My Journal Quilts

I have been meaning to get my Journal Quilts up since the Beginning of November! I keep forgetting to upload them when I'm in the studio. Here they are hanging (near Pamela Allen's) in Houston - thanks for sending me the photo Pamela! Detail shots follow for all but my self portrait - it's somewhere on my blog if you are really interested Ok - I have totally screwed up the layout - but the photos are here - mixed up but here. I started out doing my journals in an abstract style - but after a few months I decided that I really wanted them to be reflections of what I was doing during each of the months. February - Gates Snow and gray trees are dull backdrops for the Saffron Gates of Christo. The Bethesda Fountain wears her mantle of white while the brilliant orange sparkles through the trees. June – Face of Pandora The Spirits swirling around Pandora deceives us into thinking that they are benevolent. Too late we find that what appears innocent can be deadly.

July – Hope Glimmering golden in her hands, surely a little peek could not harm anyone. True Evil slinks towards the earth, about to destroy anything, which it comes into contact with. Would you consider Hope an Evil or a Gift? August – Self Portrait (not here) Sept – Cosmic Egg Deep in space is The Cosmic Egg. If you could see inside I think you would find a world of woman hurriedly making adjustments, planting, building and getting ready for the Big Bang!

A view of the Moon

I promised a friend I would make a few quilt blocks for a swap she is hosting. Theme was a block having to do with the Moon. I knew pretty much what I wanted to do for my blocks. When I was in Chicago at the Quilt Festival in 2003, I picked up a beautiful silver pin of Diana - it was a really nice signed piece of jewelry and I'm not sure what it was doing in with the broken watch parts. The vendor offered me a great price and I was THRILLED! I knew that this was a good piece. I found out that my pin is the work of Augustus Saint-Gaudens and was originally made as an 18' tall weathervane for the top of Madison Square Garden. There are several smaller pieces and this photograph of Diana was taken at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. So I wanted to use this image of Diana against a full moon and I found a wonderful image on the NASA site. All in all I am very happy with these blocks! Now my 2nd block is a pretty typical Moon over the Mountain block. I used a sparkly white with silver flecked fabric for the moon and the same background as I used in the first block.

The background fabric is one that I bought to test - it was called something like Almost Solid - It was awful for all the other projects I tried to use it for - but I auditioned it for the night sky and it looked great - now the problem is that I would love to use this for other night skies and I don't have much left. SIGH... I hope that everyone likes the blocks they get!

Pandora's quilting

Tonight in the studio I was trying to find something for Morgan, I didn't have the bright white overhead lights, just the regular dim high-hats. While I was sitting down I realized that the quilting I've done so far on Pandora showed up really well without the bright lights. So here are some photos. The swirls over her head are done in silver and gold metallic threads. I've taken out the original thread-lines in the sky. I wasn't happy with the way they looked, but they still show up a little. You can also see the lines that were put in behind her - running across her arm and chest. I have to take these out from the backside. The wool batting needed to be stabilized, but I didn't think they would show up as much as they do. After I get the lines out - I'll start quilting her dress, and hair. Then I will have to decide what to do to her skin. I love the little dark spirit - I think it needs a name, but I haven't gotten that far yet. Enlarge it for a better view. I moved the design wall to take these bottom 2 photos, before I did that the hands were not quite so wrinkled. They actually looked like filled out flesh. I guess I will have to do some quilting on the skin - I guess practicing would be a good idea. This is as much of a full view I could get - You can really see those horizontal lines now! - Without flash and bright lights it was hard to keep the picture stable. But this is pretty good.

Dyeing to try this (part 2)

I used a flash to take these photos and they wash out the color quite a bit, but they are really rich and luxurious in person. I hope they do well at the sale! I wonder why I waited until it was 40 degrees to try this?

Dyeing to try this (part 1)

My sister asked me if I had anything that I wanted to sell at her school Christmas Sale. I have been waiting for a reason to do some dyeing so... After finding a ton of reasons I couldn't do it yesterday today I was able to get some velvet scarves dyed. **************** I really didn't want to do this inside on the peach grout, and for the first rinse-out I need to thank Teri for letting me use her laundry sink.

CT Winter - Fiber Post Cards

I made Fiber 20 post cards today, but I'm having a hard time deciding if they are going to be sent off to Megan's school for her sale or used to send to my friends. I am pretty happy with the way these came out - the base of the pine branch is a variegated green thread. I thought that would be enough variation but it was kind of flat, so I added a line of brown stem, and then topped that with Neon Green. I think the dark Post Card looks finished with the snowy night scene behind it, but the blue one needs something? Berries, pine cones or maybe some beaded snow flakes or sequins! Another part which is hard to photograph but I'm very happy with is the backing. I was able to come up with a template for Word, which will print a backing for three 4x6 postcards. This way if I do sell them, my name and website are on the cards. It also explains to use 37 cents postage. I printed the back you see below on a Christmas fabric - its a white on white snowflake with small blue flecks. The blue ends up looking like its kind of dirty but really trust me it looks good!

Fall In New England - Part 2

Ok - so we weren't dressed in flannel and Polar Fleece, but the sun was out and the trees were beautiful, we didn't stop very often so some of the photos were taken from the car and others as we returned home, stopping at the end of our driveway to collect mail and take photos of the neighbor's maple tree. I never saw the radio antenna until I uploaded this photo! Some of the beautiful Gold and Reds of Autumn We drove by the reservoir and took this from the window And this is my favorite photo - it was taken from under the canopy of the maple tree. I love the way the seed twirlers are dark against the illuminated leaves! It was a beautiful day!

Beautiful Saturday - a story in 2-Parts

Today I was the evil mother and wife forcing the family to go for a ride in the country. There were no birthday parties, deadlines, family responsibilities or anything else that I could see should stop our family trip. Tom and I started the morning late, with coffee, breakfast and a movie, and at 11 - I finally got up to shower and dress. The weather was in the high 70's, the sun was shining and it was just gorgeous! I dressed and went to wake the princess - opening the door to the cave only prompted groans of agony from my darling daughter - Button wasn't must more eager to get out of bed. I threw open the shades, opened the storm windows and let the clean air into the room - MOM - get out! Nope that didn't work, and eventually she stumbled into the bathroom for her hour shower. While Tom and Morgan got ready, I decided to go out to take some photographs, down hear the salt marsh. First I walked up to the stone wall and took many photographs of our property - at the top of this post is a photo collage of our land. To the left is the woods and beyond that is a salt marsh, then you can see our yard, house, driveway, shed, a bunch of trucks and end up at the stone wall again. Beyond the shed is a lower field, with a nice stream. And as you follow the drive out it turns and goes down what was at one time the old road bed. Its an unusual pie-shaped piece of land, and except for its proximity to the highway, it has some great features, including if you want to stretch it - open front... :-) I then went down to the salt marsh and took another set of photos - I tried to get photos of the thousands of tiny fish swimming from the stream into the salt marsh but all I could get were reflections and leaves. On the way back to the house I found a large rock which is almost entirely covered in Mica - I asked Tom if he could bring it back to the house, but I don't think he realized how large it is - It is very pretty! When I got back to the house - everyone was dressed and promised not to grumble, we packed up our cameras, stopped for a Frozen Frappacino and Latte and we were off...

I am Saddle Brown

Well its not quite the color that I would have picked, I'm not sure its dark enough, although the description seems pretty accurate .

you are saddlebrown #8B4513

Your dominant hues are red and yellow... most of what you do is motivated by your need to change things and have a good time, but you've been known to settle down and think out a situation, too. You tend to surprise people just when they're starting to feel like they've got you down. Your saturation level is high - you get into life and have a strong personality. Everyone you meet will either love you or hate you - either way, your goal is to get them to change the world with you. You are very hard working and don't have much patience for people without your initiative. Your outlook on life can be bright or dark, depending on the situation. You are flexible and see things objectively.

the spacefem.com html color quiz

Finished with 40 minutes to spare!

My anniversary present is finished with 40 minutes to spare! Who said I cut things close?