bits N pieces

Fiber Art Traders has a LOGO!!!

2007-04-05T08:17:00.000-07:00

Still amongst the living....

2007-01-30T17:54:00.000-08:00

Lots has happened since last I published to this place...November brought the Pacific Northwest the most horrendous wind storm we have ever been through. Winds in the Category 1 of the Hurricane type, rains that just couldn't quit, all to end up with a snow storm yet! We haven't had snow in early December for I don't know how long...seems like about 30+ years to me! With that of course came below freezing temps, which are not unknown to us up here, but the duration has been something else. It is not neat to see the sun shining and know that your nose will freeze if you go outdoors! Yes, I know it is winter, and I know that means foul weather, but when we have had temperate temps for the past 10 years, we just knew the earth had tilted and we were bound to discover that it was for the warmer! Little did we realize that we had become complacent about the weather.

Well one good thing about the lousy weather is that we will not be having water rationing this coming summer. I can be thankful for that because my lawn has suffered enough for the past few years. Perhaps I will even be able to complain about having to mow it twice a week this year. Those lovers of the snow are rejoicing over the amount of snowfall in the mountains of the Cascades and are enjoying it tremendously. I have noticed that this time of the year does bring us some fantastic colors in the sky.

In the crafting end of things here, I have been busy in that arena as well. I don't think I could go a day without creating something and have created a few small works of my art. I am entering my 3rd year shortly with Fiber Art Traders, and have been the welcoming person to all new members for the past year. I enjoy this task, even when we grow by great leaps and bounds. When I joined there were just a few over 100 members, and we are fast approaching 500 members.

My latest work in progress is a Treasure Box which will hold the fiber art postcards we trade on this list. Well, that is only one of the items that we trade, there is a trade for the Treasure Box as well. I have made cloth dolls, artist trading pins, similar to brooches, but with an artistic twist to them, business card cases, Easter decorations as well as Christmas decor and a multitude of other items too numerous to mention. Here are a few photos of some of the items I have created since last posting....

One of the neater ideas the list mom presented us with for our Journal Quilt project, which is an ongoing year long item. For this one we were to turn a colored print into a black and white journal quilt, ala Ansel Adams. I chose to do a photograph I took of Cape Disappointment Light, located on the border between Washington State and Oregon. I have a love of lighthouses, and this particular light is the oldest still operating light on the Pacific Coast. Quite the achievement for our state! I really enjoyed doing this, and it proved to me that I could do work with a limited palette.

Some other more recent items are shown below...

Wild West post card trade...I created this one using one of my favorite western type designs, a steer skull, embellished in the manner of my forefathers with feathers and Indian paintings, as well as leather covering the horns of the skull.

The following three photos are of a dear friend with her eldest grandson, then one of her youngest grandson, and finally one of her granddaughter. I took a little liberty with her granddaughter, and turned her into a fairie for her journal page! Her youngest GS has a love of dinosaurs, hence his photo with the dino accompaniment.

And finally, my very favorite, a living fairie, such a little cutie she is also!

Well that's about it for today. Hopefully tomorrow will bring the instinct in me to do a little more blogging...

Hugs!

New Projects Begun

2006-11-24T21:04:00.000-08:00

This is my journal quilt page for November on the Fiber Art Traders group. I have named it "Life is like a box of chocolates... you never know what you're gonna get" from the Forest Gump movie. I gave this a lot of thought, Our theme was to be "In a Word", later included a phrase or a word. In that the phrase is definitely a true one when I think of what life has dished out to me...so it was an appropriate journal quilt for me to make. I was so excited about having chosen to do a phrase, as one word didn't really say much to me. I firmly believe this project is perfect for me, and it only took me about 4 hours from taking the photo of a box of chocolates, to completing the last stitch in it. I was lucky to have fabric to finish off the photo appropriately available at the nearest store to me...Wal-Mart, of all places. But it gives it the look I was searching for when I though about how I could create the quilt. I like it a lot!

My cyber friend from Oklahoma, Lena Dalke, sent me a photo of her with her
13 yr old grandson, taken yesterday. Her daughter, Vicki Stegall owns a web site called OScraps, which deals with virtual scrapbooking elements. Vicki took the photo then cropped it to create this photo montage. When Lena sent me the photo this a.m., I thought I would create a journal quilt for her with it. So tonight I am going to finish it and will mail it off to her on Monday. I will post a photo of it when it is finished...she will be so surprised! In the meantime here is the photo taken by Vicki...

I have finished a few postcards this past week also. The first one is for a Snowflake postcard trade, and is called "All my friends seem a little flakey"...

This next postcard is also for the snowflake trade, and reads "All my friends are flakes" and has a perky little!"snowflake on it with a face in the center....the third card for this trade is a very pretty snowflake, but inside it says "Let it snow"

That's all for now...

Another project finished, and one almost finished!

2006-11-09T11:14:00.000-08:00

I have finished my Dreamholder...a tiny triangular shaped box to hold my dreams...or perhaps a very rich chocolate treat, or even a special jewel. At any rate, I have created a new item, using a pattern that is available in the Nov/Dec 2006 issue of Quilt Maker magazine, by the same name....Dream Holder.

As each side is different, I had to post pictures of all three sides of it. It was not a difficult item to create, and had plenty of room on each petal of the top portion to really go crazy with the embellishments.

I am nearing the completion of the quilt...working on the border now, and it is moving along very nicely. Photos will be posted once it is delivered to the recipient. I am very pleased with the way it is turning out...a wonderful quilt for a truly wonderful occasion in my opinion.

This past week has seen some really horrendous weather for the Pacific Northwest. We had, in just 6 days, more rain than we normally get all month long. On the 6th we got almost 4 inches of rain in a 24 hour period...and flooding has occurred in many counties, some which had not seen this type devastation in over 30 years. I am thinking that this may be just a forerunner in what our winter weather may hold in store for us. Luckily I live atop a hill, and not on the edge of the hillside either. There have been mud slides in those areas where people had constructed homes and are now seeing the error of their ways. I would have thought that the planners at the county level would not have approved building permits for homes to be built in those areas, but there are always people who want an unobstructed view of either the water of Puget Sound, or a terrific view of Mount Rainier. Having worked in the constructon end of the school business, I have oftentimes wondered about the advisibility of constructing a residence or even a business near a cliffside, even if we had not had that 100 year flood in 95 years! Seems like the numbers would tell you that sooner or later it would or could happen.

I guess that is another good thing about retirement...lots of time to think these things over and come to the determination that it is something that I would never do.

Rain, rain, go away!

2006-11-06T23:21:00.000-08:00

I must tell you that rain in the Pacific Northwest has outdone itself today. We have received a total for the month increased by almost 3 inches over our normal monthly rainfall and are only 6 days into the month! We do not expect to see dry weather for another 2-3 days either!

I am not too concerned for myself, for I live much higher than the locations that are experiencing higher flood levels than have been experienced in the PNW for over 15 years.

I have kept indoors, and have been busily creating and sewing...mainly quilting. I am hand quilting a quilt for a first time mother, and it is almost to the state of being finished, just a couple more blocks and I will then quilt the border, then do the binding on it. It is exciting to finish a project such as this one up, and I am certain the new mom and her baby will be very excited and happy to receive this lovely quilt. Photos will be posted when it is finished and delivered, but not till then.

Other items I am involved in making, just to give me a break from the quilting are a Dream Holder, which is a triangular gift box, meant to hold a surprise for the recipient. I can see such items as a item of jewelry placed in one of these boxes and then the box hung on a Christmas tree in December. No doubt I will stock this box with chocolates, and for some, that is just as good as jewelry, perhaps better! I hope to be able to finish my Dream Holder in the next couple of days and get a photo taken of it to share.

Last night while I was quilting, I also had the embroidery machine humming away and completed 4 tree ornaments during the evening. These are of free standing lace, meaning that they do not need fabric to keep them from raveling out and becoming a mass of thread. There are so many stitches in each of them, and all stitches are anchored by threads traveling in an diagonal direction over and over till they become fabric themselves. Of this collection I will be keeping the heart shaped ornament for myself, but the other three are going to be traded with others who participated in the Fiber Art Traders Monday Night Challenge/Trade. This is a fun opportunity to create at least one ornament, usually in a new technique, and get it posted in a 24 hour period. We have had many challenges in the past, some for post cards and bookmarks, and it really lets us strut our stuff, so to speak.

Well, that is it for today...let's see what tomorrow brings to the Landstrom residence!

It's Sunday....errr Monday?

2006-11-06T00:41:00.000-08:00

Guess I blew it again...Fully intended to get this posted on Sunday, but looking at the clock, it has been Monday for all of 35 minutes already!

I have to thank my friend AliKat from the UK for putting me to rights about how to get photos to work here...very simply, update my IE. Thank you Ali!

I have posted my Dream Weaver quilt, her name is Victoria, the Valentine Fairie of Love. Completing this quilt means that I can now add FGM to...after my name on the Fairie Goddess Mothers Yahoo Group site. I've been a member for over a year, and finally took the time to do Victoria. I had a bit of a problem in determining just how I was going to create her. The heart behind her along with the rose in the quilt is from an old pattern (quilting motif actually and not intended to be used as an applique pattern). I cannot even remember where I got the motif, but know that it was over 20 years ago, and I had plans to use it in a Center Medallion Quilt. I am glad I did not lose it, or toss it as I am sometimes prone to do. But as it was a heart, I am sure that is the reason I saved it. After finishing the quilt one of the requirements is to create a story about the fairie residing on the quilt. My first thoughts when I got the pattern after joining the FGM group was that I would name her Rosebud. But as I got into the quilting of this gem, her name all of a sudden did not seem right to me. Then I recalled a fairie tale that my father told me when I was a child. It was a nighttime ritual that he would tell all of my sisters and my brother and I a bedtime tale. I particularly liked it when dad would tell us stories he had heard as a child. His dad was a 2nd generation Irishman and so many of the tales he remembered were of the wee folk, many of whom reside in Ireland according to him. Sometimes they were about the leprechan's while interesting, my favorites were when he would tell us fairie stories. He endowed me with a love of fairies from a very young age. I was convinced that the fairies controlled the seasons, with each season having very special meaning to them, and eventually to me as well. So I created my story, using my fathers words, but changing the actual name of the fairie he spoke of and the reason she was named so. I'd like to share it with you here....

Once upon a time, very long ago, at the edge of a copse of very tall trees, there lived a family of six members. The head of this family was a very wise man. He had roots to the old country and in the early hours of evening he would gather his family around him and would tell them of his life prior to meeting his wife and having children of his own. This family was made up of the father, the mother, and four children, three of them female and one male.

This family is mine, and this story is one that was passed to me by my father, who was of Irish persuasion. Many of his stories passed on to us were flavored by his Irish ancestry. Other stories centered around his great grand parents, one who was his great grandfather, Irish by birth, but married to an Iroquois maiden shortly after arriving on the soil of the new country he had adopted for his own.

I recall as a youngster of about 4 years of age a story my father shared with me of the fairies in the woods behind our home. Not all forested areas contained living little people, but our copse of trees, while sometimes seeming very fierce to me, also held much magic and wonderment. But you must believe to partake of that wonderment…on to the story told by my father…

One bright spring morning, as he walked through the copse of trees to gather berries for his breakfast, he happened to hear a sound that he recalled hearing when he was but a child himself…the tinkling of bells, but faintly, as if far in the distance. The berry picking was quickly abandoned to search out the source of this delightful sound… very quietly he moved through the trees, and soon approached a wonderful meadow, just beginning to bloom with tiny wild flowers, wood violets, he thought to himself. He felt the soft breeze of spring and within that breeze he felt the kiss of spring, and the aroma of something he had never smelled before to his recollection. This aroma was so intoxicating that he almost abandoned the search for the beautiful melodic tones he was now hearing quite clearly. As he followed a narrow pathway through the meadow the sounds became interspersed with laughter, he was certain there were people about in the forest, and as he searched for the source of what seemed to be a large gathering of folk, he heard also the weeping of a single child…He stopped and listened. Yes! It must be a child, someone who is lost and knows not that there are people around perhaps looking for this child. Although puzzled by the whimpering of a child, he wondered about the happiness that he could hear so clearly…

Determined to find out what the problem was that could cause this sound to shatter the peaceful morning, he decided to find this child and soothe its feelings so that it could also enjoy the day. He remembered his own father telling him that there are wee folk living amongst the trees, and generally how they would gather together in celebration of achievements each had made. Crouching down upon hand and knee, he searched amongst the leaves, and discovered there, across the way was a patch of mushrooms popping through the soil. The sound of the child was becoming stronger in that direction, and so he crept ever so quietly closer to the circle of mushrooms. Fairie Ring he thought to himself, his Da had told him about the fairie rings, and how they would arrive shortly after the soil had been danced upon by the fairies of the forest. These were fairly new, and he knew that there must be fairies about, and that must be the sound he was hearing as he approached this area. As he looked around, he spotted, seated beneath the largest mushroom a small child. Lying upon his belly, he inched forward until he was quite close to her. She had not noticed him yet and he thought to himself, why is this child whimpering so? As if he had spoken aloud the whimpering stopped and the child looked up to him asking “Who are you?” “I am called Mac by my friends” he responded. “What is your name?” he asked her back. Again the whimpering began and she sobbed out her words very hesitantly, “I do not know… today is the naming ceremony and I cannot think of a name that would suit me. I have given it much thought, and I cannot come up with a name that is suitable.” More whimpering began in earnest and he tried to reach out to her in his thoughts. She is so beautiful, he thought, such gorgeous eyes that flash when she speaks, and hair that is so long and wonderfully thick, she should have no reason to not be able to discover a name to fit her. She spoke again to him, saying “But my name must be such that it says to others what it is that I will do with my life.” “Well, we must find out what you are interested in,” he thought to her…”what do you like to do? What are your very favorite colors? There must be something about you that is so special that it will tell everyone what your name is!”

“I have a fondness for the colors of pink and red,” she answered him, and added “and I love flowers, especially the roses!” He noticed that she was wearing a beautiful pink jumper and a long skirt of a brighter shade of pink, her long, wavy brown hair blowing in the breeze. He could picture her sitting upon a full blown rose. “I believe this child will be very enchanting as she grows into her wings” he thought. Then he thought of his grandmother. She also has this beautiful shade of hair, and it is wavy just as hers is…and as he thought this, his grandmother’s vision appeared in his memory. The fairie interrupted his thoughts and she said to him, “What is your grandmother’s name?” “Victoria” he answered her. “How did she come by that name?” asked the fairie. “Her father named her that after the Queen of England” he thought. “Would it be ok for me to have her name as my own?” she asked him, and he noticed that the whimpering had stopped and as he gazed at her, he noticed that her wings were fluttering. “She would have been honored to know you, and I am sure she would like you to carry her name, but it is a strong name, you know. It comes from the Victorian era, when love was very much in vogue.”

“Oh, thank you so very much” she answered, “you have given me a wonderful name to carry and as well you have given me the idea that I could easily be the Fairie of the Victorian season of Love…when is that season?” Shocked that she could so easily rise up to be fluttering before his very eyes, he exclaimed aloud “Well I would think that would be almost any time of the year, for people fall in love all the time. You will be quite busy attending to all the love in the world!”

“But there must be a special time of year when love is expressed by all” she stated…”surely you must be able to tell me when that is.”

“Yes,” he said, “in February, after the winter snowfall has begun to disappear, there is a day, the 14th of February, when all celebrate what is known as Valentine’s Day. That day we express our love of others.”

“Well, then I will be Victoria, the Valentine Fairie of Love, and will be noted for the expression of love for others!” she responded. “I must be off now, for the naming ceremony is about to end and I do so need a name. Thank you so very much for your assistance, and I bestow upon you the most love that ever there was!”

As she rose up, he kneeled and watched her fly toward the sound of cheering. Then he heard as clearly as we hear one another speak to us, “Victoria! Victoria the Valentine Fairie of Love is presented to you!” and heard such cheering as you could never imagine. Smiling to himself, he retraced his steps and as he was returning home, he picked those berries, which seemed to ripen before his very eyes.

So there you have it! I do not think that dad would mind me using his story. And were he still here on earth, I am sure that he would have wonderful words of praise to speak to me about my quilt. He was my champion, and always told me that I had great possibilities and I would like to think that I have achieved at least a portion of his wishes for me.

Have a happy Monday to each and every one of you!

Till later...

Still having photo posting problems...

2006-11-04T23:39:00.000-08:00

Well I thought I was computer savvy, however I do not know how to fix this problem of not being able to post a photo. I really wanted to share my newest fairie with you, but it will have to wait till later. I will try again before this is finished for if I am anything, it is determined!

I have been attempting for the past 5 years to replicate a recipe for Chili Relleno's. I used to visit with my sister when she was alive, down in Los Angeles at least 4-6 times a year and each time for a good week, sometimes two weeks. She introduced me to a wonderful little Mexican restaurant on Euclid Avenue in Anaheim that made the most awesome Chili Relleno's. I got rather friendly with the proprietor and tried my best to get the recipe from him, but he always said that the recipe was his mother's and he did not know all that she did to the chili's to get them the way she did. Anyway, last Wednesday I was at the grocers and purchasing more Anaheim peppers to attempt it one more time. There was a Mexican man and woman picking over the jalapeno peppers and filling a plastic bag full of them at that, and we began talking. I was asked what I was going to prepare and told them the story of trying to make chili relleno's as good as the ones I had eaten in CA. The lady immediately asked more questions as to what part I was having problems with, and then gave me her recipe right there in the store! I got all the required ingredients, came home and followed her directions, and voila! They tasted the same as the famous ones I had eaten so long ago. My mom also loved these, so today I took a serving over for her to have for her lunch, and she only had one complaint about them....she wished I would have brought more for her! She actually raved about how great they were, so now I can make this food of the gods any time I so desire, as long as the Anaheim peppers are in the store that is! Mom and I have tried Chili Relleno's in every Mexican restaurant in our area, and have had a few that were not even edible in our opinions, others that just did not have the special flavor of those we remembered from the south. Tomorrow I am headed to the grocers again and will get as many of the peppers as I can for these things even taste good after being frozen!

This is good weather for the spicy hot foods of the south, we are being drenched with uncommon amounts of rainwater, flooded streets, storm drains being clogged with the leaves that the wind blew off the trees all week long. Not a good time for this amount of rain to fall upon us. We have had snow in the mountains, but I would imagine what with the warmer weather we have had, and now this deluge of water, that not much of the snow remains...and there goes the chance for the snow birds to be skiing over the Thanksgiving 4-day weekend. I can almost hear them moaning about it now! I am not a skiier, have no desire to freeze my buns on a mountain top! I only want snow to stay on the mountain so I can take wonderful pictures of it, and for the replenishments of our resevoirs for plentiful water next summer. We have had water rationing where I live for two summers running now, and it is time for replenishment! We may even see a snowfall here in Tacoma, but they are short lived around here.

Well still unable to get a photo posted, so will sign off for tonight...

IT'S BEEN AWHILE....BUT I'M BACK!!!

2006-10-31T21:57:00.000-08:00

It has been a while since I've posted, but to be honest with you, I have been really busy. Not all in the creative field, although I have done a bit of that also. My mother, who is 87 yrs old took a fall and I have been tending her, and traveling that 40 miles per day in heavy traffic is no fun, believe me! But as she is getting her land feet back now, I have more time to devote to perhaps keeping up to date as to what day it is, and what I am doing here on earth. Let me add, that is it not a neat thing to be the parent figure when it is your own parent you are attempting to be the parent to! I know, say that five times quickly and see what you come up with...chaos!

However, I have done a little creative work. At present am quilting a baby quilt for a first time mom...and am about finished with it, then on to other projects. I still attempt to keep my nose in other peoples business, after all, I would not be me if I did not do that.

One nice thing about retirement is that your time is your own, till someone needs your assistance. I have found time to keep myself in the loop as far as being creative. I have made a few post cards, am involved in a monthly quilt block trade with others in one of the groups I am in, the theme being Wonderous Wings, and the blocks are small, just little 6" square ones with, so far, a butterfly block, bumblebees, bats (yes, the October winged thing!), and most recently little lady bugs. I also finished my Dreamwatcher fairie, and actually wrote a story about how she came to be. The name of my fairie is Victoria, the Valentine Fairie of Love. I attempted to upload a photo of her, but alas, Blogger is having problems again with that particular part of their software, so will attempt to post it later.

I received a very nice letter from the Hygenic Gallery in Connecticut, how wonderful to be thanked by the very person who actually purchased my card! I felt so honored to be a part of their fund raiser back in July, and to have had Kathy purchase my card after a bit of furious bidding in a silent auction, was really the best thing to happen to me in a long while. The name of the card I submitted was "Evening in Paris at the Lido, Circa 1964".

Well that is it for this posting. I am going to attempt to keep up with this much better than I have been...let's see what tomorrow brings....

Saturday, and the weather is lousy!

2006-06-10T22:14:00.000-07:00

Well, it did not rain, but there is so much pollen in the air, that I am suffering big time! What with the allergies flaring up, I am also having a mild to medium sized asthma problem this weekend...Hurry up Monday I want decent weather and perhaps then everything will calm down a bit...even a bit would satisfy me at this point.

Postcards are in the mail!!! Got all my 9 lives of the Fabulous Felines trade cards mailed off yesterday. They all turned out so nice, and I was in a playful mood when creating them, so they all have little sayings upon the face of the card along with the design. I have already posted my Abstract Cat and the Aristocat, so here are the rest of them...let's see if you can figure out some of the names I have added to them...

Well, for some reason I cannot get the last one to post...but will get it in perhaps tomorrow....

My latest endeavor in the postcard frenzy is to make cards that I will donate to the American Cancer Society that will be shown and sold for a donation of $30 per card, payable to the ACS by a wonderful lady, Virginia Speigel who has a web site called Fiberarts For A Cause. In the past three years Virginia has donated over $50,000 to the American Cancer Society by selling fiberart postcards at both Houston and Chicago's International Quilt Shows. I think that most people who purchase these cards are not going to be mailing them to anyone....they are generally framed and hung in their homes or offices. The Fiber Art Traders are working in conjunction with Virginia to see how many cards we can get together for this very wonderful thing. As I have lost dear family members to cancer, I felt that this was the very least I could do for the cause. I have intentions of making at least 6 cards, but if I have time, I will definitely do more than that. Our group is working with a theme for our cards, Winged Things is the title...so each of my cards will have something on them depicting a winged thing...so far finished are a swan, damselfly and ladybugs. They will be posted shortly.

But, for now, I am heading to bed, I am tired and likely tomorrow will still be another day!

Hugs Y'all!

Warm Saturday Greetings!

2006-05-20T22:11:00.000-07:00

Today began with a cloudy, overcast day, cool, and a little windy. Did not take long for the clouds to blow away or dissipate, and the sun was shining for the better part of the day. A welcomed relief from the 85-90 degree weather of the last few days! I don't do hot weather at all easily, am allergic to so many of the outdoor odors (others call these smells aromas, to me they stink!) that I spend most of my time indoors, and that's ok, I do a lot of creative work during those times that I cannot be outside.

I joined another postcard trade on the Fiber Art Traders yahoo group. This one is titled "Fabulous Felines" and is anything to do with cats...house pets, zoo animal cats of the more ferocious type, and I have come up with a few designs that are a little over the top for me, but still shout out who made them!

My first one out of the shoot was very aptly titled Abstract Cat, and while I did not digitize this one, I did do the lettering for it. If you have been following my blog, you probably have noted that I do not do a lot of art that is hard to discern what it is...but this one, is titled on the picture side of the card, so should not have too many questions about it.... I got lucky and found some abstract type fabric to embroider it upon, and although it is a simple design I believe between the fabric, the style of lettering and the cat itself, I have finally achieved something in the mode of modernish type art!

The second card I created today is another off the wall type cat...this one is named Aristocat, and did not think much about the name at the time, but have been reminded that there was a Disney movie by the same name, although I believe it was actually called The Aristocats... Given the name of the card, I determined that I would do it up as richly as possible, and used a royal purple for the background. I feared the black cat may not show up well, but gave it a go any way.

I have 7 more cards to complete prior to trading the cards and they will be interesting, although not in this same vein. Both of these cards do have a spin to them toward the modern art, the rest really do look like cats!

Well, that's all for today folks,

Hugs Y'all!

Mondays are for Challenges!

2006-05-16T11:06:00.000-07:00

It's true, you know...Mondays are for challenges, whether it be just piling out of bed and facing the work week, tending to matters around the home, or sometimes, just getting out of the bed! However, my challenge this week was a fun, exciting and creative one. On the Fiber Art Traders group our list mom posed a challenge to us...we were to create and post a mailable fiber postcard...and the challenging part was to get it accomplished within a 2 hour time frame and posted to our group list. I totally amazed myself, and probably others also, as I created this card in just 32 minutes, from the time I read the instructions and theme till posting on the internet! Our theme for this challenge was "Time is of the Essence", the winner takes all of the cards submitted for the challenge. An amazing assortment of cards were feverishly assembled to follow that theme...and believe me, machines were a-humming during the construction of these gems! No, I did not win, but a member from The Netherlands did, and I say CONGRATULATIONS TO TONNY! She is fairly new to our group as I recall, and did a wonderful card depicting the time we lose as we get older and begin to become forgetful, and of course, wondering where the time went!

My own card is entitled 'Timeless Beauty", and depicts an ocean sunset, with waves crashing on the rocks at the base of a fantastic lighthouse. The design was created by D. Morgan and is copyrighted. The artist allowed a fabric company to create yardage using her paintings of coastal scenes. Most of you know how much I love lighthouses, amongst other collectibles and this particular scene just grabbed me when I was looking through the fabrics I had pulled for this challenge. Thanks so much NJ for choosing to challenge our creative forces to the forefront. I never gave the amount of time that goes into creating a postcard much thought, and totally amazed myself by my ability to come up with a wonderful card.

Over the weekend I also began a new quilt, a Block of the Month, commonly called BOM's by quilters. Each month a new design is sent to us and we are to prepare it for quilting at the year's end. I am about 3 months behind, what with other commitments, however did chance to read the monthly newsletter this month and discovered that there is a contest in the creation of these blocks. The title of the quilt is 'Blooms n Buttons, and Butterflies too'. I do not have the buttons that were suggested to be used, but did happen to pick up a few fancy buttons made of abalone shells and coated with irridescent colors that I have never seen in a real abalone shell over the past month. So I pulled out some gold colored ones and used in the center of the bloom, colorwise an appropriate place to attach them. As my embroidery machine is in the shop at the present time, again, twice in a week's time, I attempted to put my butterflies down with the 'old fashioned' way of doing embroidery! One is rather small, a black bodied, pink winged critter. The other done in yellows and gold with a russet colored body and antennae.

Well that is it for today...at this point in the day at any rate. This afternoon I will be picking up my embroidery machine and we will see if it performs as advertised!

Hugs, y'all!

I'm a Goddess Girl x 5!!!

2006-05-05T00:20:00.000-07:00

So what? you say...well at the Fairie Goddess Mothers Yahoo Group, that means that I have completed the monthly challenge for the fifth time! I have made my May Goddess and it is only the 3rd of the month...well, technically the 4th, as it is after midnight, but to me still the 3rd...won't be the 4th till I have slept! Always seems to be a race to see whom will finish the first one of the month...perhaps I will be first this month...been awhile since I was first on this particular task. The Fairie Goddess block is a challenge that is issued monthly by List Mom, Linda Poole, who has designed the pattern for this little beauty, and in my estimation is one terrific artist, amongst other things!
This fairie is the Goddess of Self-Confidence, Style, Grace and Self-Assurance. I thought that mine needed a lot of self-confidence to show herself this month...she is decked out in violet, both for body and wings, and I would think that any self respecting fairie who ventured outdoors in violet would have to be very self-confident! Imagine dancing among the violets (which by the way are in bloom here in the Pacific Northwest) and someone comes along to pick a bouquet, if you were this fairie, you would certainly have to be quick to avoid being plucked from the ground and included in that bouquet! If you have been following these quilt blocks each month, you will notice that each heart held high above her head is a different color. I decided that the heart would be a great place to use the color of the birthstone for that month...May's birthstone is the Emerald...a beautiful gem in my opinion. After I get all the blocks finished and the quilt made, I plan to purchase CZ gems with flat backs to put in each of the hearts as an embellishment. I will also include machine embroidered flowers in each block, the flower for May is the lily of the valley, and I love that flower.

Well that's it for tonight, tomorrow I will begin thread painting the shower curtain again. Got more colors of thread in my stash now and should be able to do a bit of stitchery on it to spark it up a bit.

Hugs, y'all...remember, I'm a Goddess Girl x5 now!!!

Goodness, It is May Already!!!

2006-05-03T17:13:00.000-07:00

May already! Wow, what happened to April, I was just going good on it too!

One of the challenges (from list mom Linda Poole on the Fairie Goddess Mothers Yahoo group) I accomplished already this month was to create a quilted journal page. These are small mini-quilts, just measuring the size of a piece of paper, 8.5" x 11", well mine is 10"x12", but no quilt or journal police live here! I even went so far as to add a poem to it, and although I am not the type to normally write poetry, this little ditty came to mind, so will include it for you to read as well...

Sunshine

Come dance with me amongst the daffodils~
And we will sing praises to the distant hills
Whilst the sun peeks out up above
'Tween puffy clouds for a day we all love!

Between Linda and the FGM group, and Normajean on the Fiber Art Traders group, I am learning more through their monthly challenges than I ever thought could be possible at my age! I love creating the smaller items, never was much of a 'small' quilt person, generally made only bed sized quilts, but thanks to Linda I have learned that the creativity does flow nicely on a wall hanging, or even quicker with the journal sized 'quiltlets', as she calls them. As for the postcards and other altered art work, I am certain that I found my calling...for they are a joy to create, and even more fun to share with others (receiving mail from my cyber friends is a joy that is beyond compare). Those who have known me long know that I have had a hard time justifying my love of creating, given the ridicule I was handed when growing up over my wastefulness when I would create something in the art line. If it couldn't be eaten, or worn, or slept under, it just was not worth the time to do it. I am so happy that I have found many cyber friends who think differently about my creations and have begun to get an ego that is larger than it should be! Yes, I keep feeding that ego, when it is larger than my hat size I may slow down....but don't take that as being gospel!

MISHAP WITH MY NEW TOY...

I recently purchased a gently used Brother ULT 2003 sewing/embroidery machine. I have not used it for sewing yet, mainly purchased it for the larger embroidery field as I seem to be digitizing more and more designs that are in a larger format. I was busy test sewing my newest creation and had stitched out 3 of the 10 colors necessary to create the design. As I was attempting to thread the needle with the 4th color the unthinkable happened to the machine, the knob I was pressing to bring the needle threader down to the needle fell off! Immediately I hear the sound of metal dropping and hitting something inside the machine head. When I peered down to see if I could tell what it was, I noticed a part of the machine sitting there, so being the A personality I am, I determined that I could remove the cover and put it back to wherever it came from, and at the same time reattach the threader knob...it just was not to be, for when I opened the cover, I saw not one part, but two laying in there. I gathered them up along with a rubber washer type thing and put them into a zip lock baggie, and took that machine down to the dealer for repair...I am not concerned about the cost of repairs, the machine has only been in my house for 6 weeks and I have a maintenance agreement on it...I do, however, take offense at the fact that it will be hospitalized for a whole week, 7 days without it stitching along and me smiling at what it is turning out!

There is only one good thing about this happening, and that is that I must now occupy my time with other projects, which have been lacking the attention due them. I began the Sunshine Journal Quilt just yesterday and finished it with some handwork this morning. I still have the May Fairie Goddess to create, and will begin that tonight, hopefully will have it completed tomorrow, and can give my much neglected shower curtain another coat of thread painting to enhance another area of it. I am a fairly new person to the technique of thread painting and have yet to really feel comfortable with it, and I know I must be comfortable in doing it before the work will fly...I do seem to be taking out or un-stitching, less of what I stitch, so I may be gathering the needed confidence to really put the pedal to the metal as they say. I have discovered that music helps me to obtain a rhythm to the stitching, so if any of you hear loud music, I may be the guilty party!

Enough for now...more creating is waiting in the wings, and I believe I am up to that personal challenge as well!

Hugs Y'all!

More Ketchup please...

2006-04-28T17:26:00.000-07:00

When this playing catchup (or ketchup as some folks say) is tough! It is definitely a better thing to keep up than catch up!

I sometimes get a one track mind, focusing on only one of the many endeavors I have cooking in my brain. And I by no means meant to overlook that I had also created both the March Fairie Goddess of Good Luck and the April Fairie Goddess of Rebirth or Spring, who are challenge blocks from the Fairie Goddess Mothers yahoo group I belong to...March did get waylaid for a few weeks, but here she is in all her glory. Our colors were green and gold, nothing better for celebrate the wearing o' of green, in my humble opinion. I am more Irish than anything else, although can also lay claim to some Iriquois Indian as well as Scot, German, French in a very minute quantity, as well as a tad bit of Dutch....simply put, I am an American!

And here is my April Goddess... Colors are yellow, pink, green and white...I think it turned out nice. Plan to add some yellow flowers, perhaps daffodils by doing a bit of machine embroidery on this block prior to setting it into a quilt. Now up to having 4 of these beauties completed, this is going to be one fantastic quilt come the end of the year.

Today I had to bid farewell to a faithful companion, my Brother 180D embroidery only machine. I sold it to a member of one of the groups I am on, and I know it will have a good home. It was and is a terrific machine. I hope she loves it as much as I did. I upgraded to a Brother ULT 2003, and am loving it. As I do a lot of my own digitizing, I like being able to digitize designs that are larger, I find I can get more detail in them. This friend I sold it to will be very surprised when she sees the bounty I included with the machine...I sent her all the fixings to get started embroidering right away...stabilizers, thread, designs, and all the necessary advice I could jam into that carton! I just hope I did not overwhelm her with the advice...I do have a tendency to get wordy when I am passionate about a subject!

I have been creating...

2006-04-26T19:10:00.000-07:00

March update...

March was a whirlwind for me, was kept busy with the Fiber Art Traders group assigning members to be mentors for new members to our group. We are now over 200 members and haven't even turned 1 year old yet!

A winning result of this endeavor (besides the membership expansion) is that I have met some wonderful artists and am corresponding with them on a regular basis now. That is my big plus for the month of March.

I digitized 5 Celtic inspired designs for a prize that was won by one of the teams of member/newbies (Trees in The Netherlands and Elaine in San Francisco, CA each won a set of 6 9" quilt blocks with Celtic designs machine embroidered by myself).

A Celtic Cladaugh, oftentimes used on wedding rings...

A horse is a horse, of course, unless the horse is....(no not Mr. Ed!)...a Celtic Horse!

I was raised on a farm/mini ranch, and we had some of the most fierce Banty roosters, but this one is just fierce looking...my Celtic rooster...

I have a passion for hearts, have a strawberry birthmark in the shape of a heart on my right forearm, and anything to do with hearts strikes a chord with me...may I present my Celtic Love Knot...

I have a cyber friend who goes by the name of Blue Rose Dragon, and I dedicated this design to her....my Celtic dragons...

I wish I had digitized this design, but have never done lace before, this is actually an ornament, but the digitizing is so superb that I wanted to share it with the participants of the March Mentors...it was a free design I got from Embroidery Library, and I know you never go wrong with using their designs...

And on to April...

Since April has greeted the Pacific Northwest with less than admirable weather, more grey, cloudy and oftentimes drippy days than sunny ones, but I live for those warmer days when I do not have to bundle up to the ears to keep warm. During this hiatus of Old Man Winter not quite being ready to release his hold on lousy weather, I have kept myself busy indoors creating postcards to mail in trades, working a little on my altered shower curtain, which is beginning to take shape, thanks to my attempt at thread painting in some details on the elements in the curtain.

I joined the Easter Decoration Trade last month....my entries....

Just finished the trade on our Goddess dolls for Fiber Art Traders....I created a spring Flower Goddess, be she fairie or butterfly, she is wonderful all the same...

I sometimes wonder why I am drawn to dolls...I love them all, be they porcelain (as I have created in the not so distant past), the goddess dolls, or a doll that is posable, but I do have to admit that she is not completely dressed yet... This was another trade on Fiber Art Traders, a Bendi Doll, 14" tall, all legs and arms, posable, and we are to finish the faces, add hair, and a group of 8 of us each made part of her outfit. I contribution was the pinafore and bonnet. As soon as she is properly clothed I will add another photo of her for you....

I really did make some postcards during the past couple of months...here are a few of them...
Garden Fairies and Gnomes...my submission was a little fairie lying upon a primrose blossom and talking to her friend the ladybug...I like to think she is asking if it is really spring!

A quilted postcard in honor of National Quilting Day, March 28th, to be mailed on April 28th...

and in honor of Cinco de Mayo, a postcard to be mailed on May 5th...

I am making a promise to myself to do this at least weekly, but more often if I can pull myself away from my projects...

Hugs y'all!

A tiny correction...

2006-02-23T19:02:00.001-08:00

I put down past Sunday, meant to say that by this coming Sunday, I would be feeling better about the entire car thing. Things do need to be done, just wish they would spread themselves over the entire year rather than all at once! Sorry to get the confusion game going there!

Oh the trials and tribulations...

2006-02-23T18:30:00.000-08:00

What is they say about Murphy's law...something about if it can go wrong it will? Well they should have added to it, and added 'and will and will and will...' Well you get the idea, I am sure!

I was enroute to get my oil changed in the car...something I could do but have determined that oil is just not the stain to have on my hands! It seemed strange to me that the heater was not putting out much heat, if any. I turned the dial to hot, and it became colder and colder in the car. So I just drove to the repair shop where I have work done on the car and asked about the problem. Last summer I had a new thermostat and heater coil inserted into the beasty, and I figured that perhaps they had not tightened something down. It was ok, the car engine was hotter than a desert in July, and yet no heat coming out...they took it for a spin around the block, came back and told me the water pump was gone. I was without the car for the entire day, they brought me home and called a couple of times to advise me of other problems, then about a half hour before they were due to close they call one last time to advise me that they also noticed that the oil pan gasket was bulging, and did not recommend driving it. I had to be able to get around if necessary...am not normally a very active person away from home, as I spend all my available time with my miriad of projects. When I picked the car up they again mentioned that they wouldn't trust the gasket to last long enough to get me back home. I don't race this car, just take a leisurely pace, and let all the other cars go around me, typical grey haired lady type of driving. I figured that it would be ok for the rest of the month. This all happened on last Friday. By Monday, I had discovered that just because the car was ailing, there was a mess of places that I wanted to go and was unable to because by Sunday afternoon I was afraid that if I even inserted the key in the ignition, the oil would be spilling all over the driveway!(Yep, they did a real number on my head, and I worried all weekend!) I called them on Monday and they said they were booked solid all day long, but could take me either about 4 p.m. Tuesday or I could bring it in Wednesday. So on Wednesday I very slowly drove it to the repair shop again...worrying the entire 10 miles for fear that the engine would seize up on me and I would need an entire engine not just a gasket! Another day lost while they worked on that blamed vehicle for another 6 hours! By this time I have sunk the major portion of $1000 into this car, and you know, even though it now had heat, I was beginning to hate it with a passion! However, by this past Sunday I was back to feeling that at least if I needed to go someplace I would not have to worry about it breaking enroute to wherever I was headed.

Then on Sunday afternoon while I was working on an embroidery project, my pet machine, the Brother, decided to have a hiccup, and it just quit on me. I moved it to another spot, hooked up my trusty Bernina Deco 600 to finish the project, and I noticed that it too was not feeling up to par and was refusing to clip the threads at the end of the colors, so I knew that I was going to have to take it to the machine doctor as well. I tinkered with it a little, then found out that the cutter was refusing to return to it's location after cutting the threads...I manipulated it back into location and from then on it has been purring like a kitten. Just wanted some hugs and stroking I reckon. Today I took the Brother to the shop, and this is a 30 mile round trip for me, and just like the baby that it is, it just wanted to take a ride in a warm car! When they checked it out, it was just fine. Did you ever have a child that was running a temp and feeling lousy and the minute that you got them to the doctor's office they were as healthy as could be? Well that is how I felt with the machine. While at the shop, I was looking at the new machines that are going to be on sale next month in time for the Puyallup Sewing and Quilting Expo. Both of my current machines are only a 4x4 inch format, and I was really wanting to get a larger format for some of my embroidery projects. With the amount of embroidery work I do, I needed something that was a workhorse, but still friendly to use. I was in luck, they had a used ULT come in just yesterday from being checked out and it was at a price I could afford, so, what the heck, I bought the darned thing! Now I was shocked to see the amount of reading I will have to do before I can even thread this machine. Never fear though, because I am persistent if nothing else and I will conquer the reading no matter how boring it is! I want to use this machine and badly! Anyway, it has been an expensive month what with car repairs I could have lived without, and the purchase of the machine...oh yes, I also purchased a new range as well...that has to be enough shopping for at least a week!

Another new hobby to learn about

2006-02-07T22:04:00.000-08:00

The folks at Fairie Goddess Mothers have talked one of the members into teaching us the embellishments for crazy quilting. I have always wanted to do this, so have joined up and am anxiously awaiting classes to begin this coming Saturday. This will be a new method of learning for me...I am used to classroom lessons, and this will be taught via the internet using a blog for the instructor as well as our comments and questions to her.

I began making some crazy quilted blocks and am excited to learn to embellish them. When I get something worth showing, I will certainly share it with you all. I have an idea working in my head for a project using crazy quilting...so I am oh so hopeful that my work will be up to par. I have not done any embroidery work for a really long time.

Strange things happen....

2006-02-03T20:18:00.000-08:00

when you try too hard, or work too fast! I have been adding machine embroidered motifs to my shower curtain quilt...and was either tired, or...at any rate, I really goofed up on one design, a 4x4 angel fish. Needless to say taking the stitches out was not any fun, some of them just could not be removed! Now what was I going to do? I have a good month plus invested in this project, although I have taken time to do other things, never was good at just working on one project at a time! I'm thinking that there is no way I can patch this blunder of mine and make it look acceptable to anyone looking at it. After thinking it over for a couple of days, knowing that anothe design would not cover the mistakes still evident in the now sad looking corner of the curtain, I decided to look through an older set of encyclopedias to see what could be used to cover my mess and come out looking like it actually belonged in this project. I finally determined that I could add a moon jellyfish to the scene, and it would probably fit in...but I had no idea how to begin drawing one...so the internet was my next stop. After a few hours of searches I discovered that the first site I had visited would be the best to return to for they had a sketch of a moon jelly that although too large for my spot I could redraw it to fit into the location. For those of you who do not know about jellyfish, they are transparent, what on earth can I use to create a reasonable looking jelly and not have to use something that is non-existant in my stash! After searching through my stash, I discovered a fat quarter of a very pale blue with darker blue spatters on it that were very tiny and almost non-existant to the viewing of it. I determined I could use it, and since the moon jelly has a 4-leaf clover shape on the top that appeared to me was of a lavender color, I also dug out a scrap of a very pale lavender and went to work. Here is my end result, and I believe that it is a fairly good representation of the jelly fish. Quilting will add some dimension to it so it will actually turn this disaster into a new design element for the curtain. I am happy with the results!

A little progress is being made...

2006-01-23T09:03:00.000-08:00

Have finally completed the 10 postcards for the Beyond the Sea swap. I'm very happy with the outcome. Now to begin work again on the shower curtain... I have added borders to it, and am in the throes of populating the undersea portion of the curtain. I did not want to have the finished curtain to look as if it has layers of things, one atop the other...so removed a few of the pieces of seaweed on the left side of it and machine embroidered a small group of angel fish down then reapplied the seaweed so that it appears they are swimming amongst the greenery. I was thinking this would shortly be finished, but as I look at it, it really needs more work to complete it than originally planned. I do have a bad habit of thinking that my creations need perhaps just one more object added to them, only to find that I am adding many more! Today's plans include locating my coral colored fabric for the sea coral and hopefully beginning to stitch some of it down. It seems with each addition that it becomes more lifelike and in the end will make a wonderful statement!

No new pictures yet...perhaps after I get a bit of the color of the flora and fauna of the undersea applied (that way it looks as if I had worked harder on completing this project!)

New Fiber Post Card

2006-01-13T10:05:00.000-08:00

I am so enjoying the making of post cards using fabric and fibers. The current set I am working on has the title of Beyond the Sea. To me that means something that you would like to see there, but a bit of a fantasy...hence I chose to stitch out a mermaid. Not just any ol' mermaid, mind you...not the comic type that we see drawn , but rather an almost human looking being, with a fish tail! I love the mythical aspect of a mermaid, almost like a fanatsy creature as were the Unicorns, and of course Fairies. She fits into my scheme of things quite well. It was a bit of a struggle for me to locate the perfect background, they just do not print fabrics that have the appeal of the undersea to my mind's eye. Everything I had envisioned using for a backdrop for her just did not hold that punch.

However, there is no limit to the imagination of the batik fabrics available, and even when confronted with the miriad of fabrics available in that department of the fabric store, I still had choices to make. Would it be a green, perhaps a blue, maybe a blue-green, and finally as I rounded yet another corner in the shop, there it was! The perfect background fabric for my vision. The fabric is difficult to describe, it has the blues, the appearance of movement that was necessary for my internal vision of this card, greens, a bit of turquoise, and most important part was purple to allow me to not have to create shadows on the finished card. I really think this card is a great card! With a few additions of some stitchery to create a few pieces of seaweed, the addition of other fibers and of course the star fish and the sand dollar, and I believe that she is about done. I also added some cellophane to it, as one of the challenges for the month is to use some paper in one of our creations...I found a nice cellophane with an iridescent quality to it that shines in the blue of the paper as well as picks up a bit of pink and gold. I do believe I have succeeded with what was in my mind's eye!

The design is not my own creation, although I did change the color of the fish portion of the body. I never did believe a mermaid would have a yellow and green body, so have made mine a subtle blue and green. The artist and digitizer of this design is Susan Mackinlaw, who owns a fantastic site for embroidery designs called BFC Creations. Not only is she a wonderful artist, but does an outstanding job on her digitizing.

2006-01-10T11:37:00.000-08:00

Thanks to all who have expressed interest in this blog. Your thoughts are very helpful to me and in some cases beyond kind! Nice to know I have friends out there whom I have yet to meet in person!

I am involved in a few very interesting groups on-line. One of them is the Fiber Artist Traders, who create and trade their works of art via a fiber post card, which is created and actually mailed to our swap partners. I try to fit in at least two swaps a month to keep my hand active in this endeavor, sometimes the swaps tend to get a tad bit out of hand, in that my art is a realistic type of art with a twist. You always will recognize what I create, but perhaps, such as my Flying Colors swap card, not what the card is wearing. The Flying Colors was a swap in which the participants were to use the colors of their nations flag to create a card. Now you must know that the only place I have ever been other than the United States has been Canada. I am not a world traveler, but this group has members from all over the world in it and I have been lucky enough to have shared art with artists from other nations as well as the wonderful United States of America. I love my country, although I do have some problems at times with those who govern us...don't we all? At any rate, here is my Flying Colors, which was created back in September 2005, but will always be a popular subject for me...

At the current time this group has a themed swap entitled Ageless Post Card Swap. We were told to create a card depicting our favorite age. It will soon be known that my favorite age is now...at the age of 66, I have come into my own. It is wonderful to not have to get up in the a.m. and prepare myself for a grueling day at the office. I worked for 17+ years for the local school district in the Facilities Department, who got to spend the big bucks for creating new schools and refurbishing older ones. Our district, Bethel School District, has close to 18,000 students, and is growing by leaps and bounds. When I began working for them there were almost 9,000 students, at by the standards of our county, it was a large district, especially because it is a rural district. I believe at the present time there are around 25 schools in our district which encompasses approximately 250 square miles. Hence, my days were spent traveling the district, as well as spending an undue amount of time at the County Building Permit counter obtaining permits to add new classrooms to existing sites, as well as seeing that permits were obtained in an orderly manner for other projects throughout the district. At any rate, it is so wonderful to be able to sleep in until 6 or 7 a.m. these days and to not have to worry about what will I wear to work! And so, my creation for the Ageless swap is to create myself at the age I am. I am happy with my age and my accomplishments, and I have found that even though I was declared an adult at the age of 21 (I guess because I was able to vote, I could be called an adult), I have discovered that we do not quit growing because we have reached that elusive title, but that we continue to grow, and where I am at currently is indeed a wonderful place to be. I have the opportunity to do what I desire and if I am not done with it at the end of the day, I can stay up and work on it till the next day if I so desire.

And so, here is my humble creation. As I love to quilt, I have pieced a tiny quilt using 1" pieces of fabric to create the background for my comic like image. I have been told by friends who know me when they seem me on the streets that the image in only correct in the hair color, and the color of the clothing I wear, other than that, she is a bit oversized for my present self... I do love the little twig hat she is sporting! It looks to me to be rather like the tumble weeds that blew around the farm I lived on when growing up up in Eastern Washington.

Another list I am on, called the Fairy Goddess Mothers, creates the most wonderous quilts using of course, fairies as the centerpiece. I am a great fan of fairies, have believed in them since a small child. I was lucky enough to have an Irish father, and he told some of the most amazing stories of fairies and, of course, leprechans as well. Our list mom, Linda Poole, is an amazing artist and has created a challenge for us this year. It is a fairy goddess pattern that will have colors assigned to it each month and by the end of this year we will have ourselves a fantastic quilt made. This little fairy has a butterfly body, but it is surely a fairy. Our theme for the month of January is the Fairy of Winter and we were to use blue and white for the colors of this block. List mom invariably comes up with a side challenge to get us charged up and raring to go and this month the first person to post received a wonderful 2006 calendar from AQS, no small prize that! It was won by a newbie to our list, Susan from Australia! That is so wonderful. I think it really gives those new comers a boost to discover that they can win something so quickly after joining a list. Congratulations to Sue! Here is my take on the Fairy of Winter...

Well that is it for this day's posting, unless some-thing earth shattering happens later on in the day!

"Art is...the transmission of feeling the artist has experienced..." Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910)

A New Venture

2006-01-09T17:07:00.000-08:00

This is a new venture for me. Others have insisted it is an easy journey, from my mind to the blog...it may be easier said than done, for my mind is consistently on overload! I no sooner get a thought and it expands into a full scale book!

At any rate, I am bound and determined to use this space to show off what I am doing in my creative world. At times it will simply be musings, at others I will post photos of some of my quilts and fiber art post cards.

I am currently involved in making a quilted shower curtain. One of the groups I belong to, Fiber Artist Traders, has a great group of gals on it, and they are always trying to dream up new swaps for the group. One suggestion that I took note of, not for swapping (too much work goes into a shower curtain) but for my newly remodeled living room and attached guest bath was an altered shower curtain, however mine would be a quilt with a seaside theme. My LR and Bath have been remodeled to resemble what I think the inside of a beach cottage would look like with wainscoting going from the floor up 40", then nicely textured, painted walls above.

But on to the shower curtain. I had a pattern from Woods and Quilts of a three part quilt, it was to be about 30x36 inches in size. I had it enlarged so that it would comfortably fill the space in front of the tub. There are three sections to it...the sky (I chose a setting sun with an early evening sky of hand painted fabric in pinks, lavender and blue with a little white. The middle section is of the sea surface and holds a clipper ship with a peninsula and of course, a lighthouse (a passion of mine). Under the sea comes next, and the largest portion of the curtain, when it comes to size. It has a boulder sitting upon the sand, a beautiful mermaid resting her upper body on the boulder whilst her tail is beneath the surface. I will attempt to post the few pictures I have of various parts of the curtain, and we can see what becomes of it as I proceed. I am always a work in progress, and even when I get a good start on a project, more ideas flood in and consequently there is constant revising taking place until I feel I have everything just right for me.

I will be adding (to the best of my plans at the present time) lots of embellishment on this. Everything seems very one dimensional at the present time, but by the time I am finished with it, I am hoping it will develop a personality of it's own!

As I was creating this, I decided to add portions of the main design that would extend into the border. They are at this time some of the landscaping around the lighthouse, as well as the mermaid's tail. There will be other items extending into the border on the opposite side to balance it. Since this latest photo was taken on 12/27/05, I have added sand at the very bottom of the quilt, as well as some bits of sea grasses on the near side of the curtain.