December Work and Fun

I have been a busy girl... Sorry for my very long absence! I have been working at my real job and sewing for friends. Work is very busy around the holidays so I spend more hours there than I am accustomed to but I work with some wonderful people so it is all OK... It also provides more money for fun things like fabric.

The first photograph are the two gifts I created for two of my quilting friends. The two women I went on the quilt run with in February and I purchased fabric at each store we visited and then divided the fabric between the three of us. We were each to make a wall hanging that measured 10 x 55 from the fabric we received and then we would present them to one another at our Winter Solstice Party. The two hangings below are the two wall hangings I received from my friends. I think they are just beautiful. So different from each other but incredible together! I will also make one for myself so the Three of them can hang together.



We had a last minute change in our holiday plans. Our kids had very busy schedules so Mark and I decided to pack everything up and travel to our daughters home for Christmas and our son who lives in the same town came to join us. It was such an enjoyable time. All I cared about was spending the time with my family and we did that so I am a very Happy Mom! I hope all of you had a safe and fun holiday.

Butch Wishes each of you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Photo Enhancement

A few weeks ago I won a blog drawing for a Quilting Arts DVD from Diane Rusin Doran. I wrote about it here. I have been playing with photos and learning how to manipulate the photos and prepare them for printing on fabric. I have been working on single photos at this time but I hope to spend some time soon layering several photos together to form a single image. Above is the unaltered photo, and below is the enhanced photo which I will use in my first project.
I love the intensity of the altered photo and the images will reproduce so much better on the fabric it will be printed on. Unfortunately I have not been able to work on this very much. Life seems to keep getting in the way...

I spent the last week on the couch trying to survive a terrible cold. I have not had one like this in years... fortunately! I kept trying to work on photos and applique but it just was not going to happen. Instead I napped and napped some more. I am feeling so much better now!!!

Now I am preparing for my family. Our children will be home for Thanksgiving along with my Mom and Dad and Brother and his wife. I am very excited about all of them being here at the same time. I am looking forward to some quality time with all of them. Unfortunately my Sister and her family will not be joining us and we will miss them!

I hope all of you are going to have an incredible week, and for those of you here in the US, I hope you are going to be able to enjoy some time with family and friends.

Something starting with S

Here is my addition to my pet robin. The rule was "something starting with S" Being me I decided it could not be something simple like a stripe or star or other things as obvious. I did my version of sawtooth... I like it and I like the addition of the yellow. Next I need to come up with "Braid" and I will be all caught up.

I have also decided I want to add more of the purple which you see on the right half running from the top to the bottom. I want to incorporate more of this color. My problem is I don't have much more of it left. I am going to send off samples today to a couple of my favorite quilt stores to see if they have it... Wish me luck.

One rule at a time

Our Quilt Guild had a challenge last February, every month we would each put a "rule" in a bag and one was drawn. We have been doing this for 9 months. This is my progress so far. I am not really liking it but I am going to keep going. The rules have been as follows:
Square in a Square
Checkered
Triangle in a Square
Applique
Circles or Dots
Stripes
Braid
Flying Geese
Something starting with "S"

I have the last few rules to complete. I am using Shot Cottons, these fabrics have been very enjoyable to work with . I went into this with no real plan other than wanting to use Shot Cottons. If I were to do this again I would really concentrate on my fabrics colors. I think I got carried away here....

I am hoping to get the top finished this weekend...

Pumpkin Carving Party

Mark and I were invited to a Pumpkin Carving Party. It was an incredible afternoon and evening with friends being creative, making a mess and watching the sunset over the Pacific Ocean! We had such fun.
Mark was not sure he wanted to do this and even he had fun carving his spider. The hostess provided patterns for us to use. I had never used a pattern for carving a pumpkin but it proved to be very fun. You tape the pattern on the pumpkin and follow the pattern by poking holes along the lines. After marking your pumpkins we removed the patterns and began carving by following the dots... I enjoyed the process. Next year I think it would be fun to draw our own.

These are my friendly ghosts... I hope all of you are having a wonderful week.

Proud Mamma

I wanted to share with you some work from my daughter. Stevi is an incredible photographer and has opened an Etsy shop! She is running a special this month where she is offering free shipping.

She has an incredible eye for beauty. Go take a look and let me know what you think. Please feel free to share her site with anyone you think would enjoy her work!

I have been busy working around the house and have not been stitching very much. I hope that will change soon. I am off to carve pumpkins with friends today so I will share photos of that soon.

It is my lucky day!

I entered a blog giveaway the other day for this DVD by Diane Doran, I am so very excited, when I got up this morning and checked my emails, I had a message from Vivika Denegre that I had been selected as the WINNER!!! This is the perfect DVD for me. I won it by visiting a wonderful new blog, Vivika DeNegre Art Quilts. I love Vivika's work, she makes wonderful art quilts. Her blog really struck a cord with me since she has some quilts where she has incorporated vintage maps in some of her work. You should go and visit! I really have a thing for maps. In college I took classes in cartography and had always hoped to draw and color maps for a living...
Here are a couple of photos I toke last month and think they will be very fun to incorporate into a quilt using the new processes I will learn all about with my new DVD!!!

We have had a couple of incredible days here! No wind and lots of sunshine! We spent a couple of hours on the beach yesterday with Butch (the dog)... He is still trying to sleep off the effects of chasing the tennis ball a few too many times! I hope all of you are having a wonderful weekend. ENJOY!!!!

Quilt Raffle

Well, here it is. This is the Gold Beach Quilt guild Raffle Quilt. We have been in the planning and sewing for the last 10 months or so. I was part of the design committee which consisted of 6 members. The quilt itself was worked on by 20 members of the guild who did the piecing and the hand applique. One of our members, Shelley Knapp who is a professional quilter did the quilting.

I am very happy with the completed quilt. It is a Queen size, 82" x 106". It is currently hanging in a local bank. We will be holding the drawing next year at our local Quilt Show, on September 16, 2012.

I have tickets available if any of you are interested. The tickets are a dollar each or 6 for $5.00. You don't have to be present to win. So if you are interested drop me an email or leave a comment and I will contact you.

The money we raise will go to our educational programs, and purchasing batting and flannel for our Quilts for Comfort.
We provide a flannel quilt to every newborn in the county.
We provide quilts to the County's American Red Cross, providing quilts
to families in need.
We provide lap quilts to people receiving hospice care in Curry County.

Thanks for allowing me to post an advertisement. :-) I hope all of you have a wonderful week.

Playing with Value

Here is a bit of the progress on my Color Value Quilt. I found this pattern in the book by Christine Barnes, called the The Quilters Color Club. The pattern came from the book. I enjoyed picking out colors based on value. As you can see I do well with dark's and light's but not so good on the medium values. I am liking this though. I am also doing a bit of thinking and trying to decide whether or not to use any sashing. The pattern does not use any but I am not sure. I may just use the striped fabric for the border and maybe a strip between one row of blocks... What do you think?

I will probably be moving squares around today and playing with it a bit. We are having some rainy days so it is a good time to play in the studio. Oh, and I guess I may have to do a bit of ironing today... :-( Not my favorite thing. M is running out of work shirts so I guess I better be a good wife and do a bit of ironing.

Earth Teeny Weeny

I took part in the Port Orford Guild's Teeny Weeny. This time the fabrics were "Earth"... We were given 16 strips of fabric one from each of the participants. I added the background fabric. I had fun with this. Years ago before marriage and children I worked as a Cartographer for a geologist in Wyoming. I drew maps and one of the other jobs was to assemble logs from various core samples of the earth. After they were arranged I would connect them and color them for a visual representation of the earth. So when I got my fabrics and thought of the earth, that is where my mind went.

It was a very fun project and I am happy with the result. I did Needle turn applique and hand quilted this piece. I also tried something new and made a facing like binding. I did not want the piece to have a traditional binding but it needed a clean finished edge.

I am excited for next week when we will share our creations with the group and I will get the next batch of fabric which will be "air"...

Oregon to Colorado and back

A few weeks ago I got to fly to Colorado and spend some much needed time with my Parents and then I drove a car back to Oregon. It was a wonderful adventure. I flew into Denver, Mom and Dad picked me up and we spent the night in Denver and then went to the Denver Art Museum the next day to see the show called "Marvelous Mud" It was so great. There were so many incredible pieces of Ceramic art work. I was inspired. There were wonderful pieces around every corner. The museum itself was a beautiful piece of architecture.

Then we traveled south to my parents home in the Mountains of Southern Colorado. It was fun to be with them. Time passed to quickly for me, I enjoy spending time with them and it seems to never be long enough. One of the reason's for my trip was to pick up a car they were giving me. So I had a 1,700 mile trip ahead of me to return home.

My travel home went well and I did really enjoy myself. I am now here and hoping to get back to my sewing and back to quilting. I have missed being in my studio.

A couple of weeks ago our community Hospice had a fund raising Rummage Market. It was a huge success and brought in over $46,000 for end of life care for those in our community. It is such a worthy program. I volunteer for these sales. It is a fun social event as well as a worthy cause. The above photo is one of my favorite purchases. It is a hanging lamp. It has a few wiring problems so I am still thinking about how to fix that or have it fixed. But for $7.00 it was a great purchase and is already hanging where it will live. I think it is so beautiful.

I have it hanging with one of my little Port Hole pieces in our bedroom.

I hope all of you have a wonderful and safe weekend.

Thinking of those who lost their lives in the 9/11 attacks...

Tile Fun, NOT

Good Morning, I spent the Labor Day weekend Laboring... I got the bright idea to remove the old dirty white, icky, sticky grout and replace it with a nice soft gray grout that will not show stains. I was shocked to find out the person who laid the tile originally did not use spacers and the tiles are too close together to use the grout removal tool I purchased. So I took out my trusty Dremel tool and went to work on the grout. After so much dust and grime I was able to remove all the grout. After the cleanup, I was able to grout with the new gray grout. I am very pleased with the results. It will be so much better to live with. I am not a real fan of the color of the tile but it is in good shape and now that it is not dirty it is not so bad. Next it will be time to remove the white grout between the white tiles on the floor and replace that with the same gray. Now who thinks white tile and white grout are a good idea on a Kitchen floor????

Hope all of you had a wonderful weekend. I am preparing to head off to Colorado for work and pleasure next week. :-)

Paul Klee Revisited

I am back at it again....
I keep going back to Paul Klee paintings for inspiration. Last summer I attended the Sister's Quilt Show and won a Jelly Role of fabric. I have had it sitting in my studio waiting to do something fun with it. I thought of just using pieces of it but decided I really liked them all together, so I just would look at it, feel it and think, and think some more.

I was also looking for something to take with me on our trip to Sweden to work on. I needed to be able to pack it in a small space with a minimum of accessories. So I cut a section of each fabric and a piece of Kona gray for my background. Packed a small sissors few pins, needles and background colored thread. It all fit into a small zip-lock bag and I was ready to go. This is how my piece is coming so far. I have not added but a couple of pieces of fabric since we returned. but I am liking what I see... I have a ways to go and this piece will be going with me on my next trip.

Karen Kay Buckley Class

Back in July our Quilt Guild had Karen Kay Buckley come to Gold Beach and taught her process for applique. It was a full class and we all enjoyed Karen and her teaching. I was fortunate to spend some extra time with Karen and have dinner with her two evenings and walking on the beach after. She was very fun, and easy going.

Her process of applique is to use Templar templates and spray starch. I enjoyed learning her process. I enjoy using needle turn for my applique but I can see where by using both I can have my shapes more precise when needed. My favorite part was her process for circles. My circles have never been very precise now I can make the "Perfect Circle"

The photo above was the pattern we received in the class called "Garden Medley" I am using shot cottons in my piece.

HI, I am back...

Well, it has been a while, I have been working much more that I am used to so my time in the studio has become less and less. My blogging has suffered too. I have decided it is time to either not have a blog or make a commitment to it. I am going to start slowly. At a minimum I am going to post weekly to start. Since it has been over a month since I posted I figure that is a reasonable goal.
Life has been busy but good. I have been taking photos and walking on the beach when time allows. The above photo was taken a few weeks ago on an early morning walk at low tide. It was an incredible day and incredible place.
Now, I am going to share with you my first ribbon. I entered a few pieces in our local County Fair and got several blue ribbons on my pieces but got this fancy Judges Choice on my Calla Lilly. The ribbon is just about as big as my piece. It is nice to have this little bit of recognition. I tend to go off in my own direction and not everyone likes or understands my work, so this bit of recognition feels good. I like to think this is not very important but I guess it is.

Have a great day!!!

More of Sweden

This is our chief tour guide, our son Rick. He did a great job. It was fun to have this time with him!
This is the view of Stockholm from the Tower in City Hall. It was a long climb up stairs which the stairwell got smaller and smaller but the view of the City was incredible.


This was our Home away from Home. It was the cutest little summer home in a very beautiful area west of Stockholm.

Sweden

We had an incredible trip to Stockholm, Sweden and Iceland. Here are a few photos. I was fascinated and loved this country and especially the people!!! We were able to see Sweden with our Son who has spent a year here, and our exchange student Kristina and her family from 7 years ago. They all took such good care of us. The provided a place to stay, included us in their Mid-summer celebration and the list goes on and on! I have posted only a few photos at this point and took 1500 photos...
This was our view for Mid-Summer...

Sweden here I come!

I hope all is well with all of you and I hope you will excuse my absence. I have been preparing for a big trip. My husband and I are heading to Sweden to visit out son. He has been going to school over there this last year. I am so excited to see him and excited to see Sweden. I made myself a new carry on for the trip. This bag was made from an Amy Butler pattern and Ikea fabric. I am very happy with it. I scotch guarded it today so it will be ready for the trip.

While I was making my carry on bag, I decided I did not have a messenger bag that would hold my camera. So with the same fabric I made this. I will be quite the wild one. I am quite happy with it.
I also wanted to share this photo. I got it today, it is our son and daughter. She flew over to spend a bit of time with her brother and the two of them are running around Seville Spain. I was so happy to get a photo of the two of them having such a great time.

Now, this is my tinny weenie which is complete. I have finished the quilting and I am quite happy with the way it turned out. I did several new to me quilting. If you click on the photo you can see the stitching.

Well, I will be leaving in a couple of days, so this will be my last post until I return in July. I hope all of you are enjoying your summer so far and have some great adventures planned. ENJOY!!!

Design Wall ?

So, most quilters have a design wall, mine is a garage door.... I have figured out how to make it work but I see these great work areas others have and I am envious. Now saying that I also feel very fortunate to have a space I can call my own and make a mess and play.

As you can see I am still contemplating the teeny weenie's quilting... I am also working on a thread painted fish and a quilt for my guest room. This is the beginning of the blocks then they will be cut in quarters and re assembled.

Here is the progression of the colorful quilt also. I am working on so many thing but I am loving being able switch between projects!!!

I hope all is well with all of you.

Teeny Weenie Quilt Challenge

First I want to apologize for this terrible photo. The cell phone just does not do a great job but I wanted to get something posted today.

Here is the progress on my Teeny Weenie Quilt Challenge. This is a challenge from the Port Orford Quilt Guild. Those who wish to participate were told to bring one yard of summer fabric and it was then divided between the participants. The instructions were to create a small quilt no larger than a fat quarter with the fabrics provided. We could eliminate one fabric and add one. I received 17 fabrics. I was not sure at the beginning what in the world I had gotten myself in to. When I initially looked at these fabrics I could not imagine what I was going to do with them. So I looked at them and rearranged them for about a week or more and finally decided they were best arranged in order of the colors on the color wheel. I was able to cut circles out and cover most of the colors (kind of). I added the background fabric. My inspiration for the design of this piece was a quilt by Carol Bryer Fallert.

I began quilting yesterday. I only have one section quilted but will continue on this path. I am still thinking about whether I will quilt all of the blank spaces with the same color or weather I will change colors. At this point I am thinking I will try and keep things in the same color family but vary it a bit. However by later that may change too. I just am not sure.

I have had a great time playing with this once I decided I could now I am thinking about doing another working with colors in order of the color wheel. I am going to try and focus on color for a while and see where it takes me.

I hope all of you are having a fabulous weekend. I hate to say this but as I look out the window the rain has begun again and that makes me happy, I think it is time to sew some more and not feel like I should be doing something else like work outside...

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day Mom!!! Mom, you set such a wonderful example for me!

This is a photo I received last week from my parents, they are in Stockholm, visiting my son. I have been having such fun hearing all about what they have been doing. In June, Mark and I are going to be visit. I am so very pleased that they are spending time together!

I apologize for my absence from writing in my blog. As many of you know I have been visiting and reading just not writing. I don't know what has come over me I have just not felt much like writing. Last weekend I even painted our master bath and have worked this week on doing all of the other little things that go along with painting. I even removed all the caulking around the tub and shower door and replaced it. :-) I am proud of myself!

I have been sewing and keeping myself busy. I am continuing to work on the colorful quilt which is a very slow process. I am doing a quilt challenge with the Port Orford quilt guild it is called the Tennie Weenie Quilt Challenge. They do a challenge every few months, this one has a summer theme. Everyone brings a yard of summer fabric and it is cut in strips and divided among the participants. I have 18 strips of fabric that the only thing they have in common is the fact they made the purchaser think of summer. I have started the design process so I will show you photos soon.

I hope all of you have a wonderful Mother's Day.