Getting Out

After having a leisurely Thanksgiving and a gloomy, rainy day after, we were all ready to get out of the house on our nice sunny Saturday. We put on our coats and hiking shoes and headed for the hills, the foothills that is.

The ground was quite muddy from the rain before and the temperatures in the 40's. But the air was wonderful. An hour and a half walk had us all revived.

Happy Thanksgiving

I am thankful that my husband and daughter, who recently had the flu, are both better now.

I am thankful that my in-laws are here so that I could still go to my yoga and Nia classes while hubby and daughter were ill.

I am thankful we have a nice, warm house.

I am thankful for my hands to create and make many presents and lots of art.

I am thankful for all of you who take a minute or two out of your day to read my blog. Hope you all have a wonderful day!

Cuttin' Up

As I have cut up the last two big quilts I have made and reworked them (into something better, I think), I have to take a moment to figure out what I have learned.

Here's what I have learned:

1) How to attach two quilted pieces together with two different methods.

2) I need to spend more time with the completed piece, "processing it", before finishing up the edges and sewing on a sleeve.

3) I would rather take the chance cutting into something to make it better than have it sit in a closet and bug me.

4) Even if I ruined it and came up with nothing, I could always use the fabric to make a tote bag or something.

5) The computer is a handy tool for working on composition, even if it is only to print out pictures that can be cut up and pasted back together.

Yellowstone Impression 2

This is the second piece that came from the original work I cut up. This went together a little differently than the one before. The cut pieces were zig-zag stitched together and I had pieces to put together horizontally as well as vertically. Then I added some strips, that were left over from the original piecing, which were fused on and then zig-zag stitched as well. Once again, it is quite different than the first original piece.

Yellowstone Impression Do-over

The saga of the Yellowstone Impression quilt continues. Let's review! First, I made this piece below.


Then, after it was completed and I had already sewn the facing and sleeve on, I decided it wasn't quite working for me. So I played on the computer and got this image below, which I could not possibly make in reality. But it showed me I needed to do something else.

And now, I have cut up the original piece and have made it into two completely different pieces. The first one is below and I am happy with it. The original idea is much more abstracted here.

The four horizontal sections are where it is joined together. (Someday I'll show you how I did that.) The yellow/peach strips were hand appliqued on since I could not piece it in.

I am finishing up the second piece which used up the leftover pieces and is also quite different.

The Holidays are Coming

Yes, the holidays are coming. Thanksgiving will be here before you know it. More specifically, I am talking about Christmas. I am already feeling the self-imposed stress. How can that be? Well, somehow it is ending up that I will be making many of the gifts this year. I don't know how that happened. It certainly sounded o.k. many months ago. But the clock it now ticking a whole lot faster, it seems.

Part of the problem is that I like to try to have everything packed up and mailed by Thanksgiving or, at least, right after Thanksgiving (since pretty much all our family presents have to be shipped somewhere). That way I can enjoy the rest of the season without too much stress. I don't think I will be making that deadline this year. But hopefully, it will be very soon after that. Here is something I am working on, but I can't tell you any more than that!

Weekend Fun

I didn't get much accomplished this weekend, but we did have some fun. On Friday, I got a new "toy", which is pictured above. It is a yarn winder and it makes those nice shapes you see behind it. The flat bottom keeps the yarn from rolling around and the yarn comes out the middle which makes it very nice to work with while knitting (or crocheting if that's what you do). Anna and I had fun winding up much of our yarn.

Saturday was a pretty nice day. Anna wanted to go shopping for clothes, but I didn't feel like it. Instead we scootered down to the elementary school, met Anna's friend there and hit tennis balls against the wall (I did more than the girls). We got a drink from the Roosevelt market and scooted home as the clouds were coming in and it was getting colder.

On Sunday, Anna and I went to see the Idaho Dance Theatre (the local modern dance company at BSU). For the last few years I have gotten season passes for me and Anna. It was the first performance for this season.

Frank was busy working on the garage. So he did get something accomplished but didn't have as much fun as we did.

New Impression

Well, I was putting the image of Yellowstone Impressions in Publisher to print out several copies I could cut up and paste in my sketchbook, like I did with Indian Summer. Then, I started moving the multiple images around and came up with this. I like it better. Unfortunately, making this would require making three more quilts the same as the first and cut them and sewing them together. It would be enormous! So the computer application here doesn't really translate into real life, because I will not be doing that. I don't think I have enough fabric.

Impressions

Yellowstone Impression
63-1/2" h x 37" w

This is a piece I just finished. Sorry the photos aren't great. It is pretty big for me. I don't like working big because it is so much harder to do the quilting on my regular home sewing machine.

I had an impression of some trees when we were driving through Yellowstone. There was a stand of dead pines that were either burnt or diseased, but sprinkled throughout were some Aspens with their bright yellow leaves. I do not have a picture of it. It is just in my head and I drew a very abstract sketch of what came to mind at the time. This is the result.

It might need to be cut up and rearranged. I'm not sure. I'm thinking of doing a smaller variation of this as I have some more ideas. What is your impression?

Post Halloween

Here are our pumpkins for this year. Frank did the fish in the fishbowl pumpkin.

I did a simple pumpkin since we were carving on Halloweeen. The design might have been influenced by how I was feeling. Anna did cats, what a surprise.

Anna's costume by day: grumpy pirate.

By night: ferocious pirate cat!

Frank wins the Halloween award for making a handmade sword in about five minutes. It's probably still wet in the photo.

Buttons on Halloween?

Happy Halloween! I will have to show you images of our pumpkins tomorrow as I haven't actually carved mine yet. Frank is the only one who has his done. Since I have that pesky flu thing (I think it's that one), I haven't been doing much but knitting. I did sort out the buttons I brought home from my mom's house last night.

I have a retraction to make. My mom informs me that my grandmother never worked in a button factory. Not surprising that my memory messed up. There was a button factory, in town, down the street from my grandmother's house, but she did not work there.

I don't know how she ended up with so many buttons. Maybe it was just the culture back then that they saved everything. Something we could learn from today. Anyway, I am the lucky recipient of all that saving. I added the newest stash to some I already had. Some time ago, I was also the lucky recipient of some buttons from my mother-in-law which had been in her mother's craft supplies. Now they are all together.

I love looking through them all and love having them when I need one or more for a project. I'm sure I have more than I could ever use. I had them sorted in little drawers but decided it would be nice to be able to see them and put them in jars.

Maybe I should have made a scary face with them. Maybe next Halloween.

Announcing . . .

my new Etsy shop! It is up and running. I have some of my smaller quilts listed already. I plan to add my paper collages soon. In the future, I might even add some of my ancient works. I haven't listed any of my bigger pieces and might not. Some day I hope to have them on a website. Check out what I currently have here. Or check on the link in my side bar.

Black and White

Friday night was another Junior High school dance. The theme this time was black and white. This time I was able to scrounge up some clothes at home so we didn't have to buy anything new. Anna had some black leggings and a mini skirt. She had to borrow my black cami to wear under the white shirt, which was one I had in high school. It's been in the dress up pile for a long time. Oh, I did buy her the jacket in her arms from the thrift store. But I thought she would like to wear it other times as well.


After the dance, she spent the night at a friend's house. In the morning, I picked her up and brought her home. I reminded her she was in charge of getting the neighbor's mail while they were on vacation. So we went outside and she got the mail. Since it was windy and the leaves were blowing off the trees, I said we should try to catch the leaves (this was really a ploy because I knew she would just go inside and want to watch tv). It's harder than you think. This kept us outside for a while and she had fun. She said she should do this with her friends. Ah, the life of a tweener.

In Progress update

I want to thank all who left comments about the work in progress (especially the honest ones even if they may not have been pleasant to read). It is still on my wall and unresolved. Mostly, I think, because my brain was really thinking of another piece. I have started on a new piece and will come back to the other at some point in time. It will change, but I'm not exactly sure how, just yet. Stay tuned!

Autumn Colors

This week our trees have been changing colors quickly. Unfortunately, as it seems to happen every year, a wind storm comes along and dislodges many of the leaves before we get to enjoy them much.

Many are on the ground now. When was the last time you walked through the leaves in your bare feet? I can't remember when, so today I did (please don't look too carefully at those small feet). The leaves are still soft, since they are newly fallen. They rustle, but don't crunch yet (we'll save that for shoes). This is my favorite time of year.

In Progress

Yesterday I was working on a new piece. Here is what is up on my wall right now. Some parts were already pieced together but most of it is just stuck there. I am wondering if I should bother sewing this together or just take it off and do something else. What do you think?

Color Forms #5

This is the last piece in the Color Forms series. It has machine and hand quilting. The hand stitching reminds me of falling leaves or sun sparkles, but I really just added them for some texture.

Color Forms #4

I finally got back to finishing the quilting on my Color Forms series. Here is Color Forms #4 (Sun Spots) with machine quilting and hand stitching. Yes, it is another weird colored sky - green.

I'm hoping to open an Etsy shop soon. All the Color Form series are for sale and I will have other artworks there as well. Watch here for the announcement. In the meantime, you can contact me if you are interested in anything.

Just a Few More . . .

. . . pictures of Yellowstone. Then, it is back to art or something else.

Yellowstone Landscapes

I hope you aren't tired of Yellowstone pictures yet. Our cloudy and foggy days made it harder to take pictures, but also made for some eerie pictures.