Tuesday, July 29, 2008




Getting ready for Friday-
Maura and I have been getting ready for the Book party at borders on Friday, the night the newest book in the "twilight" series is sold. There will be a costume/ t-shirt design contest, as well as a trivia contest (Maura is studying up for that)
So, here's our outfits. Mine is a t-shirt design and her's is Alice's prom dress. We made a trip to the Thrift shops yesterday looking for black fabric, but ended up finding a black halter palazzo pants outfit for $4.00. With some altering and her bikini top added, we came close to the dress decribed in the book. It helped that the author took her dress from a runway design and some enterprizing fan found an image of it. You can see it here:
My T-shirt design was taken from a portion of a print of Northwest American Indian art, because Jacob is both an American Indian and a warewolf. My quote comes from his Dad, Billy.
I'm happy with my design and I feel I'll be ok for the event and, well, the quote stands up beyond this event so I could wear it teaching.

Monday, July 28, 2008



Finished Work-

I finished up this quilt yesterday. I'm thinking of a title for it, in keeping with my current use of song titles for quilt titles. "Happy" Hopper wrote a song for his father, based on a tramatic event in his childhood and I think that title would be the best one for this quilt. So, unless he objects, this will be called, "Cool Water".

I feel like I'm beginning a series of quilts here. Ideas keep running around my head and I'm sorting and organizing them, trying to give words to the feelings I'm having. This much I know..

I want to do portraits and am first attracted to musicians. I want to not forget the heritage of quilting, the imperfect, folky feeling. I want to maintain the same size (for now) of the works. I want to celebrate the less famous, but no less dedicated, musicans. Perhaps it will expand beyond musicians, and I've been thinking about that. Americana. The ordinary, average, American people. This might be a very large series, or maybe have sub sets. For now, I'm beginning here.

Friday, July 11, 2008

This and That-
Above is a picture of a quilt I'm working on. I think it will be part of a series I'm excited about working on. Something I think that is growing from my "fabled fibers-Pecos Bill" quilt, a feeling of folk art to the overall piece, but also portraits of real people. In this case, H.C. "Hoppy" Hopper, a singer/ songwriter, lay minister and teacher's aide. This is still a work in progress.
Here's a box I made a while ago, but I wanted to show off the stick that holds it together.It's a heavy wire hanger, cut and wrapped with emboidery floss. The box itself has fabric covered matboard for stability and hmmm, some of my very favorite fabric ever (from hoffman) some angelina fibers and beads. To open the box, you remove the stick, take off the top square, and the box falls open, on all four sides. The pattern was from sommerset studios-a pyramid box.

These are some scarf holders (for want of a better name) that are glazed on both sides. The stick is a skewer, cut down to size and painted. I drilled a small hole in one end and added the hanging piece, which is a stone that was once part of a charm bracelet (I think) it turned out that the green stone looked good with both glazes, but I can see a bead , glazed to match, as an option as well.

Saturday, July 05, 2008


Happy 4th of July-2008
I hope you all enjoyed your Independence Day. Mine was so low key, I barely noticed there was a holiday. My youngest has spent the week with a friend who is spending HER week at the grandma's house down the street. Today, she was spending it with her friend's family. The rest of my gang worked today. It was Maura's first day working in the store. Steve came home with Subway at about 7:00. He ate and napped. Tyler ate like he was a bottomless pit. Maura jumped on the computer. That's how the early evening went. I woke Steve up for the fireworks. We watched them from the soggy backyard because the kids said they didn't care about driving into town to watch them. Then, we set our own off. That was it. No cook out, no homemade icecream, no watermellon. LOL We are just non-conformists this year!
So, what did I do with my day to myself? Thrilling things like cleaning the house. I also finished cleaning up my newest batch of buttons, getting them ready for the glaze firing. I hope the weather cooperates. At least it didn't rain on the 4th and spoil the fireworks like last year. No, it rained yesterday, another 5 inches, so, everything is still muddy and soggy here. The lake still hasn't gone down and there's talk they might have to open the flood gates again if we keep getting rain. Tomorrow, I'm all set to work on my quilt project.... or paint the entry way. Not sure which yet.
People have been discussing their stashes on the QA list. I have a modest one, but I always avoided stripes in mine. Now, my current project is using stripes and it seems like something I might try again. So, did some shopping the other day for stripes. Of course, who can pick up just one piece of fabric? (not me!) and I was seduced into a few more that, when they were put together on the cutting table, coordinated! That rarely happens because I rarely buy fabric for a specific project. I tend to fall in love (or severe like) with each piece on it's own merit and eventually, it finds it's home in a piece of art.
Anyway, Happy 4th and enjoy your weekend doing something you love.