a little shopping trip

one of the inconvenient things about living in our little village is that when a piece of equipment from the garage workshop needs to be repaired, we can't have it done here -- we have to make a trip to Denver
 
and yesterday we did that -- and then we made a little side trip to a bead show that was going on up there too

I didn't have a big list, since right now I'm in the midst of a big beading project, and I'm not really thinking about the next one yet but these items just seemed to need to come home with me ---

and that triangular chocolate colored druzy piece will probably end up in a piece that coordinates with the current project
cool

not only did I pick up some items in the shopping, I picked up a couple of objects off the ground outside the building

a lot of the pictures I've seen of acorns show a distinctly shorter, rounder nut than these

and I'm especially intrigued by the little immature ones on the stems







of course time spent in the van to Denver and back means I'm knitting afghan squares --- and I'm not sure this one will even fit in that box I've been filling

 it may be the first in a new box





 usually I'd be showing you a picture like this no later than the first part of July

but this was an unusual summer (to put it mildly!) between the huge hail and the extreme heat, the garden just didn't do much but raise my water bill

these are the first two tomatoes of any size off this plant -- they are fated to be this morning's breakfast ---- probably the only fried green tomatoes we'll get for the entire effort

I'll be savoring them

lots of things to get done today --- time to get moving

seeing red

still in the (boring) bezeling stage

the top three are more of those sugar topped pieces of glass

and the bottom three are taller pieces that I used a new technique to build the bezel around -- it's a little more open than working rows and rows of peyote stitching around the edge




this is the drawing of the suite of jewelry I plan to make with all those (and many more) red glass pieces

while I've been fiddling with the bezels, the DH has been sketching

pretty cool stuff, and now that there are drawings, I'm really impatient with the bezeling and want to get on with the real pieces


Must.Bead.Faster!

 






finished another one of these yesterday

nice


the binding on the witches is moving along slowly -- it just takes time to hand stitch all around the edge

time in the studio yesterday also included cutting out the "real" material for the pants I'm making my daughter --- the "test" stitching went very well, so we're ready for this step --- sewing will begin soon

and work on the charity auction continues --- this is the part that is both frustrating and rewarding, and so far it's going pretty well

time to get to it!

House work and studio work

first the house work --- not inside the house, but outside

since the DH had finished up the new landscaping with the stone work and the red mulch, we wanted to get the patches of grass replanted while there is time for it to take root before winter comes

for a couple of days he had been turning up the soil, adding fertilizer and preparing it for the seed

yesterday morning we put in the seed and covered it with another shallow layer of soil

turns out our timing was perfect --- this morning we have rain --- something we have not seen very much of this year

let's hope that means that seed will decide to grow!

at long last -- the finished sweater!

I've been knitting on this project for several months, and about a week ago I got to the stage that I couldn't go forward without going backward --- I didn't have enough of the pink

once again my sister was able to pull my backside out of the fire --- she had sent me the yarn in the first place, and she had more

the "squishy" envelope arrived on Monday, and I finished up the sweater last night

WHOO HOOO!


I'm still doing the (boring) prep work on a new piece of jewelry

these nine pieces of vintage ruby glass have been all bezeled

 most of these are smooth, dome top pieces -- except that one there at the top right hand side -- that is a "sugar top" piece --- sort of looks like sugar crystals on top

I have three more of the sugar top pieces to bezel, then its on to the oval and pear shaped red glass pieces

looking forward to finishing this part and getting on to the actual jewelry stitching!

yesterday was pretty productive in the studio too --- the first stitching of the bindings on the witch pieces is complete, the sleeves have been prepared, and I've started doing the hand work

and the "project that can not be named" is progressing quite well too

today's activities will include more work on the charity auction and some studio time

time for some breakfast -- and then to work!

a view into the garden

fall is coming

the pumpkins in my garden are starting to turn

I snapped this picture yesterday afternoon -- love the whole look --- the two fences (wood and wire) that surround it, the vines and the leaves and the pumpkin flowing along in contrast to the sharp straight lines of the boards and the mesh

cool











a very short time at the sewing machine and I transformed what was a sleep sack for a newborn into a pair of pj pants for a toddler

the fabric was still in really good condition, so it seemed right to get some more use out of it






and since I was already in there I decided to go ahead and work on the witch pieces for a while

I'm pleased to say that the quilting on one of them is done

my machine and I had a meeting of the minds and I'm very pleased both with the process (I'm starting to "get" it!) and with the finished result

I hope to get the second one quilted in the next couple of days






the amethyst piece got listed in my Etsy store

and this is the beginning of the next piece --- a challenge titled Chocolate Cherry for one of my bead groups

for the first time one of my suggestions was chosen as the theme for the group, so I feel some responsibility to actually participate

these four pieces are vintage ruby glass and I've used a Delica bead called Dark Chocolate to build most of the bezel around each one

yum!


lots of things to do today -- laundry, pick up some groceries, some writing on another project, and a lot of organizing to prepare for the charity auction -- we're in the final month now, so activity on that picks up considerably between now and Oct 6

time to get to it

another opening, another show

yesterday was the opening reception for this show
that I have two pieces of work hanging in

 located in the TACtile Arts Center of the Rocky Mountain Region, it is the first juried SAQA show that my work has been accepted to, and it was pretty exciting to be accepted

we also had a regional SAQA meeting in the same location yesterday, and it was pretty great to get to "hob nob" with other "art quilt wizards"

our trip back from Denver included my making my first ever 911 call on my cell phone -- as we went on to the highway there was a car ahead of us that was weaving across all five lanes of traffic, so I called to try to get police to get to him before he hit anyone --- a few miles down the road I got to call again as he had taken out two other cars and run head on into the retaining wall --- pretty sad

even after being gone most of the day, I still came home and worked on this piece

TA DA!

all finished

tomorrow I'll get it listed on my Etsy store

so now it's on to the Chocolate Cherry piece

beads and webs

these things always look a lot messier before they look good

the work of creating the chain for this is almost finished

at this stage I've tied off the ends of the beaded tubes with surgeon's knots and dropped Fray Check on the knots

next step is to attach all the pieces together

and then it will be on to the fringing

I'm thinking that the the fringe will run along that edge that is the "sparkle" beads there at the bottom edge






success!

the web stitching on one of these is finished, and the second one is almost done

and I think I'll be using the patch work that I was going to use as the front and rejected as the back

just need to finish the web stitching on the second one then the sandwiches can be put together

and I'm so happy with how well this work on the machine has gone that I'm thinking about machine quilting these too

WOW!  that is a total switch

we'll see how that all goes

Trick or Treat

while I was visiting with Mr Cute, his momma and I had a discussion about his Halloween costume

last year he was a Winged Monkey -- I turned a sweat suit into the costume by adding a tail to the pants, and wings and ears to the hooded sweat shirt

he was a cute winged monkey


this year his dad asked if we could make him a costume for a character from a game he plays

we used this little drawing we found as a guide for the sewing project







so off we went to the fabric store --- fleece makes good costume material -- it has the advantage of not raveling, so you don't have to hem the edges of things

the original plan was for me to create the tunic and the hat and my daughter was going to get the t-shirt and pants for him

but yesterday, while I was picking up some other stuff at the local store, I found a shirt and pants that were perfect!

I went through my upholstery fabric and found the perfect stuff to make the belt (I had "D" rings on hand)

the whole thing took less than two hours to put together --- and he'll have a shirt and pants to wear after that for every day use

cool!


while I was at the sewing machine, I started doing the freehand machine embroidery of the spider web on the first of the witch quilt tops  --- I haven't done much of that, and it feels a little "scary" to risk ruining all that hand work, but the only way to improve my skills is to do it!  and it's looking pretty good --- I hope to finish the first one today

Back into the project groove

now that Mr Cute is old enough to have a little pillow in his bed, I thought it would be nice if he had some cute pillow cases made just for him

over the weekend I picked up fabric with his favorite things printed on them -- choo choos and tactors!

 it took no time at all to whip these up





 the "chain" for this piece is coming right along

it took me a while to figure out how to make the little "branches" that will attach to the medallion part, but I'm liking the look of it now that I've done that








and then there is this project

 now that both of the witches have been appliqued to the backgrounds, I'm ready to move to the next step

I recently got some really cool shimmery white thread, so I'm going to stitch a cobweb into the top left corner of each of these pieces

then it will be on to making the sandwich for each one and doing the quilting

 I really do like the way this is coming out



the other plan for today is to stitch up a Halloween costume for Mr Cute, and to start in on some other sewing projects that are awaiting my attention

time to get at that

Third time's the charm

in the end, after putting in the work on creating the witch hat and shoes, the background of squares was still just too busy and did not provide enough contrast

so off to the fabric store we went where we picked out three fabrics to create this much less complex backing

I whipped together two of these in no time, and I've already appliqued the "witch" on to one of them and started on the second one

 
here is part of why I didn't post over the long weekend
we went to visit with Mr Cute

here he is sitting on the table with his wood train track all around him

he is a big fan of "choo choos" and "tacktors" (tractors)

can't believe his ever growing vocabulary -- he has a consistent, recognizable word for motorcycle -- 4 syllables!

and he's just soooooo cute!!


since I went to see Mr Cute, I spent some time in the car

which means more charity afghan squares got knit

the box has now been declared "FULL", so I'll be packing it up and sending it off in the next week or so


this morning we mowed the yards --- it's cooler in the mornings than it had been, but it will still be pretty warm this afternoon --- but Fall is coming -- the leaves are starting to turn already (earlier than normal because we are in extreme drought)

time to get to the many other projects that need to get done

Doing a Happy Dance (figuratively that is)

about 10 days ago I got a call for entries from my region of SAQA for an exhibit that will be in Denver for about 6 weeks

 the specification was that it be small works -- less than 24 inches by 24 inches -- and I didn't think I had much that met the requirements

but the DH said "you've got things that fit!"

so almost at the last minute I enter three items

and two of them were accepted!!

 I'm amazed --- and very pleased

I'll be posting more info about the show in the next week

 even though I've struggled to do the simplest household chores this week, the DH has been very busy outside

all of the grass stop cloth is down and many bags of mulch

this morning I "supervised" the placement of the little animals --- it looks beautiful

and this means that as soon as we stop have 5 day stretches of 90 degree weather, there are some areas of grass that will get planted along the edge of this new landscape feature nice!


the backing and edging is all done on this piece

now on to figuring out if it will be fringed or not (I'm thinking yes) and how to create a beaded chain to hang it on









witchy doings continue

 I have both of the hat brims done --- looking great





we need to go to the grocery store this morning --- time to get moving

a little shopping trip

in order for the DH to finish the front yard project, we needed to make a trip to the hardware store, so we decided to do all of the running around yesterday

after the hardware store (1 sack of white rock and 6 big bags of redwood mulch), we made stops at the office supply store (I needed a printer cartridge) and then on to the fabric store

 what I really needed to get at the fabric store was some Fray Check

 I blame my sister for this piece of fabric that came home with me

after all, she started this whole orange sweat suit
thing by bringing me that fabric last week

this was a remnant of fleece, and I plan to use it for the hood and the pockets on the sweat shirt

cool

and then there was this fabric on the remnant table

this is upholstery fabric and I love both the color and the print

I'm planning on using this to make some kind of tote bag --- the details are a bit fuzzy right now, but at the price it was I couldn't resist it




I've been on the phone a lot this week

so another one of these is finished -- cool



the ice and ibuprofen wasn't really getting it on my back --- maybe because I still helped put up peaches and did laundry and, and --- today I really am going to try to not do a lot of stuff so it might finally start to heal --- grrrrr

deja vu

back when my daughter was a little girl, I used to make most of her clothes

in the 1980s these patterns were available and I used a lot of them to make play clothes, bathing suits and dresses

this one is generically "kid", so I will be using it to make things for Mr Cute!

when my sister was here last weekend, she brought me some lovely orange fleece

Mr. Cute will get a pair of orange sweat pants soon!




my daughter's garden is producing a bumper crop of eggplant

she gave us some to bring home

so the DH and I created this lovely Eggplant Lasagna

and it was wonderful!

if you'd like to try making one of your own, the recipe is  Here


beside that lovely orange fleece, over the weekend my sister brought me peaches
almost 40 pounds of peaches

the agreement was that she would provide the peaches, we would provide the sugar and the labor and my dad would get some fruit for the winter

yesterday morning we put up peaches


we did hold out a few of them to eat fresh, and they are quite tasty


beading on this project is all done

the picture isn't great, but you can kind of see the texture at the top of the piece

now on to the backing and the chain and finishing





 the work continues on the wall hanging

love this pair of shoes!





and the top third of the "Project which cannot be named" is complete

looking good



time to get to work --- laundry is running!

a bit of this and a bit of that

I'm still nursing the aching back, but the DH is moving right along on projects

he's been going out early in the morning while it is still cool and working for a bit before breakfast

it's looking wonderful --- where before there were weeds, scruffy tufts of grass and patches of bare dirt because the big pine tree "poisons" the soil for growing grass -- now there is an artfully curved red brick edging, some stepping stones and a thick layer of red chipped mulch

he'll be adding a bit more white rock there under the juniper bush to finish off the area that is under the faucet, and more red mulch where the rest of the weed block cloth is, and I'll be cleaning up the little concrete animals I have to add to the look

nice!

 after last week's Epic Fail it was back to the drawing board on this project

the DH designed a new block for me, and because it was so much easier (no funny shapes or odd angles) being made up of squares and rectangles, I was able to whip together both of these backgrounds in no time at all

the next step is to create the witch hat and shoes that will be appliqued over this background

I've decided to create that as a whole piece and applique it in one step

the light weight backing material has been marked, so I can start on that project today

cool!  maybe I will be able to get these all done in time
and time spend in the chair with the ice on my back gave me time to work on this piece

around the the top edge I've used the dark beads and a lot of the three dimensional texture, while the bottom edge is a smoother technique and I've used the lighter color there

and I'm seeing this piece has having a sort of picot edge around the top half, some lush fringe with some amethyst dagger tips and a thick bead woven "chain"

it's actually been a while since I started a piece with nothing more than the stones as inspiration and had such a clear idea for where it was going by this stage --- nice

usually on Monday morning I'd be deep in the weeds of laundry by now, but this morning I'm not -- the DH suggested it might be good to rest the back for at least another day, and I decided he had a good point, so aside from some other small kitchen projects today I'll be doing more ice and more ibuprofen and more rest to try to get back to "normal" again

Every once in a Blue Moon

things come together and I actually finish a piece for a competition and it falls in line with the cosmos

this month (August, 2012) we will actually have a Blue Moon -- that second full moon in a single month, that doesn't happen very often (we won't see another one until July, 2015)

this piece of jewelry was made for the August challenge of the Etsy Bead Weavers group -- when voting opens I'll post the link, but since I finally got it listed in my Etsy shop today, I thought I'd at least show you all a picture and let you know I finished it!

 I finally finished the bezels around the other two stones, so now I can start doing the "field" around it



looking good



sometime in the last couple of days I've done something that my lower back is not happy with --- this particular pain is a familiar (and unwelcome) one, so I'm back in the cycle of ice/heat and taking ibuprofen  trying to get it under control --- grrrr

Epic Fail

my plan was to get the background blocks done

I had already cut the strips and sewed the pairs together

so this should have been simple -- cut the triangles, set the pieces together --- finished block -- right?

uh, not so much

let me tell you that I have done very little machine piecing --- as I've said before, my sewing machine and I work wonderfully well together to make clothing, but quilting has always been a hand stitched process except for those very basic charity quilt tops

so I thought I'd show you these two failures --- if you look at the one on the left you'll notice right away that the points of those triangles don't meet in the center -- and while it's harder to see with the other block, that one doesn't lay flat in the center, even though the points meet

I called in the expert --- the DH drew me a new block -- a simple one made up of squares and rectangles, which means that I can actually machine piece it --- I can use some quilting to jazz it up once I get it finished

this little side trip does mean that I probably won't get back to this until after Labor Day, which also means I may not get it finished in time to have one for the original idea I had in mind --- RATS!

guess I need to move faster

amethyst beading

once I figured it out  (after two tries), I'm happy with the bezel around this stone

so now I will do the bezels around the other two stones



a while back I did the drawing for a Halloween wall hanging, and yesterday I actually started cutting the pieces for it --- I'm hoping to get some of the machine work done on it today

time to get moving

about that whole "paying attention" thing

I finished the moon bracelet, and while I'm waiting for some other materials to arrive to put into another competition piece, I decided to whip up another piece using those amethyst cabs I got back in July

I got these all laid out, but there are a few other things I need to get to finish it up, so I drug out the catalog from Fire Mountain Gems, which is where I get a lot of the seed beads, threads and clasps that I use in my pieces


 this catalog (cover shown at the left) arrived back in January (or there about), and I've used it to order a lot of things since then

but since it is a very thick catalog (1322 pages to be exact), I hadn't looked at every page

so I was real surprised when I just happened to turn to page 176 (shown there at the right) and there was the piece of jewelry I entered in on of their competitions last year!

Hey!  that's cool!

more goodies from the garden

yesterday after the mowing of both lawns, I picked

the peppers/chilis are still doing really well -- and the tomatoes seem to finally be producing

we also have 2 little eggplants and several pumpkins

it has been a weird gardening season, but we are going to get something out of it



I've been working on the "Project that can not be named", and I'm happy to report that is coming along nicely -- and that it is starting to feel like one of those "did I do that?" pieces --- can't wait for the unveiling when I'll be able to share the pictures with you

time to get busy --- my "desk" is piled up with paperwork that needs to be sorted, filed, recorded --- the usual paperwork side of running an art business and a household

finishing more projects

last winter's sweater for Mr Cute has worn really well

except for the buttons

so yesterday I removed the old ones and put on new ones

all set for another winter!





finished the bracelet last night

I still need to do the paperwork to enter it in the competition I made it for

I'm pretty happy with the way it came out




 the snowmen are done

I decided that all those hats need pom poms on their tops

I'm pretty sure these little cuties are going to my daughter

but I'm thinking I may want to take a few more pictures and maybe use it to make this year's Christmas cards





we've already mowed the lawns this morning --- trying to get that sort of work done before it gets too hot is always a good thing

time to go get the grocery shopping done!