Decisions, decisions

I have received a call for entries and I have four different quilted pieces that would fit the requirements

problem is, I am only allowed to enter three

so here are the candidates:






The Backyard Fence


















The Fantasy Fish

















The Oak Leaf


















The Lighthouse












so which one should I NOT enter?

a new design

after spending a lot of time yesterday fiddling with the Hoffman piece, I think I've come up with a modified and doable design

I had to make a choice between creating a new background (all those little black and white and gray pieces all over again!) or changing the design around it

since I was not totally sold on the original hat having enough flowers on it, it just seemed like the right thing to do to create a new hat

so now we have a curtain on the left side of the window and a table right up to the window with the hat on its hat stand (which will have to be made longer)

and I think I've figured out the sign outside the window too --- we'll see how that works

but at least for now I have a renewed confidence in the piece
the Christmas afghan is now 26% complete

moving right along


and while I was mentally fussing with the Hoffman piece I started working on that hat that I'm making with the intention of offering it for sale if it comes out well -- so far it looks pretty good


yesterday I discovered that I could enter the competition with the beaded piece all on line -- so instead of having to make a run to the post office to get the envelope in the mail I just sat at my little computer and sent it in (love being able to do that with things that are judged from pictures first) we'll see how that does

so it's now on to the next idea!

One competition piece complete!

finished putting this all together yesterday afternoon

and I'm pretty pleased with how it came out

this morning I took a bunch of pictures with the camera -- which I didn't like, and did this one in the scanner -- and it is the one I'm using for the submission

so I'll be sending this off to Grant's Pass, Oregon, to Fire Mountain Gems for the seed bead competition

the straps for the red hand bag are finally done

I know, you thought this project had either been shelved or finished and no pictures taken -- but not true!

because I was totally frustrated by the quilt project yesterday (shall we say I'm in the process of re-designing), I worked on the hand bag

stitching by hand gives my brain time to work on other projects

(and yes, I have some ideas to translate to the quilt that I'll be working with today)



another pair of mittnz completed last night

these are the small size and this particular yarn is so nice to knit with

only 3 more pair to knit for the 2011 goal


yesterday, while I was just puttering around doing the tidying up after removing all of the Christmas stuff I pulled out some alpaca yarn and a pattern that will be the first piece I make this year with the idea of trying to sell it -- a hat of this style sold at the Lambspun Holiday show last year, and I'm hoping for a similar good result this year

moving along!

one step forward, one step back

all of the pieces of the bracelet are finished, now I just need to put it together

the bar of the toggle was really easy -- I've done a lot of these

the loop end did present some challenges -- in the end I did a peyote stitched tube and when it got to the length that allowed me to form a smooth ring, I just stitched the ends together -- pretty neat

and I still have a little time before I need to get this submitted, so getting good pictures is the next step

this, however, truly must be a monster

the plan was to put in some lettering (backwards, since you are looking out through the window) between the fused layer and the iridescent "window" fabric

I had already done the individual words using the embroidery feature of my sewing machine, all nicely backward, just needing to be trimmed and attached

except when I started trimming them they simply disintegrated into little tangles of thread

well then

so now I have to decide what to do next

I could probably do the same embroidery right on the fused layer, but I'm worried about doing that because I've already put in so much work on the fusing and stitching and if I make a mistake with the machine I get to start over from the beginning

so today there will be some fusing with it -- I'll probably lay out what I have on the big table and see what I can come up with (this is where it would be helpful if I had an actual drawing to work from on this piece)

but I'm not happy about it right now

creating a monster

while I was working on this, I had it folded so that just this much of it was exposed

the DH walking by the table it was laying on said "it looks like a monster"

let me tell you there have been times as I've been stitching BY HAND all around each and every one of the many, many little pieces that I was beginning to think of this as a monster!

in this shot, though, you can see the stitching that I did around the pieces that had been fused down

I can't even tell you how many pieces were involved here -- maybe later I'll count them



so here we are

the spire and the building

this is the part of the piece that is supposed to be beyond the window in the finished work

which is why I did it all in black and white and gray -- its supposed to be on the other side of one of those sun shield windows

so this is the naked pieced after the stitching







my original idea was to put it under a layer of tulle that would be the window glass in the finished piece

this picture is the piece with a single layer of tulle over it

in the picture, and in person, there isn't much difference between this and the naked piece

certainly not really enough to convey my idea of "this is beyond a window"

and while that impression should be improved by the lettering that will be added, it just doesn't look like a window





this, on the other hand, looks like it is beyond a piece of glass

this is a piece of a sort of translucent iridescent fabric that I bought when I was working on the Angel of Music quilt that I made for my daughter

I used this for part of the wings

but I have to say I really like this better than the tulle for this purpose

so I'm thinking this will be what I will use

what do y'all think?




how much quicker it goes when the pattern is simple and only 2 colors!

the orange and white checker board took me only 2 days to do

the next pattern is also a smaller panel, but more complex and twice as many colors, so I'm thinking it may take a bit longer



yesterday the last of the ornaments came off the Christmas tree and went into their boxes -- this morning I will finish hauling them all out of the living room and vaccum the floor -- yippee!!

and there will be a trip to the grocery store and to pick up a prescription before I get back to projects today -- time to get moving!

the cutest Valentine ever!

it came in the mail on Saturday, and its been making me smile ever since

my daughter did the lettering and drawing on the little onesie for my grandson (this by the child that says she has no art talent -- HA!)

then she took the photograph with the wicked cute background (its the back of a quilt that was given to the baby)

then she made the card (I'm thinking she used her new Xyron machine, like I did when I made my valentine cards)

really, really nice job
yesterday afternoon I finished the beading on the bracelet

the DH had been saying there wasn't enough red, but when I finished up he said "you were right, there's just enough red"

so now it's time to trim it and put the leather on the back -- oh yeah, and there's that whole toggle clasp issue to finish too

after all the black and white and gray of the bracelet and the Hoffman piece, I've been wanting to work on something with some color

this is the next project on the drawing board

it is a Hawaii scene that I'm making for a friend's sister

the color rendering just gives me a sort of visual starting point for where the colors change -- not necessarily that they'll be the colors you see here




and this piece is the pattern drawn out on freezer paper

and yes, it is a mirror image of the original drawing because the pieces will be ironed on to the back of the fabrics

these are all numbered, as are the pieces in the color sketch -- that's how I keep track of where things are supposed to go

I'm not sure when I'll actually start on the stitching of this -- I need to do some serious fabric auditioning before I start cutting pieces, and before I can do that I have to finish a couple of other in progress projects that have nothing to do with art work

(we're still taking down the Christmas tree -- too much stuff going on with babies and company and the DH's surgery for me to get to it before now!!)

finally finished the 13 rows that made up the latest section in the afghan

this was a bit complex, but I tried a more refined technique and it worked really well

the next pattern is a very simple 2 color checkerboard of 4 rows, which won't be quite so difficult!

(now if I'll just remember to use that technique again when I get to the next complex pattern)

this Christmas project is now 21% complete!!


and mittnz #7

these are a really interesting sort of heathery pink color -- and they are almost big enough for my hands

tonight I'll be starting on a pair of gray and red striped ones


for today there will be laundry and beading and quilting

and more packing up of the Christmas tree

Happy Valentine's Day!

new toys

while my friend from California was here, I did some experimenting with watercolor pencils that she brought with her
during a period of about a week, I created a piece that was painted with watercolor pencils and with thread

and it was a lot of fun

but my friend had to go home and she took her pencils with her (I know, how one way is that?)

so ever since I've been looking in local stores to find a set of my own

(I had already spotted a really BIG set in the Dick Blick catalog, but I wasn't ready to plunk down $70+)

my usual favorite place to get art supplies close to home only had kits with just a few pencils and a really big price

yesterday, just on a "what if" venture, we went into my favorite office supply place

TA DA!!

a 24 pencil set of pretty nice quality (Prismacolor) water color pencils in a really nice tin (so I can keep them from getting mixed in with the other assorted color pencils in the house)

so, now I'm getting pretty antsy to get to a couple of projects that have been in the P.I.T. (project in transition) status for a while (no UFOs here!)

meantime, the work on the beaded bracelet is moving right along -- I need to go through some of my old technique sheets and get the toggle clasp figured out so I can just move right on to that as soon as the bead embroidery is done

and the black and gray stitching is done on the Hoffman piece -- started on the white yesterday

slogging along!!

beading and stitching

here is the progress so far on the beading project

all of the red and gray spots are done

there are 3 more spots that will be black and the rest will be white

I'm using a variety of subtly different beads of each color and running the rows of beads in different directions to make it more interesting

the other stitching that continues is the work on the black and white part of the Hoffman Challenge piece

do we sense a pattern here? seems were in black and white mode just now -- I have been thinking about the Hawaii piece again though, so color will return before long

a new bead project

after finally deciding yesterday that the Desert Dreams project just was not going to happen for now I spent some time surfing the web, thinking about redoing my website and my Etsy shop

and then this idea popped into my head

one of the things that I really enjoy making is beaded bracelets -- especially wide bead embroidery ones -- over a metal cuff form - like one of these

more recently I've done a couple that are not over a form, but have a clasp -- like these two

the up side of this method is that a magnetic clasp is a lot less expensive than those brass cuffs that I used, which means I can keep the cost of the bracelet down when I sell it

this is one of the drawings that I did yesterday as an idea for another bracelet

(I did a second sketch too, which I will show you later if I decide to actually do the stitching)


and here is the beginning of the bead work -- this piece is bead embroidery worked on a "sandwich" of two pieces of stabilizer with a piece of thin cotton/bamboo batting in the center

and its about 2 inches wide by 7 inches long - and will have a clasp -- probably a beaded toggle clasp

I feel much better about this piece than I ever did on the Desert Dreams -- so maybe I can actually get it done and submit it for the competition -- we'll see

now that its finally finished snowing its time to get out there and get the shoveling done, then hopefully some work on the beading!

desert nighmares and the "squishy"

seems the piece that I titled "Desert Dreams" has "gone rouge" on me and turned into a nightmare instead

after considerable fiddling, fussy, stitching and ripping I've decided it's just not meant to be for this year's competition

which leaves me with 3 weeks to the deadline and nothing that I can enter this time -- and I'm really bummed about it

truth be told, I haven't really been working much on jewelry pieces except for competition pieces since I've yet to figure out how I can sell them after I make them

pppfffftttt!
when I went out to get the mail yesterday the postman had stuffed it full -- magazines, envelopes and a tyvek bundle from my sister

we send each other "squishy" packages from time to time (though truth be told, its more often she sends me one than the other way)

last week I had sent her a skein of yarn from my stash because it was the color she needed to complete a project

she sent along these goodies for me to turn into more mittnz (and those gray balls? -- ALPACA -- oh yummy knitting!!)
and this is mittnz pair number 6 for this year

this was another pair made of odds and ends of yarn pieces, thus the strip pattern

they were pretty fun to knit actually, just took a bit longer than usual in the weave in stage


work on the afghan continues -- on Sunday evening I had done the first row of the new pattern section and last night I got about half way across row two and discovered an error in row one, so both of them made a quick visit to the frog pond -- we'll begin again today

the easy part we do first

the rest of this project -- who knows!

it took a little while, but I got the entire bezel built around the stone -- 3 rows of size 11 beads and 1 row of size 15 beads

so now I need to figure out how to do the next part

this stone is fairly thick (usually a bezel only needs 2 rows of size 11 beads), so just stitching flat cactus on the backing is just not what I see as how the finished piece will look -- need to figure out how to have them be on the same level with the stone -- or higher

the Christmas afghan is now 15% complete --

moving right along!


that last pattern, which was only 3 rows went pretty well -- spent almost as much time keeping the balls of yarn from tying themselves in knots as I did actually working the pattern!

the next pattern section looks like a checker board, only 2 colors, so it will go a little faster





I think the dog has it right

this morning I've already been out and shoveled about 3 inches of snow off the sidewalks in the front (I decided I'm not shoveling the whole driveway unless I absolutely have to), so now it's snowing again -- figures

and it was one of those nights where I was awakened about every 2 hours, so the chances of anything requiring any coherent thought getting done today are pretty slim (did that sentence even make sense?)

plodding along

two steps forward, one step back

turns out my fears about being able to securely build a net around this really large chunk of jasper were well founded

if I had a longer time period before the deadline on this piece I might try a couple more approaches to that idea, but for now I've decided to go to a technique that I've done before (because I know it works!)

here we have the piece of jasper glued down to the backing (I did the gluing last night) so today I can start in again with the building of the bezel and creating the envisioned 3D cactus around it

I'm starting to feel a little stressed about actually getting this piece finished by the deadline (which is March 1) and still feeling like it is my best work -- sometimes the work method that suits me best (having many projects going on at once) also sets up its own issues if anything beyond my control gets added to the mix

need to concentrate!

desert dreams and dharma

work continues on the desert dreams piece

there on the left side of the picture are a couple of the beaded "bell caps" I created that will go at each end of the "cords" -- this was my first really experience working with herringbone weave, and once I got the hang of it, it went pretty quick

that loopy, twirly piece of bead work is supposed to be the netting that goes around the chunk of jasper -- we'll see how it fits when I get done with the stitching -- it it doesn't work I'll be attaching the jasper to a backing and using the bead embroidery technique instead --

the box from Dharma Trading showed up on my porch yesterday afternoon

one bottle of Synthrapol, one bag of soda ash, five little jars of dye powder

at some point soon the dying of the felt hat can commence (I'll have to go out into the COLD garage and get the big canning kettle I use for these projects)


meantime, yesterday I finished up our Federal Taxes -- yippee, now on to the State and to get them all out of here


onward

quilts in shows!

you may remember this piece that I was working on during the summer last year

titled "Coexist", it was done for part of the Dream Rocket project where 24 inch panels will be used to wrap a replica of a Saturn V rocket

this piece and a number of other of those panels are currently on display at the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library, 150 E. San Fernando Street, San Jose, CA

they will be there until March 1

it's especially cool to me to have my piece in this show as I lived in the San Jose area for almost 30 years

if you get a chance to go and see this (FREE) exhibit, I'd really love to have a picture of you with my piece!

and this piece, which was also created last summer, will be on display in the SAQA exhibit hanging during the

Denver National Quilt Festival VI
4/28/2011 - 5/1/2011
Denver, Colorado

on April 30 as many of us as are able will be on hand to talk to people about our work

I'm really looking forward to that!

if you are in the Denver area, mark your calendar and come and visit!

the email about this came yesterday and I'm delighted that this quilt will FINALLY be seen by more than just a small group of people

and yesterday I entered this piece for consideration to Sacred Threads

as I was taking the pictures of this piece for the entry (the preliminary judging is done based on photos submitted online) I noticed many things about it that I would do differently (or better)

it's amazing to me how much my techniques have improved

and growth is what the artistic pursuit is about -- learning new techniques, exploring new idea, creating new pieces

it's working!

fusing and freezing

yesterday afternoon I finished doing the fusing part of this project

now that all of that is done, it is a lot easier to see that this is supposed to be a structure

that odd shaped white space on the left hand side is where something else goes that is a couple of layers up from this

so today I'll begin doing the stitching around each and every one of those little fused shapes with the appropriate color of thread (black, white or gray)

somehow this project has morphed into a multi-staged production -- this is Act I

as I said yesterday, it is very cold here (-21 degrees last night with a wind chill much colder than that)

this is a picture of the bottom edge of my kitchen window

the window frame is metal, and has been completely covered with frost

and all of the metal frames on the north side of the house look like this (in fact some of them look even worse)

and the furnace has been running non-stop (and we have it set only at a "balmy" 65 degrees)

our one concession has been to leave our little electric space heater in the family room running 24/7 since Monday afternoon

the big black dog that lives here would prefer to be somewhere warm sleeping

when she went out into the yard last night she came back limping after only about 3 minutes

because she is a Labrador, she is built for swimming -- there are webs between her toes that collect ice and snow in this weather -- so I used a warm towel to massage her foot

she thinks it should be a "2 people night", but for now she's just sharing the little family room love seat with me --

she's sleeping, I'm blogging

today I'm going to work on projects a bit more and just try to stay warm!

progress and an actual finished object

after picking out all the basting on this project, then drawing the shapes on the back of the Wonder Under, I've now started doing the fusing part of this project

the whole point of this is that I want it to look like a black and white photo, and I'm a lot happier with the way this is looking than it was the other way

(nope, it's actually not a piano -- but all those little black rectangles were pretty "fiddle-y")

I might mention here that any idea that fusing is less time consuming to do than applique should be totally dismissed right here -- the drawing, the cutting the pressing is time consuming, and after all the pressing is done comes the actual stitching -- around each and every little piece (and yes some artists do that on the sewing machine, but I'll be doing it by hand)

crawling along at tortoise pace
when I got tired of standing at the ironing board working on the fusing I did some hand work

the flap for the hand bag is now decorated and lined and top stitched

ready for attaching to the bag

the magnetic clasp piece is attached too

so now its on to creating the straps for the bag -- getting closer to getting it ready to use!


the third pattern panel in the afghan is complete

progress to 10%

plodding along




and another pair of mittnz actually complete

when I got to this pair I was down to not quite enough of the blue yarn to make this larger size, so I went through the bag of "odds and ends" and pulled out the little ball of variegated yarn that went well with the blue

I considered doing the ribbing with it, but decided in the end that I liked the idea of stripes better

in the end there was a piece of yarn about 8 inches long that wasn't needed

and I'm 45% of the way to 11 pair!

today I'll be looking in the "odds and ends" bag to find something to go with the pink yarn that there isn't quite enough of

sometimes these "scrap" mittnz are the most fun because of the challenge of using the different yarns in an attractive way --

today we are holed up in the family room with the space heater -- it is frigid here -- below zero with high humidity and a lot of wind -- I made a trip outside to pick up the newspapers (why on the coldest day are the newspapers out in the street!!??) and put an envelope in the mail box to be picked up -- one more trip outside later to get the mail will be the extent of our venturing outside

brrrrrrrrrr!