!Art: If I Create It, Will They Come?

Little Book

2012-01-17T17:36:00.000-05:00

A little more time has gone by than I had planned, but I finally have something to show. I started this little book several months ago but then laid it aside to work on something else. I have been working to finish it up these past couple of weeks. It is something I wanted to make just to try out different art supplies and techniques.

The pages where scanned before the book was bound. It is gloomy here today so the book photo was taken with artificial light and not exactly the best shot.

I may add some ribbons and fibers to the binding rings.

Happy Holidays

2011-12-23T18:04:00.000-05:00

I want to wish each and every one of you a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Feliz Navidad and Happy Holiday. Thanks to all who have visited my blog this past year and especially those who took the time to comment. I know I haven’t blogged for quite some time now, but hope to do better in the coming year.

I thought I would share a few photos of my Christmas village with you. Sorry, not all photos are the best.

You can click on photo to see larger image.

Steampunk Photo Album

2011-08-11T15:41:00.001-04:00

It’s been too long since my last posting. I don’t know if anyone is still stopping by to check in or if anyone even cares any more. If you are still out there I really appreciate it and a comment would be welcome to let me know.

I have been working on several different projects involving lots of paper. If there are any scrapbookers out there you are well aware of the wonderful papers out there from which to choose.

Anyway, here are a few pages from an album that is not quite finished. It is very closely made like the one that Kathryn of The Scrap Beach did a good while back. She did a few things in her album that I had never done before and wanted to try.

The album was made using Graphic45s’ Steampunk Debutante themed scrapbook paper.

I stamped and embossed the butterfly onto a piece of the scrapbook paper which opens to reveal a place to journal or a photo. The gear on the tag holds the flaps shut.

The next page has several photo mats that flip up. Love the gears.

Here is the page underneath. Love the headdress bling. This is the first time I ever used this kind of embellishment.

The big blue flower on this next page is one I made using cardstock. I glued an orange crystal bling in the center. The smaller flowers were white and I sprayed them with blue inks. Love the butterflies!

This page has a long pocket with a tag. The top edge of the pocket was cut using one of Tim Holtz' On the Edge dies. A photo or whatever can be placed in the empty space of the page. Love the key and the clockface. The flowers here started out white and were sprayed with three different colored inks.

These are tags that I made and stamped.

You can see all pages at my Flickr photostream here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/48972485@N00/

Hello...

2011-05-13T23:07:00.000-04:00

I just don’t know where the time has gone, really. I honestly think the number of hours in a day is getting fewer as time passes.

I don’t think I have touched my journals since my last post. I have a new toy, well actually I have had it for a couple of months now and I have been playing around with it some.

This is the Ellis Sizzix Die Cutting Machine called the Vagabond. It was designed by Tim Holtz.

Of course, there are a bazillion accessories that have to be bought in order to use the thing, but so far I have only about two dozen or so.

The bird and birdcage were cut out from a die. The tag is one that I had and used and embossing folder on it. There is a die that cuts the strip that makes the flower but I don't have it. I just made it on my own.

I created a birthday card for my son on the computer using Photoshop Elements and then I embossed it using one of the embossing folders.

Here it is before embossing.

And after embossing

New Pages

2011-04-05T16:53:00.010-04:00

Jeesh, where has the time gone; we are into April already. Well after meaning to do this forever I finally got around to updating in my sidebar the "Blogs of Interest" category.

I want to share a couple more pages I have worked on in one journal or another.

This first is the start of another background in the Strathmore journal. I used a wax crayon to make the circles and create a resist to the acrylic paints. These first two pages will eventually have more done to them.

This one I did in another art journal. Just added paint and did some stamping.

And here is one I created in my AJC journal for the verb "Wonder".

Credits for this: background, candlestick, raven--Holliewood Studios-ATC2 at Scrapbookgraphics.com elephant, cabinet, chair--Holliewood Studios-Auntie Em at Scrapbookgraphics.com ravens' hat, carpet--FineCrafted-FSA at Deviantscrap.com lady--plaisanter on flickr You can see more over on my Flickr photostream at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/48972485@N00/

Still Here

2011-03-15T00:29:00.005-04:00

Well it has been a while since my last post but trust me I have doing some art on and off since then. I have recently decided to join the Art Journal Caravan hosted by Tangie Baxter over at Studio Tangie and Scrapbookgraphics.com. Since getting Photoshop Elements 8 I have really become interested in learning the software program and creating with digital art. I am way behind the others as this "class" started at the beginning of the year.

Here is the first page.

I have also been involved in the free Strathmore Visual Journal Online Workshop which is actually three different classes taught by three different artists. As yet, I have not done anything for the first class, but I did finally get a start on the second one which is to start with a new journal and get some things onto the pages so as not to be looking at a stark white page.

Here are the first four pages in the journal. The first three have been cut back in increments and then I glued scrapbook paper on them to look like one page.

I have done a little more work on some background pages in the art journal I created a few months ago.

Here is one of the new pages.

Last Page

2011-02-14T15:26:00.005-05:00

I have been sick with a miserable cold the past week or so and haven't felt like doing anything, but I am beginning to feel much better now. I meant to post this a week ago, but that is when I starting feeling really bad.

I created this piece for the third lesson before I got sick and I haven't done anything for lesson four.

Credits for some of the images used go to:

Butterfly-Sarah Barber Design

Stitches-Key of D Designs

4 Leaf Petals-Lou Cee Creations

Button-Sarah Cabana-DiD

All Designers can be found at DigiridooScraps.com

More Digital Journal Pages

2011-01-28T15:13:00.009-05:00

Here are two more creations from the online class Digital Journal Magic. The first is following along with the lesson and using images provided by Marie. The second one is my loose interpretation of the things taught in the lesson.

Credits: bird on right from thegraphicsfairy.com
dried flower, silk flower, button, fabric, fern from Manu at scrapbookgraphics.com
Tree brush is from Shadowhouse Creations.com

Another Photoshop Elements page

2011-01-21T16:53:00.004-05:00

This is my latest digital journal page. I am really enjoying this.

Credits: bird and metal medallion by CRenee at scrapbookgraphics.com
glasses from Rosey Posey at scrapbookgraphics.com
ribbon from Maureen Zimmermann at scrapbookgraphics.com
blue swirl brush from LivEdesigns
flower brush from Paula Kesselring

Something New

2011-01-18T17:41:00.009-05:00

As I mentioned in my last posting I am learning Photoshop Elements 8 and I am taking an online class called Digital Journal Magic taught by Marie Otero. I am familiar with what we are doing but never really did any digital journal pages before.

The first one pretty much follows what Marie taught in the first lesson. The other two I was playing around with on my own using some of the things she showed us.

Credits: all basic images provided by Marie Otero

Credits: background is from ShadowHouse Creations
crown by CRenee at scrapbookgraphics.com
splattergraffiti borders by studio tangie at scrapbookgraphics.com
postcard, journal tag and lace by Manuela Zimmermann at scrapbookgraphics.com
dirty grid by ThinkDesign

Credits: background TextureKing at flickr
tree, bird, rose by Manuela Zimmermann at scrapbookgraphics.com
statue from Marie Otero
rust curlique by Ztampf at scrapbookgraphics.com
all other images from my personal collection

This is all I have been able to do art-wise the past few weeks. Over the weekend I was printing some images to play around with when I started having trouble with the printer and getting the ink colors to print. I had just replaced three of the ink cartridges and by the time it was all over with the brand new black was nearly empty, the blue which had been half full was almost gone and the new red and yellow cartridges were down by a quarter. I hadn't even gotten anything printed during this. AND it is still not printing the red or yellow. I have had this printer for nearly four years and I do a LOT of printing. I just don't understand why every time you change a cartridge it has to use a big part of the ink just to get started printing again. Ink is not cheap! I suppose the printhead could be getting worn out. I just hate to think I have to go out and buy a new printer again and end up with the same situation each time a cartridge has to be changed.

I suppose I could do like the lady who wrote a review for a printer I was researching (the all-in-one printer only cost $32 at a well-known chain store). She said it was a good printer and did a good job, easy to get set up etc. Then she remarked about the cost of ink. She said that for what it cost to buy new ink cartridges (this model uses 4 individual ones) it was just cheaper to go and buy a new printer which included the ink whenever she ran out of ink for that printer! No wonder the landfills are so full of our crap!

One Week Down

2011-01-07T15:21:00.004-05:00

Here it is a week into the new year and I have yet to journal or create any new art or anything. It's not because I haven't wanted to or like I don't have anything to inspire me. I am following along on three different groups who are working in journals/sketchbooks and I have an online class starting up next week that I really need to participate in (paid class).

What have I been doing with my time? I got a new desktop computer for Christmas and I have slowly (read as all day and half the night, not to mention the phone calls) been getting it set up and manually transferring things from the old computer to the new one. This has been a pain because the old computer has Windows XP and the new one has Windows 7. Not everything is compatible and there has been one thing after another giving me fits.

But I am making headway and hopefully I can begin to start again making some art of one sort or another. There are soooo many things going on out there and my fingers are itching to start something.

I'll leave you with a little something I created a short while back. I am learning Photoshop Elements.

The Beginning-part 2

2011-01-03T02:01:00.012-05:00

**for some reason these 2 posts are backwards**

These are the tags that are throughout the book.

The Beginning-part 1

2011-01-03T01:44:00.011-05:00

I know I am late with these, but I just got around to scanning all of this. I recently took a class over on Joggles from Sarah Whitmire. It was a fun class and this is the Christmas Treasure Book I created. It is hard to tell that there are a number of three-dimensional embellishments on the pages. It is so much better in person.

Click on the photos for a better image.

There is more to see in part 2.

Wishing You a .....

2010-12-31T20:58:00.002-05:00

Wishing each and every one of you a healthy and happy new year. May 2011 be everything you want it to be.

Happy Holidays

2010-12-22T16:40:00.007-05:00

This will be my last post until after Christmas. I hope each and every one of you and your families have a glorious Christmas and a safe holiday.

Here are a few pics for your enjoyment.

Thanks

2010-11-22T16:41:00.004-05:00

I want to start out this post by saying a big THANK YOU to all of you loyal visitors (you know who you are) and WELCOME to any new visitors/followers here. Your visits are much appreciated as well as any comments you care to leave.

When I started this blog over 5 years ago (has it really been that long), it was intended to be a place to share my textile creations both big and small. Over the years I have slowly ventured into many other areas of artistic medias as many of you have done as well. With so many options, techniques and supplies out there it can be so tempting to want to give some of them a try. You might have noticed that I have been working with paper, images, books and journals along with paints, inks and stamps. These are the things that have been holding my interest lately.

These pages were created quite a while back. Not sure why I didn’t show them before now.

I’m not sure if I will add any more to these paint-wise, but I will be doing some thing more in the future.

Just to show that I haven’t given up creating with fabric, here is a peek at something I am working on.

Untitled

2010-11-11T18:33:00.005-05:00

Well, I’m still having some intermittent problems with the computer but I have been able to work around them.

As promised I have a couple of pics to share with you. These were done a little while back. I find that when I am having trouble deciding exactly which project I want to tackle next that working in my “gluebook” gives me the feeling that I at least was able to accomplish a little bit of art.

Computer Problems-Long Post

2010-10-28T17:31:00.005-04:00

I did not mean for it to be so long in between postings. I have been having intermittent computer problems for several months now and last week I was not able to run my computer other than in Safe Mode, which meant I could not connect to the internet, email etc.

Everyone kept saying I probably had a virus, but because the computer kept restarting after about 5 minutes (in normal mode) I was unable to run my virus software or really do any thing else. I have had one kind or another computer since the late ‘80’s and believe it or not I have never had a computer virus or had a crash that caused a need to re-install. I replaced computers only because they were old. I was told I probably was going to have to scrub my hard drive and re-install everything. That was something I did not want to do because I haven’t been able to backup anything for about the past two months. I even took my computer to the Geek Squad and had them run their freebie counter check. The “kid” wasn’t really able to say for sure but thought that it probably was a “deep seated” virus of some kind and for what it would cost for them to fix it (well over $200) he said I was better off getting a new computer (mine is 7 years old). Well as much as I would love to get a new one I held off (partly because they didn’t have any in stock at the time).

Well, I was bound and determined to check out every possible cause before giving in and doing the dreaded scrub and re-install. By chance I discovered I could restart and go into Safe Mode with Networking and have some access to the internet for assistance. Reading one support article after another I did what was suggested. At some point the system crashed and I had a BSOD (Blue Screen of Death) error message. It suggested I run a diagnostic utility, particularly on the memory. I had never seen this particular error before.

Working in Safe Mode, I started running the diagnostics tests on the provided CD. The tests came up with three different errors each pointing to one of the memory modules. I decided it was time to call Dell free support again. Two hours later and a number of tests and what have you, my computer seems to be cured. The technician said the memory was fine but stated I could upgrade for better computer performance. He also suggested I could upgrade to a larger hard drive, which I don’t really need at the moment. These technicians know their stuff but they are encouraged to sell, sell, sell Dell products also. I upgraded the memory three years ago and I was told then that I would be fine with it.

What was causing the problem? It turns out the driver of a software program I had recently installed was the culprit. The tech had me uninstall it and he did some other things including adding a software program that lets me check out what these BSOD errors mean and then in the future I can possibly deal with these type of things myself. After all the hours and days I put into trying to resolve this problem I can appreciate a little better the prices these guys want to charge.

What did it cost to get my problem resolved? Nothing but my time. I am so happy I persisted in digging around more and did not give in to everyone’s “scrub and re-install” advice. There were a number of things I definitely knew were not backed up and I am sure there were other files I could not remember but knew I would lose if had I listened to them. As of this moment, everything but a copy of this post and a couple of images are backed up. And these items will get backed up this evening (barring no other problems).

I am sorry for this long post and for it not having anything to do with this blog, but I thought if my experience could help just one person it is worth posting about. I will post again very soon, with some pics I promise.

Collage Challenge, Extras

2010-10-05T00:03:00.006-04:00

Mary over at Green Paper posted her October collage challenge a few days ago and since I had come to a screeching halt on a couple of other projects I decided to have a go at the challenge.

We were to use all or a portion of the three images she provided. Here is my collage I created.

And since I had my vintage gluebook out, I created a few more pages.

This single page.

And these two spreads.

Thanks and Some Pics

2010-09-22T16:19:00.007-04:00

I want to thank each and everyone one of you who took the time to leave a comment on my last post. It seems that “Google Reader” was the unanimous choice. I did switch over (after two attempts). Now, I don’t know if it is just me and there is something I haven’t discovered there yet, but I wish Google was more like Bloglines in the way the “marked unread” posts are maintained. Google makes me scroll through a number of posts to look up the one I wanted to “refer” back to, whereas Bloglines kept only the posts that where actually “checkmarked” to keep. Other than that I guess I can live with it.

I’ve just been having little spurts here and there of doing something “arty”. Soooooo, I thought I would post pics of a couple of pages I had painted way back and recently added some stenciling to.

The top and bottom pages I sprayed with inks. The middle page I used watered down acrylic white paint. These pages will have more layers added to them (eventually).

Blog Reader Help

2010-09-13T15:27:00.003-04:00

I have a question for you. I have been using Bloglines for several years as my way of reading/following all of the blogs. Bloglines has announced that as of October 1st they will no longer be “in business”. I tried doing what they “suggested” as a way of keeping my blog links and came up zip.

What/how do you follow/read your blogs? I have gone through my bloglines list and bookmarked all the blogs, but I don’t want to spend all my time going to each blog to see if there is a new posting or not. I like being able to just go to only the ones with new posts (as I spend way too much time on the computer as it is).

Any and all help/advice is appreciated.

**Okay, after posting this I just realized I could update my blog list in the sidebar and follow that way, but I have nearly 200 blogs I follow and it would make my sidebar listing reeealy long. So I still am wondering if there is a better way!!

Still Around

2010-08-31T18:57:00.007-04:00

I apologize to any one still stopping by here for being away so long. I never intended to go this long in between postings, but you know how life can get in the way of things from time to time.

I haven’t been totally without working on any art; just not anything much I can show right now.

What I can share with you right now is this art book that I made a short while ago.

I covered chipboard with scrapbook papers both inside and out. I love these papers. The pages are 140lb cold press watercolor papers. I used my Bind-It-All to put everything together. It measures roughly 9 ¼ inches tall x 9 ½ inches wide.

I have the first 5 pages covered with gesso. That’s as far as I have gotten in it.

I will try not to be so long in posting again.

Quick Post

2010-07-19T08:11:00.005-04:00

First off I would like to thank each and every one of you who take the time to visit my blog. It really means a lot to me and I love receiving your comments.

Now just a quick little posting. As you may know (or not) I recently participated in an ATC swap held by Mary Green within the “Your Vintage Gluebook” group.

These are the ATC’s I made to swap.

And these are the ones I received.

L-R: Karen J Davis, Linda Freeman, Beth Leintz
L-R: Dawn Nation, Frieda Oxenham, Jo Urbani

Aren’t they just fabulous? Thanks all for the great cards. It was fun doing this.

What I've Recently Been Doing

2010-07-02T00:01:00.015-04:00

It has been really hot here the past couple of weeks with temps in the 90’s and heat indexes over 100 at times. I have been staying in mostly and working on two ROD journals. (Mary Ann Moss) created monsters when she started this class.

Anyway, here are a few pics from the one that is completed. Front and back covers. I’ve had these floral fabrics for years and decided to finally put them to use.

Click on image for a larger view.

This journal contains both my pages and the ones I received from a swap done within the group. Not everyone put their name on their pages so I don’t know who created them.

Swap page is on left, mine is on right.

Cut and Paste

2010-06-09T00:22:00.005-04:00

For the past three weeks I have been participating in a fun little class that was taught by Mary Green over at GreenPaper.

“Your Vintage Gluebook” is just exactly that. Although I don’t have much in the way of vintage ephemera, I did use some of what I have and the rest is photo copies.

Here are the pages I have completed so far in my book.

I am also participating in an ATC swap with the group. I will show photos after the swap has been made.

ATC Swap and ...

2010-05-22T09:16:00.008-04:00

Judith over at Quilt or Dye asked to do an ATC swap. This is the one she sent me. Love it.

And this the one I made for her.

I also finished up the online class. This is the last page. This was my first attempt at doing an image transfer using matte gel medium and images from a flower catalog.

This is the book cover. I peeled away some of the paper from the cardboard cover and then glued on a torn page from an old encyclopedia.

Here is a side view of the bound book. As you can see, it is very fat.

Now it is off to new adventures.

More "AFT" Pages

2010-05-19T19:14:00.006-04:00

Here are three more pages from the "Artsy Fartsy Techniques" online class taught by Donna Salazar.

Click on pic for larger image.

This one had Adirondack Color Wash Ink for the background (watercolor paper). I used Diamond Glaze over the flower and the words.

I used watercolor crayons to color the background on this one. I really love those roses.

I used Distress Ink to color the background on this last one. It is a little darker than I would have liked but still it is okay. There are 3 cards in the pocket. I used the frame stamp on the top and bottom edges of the cards.

Some of What I Have Been Doing

2010-05-10T08:38:00.006-04:00

A while back I signed up to take an online class with Donna Salazar using different techniques to create interesting scrapbook pages.

These are the first 6 of 12. They measure 4 x 6 inches.

When all twelve pages are made we will be putting the pages together into a little book.

New ROD Journal cover

2010-04-23T23:50:00.005-04:00

I finished up the journal cover for my next Remains of the Day journal. A few weeks ago I bought several different pieces of fabric and I used a small piece from one of them for the outside of the cover. I did a wrapped cord instead of the long strap for the closure. It will wrap around one time and hook over the white rose button.

The inside is from fabric I have had for sometime now in my stash. The print is blacker than it appears here. If you click on the picture you can see a truer color of it.

I hope everyone has a good weekend. We may get some nasty weather Saturday afternoon and evening.

More ROD Pages 2

2010-04-14T18:39:00.011-04:00

I don’t know where the time has gone. Since last time I posted I have created eleven more pages for a swap I am participating in. I sent them out and forgot to scan them first, so I can’t show them.

I do have scans of the pages of the second signature in my ROD journal. So I thought I would show a few of those. I am working on something else, but it is still in the works and I don’t have any photos as yet.

Here are the ROD pages.

The bust on the above page and the one below are actually in a clear pocket page.

The card on the right page actually goes in the pocket (hand with rose) on the left.

More ROD Pages

2010-03-18T14:29:00.012-04:00

*note the snaps holding the photo on the left above

ROD Journal Pages

2010-03-16T09:33:00.011-04:00

My ROD journal pages have been placed in an order that I like and the two signatures are sewn together. Now I need to get them sewn into the cover. Then comes the fun part of adding more things to the pages.

Since there are so many I will only post a few at a time. Here is the first batch. As usual you can click on the photo to see it larger.

This is page one of the first signature.

The photo of the bed flips open to reveal another picture.

The photo on the left edge and the striped paper on the right both flip up.

The tag on the right can be removed to write on the back.

The pink stripe on the left is actually the edge of a clear pocket and the manila piece on the right flips open.

That’s a pocket on the left side with the heart on it.

Progress on the ROD Journal

2010-03-09T18:33:00.006-05:00

I finally was able to get photos of my ROD journal. I kept waiting for the sun to shine. And then when it did finally show its’ face, I was busy and would forget until it was too late to take the pics.

Anyway here is the cover closed-up but there aren’t any pages in it as of yet.

(click on images for larger view)

Here it is opened out.

This is the inside. Sorry for the glare on this one.

I am still working on the pages. For some reason creating the pages has been a little challenging for me. I guess what I really mean to say is I should just be grabbing stuff and going for it but instead I am taking way more time on them than I should. Don’t get me wrong, I really am enjoying this and I do want to make more of these. When I haven’t been working on the pages, I have been going through old magazines and cutting them up like crazy. You should see my workroom. It is a total mess. But it is a gooood mess.

How's It Going

2010-02-23T17:02:00.005-05:00

Sorry for such a long time since my last posting. Back on February 5th I signed up to take Mary Ann Moss’ Remains of the Day online journal class. I started working on my journal cover that weekend and then I came down with a terrible head cold and was miserable for the next week and half. Needless to say, I didn’t feel like doing anything during that time.

I’ve had the cover finished for several days now and DH (who doesn’t always comment one way or another) said he really liked it. There is a peak above of the cover but I don’t have any photos yet as the sun hasn’t been shining much these past two weeks. As a matter of fact we did have about 8 or 9 inches of snow around here up until last Thursday and it has finally all melted away.

When I started to feel a little better I started going through my stash of papers, ephemera etc. for the pages of this journal. I am not what you would call an avid journaler (as a matter of fact my last entry was on Feb 4th). And I definitely am not a visual journaler but I really love what others do. I don’t have much in the way of vintage items either. So last Friday I went to the Peddlers’ Mall and looked around. DH found for me a great old Atlas for $2.00 and I found a couple of old books including a 1946 copy of a Gregg Shorthand Dictionary. I even found 2 old ledger books. I really wanted to get at least one of them, but did not because they were really musty and nasty and I just didn’t want to take a chance of getting some kind of respiratory problem from them. When I told DH what I wanted these for he was like “No, you don’t want to tear up that one” (re: shorthand book).

Anyway, I am slowly getting prepared to start on the pages soon. There have been lots and lots of wonderful journals created in this class and even though I haven’t got this first one done I am already thinking of doing a second one.

Stayed tuned.

Progress with the Painted Papers

2010-02-03T18:34:00.016-05:00

That’s the book cover created for those background papers I was working on a couple of weeks ago.

And here is the journal with the pages fanned out.

This is the inside front cover and first page.

Following are some but not all of the other pages.

Still at It

2010-01-25T19:22:00.002-05:00

I have been working here and there on some more of the background papers I talked about in my last post. I still find myself a little bit intimidated doing this. I don’t know why though I have enjoyed just getting in there and just going for it. I also got started on a journal cover to put the papers in but no photos of anything yet. I am a little slow at getting things done.

Thought I would show you the Zendala I created. After having seen several others doing this I thought I would have a go at it.

Getting Started

2010-01-20T19:52:00.003-05:00

I hate to admit it, but I have been spending quite a bit of time on the computer the last couple of weeks. Not just reading all the blogs, but finding a lot of other sites that caught my eye/interest.

I have wanted to create an art journal for some time now. I have looked at so many others’ journals these past weeks trying to get some insight/inspiration but it is a bit intimidating now that I have seen such wonderful work.

Well anyway I finally took the plunge today and got a start on creating some background papers. I used both watercolors and inks on 90 lb watercolor paper.

Keep in mind this is just a start. I intend to do more to these papers as well as make more.

This is what I did this afternoon.

That bottom left corner one is washed out in the photo. It really is closer in color to the one right above it. And the ones that look green and black above really are the two shades of blue you see below.

A Class Sample

2010-01-14T18:38:00.004-05:00

Over at the Free-Lunch-Café Linda Matthews has been conducting mini-classes on different techniques. The two-part class for this month is using the decorative stitches on your sewing machine. In part one we were to create a small piece that includes circles as part of the design created by using either a flower stitch foot, the circular sewing attachment for your machine or if you don’t have either of those, a thumb tack.

Here is my sample for the class. Nothing all that imaginative.

We are finally coming out of the deep freeze we have been in for two weeks. Most of the snow has melted. I even went out to the grocery today.

New Service

2010-01-07T15:33:00.003-05:00

Well here we are already a week into the new year, a new decade. I hope everyone is staying warm/cool, depending on where in the world you are located.

It started snowing here early this morning. They are predicting 2-4 inches by Saturday morning. My guess is we already have about 3 inches now. So we will see. I went to the store Tuesday to stock up and to drop off a couple of prescriptions. I went back yesterday to pick up the prescriptions after the guy from the phone company came to hook me up to a faster internet connection (DSL).

YES!! I am finally out of the dark ages and zipping right along on the net now. I told DH that with the faster service I wouldn’t be on the computer as long now because I wouldn’t be sitting around waiting and waiting for stuff to come up. VBG! Guess what? I spent hours on there yesterday just going around through everything, trying to catch up on all the stuff I had put off the past few weeks.

Since I have this faster connection, I might even take an online class or two that I couldn’t before because I was unable to view any of the videos. I am so itching to get back to playing around or who knows maybe I will even create a great art piece or two. ;-)

Our Christmas

2009-12-27T10:04:00.002-05:00

I hope that everyone had a happy and safe Christmas/holiday. Christmas Eve was spent at my sisters’ house with most of the family there. Christmas day found just DH and I together. It was a very nice day. I cooked dinner. Our son couldn’t come until Saturday to celebrate with us.

Remember a while back I mentioned a wall hanging I was making. It was for him. I printed on fabric some photos of him and his two dogs. He was very happy with it. This photo of it is not very good. I was in a hurry trying to take pictures of it. Then my computer and photo software started acting up, so this is the best I could get. It measures 32 x 31 inches.

Merry Christmas

2009-12-23T21:31:00.001-05:00

Happy Holidays to Everyone!

Mail and Stuff

2009-12-14T18:40:00.003-05:00

Look what came in the mail today.

A while back Sandy J over at Focus on Fiber had a giveaway and I was one of the lucky winners. Don’t you just love it, I certainly do. She also sent along a beautiful piece of fabric with it. Blogger won't let me upload anymore pics for some reason. But it is lovely. Thanks so much Sandy.

Not a whole lot to report on. Up until today, I really haven’t been working on anything much. I finally got a start on the wall hanging I mentioned in the last post. Am slowly getting ready for Christmas.

How about you?

Thanks to All

2009-11-26T10:49:00.003-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving to All of You.

And many thanks to all who stop by whether you comment or not. It really is appreciated.

Thank You and Nothing Special

2009-11-11T18:30:00.003-05:00

Do you ever have the feeling that time is just slipping away faster and faster? Three weeks have past since I last posted and it just doesn’t seem like it has really been that long.

I want to once again thank everyone who takes the time to stop by here and especially for leaving comments. It really is so much appreciated.

I don’t really have any thing to show now, but I spent a little time working on a UFO I pulled from the pile. It was something I started years ago, got so far on it then laid it aside to start something else. It is a floral landscape piece that I purchased as a kit. I just need to stitch the binding to the back side and attach a hanging sleeve. And I guess I should make a label too. The thing is I am just not that crazy about it now. You know how your taste changes over time.

Over the weekend I spent time looking through some photos and reworking them in my photo editing software. Monday, I printed a few of them onto fabric. I have a few more to print and I may reprint a couple that I think could look a little better. The plan is to turn these into a wall hanging. It is to be a Christmas present for………….

Lap Quilt Finished

2009-10-21T23:12:00.004-04:00

It really hasn’t taken me this long to finish up the lap quilt. I have been waiting for a sunny day to try and get decent photos.

The colors are brighter than they look in this picture.

The back is one solid piece of fabric. It too looks a little washed out. Sorry.
This one measures 40 inches by 68 inches.

The Finished Muse Doll

2009-10-06T15:31:00.010-04:00

Well I finally managed to get some photos taken of the finished doll. She is from a pattern by Julie McCullough (www.magicthreads.com) called The Muse.

So here she is. She stands 20 inches tall. The doll herself is the original size, but Julie’s pattern called for using a newel post top as the base (I used a shorter one) so she would have been 3 or 4 inches taller.

Click images for closer look.

I chose two coordinating fabrics to create her wardrobe. I decided the outer fabric needed a little something more so I added some machine stitching using a couple of the built-in stitches on my machine to give some added texture.

The buttons were originally white. I painted them and finished off with a coat of polyurethane. I also hand stitched beads around the edges.

I am not totally happy with her face (I never was that great at applying makeup) but I am not unhappy either. I learned a few things with this one and hopefully the next doll will be better.

I had a little trouble with her headdress, but after a bit of playing around trying one thing then another, I finally got a look that I liked.

A Little Something

2009-09-28T09:44:00.006-04:00

Well I haven’t meant for it to take so long in finishing the doll but “life” has been happening and so I had to work on her whenever I got the chance. She is finished but I haven’t any pics yet as the weather has been rainy and gloomy and I am waiting for some sunshine.

However I do have this little piece to show that I made last month and forgot to show it. It measures 6 x 8 inches. I named it August Lollipop Flowers.

You can click on image for clearer details.

Hope everyone had a good weekend!

A Computer Saga

2009-09-14T10:20:00.001-04:00

I have owned one sort or another computer since the mid 80’s. And I was always hearing from one person or another about having major problems with their computers at some point. Well a week ago it finally happened to me, or so I thought. I had been having some little hiccups off and on since last spring, and last week my computer finally decided to not work properly. It didn’t die or anything but when I plugged it back in and turned it on (after we had a thunderstorm) nothing would come up on the monitor. Now I suppose most people would think right there and then that it was the monitor, but not me. Why? Because I had just been on the computer a few hours earlier and no problems then.

As I said before, I thought there must be some sort of problem with the computer such as a conflict with software or some such thing, as it seems every time I install something new little things seem to change and some times cause problems. I knew I wasn’t going to figure this out on my own so I called The Geek Squad and arranged for an agent to come to my house last Friday to run diagnostics on the computer. He came in and sat down. I turned on the computer and told him about the problems I had been having for months (meaning it was taking several minutes for anything to come up on the screen when I “woke the computer up”). He took a quick check of the plug wires on the monitor and promptly told me after about two minutes that I needed a new monitor. I mean I really thought it was any thing but that. His 15 minute visit cost me $130. And then I had to go buy a new monitor!!

After coming home and installing the monitor, I get on the computer and notice there is no sound. I do everything I can think of (which doesn’t say much) to try and get the sound fixed. Finally I gave up and called the store and spoke to another Geek Squad agent only to be told that the monitor I purchased doesn’t have built in speakers and that I could either return the monitor or I could purchase speakers. Now tell me, am I the only one who doesn’t know not ALL monitors have built in speakers? I mean every one I had before had speakers built in. And don’t you think the salesperson could have mentioned this when I asked him if there was anything else I needed to buy. So I went online and did some comparisons and after chatting with customer service to make sure the ones I picked were compatible with my computer, I placed my order. They are supposed to be here by Thursday.

Guess what I am getting/got for my birthday?

Doll Progress

2009-09-01T18:36:00.003-04:00

The past few days here have been gorgeous. We have been having unusually cooler weather than we normally have for the end of August and going into September. It is normally very hot and humid, but the temps have been in the mid to upper 70’s and lower 80’s during the day and lows in the low 60’s or even into the 50’s.

I mentioned before that I have been working some on one of the dolls and so I thought I would give you a little peek at her.

The things that look like little white beads are pinheads that were holding everything together in this photo. I have everything on her headdress stitched now. I still have to stitch up her robe/dress as it is only pinned on right now and attach her head permanently to her body.

I spent some time today looking through my stash for fabrics for clothing for the second doll. It will be a good while before she is finished, but I hope not too long as there are so many other things I want to get started on.

Announcing the Winners

2009-08-24T10:46:00.003-04:00

And the winners are:

1st place winner of the postcard is Gina from ‘fan my flame’.

2nd place winner of the 2 ATC’s is Raggy (Sandie) from Feltissimo and Rag Rescue.

I want to thank each and everyone of you who took the time to leave your comment and for taking a short bit of time out of your day for stopping by and reading my blog. It really is appreciated by me.

Giveaway Reminder

2009-08-22T08:11:00.004-04:00

Here are a couple of photos of Marigolds in the garden.

Just a reminder, you still have time to put your name in for a chance to win in my blog giveaway. All you have to do is leave a comment in the previous post by midnight Sunday and make sure I have your email addy to reach you.

Blog Giveaway

2009-08-18T10:45:00.005-04:00

It’s been too long in between postings. I have been working on some things during some of the time though. I hope to have pics soon of one of the dolls.

Well I just discovered that this past Sunday was the 4 year anniversary of my blog. And so I am having a little giveaway. All you have to do is leave a comment here between now and Sunday Aug. 23rd (midnight EST). I will pick two lucky winners on Monday the 24th. Be sure that you have an e-mail addy so that I can contact you.

And what will you be winning?

First prize is this piece that I started last year in an online class with Dale. I recently finished it up by adding beads, some hand stitching and a postcard backing.

Second prize are these two ATC’s I recently made.

Good luck and thanks so much to all of you who have visited my blog these past four years. I really do appreciate you all.

What I've Been Up To

2009-07-23T11:51:00.006-04:00

I didn’t mean for it to be quite so long in between postings. DS (who is single) had hernia surgery last week and I spent some time with him at his home. He is doing fine and can return to work next week on light duty.

I have been working on several things from time to time the past few weeks. For some reason I took a notion to create more dolls. I still have one that I started 3 years ago in an online class with Michelle Munzone. She is waiting for me to finish the work on her face. I find that the hardest part of all to do. At present she is perched on a reel of fine gold wire. The purple stick is not part of the doll; it is just helping to prop her up.

Anyway, I now have two others started but am in no big hurry to get back to. As usual, I have several other things that I want to try, besides all the usual life/home things that must be done from time to time.

I took some time the other day to clear most everything off my work counter so that I could get to the front windows and clean them. I replaced the mini blinds at the same time. My room is still a big mess but I can walk around and find most anything that I might want. :-)

** Update on Lap Quilt**
After ironing the backing fabric and cutting and pressing the batting Tuesday, I finally was able to get the quilt top sandwich spray basted together with the help of DH. I have to choose threads and then I should be able to get started quilting. As I don’t own a mid-arm or long-arm machine, again it will be a fairly simple pattern stitched on this one.

Latest Creation

2009-07-10T10:54:00.009-04:00

A short while back I decided to make myself a summer purse. I pretty much just played it by ear designing and sewing it. I didn’t want a purse that was soft and floppy, so I used firm flex to create a stiffer body that would hold up to repeated use. I got the body finished and then made the flap separately. It took me a little longer to make the lining than I thought it would, because I wanted a partition in it, creating two sections. I also made a large pocket for the back section.

After the lining was made and pinned in place along with the flap and strap, I discovered it was going to be very tricky sewing it all together because of the stiffness of the purse. I didn’t think I was going to be able to sew it, so I let it lay for a week or so. I finally decided to take the plunge and give it a shot and hoped that I wouldn’t make a mess of stitching it together.

Here it is. It measures roughly 12 inches wide by 8 inches tall by 3 inches deep.

The fabric I used is a mid-weight decorator one. For the lining I chose from my stash this script fabric, partially for the color and more so, because I had two yards of it!

I am debating whether or not to add some kind of decorative item to the flap. I have a couple of jewelry pieces to choose from, but I also am considering something textile or fiber.

Update

2009-07-03T11:54:00.003-04:00

Here’s an update from my last posting. The old Canon printer will print colors but not black. I removed the print head and cleaned it as best I could but I think the black inkjet is hopelessly clogged. The newer Epson printer is working, but I’ve only printed text so far. Haven’t tried any photos as yet.

My camera returned home and seems to be working fine. I must say I was very happy with the short time it took for the repair. The Olympus repair shop received it on a Thursday and it was back home to me the following Wednesday.

I have replaced my bath scales and guess what? I lost 40 pounds (if only that were true). The first time I stepped on it I had it sitting on the bedroom carpet. Not a good way to get an accurate reading, but it was great to see those 40 pounds gone. I had to take it out into the hallway and place it on the hardwood floor for the true weighing. It then said I had lost 2 pounds, but then again that could just be the difference between the old scale and this new one.

I also bought a new cordless shaver and now have smooooth legs!

As for the BBQ, I just bought a new burner and cooking grid for the old one and I am calling it happy for now.

To everyone here in the USA,

Have a Happy and Safe 4th of July!

If It's Not One Thing It's Another

2009-06-16T08:18:00.001-04:00

Thought I would first start you off with something pretty to look at.

Let me see…..what has been going on since my last posting. Well, both of my printers are on the fritz. I have tinkered with them some but need to try a couple more things before giving up. My Canon printer is around 13 years old and I am thinking that maybe the print head has finally given out. But my Epson printer is fairly new. I was in a hurry last week to print something and caused a paper jam, and one of the cartridges needed replacing. So hopefully I can solve that problem.

On the other hand, however, my new camera had been acting up and I finally had to ship it out for repair last week. Hopefully it will be back in a week or two. Then maybe I can post a photo or two of something new (the rose photo is an old one).

What else? Oh, my digital scales died (or maybe I just killed it). I thought the thing had a battery, but I ended up tearing it apart (literally) only to discover there was no battery to replace. It went in the garbage.

Saturday I grabbed my cordless shaver to shave my legs only to get my leg scratched up to s#%&. I took a good look at the shaver head to discover the mesh screen had broken and little bits of wire where sticking up in several places. Guess where the shaver ended up!

I bought a new BBQ grill last week and spent 5 hours putting it together. I used it Saturday, decided I hated it and returned it Monday for a refund!?!

Yard Work, Sewing and a Journal Cover

2009-05-28T11:13:00.003-04:00

I have been helping DH with some heavy yard work over the past few days, but I have finally gotten the borders sewn onto the lap quilt. I will try to get a photo or two the next bright sunny day we have.

I worked on this little journal cover on and off over the past week or so. I just finished adding the 2009 on the cover. I scanned this, that’s why it is so closely cropped.

It looks kind of Christmasy, but when I went looking through my stash I saw that red wool and had no idea why I bought it so I thought what the heck might as well use it for this.

A Look See

2009-05-19T19:05:00.002-04:00

Okay, I still don’t have the borders on this, but here is a peek at the lap quilt top. The colors are more vibrant than they look in this photo.

I was in need of a new eyeglasses holder and made this last week. Nothing fancy but it is sturdier than the old one, which was really quite floppy.

I'm Here

2009-05-11T23:28:00.000-04:00

Once again more time has passed since my last posting than I would like. I have worked on and off on the lap quilt and have the top minus the borders sewn together. No photo yet.

I hope everyone had a lovely Mother’s Day (those of us who celebrate at this time). DS came for a visit. It was nice to see him. Was planning to grill out, turned the gas on to preheat and when I went back to put the steaks on no heat. OUT of gas!! So cooking was moved indoors. Everything turned out fine.

Hope to have something to show soon. Take care everyone.

Catching You Up

2009-04-15T13:56:00.001-04:00

I’m sorry that it has been so long since my last posting. I can’t believe that it is already the middle of April. The weather here can’t make up its mind if it is spring or still winter. We have had some great days and some not so great days. I’ve done lots of weeding in the flower beds and some transplanting, but I have not bought any flowers yet to pretty things up. There is still the chance we could have frosty weather between now and the first week or so of May.

I want to take this time to say thank you to all who have stuck around and still visit my blog. I know I don’t post as often as I would like, but I find it hard to post when I don’t have anything to show. I do want you all to know that I still make the rounds to all the blogs (not just the ones listed in the sidebar). But I still cannot leave comments on a big part of the blogs. If your comments open up in a new window, I cannot comment without getting kicked off the internet. I think it must have something to do with pop-ups, but I am not going to disable my pop-up blocker. If your comments go to a new screen/page, I have no trouble leaving comments for you. I wish I knew exactly how to fix this because I really hate not being to comment on all the wonderful things I have been seeing/reading on your blogs.

I have been playing around some and created a couple of small non-textile pieces, haven’t taken any photos though. I intend to make a few more with the same theme. I just am waiting for my muse to nudge me along again. In the meantime, I have started on another lap quilt. A few months ago I went through my stash and picked several fabrics and then scanned them into EQ6 and played around with a number of different designs and color schemes. It took me forever before I chose one. Then it took me awhile to get around to actually start working on it. Over the past week I cut all the fabric, stitched up the 45 blocks and have 7 of the 9 rows stitched.

These are the two blocks in the quilt.

Pretty wild I know but I am sticking with trying to use what I have in my stash. I used the center piece of the first block to pull my colors. I pulled fabrics that came the closest in color and by the amount of yardage each piece was.

This is going to be one bright quilt when finished.

Using It Up

2009-03-12T23:37:00.003-04:00

I seem to be experiencing a bit of a creative block major project wise but I’ve had a little bit of a play on and off the last couple of weeks creating these ATC’s. The background was created using strips of fabrics just as they came out of the scrap box. The wire is something I’ve had forever and had never used. I also have several rolls of colored foil that I have barely touched. The flowers are samples that were created some time last year and were just lying around. The leaf shapes were cut out of a piece of painted dryer sheet.

Project Contribution

2009-03-01T14:00:00.002-05:00

Last fall I was asked by Lise Pederson if I would be interested in contributing to a project that she and her friend Evelyn are putting together for a show this fall that her club (The Medicine Hat Fiber Club, Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada) will be having. Their theme is “Secret Garden” and I had the choice of making from 1 to 4 pieces representing the four seasons.

These are my four pieces, Winter, Spring, Summer and Autumn. Each one is 3 square inches.
(click photo for a larger image).

Two More Bowls

2009-02-21T22:39:00.007-05:00

I don’t have any real recent work, but I thought I would share photos of two more bowls I made last month before the ice storm.

This one is round.

This one is oval shaped. The sides dip down a little lower than the ends.

After the Storm

2009-02-16T19:17:00.009-05:00

Sorry it took so long to post again. We were without power from Wednesday, January 28 until Sunday evening February 1 and then we lost power again on Thursday the 5th through Saturday morning, the 7th. This storm caused outages across several states. I found it nearly impossible to read by candle light, and was only able to work crossword puzzles for about one hour or so at a time. We just got the generator on Friday, January 30th, and didn’t get it running until the next day. We only used it a few hours at a time until the power came back on the first time. And because it was so cold outside we were able to put all the food into coolers and place them out in the cold, so we didn’t need to power the fridge. Everything here is electric (stove, water heater etc.) meaning cold showers and no way to cook. (I did get to use the microwave with the generator). We do have a gas fireplace in the basement however, and that was our only heat during the outage.

When the power came on the first time, DH put the generator in the garage. When the power went off the second time (due to electricians working next door) guess what? We couldn’t get to the generator because the garage door is electric and the smaller entrance was bolted on the inside. The temps were a little too warm to use the coolers again and this second outage caused us to have to throw everything in the refrigerator in the trash.

But everything is better now. Thought I’d show a few photos.

Icicles were hanging everywhere. It snowed for awhile first, and then we had freezing rain. You can see in the photo below how it turned the deck into a skating rink.

We had more snow on top of the ice.

You can see in this next photo how the weight of the ice broke many branches off of these pines. The one that is circled was damaged so badly that the county tree trimmers cut it down for us because the neighbors’ power line got damaged from the broken branches.

I forgot to take photos of the tree afterwards. It was really huge and there was an enormous mess to be cleaned up. DH did most of the work, but I did help and this area is almost all cleaned up now. Hey look, there's the neighbors' house!

Freezing

2009-02-01T10:28:00.000-05:00

Thought I’d do a quick post while generator running to let you know we have been without electric since Wednesday Jan. 28. Have been freezing, however we are going to get in the upper 40’s today. Hopefully it won’t be too much longer, but really have no idea when the electric will come back on. Try to check in again soon. Hope you all are staying warm.

Fabric Bowls

2009-01-15T23:22:00.007-05:00

Last fall Susan Lenz was showing some of the incredible work she was creating during her six week artist residency at the Robert M. MacNamara Foundation in Maine. After seeing her series of acorn cap pots/bowls I decided I must give a try at creating one of these soft fiber pots, minus the acorn caps.

I wasn’t exactly sure how to go about this so I pulled out this book that I’ve had for ages (but hadn’t tried anything yet from it).

It turned out to be easier than I thought, but somewhat time consuming i.e. making the yarn rope to create the bowl.

As usual, I had to stray a little from the directions and do my own thing, hence the somewhat wonky shape. This one measures 2 ½ inches tall by 4 ½ inches across.

Since I had the book out, I figured I might as well have a go at creating one of the clothesline wrapped bowls from the book, especially after seeing all of the ones that Terry and Vicki made recently.

This one measures 2 ¾ inches tall and 7 ¾ inches across. DH named it Lava.

Sad Goodbye

2009-01-12T23:54:00.006-05:00

I really meant to post sooner, but there have been some upsetting occurrences happening over the past couple of weeks and I just couldn’t get into doing much. I won’t go into details, but it involved this small dog, nasty neighbors and threat of a law suit. The neighbor has apologized, the law suit threat I think is gone. The little dog, we miss her very much.

These are coasters I started some time ago, (actually a year ago, yikes).

I got this far with the project back then.

I thought I would be able to stitch them on the sewing machine, but no way. They were too thick and no matter what I tried it just wasn’t going to happen. I tried a couple of different ways to hand stitch them and was not pleased, sooooo I just laid the snakes aside until recently. I decided I would fuse a piece of stabilizer and felt to the bottom and call it happy.

New Year, Old Problem

2009-01-04T19:56:00.003-05:00

Well the holidays are over and I just don’t know where the time goes. Can you believe it’s already the fourth day of the new year (and it’s three quarters over)? I missed ringing in the New Year with everyone, but want to take the opportunity now to wish you all a very happy, healthy and wonderfully creative New Year. Once again I would like to say thank you to everyone who stops by here whether you leave a comment or not (although of course I love to get comments from you).

Speaking of comments, I haven’t been leaving comments on a lot of your blogs and I hate that. For sometime now I have been having trouble doing so. If you have your comments open in a new window, when I try to type my comment to you I end up getting knocked off of the Internet and I have to start all over again. I don’t have this problem with the blogs whose comments open on a new page. I think the problem has something to do with MSN Explorer which is what I use 99 per cent of the time.

Hopefully I can get this worked out soon. I really hate not being able to comment on all of the wonderful things I see going on around blog world.

Happy Holidays

2008-12-23T19:13:00.004-05:00

WISHING ALL OF YOU
A WONDERFUL CHRISTMAS
AND HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Three More

2008-12-22T00:25:00.006-05:00

I’m sure everyone who celebrates this time of the year is very busy and in the midst of many preparations and doesn’t have a lot of time for blogging. I just wanted to share a few more embroidered designs with you.

There are two more, but I haven’t taken pics yet.

Two More Designs

2008-12-13T10:35:00.005-05:00

Just a quick posting. Here are two more embroidered designs.

Click on pic for larger view.

Everyone have a good weekend.

Getting Ready for the Holidays

2008-12-07T20:33:00.006-05:00

I’m sorry it’s been such a long time since my last posting. You all know how it is; sometimes life just gets in the way. I’m sorry too that I have been lax in acknowledging comments, but I really, really appreciate all of you who take the time to comment or even to just stop in for a visit.

The photo above was taken with my new camera (an early Christmas present). This photo was taken during the daytime. I just love that ornament.

What have I been up to the past few weeks? For starters, I have been doing some machine embroidery Christmas designs (time permitting). I really had intended to start these months ago because I know it takes such a long time just to stitch out one design.

Here is a couple so far. You can click on the photo for a larger view.

I have more but will share them over the next week.

Here is another ornament photo. I took this one at night. His hood really is reddish but looks a little orangey in the photo. I obviously have more to learn about using this camera.

Wigwam Book

2008-11-17T12:31:00.007-05:00

I am one of the many people who have been participating in Maggie Grey’s free online classes. You have to have her book Textile Translations in order to participate.

We have been experimenting in Mixed Media using a number of different things.

This is my work for the first lesson. The colors are fairly true in this photo.

In these photos that follow the color is bluer than the piece really is.

I didn’t have any hand made paper for the pages so I used some scrapbook papers I had and stamped images on the blank sides.

Sunset

2008-11-16T18:28:00.007-05:00

Here are a few photos of the sun going down on the little bit of fall color still left around here.

Looking to the east.

These photos are looking more or less to the north.

This one was taken last and already it was getting darker just within a few minutes time.

Tomorrow I’ll show what I’ve been doing this past week or so.

Moonflower

2008-11-08T23:35:00.009-05:00

When I first started this I really didn’t have much of a plan. I knew I wanted a big flower and that was pretty much it. Well I also knew that this piece would either be hung in our bedroom or the hallway. Anyway, I just kind of played it by ear and this is what I ended with.

I know it’s not the best photo (as usual) but it really looks better in person. The leaves seem to blend into the background too much when viewed from a distance but they really are quite different from it. I may work a little more on this to see if I can do something about that. Here’s a couple of close ups.

Looking through some of my books and after a little bit of playing around on paper I finally came up with the leaf quilting design. It took me a little while longer to get my nerve up to start free-motion quilting the bottom.

Click on any of these for a larger view.

If you look back in the previous post you can see here that I eliminated one of the halos around the moon. I’m not sure if that was a good thing to do or not. DH thought it looked too big, and after all, the flower is suppose to be the focal point.

Something I want to mention here is the size. It is 19 inches by 28 inches, which is a little off from the original plan. It was supposed to be 18 x 29 ¼, which seems like a weird size to me, but I was trying to use the Golden Mean Ratio with this particular wall hanging. The Golden Mean Ratio was used in ancient times by the Greeks in their architecture and is said to emphasize elegance and beauty of line. The ratio of the Golden Mean is approximately 8:13, meaning that if your piece is 8 inches wide it should measure 13 inches long. I’m not sure if the Golden Mean made my piece more elegant but it did keep it from ending up looking too short and fat.

I am open for all critiques and thoughts on this piece.

New Work-Sort of

2008-10-26T19:33:00.000-04:00

Last week or so I picked up working again on a piece that I started way back at the beginning of the year (January or February?). This is what I chose for the background.

That light-ish rectangle in the center is where I had a piece of totally stable ironed on the back. It is no longer there.

Next I drew a pattern and cut out these pieces.

They were stitched together and pinned to the background. Then I made some leaves and a moon. They were also only pinned on at this stage. I stopped there.

More on this to come soon.

Finally

2008-10-16T01:20:00.005-04:00

YEA! I have finally completed the lap quilt. I started it back last April. Of course, there were periods where I didn’t work on it at all and that’s why it took so long to finish. That is the front above. This is the largest piece I have ever worked on. It measures 49 inches by 72 inches. When it came time to decide how to quilt it I chose to simply “stitch in the ditch” because I only have my domestic sewing/embroidery machine to quilt it on. It did prove to be a hassle at times trying to wrestle the thing through the machine.

You probably don’t remember that when I finished the top I mentioned I ordered fabric for the back but then didn’t really like it after it arrived. I went back to the stash and pulled enough fabrics to piece together a backing.This is what the back looks like. Sorry for the poor picture quality. The fabrics really look better in person than they do in the photo.

Now when I started to piece this backing I had in mind that I wanted the squares to line up with the blocks on the front even though they are different in size. When I got ready to put together the quilt sandwich I used a temporary basting spray. I “basted” the back to the batting, sprayed the batting again to adhere the front and discovered that lining up the front with the back was going to be a lot harder than I thought. After two attempts, I pulled the top off and left the back/batting pieces lay out on the living room floor for about a week waiting for the stickiness of the basting spray to “go away”. I proceeded to try laying the top out again, this time really taking my time and all in all I did a pretty good job of making it happen. This isn’t a prize winning quilt but it certainly will keep us warm.

On another note as you can see in the photos, we still need to stain the deck flooring.

I also want to thank everyone once again for stopping by. I will try not to make it so long in between postings and hope to have more to show soon.

This Is...

2008-09-18T12:29:00.001-04:00

Just a quick post to update you on what’s happening around here. DH and I have been working off and on re-doing our deck. Since he works third shift, we have to work on it when he’s got time and/or feels up to it. So I still have not really done much in the way of getting any art/sewing etc done. Sunday past, we had the remnants (read as very high winds-around 65-70 mph) from Hurricane Ike. We lost power around noon. About half an hour later we discovered a small field fire at the back of the property and the fire department had to be called. They/we worked that for a couple of hours and when it seemed it was out they left but told us to keep an eye out for any flare ups. We stayed out in the wind and watched for a couple more hours until we felt that it was definitely not going to catch fire again. We were lucky we caught it when we did, because with the winds it could have been a lot worse.

Our power came back on the next morning around 11:00 a.m. and though it seemed like a lot longer we are fortunate because there are many people who are still without power, our son being one of them.

My heart goes out to the many people who have lost their homes due to the hurricane. Sometimes we think we have it bad, but there are many others that have it so much worse.

Checking In

2008-09-05T10:14:00.000-04:00

Since it’s been two weeks since my last post I thought I’d better let you know I’m still around. I kind of got behind on my blog reading but am slowly catching up and therefore haven’t left too many comments on your blogs, but I wanted to let you know I am reading them whenever time permits. I hope you don’t give up on me here, either.

I have been working some on the lap quilt. Even though I bought fabric for the back, I decided I really didn’t like it after it arrived. So I went back through the stash and found enough fabrics to piece together. I just have the borders to sew on and then I will be ready to put together the quilt sandwich and attempt to quilt it.

I will try not to be so long posting again and hopefully will have a photo or two for you.

What I've Been Up To

2008-08-21T13:04:00.004-04:00

First off, thanks to all who left comments on my last postings. I usually try to personally thank each of you through emails, but I have to admit I have fallen down on the job here lately. I really do appreciate them, really.

This is one of two things I have been working on recently. DH asked if I would make something for a co-worker. I made this eyeglasses case.

This is the backside.

The front has wool tops, silk throwsters waste and painted cheesecloth embellished onto felt. Tulle was placed on top and then I added some free-motion stitching. The flower was made by embellishing wool tops on felt, and then cutout and hand stitched to the front. I added the diamond stitching on the back piece. I actually like this one better than the one I made for myself.

The other thing I have been working on is I finally got the two borders added to the lap quilt I wrote about in this post. I don’t have a photo as it is too gloomy today.

New Notepad

2008-08-11T08:56:00.005-04:00

Not much to blog about. I spent some time over the weekend trying to take new photos of some of my pieces. I don’t know why, but no matter what I would try some of them just would not come out looking good. I guess I could really use a better camera.

Remember this piece from a couple of posts ago.

I turned it into a small notepad holder.

The colors in the first photo are more accurate, I guess because I scanned it.

I have been looking through my books and magazines for inspiration. I have a several ideas, but haven’t really acted on any of them as yet.

In the Mailbox

2008-07-26T22:34:00.004-04:00

I don’t have any new samples to show yet as I’ve been busy doing those things that have to be done, you know housework, yard work etc. Tomorrow DS is coming to visit for the day so I probably won’t get anything done either. Soon I hope.

A week or so ago, Sue B had a give away on her blog. Imagine my surprise to learn that I was one of the winners. I was even more surprised to learn I had my pick of prizes. This is what came in the mail a couple of days ago.

It is a fabulous journal she made using grungeboard motifs. I don’t have any shots of the inside but it has 3 signatures and a couple of pockets with several tags.

Lesson 5 Samples

2008-07-21T09:34:00.007-04:00

Here are my samples from Lesson 5 of Dales’ Embellish Stitch and Enrich class.

This first piece has Kunin felt for the background that I applied Misty Fuse to hold down the small bits of fancy fabrics and ribbons and angelina fibers. The bottom half has been needle punched from the front only.

This is the piece after punching all over and then I added machine stitching with metallic thread. Click on the photo for larger view.

This is the back. This is the first time I have used Kunin felt and so when I took the heat gun to the back of it, I thought at first it wasn’t going to melt because I was holding the gun too high up. But when I placed the gun a lot closer the little holes started appearing. I didn’t really want to distress this too terribly much because the felt shrinks the more it is heated.

This is another piece with Kunin felt for the background. The circles are wool roving and the lines are fun yarn.

This is what it looks like from the back side. Lovely watercolor effect.

I was going to use the heat gun on this, but since I wasn’t sure what I will make with this I have decided to hold off on that for the time being as I kind of like it the way it is.

Lesson 4 Samples

2008-07-10T20:32:00.008-04:00

Lesson 4 of Dales’ Embellish Stitch and Enrich online class had us knitting/crocheting sample shapes and then seeing what we could do with them. Since I really don’t do much of either, I did up some simple samples.

These two flowers are crocheted with fuzzy yarn. The one on the left hasn’t had anything done to it; the one on the right has been run under the embellisher quite a bit from the top side only. I like how the colors blend together.

This sample scrumble was both crocheted and knitted. This was my first attempt at scrumbling. I haven’t done anything to it yet as I haven’t decided how/where I will use it. I probably will lightly embellish it to a background and add some hand stitching and perhaps some beads.

This is a crocheted fan made from wool yarn. Don’t know what I will do with this yet.

This flower is crocheted from the same wool yarn (duh).

These two samples are knitted from the wool yarn using size 3 needles. The one on the left has been run under the embellisher blending the colors very nicely. The thing about these little samples is that they are fairly thick. This may or may not be a problem depending on what I decide to use them for.

I’ll have to see what I can create with some of these. I have also made a couple of samples for Lesson 5. I’ll show them soon in my next posting.

More Embellisher Fun

2008-07-09T09:44:00.007-04:00

I know I am a little late getting back with more samples. The July 4th holiday had me doing other things, plus DH was off work several extra days.

This piece is a sample made from two different colored felts, cut in strips and then woven together. I applied Misty Fuse and then added some gold foil. Next I cut up some pink and green cheesecloth and lightly fused them on, after which I machine needle felted it all together.

I used part of the woven piece for my next sample. I loosely knitted some yarn and then cut it apart in places to stretch over the felt. I then proceeded to machine needle felt it. This shows the green half felted.

This one is after it was entirely punched from both the front and back.

I think I liked the piece better before it was felted from the back, but it depends on the look you are going for. I may use this to make a small book cover or perhaps a needlecase.

I used the same technique for making this case for my sunglasses. I could have embellished it further with some hand stitching and maybe even some beads, but I was in a hurry and decided to stop where I did. Plus with all the handling it would get I didn’t want the worry of it coming off.

I know the holiday is past, but I wanted to show you the pin I made for the 4th. This is my Independence Day Wild Woman. I wanted a tiny flag for her, but by the time I thought of it, I didn’t have time to get out and look for one. Maybe next year.

Felted Landscape Redo

2008-06-30T00:23:00.001-04:00

In my previous post I asked for some honest critique on my felted landscape piece. If you are a long time reader of my blog you know that I have done several felted landscapes before this piece. Those previous pieces had little or no hand stitching on them. I added stitching to this piece as it was created for the Embellish Stitch and Enrich online class that I am currently taking.

First let me say thank you to those who commented, especially to Debby W and Paula Hewitt (who don’t have email). It is much appreciated. I wanted honest critique on this and that is what I was given. Sometimes it helps to have some one else point out what is good and what is bad with a particular piece.

Paula stated that my use of detached chain stitch on the one green tree made it stand out too much, especially since it really isn’t the focal point in Camilles’ painting. I debated which stitch I was going to use on that particular area and actually started with the seed stitch, but changed my mind (I knew I was wrong in doing this but went ahead) and did the detached chain. Of course, afterwards I could see it really was not the best choice and I even said so in my previous posting. She also stated that she would have used straight stitches for the purple border (to emulate the brush strokes in the painting). I actually had considered that when starting that area, but decided to use the French knots instead.

So thanks to this input, I went back and took out the detached chain stitching and did seed stitching on the tree. It looks better, but still not quite right, but I think I can live with it now.

On a different note, I received this in the mail Saturday.

This ATC is from Karen, who as far as I know does not have a blog. She is the one to whom I sent the red ATC from the previous post. She also sent along these lovely pieces of lace and feathers.

I have been working on more samples from the online class and will show them very soon.

Online Class-Lesson 2

2008-06-26T08:54:00.010-04:00

This is a sample I made for Lesson 2 for the online class I am taking with Dale. I fused gold foil to wine felt with misty fuse. Next I cut up tiny bits of yarn, several fancy fabrics, some ribbon and lame’. I didn’t have a sheer chiffon scarf to use as a cover so I used a piece of red tulle. Then I machine embellished the heck out of it mostly from the front, but I also did some from the back.

Right after I made my sample I was asked to do an ATC swap. It just so happened that these were her colors, so I cut up the sample and added some beads and hand stitching.

I did some beading and stitching on the other half but have not decided just what I will do with it. Maybe use it as a central motif on something?

This painting is by Camille Pissaro. This is my inspiration piece for the landscape challenge for Lesson 2.

This is my piece before hand stitching.

This is it after I did hand stitching. I’m not so sure if I like it now or not. Of course, those of you who are into hand embroidery would know other stitches and ways of making this look better. I welcome all critiques on this piece.

Swap

2008-06-19T00:34:00.000-04:00

I recently did a couple more ATC swaps. This is the ATC that I received from Anna.

This is the one I made and sent to Anna. It is foil on felt background. The discs are ones that Anna sent to me sometime ago. They are metal and were silver in color. I used alcohol inks to color them. The photo does not do justice to this ATC.

This one I received from Suzanne. Once again the photo doesn’t quite do it justice.

And this is the one I sent to Suzanne. It was made from some of the tiny scraps I had in the scrap box.

Lesson 1 Continued

2008-06-12T01:57:00.001-04:00

Even though Lesson 2 started yesterday in Dale’s Embellish Stitch and Enrich class, I have still been doing some experimenting with a few more samples for Lesson 1.

This first one is wool roving punched onto a double folded piece of cheesecloth. This is the front.

This is the back.

These two are examples of wool roving punched from both the front and back onto itself.

This sample has pieces of torn cotton strips punched onto a felt base.

This one has wool tops and roving punched onto a piece of used dryer sheet. It has been punched from both the front and back.

I used these last two to make my challenge piece for Lesson 1. It is 4” x 6”.

I left the edges unfinished for now as I haven’t decided just exactly what I will do with this.

Now to see what fun things I can do with Lesson 2.

Online Class-Lesson 1

2008-06-05T19:11:00.001-04:00

I have just started taking an online class "Embellish Stitch and Enrich" with Dale Rollerson using the embellisher. The first lesson is playing around making samples using lots of different fabrics, fibers, yarn and such.

This is a piece I did last year. I thought I would show it as an example of punching yarn and creating a design. It is acrylic yarn punched onto a piece of craft felt. Acrylic yarn is harder to punch than wool but it will mesh into the felt with several passes of the needles.

This new sample has organza and polyester fabrics punched onto a craft felt base. It shows the texture you can create with these fabrics.

In this sample I laid eye lash yarn on top of a piece of black craft felt and punched over it quite a lot.

This is what the back looks like.

As you can see, this sample has three different things going on. The top 3 rows are nylon ribbon punched down. The middle strip is a piece of felt punched to the base felt. It was punched first from the front then from the back and then repeated front and back a couple more times. The bottom is some acrylic yarn that was first punched onto a piece of stabilizer and then punched onto the felt base.

This is a piece of felt that I punched some scrim and yarn onto. It was punched from the front and then the back and then the front again. I think I over punched from the back because you can barely make out the scrim now.

Some of you may remember seeing this sample before. I taped a thumbtack to the embellisher and punched these circles of felt onto felt. Punched from the front:

And what it looks like on the back:

More to come when I get a chance to play some more. I still have her challenge from the lesson to tackle.

More on the Quilt

2008-05-20T14:29:00.000-04:00

I have been sewing on the quilt top when time permitted. First off is a look at the 16 patch block.

I now have the top sewn, minus the two borders.

The quilt top. Sorry this is the best photo I could get, it’s a gloomy day here today.

Here’s a closer look. The colors are pretty much true in this photo, (at least on my computer they are).

I will need to buy the fabric for the back and I may also need to buy batting (I haven’t checked yet to see if I have a piece large enough).

Progress Report

2008-05-03T10:59:00.001-04:00

Just a little progress report on the quilt. I now have 35 of the 38 star blocks completed.

Next will be to cut all of the pieces/strips needed for the 39 sixteen patch blocks. When these are all completed and placed there will be a second pattern going on in the completed quilt.

Hello

2008-04-27T09:22:00.001-04:00

I can’t believe I haven’t posted anything for three weeks. Well, actually I can. I haven’t really done much of anything that I could show. It seems my muse has abandoned me and I am not doing so great without her.

I have however decided it is time to make a dent in my fabric stash and pulled out some fabrics that have to be at least 10 years old (maybe older). Some of these fabrics I would not even consider buying today. I figured I might as well make some lap quilts from these fabrics. I have been playing around in Electric Quilt 6 and finally decided on a pattern for the first one. It took a while to come up with something that would work with the amount of each of these particular fabrics. I just started the other day and have completed 15 blocks. I have the pieces cut for 9 more. That means I only have to cut and piece 53 more. The quilt will consist of 38 star blocks and 39 sixteen patch blocks. I have no idea how long it will take me to complete this as I have to work on it in between “my chores”.

Here is what one of the star blocks look like. It has not been squared up as yet. The cream colored fabric with the little rust colored flowers was not my original choice. I had to substitute it for what I originally chose when I discovered I didn’t have enough of the first fabric I originally wanted to use.

Aaaah, Spring!

2008-04-06T17:32:00.001-04:00

For a while it seemed like it would never stop raining, but we finally had a day of sunshine. Right now the forsythia is about the only thing blooming at my house. Looks wonderful doesn’t it.

And because it was such a nice day I did some weeding and other yard work for a few hours. It felt so good to be out in the sun and fresh air.

New Look and ATC

2008-03-28T14:21:00.002-04:00

Can you believe that March will soon be gone. I swear I don’t know where the time goes.

Well I know that Ati has received the ATC that I sent to her so I will now show it here in case you didn’t see it on her blog. The background is wool roving needle felted. I crocheted the flower in free form style.

You may have noticed that I have changed the look of my blog. I am still working on it as some of the things in my side bar do not want to co-operate with me, so don’t be surprised to see it changed the next few times you visit.

Speaking of visiting, once again I just want to say thank you to everyone. I have been in a bit of a funk ever since I got sick and I am still trying to find my creative muse and get back in to creating. Hopefully this won’t last much longer.

Mail

2008-03-22T11:12:00.002-04:00

A while back when I was on Flickr looking around, I saw an ATC that Ati had made and I just decided I had to have it. It was still available and we agreed to a swap.

This is Ati’s ATC. Isn’t it just beautiful.

She also included these lovely fibers.

I am holding off showing the one I sent her until after she gets it as I just sent it yesterday.

I want to thank everyone who has been here and left comments and those of you who visited but didn’t comment. It really means so much. I usually try to email those of you who leave your comments, but here lately I have been lax in that department. I am sorry, but I really, really appreciate each and every one of you.

She's Back

2008-03-13T09:10:00.002-04:00

I added more to the mermaid piece. I knew it needed more, so I added additional hand stitches across the bottom around the seashells. I also added some beads. If you want to see how I left this piece before, just click on "She's Done" in the sidebar under previous posts.

bottom left corner

bottom middle section

bottom right corner

I also did some tea dying last week. Here is the result of that. I dyed some small pieces of muslin, a piece of PFD fabric, some cheesecloth and a couple of small doilies.

Got Snow?

2008-03-08T20:20:00.002-05:00

This is what it looks like here from all the snow we received yesterday and this morning.

These next two are where my large flower bed with the little pond is supposed to be.

This is looking across towards our neighbor.

Our deck.

These next ones are from 2 weeks ago when I was sick with the flu and didn’t get to show them. This is what some of our pine trees looked like from an ice storm we had.

We lost a lot of branches off of this tree.

Right now the sun is shining brightly but the temperature is only 27 with a wind chill of 15 degrees!
(**note—that was earlier, but blogger wouldn’t let me publish then!)

In The Mail

2008-03-06T08:46:00.001-05:00

A couple of weeks or so ago, Andrea held a little give away on her blog. This was right before I came down with the flu. As it so happens I was one of three winners and she emailed me to let me know. Well these came in the mail yesterday.

First off is this little Paris souvenir.

I also received one of Andrea’s very own original Miss Doodle art pieces.

It’s a charming piece and brightened my day.

Thank you Andrea.

Thanks to All

2008-03-02T15:03:00.003-05:00

First off, thank you everyone for the concern and well wishes. I am starting to feel better. Still not doing anything creative as of yet, but hopefully soon.

Now, to thank Rebecca over at Crafting-Ritual for giving me the “You Make My Day” award. I recently discovered her blog and she does some really beautiful beaded jewelry and art dolls. Take a minute to go look at her art. I am supposed to pass this on to 5 more people but there are so many people who deserve this that it is impossible to choose. I feel that everyone whose blog I read “Makes my Day”.