My Little Memory Book

I purchased one of Karen Ruane's beautiful little books and have made it into a little memory album. I did go too far on some of the pages, but nevertheless, I love it. Check out her little books and other work on etsy at: http://www.etsy.com/shop/contemporarystitches . Here are the pictures of my book. You can click on the picture for a close-up view.

My Spunky Bracelet

Every couple of months at Quilt Bee, we try to work on a group project.  We sometimes do a project for charity, or to raise money for the guild.  Today we did a project for ourselves.  Since most of us have extensive bead collections and Barbara happened to show us a bracelet she made for herself, we talked her into showing us how she did it. We all helped each other and made some very spunky bracelets. Here is a picture of mine.  I might just have to make a couple more for gifts. Click on the picture for a close-up view.

A Rag Quilt for a New Baby

Loving the Leaves

While working on leaves for my online class, Bodacious Blossoms, I came across this woven fabric in my stash that I just love. I made some leaves with stitching so I will have them for a future project.

I finished the sampler for Bodacious Blossoms and am looking forward to Lesson 3.  I have a UFO with a vase and vines waiting for some flowers so I hope to finish that quilt at the same time.  It was a quilt I did in an online class with Pamela Allen quite a while back. You can click on both pics for a close-up. 

Texas Museum of Fiber Arts Exhibit

I went to a wonderful fiber arts exhibit today at the Mexican American Cultural Center in Austin, TX.  I went with 4 of my quilt bee friends.  We had a wonderful time seeing all the colorful and unique pieces.  Here are a  few of my favorites.  There are lots more on my Facebook page if you want to see the album. Click on the picture for a closer view.

 Barbara, Kay, Diane and Anita

TEXAS DNA by Martha Tsihlas

VELASCO by Linda Lewis

LIHAF by Rene Muhl

TEXAS agriCULTURE by Georgia Zwartjes

MANTRA BOOK by Sandi Gardner

                                                                                                     

Nature by Numbers Video

This is a wonderful video by Cristobal Vila.  I've watched it twice so far and it's generating lots of new ideas--as if I didn't have enough already. The ideas seem to keep mounting, sometimes on top of each other but there's not enough time to act on all of them. I must learn how to create time.  Anyway, enjoy the video.  There is music with it so turn up your speakers.
http://etereaestudios.com/docs_html/nbyn_htm/movie_index.htm

Enjoy.

Quilt University Class

Quilt University is one of my favorite places to take online classes.  I have taken many over the years and they have all been wonderful.  Check it out:  http://www.quiltuniversity.com/ .  At present, I am taking the class Bodacious Blossoms with Leslie Lacika who is a wonderful teacher.  The class started on Friday and here is what I have done so far.  Lots of great ideas and jumping off points for making flowers to put on quilts, handbags, hats, etc., etc. Can't wait to experiment with some silk, satin and sheer organza type fabrics.

A Gift Exchange and Lunch

Once a year my quilt bee, Simply Quilters, has a gift exchange.  We each made 8 gifts, one for each of the participants.  Most of us make homemade gifts.  Those are my favorite.  It has so much more meaning than something purchased. We each brought a dish for lunch and Diane, our beekeeper, invited us to meet at her home. We took care of regular business first and June brought an amazing quilt for show and tell.  It belongs to a friend and is from the late 1800s.  It is in perfect condition. Click on the pictures for a close-up view.

Check out Corliss' wild pants.  They are made from recycled embroidered garments from Mexico and the greatest part is that she found them at the thrift store.  In fact, she found two pair so bought one for her daughter.  They are just beautiful.  Corliss is a thrift shopping queen.

We all sat down and had a wonderful lunch and chit chatted away until it was time for exchanging gifts.

Here is a picture of all the wonderful gifts we received. That little insert of a puffy pouch is what I made for my bee buddies.

We gave Diane, our wonderful beekeeper, a gift subscription to Cloth, Paper, Scissors magazine for all the wonderful things she does for us to keep us happy and organized.

My Royal Mail Surprise

On Monday, I made reference to a wonderful surprise I received in the mail.  It was a package from Karen Ruane of Contemporary Embroidery.  She sent me four exquisitely embroidered white buttons.  The picture does not do them justice.  All of her work is extraordinary.  I look forward to reading her blog every day to see what new item she has come up with.  Here are a couple of pictures of the gift I received.  Check out her blog:  http://karenruane.blogspot.com/ and her etsy shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/contemporarystitches . Any ideas on how I should use these buttons?  The only thing I've come up with so far is an organza flower with lots of layers and the button would be the center.

A Blast From the Past

I went to the Austin Quilt Guild meeting this morning with my friend Anita.  Bonnie Hunter was the guest speaker and she showed oodles of scrap quilts she made.  She discussed how she organizes her scraps for easy access.  An interesting speaker even if you're not interested in making a scrap quilt.  Check out her website and blog, if you're a quilter.  Her website:  http://www.quiltville.com/  and her blog: http://quiltville.blogspot.com/ .

After the meeting we went to the Parsons House, which is an assisted living facility here in Austin, TX.  Anita Mester and Pam Farley of the Austin Fiber Art's group set up a 'touching display' of all old crafts.  It was very interesting and the residents seem to love it.  It encourages lots of conversation since lots of the ladies have done these type crafts in the past and love to talk about them.  We talked to one of the residents, Martha, and she told us all about her 6 children, and 5 grandchildren, one of which is studying in Russia at the present time.  These ladies and gentlemen have lots of interesting stories to tell.  Here are some of the pictures from the Parsons House.

Martha is the lady with the red walker.  The large glass case is a miniature aviary with beautiful live birds.

A clothes line of aprons from the past.  Some look like they are made from old tablecloths. 

Old doilies, doll clothes, quilt block, etc.

Quilt blocks made from feed sacks

I'm told that this was used as a covering for a soap bottle to catch the drippings. The soap bottle had its own little apron.

It was a very enjoyable day and when I came home, there was a very big surprise in my mailbox that I'll tell you about in a few days.  I still can't get over it and want to share it with my friends before posting about it.

My First Tatting Designs

I've been taking a class in tatting design with Sharon Briggs and have been doing lots of experimenting.  I'm not an experienced tatter so I'm finding this a bit challenging but am having lots of fun.  Part of one of the designs I created looked like a king's crown (to me) so I challenged myself to create the crown and draw out the pattern on the free software presented to us by Sharon.  The software is Serif's Draw Plus SE and is a free download. Here are some photos.

free-form heart

King's Crown

If you are a tatter and haven't tried designing your own pattern, try it.  You may be surprised at what
you come up with.