What the political polls are doing to me ...

I haven't written any blogs in a while but just had to jot this down. The other day I was in my quilt studio after a very long day on conference calls, interrupted about every 30 minutes by some political call on my home line. I don't answer the phone, but I can still hear it ringing, and it still irks me when the caller ID says "political poll" or "toll free" or even worse, "000 000-0000".
So I'm sitting in my quilt room, with the TV on in the background, and my remote won't let me fast-forward through the political attack ads because I'm too far from the remote-home-thingy. Then the phone rings.
I look at the caller ID and it gives me a 405 number I don't recognize. I just snapped. I picked up the phone and yelled into it "JUST STOP IT. STOP CALLING ME. I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE." and I hung up.
Phew that felt good!
Then the phone rang again and it was the same caller. I just let it go. The caller left voicemail. That was interesting - they don't usually do that. So I decided to listen to the voicemail. It was my father-in-law. He said "Uh ... not sure I have the right number. I'm trying to reach Warren."

I was SOOOO embarrassed! Of course I called him back right away and explained what I did and why. He burst into laughter and said he didn't blame me at all. Thank goodness he has a sense of humor!

New mosaics ... getting better every time

Instead of needle pokes in my fingers I now have cuts on my fingers from grouting. And they really hurt! I guess it's something about smearing dirt and sand inside a cut that makes it instantly sting. They last longer than needle sticks too.

This "sun" is either going to be a wall hanging or a trivet. It's about 8x10 - a bit big for a trivet but it would work. I'll probably end up giving it away. Not my favorite piece - the big glass baubles are a little cheap-looking to me, but I'm learning.

This next one is a little better. The colors are more muted and I didn't use the baubles on the front of the piece.
It's the same size as the sun, but more 'peaceful' colors.

And now the piece de resistance ... I'm really proud of this piece.

It's inspired by an artist I saw in Santa Fe named Lauren Bosmeny. She doesn't have a website of her own that I can find, but her pieces are on display at a local gallery there. She uses real coral and turquoise. One of her pieces was $10,000. Of course it hadn't sold yet - so not sure of the 'real' value. But it sure was gorgeous.

Quilting with dinnerware - FINISHED!

Well - the first project is finished, anyway.

This is going to turn into another hobby, I'm afraid. The mirror frame turned out just lovely, if I do say so myself.

I spent the July 4 weekend with a bunch of friends starting some NEW projects with the leftover dishes, and whatever pieces of wood were lying around. We now have trivets, a couple of new picture frames, and other great things in our little group of creative friends.

I hope to do more this weekend!

Quilting with dinnerware

A quilt is when you take some perfectly good fabric, cut it up, and then sew it back together again. What a concept, right?

Yesterday I made a quilt out of dinnerware. That's right - I took some perfectly good plates and bowls, chopped them up (which was a hard thing to do in itself - I can barely close my left hand today), and put the pieces back together again. The first time I'd done this a few months ago, I made a picture frame for a friend. It was small - about 10" by 10" - and I finished it in a day.

This time I'm making a frame for a mirror - 50" x 16". It's still in the works - I need to put some tiles on the inside and outside of the frame, and then grout it. But it's really fun, and a LOT like quilt making. Perhaps the next project will be a big flat surface - a wall hanging of some sort or a very large trivet.

Ahhh a cool weekend ahead.

The Lyons Studio Tour is over, and I had about 20 people come "all the way up here" each day. It was really nice. There were of course some people who know quilting well, and it was great to talk to them and get some new ideas. I think I introduced the new art quilting to some folks too.

This weekend promises to be rainy and cool. Just what the doctor ordered! A mosaic workshop is planned for Saturday with Susan Wechsler, and Sunday might be devoted to starting to quilt a king-sized quilt I've been working on for a year!

A Weekend of Art in Lyons

The Lyons Studio Tour is this weekend, and I'm thrilled to say that I had about 20 visitors yesterday. Granted, 8 of them were neighbors, but other adventurous people made it up the mountain and spent a bit of time with me.

I even have a possible lead on a commission. :)

It was a GORGEOUS day, not too hot and actually cool enough in the studio to need a sweater, and I got a lot done in between talking with art lovers.

I hope some of you readers get out there and enjoy the show on Sunday - it's going to be warm but beautiful again.

Sleeves ... continued

I got two half-sleeves done and really didn't like how it was looking. Fortunately, "un-knitting" is easier than "un-quilting." I pulled them out, did some research on the net, found a great video, and started again. It looks so much better now! Can't wait to finish this. It's going to be very pretty.

My bunnies are sitting on my dining room table, waiting for more inspiration. I put the small wall hanging together but I just don't like it. I hope that something will happen while I'm sleeping and I'll wake up with an idea.

Looking forward to this weekend with girlfriends for the 5th? annual Memorial Day quilt-in.

Sleeves ...

The shrug or vest from my last post needs some sleeves. There isn't enough yarn to make them though - so the choice was either a slightly lighter color, or the exact color but in thinner yarn.
THANK GOODNESS for the knitting group in Lyons - Kayann is a tremendous knitter and gave me some fabulous advice (double the strands) and lessons on how to easily put the sleeves on by picking up each stitch in the existing armhole and then knitting the sleeves right onto them. That way I don't have to sew them on later. So far, so good.
As of last night, I only have a single 'cap' sleeve but it's going to look nice.

I think knitting looks really hard from an outsider's point of view, but it's really just two stitches - purl and knit. Everything else is just combinations of these two. I learned how to do a cable last night - had no idea it was so easy. :)

I love learning new things!

Delving into another fiber art project

I'll never tire of quilting, but knitting has become a new pasttime for me. My friend Sharlie raises alpacas, and she does everything with the fiber you can think of. Spinning, dyeing, felting, knitting, crocheting, etc. etc. I've joined a fantastic group of women who knit together on Wednesday nights. The camaraderie is the reason - and knitting is a nice by-product!

Hello, Kitty!

My wonderful neighbor brought this indigo piece back from Japan for me. It's taken a while, but I finally got around to making a small wall hanging. I'm glad I waited! Another friend gave me a gorgeous strip of red silk for my birthday, that I've used for the sashing around the kitty.

This one won't be for sale at the upcoming Open Studios show. I don't think I could part with it!

The NZ Panels are all quilted ...

Once I found the 'right' thing to do with these panels, everything came so naturally. It's amazing how much time we spend going against our inner compass, and then when it points the right way, everything just flows. I'm taking this as a lesson in life, not just in quilting!
The panels you see in this post and the previous few were a collection I bought in New Zealand about 8 years ago. I was trying to get all of them into one quilt, and it took me this long to figure out that they would do better by themselves or in smaller groups. Above is "Sheep of Color."

Kiwi Land

The next-to-last beautiful hand-painted panel from New Zealand has become a wall hanging. I had lots of help from my quilt group creating this, and in the end, I chose to add some fabric that no one liked in the quilt but me :)

That's OK!

Trying to go small

It's May 1 and I have just a month to finish as many smaller quilts as I can, for the Lyons Open Studio Tour. For the first time I'll be opening my studio if anyone wants to drive up this far to see it, and I think that people might be more interested in small wall hangings than big ones.



So I've FINALLY used some of the hand-painted animal fabrics I bought in New Zealand about 8 years ago.




These and others will be on display during the first weekend in June.



While quilting, I've really enjoyed looking at Leah Day's blog where she shows a new quilt pattern every day, and offers a video of how to make each one. What great creativity!

one more thing Laurie loves - birthdays!

It's my birthday today and while I hate that I share it with Hitler and Columbine, I do know a few others who share this day for their birthday and anniversary. So it can't be all bad. There's just something fun about celebrating just for fun - not like I had anything to do with being born today, 49 years ago!

Yesterday I saw a grey Abert's squirrel with a white belly - haven't seen one of these in about 5 years. Usually they're all black here. It was nice to see this little one!

Cats and Computers - in one!

Those who know me, know I love cats, quilts, and computers (at least, computers most of the time.) Check this out to see cats & computers in one! It's pretty funny - I shared it at work with people who aren't "into" cats and even they liked it. :)

Bless me readers, for I have sinned. It has been 9 months since my last blog post!

Shame, shame on me. I can't believe it's been so long. I've been busy. OK not a good excuse. Actually, I've been posting a lot about quilting on FaceBook.
I've made a number of new quilts and even updated Mr. Elk with some highlighting around the antlers, which were fading into the background. Here he is now ...