challenge piece

This is a small piece I made for yahoo group called Fabric-olics. We were sent a piece of fabric/paper, 3 buttons & some yarn & had to use all in any project.
I started by separating the material into 3 layers then folding & stitching it with no great plans. It eventually became the roof & door of a chicken coop. When we on holidays in France there was a gorgeous rooster roaming the grounds. He had the most gorgeous colours- oranges & blue. He became my inspiration. I used a small free embroidery design from needlepassion embroidery. The wire for the fence is the threads from the window on a bag of potatoes. The yarn is couched on the building & under the buttons. It was fun to work on this piece.

Long weekend

Ah! the first long weekend. Are there any sweeter words for Canadians? It's here. Victoria Day or better know as May 2-4!
For many people this is also opening weekend at the cottage. What do we do?-it starts early in the week- the chat 'are you going to the cottage?' then - the lists- things to pack, things to buy, food to make, toys to entertain children on the drive up. The drive-Oh yes a million of us will be leaving the GTA to head 'up north'. And all trying to beat their all time best for getting there-Hours of traffic, rising prices of gas, hundreds of OPP officers pulling over the stupidest of us- Thank you to those who have to work the 'long weekend'.
to find what? -that's the suprise element - large and small. From trees that have fallen to droppings mice have left.
how do we spend this wonderful time? raking leaves,cleaning, putting in docks, fighting to get the water running, entertaining restless children when it pours, cleaning up the mud those kids trapse in after the rain stops. hunting mosquitos, applying sunscreen. Convincing those men in our lives that yes they do need more sunscreen on their heads than last year!! counting blackfly bites. estimating the costs of long overdue repairs.
why? you ask why? for this-
Photo from Patti's entry in my Circle Journal - a Day in the Country -permission granted!!

Artwords

This is my entry for a new collaborative art journal called artwords.
The topic of a Circle Journal I'm participating in from Scraptivity is Indulge Me. Since that is the opening artword I've used my recent entry for the CJ.

Magnolia tree

Spring brings such fleeting changes. The colours change daily as the trees and plants grow & stretch from a long winter. I love the magnolia tree in our front yard. The blossoms this year just seemed to pop open overnight. They have been out for over a week and won't last too much longer. The lovely waxy green leaves will fill out the tree like an umbrella and shade the front of the house.

mesh tote

I had such fun yesterday helping 4 terrific ladies start & finish their embroidered totes at Joyce's Studio. Each bag is as unique & different as the creator. Ann was the first to finish as usual - so I'm told - she has a very free & colourful style. Bright random flowers and colourful stripes.

Barb's beach is lovely & fresh with the white mesh, simple outline embroidery to match the seashells on the fabric. A hat, sunscreen, sandals & she is ready for the sun.
Sue's butterfly fabric is complimented by the swirl of embroidery done in varigated thread. It looks so much different than on the spool. She did a terrific job and made a gorgeous bag.

Rose made a beautiful bag with blue and pink flowers and a lovely striped accent. It is so nice to see everyone comfortable mixing different patterns of fabric. A variety of scale and textures makes everything so much more interesting. I hope you enjoy your totes ladies. I enjoyed our time together.

driftwood art

Nature provides an endless source of wonder & fascination. I love watching the earth come to life in spring. The thick spears of hosta piercing their way to the light. The beautiful shades of pink in a magnolia blossom. The endless shades of green.
The earth also provides all our raw material for art. The gleaner in me really appreciates the variety of driftwood sculpted by water & time. I have resisted starting another collection. There is a book that is new to me on creating with driftwood. but the most amazing think are these sculptures created by Heather Jansch. gorgeous animals including life size horses.

My bad

We have a winner.
The song I have always had in mind while working on this piece was Blackbird singing on the edge of night take this GOLDEN wing & learn to fly. By Sarah Mclaughlin
Apparently this is a song written by Paul McCartney of Beatles fame. I feel like such a young 'un!! I don't even know if I've ever heard the Beatles version!!
So ...drum roll.......the winner is Nadine- the very talented & funny secretary & grand poo-bah of twisted stitchers quilting guild. 6 fat quarters of fabric are headed her way.
Thanks to all for playing along.

Sing me a song

This is fun.....
So far the guesses for the name of the song for my quilt have included:
bye, bye blackbird
24 blackbirds backed in a pie
ribbon in the sky
blackbird singing by the Beatles
If I was a blackbird
Mocking Bird Song

The blackbird part is right.
I had to give her a haircut. You can see why I don't cut my own or anyone else's!!

'Weeds are flowers too'

What is it about dandelions? Like Carmi says they show up virtually overnight. Are they an unwelcome guest in your lawn? Does it become a personal war against them? What approach do you take? Do you take that forked prong designed specifically for this species- dig in deep to 'pop' that long tap root with a smug 'I gottcha' or resort to chemical warfare?
I'm here to tell you that battle is won before it began. There will always be dandelions.



There are some wonderful quotes about weeds. my favourite is 'but make no mistake: the weeds will win; nature bats last' Robert M Pyle

Opening Day

Baseball started a few weeks ago. The hockey pools are picked & the long road to the Stanley Cup has started. But a new season started officially today. Yup Garage Sale season is here. The game starts when the local paper arrives Friday night. Game play is set-with marker in hand, map & the classified ads.
Saturday morning- up early- earlier than if I was going to work- something is definitely wrong here. But a XL DD from Tim's fixed that at least temporarily. One garage sale down the street-nothing-consider it a warm-up. Ooops have to stop by the local community centre because the town is giving away free compost. 20 cars are there already at 8 am .everyone watching like little kids as a huge truck dumps the steaming load of compost. three recycle boxes full of compost.
We are back on track-smelling down LEGO!! Hubby was very successful- got 1 box of assorted bits & 2 popular sets in the boxes almost complete with instructions. I wasn't as successful but did get some tiny little ziploc bags & have condensed the bead/button collection into a tidy little pile.
Home by 10am.

"Do with me what you will"

Cloth paper scissors magazine had a reader challenge in the Winter 2005 issue. Entitled "do with me what you will" a drawing by the very colourful Violette. I started working on it and missed the January deadline. Around the same time the Twisted Stitchers Guild announced a challenge to be based on a song title. Ok, I could shift gears & use the same piece. The Summer 2006 issue of cps has wonderful examples of how artists took the drawing & flew with it. There are eight more interpretations on the quilting arts website done by students. I think they will appreciate the great art teachers they have as they grown & create. It is a great lesson to learn to articulate about ones own creativity.
I was unable to make the meeting for the song challenge. This piece IS going to be in a challenge even if I make it up myself!! so here it is.......
Guess the song title depicted by my quilt...... I will send the winner 6 fat quarters of fabric. If there is no winner by next week I will give ya a hint!!
And yes it is not finished, needs to be sandwiched & quilted. Hey this is MY contest!! My rules !!
The leaves of the tree are made by using the gleanings from a scarf I made earlier- see Mar 21/06 entry.

painting lace

At a booth at the quilt show in Chicago I tried painting lace. It was easy & fun. I decided not to buy anything from Sara's Bloom Embellishments. I have Setacolor paints tucked away with fabric & Mickey Lawler's book Skydyes.
Last week I bought this gorgeous piece of white lace for $1. It is 11 " wide and 6 feet long- plenty of lace to paint!! Off to paint!!

work in progress-wreath

I need to finish this class sample before I go on holidays in a few weeks. It is a wreath made with bias strips then miles of yarns. I used up 10 yards of a yummy yarn I got in Chicago from Fabulous Fibers & Embellishments and that was just the last layer of yarn. I need to decide how to embellish it. Had picked out fabric with pinecones & evergreen branches but I think it needs something more from fall than winter. I'm thinking coloured leaves & bittersweet berries.
One of the benefits about blogging about a project other than not working on it is the photo helps to see what is working & what isn't. I love the two batiks for the border but I don't think there is enough contrast with the orange one. I think it should be a bluish green fabric.

3D Art Quilts

There were incredible examples of art in Chicago that happen to be quilts. This one is a series of columns that move & rotate so it always looks different. Hard to get a picture without a lot of background stuff. It is called 3D Bamboo by Trix Buhlmann-Epple of Bern Switzerland.

Best of Chicago Show

I really don't know how judges at the largest shows can pick a show favourite. A quilt show like the one in Chicago has nothing but the best of the best. Sometimes a smaller quilt show will have a few to a half dozen of these truly spectacular outstanding quilts. Imagine a huge hall of just those and them having to judge them!! Lukcily I didn't have that job I just got to admire them!!
These are the quilts selected as winners.
The robins was best of show. Wonderful piece especially at this time of year.
It is hard to see the incredible detail in the bedroom quilt by Rachel Wetzler of St. Charles, Illinois. The lamp has fringe, the picture in the frame looks real, flowers on the bedside table. You really can get a sense of the breeze moving through the open window. This was the viewers choice of the show.
The smaller winter scene is called Early River Morning by Bonita Ware of Columbus Ohio. The snowflakes sparkle like little jewels.

Aprons

Do you wear an apron? I don't very often unless I'm cooking something special -a holiday meal, a dinner for two. There is something about donning an apron for me- a ritual that signals a beginning. The creation of a feast for the senses. The colours, smells, textures, sounds of working with food. Lettuce tearing, asparagus snapping, bread rising. Wearing an apron makes the food better. I have only one apron- a simple cotton over the neck style. I embroidered a little rooster -Mr. Poulet!! There are great sites for showing off your aprons.
There are some gorgeous aprons available from Domistyle. and anthropologie

whiplash competition

A terrific new site for crafters of all kinds -Whip up - is having a weekly contest. It also starts the mental archives playing Whip-it, whip-it good by Devo. But I was in university which makes me older than Melissa!
The theme this week is everday creativity.
I'm not a big purse person. I will use the same small purse for years. But I do need totes. Into the tote everyday goes the purse, my moleskine,daytimer, journals for work, magazines for lunch reading, the daily newspaper, assorted containers with food sometimes for 3 meals if I'm at work for 11 hours. I am affectionately known at home as the Queen of Leftovers and not the Leftover Queen!
I had this piece of decorator fabric I picked up at a thrift store for a couple of bucks. I love the design, the colours, the texture. How lovely it would be to have it with me everyday. I decided to create a new tote for spring & retire my corduroy one for now. It whipped up following instructions from make-it-easy. There was not much choice for webbing -blue or beige - I sewed it down with green thread for a little contrast.

Gates in Chicago

Often at a quilt show there will be an unintention common thread between quilts. Sometimes its a fabric or a motif or a subject. The quilt show in Chicago was no exception. There were many pieces, many of them in the Journal Quilt section, that featured the Gates of Central Park by Christo. There are lots of pictures of the project on the web. I photographed a few of quilts made about and with pieces of the gates.
These examples are by Susan Madden of Austin, Texas (top) Gloria Hansen of Hightstown NJ (middle) and Magarete Steinhauer of Seituate, Mass. (bottom)

More on Chicago

We spent most of last Saturday in Chicago. Got off CTA at Washingston Station again. Went to Marshall Field's for lunch. One whole floor of the store is restaurants.
We choose The Walnut Room and had a table at the corner window for a great view. The store like many things in Chicago reminded us of Paris.
Then it was on to the Navy Pier. It is wonderful to see cities restoring & revitalizing their waterfront areas. It looks like it would be a very busy place in the summer. There is a wonderful collection of stain glass art including many Tiffany pieces. Maybe I should make a quilt from Natalie & Nancy's book- Landscape Quilts. So many ideas-so little time!!
Then it was off or should I say up the John Hancock Tower. There was a Wedding taking place so we had a bit of a wait for the elevator but it was worth it. Great views.

Make-it-U!

The most fun I've had at school!! Quilting Arts & cloth, paper, scissors magazines had a huge section at the Chicago quilt show. There were vendors that advertise in the magazines as well as a teaching area for the 1 hour classes. I took three classes. Like a good artist I altered my tags.
The first class I took on Thursday night was with Pokey. We got to play with a variety of supplies to alter a canvas bag.
We stamped with Staz-on ink, painted with Lumiere paints by Jacquard. Mine needs some more work before I can put it to use! It was great fun to try new products.
The second class I took was with Shelley Stokes who does great things with Shiva oil sticks. We moved quickly trying different techniques. We rubbed the paint over a template -mine is alligator skin texture-
we did stencilling with a paint brush - I like the checkerboard pattern I did with the metallic paint. It shows up nicely on the dark fabric.
These are expensive art supplies so it was great to try & get a couple little sticks to bring home. I will have to go back to my copy of Quilt Toppings by Melody Crust to see her work with the paint sticks.
The third class I took at Make-it-U was with Jill Haglund of Tweet Jill Publications. We work quickly to get a good start on ATC made from playing cards.We stamped, used newspaper as background, painted with twinkling H20's which you can see shining on my ATC. The piece of newspaper I used was from the business section and was about stocks but I like how it relates to the 3 little girls in the image. It reads 'Six Year High'.

The second ATC is not as far along. but I like how the 3 on his little dunce hat relates to the face of the card which will be the back of the ATC.

So much fun. Thanks Pokey.