AMUSING

I'm not accustom to seeing signs like this.....esp. on a hospital entrance door.  I'm still learning the ways of the South!

So, you'd think this dinky hospital would be lacking in technology.  Not so.....there's free Wi-Fi in the waiting rooms!  Interesting.

FINISHED NEW WORK!

This piece has been in the works for awhile....inspired by the interesting mesquite wood motif. I gathered other embellishements, using some, rejecting some, and adding some.

As always when working with felted wool, I stablize the fabric by basting pellon interfacing to the wrong side to assure support for the embellishements.  The basting line reminds me of the finished size I'm trying to achieve.

Here's a detail 

Nature Inspired - outside frame measurements 9" x 11" -  SOLD

Sorry about the quality of this photo....I'll bet I've taken 100 pictures and can't overcome the shadows.  More details can be emailed for anyone who is interested.  I'm really warming to framing some of my wool felt pieces and buyers seem to like it too.

BLOOD DRIVE

Waynesville is the town closest to us....it has a small charming downtown filled with galleries, shops, and restaurants.  These metal sculptures are a recent addition to one corner, sure to become a favorite tourist photo stop.  Neat, wouldn't you agree?

"The husband" and I were to spend the weekend at Road Atlanta for a car race thingie.....but he's been suffering with a bad back for nearly a month and over the last few days it's gotten back enough for a trip to the ER on Fri.  So, as I sit here tonight posting to this blog, we are watching the race on TV.  On the postivie side, today the big guy was a little better & I'm not hunting for a port-a-potty at a race track!

Our community had a blood drive today.  I'm new to donating blood, but it's easy.  I wonder why I didn't volunteer to do this long before now.  

According to the American Red Cross:  One blood donation can help save up to 3 lives.  Only 2% of the eligible US population donates blood.  Every 3 seconds someone in America needs blood.  Donated blood only lasts for 42 days.  You can donate as many as 6 times a year.  Less than 30% of the people who give blood once will ever give blood again.......so please seek out a donation center and give the gift of life!

STUDENT'S WORK

I'm pleased to share the work of Jeanine Moser, who took my felted wool embellishing workshop last month at the Columbia River Gorge Quilt Show in WA state.  Yeah Jeanine!!!

COLOR IN THE MOUNTAIN

Here's a look at the final version of "Color In The Mountains". After a slow start, the piece finally came together.

First the main design elements were machine embroidered onto a stablized green wool background. Next this center unit was attached to a rusty red wool felt background and highlighted with a beaded edging stitch. (Technique is called spiral and is published in my book Beading Buddy.)

Color In The Mountains - 20 1/2" x 14 1/2" - SOLD

FABRIC SHOPPING

I've finally visited the famous Mary Jo's Cloth Store near Charlotte, NC.  WOW.......it's everything everyone said it would be, despite its very plain exterior.

Yup, that's me a Mary Jo's virgin.

Fabric as far as the eye can see......and all priced right!

Every kind of fabric too.....from cottons to silks, to wools, to linens, to wools.

NO ONE would ever believe that a quilter could walk out of the store with one spool of thread as their only purchase.  I'm somewhat embarrassed to say I did.......I've been told that as a newbie....often it's too overwhelming to let loose the first time....and of course it helps if one has a plan in the first place.  There wasn't any felted wool or any wool that looked like it would felt so my pocket book was safe for this trip.

DRAT!!

You know what they say.....on any given Sunday.....a 0-3 team (Kansas City) can best a 3-0 team (Denver.)  Guess which team we piked??  Sadly, we committed suicide by selecting Denver......

Well......there's always next year.....and the Pack lost too.....tough day!

RUSHING WON'T WORK

After pulling some fall fabrics....life took over my life.  When I finally got into my studio.....I tried rushing a design.....mainly because I had nothing to bead at night.  Dumb!

My idea was to highlight a few large leaves was okay.....but finding a way to add texture to the background is a struggle for this non-free motion quilter.  I hesitated to even post this bad solution.....and as you might guess, the quilting has been ripped out.

This is a little better.  I like to keep the backgrounds plain in order to highlight the beadwork.  So onward.....let's see where I go from here.

RAIN!!!

I'm posting a few more of my show/exhibit quilts that are available for purchase.  It's at task I'll continue to work on as time permits.  Today, YEAH....it's finally raining.....so our morning 'forced march' up the mountain has been delayed.

Now if we only had gas in the cars we could go somewhere.  Ever since Ike, we are having a severe gas shortage (some real, some brought on by media panic) but the local & state governments here are broken and can't seem to manage to get things on track.....and I thought Wisconsin was bad!  Oops.....no more political statements....I'm sick of the whole bunch!

Be Lighthearted  33" x 35"   -  $1,000

Bacon & Eggs  50" x 55"  - $3,800

NECKLACE

I've gotten a bit more interested in getting acquainted with jewelry beading techinques.....so the last couple of nights my fingers have been working on this necklace.  (ya I know this doesn't look like it'd take more than an hour to make!)

It looks like the cleaning & applying preservative to our home's log siding is way too big a job for us......that's the good news....the bad news is the cost to have it done.  Oh well, I choose to look on the brighter side because that allows me to carve out more studio time and will keep my fingers crossed for quilts sales!  Hey, maybe the crew wants to trade a quilt for their work....VBG