I found this in my draft folder. Even though Thanksgiving has come and gone, I am still so very thankful. (I even finished a few more pieces since then.)

I am so thankful for everything in my life. My friends, my ability to make a living and take care of myself, my loving family and my health. I spent Thanksgiving weekend finishing or at least mostly finishing - quilting projects I started within the past 2 years, patterns and fabric I bought years ago but never started, hand finishing bindings on wall hangings, thread painting pieces started some time ago that I wasn't sure what to do with. I am quite pleased with myself. I have these things hanging all over the place....First thought is that it is two days off from work and time to sleep late and do what I want when I want but the more reflective time I spend, the moreI am thankful for all that I have and all that I am able to do with my hands and my mind.

Back to Life

I had a breath of fresh air this week. I went to a meeting of the Twisted Stitchers, something I haven't done in months. It felt good to have people excited to see you and to be excited to see them. Tonya, Carol, Sharon and Judy were there working on projects for the upcoming Dallas Quilt Show. I brought a project from the Prayers and Squares Quilt Ministryt to work on. I managed to only sew parts of 3 blocks the wrong way.

The quilt store where we meet, Quilt Country, is sponsoring a cruise to Alaska next summer featuring Carol as the main instructor. I am giving this serious consideration... I left our meeting inspired to do something, anything creative. I decided to make a wall hanging of the Man in the Maze. My friend Lorraine bought me a bracelet while on vacation in Sedona. This was my inspiration for the quilt. I was hoping to make it for the 12X12 challenge but it is too big. I made two patterns so maybe I will make the smaller one for the challenge. We will see - there is a boatload of cutting that gives you something like this:

but then you can change this garbled bunch of fabric into a positive

and a negative. They are fused and waiting for finishing work.

Ahhh! Feels so good to blog...

Shoot Me Now!!

Okay, so it is Wednesday and I am catching up on some mindless television. I thought Toddlers and Tiaras was disturbing but now I am watching a show called Truth Be Told. This week the show is about crazy, obsessive pet owners. Eleven cats! Yikes - that's a lot of poop scooping - and their names - Georgie Porgie Puddin Pie-come on. And this lady with this monkey - okay so he is a service monkey - and she has agoraphobia - but a monkey, in a stoller, wearing matching clothes - you just cannot domesticate everything. For grins, I looked up the definition of agoraphobia - whatcha think - a monkey for comfort - embarrassing situations??? Thank goodness the Health Dept. stepped in and won't allow 'Richard' the monkey in stores with food. Somehow I don't think agoraphobia is the worst of her problems. Did she not hear about the pet monkey attack that practically killed a woman???
Now - a Pageant Dog - and the owner wipes the dog's ass - I would go to my grave before admitting to something like that on tv. The dog has a better wardrobe than the owner.

I don't want any animal lovers to be upset with me - I love animals, have had dogs in my life and currently have a kitty - I just don't get anyone over the age of 10 dressing their pets in 'outfits' and letting animals climb on counters where you cook and eat - after all animals have their own special way of 'cleaning' themselves and I don't want those lips anywhere near my food. Hmmm...Swine Flu comes to mind... Oh stop it - now there are balloons and decorations (what else but Hello Kitty) for the cat birthday party - and catnip (kitty pot), look at them, they have the munchies now. Now the monkey lady wants to sue the county because she cannot bring the monkey into the grocery store. Let me change the station

What I really wanted to say in this post is - knitting is taking up my time. I am working on a Noni pattern called Urban Daily Adventure Bag. I am directing my creative energies in a different direction for a bit - kinda like cross training.

Happy August!

Since my last post, I have been busy doing things I love to do. I spent a day at United Cerebral Palsy , helping the clients celebrate the Fourth of July. This is the second or third year we have done this at work. We started with a cookout, a craft project and ended with a parade around the facility. I made a few new friends that I look forward to seeing again. I also spent quite a bit of time and energy on team for another ACTS retreat. Most normal people would have been done after the retreat on Mother's Day weekend but I have never been considered normal, even on my best day. I promised my friend Jessica that I would assist on team when her church had their first retreat and I try to honor my promises when possible. And as if I hadn't had enough, I was asked to be a co-director for the next retreat given by my church - sigh. I'm going to take 2010 off.
I managed to make a couple of art pieces. One was rejected by the Texas Fiber Arts Federation for their annual show - phooey.

I made a couple of small pieces using techniques from Kelli Perkins Quilting Arts Workshop - Stitch Imagery. I don't have pics on this computer so I will post them later. I also decided to knit and felt a couple of purses. I was inspired by a simple, yet beautiful purse Suzanne Morgan brought to one of our DAFA Board meetings. True to my nature, I had to try making one for myself. Here is the felted purse. I will needle felt a design later. I was very happy with the results and was inspired to make a cell phone holder. I used a pattern from Pursenalities Plus. The amount of shrinkage amazes me:

Pre-felted piece, look at how much room there is.

After felting and with snap closure.

Pre-felted piece

Finished piece with heart shape covering the magnet snap.

Life's a journey....

Terri and Sue have a Summer Giveaway of some of their hand dyes, books and other great stuff. Check out Two Creative Studios to sign up for their newsletter and to read more about it.

Still Here

I am still alive and kicking and working on a few pieces. Life has gotten in the way a bit but I have managed to start working on a few new techniques.

I have created this little ditty for our Art Swap tonight at the Dallas Area Fiber Artists meeting. I used a technique I learned on a QA Workshop video to make the flowers and I am pretty happy with the way they turned out. I waited until last night to start this even while I had other 'starts' laying all over the place. I didn't have time to think so I 'did' and I like the results. When will I stop overthinking every single thing I do????? It is a small (4 X 9) felted piece with flowers made of sparkle organza. Some other techniques I have been experimenting with are turning photographs into small artful pieces. These are in progress. The fabric version is in UFO status. This photo
became this watercolor piece which will become a cloth piece.

This watercolor piece started out like thisStill working ...

Collage Mania is On!

Collage Mania is on!
Go - buy - support - the American Cancer Society. There are still some beautiful pieces available. Today, the collages are available for a minimum contribution of $40. This is such a wonderful way to raise money where everyone benefits - the American Cancer Society receives the funds, the artist gains exposure and a feeling of community, and the donor receives a piece of art.
Collage Mania will be open until midnight.

Tote that Mat

Working on making a tote to carry supplies to class. Now to find a class...

front of tote, big blue square is a pocket to hold square ruler

inside of tote, entire length will contain cutting board and there are double set of pockets on either side

These are lousy pictures, hopefully the next set will be better.

I finished my entry for Collage Mania and got my picture in on time. I made a series of two and decided to keep one for my collection.I will post pictures later. I screened some of the fabric using the screens I purchased from Ginny Eckley during a DAFA meeting. I had a lot of fun and will post pictures of the screened fabric later. I really anguished over these pieces and I am not sure why. In addition to some screened fabric the collage pieces have some fabric beads and Chinese coins.
Bought a couple of new books: Mixed Emulsions Altered Techniques Photographic by Angela Cartwright (yes the one from Lost in Space and Sound of Music fame) and Exhibition 36 Mixed Demonstrations+Explorations.

Merry March

Once again, I have over committed and blogging has fallen to the bottom of the list. Strange how one of my most therapeutic activities I don't find the time for.
I did completed my leaf for the International Fiber Collaborative 'Interdependence' tree project. I found a piece of needle felted wool I made from a recycled Goodwill jacket and cut it into a ginkgo leave. I fused it to a piece of black felt and stitched the veins and outline in metallic thread- added my name and was ready to go.

Attended the Dallas Quilt Celebration and was happy to see the work and ribbons of my friends Tonya, Lu, Deborah and Judy. This year I attended the mini auction and did I ever have a fun time! I set a limit and found a few pieces I would go over the limit for and I waited. Here comes piece number 1 and the opening bid was more than half of my limit - it was over before it started for me - damn! I will start saving now for next year.

Tonight I made rosaries at the church. We dismantled necklaces and reassembled them into beautiful rosaries. No pics - maybe next time.

Done!

Finished, Done, Finit!!! Last weekend I put the finishing touches on our Black History Month building presence displays for work. It is amazing what you can do when you don't think about being tired and you want to deliver something you feel is spectacular. The theme this year is Education = Inform, Improve, Inspire and it was my job to translate it into something visual.

This is what we came up with- 6.5 ft. tall by 2 ft. wide display cubes. The 'we' is me and Bill Wegener from Color Enlargement. Karen joined us and the three of us spent Friday evening, Saturday and Sunday building and assembling the boxes and the lobby display. Everything fell into place and come Monday morning, there were 9 display cubes strategically placed around the building. They are a big hit - our building needed something different and light to brighten it up. Here is a picture of the lobby display - the faces across the top are of our Quiet Historians. I missed a live viewing of the Super Bowl so I watched it in about 30 minutes Sunday night. Looks like it was a good game.

Before starting work on the display, I managed to complete a small piece for the 'Rock On' challenge sponsored by Quilting Arts. I've always thought the idea of stage diving was pretty cool, trusting all of those outstretched hands...

Some of my favorite photos. My thanks to the many photographers who shared their work on the web.

Saturday

Saturday, I tookDeborah Boschert's class 'Small Art Quilts: Designing a Series' sponsored by the Denton Quilt Guild. Deborah with class samples

My theme word for the day was 'balance' and this was a great way to start a day of creating.

Tonya's handiwork

Jo with all of her floss in a mound

Jo's handiwork

Becky Jackson

Mickey

Johanna

I decided to challenge myself by working in colors I normally don't use - the dreaded blues and purples. I was so uncomfortable without a red, orange, yellow or green, I finally broke down and added a piece of red and ditched one of the lighter blues. I used a bird as my common image which is another challenge because circles and squares are my comfort zone. So now I have some abstract pieces that I like more today than Saturday. They are not finished but here is a look at where I am now. I worked on the series today, along with a busines card holder the I have pre-sold to a friend.

Oh yeah, did I forget to mention that '24' is back with Jack Bauer and his man bag? There was even a techie duel between Chloe and an FBI techie played by Janeane Garofalo...pretty darn good although I think Chloe can kick anybody's ass. She is awesome on the keyboard, can backdoor into any computer system and has got skills with an automatic weapon. There is even a female president this year. I think '24' is ahead of it's time.

What's really on my mind - Inauguration Day! I am so very excited about tomorrow and what it means to the country. I am hopeful that we will pull together as a nation and begin to dig ourselves out of this mess we are in, knowing it will take time. I have programmed everything in my house to record the events...wonder if I can still find an Obama bobblehead,

Computer Blues

Let us all pray that my computer can be fixed...

Thank you Tonya for the beautiful birthday card.

my friends are so good to me...

BABY LOVE

Fat little fingers
Chubby little toes
Angelic little faces
The cutest baby clothes

The joys of bringing baby home
Will start on that very first day
But after about a week or so
You’ll be begging – ‘someone, please show me the way’

Yea, sure, they start off all sweet and sleepy
All knotted up in an itty bitty ball
Your hormones may even make you a bit weepy
As you envision when he first starts to crawl!

Your family – they will stay for a while
Support they will hand out in droves
Be brave when they leave – BIG SMILE
Now you have to wash all the clothes!

Oh, you will still have the fat little fingers
And the cute, chubby little baby toes
But if you don’t have a nanny named Inga
You’ll be the one wiping snot from his nose,

And the spit-up from off your shoulder,
And the poop - ‘cause the diaper was loose
But…, You will tighten the diaper and get bolder!
You will move up from milk to the juice!

You’ll marvel at all of his parts
So perfect in every single way
It’s the love that you have for your baby
That will always make for a wonderful day!

Congratulations!

Someone actually got a little choked up when I read this.
Today we hosted a baby shower for John and Ya-Fang. They are having their first child - a baby boy - in ten days. They are young and cute and unaware of the love that will move in and take over their hearts. This poem was one of my gifts to them - a special request from my friend Karen. Art comes in all forms.
.

Happy New Year!

I wish you a happy, healthy, creative 2009. Having said that, I am still not over the flu/cold/virus or whatever it is that has a hold of my head. I had to give up the NyQuil because I was waking up disoriented and it would take all day to get my head right again. I have been on vacation since Christmas Eve so that has helped.

I have a wonderful family and fantastic friends. They went to great lengths to make sure my birthday was fun. Most things did not happen as planned and I still had the best day. We had Thai food (twice),

partners in crime Karen and Camille

took a trip to IKEA - was overwhelmed by the crowd and left empty-handed and tried twice to see the new Clint Eastwood movie - Gran Torino. Who knew the movie was so popular? We toasted with Pomegrante and Apple Martinis birthday cake, ice cream and Martinis

and strolled around the Shops at Legacy. My good friend Linda had two dozen roses (beautiful, two toned roses) for me and an inspiring card with some great horoscope messages. This was the first time I went out with my daughter where we were able to toast to each other - I love it!

I worked on several pieces,

part of my empty nest

made some gelatin prints, a leopard print camera case for my daughter's new camera.

Tomorrow will be a sad day - I go back to work after a week and a half off and Camille heads back to the chilly northeast. Her leaving is the saddest - we had a great time and I am proud of the young lady she has become.

Liz and Cam - 80 degrees in January!

She is going to spend some time with her Grandma in NYC and I am comforted that she will still be with family.