Black & White

This past Thursday would have been my parents 49th wedding anniversary. My mom died 7 yrs ago at 61 of cancer and my dad died suddenly 9 months later at 66. This picture was taken on their wedding day...so young and happy and hopeful. My dad was straight from the "Old Country". County Leitrim, Ireland. Loved his brogue.

I purchased this piece from the online "Fiber Art for A Cause" in May. Pat Dolan is the maker. My mother's name was Pat and her maiden name was Dolan. I love this little crow.

And in keeping with the Black & White theme of this mornings post~

Meet my 86 lb. rescued Greyhound, Dean. We have had him for 5 yrs now. He is a big boy. The laziest, sweetest, non-aggressive, massively shedding dog. I mention the shedding in particular because he is white and I have a black oriental rug in my living room. Vacuum? Every day.

I recently learned:

1. I can refinance mortgage to 5%. Saves me over 10% a month and more than 1 payment a year. Seems worth the effort.
2. We live close to Canadian border. Starting June 1st you need more than just birth certificate and license to get back to U.S. I applied for a passport card, good only for land travel ($35.00 only). I hope I get it in time for my trip to Lake Nipissing in July!
3. With a little plain paper journal book and a glue stick, I started an idea/inspiration/ reference file. I cut out pictures of quilts from old mags...images from ads...anything that could serve as a spark to creativity and just quickly glue them to a page. No rhyme or reason, no organization, just cool pictures of things that I like.

Shogun....Adorable Rabbit Wool Mat

Here it is Shogun! Lorraine, in my quilt guild, is always producing something adorable. This was part of her show n' tell Saturday. It is small so it looks like your little bunny would work. If you have any questions let me know and I can try to find out. Good luck!

CQ Beading and Stitching today...

I posted this a while ago but now it is finished. I love this little area on Jody's Mermaid CQ RR block! I love those tiny delica's but my eye's are challenged the entire time.

It's simple but I like it! I deconstructed a stretchy sequin belt from SALLY ANN's and sewed a few on with more delica's seed stitched on fabric.

The tiny tree has french knot foliage and split stitch trunk. I gathered ribbon yarn and sewed on seam. I would like to add something else to this vignette, maybe a little bird?

AND another polymer clay face I antiqued with brown acrylic paint. I had started beading around it and realized that just tacking it down was not secure enough and I needed a better definite edge to keep my beading nuzzled up close, so I glued it down. Seems like it will work. I want to try to do a peyote stitch like on a cabachon. Will see how that goes!

I spent hours today stitching and I feel more caught up on my current projects. I am ready to mail Jody's block to Nicki this week, just have to journal in her book first. The other block isn't due to be mailed til the end of July so I feel I am on track.

I anticipate a busy, stressful week at work. But when it's over I have a week off. I have high hopes and expectations for progress that week that may not match my energy and ambition!

1. Prime & paint kitchen walls
2. Paint trim on garage and 2 windows
3. Clean at least 1 closet out
4. Organize fabric....again
5. Work on Sassaman project from class
6. Size up rectangular Courthouse Steps block for raffle quilt
7. Gather paperwork for refinancing mortgage

Priscilla Kibbee Trunk Show & some CQ pics

This morning was quilt guild and our trunk show was presented by a very interesting, talented woman. Priscilla Kibbee had many garments, mostly jackets, that our volunteer models displayed for us. Every one was a work of art. Seminole piecing is a common denominator in many of her pieces. She also manipulates yardage to be used in a jacket. Priscilla said she will wrinkle, crinkle the fabric, lay face down on ironing board and iron a lightweight interfacing on the back to make the new fabric. At that point she uses it as an added interesting texture by incorporating it in the design.

This is an example of a batik that has been manipulated and various threads and embellishment have been added to it to make this long coat.

I have posted the entire collection on this SNAPFISH album. The pictures don't do them justice, but it will serve as inspiration!

I would love to take one of her classes and create my own wearable artwork!

I have a few pictures of some work I did on a CQ in a RR last year. I didn't have a camera that took close-ups then but I was fortunate to revisit it at my retreat!

This is the entire block. I hope I remember correctly that this is Tami's piece?! Jody, help me out here!! The images are printed on fabric. She included the small ones for us to use as we chose.

I used this image & silk ribbon and french knots to frame it.

I also couched SWEET and some SRE flowers.

This one too....SRE flower with french knots and black beads.

This is not a good picture, but I love it. It is done in backstitch and french knots. I also did the same on Carolyn's block but wrote DREAM.

I am working on three CQ projects right now.

1. Jody's Mermaid block RR
2. Melinda's one block swap
3. Little heart for charity

Today I learned:

1. Swarovski hotfix crystals. They are cool. I want some!
2. Some people never change.
3. Fellow guild member, Cheryl Doody had a quilt accepted to the AQS Quilt Expo~Nashville TN. This is her 3rd national show.

Allentown Art Fest & slice group quilt

Allentown Art Festival....gorgeous sunny day & great company! Got there early enough to still be able to see the vendors. By the time we left it was massively crowded.

Carol, me & Sandy. We have been making this an event for quite a few years. Sandy was feeling really good today. She is amazing us all. One more month of chemo!

This is one of those group projects where each participant is given a piece of a picture and you interpret it any way you choose. There were 8 of us that got a slice of a 4"x6" picture and had to blow it up to 8"x 24" I think it was. The slice was grainy so you can imagine the enlargement was more so. I decided to try Noriko Endo's confetti technique using snippets of solids. I cut up all my colors, piled them on a cookie sheet and had at it!

Kind of pointillist but you can see the "picture" I had to work from on the right.

AND this is the original photo. The finished piece is actually pretty interesting. I loved seeing how the others tackled their slice. My art quilt group has this on our list of want-to-do's but I would like to use a picture with some architecture in it...like cottages on a beach or a row of brownstones. Something with more color options and dimension.

Almost bedtime...tomorrow begins another work week. I decided to read the last book in the Twilight series after all. Eclipse. I will give it 100 pages.

Ideas

Another cherished weekend is at hand! I always have such high hopes for them...that I will actually get lots of things crossed off my TO-DO list.

Today I:

1. mowed lawn~2 hours on a rider~mower too loud to listen to an audio book`wasting good time!

2. moved some hosta around~thought my foot touched poison ivy, which apparently now I get. False alarm.

3. mulched by my little weeping cherry tree so it looks like it belongs in the middle of my front lawn! I put it there because I want a bit of white picket fence across the front, so it was planted with some thought!

4. Planted a pretty pink Dahlia (I am pretty sure that's what this is...(I am flower name challenged!)

I haven't stitched a thing today though. I am working in Melinda's 1 block swap piece due August 1st. She wants jewel tones and nature. I have used beautiful colors and started stitching a mini french knot tree last night. I want to include a MOON...maybe beaded...but also thought of trying layered sheers. Will have to see which one I like best.

I dug out this little CQ heart I pieced last summer so I can stitch it up and give to my friend Anne as a donation to a local charity that uses items to raise funds. I will have it soon Anne!I love to go to thrift stores, always have. In high school I would go all the time, still do. It's a weekly fix! I love old stuff. Old, cool, used stuff! I found these many months ago. SLIDES. I know people of my generation have memories of sitting, watching someone's slideshow. These were of an Arizona vacation. I love them for the frame!

Here's an example what one can do with them.

This was one of my favorite art quilts at the show last weekend. (I am sorry I can't credit maker, can't find the program. If I find out I will include it) I love the use of the slides as frames for her hand stitching vignettes of faces and her use of sheer fabrics. There are french knots & seed stitching and beads. Everything about this quilt appeals to me. Great mixed media.

I have idea's for those retro-cool slides!

In August my quilt guild is having Caren Betlinski come in for a thread painting (machine) class. She did a trunk show for us last year and her work is really awesome. I am looking forward to learning this useful technique.

Tomorrow I am going to ALLENTOWN ART FESTIVAL. It is a juried show so all the vendors are good quality. I usually buy something inexpensive while wishing for that $100.00 pottery vase! I used to ride my bike to it in high school back in the day! (late 70's) I have been going with Sandy & Carol for years now. Sandy is still going through her chemo and is feeling miraculously good. It will be a good day with good friends. Tomorrow is going to be sunny, low 70's...perfect for browsing around.

Today I learned:

1. A $25.oo pedicure is worth every cent. Massage,massage chair, moisturize, hot water and pretty toes. An hour of medicinal pampering!
2. My friend Elaine is on the Quilting Arts.com site. It is her submission for the ROCK ON challenge they had earlier this year. I love her fun piece. (join quilting arts while there..if you like the mag, you'll love the site)
3. I love this CD. I have taken out of library numerous times. I need to just buy it. Madeleine Peyroux. Nice Sunday morning music any time of any day.

Jane Sassaman Class & the Quilt Show

Yesterday was my Jane Sassaman class at the Genesee Valley Quilt Club's QUILT show. What a gracious woman she is. We learned her technique for doing a kind of applique using shirt tailor iron on interfacing and cutting away any layering so in the end you have a piece that is one layer of fabric. One day is not enough time for a class like that. I didn't get very far! I came up with my 3 shapes to use to make a composition...I managed to prepare only 5 pieces but like where it could go! I will be "making something fun" sometime soon! When I have something picture worthy I will post!

I made an album on Snapfish of some of the show.

I hope this link works.

My pictures are mostly the art quilts, some traditional too. I took some good close-ups so you can see some of the details. Relax and enjoy, as there are ALOT of pics!

I did work on my art quilt from the Ellen Lindner online class. Christy made a bunch of awesome marbled pieces in a 3 day class she took last month. She shared one of them with me and it works great as the accent in that quilt! I arranged and rearranged....and machine quilted around all the rectangles, then pebble quilted a bit.

It's still not done....will keep looking at it and thinking of what to do next. It needs some weight in other area's now. Not sure if I am going to add any beads yet. I do like the direction it took today!

It was so nice to have had a 3 day weekend, especially after the day from Hell last Thursday. Back to it again at 7 tomorrow morning. 3 weeks to first vacation week. Big plans to paint the kitchen then!

I learned:

1. My niece Darcy made her elementary school's cheerleader squad for the Fall. She is very excited!
2. Bought 1" hexagon templates to hand stitch/English paper piece 2 1/2" squares of fabric into a great little hexagon. The vendor gave me a short tutorial. I love the idea of traditional hexagons using unusual fabric and non-traditional layout.