the red oval piece on the white display pieces. Yup, that's my work!

I hope it draws her some business so she needs to get more stuff from me.


We went to the Gem Show yesterday and bought WAY more stuff than I thought we would, but we found some great things. It will probably take us quite a bit of this morning to get it all recorded and labeled. Yummmmy, nothing quite like the feel of brand new stones to work with!!

Some of what I was looking for was not available at the show, so I will be putting in a couple of orders for glass beads -- after all I have all these new projects to work on!!

a shopping trip....

is what we'll be doing today.

The Gem Show is going on in Denver this weekend, and its my preference to go on Thursday or Friday when it is less crowded. So, today is our day.

These are alway interesting trips. We start off with a list of what we are looking for, but sometimes we find something totally unexpected. For most of my big pieces I like to actually handle the piece of stone before I buy it since I use such big pieces, and this is the best place for me to do that.

So, an adventure to find new inspiration today!



Got the first of the beading done around the blue shell now. It too looks really good!

One of the things I will be looking for at the Gem Show today is the beads I use for the core of the necklaces on these.

I started a new project last night too.....using some nylon cord and some 16mm and 20mm wood beads as the core of a bracelet....it looks pretty cool, and I sense a whole new set of items to be made!!

Time to get going

disappointment.....

we were notified yesterday that the big show we had been gearing up for the first weekend in October has been cancelled by the promoters.

We are majorly bummed out, as this was the only show between now and next April that is a good venue for our animals and we were looking forward to getting some response to the new pieces we have been busy creating.

NUTS!

However, feeling that there must be some show out there that we can do before Oct 28, I fired off an email to another promoter to see if she has any open spaces in her shows. We'll see.


The initial beading on the pink shell piece is done. I'm now ready to put on the backing and do the chain.

I probably will go ahead and do all of this stage on the other 3 pieces before I move on to the next step tho'

time to get moving

Its finally done.....

It seemed like it was going to take forever to get the edge done all around it, but I finally got it done yesterday.



Here's a very nice close up that gives you a better view of the sun's face, and notice earth just above it on the left hand side. A lovely blue planet made of an 8mm lapis bead.



I confess that this doesn't look exactly like what I had originally seen in my mind, but I do like the way it came out.







Now this is the inside of the dark dodo I have been working on.....I didn't notice until I was "tweeking" the picture to format for blogging that I had forgotten to turn him right side to....oh well, all that will happen when I stuff him.


Yesterday afternooon I got 3 more animals cut out and pinned so I can do some of the work on the sewing machine. Since all three of them are light colors (one white dodo, one pink flamingo and one peach colored bear), I figure I can use the same light neutral thread and do a little production work to get these on the road.

The slash patches have been installed in the car quilt, and the bottom grass stitched in, now there is just the long strip of sand looking stuff to put at the very bottom. I should be able to do that while I'm whipping those animals together.

Monday is almost always laundry day at my house, so I'm 2 loads in to what looks like about 5....a bit more than usual, but I have this interesting laundry equation going on:

rainy weather + large labrador + light colored quilt on bed = extra laundry

time to get busy

New work.....

True confessions time.....when I don't feel well I have a hard time concentrating on any one project.

Its probably nothing short of a miracle that I've gotten anything done the last two days, as I've had this yucky, achy, low grade fever thing going on.

Last night we slept in our recliners in the family room (I fell asleep about 9:30 and the DH just let me sleep.....Nice guy!! Anyway, this morning I feel somewhat better -- YEAH!



These are the 4 oval pieces that I hope to get finished before our first jewelry show in October (which is about the middle of the month) These pieces are (clockwise from the top left: blue puau, unikite jasper, pink puau and bulls eye malachite) The bead order arrived, so I now have the necessary beads to get these done.

Along with the beads came some findings for the DH to put some facetted stones in. He got 5 necklaces done!! Nice stuff, ruby and pink sapphire in gold fill settings, amethyst and ruby in sterling silver....very pretty.

I worked on both quilts some yesterday. The Cat quilt has 4 blocks and the border left to quilt, then the binding goes on.

The Car quilt is making me crazy. I have now decided that I should have started in the middle, not at the top! I spread it out on the bed and discovered that I will have to slash and insert pieces in several spots to get it to lay flat. NUTS!! (yes, its driving me there!!) All lessons learned to be put to work in the next one tho'. Once I get that slash & insert part done I still need to finish the highway strip at the bottom then add the grass and sand pieces at the bottom edge. I tried working on the highway last night, but its black and I was just too blurry last night...maybe today in the sunlight!

I didn't work on any animals yesterday either.

The beads around the Solar piece are half done. With luck this piece will be totally complete by Monday, then its on to the ovals.

One thing I can do when I'm semi coherent....KNIT! I have my latest Squares4Survivors block about half done.

Oh yes, the new van (we're calling her 'Streak' -- as in Silver Streak) now has cruise control so we can be safe driving her on the highway.....she moves so well that it would be way too easy to find ourselves going 90 in a 55 zone, which is a really BAD thing!!

So, now I'm going to try to actually accomplish something today.

another piece.....

And this is the underside that goes with the pieces from the past postings "What is it?"

It took 2 attempts to get this right, and now I'm having similar issues with the upper parts, but I'm sure it will all come together.



Have completed the lining in my daughter's coat....looks wonderful!!

Worked on the dodo birds yesterday, have the darkwing's body almost all stitched.

Had to take the new van over to get the cruise control installed this morning, so my schedule is really messed up!!

Time to get to work

What is it part II.....

Ok,since no one was brave enough to venture a guess about the first What Is It picture, I'm posting this one as the progress made shot.

So, here's the question again.....What are they?

Have been working on a new lining for my daughter's winter coat (its been cool enough for a jacket in the early morning, so winter's coming). Its a very nice long black wool coat that had a very boring black lining in it, but as usual after two years of wear, the lining gets a little tattered, and she brings it home for relining. The new lining is much more interesting -- BRIGHT RED!! This morning I got the lining all stitched together, so this evening I will begin pinning and hand stitching it into the coat. This coat was very well made and of good material, so its worth the effort as it has at least 2 more years of wear in it.

Got the solar piece and its backing all cut out, so now I can do the edging and the clasp.

We made a supplies order over the weekend, so new beads should arrive soon for the new pieces I want to work on....I have two pieces of shell (one blue, one pink, both look like oil on water); a piece of unikite jasper (spinach on a brick!) and a really nice piece of bullseye malachite to do small pendants with. These usually work up in an evening, so I should be able to knock those out in a week (fully finished) once the supplies get here.

I laid out several more critters yesterday afternoon. Now I have 3 dodos, a flamingo and 2 bears in process besides the mystery project from the picture above.

Quilting is coming along too!

Time to get back to it!!

Is it a planet?

And while the "scientests" are arguing over rather Pluto is a planet (or by one definition if even Earth is!), I have finished the beading on the Solar Power piece.

I think it looks pretty good.

Now its on to the backing, embellishing, etc.


Meantime, I'm working on animals since our next show is animals only.

So I have the following items in process:

1. Fern the Flamingo -- just begun, the legs have been shaped and the other materials gathered

2. Darcie the Dodo -- one is ready to be stuffed and finished, the other is waiting for me to lay out the pattern.

3. Darkwing Dodo -- this one is waiting for lay out too

4. New Open Mouth Bear -- all stitched, turned and jointed, waiting for me to stuff and finish

I'm also working on a contest entry for a contest titled "Things That Go Bump In The Night"

And today's requirement is to finish the paperdolls and get them mailed off to the magazine editor.

I probably need to get off the computer and get busy!

Today's "what is it?"

We have begun a new project.

Today's question: what are these objects?






And on another note:



We now have "wheels"!

These are pictures of our new vehicle to get to shows (and other places) in.

It is a 2002 Ford Windstar, FWD (yippee!), 3.8L V6 engine. It goes back to the dealer on Wednesday for the cruise control to be installed (a MUST HAVE -- otherwise "smoky" lives in the back!)

Ok, I'm really glad we're done looking, and now we start figuring out how we load this one. It is big enough that if we're doing a show where we only have to take a box of lights and a box of plush, we could sleep in the back of it for one night.

Ok, now its time for me to get some work done!!

progress?

Finally got some time to work on this piece last night.

On the left side I have completed most of the blue and will move on to the greys and blacks next.

Still have blues to do on the right side.

Decided that I need to add the "astroid belt", but I'm going to do that by using size 15 beads (WAY little!) like "dust" over the top after the other beading is done.

I'm still trying to come up with a workable pattern for the sun rays that I want to add, but so far I'm just not happy with what it looks like. Probably will end up just pouring out some beads and trying a couple of different things before I finally get something that will work.


Got the track attached to the in field for the car quilt and have now pinned the top section with the road, mountains, etc., to the top of the track for the next stitching.

We were again out looking at vehicles yesterday, and will be again today....I'll be glad when this process is over, but its really important that we get it right since we'll have to deal with the decision every time we load up for a show!

working slowly

This is the latest afghan square to be donated to Squares4Survivors.

This one actually got knit twice. I started with the blue and had about 2/3 of it done before I realized that there wasn't enough blue to finish it.

So, instead of adding the white at the end which would YELL "I didn't plan this very well!", I frogged it back and reknit it in thirds so that it looks like its supposed to be that way....much better!

Today its going off to North Carolina to the lady that's doing the next afghan assembly, and I get to scrounge about in my yarn stash to find the next yarns to work with.

(Can you tell I've spent a bit of time in the car the last few days, that's the only time I work on these!)


We've been out looking for a vehicle to buy. Since ours blew up in April it seems that we've had to clear a lot of hurdles to get to this stage, but at least I can say that it has been completely researched! Yesterday we were in and out of about a dozen vans of various brands, as well as a couple of SUVs. The verdict is that a van would be a much better fit! We hope to have this process over with soon.

The solar power piece is being worked on, I'm now into the blue sections on each side. If I actually get some time to work on it, it should go pretty fast. I'm hoping to have the beading done by Monday evening. There are a number of other beaded pieces I want to get to, and I need to do some more basic pieces to add to the inventory before we get into the fall show schedule (I sold a number of those pieces in St Joseph, so I need to replenish the stock).

I now have 7 blocks of the Cat Quilt complete. Got some of this done yesterday while I was sitting with my mom and sister while my dad had a medical procedure done...he's doing fine.

The Car Quilt is my current frustration. I pieced the brick track and I have the "infield" section pieced, but I haven't been able to get the two to match up for connecting. I'm going to have to spread out both pieces on the dining room table and work out the issues and make whatever adjustments are needed.

Only problem is right now the dining room table is covered with display pieces that need to be cleaned/glued/etc., after their little journey through the damp at our last show. {sigh!} I guess there's no avoiding this project if I want to get to that quilt.

Last night I made the leap again of entering a short writing piece in an on line contest. If you'd like to see what I wrote, go here:

http://clarityofnight.blogspot.com/2006/08/entry-99.html

Its kind of fun to share my writing with other people!

Anyway, I've got lots of things to do today, so I guess I better get busy!

afghan squares, ribbons and progress

This is my first square for the group that makes afghans for survivors of Katryna...I sent it off today to the lady that is putting together the current afghan.

I hope when she gets it that it will work in the plan she has!








This is the ribbon that we won in St Joseph last weekend.


We're pretty proud of it.


Things are returning to normal here, and I'm getting back to working on projects.





This is the progress made on the Solar Power piece. All of the purple is done, and on the right side I've started with the pale blue beads.

Worked on the Car Quilt today....finally finished the design of the center block with the trophy, got it all drawn onto the freezer paper and ironed onto the fabrics. Tomorrow I hope to get started on the stitching.

Have now completed the quilting of 5 blocks on the Cat Quilt.

hats and scissors

Yesterday was a big day.....the guy that does scissors sharpening was at our local fabric store, so I took in 4 pair to have them done. So exciting to have some of our most important tools in really good working order again.




While in the fabric store waiting for the sharpening to be done, I picked up some patterns (at the price of commercial patterns now days -- I can actually remember paying only 25 cents for one -- ok, I'm OLD!), its always nice to stock up on usable ones when they are on sale. This brand was on sale for 99 cents, so now there are a whole variety to use (after reducing) on future bears. I especially like the ones with roses and feathers, so watch for one of those to show up on a new bear soon!

Travel Log -- St Joe show

Wednesday, travel day #1

After spending the morning packing the car and working on other work and household stuff, we set off to our daughter's house to spend the evening.

We had originally intended to stop by and visit with my folks, but on our way through Denver we got caught in 3 different traffic jams, and it ended up taking almost 5 hours to go a distance that normally would take 2 1/2.....not a particularly great start.

Once at our daughter's we had dinner and visited for a while before going to bed about 10 pm.



Thursday, travel day #2


We managed to sneak out of our daughter's house without disturbing her and the dogs and headed out about 5 am.

Drove most of the day, across Nebraska, through about 6 miles of Iowa and into Missouri, arriving in St. Joseph about 4....we had time to drive to the show grounds to see where we would be setting up and pick up our packet of information for the weekend.





While we were driving, I got an entire dodo stitched and prepared for stuffing.

Her feet are the dark color on the bottom and the light color on the top and there are wires inside each one.

The wings are all ready for attaching too.



After seeing where we would be, we settled into the hotel where I found that the only place in the hotel that I could actually use the wireless network was in the lobby ... not what we had been told, and definately not convenient.



Friday -- Set up day and first day of the show

Woke up to rain.

This is not my idea of the kind of weather for successful show setup.

We did get set up, and the booth looked pretty good.

We had nice neighbors, a couple from Missouri that make some really attractive humming bird feeders with neat copper tubing and "recycled" glass.

Not a very good afternoon. The show opened at 2 pm and was open for us until 7 pm, and we made one sale....




Saturday --

The rain continues.

Opened at 10 am and it rained until about 3 pm....then we were open until 7 pm.

The up side of today was that we won the blue ribbon as first place in the craft division.

The ribbon did translate to good "press" as we displayed it right out in front and it attracted attention.

Sales were better once the rain stopped.


Sunday

Show opened at noon today and closed for us at 5. There was to be a concert afterwards, and we were told we could stay open if we wanted to, but the crowd was not really interested in buying.

While we had been allowed to drive right into the park to set up, we had to haul all our stuff out to the sidewalk outside the park to load out...after 2 days of rain, the warm temperatures (in the upper 80s) made this work like lifting weights in a sauna....we were definately worn out by the time we got done!



Monday -- travel home

Instead of getting up at the "crack of dawn", we decided to get a good night's sleep before heading out.

We drove back the way we had gone out, which we will probably not do again. We got better mileage and cheaper gas driving across Kansas than we did in Nebraska where we had to pay as much as $3.09 per gallon for gas.

On the road, I got the new bear I've been working on all sewed and ready to be jointed.

The picture is his head. This will be another totally different style.

I also finished stitching the last two sets of brick track together for the Car quilt in the car, as well as almost finishing the first afghan block for a group that I'm going to be donating squares to.

And so we have returned home, and will have to spend the next few days trying to get all the mud off of everything and letting all the display pieces get dry.

Each show is its own adventure!

hockety, pockety, wockety, wack.....

odds and ends (but no brick a brack!)

Spent a lot of time yesterday packing jewelry, packing clothes, packing work kits.

The packets of pictures, descriptions and the CDs with .jps for the two bear magazines are complete and mailed off. The hard part about this is that once this is done we begin the worst part....waiting to see if anything gets published. This whole business of really putting ourselves out there is new, and I suspect we should have been doing it years ago, but I just didn't have my stuff together enough. Besides that, its only recently that I have more often felt that "did I do that" feeling that means that a piece is really, really good. Anyway, now we're waiting for publication on those 4 and on to working on more.

We're leaving today for our show. Tonight we'll stay with our daugher and leave our dog with her (this will be the first time in her new house, so I hope this works out well for her). Tomorrow we drive to St Joseph, MO, where the show will be.

I've packed up my laptop and its wireless card along with some information I need to get written up to list things on Ebay, the newest stuff I need to get out on my website and a folder to read for my accounting client. This is "evening in the hotel" fare.

In the car work I have packets to work on a dodo, a new bear design and the last two segments of the brick track for the car quilt.

I also have 3 partial skeins of yarn, a pair of #9 knitting needles, a plastic ruler and 3 index cards with pattern stitches written on them. This is for a project where I'm making afgan squares that are going to a charity...its a small way that I can "give back", and a good way to clear out the stash of left over yarns.

The Solar Power beadwork is also packed, but it will only come out at the show, basically so people can see the work in process....I hope to be to busy writing receipts to actually work on it.

So, its time to go have breakfast, pack the car, etc.! I'll be bloggin on the road, but I can't promise pictures until I return next week.

moving along

This is a sample of the piecing for the brick track for the car quilt.

I have completed half of the track now....the top half and the bottom half.

The pieces for the two sides are all cut and organized and ready to go into a zip bag to take on the road.

Hopefully when I get back they will be all sewed!




This is the latest progress on the Solar piece.

All of the red portions are now complete.

Tonight I will pour out the purples and start on the next section.



There are now 2 1/2 blocks of the cat quilt completed, and I'm about 1/3 of the way through the last step in the current knitting project.

Spent a bit of time yesterday working on submissions to a magazine of our last 4 animals. I'm realizing that the reason I do this so infrequently is that it is a major pain in the ***! However, if I don't do it, no one will ever know we're out here working away, so I'll continue on. Hope to have packets ready to send off for both magazines today.

Also worked on getting everything organized for final packing.....more of that today!

Work from KISA

He has completed his first bear!!

Isn’t Dale adorable???

The bear is mohair, all hand stitched. She is fully jointed, filled with polyfil. She has glass eyes (with our newly developed eye lids) and a waxed nose.

He also did all of the painting on her carousel rocking horse.

I think the whole package is just wonderful.



And the flamingo is now done too.

This is Fern.

I just love the way her toes turn out, and she stands up all on her own.

I can’t say thank you enough to Sun Ann Holcolm for sharing her techniques for the feet with us!!

Fern’s first public showing will be this weekend in St. Joseph, MO, as a display piece to hang jewelry on, so it will be interesting to see what people think of her.


Busy day yesterday working on laying out a new bear design to work on while we’re on the road. I’ll also be taking the dodo for in car work.

I had a meeting with my new consulting client yesterday afternoon, and when I returned I almost drove right past the house as I usually key on the mail box as the place to turn. In my absence KISA had replaced the old bear up teal colored mail box with a brand shiny new bright white one!! It needed to be done, I just didn’t expect it to happen while I was away. It looks just grand.

Work progresses on the Solar piece, I’ve finished the red on one side and am now working on the other side where the read is a much larger segment.

Now have almost 2 blocks of the cat quilt complete, and I’m half way around the piecing of the track for the car quilt.

Well, today we have quite a list of household chores and packing for the show, and I do want to get some more work done on other things, so I need to get started!

creating and packing

Work is progressing slowly.

Here is the latest on the solar piece.

The flamingo is sewed, turned, stuffed and closed. I need to sew on his wings, put on his eyes and attach his legs.....he's pretty cool!!

I have the dodo all laid out on the fabric, and I think she will be one of my travel projects.

Now have 2 sections of the car quilt's track stitched together, and have 1 1/2 blocks quilted on the next cat quilt.

In the process of planning how we will set stuff up for the coming show, we bought some small wood "furniture" which we have painted and stained. I have made custom "pillows" to fit inside each trunk or drawer so that we can display our pieces like "treasure"....this was a lot of fun actually.

We have started packing up the stuff we will take to the show....I spent some time yesterday retagging the jewelry that is stones set in silver.....there'll be no more wondering what the stone is and where I had the information how big the stone is.

We're still working on the bear on the carousel horse, a pig with polymer face and feet and an open mouth fur bear (a whole new approach).

Today's plan is the move some furniture around (the first dresser that we being refinished is done, time to move it upstairs so he can start on the second one) and start putting things we will take to the show in the spot right next to the garage door.

And in the midst of all that, I have an appointment with my new client to review their current system so I can plan the necessary changes (homework to do in the evenings during the show perhaps).

Time to get to work.

a bear with no name.....

Another bear complete!


And isn't he sweet?



But he has no name!!

We will intertain suggestions until he picks one
(or he tells us who he is!!)












Solar power -- its coming along!





Started in working on the quilting of the second Cat Quilt, have one block almost done. Have 1/4 of the brick track on the Car Quilt pieced. Have begun stitching the flamingo together.

Need to get some shirts ready for us to wear next weekend at the show in St Joseph, MO, so I'll be working on those today.

Time to get with it!!