This is my Celtic knot. I took a class at a quilt shop here on the coast. It was a nice small class with some very nice women and a wonderful instructor. I put a link to the instructors web site in my previous post. It was such fun to spend the day and learn how to do something new. As you know I love to do handwork and this was very fun and challenging. I stayed up too late working on it and have to remove my last bias strip since I messed up on my over and unders.

Now I have a question for all of you. How do you work on your artwork and continue to have a life and get the needed things done (housework, grocery shopping and such)? When I get really wrapped up in creating I seem to let everything else go by the wayside. I have a wonderful husband who works and lets me stay home and create but it is he that suffers when I get really involved. I need to figure out how to make it all work....

I spent most of the day in the car today. I drove north 70 miles to pick up my e-bay purchase. I am so excited with my purchase. I now have a sewing machine that the feed dogs drop. How exciting huh. I have wanted to learn to stipple and do some free motion quilting so now I can work in that direction. I spend a couple of hours practicing when I arrived home and I can see that there will be MANY MANY more hours of practice.

Tomorrow I am heading north again to attend a class taught by Nancy Chong. Nancy does some incredible applique work and I want to learn so off I go. Should be fun.

The Loom has arrived

The Loom arrived this morning and I am amazed at how large and heavy the parts were.

I have spent the afternoon working on assembling it. It is so cool but it is so BIG.... As I am working I think she needs a name. I am a bit intimidated by her. I am very proud however that I have gotten it together to this point. I need to go and purchase some nylon cords to attach the harnesses.

Thank you Kathy for thinking of me as having a suitable new home for the loom and Thanks MOM for getting it packed up and shipped.

I am feeling very blessed today. I can hardly wait to work on her............

I made an ebay purchase today!!! I am so excited. I have never purchased anything on ebay before. I have a new used machine coming to live with me. This is a machine listed by a business about 70 miles north and they are a viking dealer. I felt like it was a good way to get a used machine.

I can hardly wait to give it a try! Now we will see what kind of trouble I can get myself into. I have a busy week ahead so there will not be much time to play but next week watch out!!!

This is a little brooch I made several years ago. I have been looking at it and some of the others trying to decide if I want to revisit the process of making these little mini quilts.

Yesterday I made this cute little spring bag. I am loving polka dots these days and last time I was in Ashland I saw this fabric and had to have it. So I have been looking at it for a couple of months and finally decided what to make with it. This is a small bag for the essentials. I had such fun making it. I hand quilted the fabric with random circles. I found this cool vintage button in my button jar which is just the perfect pink....

My loom is in transit and should arrive here monday. I am so excited and I am really hoping that I can get it put together. I will keep you posted on my progress.

Here is Bronx all grown up. I was able to go and see him in Boring Oregon on Monday. He is still on campus at Guide Dogs for the Blind. He will be traveling to Arizona with a trainer and be matched with his new blind partner. I got to spend an hour with Bronx and play with him in a wonderful play yard on Monday afternoon. He is the same wild man he was when I raised him. It amazes me how these dogs are so loving and wonderful and PLAYFUL, but when they are in harness they are all business. There are many people who do not understand that when these dogs are not working they are like any other well mannered dog and they get to play and just be a dog but in harness they provide incredible mobility for their partner. I envy these teams because they get to spend such a wonderful life together 24-7.

Bronx showed me that he is still a very happy playful boy. He remembered me and gave me his wonderful wiggly hello! It was so wonderful to see him and kiss him on the forehead one more time.

Good Luck Bronx!!!

I spent the night with a good friend in Eugene and had a great dinner and of course wine and great conversation. I also got to spend Tuesday morning with my wonderful daughter in Eugene. She is a art major attending the University of Oregon. Stevi will graduate this spring and then is going to continue her education at the Portland Art Institute. Her art emphasis is Photography. We were able to have coffee, relax in the park and have a wonderful lunch of sushi before I had to travel back to Gold Beach. It was a WONDERFUL to have a little mother daughter time.

I decided to take part in an on line Quilt Festival. Thank you Park City Girl for this opportunity to share one of my favorite and my second quilt.

This is my first attempt to follow instructions. I usually just kind of do my own thing when it comes to quilting. The Center is a pattern for Ricky Tim's Book Convergence Quilts. It is a very cool book. I started out just making the center square and had such fun that I decided I wanted to make it into a lap quilt. So here it is. I hand quilted it and one of my favorite things is in the border and I quilted random circles of various sizes. If you click on the photo you should be able to see the circles.

I hope everyone has had a great weekend. Tomorrow I am off to Boring, Oregon to see my guide dog puppy Bronx and wish him well with his new blind partner. I wrote about Bronx on my blog on April 13th if you missed it.

Too Nice to work!

I played yesterday. I am trying to get back to making journal squares. This is a square using fused fabrics. My inspiration was the photo I took as we drove along the highway in southwestern Wyoming. I am not sure it is successful but it was very fun. I had never fused and quilted pieces of fabric so this is my foray into something new. When I was doing a quilt journal square a couple of times a month I think my creative process was better. I am going to try and commit to making two squares each month and to appreciate them for what I learn from them.

The embroidery continues. I am enjoying having these squares to work on. I have been enhancing the western squares with some hand work.

I had forgotten how relaxing it is to do handwork. Before I had children I always used to have something going whether it was cross stitch, needlepoint, hemming a dress or sewing on buttons I always had something to do with my hands. Now I am revisiting this and finding it is as good as it used to be and in many ways much better. As I work on these squares I have decided that I will hand quilt this piece.

I would also like to thank everyone for the kind words regarding Bronx's graduation to a Guide Dog. I found out he will be training with his new partner in his home so if I want to see him before he goes to Arizona for training I need to go to the Guide Dog Campus where he has been training since November. So Monday I am going to go to Boring, Oregon and spend a few hours with Bronx to say Good By and Good Luck.

Last month I joined the Gold Beach Quilters Guild. I am very excited about being part of this group of great women. I am just beginning to get to know people but I think it will be a good place for me.

One of the projects that the guild does is they have an annual quilt show. One of the members saw a great idea online of a car cover. She has a mini cooper and has volunteered to park the car in front of the exhibit hall for the duration of the quilt show with a quilted car cover... We are all making or bringing orphan quilt blocks for this project. These are the scrap blocks I made to donate for this project. I will post photos when the project is complete.

I have gotten a few items strung from the pearls. This is a start. I toke the photos out in the sun and I am not sure that is the best place. Photographing these is going to be a challenge. I will continue to string and try and get the perfect picture.

The green beads are jade mixed in with the pearls.

I would like to introduce Bronx.
He is the third guide dog puppy that I have raised and he will be graduating as a guide dog next month. I am excited that he will be making it as a guide. It is a bittersweet time. Since we moved to the coast I had to give up raising puppies for guide dogs so he is the last.
Other than raising my kids this has been one of the most rewarding things that I have ever done. I hope he does well and loves his new partner as much as we loved him.

I thought this was worth sharing. National Geographic Traveler has a photo challenge going on for Peeps in Places. It is so fun. Go take a Peep......

Happy Easter

I just happened across this cool blog and a great giveaway.... A twin size quilt.

It is at The Bitchy Stitcher: Because I care and I'm Lazy. Go Visit!

I got a very wonderful package of goodies yesterday. My giveaway from Chris at Dye Candy. Chris has two etsy shops too one is Shady Grove Studios and the other is Dye Candy. In with the fabric and the necklace was some candy and a lovely card. I am not sure what I will do with the fabric but it will have to be something special. The colors are so wonderful. They are packages so beautifully I don't even want to take them out of the box. Now the necklace is really beautiful. I wore it as soon as I got it out of the box. The pictures just do not do it justice. I will enjoy all of my goodies. Thank you Chris!!!

We have had a couple of warm days and today it has turned cold and breezy, I have gotten spoiled already. I am not wanting to go out. Might just be a good day for a good movie and a bit of embroidery on my western quilt blocks.

Happy Easter!!!

I have finished my first project for "Spring to finish". The sun dress for my niece and finished and in the mail. She should receive it in the next few days. Now I am keeping my fingers crossed that she likes it and it fits.

My next project that I have been putting off is stringing and knotting pearls. I have a friend that gets beautiful fresh water pearls from China and I knot them and make them into jewelry pieces. I have so many that need to be completed that I have been ignoring so no more. It is time to get to work. I apologize for the photos. I have yet to figure out the best way to photograph them to show them in their full glory. I hope we get some sun in the next week or so and I will try and take some photos outside in the daylight. We have gotten an inch of rain today so needless to say there is no sunshine.....

Oh,I got some very, very exciting news today. My mom is having my new (used) floor loom shipped to me today. She has a friend who decided she was no longer going to weave and wanted me to have the loom. I am thrilled to have the loom and I really thank my Mom for getting it shipped to me.

I have been working on a sun dress for my niece. Here is the dress. I apologize for the photo it is not great. I have been putting off making this since I don't have my usual machine. Fortunately the machine I used worked just fine. It has been many years since I made a garment and I had a really good time making this for her. I hope to finish the hand work tonight and get it in the mail to her tomorrow. I am keeping my fingers crossed that it fits!!!

As we were driving through South Central Oregon it was a very cold and crisp morning and we were passing some irrigation ditches. The fog that followed the ditches was really wonderful. It was very dream like.

Now on to my projects. I am working on the sun dress for my niece. I was able to get the pattern altered and the pieces cut out yesterday. I am going to try and get things together today. It is going to be cute. I will post some photos when it is something other than pieces of fabric.

On our drive from Oregon to Colorado I took pictures out the window of the car as we drove.
I wanted to see all of the places we drove through the camera. We drove through some incredibly beautiful places. They are not the usual beauty though.
Some of the places were so desolate.

I am hoping to use some of these photos for inspiration for some mini quilts.

Jacquie from Tallgrass Prairie Studio has put out a challenge to finish projects previously started in the month of April. I think this is a great idea. I am going to join in. The first thing I need to complete is a sundress I am making for my niece. Now those of you who read my blog may wonder how I am going to do this since my sewing machine died. Well fortunatly a couple of years ago I purchased a machine at a estate sale for my daughter and I have been storing it for her. So I have taken it out and will use it until I make a dicision as to what kind of machine I want and can afford. I looked at machines while I was in Colorado and I was SHOCKED at the cost of a machine that will do what I want. I went to the Bernina store and Oh, they are so cool but also sooooo expensive. So I will be doing some thinking and also looking to see if I can find a second hand machine.

I am so happy to be home. While I was gone I won a blog giveaway from Chris Daly.

I won a box of fabric and a necklace from her etsy shop. I never win anything and now I have to decide what I want. I was visiting a blog called Simply Robin and Chris was one of the guest bloggers, I think her things are really wonderful. You will have to visit Chris's blog.

I am anxious to catch up on all of the blogs I have missed this last week while I have been gone. 3,000 miles in the car, it feels so good to be home.

Spent the day with our son at Brighton. It was wonderful to see him ride again. He is a freshman in college and an avid snowboarder. I spent so much time watching him throughout high school and it was very fun to watch him do his thing on the mountain again.
We had hoped for a spring skiing day but no such luck, it was cold and windy but a good time was had by all.

Tomorrow we are in the car again heading toward home. I am looking forward to being there again. It is still winter time here and I am ready for spring.

I have been embroidering on my squares for my western quilt and they are coming along slowly but I am enjoying the process and it has given me something to work on while visiting with family and as I am riding in the car.

I will post some new photos when we return home.