
new dots and old dots
3 hours ago

Don't believe in complaining - it only proliferates negative energy and compounds frustration. So I do what I do - to work through "stuff" - I workout, I run, or I sew! Therapy. 
turkey was supposed to be mounted on a "pieced" background which I thought made it way too busy and took away from this cutie. So I cut him off the pieced backing, and satin stitched all the way around his body, which added tons of dimension and personality.
to keep this one for myself. The fabric I used on this is without a doubt the coolest batik I've ever found. I wish I would have bought about 10 yards because this would have made a really stunning quilt.
I made the leaves like I do for most of my projects - commercial leaves that I cut up and paint with Lumiere Metallic paint. I appliqued these leaves to a piece of jet black canvas before attaching them to both the front and back of the bag. The inside is lined with tea dyed muslin and I made a pocket edged with canvas and embellished with a
bronze word charm,"Dream." (little hidden messages make me happy!)
We spent the day on the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina, and up through to Skyline Drive in Virginia on Thursday - traveling through the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Appalachians.
I really didn't mind though, because the sky suited the day. Crisp, cool, breezy - a perfect Autumn day.
At lunchtime, we decided rather than eat in a restaurant - we'd eat out. So we got sandwiches and found a spot with a perfect view... 
Some unusual "hitchhikers" on an expired Lady's Slipper flower. I couldn't resist bringing one of those pods home.
As the blue sky unveiled itself, the muted colors of the forest came alive. Red, Orange, Yellow, Gold leaves - everywhere. The forest was on fire!

After a leisurely day of just taking in beauty, we decided to Start heading home around 4, (we left the house at 5:30 a.m.) It began to get cloudy and cold....
Every turn around a bend, every time the sun went behind a cloud - the scenery changed, the colors changed, the mood changed.
We spotted a Christmas Tree Farm along the way. I wondered if this is where our tree comes from every year??? What a cool way to make a living. I could seriously do that.
Around 7:30 pm it was pitch black. We drove slowly around the twist
s and turns of the mountains as the night came alive with wildlife. The highlight of our journey was the sight of a black bear cub bouncing across the Blue Ridge Parkway in the dark without a care in the world. We stopped and watched him for a few minutes. I so wanted to get out to take a picture, but my husband reminded me - where there's a baby, there's a momma. It was a sight I will NEVER forget.
Okay, so Karen has a "thing" for bees. Fine. If it's a bee she wants- it's a bee she'll get.
Here is my page for Karen's Girlfriend's Art Sketchbook. THIS is the tar gel image transfer I did using
Golden's Tar Gel over a copy of a picture Sabrina took of a bee on an echinacea flower, which I then threadpainted. How absolutely cool this came out. I do hope she likes it. 

My little purple art pins are featurued in a beautiful "purple" themed Etsy Treasury for the next few days. I do LOVE PURPLE!! Just click on words Etsy Treasury above to check it out.
Unbelieveable.... it's DONE!! It only took me 4 months.
I'm not gonna lie - I am the worst at following patterns. I don't like the way they are written.
They leave too much to the - imagination! However, in all fairness - this pattern was actually pretty darn good. It was written right into the pattern when things got a little sticky. And did they ever get sticky!

with the world today -- and that is sad. I have always been an eternal optimist. I've always lived my life (thanks to my Mom's gentle wisdom) knowing that there is always a bright side, the cup is never half empty, it's always DARKEST before the DAWN. I truly believe that. I have raised my kids to believe that. My mother always told me something else that has stuck with me and I find particularly pertinent today - "you ARE the company you keep." An ideal that has served me well.
Working in the legal field for most of my adult life, spending five years at North Carolina State University and then working for a short stint as a high school teacher - I learned (sometimes the hard way) to keep my political opinions to myself - not an easy task for someone who can be as brutally honest and outspoken as me. But it is becoming increasingly more difficult (almost impossible for me) to hold my tongue any longer as I just can NOT believe what is going with "our" Government.
I LOVE how these two little baby quilts/toddler quilts came out. I think I made about a zillion of these squares so I had enough for two baby quilts and one queen size quilt. I just finished quilting both baby quilts
eally came out nice. Once it was washed the fabric just snuggled right up to those little stitches for a beautiful heirloom look.
tied each white square with turqoise grosgrain ribbon. This one has a navy blue and white polkadot calico binding and is backed with a teddy bear soft fleece. Because of the fleece backing it has a wonderful drape and is oh so fluffy.

Okay - where did the summer go? Where did August go? Where did last week go? Where did today go? I always thought that as my kids got older, things would "slow" down a bit around here - at least for me. I couldn't imagine when Sabrina was a baby and Sal was 6 that life could be any more hectic than having two kids, working a 40 -50 hour a week job at a law firm 25 miles away, going to school part time and being President of the PTA. Life was busy those days, but not "complicated." Now my life is busy AND complicated. HOW THE HECK DID THAT HAPPEN????
It was over a week ago that I started pinning that little baby quilt.
On another front - I bought two pair of awesome jeans a long time ago (well over a year ago) that I never got around to hemming because I bought them too tight and they um, remained too tight. I dug them out last week, tried them on, zipped them up and they are seriously tooo big! THANKS P90X.
m Gizmo (and Sabrina) I got them all pinned for hemming and taking in. Sabrina clearly has her eye on the skull pocket jeans. I buy petite jeans and STILL have to cut this much off the bottom. If I were only 2, no make that 4, no, no - make that 6 inches taller - I'd be normal size.
With Gizmo by my side I will finish up this little quilt, stitch the hem in these three pairs of pants, clean up the studio and get ready to finish Sabrina's TOTE from "you know where." Never in my life have I ever seen a tote bag with so many zippers, velcro, toggles, magnetic closures, little secret pockets - eeeeeeeeek. I've been sewing and ripping out, sewing and ripping out, sewing and ripping out the seams on this thing for what seems like forever. But when I'm done - it will be perfect (or as perfect as I am capable of at this point in my sewing career.)

g
I've been having a problem with "looping" on the back of some of my stuff and someone suggested I try "Bottom Line" thread by Superior. I did some sample stitching on a yellow layered scrap just to see how it performed and so far so good - no looping - which will be a dream come true if it continues like it did during my practice. I'd like to quilt some continuous line fishies in the white blocks and probably "ditch" quilt the nine patches for the 36" square quilt. I think I'm going to look for a "wave" pattern for the large quilt. (I made enough blocks for a queen size and a crib size quilt.)
Got the new Quilting Arts this month (love that publication) entitled, "Creating with Silk - Painted & Beaded Trees by Betty Busby. I loved one of the silk paintings she did and decided to try something similar.
white muslin and painted with watered down acrylic paint. My focus on this piece was to try a new stitching technique.
With the duration of girl's weekend coming to a close, after church, Sabrina and I are both spending the remainder of the weekend in the studio. She, organizing and packing up her art supplies for her classes next week, and I plan on doing some more painting from some of my "own" photographs this time. I want to try this again. I learned so much from my first go at it.


Remember this? It's been selected for the Etsy Treasury, "Inspired by Nature." Take a look - it's a beautiful treasury http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list_west.php?room_id=65118
Laugh as much as you breathe and love as long as you live.
.
Just finished this little piece for a good friend in St. Ives! Actually, it may NOT be finished as Michelle recommended I add a few beads here and there which I just may do before I drop it in the post.
Then.... you guessed it. I melted away the organza with the heat gun - being care to leave parts of the organza as well as to strategically reveal the fibers underneath.
I'm back from visiting my dad. It was so nice spending time with him - just the two of us. We divided our time between Key Largo and Boca Raton and basically, all I did was float in the pool, read and watch the boats whizz by.
The other house in Key Largo is on the Largo Sound (in the Atlantic Ocean) The Atlantic ocean is just outside of that little land bridge you see in the background. Not much boat traffic, but the sky was very busy.

I don't think I've ever had more than a few hours to myself in my entire life. It was kind of weird at first - I had to acclimate myself to not having to answer to work, chores, corgis, children or a husband. That took all of about 5 minutes!!
I don't know where the day went today.
copper and pewter embellishments. They're
right around 2 inches (give or take), the backs are hand
painted and finished with a nice pin so they can be worn or displayed. They're lots of work to make as they are made with lots of layers that are painted, distressed, heated, etc., and then more layers applied. But they are worth the work.
everything is in it's place. We even did all the drawers and the walk in supply closet. It's like we just moved in. Blaise is going to repaint the floor for me while I am in Florida as it takes 3 days or so to dry.
Over to the left - is the "messy" side. It's not messy right now -= but this is the place we both do all of our painting, stamping, cutting, gluing, burning, heating, etc. It can get pretty nasty on this side.
next week to see my dad and I want to finish up the last few sets of art squares I had hanging around, as well as get a baby quilt I was working on quilted and a swap with my buddy in St. Ives in the mail. The goal is to get all these loose ends wrapped up by Friday and get the studio cleaned up so I can leave with a clear head and clean house!
Here's a sneak peak of a leaf piece I'm working on. I painted some dryer sheets and stitched up some leaves and make a background on a piece of peltex with torn pieces of silk dupioni, lame, tulle, netting, wood yarn and other stuff which I covered with organza and
melted. It makes for a very interesting background upon which I plan on doing some hand stitching and/or beading.
patches done and paired up with a solid 6 1/2 inch white block. I'm kind of excited because I will be using my Gracie II Quilting Frame which I've only used a few times. I plan on finishing up two other quilt tops and quilting all three during the same time period. It's tough getting the frame set up with all three layers and I think if I do three in a row it will help me perfect the art of "squaring" them up on the frame.
Finally, Sabrina and I did a little shopping today. In amongst the "back to school" shopping, we stopped at the fabric store wherein I bought 10 yards of Kona Premium Muslin (which I love for quilt backs.) I know many people won't use muslin for quilts because of the tight weave, but I love it. I also bought quite a few other pretty graphic prints. I'm really into "black and white" lately and have a few designs in my head for some cool graphic baby quilts.


embellisher, on a base of peltex or felt, or wool. and then layering with organza, or other "meltable" textiles, heating it up to melting point (for interesting texture) and then embellishing with charms, sequin, beads, Swavrovski crystal, felt, etc. 