The Next Of The Story

I had a larger section of this incompleted cross stitch piece left over after making the zipper pouch.

Unfortunately it was stained and had the blue x's to make more cross stitches.

I soaked it overnight in Oxyclean and not only did the stains disappera, but so did the x's.

I haven't quite decided what I will do with it yet.

BIGGER Zipper Pouch

I had a vintage piece of cross stitch that the stitcher had never completed. I cut out a completed section and filled it in with crazy quilting.
It was a fun projet to work on. It even has a pocket inside.

For Never Plaid 2 Has Been Acquired

This quilt spoke loud and clear to the new owner when she saw it.
I am always happy when this happens between my art and an art appreciator.

Hawks And Heros Quilt 2

The first quilt in this series was the first place winner in the Quilters Express To Japan contest.

This is the second in the series and uses freeform curved piecing.

I love to share photos of quilts in room settings. 

This is a quilt you could hang anywhere.
This shows how art can add beauty to a home or office.

44 x 44 inches

$2499 includes shipping in USA

Feather Pouches

I made these 3 zipper pouches from the pieces left from a jacket I made years ago. The fabric was already quilted. 
Making things like this is always a great way to get back into quilting and sewing when I have been away from it for a while.

Words I Live By

This title may not sound very exciting.
Will you keep going and see what I have to say?

The word is SIMPLIFY!
One reason to use a computer is to simplify our lives and make it easier. It is easy to fall down a rabbit hole and waste precious time. And when they work smoothly that is true. When they don't, not true!
Although this quilt may not look simple I used the fabric to it's advantage and created a shaded very complex looking quilt quite simply.

Then we also PROCRASTINATE
That is another way we can waste time.

I had to make a decision on what to do with these pieced diamonds and it only took me 18 years to decided this was the one! 

Two positive words I live by are SERENDIPITY and INTUITION.

They both come from very similar parts of who I am.
I am not one to make long range plans and goals. I found it is too easy for me to get sidetracked if I do and never achieve them.
But if I let SERENDIPITY take over my life goes forward and many wonderful things happen.

I needed something to help deaden the sound in our sunroom. All of a sudden a bolt of lightning hit and I thought maybe this quilt I had made years before and had planned to display in a totally different way might work. I played with it on the tables in my studio to see if I could make it fit the space. It worked perfectly. It is a 2 sided quilt so I was able to loop it around the pole I used to display it.

INTUITION may send me on a journey that I have no idea about why I am heading in that direction, yet when I make that journey the result is often a great reward.

Lest you think my life is only about quilts, my family and friends are a most important part of my life. I had great friends from years ago when we lived in Ohio. We had lost touch with each other for over 40 years. I did remember they had moved to Ocala, Florida so I let my intuition and a little bit of detective skills go to work and I found them. This is the "My Florida Family" I mention often.

Not only did I find my friend Sally (on right) but with a little more detective work we found our other BFF from Ohio....Grace, who lives in Nebraska on the left. What a great feeling after we hadn't been together for 50 years and find it's still the great friendship it was many years ago.

There are always exciting new things happening in my life that I share so stay tuned. 

Still More Zipper Pouches

These were made from Fairfield Cotton Classic batting I painted. I layered organza over the batting  and quilted the sandwich with metallic thread.
I made a vest from the fabric and these were done with what was left.

Ice Dyed Floral Quilt 3

This is the third quilt in the series I made from a gorgeous piece of my ice dyed fabric.
It is also the last as I used all the fabric. 
I used unique borders and quilting on this one.

Making Lemonade Out of BANG Table

When my table fell and broke I tried to figure out what to do as I did need a table to work on. I had other tables but they weren't right.

All of a sudden a light bulb went off in my head as I remembered I had a cutting table in the studio that I wasn't using.

My friend Bob came over and moved the broken table out of the way.

He also single handedly carried this down the stairs. 

It is even better than what I was using as it is the proper height for cutting.

It is also larger.

It's all ready to work at with priority projects and cutting supplies.

And YES the broken table is fixable but I won't be using it now.

BANG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was sitting in my chair and ready to start sewing when I heard a lound BANG.

My kitchen/cutting table fell and broke.

Friends will be here to help move it out.

Missing My Florida Fiber Friends

These are my friends who I  have so much in common with. We all love to create with fiber, paint, dye and share. They were all there for me at my Florida Ice show to help out with the crowd. 
Right now we are all spread out around the country. Sure do miss each one of them.

Beatrix Potter Baby Quilt

 I made this quilt with a set of Beatrix Potter Peter Rabbit hankies. It is at least the 5th similar baby quilt I made. I have more of the hankies somewhere so expect to see another in the future.
It's nice to have a finished baby quilt on hand as there seems to be a lot of babies being born these days.

Amish Shadows Variation

This is the last quilt I hand quilted myself. When I look at the quilting closely I am impressed with the length and evenness of the stitching.
Most of the stitching was done years ago but I did the last bit of it in the past year.

Zipper Pouches From Shirt Cutouts

I made these pouches from several neck cutouts from my No Sweat Checkerboard Shirt pattern I designed.

I adapted my pattern to make an ensemble for the Fairfield Fashion show. These are the cutouts from those garments.