Merry Christmas

I wanted to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas. I hope your holiday is going wonderfully and you are spending quality with family and friends. Our daughter is home for Christmas and our son is in Sweden. This was the first Christmas I have not had both of our children with us. It is a strange thing. My family is changing right before my eyes! I am not sure I am ready but I guess I better hurry and get there. Our son did have a great day too and we were able to Skype with him and see his smiling face!!! I am a very fortunate MOM!

My husband smoked salmon for us yesterday and we had a lovely dinner, the three of us! Now today will be spent hanging around and putting together a jigsaw puzzle. I love days like this! However next year we will all be together, I hope. :-)

Oh, our daughter got some very exciting news the day before Christmas. She has been offered a job 4 hours from here!!!! We are so very excited! She has been a 10+ hour drive from us and now will be close enough for weekends!!!!! I think this is one of my favorite Christmas Presents!

Sorry for the long absence but there has not been much sewing going on! Sending good thoughts for a wonderful Holiday!!!!!

Tis the Season

I am trying to get motivated... I am having a difficult time making myself do some shopping. This year most of it will be on line which is hard for me. When you live someplace you can not purchase socks and underwear the availability of Christmas presents is very limited.

My home is looking a like Christmas thanks to my daughter, while she was home for Thanksgiving She did some decorating for me. Now I am looking forward to her arrival for Christmas. :-)

I am off to the studio this afternoon so I hope to have something to post in the next day or so.

Hope all is well!!!

Happy Thanksgiving

We woke the other morning to snow. Since we moved here I have never seen snow on the beach. It was beautiful. It did not last for long but it was beautiful while it lasted. The photos do not do it justice but it was quite a wonderful thing.
I am anxiously awaiting my daughter's arrival. She traveled part way yesterday and will come the rest of the way home this morning. I hope her drive is a bit more relaxing today. She spent about 9 hours in traffic traveling from Seattle to Eugene, I feel very fortunate she is making this trip. Our son will not be with us this year since he is in Sweden. He has classes and research today. I am sure it will be strange for him and strange for us not to have him here.

I hope this morning finds you all of you with the ones you love. Happy Thanksgiving.

Absence

I apologize for my long absence. I have been a busy woman these days, I have started working, as in a real paying job. I am working 3 days a week. Now to many of you this may not sound like much but to me it is quite a change. I have been a stay at home mom for 23 years. That is a very long time to basically be self employed. :-) I loved being at home with my kids and since our youngest has been out of the house for 2 and a half years it was time. I think I am going to like my job quite a bit. I am doing a wide variety of things, mostly clerical. The people I am working with are very nice. It is a pleasure to go and spend time with such nice people.

My blogging and quilting may slow down for a while until I get my act together...

The photo in this was taken a couple of weeks ago on our trip home from Portland.

Here is the progress

I am having such a great time quilting squares. I love the way they look together. I am just going to keep going and we will see how it comes together. I have 5 colors of quilting thread I am using and I love the look.

I also won a book today, The Art of Manipulating Fabric by Colette Wolff I won it from Judy, of Judy in the Dyes
It looks like a great book, so who knows where that will take me.....

I hope all of you are well and having a great creative week!

Beautiful day and a little work

We have had some beautiful days. This fall has proved to be a nice one. We have had a few days with rain and wind but the nice days have been so nice that I can put up with a bit of rain and wind. Now today the wind is back and the rain is on its way.
I have been continued to work on my Paul Klee inspired piece with shot cottons. I think it is coming along nicely. The bottom is going to be straight but the sides will be random and I am going to quilt the black area to mirror the shapes within the body of the piece with colored thread. The pieces are done with needle turn applique and I will hand quilt this piece. I am loving it, I hope the rest of my plans for it are a good choice.

A bit more from the Garden

This was my partner as I spent time in the Oregon Garden's. Butch was a good sport. He would just lay and watch me as I took photo after photo of flowers, leaves, birds and whatever else I could find.

I am back home after a wonderful trip. I now have soooo many photos of flowers. It was a fun to have so much time to myself and just be able to take photos. I was amazed at how quickly the time passed when I was taking photos and walking. It was a wonderful day and a great trip. We also had a great time with our daughter!

The Oregon Gardens

We have spent the last few days in Silverton, Oregon. We stayed at the Oregon Garden's Resort. I have wondered the grounds and taken about 400 photos. I have been in heaven.

On the Garden's Grounds is the Gordon House which is a home designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. It originally was built about 40 miles from where it sits today. It had fallen into disrepair and the individuals who purchased it from the Estate of the original owner wanted to tear it down. Fortunately a group of individuals saved the home and moved it to it's new home on the Grounds of the Oregon Gardens. They have tours and I took the time yesterday to go on a tour. I have always been an admirer of homes designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and to be able to see this home was incredible. He designed this home to feel like the outside was part of the home and I just love that.
I also wandered the grounds of the garden with my camera in hand and went crazy. I just love this photo. Since Fall is here and winter is approaching the plants were changing and drying up but it made for a great opportunity and the weather was so great.

I will be spending the rest of the weekend with my husband and daughter who came down from Seattle to join her father for some work related opportunities. I hope all of you have a lovely weekend.

Messenger Bags

Good Morning to all of you, I have been keeping myself busy. I have been making wool messenger bags. Here is a photo of my beautiful daughter with her new bag. I made this for her and was happy to receive the photo yesterday and know that she is happy with the bag.

I have been using repurposed wool. I have enjoyed taking suit jackets from the thrift store and making them into bags. The wool washes beautifully and I line them with fun fabric.

I am also so excited because next weekend our daughter will be coming to join her father for a conference (work related) late next week. So I will also get to have some time with her. Which always makes me happy! She is a 10 hour drive from us and whenever we can get sometime together it is always special.

Journaling

I have been getting together with a couple of very talented quilter friends and we decided we were going to challenge each other once a month with a Journal challenge. We are all making 8 x 10 journal squares. Our first challenge was based on color. I chose Red, Turquoise and Purple... This is what I came up with. I have always wanted to do something that looked like a highway interchange from the air, this is my interpretation in my chosen colors...
Now our second challenge was to use some organza we painted. I did various shades from White to Black... I also did other colors but I have only incorporated the shades of gray with my purple pieces. We had fun painting organza.

I am so anxious to get together again and share our work and set up our next challenge. It is wonderful to get together with women who share my desire to explore! I feel so blessed to have met these women and have a couple of new quilty friends.

The week is going well. I attended a new yoga class and found out it is an incredible way to start the day.

Just had to share

This was our walk this morning. There are beautiful days here but some are just so incredible I just have to share. We have not had many days of summer but I think our fall may prove to be our summer. I hope all of you are enjoying a beautiful weekend.

Well, I have entered my first contest on line. I have submitted my Paul Klee inspired piece. The theme this week is Stained Glass and I think with the black background and the appliqued fabric it resembles stained Glass.

You should visit the Quilting Gallery site and vote for your favorite piece between Friday and Sunday...

I hope all of you are having a great week.

Quilts hung and one day down

Here are a few photos of our Gold Beach Quilt Show. It has been good so far. We hung quilts yesterday and had visitor's today and again tomorrow. Things are going quite well. This is my first time attending our show and first time working on it.... Oh, and first time entering my quilts. My nine patch is here to the right. I think it looks really nice on the railing!
This photo is taken from the balcony and this is a view of a portion of the floor. My western quilt is in the center.
Now this one is from above and it is the few art quilts in the show. My pieces are on the lower left. I think my pieces are kind of lost but oh well. I like them. My idea of an art quilt is different from others. I did not win any awards. There were 14 awards given by community leaders and were awarded based on what the presenter liked. I am hoping next year we can add a Best of Show category and let the visitors vote. I have learned so much from this experience and it has been a good one. I do think I dance to my own music when it comes to my quilting.

I hope all of you are enjoying your weekend. It is very wet here on the Oregon Coast.

Quilt Show this Weekend

Good Morning to all of you. I have been preparing for our Quilt Guild's Annual Quilt Show. I am going to enter some quilts for the first time ever. I will be entering 2 small Paul Klee inspired applique pieces, my scrappy 9 patch, the still to be completed Western Quilt...

Needless to say I have been stitching like crazy. I have one more cattle brand to stitch on the western quilt and binding. Nothing like waiting until the last minute. I needed some motivation to finish this one and this is it. I think I will get it done!

I also volunteered to paint some sandwich boards to place around town the day of the show. I have them complete and I need to do a bit of touch up today. I learned quite a bit on this project. I now can tell you what not to use when making stencils for spray painting lettering. Thankfully my neighbor had some sturdy plastic I was able to cut the stencil from and use spray adhesive to hold the stencil in place while I sprayed the paint.

I will return next week and fill you in on the adventures at the Gold Beach Quilt Guild Show.

Butch Says Hi

Butch is complaining that he has not been on the beach as much as he would like and I am happy to report that he and I spent a wonderful morning on the beach!

I have been a busy woman lately. I am a Hospice Volunteer and here in our community we have a Rummage Market with donated items from members of our community. This year I was in charge of shoes and bags. We had an incredible sale this year. In 3 days we made over $45,000 dollars. :-) and some 50 volunteers. It was a lot of work but what a wonderful cause. This money will go for end of life care for members of our County. Now, one thing you have to understand is we live in a community of 2,500 people. I am just astonished that we were able to bring in this much money. Every year more and more people hear about our sale and plan their vacations around it! I have a month or so off before we start collecting items for our other sales.
This has been one of the best organizations I have ever been part of!

I would encourage anyone to see if there is anyway you can support your local Hospice Organization. I do not think I could ever be a care giver but I sure feel good about helping out in this way.

I hope all of you have a great week and Holiday weekend. Butch and I will be spending more time on the beach.

Oh, and I am quilting. I am trying to finish a couple of projects so I can enter them in our local quilt show mid-September...

Shaving Cream Marbled Fabric

A few months ago I took a class in Marbling Fabric and we used shaving cream. It was a very fun process. I imagine many of you have done this but it was a new process to me and I had a great time doing it. I am not sure what will become of my fabrics but it was a great way to spend a morning.
I love learning new things and new processes. A couple of these pieces of fabric are more successful than others. I like the fabric with more dye and less white. We dyed fat quarter pieces of fabric.

I hope all of you are having a great week. We had a great week with our guests. Three little boys 3, 5 and 7. Busy, Busy Busy. I loved having kids in the house. They have such great energy.

Now back to my quilting, I am working on the hand quilting of my Batik Applique piece. Photos to follow soon.

My obsession with Paul Klee

OK, my obsession continues! As all of you know I love Paul Klee and have made 2 pieces inspired by his paintings. Well, here we go again. This time I am cutting into my stash of shot cotton. I have had it sitting here for about 8 months so here it goes.
Here is the start. I am planning on making mine square. We will see if I follow through with my plan. I work very loosely. I cut pieces and place them as I go. I love applique with this cotton it is very nice and soft and easy to work with.

Now, I have company coming for a few days and the house is only partially ready and I need to prepare something for dinner, or at least have a plan of what I will prepare...

Have a great week!

I really have been working

Here it is... My second piece of applique where a Paul Klee painting was my inspiration. Several months ago I won a blog giveaway on June 8th from Applique Addict I received a lovely bundle of 4x4 batiks. I thought since Marjorie was an applique fan, I should do just that applique.
I think the batiks are such fun for this piece. I have it pinned and ready to quilt. I will be quilting between the pieces of applique. Thanks so much Marjorie for sharing your stash of lovely batiks with me!

Now, my babies are doing well! Stevi purchased a beautiful used car. She did it on her own and made a great purchase. As I am writing this Rick is on a train from Germany to Sweden where he will spend the next 9 plus months studying, we hope. :-)

Summertime

I have been trying to figure out how and what to write about. I was reading other blogs this morning and I was visiting one of my favorites, The Silly Boodilly. Victoria has such an incredible way with words and as I read her blog I was inspired to just let you know what has been going on here in my world. I will not do it as wonderfully has she has but here it goes...

It has been a wild and busy summer, sure I am doing my own thing but the adventures of my babies has taken a major part in my world these days. Now, I am not complaining one bit, however I am one of those women that once a mother always a mother. My babies are grown and out in this world making me proud but I don't have the time with them I would like.

Let's start with Stevi first, She is the oldest and living a 10 to 12 hour drive from us and working her first adult job since graduating from college. Which means no vacation... :-( So we have not been able to have much time together. Her car has also died (really gone) and she is having to make her first major purchase of wheels. It is a daunting task for anyone let alone being 23 years old and away from home. I am sure she will make a great decision but doesn't she need her mommy??? Not really...

OK, now on to the boy, he is a Junior in college this year and going to study abroad in Uppsala Sweden, now that is a looooong way away and he will be gone for 11 months! He left last week for Europe and is going to travel around with a couple of friends for a few weeks before he settles in at school in Sweden. I am having major withdrawal. I am getting an email from him periodically and they are not terribly informative. However he is having an incredible adventure and I am thankful for that but I really miss him and again Doesn't he need his Mommy??? Not really...

So I am spending a fair amount of time thinking about my babies and what they are up too. I keep telling myself I raised them to go out on their own and have a wonderful life and they are both doing just that. But shouldn't they still need their MOMMY???

I hope all of you are having a wonderful summer and I will try and get some photos taken of my work and post them and let you know what I am up to.

All is good though! I am a lucky Mommy!

Sister's Outdoor Quilt Show

I just returned from a fabulous weekend with friends in Sister's. I was fortunate enough to be invited to join some friends from our quilt guild and attend the Sister's Outdoor Quilt Show. What a fun trip!

It was overwhelming. It was just too much to really put into words. I saw so many wonderful quilts and had an absolutely wonderful time with friends. The women I went to the quilt show with were such fun. I did not know any of them real well but I sure do now.... :-)

I would like to tell you all about the wonderful quilts but there were just too many to talk about them all and I am still on overload. I still do not believe I was there to see all of them.

I can hardly wait to put all my new ideas together.

I am off to sleep and dream about quilts.

This is why I have not been blogging

The rain finally stopped and it has been beautiful here. I have not spent much time in the studio or on the computer. Just stopping in to let you know I will be back at some point but right now I am needing time for my thoughts and time on the beach!

The fish

OK, now I have a question for you. Here is my Salmon #2 without an eye. As you can see in the previous posting I set a button on for the eye but I don't think I like it. In the wool Salmon I embroidered an eye.

What do you think?

Under the Water

OK, I have had sea creatures on the brain lately. It seems to be all I am thinking about. I am having fun with it. Here is my version of a dungeness crab. He was really fun but a very time consuming. I used re-purposed wool. He is not quite what I wanted so I will work some more today.
Now here is the Salmon again and this time it is fused fabric with machine quilting. I need to do the background today and the fish head needs some work. I just laid the button on for an eye but I don't know if a button is the way to go...

Any advice or ideas would be greatly appreciated. These are works in progress.

Creating

Sorry, I have been missing from Blog Land... I have been busy working to make things to sell in a local gallery. Here are a couple of cards. I am having fun creating these.


Now these are some accessory bags. You can use them for anything. I made them to use for small items in your purse or as evening bags. I am also making I'pod, gps and phone cases.
Now here is the completed salmon pillow. I am not sure about it but it was fun to make and now I am going to try and make some more salmon...........

As I write this I am watching the rain go sideways and thinking, "Where is our spring?"

Playing with wool and fish...

I have been playing with some wool I have gathered. I have taken some wool clothing, deconstructed and washed it so I have all these great pieces of wool fabric. I decided last night it might be fun to try and make a salmon pillow. Since I live on the Northwest Coast and Salmon is such an important thing here I decided the wool would be great for fish. Below is the image I used to get the shape right. This is my first attempt so I am not sure things are just right but it is a starting place.
I have spent the last week working and thinking about making things to sell. I have an opportunity to have some items in a gallery here in Gold Beach and I am working on some items I can make and that are not too expensive. I am finding it is terribly difficult to decide what price to put on items. I will post some photos later this week of the items I am submitting to the gallery.

Any words of advice would be greatly appreciated...

Blogger's Quilt festival

I know those of you who read my blog have seen this quilt but I thought it was a good one for the Blogger's quilt festival. Since it is the first bed size quilt I have ever made. I started this quilt because of a blog. Crazy Mom Quilts challenged her readers to make a nine patch a day and that is how this started. I had so much fun making these and even more fun putting it together.
This was the first quilt I had someone else quilt also. I did not feel confident that I could quilt a queen size quilt on my own. I am happily living with the quilt in my guest room. It makes me smile when I look at it and all the bright colors. I still have not painted the ugly wall but someday. Life just gets in the way.