Mardi Gras 2010

I think everyone knows about the Mardi Gras celebration in New Orleans, Louisiana USA!

A lesser known celebration takes place in The Villages, Florida which is in our area.
The parade in The Villages is a golf cart parade. You can go anywhere in The Villages with your golf cart. Even people who don't golf have a golf cart for their second car!

The bowl of Mardi Gras beads, etc is something I put together with the beads we have caught when they throw beads - just like they do in NOLA! The jesters came from a necklace I purchased and then proceeded to take apart.


This wreath hangs on my wall year around. I often add seasonal decorations to it. It is currently adorned with a Mardi Gras mask.

You may be wondering if I am going to The Villages for the Mardi Gras celebration tonight? No, tonight my group of friends from The Villages are coming here to celebrate, socialize, and partake of food and drink.

You too can celebrate Mardi Gras whereever you are by solving my puzzle.

Oh What A Beautiful Day!

Blue skies smiling on me, nothing but blue skies do I see!

Today the temperature is in the mid 60's with a gentle breeze, a welcome change from the chilly weather most of the country has been experiencing.

When I realized this I threw on a jacket and went for a 40 minute walk. I started out with a buttoned up jacket and a scarf as you never know how strong the wind will be. Didn't take long to wrap the jacket around my waist and carry the scarf.

When I got back I took the photo you see. The grass is brown but that is what usually happens when it gets cold here. It has always come back to green eventually. I have never seen the palm trees look this brown. I have no idea if they will survive.

I got out the crock pot and added the ingredients for my daughter in law Julie's Italian beef.
I am going to make a second exception to not putting recipes on my blog and share this with all of you. It's just too good and easy not to.

ITALIAN BEEF

Chuck roast 2 1/2-3 lbs

12 oz beer

1/4 c soy sauce

1 pkg (envelope) Good Seasons Italian Dressing

Put all ingredients in crock pot and cook for 6 hours or until meat is tender.

Remove from crock pot and discard bones and fat.

You can make this a day ahead and refrigerate before taking it off the bones. This makes it easier to remove the fat.

Serve on buns.

I usually make more than I think I'll need since it freezes well. Today I am making a double batch.

As I was about to go out and sit on the lanai and write this post the doorbell rang.
It was UPS with my book. I had a book printed with the photos and text from the first 4 months of my blog posts. Of course I had to open it right away. I'll tell you more about it later.

I've selected my Blue skies photo for the puzzle so you too can enjoy a beautiful day where ever you are!

XXI Winter Olympics Ads

Every once in a while I see an advertisement on TV that I can't forget.
The opening ceremony of the Olympics had one I love.
It is available on You Tube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldKAFoLUN2E

I am a Coca Cola drinker - Classic Coke.

That's how I get my caffeine to start the day!
I remember drinking it from bottles, but today I drink it from the can - no glass, no ice!

I still remember the "I'd like to teach the world to sing" Coke commercial from years ago.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mOEU87SBTU&feature=related

That commercial was so long ago but I can't forget it.

These are just two of the many memorable commercials Coca Cola has done over the years. They are my two favorites.

Do YOU have any favorite Coke commercials?

Happy Valentines Day to all of you - Rerun

The quilts I am sharing with you are quilts I made quite some time ago. We have come a long way in the 35 years since this great quilting revival began with the Bicentennial. The quilting industry has listened to quilters and provided us with things today we never could have dreamed of when this phenomenon began.

Hearts are a popular subject for quilts. Appliqued hearts teach how to applique curves, inner corners and outer corners. The title of this quilt is Liberty Hearts since it uses Liberty of London fabrics for many of the hearts and the border.
I had just learned to use freezer paper on the back of applique as well as appliqueing with the blind hem stitch on the machine when I made this. I demonstrated the technique at one of our Illinois Quilters meetings at a demonstration night. It was quite revolutionary at that time.

This close up shows my machine quilting using a simple stipple pattern. It was one of my first machine quilting projects. The use of Gutcheon Patchworks black polished cotton was different from the usual light plain backgrounds most people were using for an applique background at the time.

Oregon Hearts was done on a trip to Oregon and is hand appliqued and hand quilted.
The fabrics in this quilt are a good example of the quilting fabrics we had available to us in the early 1980's. We were thrilled to have these fabrics as before this it was hard to find cotton fabrics suitable for making quilts. By today's standards these are quite primitive and old fashioned.
I photographed it with a dime so you can get an idea of the relative size of the quilt.

Milwaukee Hearts is also hand appliqued and hand quilted. The hearts are only about one inch in size. It too uses fabrics typical of the early 1980's. When I look at the heart fabrics I see fabrics by Ely & Walker, Gutcheon Patchworks, Granny's Trunk by VIP, Concord Fabrics, Liberty of London and Peter Pan. Maybe someone else can find some other fabrics they recognize in this quilt. It is called Milwaukee Hearts as I worked on this in the Milwaukee, Wisconsin airport. I was so engrossed in what I was doing I totally missed my son arriving on the plane and had to look around to find him! Again the dime gives you an idea of the size.

Time for Tea and Decorating

Today I went to a tea with a group of friends. This was not a Red Hat function but I would guess over one third of those in attendance were with a Red Hat group.
These are my friends at our table.


Our table hostess brought along her Day Of The Dead Red Hat lady.


When we finished eating Ruth Dyer of The Finishing Touch gave us a very interesting program on home decorating.
She is a very popular decorator in our area and writes a decorating column for The Village Sun.
She recommends clearing everything out of a room before you start your decorating plan. She starts with the paint color for the walls. and finishes with accessories.
I would guess just about every woman there went home and changed something in their house tonight. I had been bothered by two things in my great room and after looking around the house found a better spot for them in the guest room.

The puzzle for this post is my friends at the tea.

XXI Winter Olympics and my Silver Athletic Trophies

I have won many silver athletic trophies and I thought the beginning of the XXI Olympics would be a good time to share them with you. I keep them in this display case in the guest room along with other things of interest.

I won't tell you how I won each one of them now, as my story would pale in comparison to the Olympic Medal Winners. If you stay tuned I will share how I won each and every one with you when the Olympics is over.

Of course tonight's puzzle has to be my trophies!

Fabric Dyeing - Value Scales for three color families

This Value Scale is for the Basic Color family.

I have taken several fabric dyeing classes from Carol Soderlund. I have blogged extensively about them before.
Color Mixing for Dyers: Part I is Carol's class where you dye over 1000 color formulas. With these samples you learn how to mix any one of these colors to create the exact color on your fabric.

We each made a book with all of the colors samples.

After you paste the samples in your book you still have little bits of each color left so Carol created this page where we can paste up a value scale with the colors we have dyed.


This is the value scale for the bright color family.


This is the value scale for the earth color family.

I can not recommend Carol's classes highly enough. If you want to learn to dye accurately and SAFELY take a class from Carol. You will NOT be sorry you did.

http://carolsoderlund.com/

Tonight's puzzle will be the earth family as that is the color family that a sunset kind of girl is most comfortable with.

Tote Tuesday and Serendipity

Our Quilt Art mail list of over 3000 members is doing another fund raiser for the American Cancer Society. This is the brain child of Virginia Spiegel who is also the driving force behind this worthwhile endeavor. We have already raised over $195,000. The majority of this was raised by making and offering Fiber Art Postcards with each $30 donation.

For the 4 Tuesdays in February generous donors have filled (and often created) tote bags filled with a variety of items to appeal to fiber artists or collectors.

Yesterday I received this tote that I won on the first Tuesday. The tote itself was created by Jamie Fingal. It included her book and embellishments galore. She had help filling the tote with her group The Cut Loose Quilters. It featured an exciting array of embellishments - things I would never have been able to find myself in the stores.



When I started playing with the items in the tote it seemed like they were made for this quilt. You do remember it from my last post, don't you.

I said I wasn't going to add stuff and embellish it but it sure is tempting.

Stay tuned as I continue trying to decide how to handle this.

I know some of you like a challenging puzzle so I have one for you tonight - but for those of you who like and easier one - scroll down:


Here is an easier version. I hope I've pleased you all.

Can I make a good quilt a Great quilt?

I designed this quilt a while ago.
I am not pleased with it. I am considering a variety of ideas to improve it.

Sometimes no matter what you do a piece it just doesn't work. I'm hoping that will not be the case with this quilt.

Do I use paint, pencils or ????????????

Stamping, stenciling or screen printing on it?

I don't think it needs embelllishment with "stuff".

Could I use my Embellisher and add texture?

How about hand stitching?

Will quilting alone solve the problem?

Should I use matching or contrasting thread when I quilt it?

Is the problem value?

Is the problem almost equal amounts of each color?

Does it need more light? More dark?

Does it need more emphasis on layers? Movement?

What if I used some tulle for an overlay on part of it?

What I am doing as I create this post is brainstorming ideas - a thing I often do. As I write more thoughts and ideas come to me - some good, some mediocre and some just plain useless!
I really won't know if what I chose to do will work until I do it.

Stay tuned - it may be a while before you see this again, but I WILL come up with a solution - good or bad.

Even though the quilt still needs work it can make a great puzzle. Enjoy!

2 photos - 1 quilt - can you tell what I changed?

I showed this quilt on my blog quite some time ago. After I posted it on my blog I realized there was something not quite right.


I fixed what was not quite right and I am showing it to you again. Can you tell what I changed? How sharp are your eyes? (It has nothing to do with the border where I cropped it differently).

I've stretched this out for tonight's puzzle.

On the Eve of the Super Bowl: Friends = Fun

I have a group of friends who get together once a month. We start with appetizers and dinner. The hostess provides the main course and each couple brings something. Last night we gathered at my house.

Originally we played a card game. We now have horse races. Everyone enjoys it and the noise level would wake up the baby. Fortunately it has been years since any of us have had a baby!

Ed is showing off the game just like my grandchildren show their presents at Christmas.


Although I only met Pat and Marion when I moved to Florida they have deep Wisconsin roots. Do you think Marion purposely dressed to match my house, quilt and Christmas tree? I'd bet she did!


Ron and Pat were high school classmates of mine in Wisconsin. We now live less than a mile from each other in Florida. I recently found my notebooks from the high school geography class Ron and I were in together. I shared them with him last night!
Pat and I were in the same sewing class as sophmores and learned to use the sewing machine attachments to make aprons.


Lynn and John lived in the same area as we did in Wisconsin. Lynn and my husband worked together. We still haven't figured out which one of them was the boss! We visited them in Florida and all it took was a day in paradise to decide to build our home here. When I moved to Florida I adopted John as my brother. I made a wise choice.


Dorothy and Ed are also former Midwesterners I met when I moved here. They are a fun couple and I'm so glad I know them. I don't think I have ever seen Dorothy without a smile on her face.


Chuck and Mary are also from Wisconsin. In fact when I met Chuck for the first time we discovered he and my sister were in the same high school class. Mary is the Queen Mum of our Red Hat group.

Chuck loves this quilt. Each time he visits he spends a lot of time looking at this and talking about it. I consider that a compliment since he and Mary are art collectors. I am honoring them by making them tonight's puzzle.

Hearts to you!

Often I go a little overboard decorating for the holidays in Florida. This year I am using good taste and restraint.

I added these hearts to my dining room floral arrangement - somewhat subtle!


Three heart shaped candles in a heart shaped dish with a photo and a block puzzle.
The birth announcement for my great nephew.


Add red leaves and a few hearts to a fall wreath and Voila! - a Valentine wreath.

This is a puzzle of a puzzle. The 4 cubes have different pictures on each of the six sides. Remembering the 50's, American Bandstand, and the music and the artists who entertained us.

Marbling Fabric the easy way- Tutorial

I'm going to share the way I did the marbling on this silk fabric.
It is SO easy and uses supplies you can get easily find or may even have.

This will be a no photos tutorial because it is THAT EASY!

SUPPLIES:
1. A flat pan that is larger than the piece of fabric you want to marble.
2. Pieces of cotton, silk, or most any fabric cut at least 2 inches smaller than your tray. I do NOT prewash the fabrics before I marble them.
3. Alum - found in the spice section of your grocery store.
4. Liquid laundry starch
5. Acrylic artist paints in tubes
6. Small throw away cups to mix paint and water.
7. Eye droppers - can be purchased at your local pharmacy

HOW TO:
1. Soak fabric pieces in a solution of 3T of Alum to 1 qt. warm water. Stir alum into hot water and give it time to dissolve. Allow to cool before adding fabric.
2. Remove from container and let drip dry to prevent wrinkles.
3. Pour liquid laundry starch in your container to a depth of 1" - could be deeper or shallower.
4. Squeeze a small amount of your selected colors into a cup. Add enough water to make it the consistency of heavy cream.
5. With eye dropper GENTLY drop paint onto surface of starch.
6. If it sinks to the bottom it is too thick - add a little more water. You also could be dropping it with too much force if it sinks.
7. Different colors behave differently and you will learn now they behave as you experiment.
8. Continue adding paint until you are pleased with the effect.
9. You can drop one color on top of another for an interesting effect.
10. Take a piece of your dried alumed fabric and hold it from both ends.
11.Place the center of the fabric in contact with the starch/paint container and gently lower the sides so you do not trap air bubbles as you allow the fabric to contact the surface.
12. Remove fabric as soon as it has made contact.
13. Rinse GENTLY under cold running water.
14. Hang to dry.
15. When dry press.
16. Add more paint and continue to marble more fabric.
17. You will want to continue with the same or similar colors.
18. One pan of starch will yield numerous pieces of fabric.
19. I continue marbling fabric until the starch solution is no longer deep enough to support paint.
20. I dispose of the remaining solution by flushing it down the drain with copious amounts of water.
21. Expect serendipitous results.
22. If you are not pleased with a piece of fabric, it is amazing how well it works in a project when you cut it up.

I sometimes swirl the paint, or I use a straw and blow on the paint to create designs.
I have not found this is the best method to use if you want intricate exacting combed designs, although I have done some combing with a wide tooth hair comb.

It this is not clear please ask questions and I will clarify the tutorial.

I'd appreciate seeing the fabrics you create with these instructions.

This is not rocket science. Play with it. Have FUN!

Quilt potpourri

I am going to share an assortment of quilts with little in common with each other, other than the fact I made them all.

Blue Streak is a Quicky Strippy Tricky quilt. I designed a kit that included 8 gradations of a color and a formula for strip piecing that would be cut into triangles after they were strip pieced. Once the triangles were cut it was up to each person to create their own design. The vertical strips separating the triangle area add another dimension. The fabrics are NOT hand dyed and are not an exact gradation which makes it more interesting.


Compass Rose was made over 25 years ago. At the time my choice of fabrics were very cutting edge. It is mounted on a custom made wood frame.


Silk Road To Boston started with silk I marbled. The other fabrics are plain and polished cottons.

Silk Road To Boston is tonight's puzzle.

Quilt turning on the studio bed - Final answer

Amish bricks is a replication of an Amish quilt. If you look closely you will see there are many variations of each color. It also has the appearance of a scrap quilt with so many different solid colors. There is color progression and contrast in this quilt. It is hand quilted.


This quilt was designed for a Mystery quilt weekend I offered. It is my adaptation of an antique quilt I saw somewhere. It is long and narrow like a hired man's quilt.


This started as an antique quilt top I purchased. I fell in love with it when I saw it. A friend who did some of the best hand quilting I have ever seen quilted it for me.


This is one of my early bed quilts. I had someone quilt it with a long arm machine.


This is actually a very large wall quilt I made for my husband's office. Since he retired it is either on this bed or hanging over the stairwell. It is a combination of commercial fabrics combined with the shaded hand dyed gray fabric. I dyed the fabric myself.

Since returning to Florida this year I have been doing a little more exploring of the area. Of course a "sunset kind of girl" has to turn down Sunset Harbor Road and then explored Timucuan Rd. I learned that the Timiucuans were Indians who were at one time native to this area. So to document my "exploration" this street sign is tonight's puzzle.