Famly

My daughter http://karenlynnebeads.blogspot.com is making and selling these bracelets and sent me two blue ones to wear. Blue is my color, and they are so much fun to wear. We have a rooster and 8 hens, but someone is not doing her job!

It was just the white when we cracked it.

I'm going to Art and Soul in Portland on Wednesday for 5 days of classes, so I won't be blogging until Wednesday of next week.

Cards

The other day Goodwill had a giant sack of white envelopes for $2. How could I pass that up?
I cut cardstock and folded it to size to fit the envelopes. The Xyron machine put adhesive on the backs of some papers I had. Then I cut them up and stuck them to the cards.

Stickers added focal points to some of the cards.

I'll add text as I need depending on what I use the cards for. It was a fun afternoon, and there are tons of envelopes left for next time.

Family

I've been working on an altered book about family using some transfers that were very distressed and faint. They appealed, because most of this part of the family is gone, and the name of the original book is "Look Away, Look Away".

This is my Dad with his older brother Dan.Here is a navy photo of Dad.

This is Mom and Dad in New York in the 40's. No one dresses so formally anymore. Memories are important.

Jesse Paul Mannix

August 4, 1914-September 21, 2009

Quilt

The top is ready for quilting. I had pieced this ages ago and decided that the center was too blank, so I did some Kantha stitching. I used the 4 colors of the center pieces in a matte silk thread. Each square rotates the colors into new sections using the three that are not the background. The closeup really washed out the colors.

Class

Laura Cater-Woods www.cater-woods.com came to our guild and gave a lecture followed by a two day workshop that my painting friends and I took. We made fushion with all sorts of fibers-wool, silk, bamboo and added things to the pieces during the process. Here are my first two pieces.

One friend gave me the butterfly to use. She had made it on her embroidery machine. It stayed in the piece without any trouble. I love color and also used dyed tissue paper in this one.

The feathers are from my chickens mostly with a couple I picked up on walks.

Now I need to add stitching and decide which parts to use.

Painting

Two friends and I got together to paint. Here is gold metallic gesso on black paper. The top piece is done with a sponge; the bottom with the gesso applied to bubble wrap which was then used to print. Then we tried the gesso on textured papers holding a brush at an angle so that it would mostly paint the raised areas.

We moved on to Lumiere paint and batting. Geometrics are fun to do but take longer.

On this one, I drizzled paint on the batting then used a brush to blend the colors. Now for some stitching.

Calendar Girls

Here is the calendar page we used as inspiration for September for www.calendargirls2008.blogspot.com I decided to use the lines and embellisher and felt the postcard. It's on it's way to it's new home.

See what I received as my postcard for August. Isn't it lovely?

Today

Blogger won't let me upload images today, so I hope to try later.

This week is the Guild meeting and a two day workshop with Laura Cater-Wood, so I'll see you next week.

Beading

Here are a couple of details of the necklace I posted on Wednesday. All of this has made me decide I needed to do another one.

I'm very frustrated right now. All summer has been taken up with arrangements for the heat pump and wood stove. No one seems to think it is necessary to return calls or show up in a timely fashion. The studio has been stacked up, so they can work. One inspector came yesterday, but the heater did not pass inspection. They had used the wrong kind of screws on the electrical part, so they have to come back out to change that. The other inspector didn't bother to come or call. I wonder how long it is going to take before they even call to make arrangements to fix things-more sitting around. I have trouble concentrating in the confusion. Maybe another necklace is the thing to do.

Beading

While my husband was getting ready for work this morning, he asked what the green thing on the dresser was. A Necklace. He liked it. Since he actually noticed-a rare occurance, I thought it was something I should show. I'm meeting a friend today, and my outfit has been picked to go with the necklace. We have been emailing about making things using freeform peyote and brick, so I thought she might like to see it. All the units are made seperately, then arranged and attached. I like using cabochons and also working around larger beads.

For those of you who are hesitant to put fabric through the printer in case it breaks, lots of people are doing it successfully, and I have never had a problem. Just let the machine do its thing and don't try to hurry it. One of the best things I did to get over any worry about using machines was to be the instructor for a sewing machine dealer. I liked to explore all the machines to see what they could do and read all the manuals to find out all the ways the stitches and feet could be used.