Hooray for Needlework!

CQJP 2012 January block finished

2012-02-01T17:12:00.000-05:00

Okay. I finished my January block for the Crazy Quilt Journal Project 2012 (CQJP 2012) just in the nick of time. I hope this doesn't bode badly for the rest of the months.

This is an 8 inch block as all will be.

Since I learned that the winter holidays origninated with ancient people celebrating the return of the sun, I have loved the idea. Well, in 1965, the sun's return heralded the arrival of my son, Joe, on the 28th. I think he began yelling and kicking before he was born. He was a difficult one to raise, but also a charmer. Hence all the meanings of "ka-pow" came into my life. I'm happy to report he became a responsible adult and the sun still returns to my pleasure in January.

Crazy Quilts are Quilts, Too

2012-02-01T16:08:00.000-05:00

www.pigtalesandquilts.com is having a Crazy Quilts are Quilts Too online contest and show. I didn't enter a piece in the contest, but I'm doing the "linky" thing. Here a picture of my latest finished piece, Green Apple Flutter.

It is 14 inches square. It started with a 6 inch square block I made to experiment with the colors orange and lime green. I decided to enlarge the piece to take to the Crazy Quilt Adventure retreat in Connecticut last April for a work piece. I decided to include some plastic stickers I had with uplifting words to go with the bright colors: grow, play and bloom. I used a fair number of new to me techniques on the block, including stumwork wired butterflies. My friend Susan brainstormed to help me chose a new name for it, Green Apple Flutter. I had been calling it red orange and apple green block. That didn't exactly flow.

I've been crazy quilting since a few months after I retired in 1997. I wanted to make a quilt and was looking through old ideas and patterns I had kept. I was struck immediately by a crazy quilt pattern, ca 1960s and started on a full sized quilt I called "The Sampler." I read that a spider and web on a quilt is good luck. I remembered the big garden spiders that built their webs between the corn rows on the Iowa farm where I grew up. I made a "corn rows" block with a spider in the middle that is 3 1/2 inches long from including the legs. She was published in the first issue of Quilting Arts magazine. I finished the quilt in 2001.

During that time I joined the Crazy Quilt group on Quiltropolis and found a great community for learning and friendship. I participated in a number of round robins over several years. I enjoyed them a lot, but have given them up because I want the time to work on my own projects. As various new crazy quilt groups have formed, I've joined them, too. Can't say enough about how valuable they are for promoting our art.

I've made two other full-sized quilts: one for my friend Maggie:

Since Marguarite means daisy, the quilt was full of daisy motifs and "silkies." It was made of cotton fabrics from my stash in purples.

And another for my sister: Bells and Butterflies for Betty

This is blues, her favorite color and features the objects of her collections, bells and butterflies.

I've also made blocks for donations, ornament and toys over the years:

These are some examples. As I look back through my pictures I see I've had a lot of fun with my crazy quilting needle.

Two Ornaments

2011-12-22T14:21:00.001-05:00

Solstice is here, Hanukkah is underway, Christmas eve is coming soon. Best wishes to all of you for these and other celebrations of the season.

This year I made two Christmas ornaments. The first was for my Crazy Quilt Group holiday exchange. I forgot to take a picture, but Susan took one during the party. Here is her post on the event.

The second one was for my friend Laura. We exchange dogsitting, so I took some pictures of her dog Wagner while he was staying with us, printed them on silk and pieced them into the ornament.

Both ornaments were made with four inch circles pieced on interleaving paper instead of muslin to get enough stiffness to hold the form. The embellished, folded in half and put together like segments of and orange. Laura's has three segments so Wagner's picture shows well. The exchange one now belonging to Maureen has five segments. I rather like the way they turned out.

Bookstore Browsing

2011-11-18T10:49:00.001-05:00

I have a Nook e-reader and use Barnes and Noble for online book shopping because I want to support their brick and mortar stores. There's little more gratifying to me than a couple of hours browsing in a real bookstore. On Tuesday I did it at the store near the Metro Center station in the district (Washington, DC).

I did some holiday shopping and bought a couple of things for myself. One I bought for embroidery reference will surprise you. It's Tattoo Sourcebook by the editors of Tattoofinder.com. It has 516 pages of mostly tattoo designs. The introductory chapter on tatooing was interesting, but it was the designs that caught my attention. Many of them would make great embroidery motifs. I plan to use some. But not this one:

I do like dragons and here is a sweet one:

And trees. Trees are great on crazy quilts. Here's a nice tree of life.

Here's something very pretty for a music themed block:

The images are divided into categories, each section beginning with a history, paragraph on symbolism and something specific about the tattoos in the category. From this I got some info about symbolism for the "wisdom" block I'm planning. During Betty Pillsbury's class at the Crazy Quilt Adventure in April, I embossed a piece of velvet with the word "wisdom." It's to be part of a block with other words meaning wisdom such as "sophia." I learned that the salmon represents wisdom to the northeast Indians and the feathered serpent was a wisdom god to the Aztecs. With an owl, those images should make a very wise block.

Look everywhere for cq inspiration.

Green Apple Flutter

2011-08-11T14:49:00.000-04:00

Last blog I ask for suggestions for a name of my red orange and apple green block. Susan Elliott went on a roll with suggestions as you can see in the comments on that blog. I didn't pick one of hers, but they inspired me and the new name for the block is Green Apple Flutter.

Flutter refers to the butterfly wings featured on fabric in the block from old komonos. Other butterflies have joined them on the block including two stumpwork ones.

I've been flirting with stumpwork for a while. Sadly, sadly missed our EGA chapter workshop by Jane Nickols because I was sick. Very disappointed. But, I have a new book that gives the instruction I wanted: Royal School of Needlework's Essential Stitch Guides: Stumpwork, by Kate Stinton published this year. Mary Corbet reviewed the book recently. She likes it, too.

My butterfly wings were made as "wired fabric slips." They are attached by piercing the block fabric with a stylus or laying tool, inserting the wires through the hole, folding them back and tacking them down. This leaves the wings free for a 3-D look. This close up photo shows I need to do some more trimming of the basic fabric around the edges. The actual butterfly is 1 1/2 inch across.

Silk threads

2011-08-02T11:36:00.000-04:00

At the New England Regional Embroidery Guild of America seminar in April, I won an opportunity basket. I regret I can't remember and credit the chapter that donated it, but I thank them. The basket became my granddaughter's Easter basket. The $100 gift certificate to Thistle Needleworks was my treasure. I used it to buy a variety of Soie d'Alger silk floss. This is Mary Corbett's favorite silk floss, as she blogs about here. I selected several runs of one color for use in thread painting. Here is my new stash:

Okay, I had a little money left so I bought one package of silk ribbon, too. Then it turned out they were out of skeins of several of the colors I chose, so I bought the larger packages of those. Anyway, I'm happy with them. I hurried to try one out on my red orange and apple green block (I need a better name for this block. Suggestions?) Here is a butterfly seam treatment from Carol Samples' book.

I also used it for the seam at the bottom of this picture.

So far, I'm not sure I like it all that much better than DMC cotton floss. Shush! Mary Corbett does say the cotton floss will eventually lose it's sheen. Haven't noticed that.

The stem of the flower above this seam is made of little metal springs my friend Kent gave me. He is an instrument technician for NASA Goddard. These were removed during referbishing from an instrument that flew on a space shuttle.

Another thing I did on the block is enhance the butterfly wings printed on the fabric with couched silver thread, shisha mirrors and beads.

That's my latest update on this block. The too hot weather here is keeping me in, so I hope I can finish it soon. Other projects are waiting.

Red Orange and Apple Green

2011-06-29T17:05:00.000-04:00

Here is an update on one of the blocks I took to Connecticut to work on during the Adventure in Crazy Quilting and Sharon Boggon's workshop. The block needs a better name than "red orange and apple green" but I haven't yet been inspired. Marmalade and Green Apples? Citrus Grove? Ummm. I showed this picture in April when I reported on the retreat.

Folks who looked at this saw spiders in the two major things I had done on it. I sure hadn't thought spiders when I made them. Well, I don't want this to be a spider block, so one of them had to go. The covered bead is now a flower with heart petals.

The other one, the shisha stitched grow sticker, got legs added to make it into a spider. I hope it's abstract enough so it won't freak out the spider squeamish. I used gold blending filament for the web.

I also added some flowers a la Allie Aller from her class at the Adventure. I fused fabrics together wrong sides together, cut our circles and then snipped petals around the edge.

I added shisha mirrors to the tips of the butterfly wings and worked a few seam treatments. So here is the status at the end of June.

June in Carolina Beach

2011-06-25T07:53:00.000-04:00

Last week I visited my son Joe and his wife Danielle in Carolina Beach, NC. We had a very nice time.

There are a lot of feral cats in their neighborhood and they love them. They rescued two injured kittens which became house cats. They've captured and neutered several more including the main mother and feed them outside. Here is Joe with one of the outdoors cats. They are all named, but I don't know which one this is. Joe and Danielle do.

When they bought the house in Carolina Beach, it had this striking painted metal salmander sculpture on the outside.

I was surprised to see it in new colors this time.

We spent a pleasant afternnoon in historic Willmington on the river. Here are Joe and Danielle under a sculpture of the endangered Venus flycatcher, now confined to the Carolina coastal area.

We took a ghost tour led by actor John Scott.

Carolina Beach has a summer carnival with fireworks on Thursday nights.

It's a good community I enjoy visiting. Except for having to fly to visit, I'm glad Joe and Danielle moved there.

CQ Adventure Block Finished

2011-06-23T08:11:00.000-04:00

I have finished the block I used for learning stitches and motifs at the 2011 Adventures in Crazy Quilting retreat for Sharon Boggon's class and workshop in Connecticut in April. Sharon does encrusted embellishment on her quilts, a different style from mine. I like the more traditional motif and seam treatment style. So, it was interesting to me to experiment with more encrusting. You'll note I still left a significant amount of lightly embellished space. I ran the encrusting in a swoosh across the block. This doesn't keep the eye inside the block as Sharon teaches for design, but I like it.

I used the French facing technique for finishing after tying the backing to the block. The technique was published by Allie Aller in CQMagOnline. I like the neat look of it.

Hearts and Hands for Sendai block

2011-05-07T20:08:00.000-04:00

I've finished my Hearts and Hands for Sendai block and sent it to Leslie Ehrlich, the coordinator. She described the requirements on her blog. Deadline for submitting the blocks is June 30, 2011, so you have time to make one if you wish. It's a fund raiser for earthquake/tsunami relief in Japan.

Here is mine.

Crazy Adventure and Sharon Boggon Workshop

2011-04-23T16:19:00.000-04:00

What an adventure! What a learning time! What great new friends! It was the Adventure in Crazy Quilting and the 3-day workshop by Sharon Boggon of Australia. All were organized and guided by Maureen Greeson and Susan Elliott.
It was Sharon's first trip to the USA and we were so lucky to learn from her in person, for one day during the Adventure and during the workshop. Of course we're accustomed to learn from her online.
Geraldine Krueger has been demonstrating on her blog how she is using some of the design elements Sharon taught. Keep going to earlier posts to see the series.
Additional one-day classes during the Adventure were taught by Allison Aller and Betty Pillsbury. Awsome line up. I really had a good time and learned so much I can use.
I didn't take many pictures. Others did, but I can't point you to them at the moment. Below is a picture of Sharon Boggon at work. On the left is Susan Elliott, photographer, and on the right, Helen McEntee, student.
Here are pictures of three of the pieced blocks I took to work on. The fourth was my block for the Hearts and Hands for Sendai project. I'm working to finish it and will post about it when I'm finished. It benefits from Sharon's design instruction.
The first is the block I put most of my practice stitches on.
The second is my exploration of orange and apple green. It has shisha stitch on a penny and a sticker I had stuck on with it's own adhesive.
The third is a work in progress: Purple baskets. It's 21 inches square.

After the Connecticut events, I went to Portland, Maine, for the New England Embroiderer's Guild of America seminar. I had meals with my roommate from last fall's EGA National Seminar in San Francsico, Violet Anderson of New Hampshire. It was good to see her again. I did studio time there instead of classes and worked on the Hearts and Hands for Sendai block. That's how it got almost done. My daughter's family lives in Portland, so I stayed with them and had some time for visiting. We had a beautiful Sunday afternoon to go to the Fort Williams shore. My granddaughter likes this scary tunnel in the fort.

EGA Seminar 2010

2011-01-14T07:07:00.000-05:00

Classes, volunteering in the bookstore, corset demonstration, side trips - it was a great experience. The Embroidery Guild of America (EGA) National Seminar was in San Francsico, California, September 5-10, 2010.

I took two two-day classes taught by Lynn Payette. She is an artist who was trained by her professional artist parents. She gave very useful design tips about shading, shadowing and perspective. I was impressed with the breadth of her style. She teaches a lot and showed us many project examples.

The first class I took was "Painting and Gilding and Stitching, Oh My!" This was right up a crazy quilter's alley, because she provided tables full of supplies, told us how to use them and set us loose to try them all and develop our own design. I started by trying markers on white silk, making an oval shape swirled with color and a sketchy fish. I don't know where the fish came from out of the recesses of my mind, but it became my creation piece. Lynn provided a lot of papers and I used these for the panels below the fish oval. I'm not sure I like using the papers. Stitching through them can leave holes and tiny tears if you're not very careful.

My birthday was on September 5, during this class so I went to the local Ghiardelli chocolate shop and bought a tin of the dark variety to share with the class. That was a hit and I got a chorus of Happy Birthday sung for me.

During the days between classes, volunteered a few hours at the Ruth Kern bookstore. What a selection! What a temptation! I kept in mind how these books would be in my luggage however and didn't overdo my purchases. Here are some pages from the ones I bought:

Here is a Japanese book whose title I can't translate. It has lots of surface embroidery projects and patterns that are attractive to me and require no translation to do.

The Art & Embroidery of Jane Hall: Reflections of Nature is a beautiful book in which Jane shows how she translates inspiration from nature into expressive art pieces in silk fabric and thread.

I couldn't resist Here Be Wyverns by Nancy Spies. She drafted hundreds of patterns from medieval sources and among these are dragons, my favorites. These of these patterns could be adapted to fillet crochet or just used in surface embroidery.

We were given a copy of the most interesting book, Pani & Fill: Breads and Threads of Italy which illustrates the design similarities between special decorative breads used in Italian festivals and Italian lace. Quite interesting.

I also made an excursion to the "can't miss" fabric and trims store, Britex Fabrics. It's a wonderful place with four or five flours of almost any fabric or trim you can imagine. I only bought these few things. Two silk fabrics in bright colors that will be great for picking the particular color area I want for a project and a length of green silk.

One evening we had a delightful historical lecture and demonstration of corsets by Autumn Adamme, owner and head designer at LeJardin, the premier couturier corset source for Hollywood stars. She claims they are very comfortable. Hmmm. I'd have to be convinced of that.

Then the second of Lynn Payette's classes ended the seminar. It is "California Poppy." I picked it because I was born in Salinas, California. When my parents returned to Iowa with me when I was one year old, my mother brought along California poppies for my grandmother's flower garden. I loved them and they were special in an Iowa garden. I remember being the color Lynn chose for her design although they are more commonly yellow. Lynn has an unusual technique for stumpwork that I enjoyed learning. Here are my completed poppies, framed under glass.

California Poppies

Happy holidays!

2010-12-22T07:29:00.000-05:00

I'm wishing you a new year surrounded by beautiful stitches. I hope you are having a warm holiday in the midst of this cold season (here in the northern hemisphere). Happy holiday wishes to those of you in the southern hemisphere or the tropics, too.

This is a gold holiday tree (some have thought it a witch's hat. Perhaps I should display it at Holloween as well. ). My former crazy quilt group members challenged each other to make these back in 2003. It's 2 feet tall. The others were more like 6-10 inches tall.

Amtrak to California

2010-09-29T12:49:00.006-04:00

California Zephyr in Grand Junction, Colorado

What a great trip: cross country by train! I've been home two weeks already, hard to believe.

I left Washington, DC, Union Station at 4:05 pm on August 25 on the Capitol Limited to Chicago. Connected with the Southwest Chief to Los Angeles; Pacific Surfliner to Oceanside, California. Rented a car to visit my friend Ann in Carlsbad. Returned on the Surfliner to Los Angeles; Subway to Long Beach for a stay on the Queen Mary. Then the Coast Starlight to Oakland; Amtrak thruway bus to San Francisco for the Embroidery Guild of America Seminar. Home on the California Zephyr to Chicago and the Capitol Limited back to DC. I love riding the train. These routes have some of the most spectacular scenery to be seen in the country.

I didn't take any pictures while visiting Ann. On the way to Oceanside, though, I took this picture of the ocean with my cell phone and texted it to my son with the message "The Pacific." He returned the following picture with the message, "The Atlantic." Tee hee.

The Pacific

The Atlantic

I absolutely love the Queen Mary! It is so posh and so historical. Lots of exhibits and tours. I took the Ghosts and Legends tour into the bowels of the ship and heard about the ghosts of a girl drowned in the first class swimming pool (no longer in use), workers killed in boiler accidents and sailors killed in a collision during World War II when the Queen Mary was a troop carrier called the Gray Ghost. I went to the Aquarium and browsed a bookstore, but spent most of the time on the ship. The second afternoon I sat in a deckchair and read my novel like a luxury passenger, rather than going back across to Long Beach proper. Sigh!

Queen Mary Hotel

The original passengers could choose fresh
or salt water for bathing

Room had beautiful wood panels and furniture with marble tops

Great tour.

This was my first trip to San Francisco. I did some touring, although not as much as my roommate did. She was Violet Anderson from New Hampshire who I had not met before. We got on famously. The hotel was within a few blocks of Chinatown, which I shopped twice and of Union Square, meeting place for a walking tour of the Victorian houses that survived the 1906 earthquake. I didn't ride the cable car. They were always way too crowded for me when I was out - lines to board. Seeing them was enough. One evening, in search of a restaurant, Violet and I walked almost all the way up Nob Hill. Puff, puff!

Chinatown in San Francisco

I'll blog about the seminar in a separate post. Loved my classes.

One the way home, I was on the same train with Fern, a friend of Violet's from Massachusetts. We ate breakfast and dinner together with the woman from her adjoining roomette. Good company.

The trains were ahead of schedule mostly except for the Coast Starlight (someone committed suicide by jumping in front of it just as we got close to Oakland) and the California Zephyr after Omaha. How it lost two hours across Iowa and Illinois, I don't know, but I made my connection.

These memories are more to make me sigh when I hear the train whistles from my office early in the morning.

For more pictures than you want to see, go to http://picasaweb.google.com/105097630970683282622/20100827#

Stereoscopic Viewing and Reunion

2010-08-20T07:36:00.000-04:00

Here I am, still kicking. I know it's been a long time. I want to tell you about this great new book I bought, A Village Lost and Found, by Brian May and Elena Vidal.
When I was a girl, my cousins and sisters loved to view the stereoscopic slides at my Grandma and Grandpa Anderson 's house. They had an extensive set. Nobody knows what happened to them. Sigh! This book reproduces a series of slides taken in the 1850s by T.R. Williams, one of the first developers of the technique. They are "Scenes in our Village," Hinton Waldrist in England. The book comes boxed with a fold-up stereoscopic viewer. Very cool.

Another reason I've been lax in blogging, is I've been busy as registrar for the Mendenhall Family Association reunion 2010 in Mendenhall, Pennsylvania. My great-grandmother was Sarah Ann Mendenhall Mount. I spent the 90s doing a lot of genealogical research and I have attended all five of the Association reunions since 1996. The immigrant Mendenhalls were four Quaker siblings, John, Benjamin, Mary and Margery who came from Wiltshire, England, in the early 1680s. John and Benjamin bought land directly from William Penn or from speculators who did and didn't immigrate. I'm descended from John. In the picture above, I am standing in front of the house in Caln township, Pennsylvania, that was built about 1714 by John's son Aaron, my sixth-great grandfather.

We had good weather, except it was hot, for our three days of tours. Mendenhalls were active in the Underground Railroad, and we saw some of the houses used for hiding fugitive slaves, as well as home sites and meeting houses of the early Mendenhalls. Some current owners of the houses allowed us to tour inside. Very generous. They are proud of the history of their homes and have a challenge preserving them while making them comfortable for modern living. They are all made of native stone, contributing to the beauty of the Pennsylvania countryside.

Turtle Toy

2010-06-23T10:06:00.000-04:00

I finished up a crocheted snake toy for my great-grandnephew while I was visiting my daughter's family in April. There is a picture of a crocheted turtle on the same page as the snake pattern and my granddaughter requested the turtle. Here it is in time for her birthday July 7.

Old butterfly pattern used again.

2010-05-31T15:31:00.000-04:00

The Holocaust Museum Houston is asking for handmade butterflies to be submitted for an exhibit in 2013 remembering the 1.5 million children who died in the holocaust. My embroidery guild is participating by collecting butterflies made by members and sending them in. I made mine from an old, probably 1960s or 70s pattern I have used in a couple of crazy quilts. It always gets interest from viewers of my quilts, so I used it again, making it about 6 inches (15 cm) square. It is DMC floss on a piece of hand-dyed cotton cloth that was given to me several years ago.

Snake, Pink Garden, Jedi

2010-05-04T10:04:00.001-04:00

Oh, how can it be a whole week gone by since I returned from visiting my daughter's family in Maine. Daughter and her husband were very busy with work, so I mostly hung out with my 6-year old granddaughter, Lorelei. What a pleasure. She is an enthusiastic Star Wars fan at the moment. Here she is in Jedi costume. I put a video of her singing "My, my, this here Anakin guy" on facebook if you're inclined to view it.

While there, I finished this crocheted snake for my great-grand nephew Kyan. Crochet is such an easy traveling project compared to cq embroidery. The snake is about a foot (30.5 cm) long.

I have also worked on my Pink Garden wall hanging. The light pink flowers on the left are from instructions in J. Marsha Michler's Motifs for Crazy Quilting; the button flowers above them are vintage buttons from Accessories of Old (now in Frederick, Maryland) and the darker pink flowers on the right are from instructions on Honey Bee Bliss website by Mellissa.

Now this project is not easy to work on while traveling. I need to get some portable ones in progress. I have an idea to make an ABC book on values. For instance, "A is for All of Us. Aren't we awesome!" I have some fabrics cut into 10 inch squares for this and a few ideas sketched in a notebook, but it's not ready for traveling yet.

I have a fair amount of travel on my plate this summer, including a train trip to California for the Embroidery Guild of America National Seminar in San Francisco. That begins September 5, but I'm leaving in August to visit a friend near San Diego and spend a few days in Long Beach, California beforehand. I love traveling by train, especially in a sleeper. Lots of needleworking gets done. At seminar, I'm taking two 2-day workshops in stumpwork by Lynn Payette. One is on a variety of techniques and the second is "California Poppies." There is a picture and discription of it on page 26 of the seminar brochure. I'm looking forward to this. Somehow my interest is tending toward 3-dimensional work as evidenced by the Pink Garden.

Annual Donation Blocks

2010-03-23T06:55:00.000-04:00

Each year Kate Hollifield collects crazy quilt blocks to auction during the Crazy Quilt Society Retreat in Omaha to benefit breast cancer research and build the scholarship fund for the retreat. I've sent a block every year, this is the eleventh, I think. This year I sent two, because the first was only partly my work. It was built on a piece I received years ago in a swap from Dorothy Matheson of Austin, Texas. It was a square of luscious, bright aqua blue fabric with an interesting piece of wide lace across it picturing a neighborhood of houses and trees. She embellished the lace with silk ribbon embroidery. I added fabrics and embellishment for the donation block.
I built the second donation block around a piece of crochet I did some time ago in greens. I had great fun using tall stacks of silver beads for hair around a metal face bead on this one.

Kate and Mona in Minnesota assemble several quilts from all the donated blocks in the weeks before the July retreat. Many thanks are due them.

I've never attended the retreat, but enjoy the vib through reports on the Crazy Quilt listserv at Quiltropolis.com. Kate posts pictures of the blocks as she receives them on her eboard site. They are all six and a half inch blocks and must be in jewel tones or monotone.

Pink Garden Progress

2010-02-13T17:13:00.000-05:00

As promised, here are pictures of the orgami flowers along the bottom of the Pink Garden wall hanging. I used a pattern from Flower Origami by Kumiko Sudo. Coincidentally, Kumiko's books have recently been mentioned enthusiastically on the Crazy Quilt International listserve. This is the only book of hers I have. It merits the enthusiasm in my opinion. The flowers are fabic flowers and her instructions are very clear. I haven't been successful following directions for paper orgami, so I appreciate her descriptive skill a lot.

The brown flowers were purchased, made to fuse to fabric. I embellished them with beads. Getting started on this project feels great!

Snowstorm!! Bracelet Finished.

2010-02-07T11:18:00.000-05:00

Got to blog about this record snowstorm for this area. It's being called snowmagedon, snowzilla or snowpocalypse. Over two feet fell from Friday morning until Saturday evening. Electricity went out for about 2 1/2 hours yesterday. My inside temperature fell from 72 to 64 degrees. I had wood in the fireplace for a nice fire in the evening but I didn't light it. Maybe tonight.
This picture is of the path I dug from the back side door yesterday morning. Another 5 or 6 inches fell and I had to dig out again, but it was easier than tackling the caboodle at once. Here's a picture of my backyard at the same time.

There was plenty of light in my studio for stitching and I have a battery operated radio so I could listen to my favorite Saturday NPR programs while the electricity was out. I finished the Jewel of India bracelet started in a class at my local Embroidery Guild meeting last Monday. This was taught by Susan Elliott from an article in the October/November 2004 issue of Beadwork magazine. My finished product sure shows the faults of a first timer. Not smooth on the edges. I do like the look of herrringbone stitch. I don't wear bracelets very often, but I'm thinking of adapting it to crazy quilt embellishment or bead embroidery. It was really fun during the workshop to see the different colors the students used. This pattern lends itself to some beautiful results. I just picked my colors from the 6 colors of delica beads I had in my stash. I was lucky to have four that went well together.

Today the sun is shining and the snow is beautiful. My good neighbors scooped my sidewalk and I snapped this picture of Jocelyn being silly behind the snow in their front yard. I had my fill of snow growing up in Iowa, but this storm somehow has been nice. It makes a cosy break from the routine, it brings people together to deal with it and it's lovely at the moment.

Design Breakthrough: Pink Garden Wallhanging

2010-01-31T11:35:00.000-05:00

This design has been in my head for probably two years and I've been collecting things to use on it. It will be a wall hanging for the wall beside my big picture window where I have no drapes. I intend it to be "encrusted" with 3-D pink flowers to blend colors with my sofa upholstery. I was having trouble with placing a garden path in the design. I couldn't find a route for it I liked. Here's the breakthrough: there will be no path! I like my vision of it now. I've pieced the background. It doesn't look very pink yet. Wait for the flowers.

The piece measures 24x48 inches. As I look at the picture. I see the background is skewed, but I think that will be corrected by the encrusting. The dark part on the upper right and top is mean to indicate a tree branch which will support dangling wisteria. The brown garden bed on the right is smocked, American style. That took a very long time to do. I used a pattern from Artistic Quiltmaker, 1999 by David K Small. (His books are self-published and are no longer in print as his interest has moved on to art quilting and drawing.) And, yes, the bottom of the Pink Garden is not straight. I intend to make a beaded fringe which will be longer on the left to make a straight bottom of the fringe.

I'm currently blessed with a snowstorm yesterday providing two days of free time during which I've made progress on some of the flowers. More on that later.

Happy New Year!

2010-01-04T16:57:00.000-05:00

I can't believe I've been home five days already and we're four days into the new year and the new decade. I hope it's all good for you.

My holiday trip was a "go with the flow" experience. On the day after the big snow here in DC the Capitol Limited was four hours late out of the city because of frozen switches. It made up time and got me into Chicago in time to make my connection to the California Zephyr, but that too was late, two and a half hours, into Osceola, Iowa. Luckily, it was a window of opportunity for good road conditions. My sister and neice drove 70 miles from Ames to pick me up.

Then it was snow and ice off and on until it, luckily again was clear roads when I came back on the 29th. We were only able to gather about a third of the expected family for the celebration: those south and east of Ames. What with weather and stomach flu, I didn't see any of my little grand-neices and nephews while I was there. The youngest was aged seventeen. I did have a good time with those I did see, though.

Coming home was a bit of an ordeal. The California Zephyr was four hours late and didn't make it to Chicago for my connection. So they unloaded us at Galesburg, Illinois, (I found this photo by Stephen J. Brown online of the Zehpyr in Galesburg in a nicer season) and put us on a Trailways bus to Indianopolis, Indiana, to catch the Cardinal to DC. The bus was tight seating, they ran movies with no personal headphones so I had to block out the sound while reading and the only food was a brief stop at McDonald's during the six hour drive. Luckily I had a Zone bar in my purse. The Cardinal has a wonderful scenic route through the New River valley in West Virginia. This picture was taken at Thurmond, West Virginia, through a dirty window. I somehow didn't get a picture of the actual river, which is renowned for white-water rafting. I enjoyed the scenery, but didn't enjoy trying to sleep in coach because there were no available sleepers on the train. I got home at 9:30 pm on the 30th instead of 1:00 pm as scheduled.

I hope this story doesn't discourage anyone from train travel. It would have been much worse to be stranded in an airport or trying to drive through all that.

I always take needlework with me. This time I finished a crocheted toy train engine for my great-grand nephew Sam. Isn't it something that steam engines are still popular toys and stories fifty years after they were replaced by diesel! A diesel engine just doesn't have the same character. I used a free pattern from Irka in Argentina.

Happy holidays! Let it snow!

2009-12-20T08:40:00.000-05:00

I only said "Let it snow!" because there is no choice. The sun's shining now on the 20+ inches that fell Friday night, all day yesterday, and last night. Here is a sunrise photo into my back yard, with Glenna's tracks. I'm glad I didn't have to make tracks like that to relieve myself.

My good neighbors did some snow shovelling for me yesterday morning, but that filled in by the time I paid them a visit in the afternoon, shovelling my way to their door. They've also promised to help clear my driveway so the dogsitter can park when she comes to take care of Glenna. Do you think they would like Iowa State caps or t-shirts as thank you tokens?

I'm due to catch Amtrak's Capitol Limited at 4:05 pm for my holiday visit with my sisters and their families in Iowa (Ames.) I haven't heard how the storm is effecting Amtrak service. I'm pretty sure I'll be able to get to the station by taxi anyway. I have plenty of needlework ready to work on during the trip, so we'll just flow with any delays.

And, here's a picture of my front yard after the sun is up. Consider it a holiday card wishing you the happiest season and a great new year.

Back From Carolina Beach

2009-12-03T14:43:00.000-05:00

I visited my son Joe and his wife Danielle for Thanksgiving. We went to their beach house at Carolina Beach and had turkey with all the trimmings. My nose ran the whole time because their are new little ones in their family. There are feral cats living in a wooded vacant lot near their beach house. One of the females is somewhat approachable, especially approachable when they feed her. She had kittens and two of them were found wounded, sick and starving. Well, Joe and Danielle took them to the vet, got them treated, and adopted them. Their big master cat, Riley, had to get used to little pests, but he seems to like them now. They're very kitteny, bouncing around playing and adorable. The female is Roscoe and the male Brutis. I love cats despite my allergy.

I didn't take so many photos while I was there. We walked around the town pond and I tried to identify the black ducks there. I think they are scoters.

We attended the Carolina Beach tree lighting and drove out on beach to watch the fireworks at the Wrightsville Beach flotilla festivities. It was a very nice holiday.

I've been working on a couple of gift needlework projects so I can't show you or tell you. One is a crochet project that I nearly finished. I'll show that after it's gifted. Crochet is a good activity to do while riding the train. The other is an ornament for exchange at my crazy quilt group holiday party, but it turns out no one else got their's finished either. We've cancelled the exchange, so you'll have to wait a year to see that one.

Now, I'm busy getting ready for my trip to visit my sisters and their families in Ames, Iowa, December 20-30. I'm going there by train, too, so need to make myself some needlework kits to work on. More on that later.

Embroidered Lettering Class Project

2009-11-20T19:37:00.000-05:00

Here is the completed embroidered lettering class project. I enhanced the print on the fabric and mounted the piece on an oval card with a beaded edging to join the backing fabric.

Lettering on Fabic Workshop

2009-11-04T13:44:00.000-05:00

You must read Susan Elliott's report on the workshop sponsored by our local Embroidery Guild chapter on embroidered lettering. Not only was the workshop great, but Susan is a master at description and at photography. I thought I could surface embroidery well, but I learned I could do better. Here is a picture of the workshop project, partly done, compared to the name tag I made a few years ago. I love the improvement resulting from using teacher Canby Robertson's technique. I know I will be using it more in the future.

I am going to San Francisco!

2009-10-07T16:53:00.000-04:00

I preregistered for the EGA National Seminar in San Francisco, September 5-10, 2010! I've wanted to tour San Francisco for an age and also attend the National Seminar, so how could I pass this up, National Seminar in San Francisco. I'll go by AMTRAK, which I love. I'll go to Los Angeles first and take the Coast Starlight by the ocean route that I missed during my summer 2008 trip because a bridge was out. I'll return by the California Zephyr which I've ridden only as far as Salt Lake City. Other details are yet to be planned, but I'm already excited. I whole year of anticipation ahead of me.

If I get my first choices in classes, I'll be taking two two-day stumpwork courses: California Poppies by Lynn Payette and Garland of Berries and Ladybug by Jane Nickolas. Pictures are here, numbers 309 and 107. Thanks, Susan, for recommending Jane Nickolas. I hope you will be there, too.

On a more stay-at-home note, I got out my every-once-in-a-while, between-other-projects, may-never-finish house quilt to work on during EGA chapter meetings this past week end. This will eventually be crowded with children playing. In the meantime, I worked on embroidering and couching fibers onto the tree trunk to make it look like bark. I needed more brown fibers, so off I walked this morning to my local yarn shop, A Tangled Skein. What a pleasure to see and feel the yummy yarns loaded on their shelves. The large brown ball is Savoy 52% silk, 48% merino wool; the small brown Small Balls, 100% wool; the brown skein is Bonsai 97% bamboo, 3 % nylon; and the green ball is Wool Bam Boo, 50% wool, 50% bamboo. This is a mainly knitting shop, so I can't expect it, but I sure would like to be able to buy embroidery sized skeins of these yarns. Never mind, I'll share.

I also bought yarn for another pair of crocheted socks for a holiday gift. More on that as I get going on them.

Solar Hot Water Photos, Beaded Ornaments

2009-09-26T18:46:00.000-04:00

Here are the promised pictures of my solar water heater. The collecting tubes contain water which is heated by the sun and circulated in exchange coils through the water in the 55 gallon tank. There's a small tank in the attic for the water to drain out of the tubes when heat is not needed. That keeps them from freezing at night in the winter. The water is mixed with cold at the outlet to the house to keep the temperature no higher then 130 degrees F. There's a monitor that tells me the temperature at the top of the collectors and the top and bottom of the tank. Cool. It's all working great, although I need to remember to run the dishwasher while the sun is shining. I don't even have the back up heater turned on.

Back to needlework. I've made two beaded flaming chalice ornaments to sell at my church auction in November. The blue one is based on a stained-glass window in our community hall. The other is the most common image used as a symbol of our denomination, Unitarian-Universalism. These are about 3 inches in diameter and are lightly padded. The green back on the yellow one is done in size 15 seed beads. That took a while!

I'm Back From Maine

2009-09-07T16:17:00.000-04:00

I got back from a week and a half in Maine on Thursday. I was visiting my daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter in Portland, running Grandma Bobbi camp for Lorelei's last week of summer before beginning first grade. She was ready for the leap into it.

We had a good time: went to Cunningham's used books, enjoyed her first soccer practice (she slept in her uniform), made a couple of dips successfully from my Simple Salsas and Dips recipe book, read chapters from The Little House Treasury that she selected from Cunningham's, bought a cross stitch book, thread, and canvass and had a beginner's lesson.

There was worry going on, too. Her other grandmother who lives a block and a half away from them, just learned she has cancer spread through her body, probably ovarian. She began chemotherapy while I was there. Lorelei picked a pattern from her cross stitch book of a kitten and mouse together and the word "peace." I worked it into a card for Grandma Carol from the two of us. Forgot to take a picture. The situation is an extra shock because Carol is an active and vital woman, designed and built with her partner a cabin at their camping property at Stowe near the White Mountain National Forest just last summer. She's a needleworker, too and has taken up weaving in the past few years. She made me this beautiful scarf.

We (Leslie, Bob, Lorelei and I) made a day trip to Stowe to pick blackberries and harvest vegetables from Carol's garden. It was a perfectly beautiful day. The blackberries were delicious. The mosquitos were scarce. We had a nice supper around the fire pit.

On the trip up to Maine on Amtrak, I crocheted on my second sock. Didn't finish, but when Lorelei saw the pattern book, she wanted some, too. So, we went to the yarn shop selected some yarn. I got a good start on a pair for her in powder blue. I sure hope they fit.

I celebrated my birthday on September 5 with solar hot water. The installation was finally finished the day before. Sorry, no pictures today. It works wonderfully. I washed two loads of clothes today under cloudy skies and hardly made a drop in the temperature in the tank. I suppose I should do solar drying, too, but hanging the clothes out is more than I want to do. Besides, they don't need ironing when they come out of the drier.
It's been busy times and now I'd better get busy putting together my embroidery guild chapter newsletter.
P.S. I just got a call from my daughter. Grandma Carol died this morning, only three weeks from the day she learned she had cancer. What a loss! She was a wonderful, caring woman and will be missed by many people.

Earrings from Accessories of Old

2009-08-16T11:17:00.000-04:00

Last Saturday I made what I thought was my last visit to Accessories of Old. Look at these clip-on earrings! I don't wear jewelry much. I bought these to take apart for embellishing quilts, and I will do that. In the meantime, don't they look good. They are plastic and vintage, of course. Maybe I'll wear them to my next crazy quilt group meeting.

Regarding Accessories of Old, there is some possible good news. They have a possible new location in Frederick, Maryland. Lisa is looking for feedback at her blog about it. I would go to Frederick to brouse and buy. What about you?

Long and Short Stitch Tutorial

2009-08-11T17:33:00.000-04:00

I can't remember where I learned of Mary Corbet's Long and Short Stitch Tutorial, but I'm glad of it. Motifs filled with long and short stitch are some of my favorites. Here is an early example from my first crazy quilt. It's my interpretation of the celtic-style sculpture of a Roman sun god found in the Roman baths at Bath, England. I used the drawing from the cover of a book I bought in the gift shop there.

What a special place those baths are. I like the story of their discovery by Bladud, eldest son of the King of Britain. He came home from studying in Athens, afflicted with leprosy. To avoid being confined in quarantine, he ran away to the countryside and became a pig herder. One winter day, some of his pigs wondered away and came back covered in mud. He wondered why they were wallowing in winter, when they usually only did so in summer to keep cool. He investigated and found steam and smoke arising from a warm mud wallow. After some days, he noticed that the wallowing pigs were free of scabby skin. So, he bathed himself in the mud and was cured of his leprosy. He returned home and succeded his father as king. He built temples at Bath in gratitude for his cure. Hmm, I think those pigs deserve to be showcased in embroidery for their part in this story. Stay tuned.

First, however, I'm following Mary Corbet's tutorial. I'm sure I can learn something new to make my long and short stitches better.

A Pennant Thank You for Accessories of Old

2009-08-01T20:45:00.000-04:00

I'm very grateful to Accessories of Old, the vintage store in Bethesda my crazy quilt group is crazy about, for the kindness and generosity they have shown us. We learned recently that the store will close. Although their stock will be available from their online store, that is just not the same as shopping among all the beautiful things, nicely displayed. We are very sad.

I beaded them this two-sided pennant as a thank you gift. I thought they could display it in the store to show a use of their gorgeous beads. I hope they'll find another use for it.

I Made an Ornament

2009-07-14T19:01:00.000-04:00

I'm in a private ornament swap with a friend. I finished hers today. Her online name is Dragonpatch, hence the motif on the front. The machine embroidered dragon on the back I got in a dragon swap many years ago.

Scrap Block Quilt is Finished

2009-07-05T11:03:00.000-04:00

I finished the scrap block quilt. It's about 24 inches square. I like it. While adding embellishments, I decided to put words in a patch. The ones that came to me, for reasons I don't fathom, were "Always Coming Home." This is the title of one of my favorite Ursula K. LeGuin novels. It's based in the northwest of the USA in the far future in a culture developed after a catastrophe. I AM a science fiction reader. The culture is somewhat based on native American

cultures in which gift giving is important, especially gifts made by the giver, including poetry and stories. One such gift is a poem ending in the line "Be always coming home." I printed the poem onto fabric and put it on the back of the quilt. To finish the quilt, I used the French facing technique Allison Aller described in her CQMagOnline article as I planned and It worked beautifully.

I hope you have had a wonderful 4th of July celebration. Glenna and I went for a walk in Greenbelt Park. It's a small forest with a campground in the middle, inside the the Capitol Beltway. We didn't check out the campground to see how many were taking advantage of such a convenient spot as a base for visiting the festivities in Washington, DC. But, we did see deer. Glenna was off the lead and she took off in chase. I feared I'd have a hard time finding her, but she returned when they got away and, showing her hound heritage, she excitedly started tracking the scent. This was her first trip to this kind of park. She loved it. I had a job getting her out of the car when we got home.

Beader's Workshop Closing

2009-06-18T06:49:00.000-04:00

The second local small business I liked is closing. Darn the economy!

The first was Vertigo Books in College Park (Maryland). They closed in January. I bought books there as gifts for all my grand and great-grand nieces and nephews in December last year, but it wasn't enough to save the store.

Now the Beader's Workshop on Highway 1 in Hyattsville is closing. It moved there from Bowie (Maryland) probably about a year ago, hoping for a market from the developing Hyattsville Arts District. Maybe that was a little premature. The shop caters to jewelry makers, but there were some things I could use for bead embroidery. I went yesterday to take of the 50% off, going-out-of-business sale. Here's what I bought.

My bead boxes are about full, so I'd better stop this stash building until I've beaded a few more things.

One Sock Finished on Way to Carolina Beach

2009-06-12T08:12:00.000-04:00

It's nice to crochet while riding Amtrak, so I finished one of my socks on the way to visit my son and his wife. They live in Apex, North Carolina, near Raleigh, but we went directly from the station to their beach house in Carolina Beach, near Wilmington. It's about a two and a half hour drive. They have had the house about a year and have been doing a major remodeling job, now done. They have also been redoing the landscaping, still ongoing. It's all very attractive and comfortable. In addition to shopping at nurseries and working in the yard, the visit included making and eating a delicious pot of shrimp boil and grilling cheeseburgers on the beach in Freeman Park. It was rainy off and on, but the sun was out nicely for the beach. There is a big colony of feral cats in Carolina Beach. Joe and Danielle have a favorite that they are feeding and trying to befriend. She's a small female they named Silver, who has already had kittens. It's too bad she isn't spayed along with all the others.

Other needlework underway, besides crocheting the second sock, includes finishing embroidery on the border of the scrap block piece, making a holiday ornament for an exchange with a friend, and working further on my beaded sewing kit. For the latter, crazy quilt friend Maureeen gave me a cigar box from her vast stockpile. (She has a cigar connoiseur husband.) It's a perfect size to hold the covered needlebook, the pin keep and the other things I've collected for it and still fit in my project bag. For the scrap block piece, I plan to use the French facing technique Allison Aller described on her blog, referring to her article in CQMagOnline. I'm excited, hoping this will be a technique to rescue me from my poor binding corner skills.

3-D Flower project finished

2009-05-30T15:28:00.000-04:00

It's done! That was fun.

I did make an iris for the lower right corner. It was an adventure. I decided to try one of Allison Aller's techniques that she published in the CQMagOnline, April, 2009 issue: making millinery flowers. Actually, I can't claim to have used her technique. I modified it to use the materials I had. I made ovals of white silk charmeuse. Then, not having the glue Allison used, I sprayed the ovals heavily with starch and pressed. I used three for one flower. On two ovals I streaked yellow pastel on the center end of the oval to about the middle. Not having a ball-shaped tool to shape the fabric, I used the tip of my iron on a cloth bag of rice (not having any sand.) Then I gathered the center end of the ovals with a few stitches. The two lower petals needed a row of yellow fuzzy stuff, stamens with pollen? I made those with Ghiordes knot or Turkey rug knot. using one strand of DMC floss. I found the starch didn't completely prevent ravelling of the silk, so I used fray check around the edges. Then I sewed the petals onto the block with the bottom two skewed to the side. With ribbon stem and leaves added, the iris is done. I'm sure this would have worked better if I had used archival bookbinding glue, a millinery tool and a sand bed, but who could wait to get those things.

So here is the finished block. It has another flower added besides the eight Allison taught and the iris. Notice some sweet William's in pink fused angelina fibers. I traded this color with Robin Atkins for some of the orangy color I had in my kit for the dogwood. And, Susan, I did make the waste canvas based butterfly. It's cute and I did want to use all the techniques Allie taught. That was a great workshop. Thanks to everyone who made it happen.

Allie's workshop

2009-05-11T10:30:00.000-04:00

Oh no! Allie (Aller)'s workshop was over last Wednesday. She and Susan (Elliot) went to NYC afterward, then Allie flew home and both of them have updated their blogs before I reported on the great time I had. You must check Susan's blog for her close up pictures of Allie's remarkable quilt displayed at the workshop.

The workshop was on three-dimensional floral embellishment of crazy quilts. Allie is a gardener and has invented ways to represent the blooms from her garden in needlework. She introduced us to beautiful uses for silk ribbon, wired ribbon, silk shiffon, thick silk thread, angelina fiber, felted fabric, rick rack and more. I've been working on my class sample this week in addition to editing the Constellation Chapter, EGA newsletter. I finally got the latter out for proofing this morning, so I have time to give you this report. Here's a picture of my class project.

There is room for more flowers on it. My iris are blooming. Azaleas, too, but I really love the iris. Do you think I can figure out a way to make a 3-D version of iris for that lower right corner?

It was fun to meet Allie who is active on the crazy quilt listservs I follow and is an editor and contributor of CQMagOnline. Her enthusiasm and warmth were contagious during the workshop.

I almost forgot to mention our visit to Accessories of Old on the Sunday before the workshop. The proprietors opened especially for our chapter of EGA and our special guests, Allie and Robin Atkins, beader extraordinaire who gave us a workshop last year. Robin traveled all the way from the islands of Washington state for this workshop and a reunion with the friends she met last year. This shop is something else, loaded with vintage beads, buttons, ribbons, jewelry, hats, lace, and more delightful things. Susan blogged about this a while back. (I won one of the cards of buttons she had for a giveaway on that blog!) During this pre-Allie visit, I bought more buttons and beads. So gorgeous.

I am all fired up with inspiration for more projects. Oh no!

Scrap block embellished! Solar hot water!

2009-04-30T14:30:00.000-04:00

Whew! I thought I wouldn't finish embellishing my scrap block for the challenge on the CQ International listserv - but I did. All the embellishments are thread embroidery to maintain an old-fashioned look and to keep it flat to use as a table cloth. The block is 12 inches square and will have wide borders to make the cloth 24" square.

I just signed a contract for installation of a solar water heater. Turns out my roof is very good for collecting solar energy and the panels won't show from the front of the house. The system uses my current water heater for storage and backup heat. Hay, everybody, this is the time to invest in this. The federal, state (Maryland) and county incentives together reduce the price by about 84% for my system (40 gallons a day usage). Bye-bye to a big chunk of natural gas use from my budget and CO2 footprint.

Family visit, new blocks, and capturing rocks in thread

2009-04-06T13:55:00.000-04:00

My sister, aunt, son, daughter-in-law, daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter all visited for the Cherry Blossom Festival! I live in suburban Washington, DC. I had to put some of them up in a motel, but the visit was wonderful and so were the cherry blossoms. We toured the Smithsonian museums, rode the tour trolley, toured the National Cathedral,ate lunch in it's garden and made an auto excursion to Leesburg, Virginia. My 84 year-old aunt and 5 1/2 year-old grandaughter both kept up with all the walking. In Leesburg, besides lunch, we visited a thrift shop and a couple of antique stores. I bought a beautiful scarf in the thrift shop that I expected to cut up for crazy quilting, but I don't know. It may serve as a table cover instead, at least until I need a piece from it to exactly fit a crazy quilt block. It's 54 inches square.

Before the visit from my family, I made two crazy quilt blocks in greens. The first was in preparation for a workshop by Allison Aller at my embroidery guild, Constellation Chapter, EGA. She is giving two workshops, one on curved piecing of crazy quilts and the second on floral embellishment. I'm taking only the second so I made a block with curved piecing to be used there. The second is a donation block in support of breast cancer research for auction at the annual Crazy Quilt Seminar in Omaha, Nebraska.

My friend Susan reported on her blog about her trip to New York City's Central Park. She speculated on how to translate the many rock formations there into needlework. Well, I tried. My daughter, when she lived in Manhattan, was a rock climber. I took some pictures of her climbing with a friend in Central Park. In my first crazy quilt I translated one of those pictures onto a block representing her interests. I can't say I was satisfied with the result, but here's a picture as a challange for you to surpass.

Sewing kit pictures

2009-03-12T10:24:00.000-04:00

I'm enjoying a cooler, but sunshiny day. I played some fetch with Glenna. She had her annual visit to the vet Tuesday and he said she's overweight. Sigh. I hate to have a hungry dog around begging for food. I learned she does like frozen green beans for a treat. And, more fetch should be on the agenda. We walk 30-40 minutes a day already.

Here are the promised pictures of the sewing kit progress. The needlebook cover and a thread cutter on a necklace are finished.

Scrap Block, Beaded Sewing Kit, and Socks

2009-03-07T19:28:00.000-05:00

As if I need a new project. Yes, crocheted socks! I bought a book last summer in Oregon. I finally bought yarn and here is the beginning.

I can hardly wait to see if they fit when I am finished with them.

Now to update my other two projects:

Here are more motifs on my scrap block. I think I'm going to start the seam embellishments and then see if more motifs are needed. I worked on this during our crazy quilt group meeting today. It is so inspiring and lots of fun to meet with these ladies.

The beaded sewing kit now has the needlebook cover finished and a necklace made for a thread cutter. Stay tuned for pictures.

Projects: Beaded sewing kit and Scrap Crazy Quilt Block

2009-02-22T11:24:00.000-05:00

This a rainy, cold day. A good day for working on my two projects, but first I'll show my progress so far.

I finished a pinkeep or radial pincushion for the beaded sewing kit. I followed the pattern in Volume 07, Issue 4 of CQMagOnline by Cindy Thury Smith: http://cqmagonline.com/vol07iss04/articles/860/index.shtml. The keep is 3 inches in diameter.

I've finished three embroidered motifs on the crazy quilted scrap block. I'm remembering how much I enjoy doing them after concentrating on beading for a few months.

Now to walk Glenna. She's bugging me to go.

Yellow and green teddy bear

2009-02-19T07:08:00.000-05:00

My friend Ken got my laptop working, so I transferred the picture of my yellow and green teddy bear to my pc, and here it is! It was a gift for my great-grand nephew, Alex.

This is one of the projects I completed during my cross country train trip last summer. I made several kits to work on while traveling. The others were Christmas ornaments.

My trip started in Washington, DC, went through Chicago to Los Angeles with a stop to tour the Grand Canyon. This was my first visit there and was breathtaking no matter how many photos I'd seen of the place. But the biggest thrill was seeing California condors flying wild in the canyon. I remember my dismay when they took the last condor out of the wild in the 1980s for captive breeding. It worked! The 60 in the canyon are about half those now flying free.

Then I visited a friend near San Diego, another in Portland, Oregon and back across country to Portland, Maine for my granddaughter's fifth birthday party. I was gone a month and 4 days. What a pleasure!

Here are pictures of two of the ornaments. The other one was for the gift exchange in my crazy quilt group and was drawn by Susan Elliott, who posted about it on her blog: http://plays-with-needles.blogspot.com/2008/12/bear-hugs-for-christmas.html

Two current projects

2009-02-14T14:41:00.000-05:00

I'm working on two projects, one beading and one crazy quilt.

The beading project is a cover for a needle book. Mary Tod introduced this book to our crazy quilt group. It describes and provides size guides for various types of needles and has a piece of wool felt adjoining to keep your examples of the type. The pages are 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 inches, comb bound. The title is The Needle Index, published by Valley Quail Chapter, EGA (ValleyQuail@comcast.net.) Our group was so taken with the book we made a multiple order to supply most of us. I'm planning to make the book part of a new carry-along sewing kit.

I'm using as base fabric a piece of muslin that I indigo dyed last summer during a festival at the National Textile Museum in Washington, DC. I trust I'll have enough to decorate some additional pieces for the kit.

The crazy quilt project is a result of my joining the crazyquiltinternational Yahoo group at Susan Elliott's suggestion. She's also in our crazy quilt group. Someone on the group reported they had made a block from the little scraps of fabric left over from other projects. I was inspired to make one of my own and make a challenge to the group to do the same. Here is the 12 inch block I made. It's posted in the group gallery and several people said it looks old fashioned. So, I've decided to embellish it totally in thread embroidery to keep it old-fashioned looking.

See my purple teddy bear.

2009-02-10T10:05:00.000-05:00

Yes, I'm happy to be showing off the second teddy bear I've made from this pattern. It's for my great-grand neice, Isabel.

The first one I made last summer for Isabel's cousin Alex. Photo to follow.