Happy Holidays!

I was catching up on my blog reading this morning, mind you, after I returned from exercising - getting back into my routines, and the first one I read was My Croft and Melanie issued a general "tag" to her readers. The tag was to pick up the book nearest to you, turn to page 56 and count down 5 lines and transcribe a sentence or two into your blog.

With all those endorphins running around in my body this morning I decided to play tag and be it. The book nearest me is "Digital Essentials" by Gloria Hansen. It is the quilt makers must have guide to images, files and more! It is an early Christmas present and I am really enjoying it, Gloria is a dynamite quilt maker, if you are interested in looking at her work click here.

On page 56 (this page is talking about how to do this in Paint Shop Pro) line 5 is a question:

Q: How can I know how large (in inches) I can print my image before it starts to degrade (get dotty)?

A: 1. Turn off the Resample image option. 

      2. Type in the desire Width and Height in the Document Size box (e.g. 8" x 10"). Look at the resolution. If it is too low, make your image dimensions smaller.

Now this probabally doesn't make a sense to many of you, but remember by the time you get to this page, you already know a lot of digital terminalogy. Given how fast things progress these days, this is an excellent book for anyone that is working on designing or printing any type of art work.

I am reading another book, one of my vices is reading mystery books, however it was under the book I used. Of course I have another book under that one and a few magazines.....

So now does anyone want to play tag with me? If you do, please leave me a comment, so I can ready about your turn as "It".

I don't have any art work to share today, but I will be getting back into the studio, hopefully this afternoon, and have something to share next week.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

I hope that everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving and for those that don't have Thanksgiving tomorrow, lift up a glass and join in on a toast with all your US friends!

We spent 10 days working at my Dad's house and then came home. We will go back after the New Year if my brother and SIL can use our help. It was a hard 10 days, but it is always wonderful to visit with my brother and SIL and nieces and my Aunt, no matter what the circumstances. We live so far apart from them that any visit it heartwarming.

We are here in Tennessee having Thanksgiving with family and watching the coming baby grow, we went into Nashville yesterday and went to the Main Library. Oh my, it was wonderful, I was tempted to move in, 3 floors, beautiful reading rooms, its an older Marble building, kind of like the public library in NYC, a lot of art, fabric, quilting, dyeing books!

I've been working on bumper pads for the crib, so I'm even doing fiber work here. In between our time at my Dad's house and leaving for Thanksgiving, I completed two trades that had been due the end of October, my trade partners were all wonderful about my sending them whenever I got them done, and in some cases, I didn't need to send them if I didn't do them. I still got the PC from everyone.

The first trade I worked on was a Leaves PC.

I used a yellow check fabric and then I did an edging technique with different size leaves in a grape and dk. green shiva oil sticks. Some of the leaves I put in some veins and then I added some silk leaves that I had. Wish I had felt a little more creative and I would have made some lace leaves with FME. There is always more time next year.

The next exchange I had was a 5 inch quiltie call Autumn.

I made a quilt sandwich and then cut out a cornucopia from some fabric and did a little color addition with some bronze and brown shiva markers. Made the pumpkin stand alone and tacked it on, did the same with the grapes and added some silk leaves. I was pretty pleased with this one, and I really enjoyed it.

I will try and post again in a few days with some picture of where we are in Tennessee, it is just beautiful here. When we get back home I will also post the cards and the quiltie I received, I think you will enjoy all the different cards.

On a sad note, the kitty (Sassy) I use in my profile and at the top of my blog is no longer with us. When we returned in September from our vacation she was very thin and continued to get skinnier and skinnier every day, we changed food, and when we went back to my Dad's house after he died we left her at the vet, so she would get fluids and care while we were gone. When we returned she had held her weight but was not eating a great amount., her labs were good, no sign of any masses, she was alert and didn't seem in pain. We had her on pepcid, to help her digestion and before we left for Thanksgiving she stopped eating. Took her in to be boarded, when we left, she did eat the day before, and have an ultra sound performed. Unfortunately the ultra sound showed that she had cancer in may of her organs, and she would not be getting better. It wasn't a hard decision for me to make when I heard that so she is at peace now, I really miss her, but that is what happens when we allow animals to adopt us. The other 3 cats and 2 dogs are at home with the pet sitter and are being spoiled rotten!

Everyone count your blessings and have a wonderful holiday season!

Taking it Further Challenges

I'm sorry to say that I have dropped out of the Take it Further Challenge for this year. My father passed away today and I need to fly back to NY and take care of a myriad of things. We lost my Mom 18 months ago, so things need to be sorted and the house needs to be sold, and so many things for my brother and I to do.

I don't feel like I will be able to concentrate on the monthly challenges for a while. I will still be keeping up this blog and my other blog with trades, exchanges, and projects.

I want to thank everyone for their wonderful comments and suggestions, keep it coming.

Thanks everyone,
Meg

August TIF

The challenge that Sharon B gave us for the month of August was:

In my chaotic and hectic life I often admire people who are able to maintain balance in their lives. What is balance to you? Do you maintain a balanced life? How do you balance aspects of your life? That is the challenge this month - balance.

For my August challenge I decided to balance my life by taking a month off from challenges and attend to the projects that I needed to finish for the month.

I felt that by taking the month off, I would not feel so pressured and overwhelmed. The first project I completed was a wall hanging designed by Mt. Redoubt designs. It is a pattern called "Sea Turtle Parade". I also shopped my stash to make this quilts, I sure felt much better when it was completed. Here is a picture of the completed project. It was made as a birthday present for my sister, she loves turtles.

The next project I worked on was for my stepson's birthday. He does the whale count every fall up on the Bering Sea and loves to be out counting for a month at a time. I found a great panel of sea animals that I thought would make a good hanging for his apartment. The design is nothing special, just my arrangement of the pictures from a panel and again I shopped my stash for the other fabrics.

The last project I did was a lap quilt for my Dad. We went to NY to visit family the beginning of Sept. and I found some Boyscout fabric that I just knew would be perfect for him. He spent over 20 years as an assistant leader and then leader for a troop and it meant the world to him. So I make this quilt, and I'm really pleased at the way it turned out. He was so happy to have it, and I hope he uses it rather than saves it for a special occasion.

I also made strides on the Wedding Quilt that I am making and will show a picture of that on my projects blog when it is complete. Now to get ready for the September Challenge, back in a day or two to post about that one.

July TIF

For the July TIF Sharon B gave us this challenge "The challenge this month is perhaps a bit obvious but I am going to ask …
What is it to be at the half way mark?

For me three word lead to a mix of ideas. “Half”, “Way” and “Mark” all lead off into interesting directions that can be represented in all sorts of ways."

Well the halfway mark for me this year is that it is halfway to Christmas and I haven't started AnyThing, at all, Nada!

A friend of mine also wanted to make some silk fusion paper, so she go the supplies, came over one Saturday and we made the paper. She gave me a great idea - make a bowl out of the paper. So, I'm going to make a silk fusion bowl for my TIF project and also for a start on my Christmas list.

I had some plain white tussah silk roving that I decided I wanted to use, and I didn't want to paint it at all. So out came the JoJo's Fabric Medium and the tulle and off we went. I think my paper came out very well this time. Its not too thick and not too thin. I sprinkled it with some beautiful blue and silver glitter, quite heavily as a matter of fact. The picture really doesn't do it justice but it is a beautiful piece, even if I do say so myself.

I am very happy about the way it turned out, I think I can make two small bowls out of the one piece of paper, I'm even thinking about using a red corn silk fusion paper I made last time, and use it for the inside bottom, I'll cut it out and see how it works.

I'm still working on the wedding quilt, I want to get the top made by Labor Day Weekend. I think I'm going to have to find someone local to quilt it for me, that way I can see it before its off the frame and make sure I like the way it looks. I don't want to have to do any additional quilting myself. I'll post a picture as soon as I get the top done. Parts of this were way more advanced that I was ready for, its traditionally pieced and uses templates. If I ever do this quilt again I'll have to find an easier way to to the traditional parts. It got some applique on it also, which I am loving.

I've also completed a July Birthday present for my sister and I'm working on a wall hanging for our son's birthday in August. All of this explanation is why I won't get the bowl completed by the end of the month.

I forgot, I also signed up for a pc exchange for the Surface Design group, the exchange was a bowl of cherries. I'll try and blog that later this week.

Brillinte Weblog Award - 2008

I've never been nominated for an award before, so I was very suprised to be nominated this time by Jane over at Crazy Here & Now

Its wonderful to make new web friends. The rules for receiving this award are:

1. The winner can put the logo on his/her blog.
2. Link to the person you received your award from.
3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs.
4. Put links of those blogs on yours.
5. Leave a message on the blogs of the people you’ve nominated.

There are so many blogs that I enjoy that I really would have a hard time listing them all, but let me put a few down, so everyone can enjoy can enjoy their blogs

Judy Perez over at Painted Threads
Helen Cowens over at Textile Goddess
Vickie Welsh over at Field Trips in Fiber
Micki over at Fiber Art: If I Create it Will They Come?
Judy Rhys over at Color My World
Jane Davila over at Chary Sprouts

One of my favorite sites has not been updated in awhile, I believe that her mother had a stroke last year, and the journal has not been updated since last ftall. This is the site that introducted me to blogs and has a large influence on how I view my blogs. I think it is well worth it to go to the site and look over the past entries. She has projects and lessons using many different techniques.

So I'm giving this award to N. Rene West over at Fembellish Journal

TIF - June Completed

The challenge that Sharon gave us for the month of June was about our stashes than the stories they told. I spent a lot of time thinking about this concept, but the one thing I get out of my mind was that my considerable stash of fabric, threads, paints, notions etc.didn't tell a story until I made something with it. Its filled with possibilities, but no story until I touch, paint, cut and then it tells me a story. You can read more about the June challenge on Sharon's blog at http://sharonb.wordpress.com/2008/06/01/take-it-further-in-june/

Sometimes I do buy fabric and patterns for specific projects, but since I've retired from the workforce, I shop my stash and what fun it is. The last project(s) I've bought fabric for has been baby fabric, that tells a wonderful story about how much we all look forward to the baby's arrival, in December. I can't wait! The other large project I've bought fabric for is a queen-sized wedding quilt, that is almost a year overdue but I have much notice and last year was filled with traumas and loss and health issues all around, and the quilt is much more complicated than any other traditional quilting I've done. Traditional quilting is not really my forte.

Anyway, back to the June TIF. I decided to do a small landscape of a local rock arch that 50 or so miles out of town. I had also joined a challenge on a yahoo group I belong to, called Textile Challenges. The challenge was to make an arch approximately 7 inches tall, 4 wide. There could be anything in the arch but since my was going to England I combined the two projects that I did in June. The rock arch is called La Ventana is is in the El Malpais lava fields outside of Grants, NM. We had such a wonderful day exploring the area the day we went and that was the story my finished project was called. As usually is was sunny and fairly warm for a winters day, no wind, and all was well in our world!

The original picture of the arch is on the left.

My arch doesn't have rounded sides because I wanted the arch to be the main focus with the sky in the background, I also felt that the straight sides going up gave a better illusion of height. I used a fusible web for this project and didn't even paint any of the the fabric! I did darken the sky under the arch to add some shadow and depth, although I should have added some to the sides also but next time I will do that.

I was pleased with the way it turned out and I was actually done on June 30th since that when the challenge ended. I've just gotten buy again and haven't gotten any blogging done, but I will do better in the future, promise.

Thanks to everyone who has left comments on my blog, I have tried to answer all of them, but some don't have their email address in there profile so I have been unable to answer.

I want to thank Mixpix for her comment on wetting the cloth before I do the mono printing. My anniversary was also in June and my DH got me the 1st set of Quilting Arts TV, and one of the shows had some mono printing in it. It looked to me like Pokey was using regular acrylic paints, rather than fabric paints, so I used my coupons at Michael's and got myself 3 jars of fluid acrylics and I'm going to try the mono printing again. The fluid acrylics are thicker and seem to be more opaque, so we will see what happens next. I will post on this blog how they turn out in case anyone would like to try the technique themselves.