"Steps to the Garden"...Raffle Quilt for my Guild Finished!!

The raffle quilt is done!
Tracy & I have been working on this for about a year. We wanted to make it our own so we used the Cockscomb flower applique from the book Simple Blessing by Kim Diehl ( it is on the cover.) We rounded up our best applique ladies and they did a great job on them. We also liked the point on the next border so we kept that design element too. Courthouse Steps is a traditional though graphic block so it seemed a good contrast to the gentle flowers. We drafted a PPing pattern to fit on a piece of 8.5" x 11" piece of PP paper and held a little sewing session with some wonderful stitchers after a meeting one month. The final border was decided after laying out the quilt and it just clicked! The points are perfect and really frame the whole piece up.
Think tea/coffee with cream for the light background. "Muddy" greens, reds and tobacco-y browns round out the color pallet.
My friend Penny McDowell did the machine quilting. I wish you could see it...when I get it in my hands again I will get a close-up. She graciously donated her time at the longarm.
If you are interested in tickets for a chance at this cozy beauty, email me at kdeverett@live.com. $1.00 per chance! It will be awarded 3rd week in October. Thanks!

I have learned:

1. Thanks to Martha I now know that 1 piece of graffiti is actually called graffito. Interesting.
2. In Plain Sight on USA is a really good show. The episode that has the ATF guy waking up years later from a coma after being shot only to find his beloved GF has married his partner....great acting, good story...pretty emotional.

Enough Fabric for Nancy Crow Class?

I wonder if this is enough fabric for my Nancy Crow class at QBL this July?! I feel I have covered most of the solids in many values and since I misunderstood the directive for prints I have many, many different ones. I can't wait to see what these piles will become!

Started Denise's book pages today. I thought I was going to use the thistle flower but the thistle was not speaking to me! So I turned to my favorite vintage robin's egg blue linen. I had NEST in my mind. Grabbed a fabric and timtex and started thread painting one. I used a very narrow zig-zag and just went for it. I liked how it turned out so I cut it out and stitched it down. Since hand stitching is what I like to do I found some pearle cotton that matched.....seed stitch and french knots make up the ribbon which may represent a tree limb if I am so inclined! Not sure what is next yet.
For my facing page I am pondering how to use the print from a very old dictionary. NEST has a good, lengthy definition.

The wall is down and the mud is up and drying on the patch. The light fixture box is up in the center of the room ready for the 5 light strip to go up....complete with a working switch! These are the things that make me happy!
Seeing the reflection on the ceiling I am thinking a flat paint up there would be best. I am also back to the creamy shade for the room too. Time will tell.


I have learned:

1. There are newspaper bits on the backs of the boards that came out of the room upstairs. One says April 23, 1894. My house is older than I thought!
2. Seems sometimes more is more. Hot pepper flakes + tomatoes with chilies + hot chili flavor packet = gastrointestinal rebellion.

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Liberated Quilt Blocks and Janet Root

These are 5 liberated quilt blocks I made yesterday in a workshop with Janet Root. If you know me you know this is perfect for me, a perfect "imperfectionist"! I used a silk shirt from Sally Ann's for the blue sky, the brown poly silk look-alike is from the curtain panels I shortened at my daughter's last week and the other fabrics are cotton. I love this free piecing method and will be doing more of this.Felt like home! I especially like the stars.
Janet was also our program and we all enjoyed her gorgeous trunk show. These were a few of my favorite's.

Janet is so talented. She is a traditional quilter and an art quilter. I liked that she didn't call herself one or the other. I am neither an art quilter nor a traditional quilter. .I am a maker of things....some quilts,some are mixed media projects, some have paper, I knit so I may use yarn, I am making books right now in a RR, I have always done and loved collage.  I just love to make things. Things that please me. I especially  like the process of making things, anything, even if it is just a little thing that may never be anything more than what it is! The satisfaction is incomparable.




Ian & Darcy were here last night. A short visit since everyone had busy weekends planned already.

Michael worked the chains at the Rochester Raiders indoor football game today. I met Karyssa there and actually watched a good game. Two more weeks of school, then summer work begins for both of them. Then senior year! Life is waiting! They are prepared.

Tomorrow the wall is coming down in the "studio" !! I am leaning towards a warm gray for the walls, which will include the ceiling, since it is pitched. I want a warm, neutral and no matter how much I admire the pictures of creamy, white neutral rooms in magazine layouts, it just isn't me. Thrilled is the word for this room. It has been a long time coming. There was a span of 6 years (6 years ago) that  I didn't even have a bedroom, let alone a place to create! Now I have a bedroom and soon, a place for making anything that catches my fancy!!!! And the best part is I can leave it out and all over and shut the door behind me!

I have learned:

1. How to take my throat plate off my beloved sewing machine to clean out fibers that collect in there.(it was very ugly!) Thanks Melanie!! I really had no idea and you saved the day yesterday!
2. There has been a 300% increase in deaths due to heart attack in the 18-25 female range. I was very surprised by this. College, drinking, drugs, unhealthy diets and poor sleeping habits in the college crowd. Apparently just such a case at my son's college in Rochester last year. A freshman girl. Sad.. 
3. Project Runway. Seth Aaron, Emilio Sosa & ....drumroll......hhhmmmmmm Mila or Jay. Mila will win the Jay/Mila competition. Then I think Emilio will win. I don't like him though. He is arrogant. But I suspect you must be arrogant.to compete in that competition. Seth is interesting. 
4. One baby snake (basement hunting) so far this spring! Good kitty!
5. So Fiona Vixen Banshee Tunacake......she will only eat tuna now....real tuna...not cat food tuna. Tried many varieties.  I can't believe I am buying cans of tuna for a cat.
6. Janet Root mentioned she didn't have the stamina for Nancy Crow's class at QBL. I am ready. Bring it!

Altered Book Cover & Sunday Bits

At least 3 years ago I took a one night workshop to learn about altering books. I was able to get an old discarded book covered with black velvet and some images I made or found. The instructor showed us how to glue clumps of pages together to form one "page". I carved out a little niche in one of those clumps inside..love a niche! I just dug this up and reminds me that I have been interested in mixed media/altering books for a while. Must be the reason I am so enjoying the Book RR I am involved in with 4 other talented, creative women.

I have decided on the image I will use for Denise's nature inspired book. It is a thistle flower, at one of its growing stages.  I posted this pic a few posts ago. I printed out multiple images on a great canvas looking fabric sheet. I must check which manufacturer makes this sheet...it looks awesome! Not sure where I am going with this, but it is my start!

Yesterday I  sewed at Melissa's new place. I hemmed and enhanced some curtain panels for the living room/dining room and today made a cute two fabric valance for their kitchen window. I somehow got conned into making her little office/craft room's valance too! I have 2 coordinating pink/gray polka dot fabrics.....will look cool!

I had a guy come look at the upstairs to do what needs doing. Here are a few pics of the space as it is now.

That is the wall that will come down to open up a huge space for all my stuff!It is approximately 15' x 25'. I plan to paint the whole room a creamy white or a warm gray. Halogen lighting on a 12' coil is what I am hoping he can install. Various oriental-ish rugs will cover the floor. I am so anxious to claim this room!

I spent many hours today working on a CQ Purse for a contest on CQI. I signed up for this months ago and worked on it sporadically. It is due on the 15th...in 5 days! I was going to give it up but I hate to not do what I commit to, so I had at it today. I can't tell you what I did however. (I  hate that) and I can't show you where things are going since it is a contest. All I will say is it is undeniably mine!

I meet with my little art quilt group Tuesday. We need to gather & size  what we will be displaying at GoArt! in our show in July. I have almost 20 things so far! Of course most of them need finishing!

Quilt guild next Saturday. Janet Root, a very talented quilter, will be giving us a trunk show and a workshop after meeting for 20 of us lucky enough to have signed up for it. Liberated quilting. I love that!

I have learned:

1. How to use the keypad on my phone while texting.....numbers, some exclamation marks & caps. I never realized I could use, for example, the "2" key for not just ABC but the 2 also! 
2. Jalapeno potato chips are addictive. Like a drug. Really. 
3. I am very intrigued by shibori methods of dying and discharging. I want to learn more. 
4. Fiona (Vixen Banshee) is an escape artist! She  flew out the door yesterday. I remind you I live in a 55 MPH zone, which means cars often reach speeds of 75 MPH, so surviving a sprint across the road is  a gamble. I wish I had a video of me (minus the expletives!) of my chase. At one point I thought I could pounce on her. Literally. Grass stains on knee's and elbows. I ended up opening the door and she darted back in, leaving the cruel world behind! I hope she learned a lesson. I love that dang kitty!

CQ Cigar Box

We have just opened our gifts in the 2nd round of Homemade Holiday Swap on HGTV message board....Spring/Easter theme. Ely, my very dear friend from Boston, made this awesome CQ'd just for me, cigar box. I love it! Ely is from Cuba, which makes the box that much cooler. She included some beautiful laces inside. I truly love this treasure! I will use and display it prominently in my new studio space.

This is the gift I sent to Texas. The egg fabrics were purchased last year at Keepsake Quilting shop while in NH for my retreat with the HGTV members. I actually had to make a second one after the first one I made in Charlotte's workshop had a few unmatched seams. This would not ordinarily bother me, but since it was for someone I didn't know I wanted it to match up on all the seams. It is a great bag. I have one that I have been using for a few years now. Fit alot of stuff in them!
The next holiday is 4th of July. I have Linda. It does make it easier knowing the person. I know she likes jewelry, is funny, quirky even! I would like to not use red, white & blue since that is what would be expected. Fireworks, cookouts, picnics, patriotism.....I do have a few thoughts!

I received Denise's book from Jody Saturday. Our mixed media Book RR is exactly what I need to be doing right now. I love that each of these has a different theme and that anything goes. This one is nature inspired. Subtle, uncluttered. Our pages are prepped for us so I just need to come up with nature from my hands. Jody added truly perfect pages for this book. Denise has asked that each of us include an item (from nature) and as soon as I decide on what that will be, I will know which way to proceed on my two additions to her book.

I have learned:

1. That Mozilla Firefox is not as user friendly as Internet Explorer. 
2. I still don't know who was voted off American Idol last week...and I don't care.
3. Credit Card Declined.....WHAT? Apparently if you don't use it, then you use, they assume it is fraud???!! 
4. Finally my sister is down with Scrabble!! 

Spring...Easter...Sun...Family

Happy Easter! Happy Spring...it has been a blissful weather week! After long cold winter, the warm, sunny days are that much sweeter!
Spending the day with my kids, my sister and her kids. We are having a cookout! What a pleasant way to spend this day. Enjoy yours!

Monday Monday.....

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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.