Moving In

This truck was full from front to back and all the way to the top when they started unloading. You can see hiding dealing with a drawer. Brother Jeff is carrying yet another box.

This just shows some of the furniture they are storing in the garage. You can see Nate and Heidi is this picture. What you can’t see is all the boxes behind the furniture and all over inside the house.

Heidi did a great job sweeping out the empty truck.
Heidi and Nate will be staying her until they find a house to buy. The one they had planned on buying fell through after the inspection had too many things wrong with it.
I’ll enjoy their company.

Family Farewell 2

The rest of the family was here for a visit and left early on the 5th. It was great to see all of them.
We got to visit the extended family at Bill & Mary’s on the lake. I think they had the biggest group ever. My intention was to photograph everyone and it didn’t happen as there were just too many all over the house, outside, in the water and on boat rides. It was good to see everyone.

Oliver, the escape artist, was happy he got to go along home. He gets uncomfortable each time he sees them leaving as there are some places they visit where dogs aren’t allowed.

Yes, they really were on their way early as Nicholas had to be to work in Madison by noon. The arrived home in MN by 5 p.m.
Family time is the best.
Stay tuned for the next installment of family that arrived!

Farewell Picture

My granddaughter Jessica and her friend Kevin arrived at 8:30 last night and we headed straight to Seiberts Pub for a late dinner….delicious as always. Kevin got to experience the world’s best and biggest Rueben sandwich and he was able to eat the WHOLE thing.
We sat up and talked until way after midnight.
This morning they went to Glaze and ordered the kringles for the family get together tomorrow. They brought home a delicious coffee cake that I am going to have a hard time staying away from.
They headed out by 10:30 this morning to visit Jessica’s other grandma and to go to the beach in Fontana to swim if it gets warm enough of at least walk along the beach.
From there they’ll be heading north to spend time with Kevin’s family.
They sure know how to pack a lot of visiting in a short time as Jessica works on the 4th.

Contemplating Names For My Newest Finish

Each and every finish of a piece for my show makes me feel good. It means I am that much closer to the finish line.
I have finished 19 so far in 2016. I have about a dozen more that have to be finished and after that I will regroup and decide what else.
The rest of the show will be pieces I’ve finished earlier. I will have to say I am thoroughly enjoying working on this series.
My overall lifetime finish now stands at 455 pieces. That spans a long time period. There were years where I wasn’t quilting and there were a few years with NO finishes as I was burned out from the previous year.
I feel lucky to be an artist who’s work is mostly in fibers. I can trace this back to before I even started grade school when I got excited by yarn and fabric.

Where Does One Begin And Another End?

When I put this piece on the loveseat when I finished it I couldn’t believe how they are so similar.
Each time I do one of these Ice Dyed pieces I am surprised when I open them. This was no exception. But it was even a bigger surprise when I put it on the loveseat and saw how they were made for each other.
Yet even though they are so similar I would probably never use them together as I feel ART needs to accent it’s surroundings and create a dialogue with the place it is displayed.

The Deck Is Ready For Summer Fun

The deck was cleaned off and it looks gorgeous.
The furniture was brought out of storage and also cleaned.
All that is left is to put out the cushions and a few decorative accessories.
Next the gazebo will get the same treatment.
The grass has been cut and trimmed.
The lush greenery sets off the view and makes it seem slightly cooler than it really is.
Now it’s time to take a dip in the pool to cool off.
Oh, I don’t have a pool!!!!!!

What Am I Going To Call This?

Again I have a finished piece I love, but……….
I am at a loss as to a name for it.
It is one of my ice dyes and I love the design.
What do YOU see?

Another Finish: Wurlitzer

Wurlitzer was the perfect name for this piece.
It is great to be finishing quite a few of these Ice Dyed Tapestries.
You can’t look at this without smiling when you see the colors.
If you remember the Wurlitzer juke boxes you may just start singing or dancing!
What songs do you remember hearing on the juke box after you put in your coins?

Happy Palindrome Birthday Nicholas! 6/16/16

My grandson Nick is celebrating his 21st birthday today.

Why Did 2 Come Before 1? And Here Is The Completed Quilt

Yesterday I posted the second part or marking this quilt. I had responses wanting to see the whole quilt so I am sharing this post. Please scroll down to the last picture to see the entire quilt.
When I showed the quilt I am finishing for Jessica’s room I had questions about how I was going to mark the sections I had yet to do. They were very legitimate questions as the background fabric is one of those that is hard to see marks on. Add to that the fact that there is already a layer of wool batting behind the fabric because most of the quilt has already been quilted. These are my 2 favorite things for marking quilting lines. The Chalkoner has a wheel at the bottom and it dispenses a very fine line of chalk. I only use the white powder as the colors were difficult to impossible to remove. I have had mine “forever” and had to do a Google search to find a source if you are interested in this. http://webstore.quiltropolis.net/stores_app/Browse_Item_Details.asp?Item_ID=1164&Store_id=516&page_id=23 It can be refilled. I have never used up the chalk in my original one. I also use the Clover tailor’s chalk that you can get here. http://www.jinnybeyer.com/ax_commerce/detail.cfm?productID=4DE6731FFD019FB1D65C773F3A2DFAA9 You may have other favorite marking devices but these work better than anything else I have tried and I probably have tried them all! I made a pattern for my quilting lines from a piece of heavy template plastic. I laid this on one section of the quilt and marked all the horizontal quilting curved lines. I used the Chalkoner. By the time I finished quilting you could no longer see any of the marking. I sometimes have to remark some areas. I then did the same thing for the vertical curves. It is not easy to see the quilting on the pictures of this quilt. To me that is not a big deal. The quilting design enhances the design of the quilt. To me that is what quilting should do, not shout so loud it overpowers what you have created with your piecing. Stay tuned and tomorrow I will share with you the way I quilted the triangle sections on the edges of this quilt. In case you haven’t seen the entire quilt I’m adding a photo of it.

Marking Difficult Fabrics–Part 2

Every morning Facebook tells me what I posted on this date for the last several years. Many times I choose to share the messages. This one was TOO GOOD not to share but Facebook evidently won’t let us share long ones (as others have mentioned) so I decided to do a rerun so you could see it. This is a quilt I LOVE and is now hanging in “Jessica’s” room. For the triangular spaces I had left to quilt on the each side of the quilt I chose to use straight lines. The piece didn’t call for any more curved quilting lines. I used a ruler and my Chalkoner to mark a set of lines to quilt on one of the triangles. The next step was to quilt this set of lines. Using the even feed foot I am continuing quilting all the lines I have drawn. To stitch the second set of lines 1/2 inch to the right of the first set I put the needle in the far right position and followed the first stitching with the left edge of the presser foot. I drew the second set of lines on the other side of the triangle the same way I drew the first set. I stitched all the lines starting at the inside edge of the triangle section and finished at the outer edge of the quilt. I stitched the drawn lines first and then set the needle position to the far left and stitched 1/2 inch away from the lines. This shows the complete quilting on one of the triangles. I did one triangle at a time from start to finish. By the time I finished each triangle you could no longer see the lines I had marked with my Chalkoner. I really enjoy the quilting process. I enjoy doing the stitching and I love to see how the quilting that is done in harmony with the quilt adds so much to the piece. I feel like I am on the home stretch with this quilt as I only have to trim the edges, bind it and add casings to both the top and bottom edges

Glorious Finishes

I have been very busy in June finishing pieces for my solo show in January 2017.
This is a sneak peak at parts of my two most recent finishes.
It is only the 13th of June and I have finished 7 pieces already.
Now if this is making me sound like super woman I will also share the fact that some of these have been in the works for as much as 2 years.
Will I be able to sustain this level of work for the rest of the month? I hope so! But in reality I have neglected other things…laundry, cooking, friends, paper work, etc. so I am going to take a little time to play catch up on those fronts and then return to my finishing….or at least spend less time each day on the finishing. When I am on a roll it is hard to stop rolling along.

Red Delicious Or ????????

I know I have been missing and I have been busy finishing several pieces.
I have not even taken time to take pictures as finishing is my current highest priority.
It is one of my pieces I ice dyed in Florida and now is totally finished.
As of now I am calling this on Red Delicious as it reminds me of the colors in a perfect Red Delicious apple that is at its peak and ready to take a nice juicy bite from it.
I can assure you I am working on many other pieces now and have enough work to keep me busy for a few months. I’ll check in with new pictures now and then.

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.