Getting Out and About

 Last Saturday was one of the first bright warm beautiful days of spring here, so we all decided to load up the car with cameras and a picnic lunch and head north.

Bowes Museum, County Durham, England

As you enter this beautiful building, you start thinking about the fortune this couple that founded and donated all the items had.  They traveled Europe and beyond collecting everything from porcelain and furniture to fine art paintings and fine metal works like this silver swan. 

This wonderful piece of art and automaton was built by a French watchmaker in the 18th century and is the main attraction at Bowes museum.  At precisely 2:00 pm everyday this gem is wound only once and put into motion.  The swans head turns from side to side as the glass "water" and fish gently moves below him and plays a tune.  In the final motion he swoops his head downward picking up a fish from the water.  The entire show lasts only about a minute, but it is truly captivating.  It is made of pure silver and is approximately 4'X2' in length and width.  You can get close to it as it is encased in glass and stands on a pedestal. 

There is a lot to do in the same area as the museum.  Within a few miles there are 3 ruined castles and an Abbey.  A few more miles and you come to Raby castle, one of the finest in the country. By the time we were done in the museum and roaming around one of the ruined castles, we ran out of time and headed back home.   

I am sewing when I get a little free time.  The projects I am working on are for charities.  I still have pillowcases in the works and I've started on making bags to donate.  Both these links to the sites have patterns and instructions.  Sometime I'll get some pictures of what I've finished posted.  For now though, have a great weekend and try to get out and about.  ;o)

Catching Up

Time to catch up on my blog.  I've been sewing when I get an hour to spare, but I find it more difficult to sit down and write a post.  The challenge I started a month ago has started very slow for me.   Sometimes I start on a fabric and have to let it dry or think about what I want to do on it next, so it may take me days to get back to it.  So far, though, I've been able to work on 2 or 3 at a time. 

For this one, I took a scrap piece of flowery fabric, used bleach to lighten some of the areas as it was a bright print.   Next, I used fabric paints and a styrofoam net from the blood oranges I bought to stencil paint the purple on.  I also used oil pastels and rubbing plates to make the flowers more pronounced.  Lastly, I used gutta "lead" to paint on the outlines of the flowers. 

I did this one for my son.  I like the final result, but while it was in the process, I had thought of trashing it a few times.  The first thing I did was paint the background of plain muslin with blue and purple cran'dache water soluable oil pastels.  Next, I used rubbing plates and a gold shiva paint stick.  I used a fleur de'lis stamp, a transfer, netting, grosgrain ribbon and found objects to add. 

This last one is a lot like one I did before except I didn't do the love letter in the background and I added a strip at the top.   Speaking of the very first 3 I did, I am getting slightly concerned that I haven't received them in the mail yet.  Since our mail is usually slow, especially around Federal holidays, I'm only slightly concerned.  

On the backs of these tiny creations I've written briefly the techniques used along with my name, date and that it's a post card challenge.  I will start numbering them so I can keep track. 

The other sewing projects I've been working on are pillowcases for the 1 million pillowcase challenge.   There's a lot at this site along with pillowcase patterns.   This should keep me busy until the weather gets better and I start itching to get out and do some hiking.  Until next time.....keep quilting.

I won, I won, I won!!!

NOTE:  I apologize for posting this one at such a late date.  It was written on January 27, 2010. 

"Why it's a major award! That's what it is....."

There is something so wonderful about winning!  It's exhilirating, exciting, exhausting, and embarrassing all at the same time.  Yes, last night my DH and I won a bowling doubles tournament.  The prize was a Scottish theme hamper with all these goodies.  DH and I had recorded the football playoffs previously, so we sat at home last evening watching the games and sipping our Scotch.  It was almost as much fun as the bowling tournament.  I was sad to see the Jets AND the Vikings lose.  Oh well, it was fun anyway. 

Not your Grandmother's Button Box

I never showed the progress on my button box.  I had a real hard time finding the right colors and type of button.  So one day I decided to seperate my buttons and put them in plastic bags.  It is so much neater and easier to find what I need. 

When it came to the red and white buttons, I just couldn't resist on making this jar.  All it took was a scrap of fabric, a little batting, ric-rac, buttons, a string of craft pearls, and craft glue. 

The next thing I want to share with you is my first postcard in my challenge.  It took me about 6 hours to complete it, only because I was interrupted 3 times by the phone.  I finally hid the d@#n phone in the couch!

Maybe I'll conveniently forget where I hid it, mahhahhahaaaa! 

I used a scrap piece of black velvet, did some random smocking all around and bleached out some areas.  Then I added some seed stitches with rayon threads.  I really like the result even though the size of this one is a bit off.  That's OK, I'm the only one that will see it or care anyway.   To me, this looks like oooey gooey chocolate smothered over ice cream and fudge cake with sprinkles.  Gotta have sprinkles.  

The snowflakes are still rambling around in my mind, maybe I will still do something with that later.  I am always changing my mind about something and to me, this is why......excellent results!  

Postcards

I have always loved postcards.  Whenever we go anywhere, I head straight for the postcard racks.  We take hundreds of pictures per subject, thanks to digital technology and DH using the button that snaps 3 frames at a time, but I somehow feel compelled to purchase handfuls of postcards.  Sending some off to friends or family, but mostly to keep as a reminder of where we've been. 
Last month I read about the FiberArts Valentine Postcard Challenge in the Nov/Dec 2009 issue.  You make a postcard to be mailed through the postal system, pre-stamp and pre-address it, mail it to Interweave Press where they will judge them and photograph some of them for their magazine.  After all that, they will deliver them to the Loveland, CO post office where they will add a special cancellation and poem to your postcard and send it back to you.  Apparently, FiberArts has been doing this for the last 3 years.  
Here are my entries:

This blue one is my favorite, of course, blue is my favorite color anyway.

This one is a variation on a technique from the Quilting Arts TV series 400.   The DVD was a gift to myself.

When DH was in the USAF, I used to write love letters to him and draw the mouse at the end of my letter holding a bunch of flowers because DH always gave me flowers (he still does on occassion). 

This one is my least favorite only because it is so shiny.  Pictures don't do it justice anyway, but I did try some different techniques on this one with some surprisingly good results.  The shiny stuff is Textiva fusible film that's been heated on stamps, then sewen to the background.  The gold around the heart is not paint, but gold chocolate wrapper.  I was amazed at how easy gold foil was to sew through and not rip to pieces.  The red background "fabric" is a used colorfast sheet from a wash load of red towels over the holidays. 

These little works of art were so much fun that I am continuing the challenge, only it is a personal challenge to do at least one a week for the entire year.  Trying new techniques and ideas as I go.  Years ago I started a series of postcards with the theme of places we've been, but that grew old for me and I only finished 5.  So, this being a bit different and no theme attached gives me some freedom to create as I go which is what I love to do.  No rules, no restrictions, no instructions or patterns.  

Today, I will be working on this weeks postcard.  Since we've had sooo much snow, I am thinking about snowflakes....... Happy creating!  ;o)

Winter Wonderland

We've had a real winter wonderland here in the north parts of England.  The snow is still around after 10 days and that is very unusual.

I don't know what kind of tree this is, but the birds love to eat the berries off it.

Christmas day was beautiful with the sun shining on all the snow. 

We had fun making a snowman.  In two days time he keeled over and killed himself by decappitation on my garden bench.  We had temperatures above freezing and he just couldn't take the "heat" wave. 

One of the many Robins around our house. 

Hope you enjoyed my pictures as much as I enjoyed taking them.  I want to leave you now with a recipe for super easy holiday fudge.  I used to make mediocre fudge the hard way years ago, then I read a can of

Eagle Brand Sweetened Condensed milk which had this recipe on it.  It's the best fudge I've ever had.  No more dry, grainy, sugary, hard fudge......who knew?   Now you know.  Happy Holidays! 

Easy Fudge

Ingredients:  

2 cups milk chocolate chips

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 (14oz) can sweetened condensed milk

1/4 cup butter

1 cup chopped walnuts

1/8 tsp. salt

1 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions:

Place chocolate chips, milk, butter, salt and vanilla in a double boiler over low simmering water.  Stir until chips have melted and the ingredients have been incorporated.  Stir in the nuts.

Pour into an 8" X 8" pan that has been lined with foil and coated with cooking spray.  Refrigerate for at least 2 hours to set.  Remove the foil and fudge from the pan, cut into squares and enjoy!

Merry Christmas

It's so beautiful around here all covered in fresh snow.  Just like that great old Christmas song, "It's beginning

to look a lot like Christmas."

 My village is set up in the window.  Some pieces I've had since I was really young.  My Godparents gave me the first set.  I remember it being in a gold colored mesh bag tied with a string. 

These pieces are newer, but I like how they all kinda go together no matter how old they are. 

In this photo, the blue church on the right,The 2 tiny people on the right bottom, the light green tree in the center and the animals in the center with the picket looking fence were the pieces from that first set given to me 42 Christmas' ago.  WOW, I never dated it like that before... scary

  I talked about restoring a friend's quilt in my last post and that I would get some pictures.  Here they are, finally.  There were a lot of tears in the fabrics and along seam lines.  I tried to keep as many of the original fabrics as possible.  Some like the thin light colored fabric near the center of the quilt, had to be replaced completely. 
As you can see, under the thin light colored fabric is a pink striped blanket the quiltmaker used for the batting.  This was a very heavy quilt.  The fabrics used were from old scraps of aprons, curtains, flour sacks, shirtings, ticking maybe from a pillow, and a couple table cloths.  I think the entire backing was a table cloth.  It is tied using floss in two colors.  I replaced a lot of the ties as they had worked loose and some were missing altogether. 
This is the finished quilt. 
One more picture of the finished quilt.  Where we are holding the corner up, you can see that I added a label.  I asked for a picture of the quiltmaker and used my computer to print onto fabric that is treated and prepared to go through a printer.  I use june tailor Colorfast inkjet fabric sheets.  It's very easy to use.

I am off now to relax for a while, watch the fire burn down in the fireplace and an old movie to fall asleep to.  Wishing you all a Merry Christmas! ;o)

Ideas

Working on my friend's heirloom quilt has inspired me to make one of my own.  I don't want it to be elaborate or beyond my skill set.  Just a bed topper that says "SANDY".  Something my son (and possibly his future family) will be able to look at it and know what I was all about.   Maybe some photographs printed on fabrics of my first car, high school graduation, pets, etc.... Some of the items can be pieced blocks or applique blocks.  I'll use my favourite colors and motifs in the quilting.  These are my ideas, anyway, and I will have to get them down in my sketchbook before they leave my brain all together.  When I made this quilt for my mother, I had her favourite color and family photos in mind. 

So, I don't want it to look too much like this.  Some of the elements I really like about it, like the frames around each picture and the way they are placed and not quite centered or straight.  

Today I will be starting work on a label for my friend's quilt.  When it's finished, I will post some pictures.

 

Giving Thanks

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! 

Later when the turkey is reduced to a bare carcuss and all that's left in the pie pans are crumbs, I will be getting back to working on my friend's heirloom quilt.  I'm hoping to surprise him with it's completion by December 2nd. 

The holidays are upon us and Santa's warming up his sleigh.  Every year for the last 18, I have been writing a letter with our Christmas cards.  This year, however, I am thinking about skipping it.  Do you read your relatives and friends Christmas letters?  How interested are you in their pursuits over the year?  I've tried different formats, from one line sentences, mostly pictures and comic book style, third person perspective, poem styles, regular letter formats, etc.....just trying to make it different and interesting every year.  It's hard to begin with simply because you don't want to bore the readers with your accomplishments or seek their sympathies for all your failures.  What is a happy medium?  Just a simple "Merry Christmas" in my opinion. 

Books and more

I wanted a couple pictures for my post, so I dug through some oldies but goodies for today.

This picture was taken 2 years ago at the Henry Ford museum in Detroit Michigan. On display were the "Stars cars and gitars", it was a memorable show.

There is something so wonderful about buying a new book. Is it the smell of the freshly printed pages, or opening the book for the first time and hearing the faint crack of the spine? Whenever I buy a new book I just have to look through all the pages, not necessarily reading anything, but visually "getting an eyeful" of all the colors, graphs, tables, charts, patterns and finished pictures of the project I could make in the future. I do the same thing with my magazine subscriptions, however, it is a little different. The advertising for drugs between almost ever page or so is extremely distracting and I find it a bit intrusive. Trying to sell me something completely unrelated to the how-to article I am reading about prairie points or how to make the perfect apple pie is just rude. I am convinced that people with emotional problems, insomnia, ED sufferers, and diabetics read Better Homes and Gardens, Redbook and Women's Day. I usually end up ripping these pages from the magazine in disgust. Sometimes my DH will enter the room and see pages strewn all over the floor and wonder if the cat has gotten to my magazines.

Anyway, back to my brand new books!
"Inspired to Quilt"......yes I have high hopes for this one to help me with my stalled creativity at the moment.
"Paper, Metal & Stitch"......this one should be a good one with the multimedia work I want to do.
"1000 Artist Trading Cards"......love the idea of this one. It's like a shot of espresso, isn't it? You get a creative fix from making just one tiny card. These titles and so much more can be found here.

November already?

I have taken quite a few fall walks, enjoying the beautiful color show.

Believe it or not, I had 5 big beautiful sunflowers in my garden this year. Three weeks ago, high

winds came through and ripped every petal from them and they hung close to the ground before

DH chopped them down.

The heather in August was just glorious!

So, what have I been doing for the last 3 months? Is it just me, or does anyone else think that time has sped up over the last couple years. I can't believe it's nearly the middle of November already. If I look back at the year as a whole, I feel very inadequate as far as quilting goes. What do I have to show for it? Last year about this time, I joined a challenge to finish my projects before the New Year began. That didn't happen. I finished 2 of the 6 items I had in my basket. However, I can safely say that I haven't added to the pile. DH's pants were hemmed, 4 sets of shoe fresheners were crafted and given as presents, 1 table runner was completed and gifted, 1 large quilt top was gifted to a charity, a cheater quilt was completed, and blocks were sewn. A pretty meager count, I may be forgetting the odd thing or two, but close enough to all that I did this year. I am hoping to do much better in the next year. There's always room to improve! ;o)