I'm Leavin' on a Jet Plane

Do you remember that song? It's a moldy oldie. Tomorrow morning, dark and early I get to fly out of cold, windy North Dakota and fly to rainy, colder than normal Portland Oregon. I've been looking forward to going for a few months now.

About every other year my crazy, fun aunt and I get together for a fun-filled, shopping-filled, craft-filled week. She lives north of Portland across the border in Washington. She and I have so much fun as we have so much in common. She takes me to my favorite shopping places...like Fabric Depot....Yay! Tomorrow when I land we are going directly to Fabric Depot, without passing "go". They are having a 40% off sale on everything in their store, I think they have this once a month. They don't sell just fabric either. All types of crafting supplies.

Another place I would like to see while in Portland is the Fiber Art District. I read about it here. And I also have a few other places I'll visit.

My brother (Scott), who lives in Seattle, will drive down over the weekend. So I'll get to see him too.

I'm taking my camera with me so I can get pictures of my purchases and who knows what else. I'll have access to my aunt's computer so I can keep up with all of you, with my e-mails, and online groups.

Look What I Made

This cute little doo dad. The pattern is from Quilting Arts Magazine Winter 2005. They are called Little Treasures....with emphasis on little. They are much smaller than I imagined after seeing them in the magazine. They measure approx. 2" x 1.5" and are 2" tall. I suppose a person could enlarge the pattern and make them bigger, which I may do. I think I'm going to make a few of these for Christmas gifts and put something yummy inside.

What I Did Today

Well I got into my craft space and did a tiny bit of sewing today. Am feeling much better than yesterday, not back to 100%, but getting there. Thanks to everyone's well wishes....they were very much appreciated.

I started a doll. She is going to be a gift for a family friend and I can actually show her as I know there is no risk of spoiling the surprise. I only got this far with her as I found out I'm out of poly fill stuffing.


So after getting that far with the doll I decided to sew these two canvas panels to the top strip of fabric for my next Go Girl Bag.


And that's all folks!

Please Stay Tuned

Wow, it's been almost a week since my last post...totally not what I like to do and personally I don't like it when other blogs wait this long to post...especially blogs that have wonderful people who create wonderful art.

Anyway...my lack of posting is summed up like this:

• Mostly what I've made lately is for Christmas gifts (this you already knew)
• I've been having what some people call the dreaded "lack of inspiration and motivation".
• And last evening I came down with an awfully dreadful bout of stomach flu. Believe me, there were moments I thought/wished I was gonna die.

I'm feeling much better today...Bob has been nursing me with such tender care...he even made me "sick soup". My strength is not totally back to normal, I'm hoping by tomorrow it is so I can get back into the groove and maybe make/do something.

Thanks to all of you out there in blogville for your understanding and I hope to be able to post something more exciting soon.

More Gifts Made

I spent the weekend working on more gift items. So I still don't have any pictures to show. I prepared the "12 Days of Christmas" swap items for mailing. This swap is for the Surface Design group I belong to. Twelve people signed up for this swap. Each person picked a day, makes 11 gifts, and sends them to the other swap members. Then, during the 12 days before Christmas, we will have a gift to open each day. The photo below shows my gifts (day 6) after getting wrapped and before putting in an envelope. I will be mailing these Monday. Hopefully, soon, I can get some other work done so I can show pictures. I know you all like pictures, I do too....hang in there!

Don't these look like yummy candy?

WIP Wednesday

Well WIP Wednesday has come around again. And lo and behold, I can't post a picture. Why, you ask? Well mainly because most of what I've been working on lately is gifts and I don't want to spoil any surprises. And secondly, because blogger beta is being naughty and wouldn't let me upload any pictures.

I've completed my "Twelve Days of Christmas" swap items for the Surface Design group. Now I need to get them wrapped and packaged for mailing.

I've been working on some Christmas gifts for family members. I've been trying to get most of my gift making projects done because as some of you know, I'm going to the Portland Oregon area the first week in December. So I'm thinking it would be nice if I could have all my projects done before then. Have a happy Wednesday!

A New Thingee-Ma-Bob

A couple of weeks or so ago I posted a piece of fabric I had made using dyed coffee filters and other fun little fibers and such. Well I cut into it and came out with this. If any of you are readers of Somerset Studio and have the latest issue you will see where I got the idea.

It is a three-sided piece that I hand-stitched down the sides, but before completely stitching the third side, I pushed in some stuffing to hold the walls up. Oh, by the way, this fabric was constructed on top of some Peltex (a stiff interfacing material). So the three sides were sturdy, but they still wanted to collapse inward without the stuffing.

I then stitched some fiber to the sides to cover up the raw edges. Next I added the fringed bottom and the hanging loop. It could be a Christmas ornament.

WOW!

Friday was the most lucky day I've had this week and probably this month, and year, and century...well you get the drift.

First of all, I won a wonderful little contest over at Artist Unleashed. Shari recently switched her blog to a new provider and gave everyone incentive to update their blog link to her new blog. Way to go Shari! Thank you also for drawing my name....I'm so excited to have a Shari original.

Then later in the day, the Quilting Arts blog had a post with absolutely wonderful news. At least I think so anyway. They are increasing their magazine publications for Quilting Arts and Cloth Paper Scissors from 4 issues per year to 6 per year. Yay! I love both of these magazines.

Now here's the extra good news....the QA blog also was holding a little contest....if you were one of the first 5 to respond to the new post, you would win a 1 year subscription/renewal to one of their magazines. Guess who was #1???? Yes, you guessed it. ME ME ME ME ME!

If you check out the QA blog post, you will also see some terrific art work. Two of those pictures are from my friends Sue and Joanna. Yay you two!

Done, Done, and Not Done

Remember the picture from yesterday, showing my WIPs? Well I got the handbag done.



And I got the postcards done. I only need 2 for the swap I'm in, but I normally like to make extras in case I don't like the way one turns out or something. Well here are three I'm pretty happy with.





Then on one of the extras, I thought I'd try something different with the stitching. I tried stitching in the face contour lines. Ugh! I'm not happy with it. Anybody got any pointers here?


Oh, and the item I didn't even work on, so of course it's not done, is the bird embroidery for my online class.

WIP Wednesday

Another Wednesday is upon us, imagine that! Before I talk about the works in progress shown in the pic below, I just want to take a moment to comment to all of you out there in blogville who come here and leave comments. I am not always able to reply personally to each and every one of you, which is a method I prefer for those leaving comments. Blogspot doesn't allow all of you to leave your contact information, so I have no way to reply. Sometimes I will follow your profile trail to your blog, but not all of you have e-mail information available, and that is fine if you prefer it that way. I totally understand. I do want to say, that I very much appreciate all of your comments and totally enjoy hearing from you. You are all a great support system. I apologize if you don't hear from me, but do know that I am thankful.

Okay, with that said, this photo shows what I'm working on presently. In the upper half you will see I'm working on a Go Girl Bag, I've got the outside done, the lining is done, all I need to do yet is make the handles and attach all of the above together. The lower left girl faces are for a postcard swap with the theme of "woman". I'm still adding color on these...the eyes are left I think. Then on the lower right is something I've shown here before...it is my homework for an online class I'm taking from Susan Sorrell. I've actually fallen behind. I've started embellishing the bird with embroidery stitches. The next step is to add beads. I need to get busy on this.

Here Birdy!

I've completed another birdhouse. Well actually I've had this one done for probably about a month now, but Bob finally got around to putting the metal hanging device on it for me. Now it will have to be put away until next spring when all the little birdies come back to find homes for their new families.

I pyroengraved the details on the gourd, then I applied color with watered down acrylic paints so they are more transparent. Once the paint was dry I sealed it with a marine varnish.

I Can Finally Show You...

the fabric postcard that I made for my swap partner in the Surface Design Ingredients Swap. I had received some items from Sarah, my partner. Here is the photo I took of the ingredients she sent me. (That shiny square in the middle of the picture is a plastic baggy with beads in it).


This is what I made out of all her ingredients. I used some of everything she sent me. Yay! I couldn't show this sooner as I wanted Sarah to be the one to see it first.

WIP Wednesday

The Quilt Studio web ring I belong to has deemed Wednesdays as WIP Wednesday. For those of you who don't know what WIP is, it means "work in progress". So with that said, I will try to show some of my work in progress each Wednesday. Now for those who know me really well, I won't say I will remember to do this every Wednesday, but I'll try. The first pic shows 8 arcs for a wall quilt I've been very slowly working on, and I mean slow...I won't even tell you how long ago I started this. This quilt is named "Orange Peel" and the pattern is by Karen Stone. The finished quilt will have 120 of these arcs in it and I've got 40 done. Wow I'm a third of the way done. The quilt is going to be made in greens, blues, and creams.


This next WIP photo is showing some canvas panels I have dyed and are waiting to be made into Go Girl Bags.


Yesterday I baked a loaf of bread that most people love as soon as they try it. If you like bread and cheese, then you will like it too. It's called Muenster Bread and there is a filling of muenster cheese inside. Yummy!


This morning I was busy adding these ornaments to my etsy shop. I created these about 3 or 4 years ago and have mostly just shared them with relatives. I think I'll try and sell some. If you'd like more information on them, visit my shop here.

And I just found out that my good friend Sue has received her copy of "Altered Couture" and she is all over pages 144 and 145 with her ATC Tote Bag. Yay Sue!