nothing much at all, thank you.....

at least nothing that I can show off yet, got done in the studio yesterday.


I spent a lot of time yesterday working on flowers for my cake decorating class, including this one that I made up all on my own. To see a bit more of those activities, use this link to go to Hattie's Kitchen and check it out.


meantime, work progresses on the new piece of jewelry. I have finished working the bezels around the 5 pieces of stone and have even finished backing one of them. Sometimes it amazes me how much faster this bezel and backing process goes than it did when I first started....practice makes perfect I guess!

I decided that even tho' the last piece I had submitted to Bead and Button was rejected, that I would send in something else. So, this morning a letter and a photo of the iolite and sunstone necklace is out in the box waiting for the postman to pick it up. Perhaps if I just bury them in pictures they'll eventually see on that they actually like! (I'm told that persistance pays off, so I'm putting it to the test)

work on the quilt and the plastic bag tote continue as well

as I was knitting away on the wool that we're going to felt and make into an animal I decided that we should perhaps name the animal Cafe au lait since it is a dark coffee brown and a warm beige color....interesting thought

its hot. As I predicted would happen; we went from cooler than normal, rainy weather to the upper 90s without much space in between. And I don't do heat very well, so I will be staying indoors with the fan and a cool glass of iced tea today! Maybe I'll get a lot of work done on that necklace!

chugging along on projects......

After having finished the iolite and sunstone piece of jewelry on Monday, yesterday I started working on a piece that is turquoise and coral.

One of the pieces of turquoise had a hairline crack across it that had been repaired, but I decided to cover the repair with beads and make that one of the design elements in the piece.

Pictures of this piece in the future (I promise!)


Last night was the 3rd of my Class II in cake decorating.

This is just a little sample of what we did last night. If you'd like to see more, use this link to go to Hattie's Cookbook.



After class I came home and worked on this a bit. Yes, its a plastic bag TOTE BAG....this piece is the bottom of the tote bag. Its sort of fun seeing all the different colors of bags that went into it.

The next step is to pick up stitches across the other 3 sides and the rest of the bag is knit around and around to the desired height.

The original pattern called for lining this thing with a fabric liner. I haven't decided yet if I'm actually going to do that.



And I FINALLY reached the end of the first skein of wool. It knit up to 23 inches!

As you can see at the very top edge, I joined the other skein last night and knit one row before I was falling asleep.

Because I am going to felt this piece I decided that I wanted the change of colors to happen at the beginning of a row, so there is still a little piece of the dark wool (about 12 inches) that I have put away with the skein label to use in the "art book" that will go with the little critter when its done.

Work on the center block of the quilt has begun. I got everything set up and have started working on stitching the monogram. So far, this part is going much easier than I thought it would....its a good thing!

Lots of things to do today....including playing with the dog in the wading pool because its supposed to be HOT today.....

we're off!

Its Finished!!

Persistance paid off, I finally finished the tube beads and got this piece strung together.

This is another smaller piece (measures 4 inches tall by 1 1/2 inches wide across the widest point).

I really like making the beads to go with it because then it looks a lot like a complete "concept" was in place, not just someone stringing beads.

I will be printing some 4x6 photos of this one to use for jurying.

I did a lot of knitting on the piece for the bear felt last night and I haven't yet reached the end of the first skein of yarn (WOW!), but I'm very, very close. Hopefully I'll be into the second skein tonight (or not, since I'll be in class for 2 hours)




All of the piecing on the quilt is done. Today I will work on setting up the applique block for the center. I'm turning cart wheels here folks!!

back to work now....

odds & ends....

It always catches me off guard when I open a magazine and see my own work looking back at me!

We get this local advertising magazine, and there in the center was this ad.

On the right hand side are two of my pieces (that I sold to the store owner a while back).

The pink heart shaped piece and the red oval piece (next to it) are both my work.

Its hard for me to look at those and remember that only a year ago or so I thought these were to most wonderful pieces ever. Now I look at them and think "gee, I could have done the fringe with branching, I could have used more beads between the pieces", etc., etc.

Guess that just means my style is continuing to change and grow and I'm learning new things (and making some up as I go along!)



Another afghan square complete!

On Saturday we did go up to Denver for the gem show. I went "bargain hunting" with a sheet of paper in hand where I had printed a scan of the pieces of stone I wanted to find pieces to go with. I did find some nice pieces and didn't spend a whole lot.

I'll be posting pictures of those as I get the designs into production.

Meantime, I'm nearly done with the tube beads for the iolite/sunstone piece I've been working on.....I needed to do 34 of these and I have 29 finished! Should be able to string this up soon.

Along with the afghan square, I worked on the recycling knitting project and the felting piece in the car up and back (can't waste the 2 hours in the car!!)

The bottom of the plastic bag is half done now, and I've not yet worked my way through a whole ball of strips. Who knew a little plastic bag could stretch so far!

The felting piece is moving along, I still haven't used up all of the first skein of yarn and the piece is about 15 inches tall....WOW! As I was admiring the label of the skein I decided that I should hang on to it. Instead of just putting a hang tag on this critter I want to do a little booklet (in Art Card style) that describes how he/she was created. This should be a fun project too!



A lot of time has been spent putting in the little pieces that go around the center block of the quilt this week. I've got only 2 more little corner blocks to go (16 pieces to those 2), then the center block, the batting, the back and the binding. Yes, its moving right along.

So today its laundry and a trip to the pharmacy and hopefully getting that necklace finished.

time to get to it

felt bear and a Friday sunrise...

The dog decided that 5:15 was a good time to be awake this morning....not really my idea of a good time, but












I was rewarded with this most awesome sunrise
the humidity was way up and we had a bit of ground fog which gave the whole thing a sort of misty, hazy look....pretty!

Its scenes like this that make me wish I could paint....ah well

I spent quite a bit of time working on the beads for the new piece of jewelry. I need to do 34 of the peyote tubes and I have 13 finished....its moving along!

This is the progress on the knitting for the felt bear.

All this worked up already, and I'm only about half way through the first skein of yarn. I feel like I'm working with "magic wool" .... the kind that never gets used up! It does make me feel that there will be enough to make a nice little bear when we get the felting done tho'














Finished another hot pad last night.....its looking good for that growing stack of Christmas presents completed!



Progress being made on the quilt too.....just a few more odd shaped pieces to complete before I begin on the center appliqued block....I'll definately have the top finished before the wedding!


Time to get moving....lots of stuff to get done today!

toward living "green"

Here in the land where folks still think global warming is a myth, one can easily be buried in the ubiquitous plastic bags.

We get two newspapers every day, and rain or shine they come in a plastic bag.

I keep some of them for the necessary "poop patrol" one does as a dog owner, (and for those I'm definately wanting the ones with only the hole that is supposed to be there).

That does leave a lot of plastic bags still to deal with.

And for the most part I don't acquire any bags when shopping -- even my local Walmart has resigned themselves to putting my purchase in the cloth bag I carry in with me.

So then, I've been thinking on the possibilties for these bags.

When I was a kid, my grandmother used to save the worn out underwear and support hose, cut them into strips and make round crocheted rugs out of them. Those things wore like iron....I still have a couple of them 50 years later!

Since I use bags to put projects in (knitting for in the car, etc., etc.), I thought I might convert my bags into BAGS!

So here you see 3 balls of plastic where I have cut the bags in a continuous strip about 2 inches wide, tied the ends together and I'm now just about ready to start knitting up a bag pattern that my sister shared with me.

I'll keep you posted on its progress....

Meantime, back in the studio, I have finished the main part of the new necklace and I'm now working on making the little peyote tube beads I need to string it up. I should be able to get this one done in the next couple of days.

This weekend there is a gem show that I may get to go to, so today I'm going to dump out my entire stone box and see if there are any pieces in there that I need to find "companion" stones for to work up some new pieces. That should be interesting.

and so we're off and running!

Its just like Christmas!!

Yesterday afternoon as I was working along on the new jewelry piece I'm doing, the door bell rang and the postman handed me a box.

Now usually when a box is on its way, I know about it, having ordered something from somewhere (I swear I think sometimes I keep the local post office running single handed with all the incoming supplies and the occasional outgoing orders!).

This box, however, was a total surprise!
and lookie at what was inside!!

My sister (who had been here for a week end recently) sent along some more goodies she thought I could use.

To the left are two packets of ultrasuede pieces in a whole variety of colors. This is the stuff I use on the backs of most of my jewelry pieces, and these two bundles are WONDERFUL!!! This should keep me in materials to back things for quite a while.

Also in the box was another large skein of varigated yarn for knitting afghan squares and a ball of cotton blend yarn (all re-wound from its skein for easier working without tangles -- or "yarn vomit" as we call it) to put with some other pieces of similar yarn that I'm working up into some hot pads.

She also sent along 2 more afghan squares that she had finished to go in the box that I will be sending off soon.

What a treat!! There is nothing quite as uplifting as an unexpected present!!

Here, then, is my latest completed afghan square.

With the squares from my sister I think I have enough to send off a box now! I'll be testing for size in my box of choice today.

Real progress was made on the jewelry piece yesterday. I did finally figure out how to connect the two pieces of stone and have begun the branched fringing on the bottom edge. Another very different piece.

time to get to work!!

seen from the "studio" window.....

There is nothing quite like being awakened by loud barking of a labrador at 5:55 a.m.
I'll grant that this morning she had something to tell us, however
I stumbled out of bed, finally found my glasses and went to the window to see what she thought was worth all the commotion....
there in the field behind our yard were two deer!
with antlers no less....one a 3 point (on each side), their antlers are still all covered with velvet....beautiful animals.
It had rained gently through the night and it was cool and overcast still, so there wasn't a great amount of light to get these pictures with my little digital camera, but they're still amazing to me
during the time we have lived here I've seen bunnies and foxes and a lot of different birds, but this is the first time we've had deer in the back yard
or nearly (a 6 foot fence being something of a deterent). I am officially amazed!!


Yesterday's work in the studio was pretty lean....I tried 3 different things putting together the jewelry, but none of them actually worked....I'll try something else today (not sure what). Meantime I got flyers for my upcoming show addressed and ready when the stamps arrive. Oh yes, and the laundry and shopping. Today I need to mix up the frosting for my class tonight before I get all involved in something else.

time to get to it....

odds and ends and garage sales....

Even tho' I spent most of Thursday and Friday getting ready for the garage sale and all day Saturday actually doing the sale, I did manage to get these pants finished for DH.

I had started them the weekend before and had everything finished except for the elastic in the top, which I had to visit the fabric store to get.

This is another of those seriously altered patterns....it began as a pattern for a pair of scrubs with just the in-seam side pockets. My new and improved version has two in-seam side pockets, a back patch pocket and a large pocket with a fastening flap on the outside of one leg at the knee. DH prefers this arrangement so he can put his wallet somewhere that he doesn't have to sit on it when he drives for long distances....much more comfy!

Anyway, these came out very nicely.




For a while now we've been talking about making a bear out of fabric that we create ourselves.

We've decided that we'll have a go at making one that is felt....and these two skeins of wool yarn have been chosen to be knit up and then felted to create this critter.

Over the weekend I actually started in working on the knitting....very boring stuff this....knit a row of 55 stitches, purl a row of 55 stitches....which will continue until I get all of both skeins all knit up. Consequently, I don't work on this until the last thing in the evening as I'm on auto pilot during the 10 p.m. news...its pretty brainless!

We'll see where this all goes.





On Saturday, while I was hanging out in my garage, taking people's money for carting off my junk (smile!), I was also doing my own version of celebrating National Knit in Public Day, and got some very interesting reactions.

I did manage to finish 3 more afghan squares for Close Knit Hugs, so I'm getting close to having enough to ship off another box full.

These last three are made of the new yarns that my sister brought me last weekend except for the solid blue half which was the last of the old stuff.

Pretty snazzy!





Progress on the quilt too. I thought I had all of the pieces laid out but discovered last night that I had miscalculated on the little wedge shaped pieces that make the arcs, so I will have to have one more trip to the scrap pieces to lay out a few more....I'll sketch it all out this time instead of doing it in my head!

Today I'm doing laundry (every Monday!), but I'm hoping to make some progress on the new piece of jewelry I'm working on...its one rectangular piece of sunstone and one oval piece of iolite/sunstone that I have worked beads around and now have to figure out how to connect and "finish". These last few pieces of jewelry have been a whole new kind of thing....its exciting to have them come out so well.

Time to get to it!

As promised....

Pictures of the Royal Icing mums I did in class Tuesday evening.

Here they are all lined up in their drying rack. I think they look pretty awesome!

Now I just have to find a box I can keep them in safely until we do our final class in three weeks.

I baked a cake and did some experimenting with new things, you can read about that adventure over at Hatties Kitchen.


While I probably should have been working on other things yesterday, I spent a lot of time working on the altered shirt that I am making into a jacket.

I trimmed off the bottom edge to make it a straight edge, and split the front. Then I cut out the lining fabric and a bias strip to back the knitted edge.

This picture is the end of the day shot that shows what the band at the bottom looks like now that it is sewed on. Pretty cool!


And I finished another hotpad....these pictures show the front and back.

Its always fascinating to me how the pattern develops when you crochet around and around switching yarn back and forth every round or so....



more progress on the quilt too....


Today we need to get things organized for the garage sale we are doing on Saturday. Every year one of our local real estate agents organizes this sale and the "entry fee" he charges goes to the local Children's Hospital. So, I'm collecting up whatever household and clothing stuff that hasn't sold on Ebay and we're getting rid of some furniture and tools that we don't need as well.....

and so we're off and moving!

Finally something done.....

Some how these new pieces are taking longer even tho' they are smaller....I think it is because I'm experimenting with brand new ways to string things together, and that sometimes means I take a piece apart 2 or 3 times before I'm happy with it.

This piece is made out of some really nice pieces of malachite, and it took no time at all to encircle each stone, but the arranging of the pieces after that took a while.

Nice I think.....

I have 2 more that are set up to work on now, one is sunstone and iolite and the other is turquoise. I'm hoping that doing this kind of work with the turquoise will actually find a customer as everything else I've ever done with that stone has been a dud....


And this is the neck band for the altered jacket I'm working on.

I had finished the bottom band a while back and had knit it with a metallic thread running in with the yarn, but I decided that metallic thread against my neck might not be so good, so no metallic in this piece

There was some tricky figuring to create this. I cast on the right number of stitches for the edge that attaches to the jacket and decreased (in the ribbing!) down to the right number to fit around my neck....pretty cool!

The next thing is to decide what color and stitch(es) to use for the bands that will go up the front of the jacket. Some of this decision will depend on whether I decide to use buttons or something else. I am thinking buttons tho' because I can make those myself out of a number of different materials....

I went to my cake decorating class last night and we started doing royal icing flowers.....pretty. I promise to take pictures of them today!!

Time to get busy.....

and a fun weekend was had by all.....

my sister came from the Denver area to visit for the weekend and we worked on "stuff" While she was here, she put together pieces for a couple of different quilt tops....
















While she was doing that I finished up the baby quilt that I had tied the weekend before.

I also stitched up a new pair of summer weight pants for DH....we had found this lovely deep purple with a pin stripe in it....

Couldn't quite finish those as I needed to get the elastic with the draw string in it. I did that yesterday, so I hope to get the pants finished today.



One of the things that we are both involved in is knitting for charity.

This trip she brought me this lovely pile of yarns to work with.....the last time she brought me a bag full of yarn was last December, and I've just about used up every little bit of it.

I think this pile will keep me busy for a while!

She also brought along some squares that she had finished which I will put in the package of squares I had done. Its been interesting to see what yarns she puts together....





Even my dog had to get in on girl's day craziness! My sister has cats (5 of them to be exact!), and my lab was just sure that one of them was in the suitcase with the yarn.



On Saturday afternoon we had a hail storm.

Lots of little pea sized hail covering the patio and beating on my rose bush....fortunately none of the blooms were open yet, so there was no damage to the flowers.

We always have food adventures when we have our weekends, so I will be talking about those (and sharing the recipes) over at Hattie's Kitchen if you want to take a look.

Last night I finished another afghan square....about the last one out of the old yarn. The next square will be knit from the new stash.....




and I worked on the quilt too.....slogging right along

time to get moving!

Play Time -- or what I did on my day off.....

In case no one's noticed, I have been in a finished objects slump of late, basically because a piece I'd been working on just isn't coming together and I'm feeling frustrated by it.

Yesterday I decided I was not going to work on any of that stuff, I was going to do something different.













So, I worked on this!

I know a while back I had talked briefly about the Land of Odds and their beaded doll contest. I have been working on creating the foundation for my beading by using one of Patti Medaris Culea's patterns from her latest book (Creative Cloth Doll Beading).

My working motto should be "I never met a pattern I didn't want to change", and this one is no different, but I needed to make the doll's shape work with the theme of the contest, so I changed her body.

I have actually done all of the construction now, and can really get hopping on the beadwork....notice I've started on her face.

This has been fun so far, (tho' I could offer some suggestions to improve the instructions for needle sculpting the hands) and its nice to do something that is just for fun (would love to win the contest this will be entered in -- $1000 to spend on beads would be AWESOME!!!)

So, I'm letting my subconscious work on the problem with the jewelry, and I'm playing with my doll......maybe until Monday since my sister will be here over the weekend for our "Retreat Weekend" (Retreat? HA! We're just advancing in some other direction!!)

and we're off!!