OKAY, WE ARE GLOATING!

It's happy days for Cheeseheads........

Packers 55 - Bears 14

The Bears didn't score till the 3rd quarter....when Rodgers with 6 TD's was rested and Matt Flynn came in for the remainder of the game.

 Our two heroes.....Jordy Nelson (amazing back to back catches!!!) Rodgers.....  That's not to diminish the outstanding play by the rest of the Packers.....honestly, we are all smiling......

PATCHWORK PROJECT

The indecisive struggle I'm having about how to finish my latest felt piece did not have a miraculous solution overnight.  However, I'm leaning more and more toward allowing it to be a stand alone piece.....as it was originally intended. 

It's a good thing I work on a number of projects simultaneously as I'll be doing some passive designing on that piece while mindlessly stitching a lap quilt.

We recently did some furniture shifting in our great room.....lack of ample seating has kept this chair in play....though the light fabric stands out too much in the room. I selected this lap quilt from my stash to help tone it down, however 'the husband' doesn't like the busy pattern. (Note...he's not the artist in the family...but is someone who always seems to have an opinion anyway!*!)

 The room features mostly blues with red accents.  Okay....I'm going with a simple non-pattern and lots of red.  Being kinda a control freak......I've cut a bunch of patches and am arranging them piece by piece, vertical row by vertical row to achieve what I hope is a nice balance.  

 When about 3 rows are arranged....they are stitched vertically and I begin the process all over again.  The rows are narrow....only 3" finished....hummm....I should have made then wider as I'm tiring of the process already and my fingers are itching for beads! 

GO PACKERS........CRUSH THE BEARS!!!!

INDECISION!?!

I'm feeling pressured to get this piece mounted and ready to sell.  But, it's pressure I'm putting on myself for no good reason.  Perhaps a week away from studio projects is the reason.... I already have a large inventory of pieces for my gallery shop....so what's the rush??

I managed to find a canvas wrapped frame in a suitable size.....and in short order secured a thin layer of batting to it.

 Next I located my stash of black silk noil in the first place I looked! (Sorry...it looks grey here.)  In order to keep this rather flimsy fabric on grain, I like to mark the required size with basting.

 Moving at warp speed now.....the fabric is temporarily positioned on the frame, topped with the wool piece.  YUCK.....I don't think I like it.  It seems so menacing.....or perhaps that's just my take at this moment.

 Now I'm really second guessing myself......so I haul out other options for the background.  This looks better in the photo than in person......scratch it from consideration.

 Here's a dark grey hand-dyed cotton as an option.

And now a slightly lighter version.  At the moment....none are really exactly what I had in mind.  Which is such a bummer as I wanted to finish it today....instead I've taken photos and fled to my computer to have a little pity party.  I'm going to ponder a bit more....maybe I won't mount it on a frame after all.......decisions, decisions.......

CHAMPLAIN VALLEY QUILT GUILD TRIP

I returned yesterday afternoon from my 2nd to last travel teaching trip......conflicted about my decision to retire after spending days with such wonderful quilters and my exceptionally great hostesses.

However, I won't easily forget the trip getting to Vermont which was so stressful (not a suprise with 3 flights) but the added drama to 1 mechanical, 1 delay waiting for crew, a sprint literally from one end of an airport to another to catch my connection almost takes the joy out of traveling.  NOT to mention, screaming babies, a child kicking the back of my seat for 2 hrs. (I'm sure the mother thought her darling was too adorable to scold, cause she never said a word.)  Super crowded aircrafts with folks squeezed into too little seats.  The final straw was the 30ish young man sitting next to me on a commuter flight playing some sort of video game using an ipad.  HE WAS DRIVING a race car by flinging his arms, while holding his device.  I thought he would give me a knock out punch at any moment.

If anyone lives or is visiting the Burlington area before January.....I highly recommend visiting the Shelburne Museum's Civil War textile exhibit.  It was awesome!!!  Thank you to Janet for taking me.

 I'd been concerned about the timing of this trip ever since it was booked.....thinking....hummmm  Vermont in Nov. could mean dealing with winter weather.  Funny thing....this is what I left but it was beautiful there!

 Everyone knows I'm such a hotel snob.....now I truly don't expect the 4 Seasons but Motel 6 doesn't make me a happy traveler.  Yeah......look was luxury greeted me as I checked into my hotel......

 Several students are giving new homes to some of my small quilts.....Notice how both Janet (above) and Claire (below) have selected quilts that match what they were wearing.  

The last evening included a visit to charming downtown Vermont with a super delicious dinner of grilled salmon artfully garnished with tasty additions.

It had gotten a bit chilly and windy so we didn't linger, but I could easily envision a day of strolling the brick streets and interesting shops.  My first of 3 flights for home departed at 6:00 AM.......so an early evening was definitely in order.

Now, I have to get busy unpacking and reorganizing for my upcoming trip to Boc Raton, FL........in addition to 2 fiber meetings next week and hopefully some stitching.

SUNSET MOMENT - NEW FELTED WORK

By the time you are reading this....I'll be winging my way to present a lecture and workshop at the Champlain Valley Quilt Guild in Burlington, VT.  It will take 3 flights and nearly 10 hrs. to get there....the convenience of air travel seems to be going backwards!

Preparing for my final two teaching jobs during the month of November has been surprisingly distracting....therefore my accomplishments have been sparse. This little project is nearly complete.  Due to its uneven size, I've decided to mount it on a black silk noil covered canvas frame......and as soon as I get a frame the correct size.....I'll do just that! 

 I have almost zero drawing skills......however sometimes mapping out a rough plan is necessary when specific placement is required.

 The inspiration for the design came directly from this piece of hand felted and dyed wool I made about a year ago.

 The motifs are Ultra-Suede, machine and hand appliqued in place.

SUNSET MOMENT  15" X 9"

Available soon in my shop

Artist hand-felted, hand-dyed wool, Ultra-Suede, machine & hand applique, and hand embroidered.

A CLASS ACT....

It's difficult to escape hearing about the despicable behavior of a growing number of athletes.....but here's one that IS A CLASS ACT, both on and off the Field....

Just another reason to love Aaron Rodgers.....  click here to see a short youtube video.

SERIOUSLY!?! SNOW.....

RIDICULOUS!!!  We left Wisconsin to avoid snow....esp. snow in October!!  It's been snowing here for 12 hours now.....what melted at first is now pure ice on the roads.  Now the snow is mounting with zero signs of it stopping.

Ohhhhhh......I get it....it's Mother Nature's way of suggesting I stay in my studio today.....okay...when ya look at it that way.....it's all good.

MY LOVE OF ANTIQUES

Perhaps my love of quilts was a direct result of my love of antique furniture, which I've been collecting for about 45 years.  Silly me, when our move from WI to NC took place in 2006.....parting with some treasures was too difficult so they came with us.

Now with only two more teaching trips during the month of Nov. I'm already reorganizing some of my storage spaces.  I must now admit....I truly DO NOT have room to display several pieces that have been hoarded all this time. I realize many of you do not live in the Asheville area....so I hope I won't bore you with this post.  However, I wish to sell both pieces so if anyone is a local collector.....email me if you are interested.  Pictured are two cross-grain cut oak pieces....

 Wall mounted cabinet 26" x 38" tall x 7.5" deep, with a glass shelf that sits in about the middle of the glass enclosed section.

Beveled mirror  22" high x 44" wide

FIBER JUNKIES OCT. MEETING

The Oct. Fiber Junkies meeting included a surprise birthday party for Denny.....see yesterday's post.... and experimenting to finish the projects we started in Sept.

That month we used paper images, adhered to fabric with a glue type medium such as Mod Podge.....

 Now, using mostly transparent paint.....we colored the fabric and with the aid of hairdryers...... quickly dried them.

Next, we each selected another image/s....tracing it with a permanent pen. That was followed by additional painting outside and inside the image with metallic paint. The idea is to retain some of the initial paper images by careful paint placement or rubbing it off where necessary.  This piece is one Kate is finishing for her sister who joined us last month.

 I guess I wasn't totally into this concept in Sept., therefore my paper images are sparse.......so here is my BEFORE.

Here's my after.  I decided not to add more paint after drawing the branches with a permanent pen.

Here's Val's before piece - after she painted around her center paper design the first time.

And her 'after' drawing a design with a pigma pen, followed by the addition of metallic paint.

 Denny's 'after'.......I so wish I'd have taken a 'before' picture since this piece was completely transformed!

Gen's daughter was in town visiting and joined us......and it is apparent she inherited her Mom's talent.  I am especially taken with this one......abstract with delicious colors!

None of us can wait for our Nov. meeting when we will work with soy wax.

ANY EXCUSE

Don't we all look forward and gear up for special occasion birthdays? This month, Fiber Junkie's member Denny had a significant birthday which of course, we needed to acknowledge and celebrate.  

 Denny enjoys using spider web designs in her work....so our party theme was easy considering Halloween is so close.  Judy has made a hand dyed table cloth for the guest of honor at our previous 'big' birthday celebrations......and she did for this one as well.  However, to preserve the beauty....it was covered with this fabric that Kate tried to convince everyone that she hand stitched.  NOT!!!  

 Although we do fuss.....we are sensible with our time as well.....so paper products, plus fun 'embellishments' make entertaining easy on the hostess.

 We dressed Denny with a dyed cheesecloth shawl, a lovely (cheap) plastic necklace, a stylish witches hat and broom......

 Extra fabric goodies for our birthday girl.

And....the real reason for making the bread sticks that I blogged about yesterday......to marry the yummy homemade soup made by Gen.