vanished like a puff of smoke?

nope -- I'm still here

survived the nearly week long "smoke out" when the prevailing winds carried smoke from hundreds of wild fires into our area

this photo is full sun over the mountains from our house one of those afternoons

those kind of days we just stay inside with the air conditioning which does a pretty good job of filtering the air

we've had other excitement in the skies here recently too

like the day a strange noise had Mr Benson running from back door to front door alerting us to strange doings over head

the balloon came down in the little park right up the street from us --- pretty exciting

there has been indoor excitement as well

for a couple of days Mr Cute's before school caregiver was not available, so gramma got to fill those shoes --- we did some arts and crafts (these are international signal flags) and created something to hang on his wall at home before I took him to school

work in the studio continues

when I started this piece I thought I would be cutting it down to a 12" x 12" square to donate to next year's SAQA auction

when I got it finished, I wasn't willing to cut 2 inches off it in each direction, so it is 14" x 14", and I have mounted it on a canvas for hanging, and I have already submitted it for a local show in an art gallery -- hope it gets in!

this piece is now finished as well

I created it specifically for a show that has an entry deadline in mid-November, that I have no promise (as with all shows) that it will get in to

so I decided to go ahead and enter it in a local gallery call for entries --- if it doesn't get in to that local gallery I will know before the deadline on that first show

we'll see how that goes

I had finished all but the stitching on this piece before I started stitching the river scene, so now I'm back to working on this

so far I have stitched the ground and the shadows, so I still have to do the mailboxes and the sky

coming along!

the ice cream maker is ready now for me to create the back ground

I've decided on a pieced design that looks like subway tile at the top and an old table cloth at the bottom which makes a pretty good setting for this

the pieces of the garden are slowly coming together

I have to say about now I'm really tired of looking at various shades of green!

and this morning, I was notified that this piece will be included in a show titled Metamorphosis sponsored by the Women's Caucus for Art, Colorado Chapter

I'm delighted!!  it was one of 41 pieces selected from 400 entries

WHOOOO HOOOOO!!!

starting next Monday, the 12" x 12" study of the city that is shown here will be part of the SAQA benefit auction

this is one of the ways I support an organization that has helped me develop my art in the past few years

there has been some utilitarian sewing here in the studio in the last week or so

my daughter got the t-shirt, which she loves, but it was too snug for comfort at the bottom edge even though the shoulders and the top fit great (who designs these things?!)

mom to the rescue --- I used the still good piece of another shirt to put orange "V" shaped panels in each side to make it work for her

and right now I'm working on the beginning of the annual Halloween costume for Mr Cute -- he's going to be the Hulk this year, so I'm making him a green muscle suit

we've reached the point in the gardening season that I need to pick nearly every day

while the zucchini's have been a big disappointment, I've already put a number of bags of green beans in the freezer plus all we've been able to eat, and tomatoes in some form are a daily menu item in addition to the ones that have been made into pasta sauce

I was able to get my hands on some strawberries to put up into jam for the winter too

meantime, out in the garage workshop, the DH is busy making some new figures for our wood nativity set (it won't be long before we're putting this up -- time is flying!!)

he has cut out the second sheep, the donkey and the cow as well as a shepherd boy

so far I have painted the animals (we're refreshing the paint on the older pieces too), and I've started on the shepherd

this has to be done step by step to let each color of paint dry before I start the next one

and of course no post is complete without an update on Mr Benson

he has been the hero of the garden watch the last couple of weeks as he has discovered that grasshoppers are fun to chase -- and with one well place swat, he can squash one with his foot

yeah Mr Benson!!  give that dog a treat --- and ignore the occasional picking of green beans from outside the fence -- seems like a good reward to me

...while you're making other plans

I barely know where to begin

again, it's been over two weeks since I got out here to do a post

partly because I'm still dealing with getting a handle on my own health issues

but in the last week because I'm trying to find words to say what I need to say

perhaps just throwing it out there is the best approach

this week my dad will be moved to hospice -- after years of being on a proton pump inhibitor medication, his kidneys are failing -- and along the way he had to deal with the cancer that medication was supposed to help him avoid

this is the part of the program where I just want to yell and scream and throw a general tantrum about how things are not fair

but the more adult, rational side of me knows we were not promised fair

and I'm still trying to process that

I'm trying to get to the studio to work on art or at least making something  whenever I can because it is what keeps me from going off the deep end

 the DH was the beneficiary of the first of that sewing

I had cut out three pair of the custom designed scrubs that I make him before Christmas, only to be side tracked into other things and did not get them finished then

they are all done now, and waiting for warmer weather to arrive so he can wear them

Mr Cute is the proud owner of a Ninja Turtle hat that matches the mittens that I made him for Christmas -- yet another project that didn't get done in time!

about six years ago I made my daughter a grey cardigan sweater that she has now worn out

she volunteered to provide the yarn, so I'm knitting her a replacement --- here is where it's a good thing that I hung on to the pattern and my notes for the custom changes that got made

it's hard to tell from this photo exactly what's going on here, but take my word for it that you are looking at the sky of a new piece I'm working on

think dust bowl

I have figured out what I'm going to do with the background of the truck, but I haven't drawn the pattern yet --- all in good time

and along with the bad news this week, we got some good news ---- our youngest grand daughter tells us there is a great grandson in our near future --- I've already started thinking about another quilt

progress on all fronts

this arrived in the mail on Thursday 

it is the sample swatch of the fabric I designed for my kitchen, and I have to say it is pretty cool to see my work transformed into cloth!

yesterday I ordered 4 yards of the fabric to use for the planned projects

and shortly I will make the fabric available for purchase through SpoonFlower -- pretty cool!

I have been working on this piece with a little more urgency this week -- I think I might actually be able to get it finished for the Art Walk show I'm doing on July 18th

the four bracelets I had planned for that show are already finished, so this one is a "bonus"!

and that is not the only thing I've been working on

this is the background layer progress made this week on the quilted piece

coming along

meantime, this photo that I took this week has become the focus of a design idea for another art quilt for a competition that has a deadline of October 1

hmmmm --- can I do this?  two big projects with deadlines within 30 days of each other?

time will tell

just because I'm working on those big projects doesn't mean I haven't been doing anything else

these two pictures are actually one hat -- totally reversible -- that I made for Mr Cute this week

he was pretty amazed by it when I gave it to him yesterday when they returned from their trip to see his other grandparents

while they were away, we had their two little dogs for "sleep over camp" at grandma's

and since I still have contractors in an out working on my studio, it made for some interesting days!

these pictures don't look like much but what they mean is that all of the drywall is up, taped and textured

tomorrow the work on finishing begins -- painting, flooring, plumbing, lighting -- and the goal here is to be all done by the end of July

whooo hoooo!

and there was a bit of outdoor work done this week too

the pots were a free find from a neighbor lady that wanted to get them out of her garage -- I'm thrilled to have them

each pot has some big rocks in the bottom then some pea gravel on top to hold the wood flowers

I need to get another bag of pea gravel to finish them up, but I love this on my back deck! 

it looks like I will need to repaint them before next summer, but for now I'm just going to enjoy

fixin' and finishin'

when my daughter came to visit a couple of weeks ago, I let her go through my jewelry box and pick out some pieces that she thought she could wear to work

one of the pieces she liked was this dark green crystal necklace that was once my grandmother's

she asked me if I could make it a bit longer for her

yesterday I added some clear crystal beads at the back that made the necklace just enough longer that it should be more comfortable for her to wear

I'm happy not only to be able to make this longer for her, but to be able to pass on something to the next generation
finished another of the dozen hatz last night

this one is number 3

this one is actually 4 different yarns, and I like the bright, warm colors it is made up of

today I'll have to go back to the yarn bin and see which of the stashed yarn I'll be knitting up next





having finished up the filigree bracelet, I needed a new beading project to work on

you may recall that I talked about getting these very nice cameos a while back

they are a soft green/chartreuse-y resin, and when I got them I was thinking about making them into a bracelet

yesterday I pulled them out, glued them down to the backing material and built the bezels around each of them

next step is to fill in the rest of the area within the squares, which will make 4 links that are about 1 inch across and 1 1/2 inches tall

I haven't decided yet what the links in between these will look like -- I'll be thinking about it while I'm filling up the squares -- I'm trying to decide if I want to create 3 more bead embroidered links or if I'm going to create some beaded beads

I've been going through some boxes of old photos

this is one of several I found yesterday

this was taken when my daughter was about 18 months old

4 generations -- my daughter and her cousin, my sister and I, our dad and his mother

wow

one more for the fair

I finished the piece I've been working on for the Wild About Flowers in the dolls division yesterday

the hollyhock dolls dancing on the top of a cut tree -- I can hear "Waltz of the Flowers" playing

I was really pleased with the end result of this project -- looks good

and it's completion means there are only 3 left on my "want to do" list for the fair --


and this would be one of them

I finished the embroidery on the first front last night

today I'll mark the other front and start on it

and the fabric for the lining of this is in the dryer as I type this

coming together nicely!


now if the quilt I'm trying to finish would play nice I'd be a lot happier

last Wednesday I finished the quilting and on Thursday and Friday I cut and stitched binding -- and on Saturday I took the binding off

this is the first piece I've tried to use a binding that is on the straight of the grain, and corners don't work the same way -- not to mention that I was trying to do a really wide binding

so yesterday new binding was begun --

so far so good

and the other projects I'm working on for the fair can't be shown here yet since I plan to use them as Christmas gifts too -- but let me say that if you thought doing quilting on the machine was less time consuming than doing it by hand, my response would be "forget it"

in order to give my fingers a break from the sewing, I've been working on this

when the knitting is done it gets felted then a zipper installed at the top

this will have a polka dot pattern in orange against the purple -- I love these colors together

and then it will be ready to go to the show I'm doing in November


today, being Monday, there is laundry to do, then back to working in the studio!

and one more thing...

lest there be fewer projects in the works

this is a wool cape

I've had this since September of 1982

it is wonderfully warm -- and it has just one problem

in this area having the sides of a winter cover up open is not a good plan

for quite a while I've been thinking about turning it into a coat by stitching up the sides and adding some knitted "leg of mutton" sleeves, thereby turning it from cape to coat

then my daughter asked me the other day if she could borrow it for the winter season since by the time it's really cold weather, her winter coat won't fit around her and the expected little one

hmmm, seems now is the time to get this project done!

I cast on the stitches last night

progress reports to follow!!

apron & mittnz and a new project (!)

and here is the apron I made for myself

the original pattern was shorter, but I decided a bit longer was better

this print is so busy that you can't even tell it has a pocket, much less that said pocket runs all the way across the front and even wraps around the sides a bit

and its divided into three sections so there's definitely a place for me the stash the cell phone with its headset in one corner and other important items in the other two sections

and I made this big enough that it even works over a heavy sweatshirt -- which is standard "in the house" wear at this time of the year

now let's see how much "dirty work" I can do in this before you can even tell anything is on it!

I know, these look just like the last pair I posted here

trust me, they are not

these, in fact, are the next size up -- same yarn though

so now I have two pair done -- only eight to go!

there is probably enough of this yarn left to make one more of the smaller size, but right now I'm sort of tired of looking at this color, so the next pair will be something different


and under the category "like I need another new project"

at our quilt guild meeting the other night, the Block of the Quarter pattern was introduced

I wasn't going to go there

after all, I have lots of projects in the que

but it kept calling out to me

how could I resist something called "Heart Song"

especially when I had all of the necessary fabric (black, red and a black and white print) in my stash

and the print is music -- like it was just MADE for this block

and it isn't like I have to do a whole quilt's worth of blocks -- just one or two (and I might end up with a bunch of them if I win the drawing)

ok, I washed them, now I have to see if I can actually DO the block and have it come out the size that is required -- if so, great -- if not, well I'll have a start on another piece to donate to the Alzheimer Project!

just a couple of quick errands to run today then it's back to the projects!

A gift for the "Laundry lady"

the DH does a lot of "messy" crafting out there in the garage ---

working with glues and stains and paints and sealer

all just the sort of stuff that won't come out of the shirt or pants de jour if he doesn't have a rag handy and he needs to wipe his hands or just the stuff splatters

before Christmas he found a very cool shop apron in a catalog, and I thought about just buying it for him, but $38 for an apron just seemed excessive (I mean for that it should do some sanding or painting or something on it's own!)

so, right after we got back from our Christmas trip, I picked up some heavy denim and a pattern (as a starting point) to make him a custom designed shop apron

and here it is in all its glory --- each and every hem and seam double (or triple) stitched

and that top pocket -- the one that was just supposed to be a "pocket" -- uh, that's all stitched in rows (much like the pencil cases I did before Christmas) so he can stick a pencil and a number of drill bits in there

he pronounced it "good!" and wore it for most of the afternoon

nice to get another project done!

so now I'm working on finishing my apron -- it is basically all stitched together, the pocket is attached and partitioned but now there is the binding (all the way around!) to be done, and because I hate store bought bias tape, I'm of course cutting my own from the same fabric, and it has to be stitched together before I can continue with the applying part -- I'm hoping to have it all finished today

this is the button I fished out of the button box -- one that has no matching ones in the box, so its a good one to use on something that only needs one button!

yesterday afternoon I cut the fabric for all of the aspen tress in the tree project --- I still need to cut the quilt batting for the first two --- so I should be able to start working on these either today or tomorrow

and I have come up with some very cool patterning for the sashiko project too

rollin' along!