Busy, Busy, Busy

Time seems to go by so fast these days.  I can't even keep up with what day it is anymore.  I just recently tripled my work load by agreeing to teach at Thimble Town next quarter which means class samples are due and this is the busiest time of year.  The new owner, Jeremy, is a sweetheart but he can talk you into almost anything.  Actually, I'm loving it!  He has so many great ideas and I look forward to working with him.

Here is my latest art quilt.  This is entitled "Moonlight Sonata".  I made it while in Tahoe.  We had a great time.  It snowed!  So much fun for this Central Valley California girl!

The building to the left is where we were staying.  My sister took the picture from their building.

I have been very busy working on class samples, class descriptions, supply lists and just getting my head around the fact that I will be teaching again.  I will be teaching 5 different classes.  One of the classes is the Amy Butler Sweet Harmony handbag & tote.  Her patterns are not the easiest to follow.  I wish I had taken a class.  But I love the results.  I hope to show you more progress on other class quilts and I hope to keep up on the blog now that I am home for awhile.  Well, I'm off to do laundry and work on my Material Girls quilt blocks that I have not looked at since June and the quilt needs to be done next week.

Getting Ready for Christmas!

Can you believe Christmas is just around the corner and all the plans I had to have things done are going down the drain.  Where does the time go?  I have been working on some Christmas presents and donations for the guilds I am involved with.

 

The Christmas Tree is for a guild Christmas party raffle.  I made two but have to sew on the bells on the other one.  I think I am going to keep one for myself.  This will be great on a door.  It is 36 inches long.  It was fun to make but it took me almost two hours to sew on all the bells.

The snowman started out for myself but as I was making it I keep thinking how my sister would just love it.  We are leaving for Tahoe to spend a few days with her so I will give it to her then.

Off to the guild meeting.  I am teaching a class for the guild on Saturday.  We will be making cubes like the ones in the One Block Wonder quilts.

Foiled Pears

I was able to upload the photo that I mentioned in the previous post.  I really do need to get better at taking photos!  At least take them straight.

The results of the flour paste resist!

Here is the final result from the fabrics from the previous post.  I like it but had hoped it would be bigger.  I don't plan my quilts.  They just happen so the squares are 2 1/2" finished.  I have some plans to make this a series.  I think I am motivated again.  If I could just stay home.  Off this weekend to Shaver Lake for a retreat and then the next week we are going to Tahoe with my fantastic sister and brother-in-law for a week.  There is a great store there that has a good size quilting section and the greatest selection of paints and buttons, other decorator fabrics, silks, a art quilters dream.  I'm saving my money from the class I am teaching next week just to spend here!  I love shopping here with my sister.  There is also a bead store there that we go to.  My sister makes the most fantastic jewelery.  I can hardly wait.  I wait all year for this!

I had another photo to share but I can't seem to get the program to work.  Maybe later.  I am demonstrating foiling on fabric this evening at the guild and I have a quilt I made as an example.  It is amazing how whenever I am going to prepare for something like this I always find the ways not to do something!  It's like when I make a quilt from a pattern or book, I always find the mistakes.  Go figure!

I know I have not blogged much but to tell you the truth I just haven't been home.  This has been a year of traveling.  This year I went to Road 2 Ca (Ontario), Wonder Valley (twice), Virginia, Pacific Grove, Cambria, Pismo, Sacramento, Hollywood, Utah, Las Vegas, Best of the Valley took four days, Ripon, next Shaver lake and Tahoe.  I'm not complaining but it has been a busy year.  And we mustn't forget a new grandchild, Daniel, was born this year.  What a year!  Do you think next year will be less busy.  I doubt it.  I already have two classes I am teaching for guilds and a trunk show at another guild lined up next year.  I am just thankful that I am able to do all this.

Off to get my stuff ready for tonight.  I hope you are still out there even though I haven't been very good at posting.

The saga of the flour resist project!

This is the beginning of the story.  Our art group project for this month is to make a flour and water paste, apply it to fabric, let it dry, crunch it up and paint it.  Then clean it all off and make an art quilt using the theme "graffiti".
Three of use got together to start the process.  We stabilized our fabric to form core board and off we went.  We took our projects home to dry and I put mine in the backyard.  Little did I know it was going to rain.  It never rains here!  Of course it was under the patio that is not a solid cover and water, dirt and sap from the unsealed (new) cover got all over my projects (I had 3 started.)  Oh well, let them dry again and just think of it as developing art.
So some days later time to paint over the flour resist.  Then after it dries, wash it all off. These are my results.

The third one was done with potato flakes that Sara's dog kept licking while it was drying.

It really is not as yellow as it looks (photography).  I decided to use this one for my project since I was going to cover it with paint.  And in my usual style I went overboard with the paint.

Now this project has to be done by Wednesday and today is Monday and it has to dry.  I only came up with an idea yesterday.  I finished painting it and left it outside and guess what.  It started to rain yet again!  This project is just domed.  It has to dry so I can cut it up and sew it back together.

I hope to have the final results soon.

I'm Back!!!

Remember the pile of leaves?  This is the result.  I think I got carried away with the embellishing.

This quilt was done for the Orange Blossom Quilt guild challenge.  We were given five 5" squares and a word plus a design concept.  My word was "spotted".  There are some spotted frogs but I just wanted to incorporate frogs because my grandson loves frogs.  That was my starting point.  It is entitled "I spotted frogs in the forest".  18" x 30"

This piece was done for our art group.  We were to do this fabric faced windows.  I choose to do circles and then use plastic from a bag which I had gotten curtains in, and made them into bubbles with fish from the jewelery making section of Joanne's.  We were given the word "tranquil" and I quilted the meanings of the word in the background.  It was originally square but it didn't work for me so I trimmed it to a circle, trimming a lot of the quilted words out.  You really can't see them anyways.

We had a great vacation and I hope to have a few pictures once I settle back in.  I hope you missed me because I missed all of you.

A Pile Of Leaves and Postcards

Here are the leaves that I am working on for the next challenge I have to  finish.  I am still in the planning stage but am happy with these three dimensional leaves.

I took a post card class from Judy Stevens at the Orange Blossom guild last Saturday and here are my postcards.  I really learned a lot and am excited to make some more.

Here are my pre-printed butterflies with a fabric frame background.

Here is my attempt at an ocean scene.  Notice the little crab charm.

This was just pre-printed fabric that I quilted.  Maybe it needs embellishments.  Any suggestions?

Here are the skulls I cut out of the material that Serena left from making purses when she was here in July.  I love the stick on spider.

We are going away for a few days to Las Vegas and Utah for our 30th anniversary, which was Monday.  I am really looking forward to the time away but not sure if I can be away from my sewing machine for that long.  Ten days is a long time.  I went to Michael's and stocked up yarn so at least I can knit and crochet in the car and in the hotel room at night.  Can't be idle!

Here are the gorgeous flowers my husband sent me for our anniversary.  They are starting to wilt but notice the beautiful vase.  Red, my favorite color.  That will always bring back memories!  Thank you, sweetheart, for the thoughtfulness and looking forward to our anniversary dinner at Bobby Flay's in Las Vegas!