its too darn hot...

(can you hear the Cole Porter music?)

We've had several days of 90 degree heat (and over), so I'm spending a lot of my studio creating time sitting in front of the little portable swampy cooler in our family room!



Last night I finally finished the apron for the bear.

geesh!! aprons are a lot more "fiddly" than even the dress was -- all those edges to be hemmed

So today I'll pull out the fabric glue and stuff to finish up her basket

I'm aiming to be able to do a lengthy photo shoot with her tomorrow



The pattern for the second panel of the bird quilt is now ready.

This one has 83 pattern pieces, so the total for the quilt so far is 189.

I'll be adding a "progress counter" on the side bar soon.

Meantime, I'm half finished with the quilting on the lamb quilt.


While I am not happy with the heat, my tomato plants and the little crookneck squash are -- we'll probably be eating the first 2 squash in the next few days (I like 'em little!)

I've also been trying to spend at least half an hour every afternoon putting family history information into the program -- the goal is to get it input so I can share it and so I can get rid of a lot of paper! (Not the pictures or original documents, but the reams and reams of notes, pages copied out of books, census reading sheets, etc) Did I mention that I like big projects? This certainly is one as I've been working on family history (off and on) since about 1980 -- more than 25 years -- amazing!

So, its time to get to it!!

ooooo -- bloomers!

Yup, got these finished last night!

lovely little eyelet fabric with lace edging that matches the lace on the dress

cute!

now it's on to the apron



Have worked about 1/4 of the way around the beaded piece, so that's progressing nicely too





Today, being pay day, we'll be off to make our monthly Costco run, then I'll be back working on the bear and stuff

and we're off!

the little ol' dress maker -- ME

Finished the first step in the dressing process yesterday afternoon

I'm pleased with the way the dress came out, but as soon as I put it on her and sat her down it became obvious that bloomers are required!

See how she has pulled the skirt down in the middle? You understand what I mean here!!

So, eyelet bloomers are in process, then it's on to the apron -- also eyelet -- and a liner for her basket

Meantime, since clothing was on my mind I started the repair of one of the two items my daughter asked me to repair. Haven't lost my touch, one zipper nearly finished!! (and one more to go)

The work in the field behind us is in full swing. By 7:30 this morning the water truck was spraying and the scrapper was picking up dirt and moving it.

At least they are doing aggressive dust abatement! Even so, we're dealing with dirt in the house and scratchy throats.

Today I'm planning to spend some time with a friend working on a quilt that she has a deadline for, and hoping to get started putting the back on the latest bead work

time to get busy

ready for the backing

I finished up the bead work on the front of this piece yesterday afternoon

I'm real pleased with the way it looks

So today I will be doing the next steps preparing to put the leather backing on this

Lookin' good!!

Worked on the dress for the pink beaded bear too -- its now ready to be put on her so now I need to work on creating the apron (more gathering, more eyelet, some stringing of ribbon through beader eyelet -- lots of "frew, frew"!)

today, being monday means I'm spending a good deal of time in the laundry room -- between loads I'm planning on hanging out in front of the portable swampy (90 degrees is TOO HOT!) working on projecs

Catching up on things

It's been a busy time here for the past few days.

We picked up a great deal at the grocery store and bought 5 pounds of blueberries.

Now I like blueberries in my cereal and my muffins and my pancakes, but 5 pounds is A LOT of blueberries






So, out came the jars and the sugar and the Certo

(I know, there is some sort of fruit mojo that has us working over a hot stove when it's 95 degrees outside!!)

Here then, the results of our labors

beautiful, sweet, yummy jam

(too bad we can't trap the warmth for releasing in the middle of winter when I'll be spreading some of this on toast!)

On Friday I went off to my quilting group and spent the entire morning with the ladies. This group is rather like the old quilting bee -- except that each of us has our own little projects we're working on.

We each have a table to work on that is big enough for a sewing machine (there were several of those running) or to put a cutting mat on (some of that happening) or to spread out a quilt to mark and quilt on (my choice for this time)

While we are a very diverse group by age and background, there is a genuine sense of caring about one another's problems and concerns that is quite refreshing

While there I got a lot of quilting done on the baby quilt, and I'm already looking forward to next month's meeting.



This piece of equipment has arrived in the lot behind us.

Guess this means that we have dust and noise to look forward to this week

The construction company left a notice on our door asking for our patience with their work and telling us that the retirement living center they are building is scheduled to open in Fall of 2009.

Nice to have a time frame!


After several good soakings and an application of fertilizer the green beans seem to be taking off

there are still a few scrawny stragglers, but they look a lot better

The little anaheim chilis are getting bigger

and we have the first crooknecks -- two little babies (and LOTS of other blooms)











the pumpkin is putting out lots of male blooms and starting to crawl across the back of the garden behind the bean patch

this is a good thing -- I really don't want the pumpkins to set too soon as they make for better eating if they ripen when its cooler

and we have tomatoes!

probably about a dozen of various sizes

lookin' good

My daughter, my sister and I converged on my mother's house yesterday morning for a "let's defrost grandma's freezer" party

The upright freezer needs this every now and then, so we went armed with a hair dryer, a case knife, an assortment of odd plastic buckets and a pile of towels.

Its been about 20 years since I had to do this project this way (I have a friend whose upright freezer is at the street end of her garage, and when we defrosted it we just emptied it and brought in the garden hose!)

Anyway, its all done now, so she's set for another couple of years.



My daughter decided that we needed refreshments for this chore and brought along a great summer time desert.

We ate about half of it and left the rest for my folks.

(I have posted the recipe on Hatties Kitchen if you want to give it a try)

When all 4 of us women are together there is always the general exchanging of items ("look, I got this recipe"; "here's your jar/pan/bowl that you brought jam/pie/salad in to the last gathering"; "I cut this coupon/article/picture out for you"; etc., etc.)

This trip my sister totally stunned me by handing me the item in this picture

this is a roll of fabrics that includes every color that was available at the time of its purchase of that wonderful marbly looking fabric that I absolutely LOVE to work with when I'm doing appliqued quilts

She knew about the bird quilt we've been designing and offered these up for me to use parts of

It never fails to amaze (and humble) me that she is so generous with materials that help me make my various projects

It brings to mind a lyric from The Sound of Music -- "somewhere in my youth or childhood, I must have done something good"

Thank you sis!

And under the catagory of "Mom is a Geek"

my daughter brought me the software and the cable for the MP3 player she had given me so I can add more music (probably off of CDs she's made me!)

I'll be tackling this project a bit later in the week.

Well, that about wraps it up -- guess its time to go do something

We're LIVE!

Introducing -- the new website!!!

Its alive (like Frankenstein's monster?!) -- and I'm ahead of my deadline

There will be more updates and additional buttons added as soon as I finish the next parts, but for now, the bears (and critters) and the jewelry is out there

YIPEE!!

Click Here to go and check it out.

(and PLEASE! -- if you find anything that doesn't work, please let me know right away)

Enjoy

this and that

A while back I started this project

If you were with me then you may recall that it is an afghan knit in pieces

I'm using recycled yarn -- cotton from a sweater that was the DH's and acrylic from a sweater that was my daughter's

(YEAH RECYCLING!)

anyway, I hadn't worked on it much for a while -- a row here, a row there -- usually the last thing I picked up in the evening and then promptly feel asleep mid-row!

so last night I finished this block -- its number 4

on to block 5 soon -- maybe



This is my wild and riotous spending for the month

A whole $11.97 (including shipping)

it arrived yesterday -- YIPPEE!!

the plan is to use it as my exclusive repository for the family history data that I'm entering on the computer program

I had in hand already a 256MB one and a 128MB one, but I wanted a dedicated place just for the family history stuff, and since the 256MB was already in heavy use and the 128MB was just not big enough for all those files, photos, documents, etc., I decided to treat myself.

so -- I'm off and running!!

from the "I'm not done with this project yet" list

Remember this?

Way back in January I was working on this pink bear with the cool beaded feet

and I reached a certain point (as I do some times) and got STUCK!

Could not figure out what to do next.

(suffering from that "I know what I want it to look like I just don't know how to get there" thing)


Well, yesterday afternoon I decided to have a go at putting a face on her.

Here she is!

I used amber glass eyes, and the nose was done in the usual way first then I added all the beads over that.

and had to re-make the ears to get them to a size and shape that I liked

looking good!!

So today we begin the process of creating her "frock"

the plan is to dress her in a dress made of a lovely floral print (that had pink and sort of teal patterning) with a white eyelet apron, then there is the basket of beaded berries and the amazingly realistic if unusually large and bright colored bees to add to the whole effect

So no doubt you're thinking "you haven't worked on this thing since January -- why now?"

well, there's nothing like creating a deadline for yourself to get you moving

I've been filling in forms to enter things in the State Fair, and it occurred to me that there might be a category that I could enter a bear/animal in -- and there is, in the same area that dolls go in

Voilà! Instant self imposed deadline

(and I think I was just ready to work on it again)

The baby quilt got "sandwiched" together yesterday too, so I can begin with the quilting today -- it’s a good thing

time to get moving

goin' to the birds

The first of the patterns has been drawn up on freezer paper -- let the stitchin' begin!!

This folks is supposed to represent a Pionus Parrot (if you'd like to see some AMAZING pictures of the growth of one of these, check out this site and go to the baby bird section. When they are hatched they are all beak! Fascinating.

but I digress -- the color coding is a new item on the actual freezer paper patterns -- I'm hoping it will be helpful in keeping the piecing straight.

Only 102 pieces in this block!!

Raphael now has both wings

Finished up the last piecing on this last night, so now its on to some much larger pieces that should go quicker

I find that the more of this I do the better I get at it. When I first started working on the wings of the first of the angels panels I thought I would never get it finished

(Hopefully this is also good preparation for all those feathers I'll be putting on birds!)























the name's not Mary
I may be contrary
and my garden does certainly grow!

what we have here are the two little rows of green beans (ok, some of them are wax beans and until they make beans we don't know which is which, but it's alright); the biggest of the anaheim chilis (there are about half a dozen of them on the two plants); the first (male) blooms on the pumpkin and one of the several (about 5) tomatoes

Last night we had the first "harvesting" out of the plantings -- the DH used some of the basil in a great fish dish (Yes, I'll be posting the recipe on Hattie's Kitchen today!)

Today we'll be doing mowing of the back yard and spraying for insects -- it seems there is some kind of little lawn bug that is investing our area and turning the grass brown, so we're going to try to head it off before we have to replant the whole back yard!

into the fray!!

Why I need a design wall

to make it easier to take these kinds of pictures! These were taken on the living room floor, which means they appear foreshortened, and there is always the danger of a big black dog wandering through and laying down on them!

The top for the baby quilt is complete.

It is actually a crib size quilt, a bit bigger than the standard baby quilt.

The backing is all seamed together too and ready for me to do the "sandwich". I hope to get that all done before quilt group on Friday so I can take it with me to work on there.

And work has begun on this one too!

I'm still working on fabric selections of course, but I'm ready to start making the freezer paper patterns for this one now. (this entails taping the drawings to the patio door, taping the freezer paper over it and tracing)

Nearly finished the second wing on Raphael last night, and one of the two new openings in the Angel Lace necklace is surrounded with beads and the other one started.

Yes, the projects are moving right along!

This morning after several days of treating the back pain I did walk a short distance (about half of what I had been doing). Hopefully by the end of the week I'll be back to my full distance again.

But for today there is laundry to do -- time to get to it

fabrics for backing -- and to "paint" with

This is the fabric I bought to put on the back of the baby quilt -- I just love the whimsical print with the pigs and cows and chickens and SHEEP!!

Yes, and here are close ups of the two different sheep poses -- AWWWWW! aren't they cute -- and so "kid like", that I think this is going to make a great back for the lambs

Yesterday I started cutting the yellow strips so I can get the top all pieced together -- maybe today!


While I was in the store picking up the quilt backing, I found these lovelies too -- more "paint" for the parrot quilt.

And I can report that I'm now joined at the hip to my scanner as I've been cutting and enlarging and printing out parts of the pattern for each of the many birds that are in planning for this project.

mmmmmm, I don't know what part of a project I like best -- the planning or the finishing!

Fortunately my back is beginning to feel better, so hopefully soon things will return to what resembles normal around here

time to get back to the web site work------

just when you thought we were done cutting holes

two more get added!

This piece had been working under the title of "Earth Angel", but now I've renamed it "Lace Angel" as the background looks more and more like lace!

As I was starting to work on this yesterday, the DH said to me "what do you think about putting in two more tear drop shaped holes?"

It took me all of about half a second to say "Good Idea!!"

so here we are -- now I need to work the two new holes with the proper sequence of colors to bring them to the same stage as all the others then we'll see just how much else needs to be beaded -- or cut -- who knows!?

And at long last Raphael is flying on one wing

(and a prayer, no doubt)

probably flying in circles --

still lots of wing feathers to go here, but it's looking good

Yesterday afternoon I made the trip to the fabric store (to get a batting), and actually stumbled upon a fabric to use on the back of the lamb quilt! (just when I had quit looking for one) Pictures tomorrow (I washed it and need to press it before I take a picture)

In the same trip I found more pieces of fabric to use for the bird quilt, and this morning I spent considerable time enlarging the drawings so we can get started on that one.

This box of loveliness arrived on my door step on Thursday afternoon --

just one problem -- they substituted a color, so now we're trying to figure out what to do next -- meantime, I may not actually NEED that one skein they substituted, so it may not be an issue at all --

I'll be figuring out the pattern and knitting a test swatch to see where we are here (I just don't want to get within 2 inches of finished and run out of yarn!!)

One of the biggest time eaters in the world is maintaining a web site.

I have been working on a totally new version for about a month, and have now reached the stage where I need to clean off the server (I really don't need to have graphics of pieces that I sold 3 years ago still out there!) and start over.

Since I have had so little traffic to the site in the last few months, I decided to do the drastic thing and just put up a "pardon our dust" panel until I get it finished (hopefully by the end of July)

So this is what you'll see there for now -- and I'm working on it!!

time to get to it---

making lambs

TA DA!

the center block is now complete!! Oh yippie

So hopefully today or tomorrow I can get the blocks trimmed and the top stitched together (the rest of the top is yellow and I'm going to stitch it on the machine)

I was in my "stash" the other day and I think I have the fabric to back it, but I will probably have to go after a batting -- we'll see

Guess I'll have something for "drag and brag" at quilt group next Friday

Meantime I can report that I'm over 25% through the quilting of the log cabin quilt -- moving right along


LOOKIE!!!

we have a tomato!!

I discovered this little cutie while I was weeding and watering on Wednesday

there's nothing quite as rewarding as growing your own produce


For the next couple of days I'll be doing everything in slooooowwww mooootion --yesterday afternoon when we were out in the yard I turned to do something and got that horribly familiar "TWANG" in my lower back -- so if it goes as usual I'll be icing and heating (alternately) and wearing a brace and gulping down ibuprofen every 4 hours for a few days. Guess I'm sharing my dad's pain -- he just had an MRI on his back -- and I know he shared his genetics -- those degenerating discs in the lower back -- OUCH!!

more pictures from the "archives" --
this family group is my great great grandfather, his wife and three of their children -- he was a soldier in the Confederate Army, fought at Shiloh and survived to a ripe old age (he signed an oath of allegiance to the Union after his discharge at Shiloh and some of his siblings never spoke to him again) Can we say the stubborn in my nature runs DEEP!

I don't know who the cornet player is, but the fellow with the double belled euphonium (yes, its a real instrument, not something Meredith Willson made up for The Music Man!) is my grandfather -- WAY COOL!!

and under the catagory of strange circumstance: my grandfather (the one with the euphonium) was one half of the first graduating class of John Brown College. When I was in Canon City, CO, doing an art show in late June there was a group of 3 girls that stopped in my booth to look at my art and chat -- two of them had just graduated from college -- John Brown University!! (cue the Twilight Zone music!!!)

guess that's about it for today's ramblin' -- and about as much time in the chair at the computer that my back can take!

onward-----

a bit of work

moving along on this piece!

I still have not decided if I'm actually done cutting holes in it or not -- there are still places that I could do that

so far I like how it looks

work on quilts continues -- yesterday I spent some time with the premium book from the Colorado State Fair making a list of things that I can enter -- unlike most fairs I've been involved with, they won't let you enter more than one piece in the same catagory -- odd, but ok, I'll just enter in as many catagories as I can fit something into!

Yesterday I spent quite a bit of time sorting through a hugh pile of papers and ended up with a large stack of paper that can be used to print stuff on the back of, a stack of trash and a folder full of documents/pictures/etc. that pertain to family history.

At one time I spent a lot of time (and $$) working on family history, getting original documents, reading census records, etc. -- even made a trip to Oklahoma and Arkansas to locate some family graves and talk to relatives.

The other day I discovered that one of the cemetaries we visited is now listed on line but the listing does not include our relatives -- interesting -- I will be contacting the list owner to see if I can correct the list

Anyway, I'm thinking its time to get back to some of this activity, and I'm going to start by scanning and writing to CDs these picture/documents/etc., so I can share and preserve them.

a weekend survived!

Saturday was HOT!

and I do not do hot well --

In preparation for the arrival of my daughter and son-in-law on Saturday, I decided to make a cake

This is the finished cake (before we cut into it after an otherwise odd dinner -- but we'll not discuss the cooking failures)

I should have known the rest of dinner would be odd -- I had originally planned to do the whole side of the cake with a basket weave pattern but I was busy running my mouth and messed it up then couldn't just remove it with a spatula as usual because I was working under the fan and it had already set up by the time I figured out the problem -- I TOLD you it was HOT!!

Aw well -- it did taste good, and I sent about half of it home with them to be eaten up (we don't need it all here!)













Even the dogs were hot.

(Why is it the "dog days" of summer? they hate it too!)

anyway, the black dog was a melting pile of fur (I'm melting....all my beautiful wickedness...must be the name -- Elphaba -- the witch!)

and even the usually busy red dog was just hanging out


I have now finished the fourth corner of the lambie quilt, so now its on to the bigger center block

Even though it was hot I did work on the quilting of the log cabin a bit more (that should confirm I'm truly off my rocker -- sitting under a QUILT when its over 90 outside!!), and I'm now in the wing pieces on the final angel panel -- and there was knitting on the Christmas project and afghan squares and a child's sweater for charity -- and more beads were put into the angel necklace too -- pictures soon, I promise

Today its the usual Monday chore -- laundry (ever notice when its hot there are more towels in the laundry? Every one of the 40-some kitchen towels and a lot of big bath towels too today -- more showers, more mopping up, more laundry -- and in the summer a dose of bleach in those towel loads to cut that musty, mildew smell)

at least this morning its considerably cooler!!

new "paint"

Earlier in the week I was all "gaa gaa" over the fabric I had found that I originally thought I would use as the base of the front for the new quilt we're designing.

After some consideration, we've decided that something darker and more subtle would be a better backdrop for the design of the front, and that beautiful stuff can be the BACK of the quilt --

now here's a first! Usually the back is the last fabric I purchase for a quilt -- but this works too!

Anyway, I was looking in the fabric store for fabric for the back of the baby quilt (I'm well into the last corner block which means we're closing in on needing the back soon). I didn't find anything that fits the requirements for that, but these other lovelies presented themselves -- more parts for the "still in planning" quilt

Yesterday, after at least 3 months of having absolutely no idea how I would finish a particular bear I had started I had an idea, so some time in the next couple of days, I'll be doing some experimenting with it to see if it will work (this will mean building a "test head" to try the eyes in because I do not want to mess up the actual head (I don't have any more of that fabric!)

I've also been thinking again about the pegasus/doll soft sculpture I had started during the winter -- working on "wings" in my head -- I want them to be fairly stiff so they'll stand out from the body -- I'm thinking stiff floral wire inside batting inside the cotton fabric -- and I'm thinking of painting the whole pegasus with a coat of gesso then a wash of color and some diamond dust -- we'll see!

Well, this afternoon some time my daughter and her husband will be here to spend the evening with us (they'll have to go back tomorrow afternoon), so I need to do a bit of "tidying" before the arrive -- oh yes, and decorate the cake I baked last night -- that should be fun -- we'll see if I still remember how!!