Monday Monday.....

I

Long, busy week and weekend. I have nothing to show and since I am like most bloggers, I prefer posts with pics!. I played with this cool image of telephone poles along a railroad track in nearby Darien. I don't really know what I did to get this negative image but I like it. It will represent a moment of creativity!

My computer caught a nasty virus called the AVE virus. Pam's husband, Jim, spent many hours trying to get rid of it for me. BUT the bugger was hiding somewhere and was back at it shortly after I turned it on. Luckily we have a computer guy down the road that worked on it yesterday (yes, on Sunday!). So far so good. I am pretty attached to this internet neighborhood. So many good friends in my little laptop world!

I have learned:

1. How to type #'s and !?.@ etc. using cell phone key pad without scrolling to Symbols and 123 for numbers. 
2. Pearl Street Grill for the nuptials...Melissa & Cory 10-15-11!
3. NOW how do I spell check? Not on Blogger header and not in my browser bar.Ugh
4. Citizen Cope, The Clarence Greenwood Recordings...really good. World Cafe on NPR last Friday.

Book RR Page

As you can tell from this picture it was sunny today! This is my pink velvet (from a J.Jill shirt from Sally Ann's, my fabric store of choice!) heart with a splash of beading. If you look closely you can see all my tiny seed stitches on the white square. I love the texture they add so it is worth the time to do it.  Here is this page IN Jody's Book...

I painted the tags at the bottom, stamped them and attached  to the fabric with a beaded string. I like how they hang out the bottom of the book when it is closed. This is the other side of my page..

I sewed a piece of my fabric paper (the white crinkly stuff is scrunched white tissue paper) onto another piece of fabric paper to make a pocket for a tag that I want to record my inspiration in creativity, my Aunt Molly. She was actually my Dad's aunt and he and Uncle Tom were from Leitrem, Ireland also. She was a wonderful woman that watched my sister & I alot when we were young. Teaching us to bake and make things was the highlight of an overnight visit. No one has influenced me more in my life.  

I am following Jody's lead....she has recorded on tags in her book, the people that have influenced her creativity.

Yesterday was quilt guild day! It was community service program and as you can see there were many generous women working on quilts that Melanie & her mom, Mary Ann, orchestrate the charitable distribution to mostly children. We donate 60-70 quilts a year!

I love that my guild meets in this awesome auditorium at our VA in town.

Besides alot of quilts and quilted items, some of my friends bring other cool things. Mary Lee had these knitted felted slippers! The right one is finished with velvet ribbon, needle felted flowers and hand embroidery. Really nice.

Martha sported these hand knitted eye-cord shoelaces! Leftover sock yarn...what a great idea!

Sharon took classes from Velda Newman last weekend in Rochester.  She learned to paint these fruits and flowers. Very impressive!

I have learned:

1. citizen cope...the band that sings this song. I heard it at my son's football games..no one knew who it was...I even emailed a radio station to inquire. Like the bluesy/reggae sound. 
2. April 1st, the day my soon-to-be studio will be emptied. Melissa will be moving with Cory to a little house they will rent in town. Then the whole upstairs (1 1/2 story house, so it isn't that big!) will be my creation station!!
3.  I love doing the thread painting with a zig-zag free motion. Shirley, from my Yahoo group, taught us what it can do. Lots of texture. 
4. I am watching the Project Runway hardware store episode. I want to do that challenge! Not garments though. I want to make an art quilt entirely from a hardware store.....hhhhmmmm. Just what I need...another idea running around my head! BUT it is so intriguing.

Testing, testing...

Oh man....just spent an hour posting great pics, recording my thoughts, links all highlighted and PUFF! Not even in edit section. Something about cookies? I don't even know what a cookie is?

So here is a great pic of a cool thing......until tomorrow....I hope my cookies repair themselves tonight!

The 49th Year Begins....

From my friend Jody! A handmade card, the best kind. She included 5 gorgeous shades of orange/red embroidery threads and beads to feed my creative soul!

49 today! I know it's a cliche, but where have the years gone? My daughter is 27, my son 21. I do know there is much more for me to do in the next 49 years!

I participated in a CQ Embellishment swap. Birthdays. It began last April so I was the final person in the year long swap to get to revel in tactile heaven! I am overjoyed at the abundance and variety of goods I now have to entertain creative endeavors. Fiona was playful kitty, sneaking off with ribbons and cords as I piled them up!

Vixen!

Meeting up with sister and the kids tomorrow for fish fry...and my only birthday request....Irish Soda Bread! MMmmm. Want it.

Gorgeous, sunny day. Needing Spring.

I have learned:

1. STITCH magazine out.
2. Made it through the encapsulating MRI today. Now free up my frozen shoulder!
3. American Idol. Kind of droll, but plan to see it through. No more Lily Scott or Alex Lambert. Liked them both. My allegiance aligned with Siobahn Magnus now. She's interesting.
4. Joggles is a really cool site. Lots of stuff to buy and classes too. I signed on for Sumptuous Surfaces with Sharon Boggon. It is contemporary embroidery. Exciting!

Landscape art Quilt Quilted

I quilted the Landscape quilt today...so satisfying! Free motion on the mountains, lines in the sky and if you look closely, a zig zag that undulates in the grass. I used the buttons on my machine while stitching the wavy zig zag lines to vary width of the zigs and zags. Cool. All I need to do now is border it with a black wide mitered edge. 

I spent some time working on 2 more Seminole strips....BUT I messed both of them up! I actually like them however, especially this one~~ I made the center strip for this strip too wide (hard to read the directions on my computer!) but when I laid them out I was pleased by this design so I sewed them all together. It's not a Seminole strip but it is something and I like it! Alot.

I even worked on Jody's page for our Book RR.

I stitched the background and white squares with lots of seed stitches a while ago. Today I fused the velvet hearts and the Kool Aid dyed snap strip to the page. I free motioned the edges of the hearts. My plan is to sew some beads to the hearts, hang little tags threaded through the holes in the snap tape and use some of my fabric paper on the reverse side. I am really enjoying my work on this page. I am thinking of adding a larger tag like she has inserted in her book commemorating the people that have influenced her creative endeavors. My inspiration would be my Aunt Molly. She was a wonderful woman. I remember her making, with my sister and I, Indian feathers from paper and attaching to a band that circled our heads! I was about 8. I have been making something or other ever since.

I must include that memory in this book.

So you know this wasn't the plan when I pulled over?! Looked solid. Not. As soon as I felt the truck sink I knew I was in good, up to the running boards! This little woods is one of my "Ladies room's"! Low traffic area. I used the facility before calling my boss for help! A girls gotta do what a girls gotta do!

I have learned:

1. How to adjust the size on a document in a file on computer. I couldn't read the measurements on the instructions for the Seminole strips. Melissa saw me struggling and in usual offspring-to-parent-imbecile style...showed me tho change the percentage to more than 50%....and wow, I could read it!
2. I don't like the day of the year we lose an hour. I like every hour.
3. Snow dying is really cool. What a beautiful outcome. Check out the pics in my last post. Sharon gave each of us a piece of one. I am admiring it right now. Something to look forward to next winter.
4. Listening to Ghostwalk by Rebecca Stott on CD. Very interesting. Isaac Newton was a  peculiar man.
5. My body thinks it is 8:11 PM.

Four Petals and Snow Dying

We had our little art quilt meeting this past Tuesday. We are making progress on our group flower project. It is looking great...very interesting. Sharon was snow dying last weekend and these pieces are gorgeous. She shared with her friends! Elaine did some snow dying too....good thing because the snow is just about gone! Very cool technique.

Fabric Paper or Paper Fabric?

Whichever it is I like it! My friend Jody made some of this that she used in her Book for our RR. It has intrigued me so I got out some muslin, gathered dollar store tissue papers, ribbon yarn, thread nest and a ravelled bit of silk. Cheap white glue, another dollar store item, mixed 1:1 with water in an old cottage cheese container. Paint brush. Plastic garbage bag as your waterproof barrier since this gets pretty saturated.

You are basically decoupaging the papers and fibers onto the fabric. Fun! I made this one collage-y. Another piece is still drying in front of the heater vent....I used large solid pieces in layers on that one. I will post when it dries.

They tend to roll up at edges as it dries, but I ironed it and worked out fine. One of these will be used in Jody's book on the backside of my page.

I also did the first strip in the Seminole Piecing class on learningfa. Seminole piecing can be very interesting and graphic. Priscilla Kibbe uses strips of them extensively in her jackets.

I also worked on the gift I can't show yet! I have a little more to do yet, mail it by Friday and can post pic by April 1st. I think my giftee will like it. I do!

I have learned:

1. Cleaning does not make me happy. Creating does. Today I was like a manic depressive....swinging from miserable to content as I flip flopped from scrubbing sinks, vacuuming, laundry and dishes to stitching! Melissa pointed this out.
2. New old couch. $24. Auctions are cool.

CQ Ocean Floor....in progress

I have been stitching and stitching the ocean floor in copper organza on Kathy's Mermaid block. I am adding pretty blue chiffon ribbon to it. I will add some fish, shells, beads, a starfish and some anemones like the ones in Fiberart Montage by Judith Baker Montano. Excellent book. She makes the little critters using a 4 hole button and stacking beads to form a tentacle thing, a few from each hole. I think a few anemones will live down there. I did the seaweedy masses on each side of the tropical fish scene using different fibers and stitches. The copper organza is supposed to mimic rippling sand.A trip to Ollie's, an overstock outlet store, yielded a treasure of books as you can see. Melissa came home the other night with Masters Art Quilt book she had picked up for me for $7!

This little precious doe was peeking at me from my side door about an hour ago. A glance to the left and I saw her whole clan digging in the snow for apple remnants. There were 8 of them! This is about 100' from my house. I don't see them often, but their tracks and, well, poop, are strategically spread all about the land. They truly remind me of Dean, my greyhound...not in color obviously, but their heads and eyes are so similar. Here is Dean! He just finished eating, laying down! Greyhounds are lazy!

I have learned:

1. Henry's Sisters by Cathy Lamb is a really really good read. The quirky characters are interesting, slinging comments that must be reread and appreciated. I know the book is good if I go to bed earlier just to read longer and I take it to work and actually read at lunch!
2. Smart Ones Lasagna Florentine is de-dang-licious! It is yummy and filling. The Ravioli one with spinach is good too.
3. American Idol. I  like Lily Scott's style and vocals. Siobahn Magnus is adorably quirky and has a powerful, soulful voice...she's cool too. Crystal Bowersox is the one other female I like. The only male voice I like right now is Alex Lambert's. I would buy any CD each of them would make.
4. I miss Gilmore Girls & Seinfeld & Friends & Beauty and the Beast & Thirty Something & Moonlighting & Freaks and Geeks & NYPD Blue & Spin City & Happy Days....to name of few.