Saturday, May 28, 2011

Multi-Media Book RR

Time flies, full of overworked employment, maternal obligations and rotten weather! In this span my laptop also got virus-ed on Friday the 13th. After a $100 trip to the PC Guy, I am clean, but my camera wasn't cooperating with said laptop...not able to download pics. My friend Jody spent an hour on my PC, from her home near Chicago, trying to get me ready to go. Seems my laptop does NOT like my camera, like the PC Guy told me! Now I have a card reader (learned something new today) that my SD card goes into to extract my pics. We bypassed the camera. So....now I can post a new pic! Thanks Jody for all your advice and time. What she knows about computers is like a foreign language to me.
I have been so excited to share my finished (almost) book from the RR I participated in with some of my most talented friends. When we were all together in Charlotte NC, we gave each book back to its owner...a reveal! I am so thrilled with mine! This is my cover. We each made our covers and back covers. It was to provide a direction for each person working on it. I included a slew of upholstery fabric samples, thanks to my friend Anne who gave me a treasure of books to work with. (I used a silk book to make my CQ purse). Each person used some of them in their pages.
Colleen worked her magic on this page. I had prepared canvas to be the substrate of each page and they could paint it the color of their choice. This page is a cool green, coupled with pink and this awesome beaded cabochon. Colleen makes gorgeous jewelry with these cabochons. I feel honored to have one in my book. The second pic is of the backside. She used a vintage apron and embroidery to complete her page. Colleen's aesthetic is similar to mine, so we are guaranteed to like what each of us do.
Nicki's pages began with a "friendship tree". I love how she used her favorite color (blue!) and  created this wonderful rendition of a tree. She dyes lace to sell on Etsie and you can see some of her lace bits here. Her reverse side uses a cool dyed  doilie and stitching, combined with some fabrics I included. Love these pages. Thanks Nick.
Denise has a very under-stated elegance to her designs. I loved her cover and back-side for her book.  She used a felting technique she learned at Quilt Market.  Her second side uses a wine cork cut into slices and stamped with the word "dasein" which means simply, to be alive, to be a being. Love these.
Jody was inspired to use the fabrics included in the box. I love the stamped bird (the bird thing...love it) and she incorporated Scrabble-like tiles since she knows I love the game! She used the leather-like bits to really come up with the perfect pages for my book. Thanks!
This is the back cover I made. I will gather my pages together with discounted bracelet chains I picked up at Michaels. This was the perfect combination of people and talents. We all worked well together. So well, we are gearing up to do an altered book RR. We have included our friend Charlyn in this round. It promises to be exciting! Altered books in entirely different. We will each start with a book...a real book... a book destined for nowhere. The front and back covers will be our starting point. Cannot wait!

My little art quilt group dabbled in a technique from Susan Carlson's book Serendipity Quilts. Using watered down glue and paint brush we glued bits of scraps to create a design. Our first attempts are very basic, but oh, so fun! I used a bag of scrap verbiage fabrics my friend Mary Ellen gave me a few years ago. It was truly soothing and relaxing just gluing bits to background fabric. I encourage you to get her books and try this out. Really fun!

I look forward to trying this technique out and making some fish from her first book, Free Style Quilts.

My body aches after another day of weeding and planting. I still have weeds waiting for me in the front garden. Tomorrow is another day! Can't wait to see the petunia's root and take off. Hope it fills in the front and all I have to do is deadhead the bunch.

I have quite a few projects in queue. First and foremost is a Nook cover. One of my favorites at work asked me to make a Nook cover for his dad for Father's Day. Ted actually found the emblem for his dad's Marine unit and emailed it to me. I copied it to fabric today...which was a trial and error. Some of the prepared sheets I have were affected by humidity and jammed my printer. I ended up using the canvas prepared fabric I bought at Office Max. It went through printer without jamming. I love the canvas and the emblem looks great. He asked for a red cover with emblem on front. After a plea to some quilty friends, Jody went out of her way to find me some Marine fabric at her Hobby Lobby in Chicago; mailed to me right away, received yesterday. The Marine fabric will be inside the Nook holder. I kind of came up with this myself based on a picture from a blog. It will incorporate triangle tabs that hold the Nook inside. Peltex will give it some rigidity. Thinking of elastic to keep it closed. Tomorrow will begin with me making this Nook cover happen!

I have also signed on to interpret this photo into a quilt of some sort. Hhhh.mmmm. So many idea's.


Michael is unofficially graduated from St John Fisher. He saved 3 credits for the Fall to return to play his last year of eligibility on the football team. The ceremony was held in Rochester May 9th. Kudos to Fisher for moving the ceremony swiftly along. 1000 graduates=2 hours.

I have learned:


  1. So You Think You Can Dance started up this past Thursday. I have predicted  Melanie Moore will win. 
  2. Really...Scotty? American Idol. Haley all the way.
  3. D'onfrio returns. Criminal Intent. 
  4. John Steinbeck's Travels with Charly is a quick read about Steinbeck's excursion with his poodle Charly in the early 60's. I looked a couple of times at the publication date. Some issues were still relevant  almost 40 years later. 
  5. Cameron is gay. Melissa's future BIL. He's 18. Cam has known for a long time. Melissa let him be what he is. What a gift. 
  6. Major Magic's memories. The pizza joint with games and animated life-sized animals singing songs. But it was all about the tickets! Tickets to "buy" a prize. 

Sunday, May 8, 2011

My Last Pages.....

While in Charlotte last weekend, the five of us that were in the Mixed Media Book RR gathered to give the finished books to their rightful owners. The last book I worked on was Nicki's. The theme was your name basically. I had a bit of an issue coming up with something since my name and story are rather ordinary. I was born Kathleen Darcy, no middle name. I married, thus the Everett, and kept that name when I divorced because it is Melissa and Michael's last name. Jody advised me to just do techniques/design I like and meld my name into it. So, that is what I did! No more block! The top page is a rose tea-dyed vintage hankie with a bit of my birth certificate copied to fabric. The lacy "bug" is a made from a lace piece that Nicki had sent out to some friends to see what we would do with it. Each person's page had a pocket with a tag so I used an old library book pocket and tucked in 3 stamped tags with an account of each of my names.....Kathleen, named after my mother's twin: Darcy, my maiden name; Everett, my kids last name....and I wouldn't change a thing!
My book is waiting for me at UPS, in a box I had shipped from NC. I hastily wrote my address and the man in charge of shipping at the Hilton saw my "8" as a "5". When I retrieve it tomorrow I will get to putting my book together and showing the great work my friends did!

Happy Mother's Day to me! I have great kids. I am very proud of both of them for the young people they have become.

Tuesday my little art quilt group, led by Marylee this month, is going to do an exercise using the technique from the book Serendipity Quilts by Susan Carlson. One of the women from the retreat made a challenge piece using this process. It is awesome. I have permission to show you her "Charlotte's Wilbur". I think she did a great job on him. I can't wait to try this out!
Tomorrow, back to work after 1 1/2 weeks off. I love being home and doing my things. I am never bored.
My next week off  is at the end of July. I get 6 weeks vacation, but 4 of them must be used in weeks. Using days would be so much better for me. I could take days off all year to go to classes and quilt guild meetings. I do take offense at the guilds that meet during the week, during the day! Barring all the wonderfully creative souls working hard for the man! Oh well....

I have learned:
  1. Those lost WW pounds I lost, found their way back.
  2. So You Think You Can Dance starts again on the 26th! I love that show.
  3. Hailey still in American Idol! 
  4. How to make these Japanese thimbles, above. Charlyn took time at the retreat to show Lisa and I how to start them. (it's in the shipped box too). They are not hard. I love them! They are meant to be used on your dominant hand, middle finger, between first and second knuckle, to push needle. They are just beautiful.

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Back to Reality.....

A picture of my class at my COF (Circle of Friends) Quilt Retreat in Charlotte North Carolina this past weekend! We had a fun, relaxing 2 hours. I was very fortunate to have a class full of some of my favorite people  and some of my new favs!
I had the most excellent time with all my online/real world friends! My roomies, Nicki and Jody are "old" friends now.
From the time my plane landed Thursday at 11 AM to the time my plane took off Monday morning at 9:30 AM, our time with 79 other women, from all over the USA and 1 from New Zealand,  was full of activity! We took a double decker bus to a great fabric shop, Mary Jo's, and I know we left alot of money in their cash registers~!
We had a trunk shows from Cathy Wiggins and Susan Brubaker Knapp.  I loved SBK. She was very accommodating and gracious.
There was a quilt raffle for MDA that Jean ran. I won an awesome quilt (which should be here by tomorrow since I decided at, literally, the last minute, to ship home....without considering exactly what was inside. Very precious cargo) It is a mini twister made by Carol from Texas! I love it! Thank you both for your hard work.
I took a class on making picture quilts of pets and another on reverse applique. Very good classes, very informative.
I can't say enough about Thearica and her crew. Blood, sweat and tears went into planning the extravaganza and I thank you all.
Yesterday I got back to my machine. I made a lanyard for a friend and a Nook case. (pic of case on phone, so will show later)
Got that package off yesterday...and made another lanyard for another friend....
This will be going out tomorrow. There is something about making these things I like. I made a dozen for my guild's luncheon in June already. I plan to make many more for special friends.
I also made a few more "fabrics" for my jacket class with Martha.
Taking this week off was the best gift I could have given myself! I am enjoying every single minute of my time away from work. Retirement. 5 yrs, 10 mos, 3 weeks.
Michael graduates Saturday from St John Fisher College. Proud mother.

So many projects in the works, so many idea's swirling around my head! Lucky me.

I have learned:
  1. Hailey still a contender on American Idol! My pick all along. Darcy is a James fan. We will see...
  2. Quilt batting has a right and a wrong side? Yes, true that.
  3. How to make a Japanese thimble...yubinuki...thanks to Charlyn. Very cool.
  4. Taco Bell Chihuahua's name is Gidget. Kind of weird.