TAKE A BOW!

The monthly meeting of PTA (the fabulous small fiber group I'm lucky enough to belong to) was held this week.......I'm sure you'll be as impressed as I am at the accomplishments of our members.

We congratulated two members with rhinestone crowns.....that sparkled with the aid of a small battery....really cool....and 'jewels' in the form of tacky plastic heart bracelets. Connie Brown, on the left, has just earned her American Quilters Society Appraiser Certificate after years of study and hard work. On the right, Barbara Swinea is also doing her queenly wave. Barbara's quilt "Bamboo at Dawn" earned a 2nd Place Ribbon at the AQS show in Paducah.

We are thrilled for both of you and glad you are one of us!!

Barbara has mastered creating stunning quilts with pieced backgrounds. Here is her newest.

Connie.....doing her queenly wave is one of our more adventurous members......she's wading in a mountain stream at the home of our host, Dort Lee.

Connie 's quilt Retro Rick Rack was another feast for the eye.......the wide rick rack provides texture while setting off the circular motifs in an unexpected manner.

Our host, Dort Lee lives wayyyy off the beaten path.....one's vehicle has to forge a creek on the approach to their 52 acres. After 2+ years of drought here in Western North Carolina.....it's now OVER..... A recent downpour set off a mudslide on their property which caused a lot of damage to their road and land. You can see where the water roared down the mountain side....pulling trees over in its path.

Some of the trees got tangled and made a small dam....which caused even more trouble.

Mud and debris crashed down into their pond....filling it to the top as it displaced the water. They are still working on the repairs. For those of us who've never seen such damage, this was a real eye opener.

To be continued......

MYSTERY MAN REVEALED

I'm sorry I under estimated you....my faithful readers. I really didn't think you'd know who my mystery man is.

Yet.....you did!! Yup......it's R. Lee Ermey....the Gunnery Sergeant, foul mouthed drill instructor from the famous movie Full Metal Jacket.

He was in Asheville preparing the final touches on his new show - Lock N' Load which will premier on the History Channel - Friday July 31 PM ET. (Though the crew told us there's been talk of pushing it up a week earlier....so watch your listings.)

After watching to be sure he was finished with his lunch.....I turned and politely asked whether I could take his picture to post to my blog. He couldn't have been nicer.....he slid over on the bench.....patted it and invited me to sit down....instructing me to turn my camera over to his director to take our picture.....I was flabbergasted!

To learn more about this character......click here - don't miss his recipe section......it's great, as is his bobble head action figure!

12 Bones & A FAMOUS PERSON

'The husband' loves BBQ.....especially the way ribs are prepared in the part of the country. I on the other hand, am not much of a meat fan.....so I had yet to experience 12 Bones, the well-known Asheville eatery. We were out and about yesterday and stopped for a late lunch/dinner...actually the portions are so huge it could be two days worth of food.

The place (seriously) looks like a gas station, not a restaurant. Their hours are quite limited.....basically open only for lunch.....till late afternoon and closed on Saturday and Sunday.

But, oh my do they put out the food with a crowd of cooks, servers, bus boys.....astonishing. It's common to see a line out the door.

Their specialty of course is BBQ ribs, but they also serve pulled pork, smoked turkey etc. The kitchen area is open to the counter where they efficiently take your order. The basics of silverware, beverages, sauces etc. are self-serve as in most fast food establishments.

No, this isn't your typical restaurant.....like I said it looks like a gas station. There are some tiny, crowded tables inside, but the bulk of the seating is picnic tables under what looks like a metal car port.

You are given a number after ordering and servers run around while searching for your number as they delivery orders amazingly fast. The food is presented in what look like pie tins....a half of slab of ribs with 2 sides.....a soft drink and all the BBQ sauce you can serve yourself from a station of huge pump dispensers. 'The husband' is armed and ready to dig in.......as I asked him to pause a second for this photo!

So we are sitting there.....and 'the husband' says to me.....now "Mouse".....(I'm known by this silly childhood name to family......never Mary....always Mouse). He said......turn around slowly....be subtle (not something that comes easy to me).......look who is sitting behind you.

Even if I hadn't recognized the face.....I'd have still known him by his voice......though he was speaking normally, not scream talking as he usually does.

Can you identify this man? Post a comment if you do......I'll reveal who he is and why he was eating at 12 Bones tomorrow.......

This close up of his ring, may or may not help.....seriously with the exception of my friend Nanette, who reads my blog.....I'd be surprised if you to know who he is until I identify him.

TEXTURE MAGIC

Our own Patsy Thompson, master machine quilter and expert instructor that can give you private lessons via her fabulous DVD's, introduced us to Texture Magic at our monthly Fiber Arts Alliance meeting.

Here's a sneak peak of one of her beautiful quilts....be sure to click on the link above to visit her info packed website!

Texture Magic is a steam-activated shrinking fabric. The fabric shrinks 30% in all directions with the use of a steam iron. The product is available from Superior Threads. The sample is made from National NonWoven's WoolFelt (that Patsy hand-dyed to get this luscious color.) Patsy stipple quilted it and then 'shrunk' the fabric.

The flower center uses the same technique, but is made with polished cotton......and attached using free-motion satin stitching.

The appearance can be more subtle when using smaller amounts.

Shrinkage follows the sewn lines.....so when sewing linear lines, the results are much different.

NEW WORK

How often have I said....I'm smitten with woolfelt? The texture of the felt, combined with beadwork and some machine stitching provides so much visual contrast and excitement.

Here's my newest.....it's made entirely from woolfelt, the outside edge of the blue border is finished with a small blanket stitch using matching color wool thread. A fabric sleeve has been added for immediate gratification.

FREEDOM SOLD

12 1/2" x 9 1/2"

ENJOYABLE DAY

We spent an enjoyable 4th of July.....first doing a bit of hiking.....and unsettled later when I realized 2 wood ticks found a new home on me!

Later we headed off to a juried craft show in Cullowhee, NC....about 50 mins. West of us. Over 100 mountain area artists were represented and we did our part to help the economy grow.

I've mentioned before how I'm drawn to re-purposed items...... This charming creature had to come home with us. The body is some sort of very heavy mechanical chain. There were numerous other meal sculptures we would gladly add to our gardens. They are made by the talented team of Jimmy and Marlene Hopkins at: Creative Creations.

Of course when we got home we spent way toooo much time arranging it next to our metal chicken on our covered front porch.

This was the final display....I'm sure it will scare the pants off our UPS delivery man on his next visit!

'The husband' is good for about 30+ mins. of strolling thru craft booths.....heck about 30+ mins. of any kind of shopping unless it's at places such as Home Depot! Which is why we got back to Waynesville, NC a tad earlier than his favorite BBQ restaurant would open. So, we decided to check out what was happening in our charming downtown which features many shops and galleries.

I'm allergic to metal.....have always had 'sensitive' skin, but it has reached the point I can't even wear a watch if any metal touches me. My search for non-metal watches has gone on for years. I had a wonderful collection of 'theme' plastic (mostly kids watches), my favorite being a colorful Jimmy Buffet Cheeseburger In Paradise watch, where the watch face was hidden beneath a hamburger bun. The big problem with this type of watch is that they don't have a stem to change the time....rather one uses the 'push pin' system. Because of my busy travel schedule.....and the necessity of having to actually know what time it is in various time zones....they don't last long.

Okay, okay....I'm getting to the point......I don't go into jewelry stores for obvious reasons....can't wear it....what's the point of looking! But, as we were window shopping, I noticed several wooden watches on display. Yeah......it's perfect.

The watch is made my Tense, a company founded in 1971 in British Columbia. Check out their website here.

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY

ENJOY THE 4TH OF JULY.....WHERE EVER YOU ARE!

UNITED WE STAND 28 1/2" X 43 1/2" $850

(Certified written appraisal documentation will be provided with the sale of this quilt.)

Detail of beaded binding.

COMMISSION COMPLETED

I'm finished with my small commission piece that I posted about June 29th. The machine quilting was somewhat frustrating.....but I now have some clues about how to make it easier the next time.

My machine is located in a cabinet where a plastic insert is placed level with the table top. Well......the insert has a bubbled/textured surface....why? Who knows.....but I now know that trying to smoothly move the quilt over the surface is impossible when free-motion quilting. So, that will be replaced. Secondly, 'the husband' has now cut out an opening in the front of my darning foot so I can see better....frankly, I'd like an opening in the back too!

Because I really enjoy handwork, I'm not planning on lots of machine free-motion quilting....but for those projects that are appropriate....I'll now have a better chance of improving my stitches!

OREGON ON MY MIND

41"w x 31"l

Meet Carol Sloan

Several friends and I have joined together to share our love of anything fiber with a new group we've named Fiber Junkies.

At our first gathering, we learned about Color Wash spray which I shared in my last two posts. Carol Sloan is another talented member of our group.......she too lives to experiment with all sorts of media.

One of her talents is creative bookmaking..... I love the rusted gauze incorporated with this painted dove.

Carol brought numerous drawings to share with us.......she calls many of them 'doodles'.....gosh my doodles don't look like this! She swears she can teach anyone to draw and teaches classes in the area.

Here's another of her charming painted drawings. Remember her name....I predict you'll be hearing it often.

EXPERIMENTING WITH COLOR WASH

In yesterday's post I shared my introduction to Adirondack Color Wash.....an acid free water soluble dye for fabrics and fibers such as paper. Here's some ways it can be used....

Nancy Bruce was our guide......here she lightly sprayed water onto white polyester fabric in a plastic tub, then sprayed some 'lettuce' color wash. Several other colors were also added....the tub was set in the sun to dry. Having the fabric crinkled up allowed the dyes to puddle in some of the creases which provided lovely streaks of color. Afterwards, she heat set it with an iron.....duh.....I didn't get a photo of it afterwards.

One surprising aspect of this dye process........the colors look vibrant and bright when sprayed, but become much more subtle when dried. Nancy described it as muddy......but upon further discussion we think 'pale' is a better word.

Dry white fabric, positioned flat on a plastic covered table, was lightly sprayed with a variety of colors. Then Nancy used the tips of her fingers and gently flicked tiny drops of water onto the wet dyes.

The dye is easily soaked up by the fabric and the excess pools beneath it.....so as it sat we could see changes taking place in the way the dyes mingled.

The fabric is still wet at this point and we still see changes taking place....we suspect the white areas are where larger drops of water displaced the dye. We had no idea how the web looking areas developed. We moved the table out in the sun to dry....though Nancy said the process can be speeded up by using a hair dryer.

This will knock your socks off........look how the bright colors have been tamed after the fabric dried. My photo is slightly less colorful than the actual piece was....but not by much.

Here's a closer view of the color.....Carol Sloan is another member of our Fiber Junkies group....I'll be introducing her work next......she loves to draw and just 'happened' to have paper with her. Nancy doesn't waste a thing......so with her urging, Carol supplied some paper which Nancy used to clean up the table top drops. Apparently, scrap bookers are fans of this Color Wash product and use it to alter their papers.