moving along......

no picture but doing a happy dance -- the quilt top is finished! I was able to rescue my measuring faux pas and I think it was actually a design improvement! So I guess the next step will be putting the top/batting/backing together and start quilting (JUST what one wants to do in 90+ degree heat!) I'll probably spend the next couple of days thinking about just what sort of pattern I'll use to quilt it....maybe play with some tracing paper....I'm thinking feathers tho', its sort of traditional for the pattern.....we'll see

Now that I'm done with the top, I'm already starting to think about the next quilt....it will be smaller than this oversize queen, and yes, another "design challenge"!

The pile of completed animals continues to grow. By the end of the week I should have a stack ready to hand off to DH for jointing (his hands are much stronger than mine, so he always does this step for me---bless him!) The painting of the Jester Stick began yesterday.....this is the tedious part, waiting between each coat of paint until it dries, but I've learned (from sad experience) that this is the best way!

I spent some time shooting new pictures of some of my pieces. The idea was to shot them all against a warm "skin color" to see if they looked better that way.



This is the malachite necklace I recently finished. Old picture on the left, new one on the right.













And this is the Autumn Leaves piece I did a while back. The older picture on the blue background, the new one on the beige.

Its kind of nice that all of the backgrounds for the pieces are now coordinated. I re-shot 16 different pieces to create a CD that will go with other information to a gallery in the Denver area for consideration. I've been fussing with this package for almost 2 weeks partly because I'm well aware of the "you only get one chance to make a first impression" issue, and I want to do it right.....


into the fray!

no "play day" this week

as we have only 33 days until my daughter gets married, and other things occasionally get thrown into the mix (like unexpected trips to Denver), I probably won't take another "play day" until after the wedding. There are lots of things to get done!



I finished the necklaces for the bridesmaids yesterday....lovely aren't they? The wedding rings (we ordered them wholesale for the kids) have arrived.

This week I will start baking the cakes and putting them in the freezer.



This cake was a chance to experiment with the jelly glaze, and it worked really well. More about what I did differently can be found here.







Finished another hot pad on Friday evening after my cake class. The stack of Christmas presents grows!

We're making progress on the animals that we are trying to get finished.

I have finished the sewing of the bear head for the new Jester Stick order, and DH has finished up the wood working, just need to paint the stick then start the assembling.

The new toucan is all stitched and waiting for his wire feet, and we have several other new animals in process.



All of the stones for the piece titled Let the River Run are now bezeled and backed. I laid them all out on the table and played with them until I was happy with the arrangement, then I took this picture so I will remember how I had them laid out while I'm working on the bead work that will be the streams of water flowing over them.



I also started working on the bezels around some stones for a bracelet. These are the stones I'll be using then I'll string it together with large glass beads in between -- at least that is the plan right now. This is a very different style and a kind of experiment, but so far I like it.



One more afghan square complete....I think I have enough to ship a box now...I'll be testing the box packing today.

Work on the Christmas sweater and the quilt have resumed.....I rescued both of them from my "boo boos" and I think both will be better for it.

time to get laundry and other stuff done.....

DUH times 2 and a small side trip....

well, I just knew it was going too well....

on Wednesday afternoon I was all ready to start putting the center block in the quilt I'm working on only to discover that my "to scale" drawing that I had been working from wasn't! The drawing showed that the center block would need to be a 24" square, so just to be sure I was ok, I had cut the piece 29" square. Unfortunately, I should have actually laid the quilt on the table and measured the opening instead, because even the 29" square is too small.

After a small amount of weeping, stomping about and gnashing of teeth, I pulled out all the fabric left from the block construction to see if I had enough of the fabric I thought would work best to make a "frame" around that center block and fix the problem....Nope, not happening. So, off I went to one of my local quilt stores (which had recently move into new -- and very nice -- digs) with a sample of the selected fabric to see what I could get that would work.

One of the reasons I like going to this quilt store is that the folks there are great...very friendly and helpful. While they didn't have anything EXACTLY like the piece I was clutching, after my explanation of the situation, she did find me a great piece that is the same colors, just a slightly different pattern and considering that all of the pieced blocks are made of a large variety of patterns, it works. So, I bought 2 yards of the stuff, the plan being to cut wide strips with the grain to create a frame around that center block (which actually is a really good looking thing) and then to cut the rest of the yardage on the bias to create the binding (necessarily on bias because it is all those double wedding ring curved edges).

So, I have escaped this little "design opportunity" crisis without major anguish, but DUH! Measure twice, cut once!

And then there was the sweater. I've been knitting blissfully along, smirking slightly and feeling superior that I was almost half way up the first sleeve, and it is a Christmas present, and it was going so well, etc., etc., etc. Then the fact that I was only able to get gauge with this yarn and these needles in one direction caught up with me and bit me in the butt. There I was, only half way through the sleeve and finding that the front edge was already the full length it was supposed to be when finished....Uh, DUH again! Obviously there will be a trip to the frog pond (rip it, rip it) in my future here. Nuts!

About that time I got a phone call from my mother telling me that my dad was in the emergency room because he was having trouble breathing and they were going to keep him in the hospital over night. So at that point, I tossed my afghan square knitting into the car and away we went to Denver.















In the car on the way up and back, I finished 2 more afghan squares. That means I only need to do one more and I can pack off a box to the group. A good thing.

And my dad was doing better, they will be adjusting his medications I think.....

So, today I have a long list of things I need to get done (longer than I can possible accomplish) so I'll just have to redefine the order of importance and put some of them over into tomorrow....

time to get moving!

working in slow motion.....

yesterday was one of those rare days when it was actually humid here in the high desert.....and the wind was blowing like crazy so there was a lot of dust in the air too.....sort of feels like you're breathing under the surface of a mud puddle....ICK!

We went off to run a few errands -- a trip to the hardware store for a dowel rod so I can make the second jester stick for the order I took over the weekend -- a visit to the grocery for milk and such -- stopped by the place where I'm scheduled to begin the final cake decorating class on Friday and found that unless 2 more people sign up by then, the class will be cancelled....NUTS! Hopefully there are just folks that operate on "last minute" time.

I went through my smaller pieces of fur and found something I can use to make the latest jester head from. These pieces take just a little fabric, so I hate to cut into something that is big enough for a whole bear. After the trip to the hardware store, the stick is in process, so we'll be able to paint/stain that soon. Still need to see if I have enough stuff to create the hat and collar or if I will need to make a trip to the fabric store for some pieces.

Progress is being made on the toucan. I'm ready to attach his beak, then all that will need to be done is to stitch the back seam and sew up the tail feathers. Since I will be setting up the sewing machine for a couple of other projects, I may do the tail pieces that way.....they are pretty basic, no extra fancy piecing required.




I finished another afghan block, now only 3 are needed to be able to mail off a package. At the current rate, about this time next week it should be in the mail.

hopefully today I'll get more done!

Play day and pain day.....

I took Sunday off and played with some new things. To see my experiments with Art Cards, use this link where I "show and tell" those projects.

Yesterday morning when I woke up the muscles over my right shoulder blade were just screaming, so I spent most of yesterday using alternating hot and cold packs and trying not to use those muscles....I think I may have slept in an odd position or something.



I did finish one more afghan block, so I now have 9 finished -- need 4 more to have another full box to ship off.











This is the front and the back of another hot pad complete. Really nice color combo here.....these are so much fun to do and sort of "brainless"....once I get that first chain foundation done I can work on these while I watch TV without getting them messed up.







I have completed the center applique block for the wedding quilt....now I just need to get the fabric for the back and I can start quilting.

The lady that had ordered the jester stick called and ordered a second one! So I will be rearranging the work order and starting on that piece as soon as I finish stitching the toucan that is in process now.

time to get moving!

play day

I felt that!

Or should I say, I FELTED that!

This is the result of taking the piece of wool/mohair I had knitted up and tossing it into a washer full of blue jeans in hot water.

The original piece of knitting was 45 inches by 26 1/2 inches. The resulting piece of felt is 17 1/2 inches by 12 inches. Why is it that the length-wise side shrunk down 10% more than the width-wise?

I'm not exactly sure either why we have the "wavey" sides, but it shouldn't be a problem considering what we want to do with the stuff.

So now, since this was a project of the DH, its up to him to create a pattern that will work with this material.

We went to Denver yesterday for our annual trip to the Cherry Creek Art Festival. You can read my thoughts about the experience by using this link.



In the car up and back I was able to finish 2 afghan squares.

I just love the way the patterns of color ebb and flow when you knit with a varigated yarn, it keeps the knitting of the same size and shape from getting boring.

and so, its time to get moving.....

Did you celebrate?

Because the 4th was smack dab in the middle of the week this year, we spent a very quiet time at home yesterday.

We listened to the music and fireworks programs on TV, and from my vantage point in the family room I could look out the patio door and see some fireworks in the sky above the hill behind our house.

I was watching carefully to be sure the neighboorhood law breakers (the ones shooting off fireworks which are illegal in our city) didn't set the field behind us on fire (since the new owners can't be bothered to mow it down!)

I have been working on a new teddy bear head (this one has brought about a lot of unpleasant language and flinging of things, but I think we finally got it). Today I will be working on creating a body to go with him.

I also worked on the quilt for my daughter, a sweater I'm working on and finished another afghan square.

This makes me think of sherbert---lemon and raspberry---mmmmmm, yummy and cool on a hot summer day.

On the whole it was a pretty good day.

who knows what trouble we can get into today!

maybe its the "dog days"

but I'm feeling a bit "out of it" with my work in the studio just at the moment.

I can (happily) report that this little guy has been packed up and is waiting for tomorrow's mail pickup.

He's going off to a new home. Quite an accomplishment since the history of this piece is that it was an "experimental" head (Dr Frankenstien anyone?) and it had been in my tubs for so long I can't even find any record of the pattern or what it became next! There is something to be said for saving this kind of pieces tho', as this order came together really easily!



Something to be shown for being in the douldroms with studio work, however.

I finished the plastic bag tote bag. This cutie is big enough to hold all of the "necessaries" for knitting a sweater, including the pattern, the extra yarn, the tape measure, etc.,etc.

And all created out of plastic bags, most of them from the newspapers that we get daily.

Now the question is, what do I do with the next bizillion plastic bags I get? I just hate throwing them away, but if I can't figure out another project, I'll either have to throw them away or we'll be 6 feet deep in them......mmmmmmm, we're open to suggestions here folks!




Another afghan square has also been completed....I like this bright yellow with the bright varigated....looks nice!

The next one is this same yellow with a pastel-y yellow, lavendar, white varigated. Looks very different. Its fun playing with all these colors.

Since I am very close to having the quilt top completed, I'm starting to think about what sort of quilting pattern I'll use on it and what sort of back I'll put on. I'm leaning toward a small yellow/blue floral for the back. I was in the local fabric store yesterday where I can get just plain white or unbleached muslin in the very wide fabric for a back, but that is just so ORDINARY! I really do like a print for the back but every print they had in the wide fabrics was just WRONG! So, today I shall take a trip around some on line sites and see what I can find. Failing that, there are quilt shops near by that I can go and look in.

Time to get moving.....

turquoise piece is finally done!

Ta Da!

I finally got this all strung up yesterday afternoon, and it looks pretty good.





I especially like the fringes and the look of the tube beads which I made out of seed beads in the same colors as the turquoise stones, even with the little matrix-y patterning.




Using the little slivers of coral along the sides of the main medallion and a few at the center of the necklace was pretty cool too.

So after I finished this one, I did some work on the River piece. A good place to spend some time while I think about other projects (I'll eventually get it finished this way!)

see, I TOLD you I was working.....

and I finished up this little lovely last night.

Pictures of him are going to the lady that wants him (she was at last Sunday's show), then I'll just be waiting to receive the $$ for him before he gets shipped.






and this picture (along with some close ups of each critter) will be going to the store owner that expressed an interest in having me do some items for her -- she has a large Alice in Wonderland clientele, and these little guys fit right in with that {you do remember Alice and the Queen of Hearts and the crochet match don't you????}

I have finally finished all of the tube beads for the necklace I've been working on (practically F O R E V E R), so hopefully today I'll get it strung up so I can move on to some new design of some sort -- or back to the River piece perhaps -- or ?????

We're going to the farmer's market this morning to check it out....we've been invited to participate on some Saturday's but I want to see it first -- if its just a flea market in terms of the non-food vendors, I'm better off spending my time working on other stuff.

Finished up the application to be in the Junior League's Christmas show yesterday too. Nice that they don't require a fee to be juried. Now I just get to wait and see if they think we're good enough (I hate that part). The next application is more like an artist's jury packet for a gallery in the Denver area....now that would be a sweet set up!

Time to get moving---the farmer's market awaits!

I'm working on stuff ... Honest I am.....

Its just that when a lot of what I'm working on are proposals for stores and applications to show my work in galleries, there isn't much demonstrable progress to show y'all. Be assured, tho' that if I actually see one of these proposals work out, there will be stuff to show for it!


This is the current status of the felt critter. I have about 2/3 of the second skein of wool knit up and its looking very nice. I did work on this a bit in the car on Sunday when we were traveling up to the show.



This is coming along nicely too.

Its always fun when making a bag that eventually the bag gets big enough to hold your balls of material that you're working into the bag....sort of like a sheep knitting herself....ok, that may be a bit vague....sorry folks






I did finish this afghan square on Sunday too.....this one looks like spimoni ice cream to me....you know, sort of pinkish with bright bits of orange, yellow and red in it...mmmmmmm, yummy!

time to get to work!

Flower cake?

Pretty!

I finished the last session of the Cake Decorating II class last night.

This is an oval cake (the cool pans came in my class kit!) and I spent the better part of the 2 hour class putting all the basket weave icing on the side. (my hands are a bit sore this morning.....cake decorating uses different muscles than the other things I do with my hands)

My peace roses and poppies were a hit....no one else had done anything like that.

Class III starts mid July and will be finished just in time for me to be in mid-wedding cake madness.....

This morning we had another deer visitor in the back field. A doe was just peering over the back fence into the yard. Unfortunately I didn't get to the camera in time to get a picture of her before the dog's barking told her it was time to move on. Deer don't so much walk as they glide....it was fascinating to watch her. Amazingly enormous ears....beautiful

Today (being pay day) we will be making our run to Costco for things like toilet paper and dog treats, etc., so I'll be doing some hand sewing on animals in the car.

thoughts on being too bright for the room.....

this should be subtitled and its not over 'til the last lady buys




once again this weekend we found ourselves in the position of being too bright for the room.

We set up our normal way -- raising the tables, nice drape to the floor black table cloths, full spectrum lighting (yes we were literally brighter than the room!).













What passes for a doll and bear show in this case was largely a flea market of used dolls, doll clothes and doll parts.

There were only 3 of 46 booths that were bears that had been hand made (and there were probably only 1 or 2 more that were displaying any kind of item actually made by the seller--one vendor was actually bragging about how she had bought all these doll clothes at Walmart for $0.50 each and had marked them up and was selling them at $6.00 each.)

Most of the rest of the tables held plastic bins or battered cardboard boxes full of doll clothes, metal toys, odds and ends of accessories, paper dolls and books. Some of the booths could have had a sign reading "Bare Naked Ladies" for all the nude dolls on the tables.

It is at this kind of show that I see the following senario: A couple strolls past my booth and says "Oh, Steiffs". Now while I'm pleased to be considered to be in that company; I must then patiently explain that all of the animals are designed and made by my husband and myself. (A side "talking point" is that a lot of the materials we use come out of the same mill in Germany that the materials Steiff uses do.)

For most of the day I'm watching plenty of $2 and $3 sales going on all around me, but as usual, I'm just one sale away from having a really great show (when the cheapest item on the table is $25, I don't have to make a lot of sales to catch up on those $2 and $3 ones).

Towards the end of the day I had sold only 2 small sales, and I was thinking I should have just hit the snooze button when the alarm went off at 4:45 a.m.!

In the last half hour, however, something different happen. I took an order for 2 special pieces from a lady, had an inquiry from a store owner for a special edition for her store (I'll be preparing a proposal this week) and after the show was actually supposed to be closed and we were packing up our inventory, a lady came back and bought 2 of my more expensive pieces (paid with what we call "green card"--you know, pieces of green paper with pictures of dead presidents!).

It was nice that in the end the show turned out to have been worth while, but I have to say I was exhausted by the end of the day, and I still feel pretty tired today.


While I was in the car up and back, I finished another afghan square.

Worked some more on the piece for the knitted/felted critter. I am now about half way through the second skein of yarn.

As I was looking at the skein wrappers for the two yarns I'm using for the felt project, I was amazed to discover that they are both the same brand of yarn. That may sound crazy, but one of the skeins (the dark one) was given to me by my sister about 2 years ago while the other one was purchased in California during our most recent show trip there. The labels aren't even made out of the same kind of material--one is paper, the other one is Tyvek (or something like it)--WEIRD!

Today I will be doing laundry and all the usual post-show paperwork (tax filing, writing thank you notes, etc) and maybe even catch a nap somewhere along the line...we'll see

its show time......

I'm almost afraid to announce this sort of thing, since the last time I did, we didn't actually get to do the show....ok, so I'm clutching my lucky rabbit's foot (why is that lucky?....it wasn't for the rabbit!) and making the announcement anyway!!

We will be doing a show in the Denver area on Sunday, June 24. For detailed information about the location, use this link to get all the details about the location and the show hours.

If you come to the show and bring a print out of that page with you, we'll give you a 10% discount on any item on our table over $20.

Its amazing that we still have 2 days before the show and I already have all the tubs of bears packed up....its almost scary to be ready this far in advance!

Yesterday I worked for quite a while on the new piece of jewelry I'm doing and I'm now to the embellishment stage. So, out came all the boxes of assorted turquoise and coral beads and the silver charms (hearts, feathers, etc) to be used as accents in the fringing. I even have some little "spikes" of coral pieces to add an accent color. I'll be working on that part today.

The mail man brought me a stone I had purchased on Ebay, and its even more awesome than it looked like it would be. Its an 11mm round sunstone cab that has really nice color. Since I also had two nice pear shaped sunstone cabs (bought from the same Ebay-er in the last year or so), I will be thinking about a design for these soon.

About once a year I look at our Artists' Statement (which we have to send off with most of the show applications) and think about rewriting it. Since I'm working on packets for 2 show promoters and a gallery, I decided this was a good time to do so. It took me about an hour to revise it so it reflects the direction our work is going, and to include in it some information about our inspiration and direction. An interesting exercise.

I finished printing up one packet this morning, so I will be assembling it today for mailing tomorrow.....one down, 2 to go!


Finished another afghan square last night, this one is that lovely fiesta varigated yarn with a strand of red.

I started another one too....same fiesta yarn with a bright orange....amazing what you can use with a varigated yarn.....yellow would be good too, but I don't have anything yellow, so I'll probably do peach next.

I'm going to be baking today (cake for class next Tuesday; cupcakes for us so we'll have some to take to our show for lunch), and working on the jewelry.

time to get to it

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