This, That And The Other Thing!

I have been missing for a while and it’s time I am back. I am going to share random things on today’s blog. I collect letter K’s when I find ones I like. In the background you see a vase full of button flowers I made. These are fun and easy to make with floral wire, floral tape and some fun buttons.

Quilting Granny keeps me company in the “Studio In The Treetops” while I work. She is a hand quilter!

A close-up of some of the quilting on Bodacious Blossom.

One of my double wedding ring quilts a unique coloration,

This one was hand quilted.
I have been working in the studio a little the last two days but so far have nothing that is ready for prime time!

Sneak Peek

Although I can’t show the entire piece as it is too big, I am sharing about a third of it to wet your appetite so that you will wait to see the entire piece eventually.
Again it is something new and different. I get some really wonderful pieces when I play and try new things.
I also get some real duds that I am not sharing. This dyeing session produced some of those duds!
I WAS excited when I saw this piece come out of the dryer!

What Are These Flowers?

This is the first year these flowers have bloomed while I am here. I had been told they were beautiful and seeing is believing. Greg is my official photographer with his Windows phone while he is here. He is getting some amazing pictures.

Not only are the flowers beautiful but the foliage is too. Our weather in this part of Florida is never predictable during the winter. We have periodic freezes, very cold weather and sometimes mild winters. This year we did NOT have mild winter yet this plant has flourished and bloomed early.

Do You Know These Guys?

I had dinner with these guys. We drove to the airport to pick up one of them and then had a nice dinner at the Olive Garden….then back here for ice cream.

Paisley Star Mandala

This was one of my VERY early quilts created in 1982. At that time it was still not easy to find interesting quilting fabrics.
I have always loved Paisley prints and that was the starting point for this. I added a tiny busy calico print and 2 solids.
I also had a brand new set of various shaped plastic templates from Yours Truly by Marti Michell that each had a variety of sizes and they all fit together.

It was machine pieced and hand quilted. I quilted it in the calico and solid taupe sections with lines of stitching 1/8-1/4 inches apart. These lines are barely visible even when you see the quilt in person, but they did flatten that area and gave the quilt dimension. I quilted the paisely sections to emphasize the shapes of the design.

I signed it by placing cross stitch canvas on the surface and stitching my signature and then removed the threads of the canvas.
It is mounted on a custom made wood stretcher frame. There is extra batting in the solid border section to make the border stand out farther than the actual quilt.
Maybe I could call this my first 3D quilt!

Bordering On A New Millennium- Building A Quilt

Recently I shared photos of this quilt on Facebook.
The full view of the quilt does not show the colors accurately.
I am going to share some close-ups with you that will give a pretty good color match.

This is the very center of the quilt. The area you are seeing is less than 6 inches on the quilt itself.

This shows a center that is about 16-18 inches in diameter.

This is a close-up of one of the North, South, East, West points. They are cut from a border print and the reverse of the print to create this symmetrical design.

Here you see the other set of yellow points cut from the same fabric as the previous set. They are cut from a  different part of that same fabric.

This is the third and last set of points. There are 16 of them and each is identical, all cut from the same fabric.
I DID NOT build this quilt from the center out.
I started with the section I call the circle of lace which is what you see directly next to the background. I used 32 repeats of the image to create a circle and then designed the center to fit the circle.

If you look closely at this image you will see the words MILLENNIUM written over and over. It was one of a collection of fabrics Jinny Beyer designed for the Millennium.

The blue swag print is a border print she designed for the Millennium.
I added the other fabrics to make a border that set off the rest of the quilt.
This was an exciting quilt to make and never fails to evoke positive responses from those who see it

This picture shows the entire quilt. I was not able to get a photo of it in it’s entirety than shows accurate colors.

Eight Pointed Star For One Armed Quilter

I think this is one of the most stunning quilts I have created. It stops you in your tracks when you see it.
When I was dealing with a frozen shoulder about 15 years ago and couldn’t sleep I got up and created a prototype of this design. 
This one has never been finished as anything I think of to use to fill in the empty spaces takes away from the impact this creates.
I would love to finish it just like this to hang on a white or light wall but I think it would be a real challenge to hang.
If you read further you will see what I had to say when I posted it earlier.  I said I had planned on solving the dilemma soon but it still hasn’t happened.
With the huge solo show I am preparing for at present I don’t expect to resolve this for in the near future.
UPDATE: I  just checked and I actually started this 20 years ago! It is already 80-90 inches square.
This is one of my Eight Pointed Star For One Armed Quilter quilts. I am so pleased with it.
The problem is I am having a hard time choosing the background to put around it to square it off.
I had planned on using black but found that since the black on the star area is a printed fabric so it is different than a solid black.
I’ve considered using some other colors but I’m thinking they may fight with the graphic star design.
If I finish it with this shape it will be very difficult to hang on a wall.
I plan on solving this dilemma soon.

Gourmet Salmon Salad

Look at the beautiful salmon salad my friend Beth just sent over for my dinner!
Of course I had to sample it as soon as her husband Pete delivered it.
It is outstanding. I think it will be three meals for me since I’ve already eaten almost 1/3 of it for a late lunch.
It is pretty, colorful, healthy and delicious.
What you don’t see is the package of her special cookies that were on the top of the package! They re so good and I only let myself eat one a day to make them last.
I have the best friends!

It’s DONE!

I am thrilled to have finished this afghan for MYSELF!
It is soft, warm, colored beautifully and is very lightweight.
I used one strand of a lovely burgundy mohair throughout along with another strand of different yarns to add color variation and texture.
It’s not your grandmothers burgundy, not the burgundy of the 1980’s.
I colored it so it could be used in just about any decorating scheme!

Prom Dates Of The Third Millennium

Back in the Second Millennium dates for the prom were experienced in person.
A phenomenon in the Third Millennium are photo shop dates.
I think I may have been stood up as my handsome date, Drew Bedford,  still hasn’t photoshopped me into our date for the prom yet as he promised he would!

51 Years Ago Today

This is the house we built with our own hands and a lot of help from friends.
The block work for the basement was done and on May 1, 1965 Jerry and his friends built the 47 foot long beam that would support the house. It was built on one of the walls and the plan was to move it to the center of the wall without it rolling.  If it rolled it could hit the block wall and crack it. Well, things happen and it did roll and ended up in the basement filled with about 8 inches or more of water. But the good news….it didn’t crack the wall.
The next day our friend Ralph (our right hand man and friend) put out a call to our friends for help and at least 6 of our friends showed up to hoist it back up. Success and we were on our way.
Our summer was spent building this little house which has since expanded and is still our home 51 years later.
When we built it the trees you see were not much higher than the roof.
We can never thank all those friends who helped us enough as we would not have been able to do this without all of them.
I had hoped to post a photo of what it looked like originally but can’t seem to find one although I know if is here on the computer somewhere.