Back to work!

Well, I survived the weekend!

On Saturday evening my daughter got married, and my 6 month stint as "wedding coordinator" was complete. We don't have professional pictures yet, but there are a couple of snap shots of the happy couple on my "Random Thoughts" blog which you can view by clicking here. More pictures will be coming later when I get all of the photo CDs from everyone that was there.

She was a beautiful bride, and he's a wonderful guy. For the rest of this week we're keeping their dog, so we're having fun playing with 2 dogs! (pictures of the dogs on the "Random Thoughts" blog too!)



I have managed to get a necklace completed!!

This is one of those "did I do that?" moments when I take the photos of the piece and then have that sort of "out of body" experience that makes me wonder how I managed it.

I think this one is awesome!!

Last night I started working on ideas for another multi stone piece with this kind of open net work as the background. I don't know yet what sort of beads I will use to put it together -- the stones are greens and browns, so I don't think I'll be using silver like I did on this one.

Spending a lot of time in the van last weekend did allow me to do a lot of knitting and crocheting. I finished a lot of things on that front!






Another all cotton hotpad (I'm getting all kinds of requests for these things, so there will be many of these made as Christmas gifts!)









This is all cotton too.....just love this pattern....its right out of the Mason Dixon Knitting book, and I've now knit it enough times that I no longer need the pattern.....now that's the power of repetition!!

I started another of these in the car too, and its about half done.



Then there is this oddity. In case you haven't been reading my blathering for a long time, this is a cover for a wet jet swiffer. My daughter shares my objection to needlessly adding to the land fills, so a while back I did an experimental model of this for her, and it worked really well. Having one to wash and one to use is a good thing!!

This is, by the way, an adaptation of that wash rag pattern that I was talking about, and I used up some buttons that I already had in the house.


















And of course afghan squares. I now have 11 of these done, so after only 2 more a box will be ready to be shipped.

I did finish the quilt top for my daughter and the center medallion was all quilted before the wedding. I'll be spending time every day working on the quilting now until I get it finished -- in fact, I invited my sister to come and work on it too.

Well, guess its time to get back to work. I still have laundry to finish and I'm washing up punch bowls and serving trays to go back into storage or back to the people I borrowed them from.....

better get moving!

things brewing......

there will probably be "radio silence" for much of this week here in the studio as my daughter is getting married on Saturday (yes, THIS coming Saturday), and I will be busy with figuring out table set ups, decorating a wedding cake and doing flowers...I probably will not get a lot of other things done.

I'm still working on the quilting of the wedding quilt. Last night when I sat down to work on it I discovered that at some point I had gotten a little spot of blood on it (not sure how), so now we're trying various remedies to remove it without damaging the quilt ---- AAAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!! Any good hints here would be gratefully accepted!!

Time to get to it

A completed bear!

And isn't she cute?

Such an odd little critter with short arms and legs and a loooonnnngggg body.

And what a face! Don't you love the look of mischief?

She's wearing a necklace made up of odds and ends of glass beads strung on a piece of pearle cotton. The big bead at the bottom is one I made at the torch. It just seemed to fit her.

She has no name yet. Sometimes it takes the critters a while to tell us who they are.




The drawing is complete.

All of this will be surrounded with a 3.5 inch border.

Now that the drawing is finished, the next step will be to tape it to the patio door and trace it in sections onto freezer paper so I can cut the freezer paper for the patterns.

This one will be a lot of fun to make -- lots of challenging paper piecing, a smattering of applique, using new and unusual fabrics, and developing a quilting pattern that will also tell a story that augments the story told in the piecing.

And this truly is a collabrative work between the DH and I.

Yesterday I finished my blouse for the wedding. It went together really easily and the fabric was a breeze to work with. (I think some of the scrap will end up in the dragon quilt).



We discovered yesterday that these had to be put up right away, so we (mostly DH, I just helped a little) took care of them.

To see a bit about that project, go here and take a look.

Today there are lots of 'around the house' chores to be done as we have California company arriving tomorrow.

Time to get to it!!!

work in the studio too....

Even though the wedding "madness" continues, I have found some time to work on things in the studio too. (Perhaps taking refuge there to help clear my head between cakes and sewing and all).

Nothing is finished yet, but here is a peek at what we're working on:


The latest 2 bears -- each with its own distinct "open mouth" style.

What you can't see in the picture are the ENORMOUS feet on the taller one and the very cute short legged pigeon toed legs on the other one.

Both "One of a Kind" animals to be sure as we are still experimenting with the face and leg styles.



Then there is the new sheep (made of alpaca, which of course will require me to knit her a homespun WOOL sweater to keep down the crankiness). I need to make another black sheep too, but I'll have to get some black alpaca fabric first.

The sheep's companion here is another version of the DH's now famous Mousie design.

All of these critters are ready for noses and eyes and ears and such, but right now the table I usually use for that project is taken up with a sewing machine being used for other things. Soon tho'



I've actually been working on a necklace of the style I've just started doing bracelets in.

All of the stones have been bezeled and backed, so now I'm struggling with how best to string them all together. I've been thinking about using a sort of beaded netting to run them all together that would also allow me to add other embellishments between the stones....a sort of beaded collar but not all embroidery like some of the others have been.

And that idea has me thinking about maybe doing another one where I would build the net first and then add the bezels from that base instead of backing the stones with fabric....which might mean I could use some facetted stones too....and just who knows where all that might lead.....

In this case, I'm just playing with the materials to see where they take me!



This is the reason the sewing machine is on the work table.

I bought this lovely periwinkle colored Poly Shantung fabric to make my top for the wedding. The buttons are a sort of mother-of-pearl, iridescent looking that pick up the lovely periwinkle color. The fabric looks like Shantung Silk with its little nubby feel, but because its polyester, it is totally (GASP!) WASHABLE!! I love the look and feel of it, and it was a breeze to cut out the blouse.

I'm hoping to get a lot of the sewing done today.

Wedding work continues:
All of the cake is baked and safely stashed in the freezer.
The menu for the reception has been settled upon.
The flowers have been ordered.
The photographer has been confirmed.
The announcements have been addressed.

The quilting on the wedding ring quilt continues. I have about 1/4 of the center block quilted. I would love to have that entire center block finished by the wedding so we can "artfully display" it with that much done.

Meantime, there are peaches to be canned in the next couple of days, and I'm readying 2 rooms for the use of our friends from California that will arrive on Saturday.

Time to get to it -- we'll be making a trip to Walmart today to pick up some things we need (and can only get there) -- I'll be getting the Hershey kisses to be tied up in little tulle baggies while I'm there -- its the best price in town

Christmas in August!!

When we arrived home from Denver on Saturday afternoon, the post man had left me a package on the front porch (nice guy that he is, he put it where it wouldn't get wet, which was good since it had been raining for a while).

This is what I found inside:


Sixteen balls (some of them totally untouched!) of the lovely cotton that I have been making into dish rags and hotpads. And such a nice assortment of colors....mmmmmmm, hot pink, bright orange, lovely shades of blues. I have already begun using some of this little treasure trove!



And, plastic bags -- green ones and blue ones and several with purples and reds -- yummy good stuff to be cut into strips -- a good project for an evening when I'm feeling too "brain dead" to do anything requiring heavy thought!!



Then there are these wonderful things!! Just in time for me to use them for long quilting sessions and long cake decorating sessions!!

All of this bounty came from my sister -- just a busy little "Christmas" elf she's been sending this to me!!





So the cotton yarns arrived just in time, as I finished up this hotpad on Saturday in the car, and was left with only a little bit of the blue cotton in my "stash".

This is my Salute to the Gees Bend Quilters in crochet form (notice the little odd patches of blues here and there.

Sadly there is no more of this soft "heathery" reddish yarn left, but we'll be moving on to other cottons.












As always when I'm in the car, I got some afghan squares done too.

Yesterday I worked on the "sample" blouse to make sure my pattern worked properly, and did the laundry. Today I will be making the trip to the fabric store to find something to make up for the wedding.

and so we're off and running......

Final cake class...

Ta Da!

Last night was our last night of class, and this is what I put together. This is my first ever stacked cake, and I learned lots about using dowel rods to put it together.

On the way out of class it was raining, and in trying to keep the frosting from getting wet, I damaged the back edge of the top cake's edging, but it still looks pretty good.

So now I don't get to go back to class until January -- there's one more Wilton class (on fondant and gum paste) but between now that January I'm going to be a bit busy!


Today we're going to visit with my folks and see my sister, so I'll be knitting no doubt

time to hit the road!

blouses and quilts.....

Before I cut into fabric for the wedding outfit, I wanted to test out the pattern I did for the top.

This is the fabric I had on hand, which is kind of cool, so I cut one out of this yesterday, just to test. If it goes well, I will have gained an extra top that I can use for indoor shows or other occassions that call for something nicer than a T-shirt --- like the rehearsal dinner!

This has been the week of the quilt back saga. About 2 weeks ago, my sister (bless her!!) volunteered to purchase the fabric for the back of the wedding quilt and have it shipped to me.

After that, things got crazy. It took the company 8 days from when it supposedly shipped it to get the fabric to me, then, when I opened the package, they had sent the wrong fabric....it was pretty, but definately GREEN, which didn't go with anything on the quilt.

So, my sister called them and asked them to correct the situation. On Wednesday, early in the morning, the FedEx guy arrived to pick up the stuff they had sent in error.

Later in the day, a second FedEx guy brought the correct stuff. (why they couldn't use one truck and make one trip is beyond me, but there you go....)

Anyway, the newly arrived fabric was a shock on its own in that the picture in the catalog of this fabric shows only yellow and blue while the real thing has a healthy dose of pinkish-purple in it too. Its not exactly what I thought it would be, but because the prints I had used on the top do include some pinks and lavendars and because the binding will be a totally seperate fabric, it will work.

Yesterday I got the whole quilt pin basted (I use those lovely little curved safety pins to do this -- they're a wonderful thing!), and last night I started quilting (just what everyone wants to do in the humidity and heat -- sit with a quilt over their lap!!)

At least we're now making progress!



Meantime, while I was waiting, I got another afghan square done!






the gladiolas in my front yard are blooming --- beautiful! Right now I have 3 different colors in bloom, this lovely one, a deep purple and an orange and yellow one.

I admit that weeks of cake decorating class have changed the way I look at flowers....I look at this one and think "hmmm, with some royal icing and the largest lilly nail I might be able to make some of these"

Tonight is my last cake decorating class, and I have a lot to do to get ready for it, so its time to get hopping!

We're in a new publication.....

I was notified today by Violette Reid over at Peach Publishing that she has included one of my beading pieces in her current issue. If you'd like to take a look, you can click here to check it out.



We've spent a lot of time in the kitchen the past few days.

We put up a little batch of pickle relish (aren't those jars pretty?). You can read more about this adventure (and get our recipe) by going to Hattie's Kitchen.

I can also report that I have all of my cakes for my Friday class (which is the last one) and 3/4 of the cakes for the wedding in the freezer.




This little lovely is my latest completed knitting. Made up of 2 different kinds of cotton yarn, it has a wonderfully "nubby" texture and should be ideal for scrubbing those bits of food off the plates.

I have managed to get 2 bears stuffed and ready for finishing too....just so you know I'm not just sittin' in front of the cooler, drinkin' sweet tea!

Well, its time to get moving, places to go, people to annoy!!

Sunday in the cake factory.....

I spent a lot of time yesterday in the kitchen working on cake and flowers for the wedding.

These two pictures are the white royal icing flowers for the cakes --- all 125! of them --- ready to be packed into the plastic containers until I start placing them on the cake. It took me a total of about 4 hours to make all of these, and I got faster as I went along. I'm especially proud of the rose buds because I had to figure them out on my own.

One half of the wedding cake has been baked, wrapped and stashed in the freezer. I'm hoping to get 2 more layers baked today, which will leave me with only the chocolate layers to do. I'm feeling pretty good about being on schedule to get this done a bit ahead of time.



Progress is being made on the quilt design. Our work space for this project has taken over the dining room table (which of course puts a kink in our cooking overflow, etc. and leads to whining -- by me -- of needing a really good studio space and a bigger kitchen -- you know how that goes!)

We have worked out a sort of pattern for the progress on this. The DH is doing the drawing (except for the Japanese character, which I did), then he inks in the part he is happy with and I get to do the coloring. When we get all done with the drawing/coloring part, I'll be transfering everything to freezer paper. This will be another combination of paper piecing/applique/embroidery, and I'm already thinking about doing a whole other design for the quilting and doing that from the back.



Another afghan square completed late last night.

Laundry and baking await......onward!

something completed!

This is Toucan IV. Every one of these has been a different assortment of fabrics.
This one again has the very cool "crown" above his eyes where I've brushed up the pile of the mohair.

Pretty neat!!



I'm refering to this as the moonstone bracelet.

This is the second in the series of pieces done by using beads as the "bezel" where most jewelry is done with metals.

The stones in this piece are (left to right): black onyx, white moonstone (with a carved face) quartz drusey, black agate and grey moonstone.

The beads in between each stone are black glass cubes and it has a pewter heart shaped toggle clasp.



While I had the tools and the stringing board out, I restrung this piece and made the neclace a bit longer.

Originally most of the necklace was made up of tube beads I had created in zipped peyote stitch, but it just wasn't quite long enough. I added some other glass beads, some crystals and some pearls to it, and I think it came out quite well.



Last night was my cake decorating class. This is a sneak preview of what I did in class. To see more about the other flowers from class, use this
link.

Time to get busy!

to market, to market.....

Yesterday was our monthly Costco run, which means most of the day is shot for getting anything done in the studio. Our closest Costco is in the Denver area, so we're usually gone for most of the day .... we'll be really happy when the Costco that is under construction in our area gets finished (if we are actually still here to see it!)



I did get another piece of jewelry all set up to start working on. This will be a necklace made up again of a random assortment of cabbed stones and I'm using all greys and silver beads as the "bezel" work around these. The challenge here will be figuring out the "inside curve/outside curve" porportions when I put it together.

I'm hoping to get the bracelet that I had been working on finished today.














One thing I do get done in the car is knitting afghan squares. So, two more are complete and waiting for the next 10 for another box mailing.

Today there are more errands to do, royal icing to make for class (and wedding cake flowers), and other assorted chores....

another order complete!

Here he is in all his glory. Pictures taken against two different back grounds (a process that goes on a lot in the photo studio).

I finished him up yesterday afternoon and today I'm mailing off the picture and the information to the customer that ordered him. Hopefully she'll call as soon as she gets the note and tell me to charge her card and ship him.

The last of the next bracelet stones were completed last night too. Next step is to string it all together. Since this one is all black, white and gray, I'll be going through the boxes for larger beads in those colors to complete the piece. Amazing how quickly this went together....WOW!


after struggling with the idea that even at 10K pieces (each of which would be 1 1/8 by 1 inch in size), the design didn't have enough detail to clearly distinquish what I was trying to do and not wanting to go the 60K pieces route (I'm really not THAT crazy!!), we went back to the drawing board. And I do mean WE.

As I have discussed here before, I don't draw. Its a skill set that I wasn't given as a "gift", and I've never had the opportunity to acquire. My DH, on the other hand, does it REALLY well. So yesterday we held a collaboration meeting and he produced this drawing which is the size I need to be the centerpiece of the next quilt. He's working on the backgrounds now. Once he gets it all drawn and inked, I'll finish the coloring then I'll be transfering it to freezer paper to begin the piecing. Awesome!!

Today is our once a month shopping day, so we'll be out and about most of the day and maybe not get much else done (especially since it is HOT!)

time to get to it

I must be out of my mind.....

As you may have read here yesterday, I've started working on the next quilt project.

The idea was to create a graphic using my Photoshop software that would be what I want the quilt to look like, then run that graphic file through the software that creates a bead chart then use the chart to make the quilt from. My thinking was that if you can create a picture using little rectangular beads you could do it using little rectangular pieces of fabric. I thought it would be a good way to use up those pieces of fabric too small to use.

Well, creating the design was my "play time" yesterday. After doing a lot of "fiddling" in both programs, I finally created the graph. This is just one of the 15 pages of similar graphs that it will take to create the quilt. The pieces are small, but much bigger than the original graph which would have produced a quilt requiring 62K pieces (yes, that's 62,000!).

Hence the title of today's posting .... I must be out of my mind! However, unlike a quilt with similarly small pieces that I started MANY, MANY years ago (and finally gave up on); I do have a definate, fixed purpose here, so I'm much more confident that this will come together. And my box of small scraps will get smaller and this will give me a great backdrop for what I want to quilt into it as well....so I'm excited.

Next step -- think about organizing into managable pieces (maybe piecing each page of the chart seperately then putting them together from there.

But first, there will be a lot of work done on jewelry like the last bracelet I did. I will be pulling out the stones and setting up some of those today.

The jester for the order is coming along -- finished the hat and the collar (except for the bells) yesterday, so I hope to get most of it done today.














Another hot pad is complete! Now I'm working on dish rags with the rest of the cotton yarn I have on hand.

Today will be full with laundry and house cleaning and a couple of errands to do.

off to slay the dragons!

working on a new design......

As I said a few days ago, I have finished the quilt top I've been making for my daughter and her soon to be husband. I'm waiting for the package to arrive with the backing in it so that I can start on the quilting. So I spent a bit of time yesterday working out what I'm going to quilt (and where). This morning I copied the most intricate portions onto card stock so I can cut it up and use it as a template.

Doing the quilting is something I really enjoy, but it is something that I usually do at the end of the day when I can settle into my chair and relax (I don't have a quilt frame -- can't imagine where I'd put it -- so I just work in my lap).

This means that like with most big projects, I've got a big "gap" in my working sequence, so I'm already thinking about the next quilting project. (Until I check on rather the intended recipient reads this blog, I'll not be going into details) I can say that the working idea involves creating a picture in much the same way I do when I use beads ---- little rectangles of color all stitched together in the proper order. It would be a good thing if I can get the design work done in the next month or so because I could then start putting sections together while we're traveling to shows in September and October.

Speaking of shows, we were notified yesterday that we have been accepted in the Cider Days on Walnut Street in Springfield, MO, at the end of September. We had done this show a few years ago, and it will be interesting to see if my new stuff goes as well as the old stuff did. It does mean that I need to get some more of the new style pieces finished -- it usually sells better if there are more of the same style items to select from.

I have finally finished stitching all of the animals we have in process. I have been painting the toucan feet and the stick for the jester the past couple of days, so today I hope to get started putting the jester together. I got small (1/4 yard) pieces of the fabrics for the collar and the hat in the colors that the customer wants, and usually this hat/collar building doesn't take too long.



Friday night was my cake class. Click on the cake picture to read more about that adventure.

I didn't get as much work done as I might have yesterday, owing to the fact that around 1 pm the post office delivered my copy of the last Harry Potter book. I'm not as fanatic as some folks, but I have already read 9 chapters. I'm trying to avoid going to places (ie book reviews, websites) that will spoil the ending for me, but I'm pretty resigned to the fact that since I don't just "hole up" and read straight through that there's a chance I'll find out what happens before I actually finish the book. Part of the fascination of this series of books for me (beside the fact that its a GREAT read) is the history of the author. Writing in a coffee shop because her flat had no heat, being rejected out of hand by several publishers, she is (like Harry himself) a study in perserverance. Talk about a role model for every as yet unpublished author on the planet! (yes, that includes ME!)

time to get moving on some other projects.....

Can you help with this project?

As you may remember from a while back, I have been saving plastic bags to knit into tote bags. I must admit, however, that since I have in mind making up several of these little lovelies before Christmas, I've encountered 2 problems. One is that I probably won't be able to collect enough bags on my own and the other is that about the only colors I get are yellow and orange with a few white ones thrown in now and then.

Sooo, here's my question for all of my readers: Do you have any plastic bags (colored stuff, not the clear ones from the produce section) that you would consider sending me? I would especially love to have interesting colors -- anything NOT yellow or orange, for instance!

If you'd like to contribute to the fun, you can email me at: webspinner51 AT yahoo DOT com and I'll send you details on where to mail stuff.

Thanks in advance!!

Yesterday I went back to working on the necklace I've been doing for about 6 months now. Every time I get one step finished I have to pause and think for a while (ok, sometimes for a LONG while) on how to do what I see as the next step.

I think I have finally figured out how to create what looks like a little waterfall over the back of the big stones with a bit of beading that combines ladder stitch, brick stitch, right angle weave and netting work.....I managed to get a magnificant ONE stone completed. I'm hoping the next ones will go more quickly.

Last night we attended a meeting of the local Mineral Club. We had been invited by a fellow that I purchased some very cool rock cabs from, and we decided that we should check it out. I took the latest piece of jewelry with me to show him the kind of thing I do with the stuff I bought from him and had several other folks admiring the work too. Nice! Their program was a lecture/slide show about crystals and how they are classified.....I can tell you that in this case I'm definately WAY dummer than the room, but it was nice to just feel uneducated, not stupid (my apologies if that doesn't make sense!) As a person that took only the bare minimum of science classes in high school (and NONE since), I can say I've learned more about geology in the past 4 years than any time ever before.....guess now I'm just more interested. At least some of what the fellow was saying made sense to me, and he had some of the most awesome samples of stuff I had ever seen.....a perfect crystal of iron pyrite that was about 3" across --- wow! Anyway, we'll probably go again and maybe get involved with a couple of their sub-groups -- the DH wants to learn to do faceting, and I wouldn't mind learning to do at least cab work so I could cut my own stuff.














Completed another hot pad -- this one is a small one ideal for wrapping around a pan handle or grabbing a pan lid. This one used up a lot of my little bits and pieces of yarn that were left over from some of my bigger projects.



This afghan square marks a kind of record -- I have made 50 of these! This is the first one for what will be the next box full.

Tonight I have a cake decorating class, so I best get moving and put the crumb coat on the cake!

A whole new look....

I finished the bracelet I had been working on for a couple of days.

The whole idea of this new "look" was to use the seed beads as if they were the metals that a lot of jewelry artists use to create their pieces.

In this case I have used 6 different stones (from left to right in the picture: ocean jasper, rhodochrosite, chrysophase, lapis, tiger eye and charoite) and used size 11 gold colored silver lined seed beads as the "metal" bezels around each stone. The whole piece is strung together using crystals as the spacer beads.

The bracelet is about 8 inches long and measures 1 1/4 inch wide at the widest points.

This is the most expensive bracelet I have ever put together, but I'm hoping that the "look" of it will enough of a "grabber" to make somebody say "I've GOT to have that!"

I had originally planned for the piece to have one more stone in it, but putting that one in would have made it too long for most people to wear, so it got put aside (already all bezeled) to use in another piece. Since this was the first one, it was just a guess how many stones would actually work in it, not knowing how much space the bezeling would actually add to the stones. For the next bracelet and the necklaces I have planned I will have a better idea of how to plan.

Meantime, back in the "bakery", I have baked the top tier layers (6 inch ones) for the wedding cake and have them securely wrapped in plastic and tucked away in the freezer. On to the next layers!

So, work continues.....