another "finished" item really finished -- I think

Are you confused by this?

I know, you think you've seen this bear before with a big "IT'S DONE" flag waving over it.

well, not so much

In the effort to not just have things "finished" but also have them be "complete" this bear came back out of the bag and I added the flowers

Aren't they nice?

these are made out of the felt I hand made a while back for another project

(on another felting note, the red piece I did the other day is now being used to rework another of these "lab animals" -- hopefully soon I'll have pictures of it!)



The bees are busy!

I went out yesterday to take a look at the many blooms on the pumpkin plant and snapped this shot of one of the bees being friendly with this blossom

Go Bees!! We want pumpkin!!


We went to turn in the last of the entries for the State Fair yesterday. As I was walking out of the building I think I saw one of the items I had taken in last week with a ribbon on it --- I'm jazzed!! Can't wait to go down to visit after it opens and take pictures of all my stuff actually on display.

Time to get to work -- peaches are waiting to be canned!! At least we got a nice cool day to do it on.

NOW its done

Remember this ?

Yes, a couple of days ago I was fussing about how I wasn't sure I liked it and it didn't look finished to me, etc., etc.

Well, I decided to "fiddle" with it and see if I could make it better

in my eyes anyway!


So, here is the revised version

I used some of the same shimmery glass "leaf" beads that I had used for the angel wings to make the dangles

then I did a truly simple thing to shorten the length

I tied the "cords" in a simple overhand knot

This idea had never occurred to me before, but I actually like the look of it and since the "cords" were made with right angle weave, it was flexible enough to be able to do this without worry of breaking either the beads or the thread

Ok, so NOW its done -- I'm pretty sure

what do you think?

Yesterday the new supplies I had ordered arrived -- a few odds and ends to finish up some projects in process, and one really cool piece to build a whole necklace around -- of course there were a couple of items backordered (naturally, some of the ones really mandatory to finish one project), but there were plenty of goodies to keep me going for a while

and then when I went to run some errands, I picked up the latest issue of Bead and Button. It has several techniques that I hadn't seen before (one especially cool "chain" technique) and I want to try some of them out -- I know, like I needed another project!!

This morning as I was doing my walk I came up with an idea for another quilt too --- ok, just one more iron in the fire

So today we take the last things to the State Fair -- a quilt, a jacket and a sweater -- it should be interesting -- last week reception was great, so I hope today's will be as well

time to get movin'

Finished -- maybe

the "cords" are attached and it's done

or not

I like the way the beadwork looks, but I'm thinking the "cords" are too long

and I'm not sure I like the starkness of the edges -- thinking it needs some kind of "drop" from the sides and maybe even the middle

so, like I said, it's finished -- maybe

I reserve the right to "tweek" it some more even if it means removing the "cords" and making them shorter



this, on the other hand, is done

and I'm pleased with it

this is one of the 2 "head only" blocks in the bird quilt

it went really quickly (not nearly so many pieces)




so, it's on to the colors for the next block

as you can see, there are a lot more colors in this one than the little cockatoo face, so this one will take a bit longer -- there are 95 pieces in it


We've been working on the faces of some new bears

yesterday I spent some time doing some bead embroidery on one of them that was supposed to look like teeth

It does -- like a beaver's teeth

today I'll be picking those out!!

meantime, the "felting" that I was trying to get done didn't really "felt" -- it shrunk, but it didn't truly take on the "all one piece of fabric" look that I had hoped for. Today I will be trying to improve on that with some boiling water in a dish pan (and heavy rubber gloves!)

such are the usual ups and downs of things in the studio!!

birds and knitting on a lazy Sunday

As I said yesterday, I just wasn't feeling "top notch".

I did, however, manage to get quite a bit of work done on various projects.

This one, for instance.

This is the first block for the bird quilt, and it is as complete as I can make it before setting it into the background.

The plan is for the rest of the "branch" and the tail and other toes to actually extend out of the block into the border

I do really like the look of him tho' -- quite colorful!


So as soon as I finished that bird as far as I could, I went and pulled out this group of fabrics.

These will be the next bird

actually, I have nearly finished that one as well

I should be able to put out a picture of it tomorrow








I FINALLY finished this sweater

This is going to Warm Woolies to keep a small child warm this winter.

It looks pretty good, but it seemed like it took F-O-R-E-V-E-R to finish!!

The next piece for Warm Woolies will be a vest -- they go quicker, and its easier to make them with small pieces of left over yarns since they are knit around and around



and then there was this knitting

just a plain garter stitch block of bright red wool

it is in the washer with extremely hot water and half a dozen pair of old blue jeans as we "speak", being turned into felt so I can make a beret for the latest lab animal



So despite, not feeling my best, I did get quite a lot done --

Onward!

grumpy .....

Well, can we say I am not pleased....awaking to day 3 of a persistant (mostly) low grade headache and just generally feeling not quite right

is it the humidity (which has gone much higher than usual as we are now in the summer monsoon season)?

have I picked up a bug of some sort?

who knows --

we went to visit with my folks yesterday, taking along some of the last jars of last year's peaches that we had put up as well as some goodies from the farmer's market -- amazing to me, that there are at least 3 farmer's markets that we could get to in any given week, but there is not a single one anywhere close to my parents -- not a good thing

anyway, from there it was off to my sister's house to pick up 4 boxes (YES, BOXES!) of peaches that will be canned, jammed and eaten fresh -- 2 boxes are to be put up for my dad, who loves them and its a good way to get calories in him -- so there will be jars and seals and large pots of hot water in the near future

so while I was in the car I finally finished the knitting on the sweater I've been doing for Warm Woolies, and now have only to stitch the underarm seams and it will be ready to ship off -- oh yes, and completed another afghan square

time to get moving and see if I can actually get something done despite the headache --- yuk!

so it's high, ho, off to the fair

yesterday was the day that the first batch of things had to be turned in for the State Fair

so all of these and a couple more went off to the Fair Grounds

next week I have 3 more items to take -- a quilt and a 2 articles of clothing

anytime I'm in the car some charity knitting gets done too, so there is another finished afghan square ready to go

today its off to Denver to visit my folks and pick up peaches to be canned from my sister -- and there will be more knitting!

time to get movin'

Christmas projects and a new "what is it?"

Yesterday, over at Mason Dixon Knitting a pattern for a sunflower dishrag was posted



I have a friend in California that it is fun to make new kitchen things for because she is always so appreciative

while I was out running errands yesterday afternoon I stopped off with the idea of getting some Peaches and Cream in the appropriate colors to whip up a couple of these

They didn't have any of the colors I needed in that yarn but I was able to pick up this cotton yarn that was on sale (bigger skeins too!)

(I'm also thinking that there might be a way to make this into a pot holder/hot pad too -- I'll see how the dish rag works up first)

So, another project to the list (or two)!!



Today's "what is it?"

any guesses?

wherein I become a bigger geek

this, boys and girls, is my newly acquire, looooonnnnngg awaited new phone

I can not BEGIN to tell you how wonderful it is to be able to actually stay INSIDE my house to talk on the phone -- the old one had taken on some, well, "idiot-syncrasies" (as in making me feel like an idiot!)

our initial problem was simply the logistics of getting me, my old phone and my daughter into the cell phone store -- not an easy task when we live at opposite ends of the state!

so, there was a phone call made to our service provider, putting me "officially" on the account (never mind that the payment every month actually comes out of MY bank account), with an appropriate password (yes, something I can remember!!), and yesterday afternoon I walked into the store and picked out my new phone!!

Notice, its a lovely shade of deep red -- burgandy? plum? -- anyway, something OTHER than gray

it has "features" (and yes that is a good thing/bad thing!)

things like a camera (which I have learned how to take and save a picture with, just not how to send it anywhere -- yet)

and optional GPS navigator (which would have been mightily handy when we were lost in Dallas a couple of years ago) in which I can enter the address I want to go to and it will TALK me through the directions

it has other "bells and whistles" too, but I haven't begun to figure those out yet

oh yeah, I haven't yet figured out how to use the alarm clock on it either -- which was a minor annoyance when I left the house this morning for my walk (I usually set the alarm for 30 minutes when I leave so I know how I'm doing for time) -- but I plan to figure that one out TODAY!!

In the end, after my mail in rebate comes, the phone will have cost me $0.00 -- yup, that's zero, zilch, zip, nada, bubkus, nothing -- as in FREE! Gotta love those upgrade points!!

So, I'm happy -- if confused -- but its all good

just when you thought it was safe--

and I wouldn't bore you with more revelations about "recycled" bears --

SURPRISE!!

Here's another one

Now the "remake" on this one has to do with a very different idea -- I needed to test out a new idea for a nose, and I decided that doing it on a synthetic fur just wouldn't have the same "feel" as doing it on a mohair bear

So, right after I took this picture I used my little scissors and a pair of tweezers to pick out the thread of the nose and on the feet and remove the lace collar

The experimental nose went quite well -- such a great success that the bear I was testing the technique for will definately be getting a similar treatment

So now I need to finish the feet of the "lab animal" and do the accessories and the travel sack

pictures to follow of the "remake"!

(Oh yeah, and the new bear design too, as soon as I finish it)


I'm so excited by the progress being made both on the necklace and the bird quilt.

For the necklace I am making a tapered "chain" using right angle weave, and I have finished the flat piece, all ready for "zipping" for one side. Since I want to make the "clasp" a beaded toggle, I'm trying to decide what the bar side of the toggle should look like -- right now I'm leaning toward making a barrel shaped bead out of the same seed beads as the chain -- we'll see

Meantime I've finished the chest of the first bird block and nearly finished the head -- hopefully today I'll get the head finished and start on the wing -- its been a lot of fun so far -- I love using all these different colors. I had a conversation over the weekend with my California friend about making the parts of the bird that extend outside of its block more 3 dimensional. She had a couple of suggestions, and I may give them a try.

Guess its time to go do some work on things

The big Reveal!!

The Fall 2008 issue of Art Doll Quarterly is now on the newstands, and I went last night to pick up my copy.

In this issue (starting on page 50) is the write up about the Pink Artist Doll that I donated two squares for earlier in the year. We got top billing on the cover and an amazing write up in the "from the editor" page of the issue as well as the article that our leader, Monica Magness, wrote about the project.

For more information about a chance to win this beautiful creation (and have your money go to a great cause!), use this link to get further information from our project leader.

Meantime, I'm also getting to enjoy this great magazine! It never fails to provoke some response to what is in its pages.


I have surrendered!

While fighting with trying to accurately mark and cut the edges of the Lambie Quilt last weekend, I finally agreed that I actually did need a bigger cutting mat.

So, since the Hobby Lobby ad included a 40% off coupon, I went and got myself a lovely 24" by 36" cutting mat -- for about $15!!

Oh yeah, I'm a happy camper -- except for that "where will I put it" thing---never mind, we'll figure it out.


I've been looking at the finished angel blocks for a while, and decided that what I wanted was something that looked like gray stone as the rest of the front and the back -- the idea being that it would look like 3 windows in a stone wall

so, while I was in Hobby Lobby, I noticed they had their cotton fabrics on sale for 30% off, and they had this great gray fabric, so I went ahead and got it too

It will be a while before I get around to actually finishing this as I've got a closer deadline for the birds than the angels, but now I can work on it whenever I'm ready

After a week of watching them put stakes into the ground, the construction behind us has begun to do something more interesting.

Yesterday around 1 pm, the big equipment rolled in and they started shoving dirt around again.

By 5 pm, they had this big pile stacked up -- yes, that's a large piece of equipment on top of the pile and yes, its up higher than my back fence!

Its interesting -- and now the dog just sits and watches

So, since we did most of the required running around yesterday, I think today I'll actually get to work on things -- but one can never be sure -- time to go give it a try!

Lambie Quilt Complete!!

and here it is in all its glory

all bound and ready to go

so now its on to more serious work on the birds (I'm about half way up the body of the first bird block)

ONWARD!

all in our places, without any faces

two bears all stitched, jointed and stuffed

just one little issue with them

either we've gone amish or there is still work to do

perhaps we'll start a new trend of faceless, earless bears (ok, it makes them look like blind harp seals)

just wanted to show that there is work being done!


and if you look closely, there is a ring of blue beads inside each of the openings

the beadwork on this part of the necklace is now DONE!

I've started on the right angle weave parts that will make it a complete necklace


and for those of you keeping score on the baby quilt, I'm half way around putting the binding on -- it will be finished TODAY (or I'll know the reason!!)


meantime, the main effort is toward surviving the heat -- if there was a bathroom in our basement there would be serious efforts being made to live down there! Reminds me of the last summer I spent in Utah where I was packing up a household to move --- {whimper}

ok, time to get to it

Another finished project, and one nearly so!

Meet Flora.

You may remember a while back that I was "re-engineering" some bears

Back in the day when I did "editions" I had made several bears like this one, and still had a few of them on hand

As I've worked on them I've tried to make each one different

This one got a dip in a vat of pink dye

Then a lot of flowers embroidered on her front and back and legs and arms and head

Like the rest of the "reincarnations" she comes with her own fabric travel sack

So now I have 3 of these for the show in Kansas City


Yesterday afternoon I finished the quilting on the lamb baby quilt. Today I will do the machine work to put on the binding, then I'll just have the hand work on the binding to get it completely done! WHHOOOO HOOOOO!!












I added two more buttons to the website this morning.

If you'd like to take a look, this is the place.

The show file will be getting some more details shortly, but for now it does list the shows I have scheduled in the near future.

The link file is pretty slim.

If you'd like to exchange links, either leave a comment here (with a way I can contact you) or drop me a note at webspinner51 AT yahoo DOT com (please put Link Request in the subject line so I can pick you out!)

We did our lawn mowing at 7:30 A.M. today -- its forecast to get to 97 degrees, and I'm heading off to the family room to work on projects in front of the portable swampie!

Keep Cool!!

it has begun!

After some time with the iron, making all of the fabrics as wrinkle free as possible, the work on the first of the bird blocks has begun!

4 pieces down, only 587 to go!!



Work on scanning family photos continues.

This sturdy looking bunch are relatives on my dad's side of the family

(perhaps there's some genetic component to our battle with weight?)

The man standing in the center of the picture is my great grandfather, Isaiah "Rade" Ross. The rest of them are the other Ross "clan" members: Jeremiah ("Mood"), Sarah, Amos, Silas, Susanah (Wall), Vashti, Esher, Mariah, Lodema and Sarah (don't you love the names!) I know who is who of the fellows, and Susanah is the mother of this brood (second from the right, seated), but the which girl is which is anyone's guess.

The sound of hovering wings?

Complete at last

all of the patterns for the bird quilt -- including the 2 totally new ones that we decided yesterday needed to be added!

Nice that we're now at the stitching point




this is the colorway for the first bird that I will be working on

we've decided to start at the top right and work downward -- just something a little different from other pieces

today I will be ironing all of the fabrics and hopefully starting the first block

Oh yes, and a countdown for all 591 pieces will be added to the side bar soon


Here is the first harvest from our little garden

one crookneck squash and 4 peppers

the DH cooked the squash in a little oil and garlic powder for dinner last night, and it was wonderful --

he also used the little peppers in a "salsa sauce" that he created to cook over the pork chops

yum!!

its really nice to know that with these veggies there will be no questions of getting sick because they have some nasty bacteria!

so today there will be ironing and and beading and stitching and quilting (only 3 more rows to do on the lambs!) and knitting and tweeking of patterns for bears -- the usual stuff in the studio!

up an at 'em!

another day, another bird

yup, another pattern all drawn and colored and ready to be cut into

I have 3 more to do -- one more of these big ones in the blocks and then two others that will be "flying loose" so to speak

this has been kind of fun -- finding the pictures so I can see the colors, tracing the drawings (after several trips through the scanner to "bigger" them) onto the freezer paper, then playing with the colored pencils

Soon the selection of which fabrics for which pieces will begin -- the real fun part

oh yes, with the addition of these 95 pieces we're now up to 353 -- and countin'

June Bearry, Raphael and more

Here is the result of yesterday's work with ribbons and eyelet and glue (ACK!)

Most of the time glue is a forbidden substance in the bear studio, but for certain things it is required

like attaching fabric/beads/ribbon and bees to a plastic basket

(note the bee in the basket with the berries and the one on the handle)



and this morning we had the photo shoot

30 pictures from many, many angles

("I'm ready for my close up, Mr DeMille"!)

and yes, there is a bee on her right shoulder, and one on the end of the ribbon on the left of her face



Yes, she's standing up on her own!!

I don't know if its the weight of all those glass beads I stitched to her feet

or the fact that she has really BIG feet

or if I just got lucky when I tries this

(don't you love the way the dress stands out from the waist?!)



and here we are, stitting down to investigate that basket full of berries

we just have to watch out for the bees!










The bear was not the only accomplishment yesterday, however

This is the third and final panel of the angels

Raphael is complete

now I have to figure out how to put these together to give them the illusion of being a 3 dimensional panel even though it is actually flat










finished another block in the recycled afghan project

I cheated a bit on the CroKay edging -- I used a crochet hook instead of two knitting needles -- it went much quicker

I'll be starting block 6 soon



and another of the patterns is now ready, which means I'm now half way with the birdies

This block has 69 pieces which brings us up to a total of 258 so far


Meantime, the quilting on the lambie quilt is half done!! I'm so excited (and tell me, who but a crazy person would sit UNDER a quilt when it's 90+ degrees outside!?)


ONWARD!!