Art and Quilting in Camden

Come on over!

2008-01-10T08:29:00.001-05:00

Hi everyone! In the interest of not having Blogger delete this site, I'm adding this brief post.

I moved my blog over to my website, and usually this site will automatically re-direct you there. Please update your blog subscriptions, feeds, and bookmarks to go directly to the new blog:

http://www.sarahannsmith.com/weblog

Thanks and cheers, Sarah

Requiescat in Pace--Thomas Joseph Maleady II

2007-06-17T11:19:00.000-04:00

Requiescat in Pace

Thomas Joseph Maleady II, born July 27, 1933, died June 17, 2007

This morning at 6:50 a.m. Pacific coast time, my half-brother, nicknamed Macho by his Mexican nannies (at the time Daddy was a US diplomat assigned to Mexico with his Cuban-Costa Rican wife, Emma) because of his dark skin and wavy hair, joined Daddy and Charlie, my other half-brother who died of cancer in 1982.

Macho died in Joyce's arms, his wife of 40+ years.... I remember Joyce visiting when I was in first or second grade, and that was 42 years ago. He has been in "iffy" health for years, but the aneurism near his one barely-functioning kidney (which has been beyond ready-to-blow stage for at least a year) had begun to leak; he miraculously survived the emergency surgery last Saturday, but has been sliding downhill since Monday. We are blessed that he had good care, good doctors, has been on meds to alleviate pain and anxiety this past week, and a good wife to care for him.

Here is a picture of Daddy (on the left), Macho and Joyce in 1986 (not sure where the Lodge is!):

and here is my favorite picture of Daddy and the three of us, his kids... I've shared this before but here it is again: the one I like to think of as "three gangsters and a little girl": Left to right it is Macho (known to friends and co-workers as Tom, TomJ, or just "T"), Daddy, and Charlie (Chuck to everyone outside of the family) and me, down in front in the middle:

I told Joyce when she called this morning with the news that I know what he's doing...he's up there telling jokes with Charlie and the three of them are laughing up a gale! I'll miss the sound of his voice the most....

Koi---DONE!

2007-06-16T09:11:00.000-04:00

The Koi quilt is done (well...except for the sleeve and label, what else?!!!), the photos have been taken, then entry form for Houston filled out and mailed in. So now I get to share the quilt with my local guild chapter, my friends, and wait until August to see if they get into Houston. And in the meantime, they will travel to Augusta, Maine, for the annual Maine Quilts show in late July. All of the photos should be clickable to make them larger so you can see more detail.

When deciding on how to make the water, I looked at Pauline Burbidge's water quilts, thinking they were what I had in mind for the water, but it turned out not so. So I just went ahead and made what I did...then I realized that the pattern is very much a typical Japanese style design for water.

And here are some detail shots of the koi, the quilting and the beading. The beads represent the surface disruption / rippling caused by the movement of the fins and tails just beneath the surface.

I took the pictures before sewing on the hanging sleeve because I didn't want the quilt view on the back marred by the sleeve. This is the reverse side...as if you were lying on the bottom of the pond looking up at the sky. You'll notice that you are looking at the bellies of the koi, and the fractured sunlight streaming through the water, with the branches above visible through the water:

If I had a detail shot, (which I don't) you could see that the top facing isn't really a facing, but a narrow hanging sleeve that is the same width as the facings on the side and bottom. For quilt shows I will sew on the regulation 4" hanging sleeve, but when it has done it's quilt-show-journey, I will buy a metal slat, drill holes in the ends, and slide it into this top facing. That way, the quilt can be hung with either side out ... or both... think room partition? Here's one more (sideways...dontcha love blogger?) closeup of one of the koi on the reverse / back side:

I think I'd like to do another koi quilt (or two), not so large, maybe just one koi, but with overhanging branches, shadows from the branches on the water, and maybe raindrops forming circles/ripples on the water......

As for technique: I painted with a very thin wash of irridescent paint over my own hand-dyeds for the fish, which were quilted separately, then appliqued to the already-quilted surface of the pond (the ones on the back by machine, the ones on the front by hand). I pinned VERY carefully to get the fins and tails to line up on both sides of the fabric and quilted them in one pass. The background is fused, using my own hand-dyes and commercial batiks. The fins and tails are multiple layers of sheers (three different ones...a white, a cream and a pale gray for the white fins, and a totally tacky red floral for the orange-red, but which cuts up nicely!). I used Misty Fuse for all the fusing, including on the sheers.

Now, to crash on the sofa before heading to Saco, Maine, tomorrow where I will be doing a demo of machine quilting at the Art Quilts Maine exhibit at the Saco Museum. Hope to post pics on Monday or so.... Thanks for surfing back in to see the final result. Cheers, Sarah

Postcard display

2007-06-14T20:18:00.000-04:00

A lot of us have enjoyed the recent trend in postcards...me included (making and receiving!). Well, at our recent Frayed Edges meeting, Kathy was giving away two spool racks, and I got one of them. Of course, with my thread collection this rack might manage a single in-progress quilt, so I had a better idea: Postcards!

Like what I've done?

Studio tour-- a tidy attack happens!

2007-06-11T08:49:00.000-04:00

It's always fun to see where people "do their thing,"-- in my case, that would be sew and create and (I hope!) make art. I recently shared my new fabric shelves, but thought you might like to see my "Bonus room." Yep, I'm in the room over the garage. That means it has twice as much floor space as it has head room LOL! Since I got the big room, I got to share it with the guest (not that we ever get any!) bed--perfect! (The bed is an antique from my late FIL...dates to about 1780, which for the US is very old!) Quilts are stored under the comforter, nice and flat! Here's what it looked like maybe 2 1/2 years ago, shortly after moving here..stuff already heaped and piled:

On the front side of the house are three narrow gables (the inside dimensions are less than 3 feet). There is a nice double window over the center of the garage doors, and there is a lllaaaarrrrggggeeee shed-roof dormer facing the backyard which lets in lots of light. The down side is that this means there is very little usable wall space! I have become adept at using the "low" areas where you can't stand upright. The photo above (windows over the garage doors end) and these two are what the room looked like before I got started with my recent tidy attack--first is the design wall end (with box storage mess behind the entry door),

the second is the middle of the room showing my sewing table, hoosier (ideal storage!--for those not in the US, this style of "portable" kitchen cabinet was popular in the 1920s-40s, has a flour bin, sugar bin, spice shelves, pull out enameled top, the top closes up to conceal kitchen stuff, has a knife drawer--perfect for scissors and rotary cutters, bread bin--perfect size for patterns, etc),

and the batting and home dec supplies storage behind the blue cloth and hoosier.

The only picture I could find with the fabric storage cupboards is this one, with a then-7 year old-Eli demonstrating the sleepability of his new pillowcase--cupboards in background:

When I got the new fabric shelves, this is what the room looked like: utter chaos. In my defense, it never looks this bad! Please remember that I had to move everything to make room for the fabric shelves....

Bit by bit, I worked on it. A lot. I was tired. Here are the shelves, before. Please don't look too closely at the paint job inside.... must have been the damp brush, as I did a totally awful job on the some of the insides for the second coat. And I actually DUSTED (and the world did not screech to a halt at the novelty of it!)!

Then midway, showing stuff cleaned out at far end, some books moved...

and DONE--at least with the fabric! The hand-dyes (which I plan to make more) are on the top shelf in (shudder...that Type A thing is happening...someone find a stick and beat it away!) Roy G. Biv order (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue/Aqua, Indigo, Violet) , followed by brown and white-gray-black. Below them are batiks and prints in roughly light-medium-dark piles. My conversational prints (animals, food and drinks, retro 50s, transportation/ ethnic/ world travel, and Hawaiian) are on the bottom left. Silks --slippery and messy when not corralled-- are in a drawer under the work table, as are sheers -- also disorderly in their behavior, PFDs (Prepared For Dyeing), and clunky stuff like rubber stamps, "glitz and glue" (heat gun, heat tool, foils and glues) and rovings/stuff for felting. Phew.

We won't discuss the area behind the bed, which I will deal with after I get my book written and off to the publisher... maybe late August?

After two full LONG days of work, filling nearly half a garage garbage can (the big ones) with detritus, it looks better than it has since we moved in nearly 3 years ago. Here is a 360 degree tour, starting with the shipping zone (which also houses yarns and knitting and the *(&*^%^& exercise bike that is worthless!). Although it still looks kinda cluttery, trust me, this is VAST improvement! By the way, that green table in the foreground is Gramma's toaster table, which is featured in my Flying Toast quilt (and I actually scanned the tabletop and printed fabric to use in the quilt!).

Then the sewing table area.

The area behind the table also still needs a little tidying--the antique thread spool chest (purchased when working full time and had a decent income) is, get this, actually used for storing thread! This area will get extra attention when I deal with the dumping ground behind the bed. The framed needlepoints on the end of the hoosier are from my late Aunt Mary M., the only person in my family who sewed; she lived on the other side of the country from me, but her fame as a skilled seamstress and tailor reached me easily! If it used a needle, she was a master!

Then, here's the bed / windows-over-garage doors end (bed doing temporary dual duty holding the koi quilt until Saturday's guild meeting). The new "seating area" is to the right, where two of the former fabric cupboards have been pressed into duty to take the overflow of books (there is no such thing as too many books--in my next house the dining room will be a library with a table at which you can also eat!):

The worktable and fabric storage zone; the black cloth is up for taking photos. Usually I just have the beige-ish flannel over the whole thing.

one of the former fabric cupboards got pushed to the right, next to the design wall, and has my Clementine boxes inside with the bits of fused fabrics ready for use. Good thing there is plenty of room... I found LOTS of little bits of fabric to fuse up and have ready during my tidy... the large plastic box on the floor next to the design wall is packed with those bits.

And here's the last of the garbage to go down the stairs to the garage! If I had any white zin, I'd be having that now instead of tea. Hmmm... maybe a trip for ice cream is in order instead?

And to those who commented on the last post... for some reason the comments didn't reach me the usual way through e-mail, so thanks for surfing in and taking the time to write! Hope you like these pics, too.

Cheers, Sarah

Fabric Storage

2007-06-09T09:21:00.000-04:00

I am in total lust with Carol Taylor's studio...to see it, click here then click on where it says "Carol's Studio" on her home page. I love the closets, the design walls, the storage, the work area (tho mine wouldn't be white or as neat!), the view. I decided I needed to improve my quilt storage, and after checking out "affordable" options (like anything from walmart, home depot, etc) I decided to ask Joshua's friend's step-dad for an estimate. WOOHOO! The cost was less than buying something comparable from Ikea (and without the horrid drive for 5 hours each way to south of Boston through some of the worst traffic in the US).

I wrote to Carol to get measurements (THANK YOU CAROL!)... I guessed the shelves were probably 16 inches deep (yep) and made from a 4x8 sheet of plywood (yep), and she added that the shelves were 12 inches apart. So I drew a diagram / sketch for John Bailey, and the photo above shows what I received, ready to finish.

A week or so later, one is primed, one has a first coat of paint:

And yet later on, here they are hauled upstairs (and was that ever fun...NOT!) and in the studio. I decided to do a separate post about the massive tidy attack I had in the studio as a result of these shelves. Surf back in two days from now for that one... in the meantime....

John Bailey, step-dad to one of Joshua's best friends, made these and what a great job he did. I could not be happier with them...they are perfect (I specified what, but he did the how beautifully and exactly as I drew and measured). If you're near Camden, Maine, and would like to contact him his website is www.jbbuilders.biz . I was surprised and thrilled to see that he worked on the fantabulous re-do of the old Strand theatre in neighboring Rockland, and one of the fancy houses pictured on the website had his carpentry featured in Better Homes and Gardens (if I had known about these fancy projects before I asked him about these shelves I would've been too intimidated to ask about my puny little project!).

What you need to make these 48 x 48 x 16 deep shelf units yourself:

3 sheets 3/4" birch plywood
1 sheet 1/4" birch plywood (for the backs)
1x6 piece of pine, from which John cut strips to face the front of the shelves (nice!)
someone with a table saw or router to cut the pieces and grooves
primer
2+ quarts of paint

They could also be varnished, but as you'll see in the next blogpost about my studio, I have plenty of natural wood, I needed COLOR! So I picked Caribbean water blue!

The units are 16 inches deep, the shelves are 12 inches apart, and the staggered supports are set in 15 inches from the outside edge.

If you're in Camden area, and need some really nice carpentry or building done, hint hint! Now, to win the lottery and get John to build an entire studio and house and kitchen for us.....

The Frayed Edges, late May 2007

2007-06-07T20:27:00.000-04:00

This past Frayed Edges meeting was an extended one for the best of reasons: Deborah came to visit us from what I think of as her exile in Dallas (sorry to all Texans!)... woooohoooo! She flew up on Saturday, called me from the airport in Boston as she was about to head out with the rental car for Kate's house, and I was about to leave Camden (and I arrived only half an hour before she did LOL!).

Kate, alas, was not there. Kate, bless her sweet soul, cleaned house for us and invited us to stay in her empty-of-her-family (but not their homey presence) house!!!! That qualifies as sainthood points! So Kathy, Deborah and I had a sleepover at Kate's house, minus Kate! It was WONDERFUL (except for missing Kate and Hannah, who was home with her four daughters and hubby). If you've read Kath's and Deborah's blogs, you'll already have seen our food pictures, but here are more:

.... we talked as well as ate, but sure didn't sew or create much. We DID however kibbitz on each other's pieces, talked about what we might do if, etc.

On Sunday, after breakfast:
I had to head to Portland for a long-planned family outing, Deborah had plans with Joanne S., and then reconvened at Kate's house on Sunday evening with Kate and Hannah (and they finished the last of the Molten (chocolate) Lava Cakes (a specialty from the local chain, and worth a trip from Texas to Maine!), and improved on their greatness by adding Starbuck's coffee ice cream...YUMMM. A good idea gets better!

On Monday, we had our "regular" Frayed Edges meeting at Kathy's house and was it a blast. It was actually the first time the five of us have all been together, so we got pics:

I think we look like five happy, well-fed, artsy women!

We shared:

And shared:

And shared:

We ate, at Kath's beautiful table:

Don't you love these little vases for the lilies of the valley, and the colors of the glasses?

Deborah brought us gifties...pincushions, with personalized shrinky-dinked pins!!!!!! Mine is the aqua! Yeah and THANK YOU! (and it is already in use at my machine!)

We talked about and made decisions for our August show at the Camden Public Library (opens on Aug. 2nd, through the 29th, Artists' Reception on Saturday the 11th from 1-4).

After a nice looonnngggg day, which was gloriously sunny and perfect outside (and hooray! no blackflies or mosquitoes yet!), we hugged good-bye to Deborah, who headed south for one more night at Kate's house before heading for Logan / Boston on Tuesday. And of course, I had to snap pics of Kath's flowers and garden--the photo at the top and this one:

When I got home from that 52 hour sojourn, I felt as refreshed as if I'd been on a perfect 2 week vacation, and I KNOW it is thanks to my Frayed Edges pals.

50,000 plus thanks you's

2007-06-05T18:33:00.000-04:00

Well, folks, we hit a major milestone today: I got my 50,000th visit! Some of you have logged in many visits, others are new. Some seek me out on purpose, others stumble across the site via a Google query or a random link on the ArtQuilters blog ring or link from another blog. To one and all: THANK YOU!

I have never journaled much at all.... so I find it somewhat mystifying and wonderful that I have kept up these "letters to the ether" and even more amazing and mystifying that folks surf in and many, many return. I'll be migrating the blog to my website later this summer (including all the archives) and when Gloria, of GloDerWorks (she and Derry and their staff in the US and UK are web-meisters extraordinaire), does the move and re-vamp, not only will I give you all plenty of warning, provide links, keep this one going for a while, etc., but I'm hoping there is a way to archive all the posts to a disc. It's fun to go back and see how I've chronicled what I've done! Oh, and when I do make the switch, I think I'm going to bite the bullet and pay for that cool SiteMeter that posts the countries that have visited by showing flags in the right, like at Lisa's and Dijanne's sites.

Now I have to head upstairs and lint roller the Chapter Banner, as tonight is photography night: taking pictures of the banner and the koi quilt to enter them into Houston. I got into the juried show once before, and I'm hoping this will be my lucky second time.

And once again, thank you! {{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{All of you}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}
(Those are cyber-quilty-hugs by the way!)

The boys of summer, aka the Sea Dogs, and 60 big ones

2007-06-04T20:18:00.000-04:00

Today you get a tour of U.S. minor league baseball, Maine-style! because I'm still slamming on the koi quilt... as a teaser, here's a close-up of one of the koi and some of the beading. More soon...I know I keep promising.... I finished the beading after dinner tonight, and started the facings (hand sewing). Hope to take pics tomorrow, then send the entries to Houston on Weds. or Thursday. And oh yeah... work out again. I remember that. My expanding waistline keeps reminding me....

In the meantime, I'm clearly hopping all over my Frayed Edges / Portland long weekend..during which I took nearly (Gasp, Gulp) 200 photos! I started with the last thing first, which was my previous post about Jan and Dwight's artists' reception for their art quilts and photos. I worked like a madwoman on my koi quilt until 3:05 pm Saturday, and had to be a 90 minute drive away in about 110 minutes (but needed a shower!). Fortunately, the car was already packed except for rolling up the koi. Anyway, I left home finally at 4 pm Saturday, and got home about 5 pm Monday, and it was such a wonderful break that it felt like a restorative two week vacation!

The first part of this mini-vacation to be planned was Sunday. As soon as tickets went on sale, Paul bought our "summer" Sea Dogs (minor league team for the Boston Red Sox) tickets. We've made a tradition I guess of going on Memorial Day weekend, which we combine with Paul's birthday. The unseasonable heat of Friday (92! in Camden) and Saturday (upper 80s) was abated, and Sunday was glorious and even got a bit chilly by the end of the game, which the Sea Dogs won. We ate dinner out at Fuji, an awesome Japanese restaurant in downtown Portland, and spent the night before returning home.

I am absolutely NOT a sports fan, and especially not of pro ball. But the Sea Dogs are totally cool, and it is baseball the way it ought to be! The stands aren't so vast, and you can see the faces of the players even if you are in the back row. There is usually someone from the team signing autographs during the first few innings down near the concessions stands, and vendors hawk "Sea Dog Biscuits, get your Sea Dog Biscuits Heaah" (that's Mainer for 'here'). The team has fun stuff between innings, and Slugger the Sea Dog (a name for a seal) mascot.

The game began with a trooping of the colors, followed by the National Anthem. Since it was Memorial Day weekend (for those of you not in the US, this is a national holiday the last Monday in May, the unofficial start of summer, and is to commemorate the folks who have served our country in the military throughout its history), Veterans from the American Legion paraded onto the field with the flags.

Here is the first "fun" between innings: the shopping cart toss! Two folks from the stands get to try to lob balls into a gargantuan shopping cart; the one with the most balls in wins a $75 shopping gift certificate. This time, they tied so both got the gift:

Then there is the favorite "Lobster Toss." In this game, two folks man opposite sides of an old-fashioned lobster trap (but with top open) while groundscrew toss stuffed-animal lobsters in their direction. The goal is to catch as many lobsters as they can; if they catch a minimum amount, they get a seafood feast at a local restaurant:

There's a chance to win a car (the light colored SUV on the right), but it's really hard to win on this one...you have to get 3 out of 3 shots through the small opening in the board down near first base... haven't even heard of anyone doing that one:

Then there is Slugger, who is a ham despite the fact that he is a fuzzy aquatic mammal. And good with the kids:

After I think it is the 5th inning, they play the Village People's YMCA song, and everyone gets up, stretches and does the Y-M-C-A wave thing with Slugger (note he even has his own Village People tool belt, for those of us old enough and living in the US who can remember this group!):

During another inning break, one lucky kid (of the small size) gets his or her name picked from out of a hat to "race" Slugger around the bases and see who wins. The kid always runs the regular way, from home to first, then secon, then third, then home base. Slugger always gets confused and runs the "wrong" way, and they pass each other (with a high five) between first and second base.

Someone is always out on the field to help the sometimes-confused kids run the right direction. And Slugger always trips and falls on the way to home base which, of course, ensures that the kid wins to major cheers from the crowd:

Just before the game, we dashed down to the Portland mall, and bought Joshua his heart's desire: Black Converse high tops, plaid shorts, and an Inspi(Red) t-shirt. Here are his adored high-tops, which he had to wear to the game:

And out on Hadlock's Field's version of Fenway's Green Monster (that's the very high wall over left field at Fenway Park in Boston, for those out of the US, which makes it almost impossible to hit a home run out of left field!), a new sign: the Eastern League Championship for 2006!

Last but not least, you always want to see the lighthouse. To do that one of two things needs to happen: if the Sea Dogs win, it rises up from behind center field with the light on. Or, if a Sea Dog hits a home run, it not only rises up from behind the wall, but sparklers (like on the Fourth of July but lots bigger) shoot out sideways like beacons of light. As you might guess, it was a good game because the Sea Dogs won and the lighthouse came up:

And I promise, I will return to both quilting and the koi quilt!!!!! But I just wanted to share a bit of Americana, Maine-style. I'm so totally NOT a sports fan, but this is just good fun!

And last but definitely not least, the day I wrote this post was my dear hubby's 60th (??? Egads how did THAT happen?) birthday. Here's the birthday boy opening his birthday gift:

and holding the smallest, cutest member of the family -- Pigwidgeon:

Out of the blue...

2007-06-02T08:37:00.000-04:00

or more accurately, down Route 17 from Augusta, Maine. So here I am on Weds., working out after errands, and the phone rings with an unknown number on caller ID...well out of state, didn't even know the area code. Female voice: is this Sarah Smith? yes. The quilter? yes. Sarah Maleady Smith? (??? She knows my maiden name???) yes. Hi! This is Susan Clayworth! YES!!!!!!!!!!!

Susan was my absolute best friend and life saver in high school, and she was in Maine! Said she and her boyfriend had rented an RV to go to Acadia, but she couldn't be so close and not try to reach me. So, we agreed to meet in 30 minutes in town!

We had lunch at Marriners, on the deck (which became a tad cool in the breeze) that overlooks Camden Harbor, and it was like 32 years evaporated. HUGE GRIN! Gotta run now to an Art Quilts Maine meeting, and still need to blog about last weekend with the Frayed Edges, and the progress on the koi quilt (slow but good), but just had to post this photo of us (above).

I've only seen Susan once since 1975, at our 25th reunion. What is amazing is that apart from both of us being a tad thicker in the waist, we look the same.... Susan's hair is a little bit shorter, but we could still share clothes! I used to call her Mom "Mumsie 2" since she was like my second mom and I spent so much time at their house. I can remember one night when my dad was really getting on me and making me insane...it was summer in late high school. Well, after getting off the phone maybe 10 minutes later, Susan shows up, in baby doll pj's under a coat in their ancient Nash Rambler (white, with aqua interior with wool carpeting that smelled, well, wooly, when wet in winter) and said "you're coming to my house, NOW". So I did. That's a friend!

Now, to manage to keep up with each other in this insanely hectic era in which we live.

Oh yeah...how did she find me? She called a local quilt shop, the one nearest to Camden where I live, and asked them if they knew me. They had my teaching brochure, so they gave her my number! QUILTERS ROCK! and so does Quilting Divas shop in Rockland. WooohooO!

Marie's bag, or Art-to-Go--and Happy B-day!

2007-05-31T20:46:00.000-04:00

I collect Geminis. My hubby is one. My beloved sister-in-law, who is like a sister to me, was born on the exact same date as hubby seven years earlier. Best friend Marie was born in between the two (in years), but two days later. It's odd how that happens.... I have a friend who collects Libras... has at least four good friends whose birthdays are all early October! Anyway, that means May is time to shop and sew. And today it is time to join in a rousing chorus of Hippo Birdie, Two Ewes! for Miss Marie, aka zquilts!

Last year when we went on the Disney cruise, I put together a small travelling pouch of art supplies to keep me content (the magenta LL Bean pencil case above): a notebook (mine was a Moleskine, but any one you like will do), a small set of Staedler pencils in a box (the tin keeps the points sharp and from soiling the bag), an eraser, a washable glue stick (for gluing in boarding passes, ticket stubs and such), a pencil sharpener, blunt-tipped (as in OK to take on planes) kindergarten scissors, some watercolor pencils (colored pencils that, when wet, turn into a watercolor), and a Japanese water-brush -- just to the right of the pencil case, with an aqua handle (next to the bag it came in), with the Mars Lumograph pencil box to the right of it. Instead of taking out the pencils, tho, I put my mini-box of Caran d'Ache Neocolor II water-soluble crayon-pastels (same idea as the pencils, different form) in the photo.

These water brushes are totally cool gizies: the tip is like a felt-tip brush pen or a small sumi brush, but the barrel is a plastic tube that you can fill with water (or probably some inks or watercolors, depending on the size of the pigment particles). I bought mine at the local art store, but you can get them online at Dick Blick here. They can be used not only with the water color pencils, but also regular watercolors and things like the Neopaque II pastel crayons. Jane Davila (who has a great new book out, co-authored with Elin Waterston, which I'll review soon) did an article recently (past two months or so) in Quilting Arts magazine about using the Neopaque IIs on cloth.

SO.... I made Marie a birthday package for art-on-the-go. My bag last summer was a perfectly serviceable pencil case, but I couldn't send wonderful Marie a plain ol' pencil case! So I whipped out some whimsical cat fabric (she loves cats at least as much as I do!) and whipped up a quick and easy bag. Of course, why make just one? So I made two... one for her, one for me. Since her's is intended to be a travelling bag, it is narrower on the base so it will pack flat inside a suitcase or tote. Mine has a wider base since I decided I'd use mine to tote show-and-tell stuff to classes (lots nicer and more quilty than a ziploc baggie!).

I've been impressed with how easy Joan Hawley makes it for people to sew bags--no wonder her line of Lazy Girl Patterns is so successful! So I thought I'd learn from her and try to make something simple (for once!). I cut rectangles of two fabrics and batting. Placed fabric right sides together, and batting on the side with the outside fabric. Sew about 1/4" around all edges, leaving an opening on what will be one of the top/zipper edge for turning. Turn right side out. Hand-sew (!) or fuse (yep) opening closed. Quilt quickly and simply...in this case, in matching blue thread amongst the kitties...think of an unwinding ball of yarn; do not quilt withing 1/2 inch of edges.

Sew a zipper to one side, topstitch. Sew the other side of the zipper to the other edge, topstitch. Sew side seams using 1/2" with seam allowances opening to the outside (so the contrasting lining fabric shows. Decided how wide you want the base; align side seam with imaginary center-bottom line, make a triangle and sew across it. By leaving the flaps and seams on the outside of the bag, it is cute, shows of the lining fabric, and I think the flaps give the base a little bit more stability. Sew tabs on either end of the zipper (my zippers were too long and needed to be shortened). I LOVE scraps of ultrasuede for this sort of thing...sturdy, don't soil as quickly as cottons, and raw edges are very tidy, but you can also wrap with cotton, too. Here's what the end of the bag looks like:

Fill bag with wrapped goodies and send it off! Or fill bag with goodies and use! Here is the inside of the bag, minus the goodies:

From Photos to Fiber

2007-05-29T17:53:00.000-04:00

That is the name of my friend's new company and soon-to-be website! Jan Pitcairn is a local quilter who, when I met her almost 3 years ago, was a budding art quilter. She has taken lots of classes (a lot at www.quiltuniversity.com) and worked to improve her technique and eye. Her husband is a fabuloso photographer, too. Jan has interpreted several of his photos (including two so far of her three sons... the third one is up next!) in cloth. So.... From Photos to Fiber.

Well, all of a sudden, with short notice and out of the blue, she and Dwight got the chance to have a small show at the Lincolnville General Store at the junction of Routes 52 and 173 in Lincolnville Center, the town just north of where I live. Here's the store,

And here is the cool door handle, which reads Golden Heart Refrigerated Bread

As luck would have it, their artists' reception was right about the time I would be heading home from Frayed Edges at Kathy's house, and if I took the back route, I'd drive right by!

Jan hung the show on Sunday afternoon, and the opening was yesterday. By the time I got there, 90 minutes after the opening began, Dwight had sold two photos and Jan had her very first professional art quilt sale! YEAH! Here a shot of folks looking at the photos and art quilts:

Here's a picture of several quilts, including the one that Jan sold (still didn't have sold written on it! the blue one with the fish...she painted it and it's wonderful):

And a picture of Jan in front of Dwight's photos, with his lighthouse photo on her right and, to the right of that, the quilt she made based on the photo:

I couldn't resist taking more photos on the way out... of the stained glass hanging over the antique wood stove:

And once again finding inspiration for quilting designs everywhere... the side of the old wood stove:

And the trivet built into the stove...what a cool idea (literally!) to get your pot up off the hot stovetop: A couple of months ago, Jan and I scheduled for the three of us (with Dwight, that is) to have a small group show at Zoot, a splendiferous coffee house here in Camden in October, so look for more of their work on view in public in just a few months (eeek! We need to get sewing!!!!). I'll let you know when their website goes live in a few weeks. Cheers, Sarah

Koi Update #6, the back

2007-05-28T21:26:00.000-04:00

Just back from a glorious weekend away..2 days feels like 2 weeks of refreshing! Have to download over 150 photos and write up blogs, tho...so one more about the Koi quilt, then will take a breather from that. Until then..here you go... the quilt is turning out great! more soon...

About a thousand years ago when I started writing about this quilt (if you're not sick of it yet), I mentioned that I needed to get this done in a short time frame. But, I wanted it to be really cool, too. I have found that two places are really good for creative musing: the shower and working out. Well, this time I was working out at the YMCA on the rowing machine, where you are nearly sitting on the floor. As I looked up at the high, high ceiling and the lights, I thought about what it is like to look up from underwater and see the sunlight blinking through the water. The appearance of the surface of the water is completely different than from underneath.

So, I took the leftovers from fusing the top, and made a back! I used the two "rejected because they were too busy" batiks and used them here because (a) the "piecing" was simpler, and (b) you can see overhanging trees and vegetation from underneath the water. Here it is:

Remember that long ironing board with all the fused pieces of fabric on it ready to use? Well, I fused up another yard of fabric in addition to that, then a 1 1/4 yard piece of my hand-dyeds. Here is all that is left after doing the background of the front and the back:

Then I thought: wouldn't it be cool to show the under side of the fish on the back. Ahem. So, I'm going to do that! I need to make the three fish and two fish-portions from the underneath view and quilt them. I'll then position them on the bottom and stitch in place by machine. The outline of that stitching will then be the outline of the fish on top. I'll applique the tops of the fishies in place and fuse up the fins and tails, then (finally) quilt the fins and tails (on both sides) at the same time! Sound convoluted? Yeah, to me too...... at least it sounds convoluted when I write it out. But I promise it's gonna be really cool! More soon!

Koi update #5--Fins and tails

2007-05-26T11:57:00.000-04:00

The fish I was so smitten by were the ones known as butterfly koi. While surfing the web recently, I learned that some koi collectors look down their noses at the butterfly, not considering them "pure, true koi." Oh well.... I think they are glorious! But even the regular ones are wonderful, too. I'm not as wild about the red/white combinations, or the nearly-all black ones that seem to be prized in koi circles... I love the yellow and the gold and the ones with the feathery white fins. So that is what mine are!

I took this photo last summer, when we were in Sarasota visiting Paul's Aunt and Uncle on vacation. The hotel had a pond as well as the beach... I think there may be more than just this one quilt... when I have more lead-time, I want to do another one with the reflections of the overhanging palms.....

I LOVE Misty Fuse, a fusible web developed by quilt artist Esterita Austin and sold by her at her website (tho that store is temporarily closed), through Keepsake Quilting (among other places), eQuilter.com and your local quilt shop. Misty Fuse is an incredibly fine, light fusible web that leaves a soft hand to the fabric and can be used at low enough temperature that you can fuse sheers, tulle and other cool stuff without melting the sheer fabrics.

I searched through my stash of sheers (sales at Joann's are a good time to stock up). I used mostly these:

I made some highlights for the water with the blue, then used the cream and bright white for the fins, with a little bit of the matte gray, too.

Here is the selection of sheers I used for the koi after I fused them up. That red/orange stuff was truly vile...and I knew it would be perfect for flames; it is also perfect for koi! I've overlapped some so you can see the layering and transparencies. For the "regular" koi, I used the copper on top of the vile red/orange print. For the butterfly koi, I used the white, cream and pale gray. I ended up not using the gold or red at all, and used the aqua only for the water highlights.

Because I am a wicked tease, I'm only going to show you one of the koi right now! I plan on quilting the water, then doing something on the back (more on that soon enough), appliqueing the fish on the top, and fusing and stitching the fins last of all. So imagine this handsome fishie with some fun threadwork on the fins:

Koi update #4--turning under the edges of the koi

2007-05-24T19:40:00.000-04:00

Despite the fact that the background is fused / raw edged, I wanted turned under edges on the koi. Several posts ago, I showed quilting the fish individually. After that, I carefully trimmed the backing fabric and excess batting away from the underside of the fish. The fish on the top shows the fish, trimmed... it looks lighter where the stitching is because (a) that's where he is painted (that thin wash of metallic paint) and (b) because the green mat is now shadowing through the seam allowance. Those two tiny black things you see are his pupils, done in thread.

As with all appliques, you clip the curves. Unlike most typical applique, I decided to fuse-baste the wide seam allowances in place (faster than thread!). The lower fish shows the seam allowances fused down. Each fish is about 20-22 inches long (that's ummm... how many cm's? 55-60 cm? 39 inches to a metre, so a bit more than half) , maybe the width of four knuckles across at the widest point.

The last photo shows one of the quilted fish pinned to the background (so I could mark placement). Obviously, this fish needs fins and a tail. That's tomorrow's post! But let's just say I'm happy!

Koi update #3--finishing the background

2007-05-23T07:27:00.000-04:00

The front is now as complete as it is going to be before I begin quilting. Here it is a step or two farther along than the last time I blogged about it:

And here it is ready to square up:

Usually I don't finalize the edges of a quilt until it is nearly done... assembly completed, quilted, and ready to finish the edges. Many times that is because I don't know what shape I want it to be in the end... I tend to resist proper rectangles and straight edges. However, this quilt needs to be done (and in record time!), so I made a decision before I began that this one would have straight edges, 90 degree corners, and no curvy outsides or other peskiness (at least of that sort!).

The dark line you see is some fuzzy yarn I was using to mark the edges on the design wall and make sure everything looked good, the angles were correct, etc., before marking with chalk and then trimming.

Tomorrow I'll show what I did next with the koi.....

A pond for the koi

2007-05-21T07:18:00.000-04:00

Hmm...wonder what unsuspecting visitors will arrive via Google searches for koi ponds based on that title? As all my great regular readers know, I'm working on a koi quilt. The good news is that it is going well (bless fusibles!). Over the past four or five days, I have managed to make good headway on the background for the front of the quilt.

Here's a tease...the fused fabrics laid out and draped over my big-board:

At first, I had planned to cut gently curving strips as I did for my journal quilt, from last year (this one is still touring with the 2006 Journals exhibit ... not sure where it is due to go next, but they usually "come home" in about September):

Then I decided that I wanted to get that rippled-y look from a gentle breeze skimming over the surface of the water. I remembered Pauline Burbidge's water pieces, and snagged her book off my shelf, but it didn't quite have what I wanted. So, I taped two long strips of paper together, since they were almost as wide as my desired size (I m shooting for a finished piece 40 inches wide...if it is 39, I can't enter it in Paducah!). Then, I sketched "ripples" in pencil. When I had them more or less where I wanted, I used a black felt tip to make them easier to see, then colored in every other one to keep from getting too confused during construction. Here it is with just the outlines:

Then I started with the cloth. I fused up a whole bunch of cloth ... either 12 or 18 inch full width pieces (picture at the top of this post). I picked the one I wanted to be a dominant color, one of my hand-dyes with little visual "busy-ness" (in the center of the board). Instead of making a whole bunch of pattern pieces (can you say boring and tedious?), I placed the fused cloth on my work table, put Saral Transfer paper on top of that, then the big pattern piece on top of that. Using a plain old pencil, I traced over the outlines of the section I wanted, which transfers a chalk-like substance from the Saral to the cloth (it brushes off easily). Then, out comes my trusty 18mm rotary cutter (the little one, with the blade the size of a dime...maybe 1 cm. across the whole thing for those of you not in the US) to cut along the lines on the top edge, and just below the lines on the bottom edge.

Here are the first few pieces cut and up on the wall--at the very bottom of the photo, you'll see the big pattern draped over the edge of the table where I'm doing the tracings:

As you can see, I started from the middle and worked up and down from there. In the next photo, I've added some more pieces:

Then I decided I'd better test the whole thing by placing the koi on it and making sure this idea for rippled water would "work":

Thankfully, it does! So, back to more cutting. In the photo at the top, you'll notice two of the batiks are more multicolored than monochromatic. I had intended to use them to accent the rippled edges, but once I got things going, I decided that they would be "too much." So they won't be on the front. The back, maybe.... stay tuned. I still don't know what's going to happen entirely on the back (that's a tease!).

The next post about the quilt will be in a few days...also want to post a book review AND get a whole bunch of work done. So, off to the studio.

Fish scales and being tagged

2007-05-19T10:48:00.000-04:00

I just discovered that Larkin Van Horn, beader and quilter extraordinaire, has just tagged me to play in the Seven Random Facts game and so did my bestest friend Marie... but I already answered that a while back (May 7th I think it was?), so I'm going to count that as having answered and in turn tagged seven others LOL! Here's a link to Larkin's blog which I have just added to my series of links over on the right...., and Marie is here: Marie's blog.

Now, fish scales. Sure hope you guys agree, cuz I'm NOT picking out all that stitching! But first things first. Initially I was going to make some of the fish mottled / splotchy (that yellow/gray hand-dyed), including by using white and black NeoColor II artsticks (sort of a combo of crayon and pastel and OK to use on fabric...Jane Davila used them in an article in Quilting Arts Mag. a few issues ago). First I decided the yellow didn't work (see photo of design wall in the previous post)...too distracting, and wanted the quilt to be orange/turquoise (complementary colors). That also meant a "nope" for the black. Here's my test strip:

Making the koi multicolored, as so many are, was just too jarring. BUT, the washes of sparkly paints worked. In looking at techniques, and my box of paints, I spied the Setacolor "Nacre" or pearlescent paint (a white) and a Stewart Gill Alchemy paint in a color called something like AfterGlow (they used to be for sale at eQuilter, Friends Fabric Art has some of them now-- they are expensive, but probably worth splurging for a bottle or two as a special treat, and this site I've never seen before has the entire line: Puffinalia.com ) The test strip has the Pearl in the center (between the two stronger white dots) and the AfterGlow above the black blotch.

The photo at the top of this post shows all three fish (plus the head and tail that will be coming into and going out of the quilt) batted and ready to stitch... if you click on the photo you should be able to see it larger, and then see what is painted and what isn't). I REALLY thinned the paint so that it was just an irridescent wash, which seemed perfect for fish scales. Here's a closer view of the head / tail:

I couldn't decide which I preferred: the simplicity of a single line of stitching or a double line:

I tested on the edge, and tried out several colors of orange, a variegated (nice on the orange, but wouldn't work for controlling the appearance of the scales), and even better when I combined two colors of thread.

The emphasis and subtle color variation by adding a second line of stitching in a slightly lighter shade of the same color, inside the original fish scales worked for me. Here is the fish head in progress (please note the color on these photos is a bit off...)

Well, I decided I liked the doubles.....the singles look good, until I get them up on the wall and step back, at which point I MUCH prefer the double-thread look. Am I insane? Here's a close-up of one of the big fish, with the two colors of thread used. I quilted first in the slightly darker one, then went back and echoed with the lighter one, on the right.

As for construction, you might wonder what the heck I'm doing quilting fish, and not a quilt. I'm saving time! I'm quilting the tops of the fishies separately, (meaning I don't have to bury all those thread tails, or have that distracting line of "carried" thread along the sides) and they will then be appliqued to the surface of the quilt and the fins and tails added there..... More anon.

What's next...koi!

2007-05-17T10:02:00.000-04:00

Well, I really should be working on my book. Instead I am indulging myself seriously and trying to finish (!!!!) a 40x60 ish quilt in 6 weeks! The idea is fully formed in my head, I have the fabrics and the beads, and in the past couple of days since finishing the chapter banner, have sketched out the picture in the head into three koi.

Here is the glorious color:

And here is day 1: (sigh...please tilt head to left...it's a vertical)

Stay tuned for updates.....

And thanks to all for the kind comments on the Chapter Banner. Many of the comments have come through as "No reply.blogger" so I can't reply to you directly to say thanks for writing, so... Thanks for taking the time to surf in and write! Now... back to the usual morning routine / chaos!

Twyla Tharp, #6 -- Harness your memory

2007-05-15T08:54:00.000-04:00

Quite some while ago, I included some quotes from Twyla Tharp; I'd like to do that again, and include some other writers on creativity from time to time. Tharp writes:

"Metaphor is our vocabulary for connecting what we're experiencing now with what we have experienced before. It's not only how we express what we remember, it's how we interpret it, for ourselves and others."

And then she talks about different kinds of memory:

Muscle memory (for an athlete or a dancer, for example, remembering the shape of a movement--for a quilter, the movement of your arms and hands as you quilt)

Sensory memory (how a smell, for example, triggers a memory of Gramma's kitchen)

Institutional memory

Ancient memory...things that seem ingrained in our psyches.

So which of these memories are in your quilts? It is the expression and interpretation of memory that make a quilt (or any other medium) art. I don't know about it being art, but I love my memory-quilt of my Gramma's kitchen, Flying Toast. It transports me back four decades to a place and time that only four of us still living actually remember: me, cousin Anne, Mom and Aunt Donna--everyone else is gone.

In the detail below, I can see, smell, feel the warmth of the sunlight pouring into the breakfast nook, remember the series of "state" plates on the top plate rail that ran around the room above the windows, and the portion of her collection on the walls. I inherited the toaster table, so scanned it and printed onto fabric to make the table, chairs and toaster table, and think of finding the "ugly linoleum" fabric in central Africa (where I lived at the time) which gave me the original idea to make this quilt (some ten plus years before it actually got made!). The walls are plaster, and outside the archway into the breakfast nook is the ceramic clock Aunt Katie made. She spent most of her 84 years in Wyoming, living in the back of the beyond, but she was an artist at heart, in addition to mom, devoted wife to a ranch hand, cook to all the cowboys who rode in as a ravenous horde at lunchtime, yet living outside the thriving metropolis of Meeteetsee (population about 600) she had her kiln and art supplies and found time and spirit for creativity.

Drum Roll: Coastal Quilters Chapter Banner #12 and LAST! (for now)

2007-05-12T13:42:00.000-04:00

At LONG last, my portion of the Chapter Banner is done done DONE! Someone else is going to do the hand finishing, but I have sewed on the binding, pinned it in place for this photo, made the hanging sleeve and sewed it into the top binding, and have only to do a label! That, will happen later!!!!

I finished the top border with the state flower and bird: the White Pine cone and tassel,

and the black-capped Chickadee:

And here is the final result:

I SURE HOPE THEY LIKE IT!

Coastal Quilters Chapter Banner #11

2007-05-10T20:28:00.000-04:00

At long last, here it is--laid out on the design wall anyway! I did the applique for the top border, and will be adding a chickadee and pine bough (state bird and tree/flower), and some flying geese going from the sky up into the top border. The blocks aren't in their final positions...need to do some fine tuning, and need to add the Elm Street Schoolhouse block, the Camden Public Library, Tower on Mt. Battie and islands in the bay, as well as the inner border. Hmm... a fair amount to do, but eager to do it!

Now I need to get cracking and finish my parts of the construction and start quilting! This is gonna be FUN! As I said in the first of these posts a while ago, I am SO PROUD of each and every person who contributed to this quilt. It is going to be the finest Chapter Banner in the state, and there are some pretty fine banners out there. I am SO LUCKY to have moved to Camden, and to Maine, and to have found such a wonderful and supportive group of quilters here. Life is good!

Color Color Joy Joy!

2007-05-09T18:32:00.000-04:00

I think my husband believes I am difficult to please. Actually it is very easy, and usually fairly simple. Color! Followed closely by books and cloth. And art supplies. And hugs. Move the hugs to number 1.

Since my quilting income has actually been sorta decent in a starting-out kinda way, I told Paul I wanted some Fiesta Ware for Mother's Day, and that I would kick in over half the cost for buying six place settings from this place.

Then, the major "for mother's day" splurge was to buy a Chartreuse mug and salad plate. That glorious color is now "retired" and moving into the price stratosphere. Before it goes any higher, I wanted some! See the small plate, below, between the Peacock and Sunshine Yellow.

Hubby, of course, wanted to know why we needed new dishes. The real reason is that I CRAVE COLOR, I need color, and I'm so tired of wood wood wood (which I love, but come on, you need some variety in life!). I started by adding two new kitchen towels (to replace the tatty disgraceful things we had), one red, one bright lime about 18 months ago. Last winter, I bought a "flame" small le Creuset kettle to go on the black woodstove between the kitchen and dining room. However, I also told him it is because we have eaten every single meal on white dishes since we married 24+ years ago, and have used the same set for the past 16 years. Time for a change!

The kids had no such trouble. I showed them the website color chart, said what colors do you like, and (thankfully there was a lot of overlap among the three of us) picked six so that each of us has at least two we love. Asked hubby to do the same. He came and looked, blankly, at the computer. "I don't care." HUNH? How can anyone not care about color? When pressed, he shrugged. So I ordered the colors the boys and I like! Joshua likes the Periwinkle and Sea Mist (the softer ones) and Peacock, Eli liked the Tangerine and Shamrock, and I liked the Peacock, Sunshine yellow and Tangerine. WooohooO! And, of course, the decadent Chartreuse!

So celebrate the color with me. And we can thank Roxanne, co Pres. of my local guild chapter, for some of the impetus.... I have wanted these dishes for eons, but last year Roxanne made a quilt inspired by her Fiestaware, and I finally succumbed to the temptation. THANK YOU! Now.... shall I make a Fiesta quilt? Maybe for the sofa....with fleece on the back. Here's the "stash" of color (and the usual counter clutter....sigh....)
HOORAY FOR COLOR!

And tomorrow, I promise I'll post the next to last (for a while) picture of the Chapter Banner, one that shows it all pinned up on the Design wall. On Saturday we have our chapter guild meeting, so will "unveil" it there, and then post to the blog over the weekend I hope. Toodles!

Coastal Quilters Chapter Banner #10

2007-05-08T09:03:00.000-04:00

We now return from our detour to the regularly scheduled blogging about the Chapter Banner...

I needed to add some elements to the design to fill in blank spaces. I also needed to add a block for the outside, so made a command decision and just did a block of fiddlehead fern.

In the center panel of the quilt, I added a moose in the lower left corner (there was a moose on the loose in Warren, which is that general direction, just last week!):

Camden Public Library (and LOVE the way it turned out):

Curtis Island Light (at the entrance to Camden Harbor...this was always planned, as was the library):

And hopefully no one will be too appalled that Thumper has given the quilt her complete blessing:

And here are the flying geese up near the top, flying from the sky in the center panel across the inner border up into the top area:

Some hills that include an area meant to represent the Beech Hill preserve with its blueberry barrens:

Tents for the Rockland Lobster Festival:

And the Herrick camp cottage on Pitcher Pond, where we have our August meetings, eat and share quilts...it is gloriously beautiful there, and are fortunate the Herricks are so generous in sharing with us. It is Maine camp living at its finest (outhouse has a magazine slot, and the pump for the water is indoors at the kitchen sink....you pump the water straight into the sink, and they have a generator for the fridge, so we get ice cream sundaes!). Summer Heaven is a good name for it!

The only thing left to create is the chickadee (top right of the top border), finish the quilting, sew on the tiny "reveal" of the same fabric as the inner border inside the binding, machine sew the binding (thank HEAVENS someone else is doing the hand finishing... I need to get back to my book), do up and print the label on cloth and get it ready for the final helpers, and ditto for the hanging sleeve. I can get this done by our meeting in a week! Deadlines sure help me focus!!!!! Best of all, I am elated by how it is turning out....

The Frayed Edges, late April 2007

2007-05-06T10:58:00.000-04:00

What a crazy week...has been 6 days since we met at Kate's house, and I'm only getting to write about it now! We had a wonderful visit, though Nina (Hannah's new daughter) had had a fever that night. So for the morning and lunch it was Kate, Kathy and me. After lunch, we went over the hill and through the woods to Brunswick, to Hannah's temporary digs (900 square feet for two adults, four girls and a dog!) while they build their house (which is delayed starting due to sodden earth!).

We compared our projects for Lark Books.... hmmm.... backing up a second. To our utter astonishment and delight, one of the editors at Lark Books contacted each of us early in the year after having seen our work in the Winter 2006 issue of Quilting Arts Magazine to invite us (!!!!) to submit proposals for projects to be included in a book to be called Quilting with Beads (pub. date of May 2008 or so). Hannah, of course, in the midst of selling a house, moving and adopting in China (with three girls already at home) had to pass on the chance, but the rest of us submitted from one (Kathy) to four proposals.... Deborah has 3 for 3 in the book, Kate and I have two each, and Kathy has one. I(t never occurred to me they'd take more than one each...so we're all working FAST! Due date for submissions is May 21 including patterning, in progress shots, etc.

Well, it appears I forgot to take pictures of Kathy's and Kate's. SHEESH, what is wrong with me? Well... Kathy has shared a sneak peek on her blog and you'll have to trust me on how awesome Kate's will be. I am so totally inspired by Kate's use of unconventional items as beads (like porcupine quills, horn pipe, broken crockery.... am I enticing you?). We spent part of the morning scuffing up the horn pipe beads since they were a bit too bright and shiny, and soaking them in the coffee dregs to age them appropriately. Perfect!

The picture above is of the lunch debris... I forgot (Deborah...we need you to be here and remind us to take pictures of the BEFORE!) to take pics of the food, but here you see Kate's awesome batik (which I shared in an earlier post about our meeting at Kathy's house) doing tablecloth duty.

And I was totally taken by this seaglass fishie in Kate's bathroom:

Here is a tease of my project...I'm not sure how much of the finished one I can share, so this is just a portion of it! OMG...I am such a DOLT... it appears I ALSO forgot to take pictures of the finished project in the yellow/lime colorway! So, you get to see a snippet of the lime/turquoise one..... sheesh. I think I need a vacation?

Then we trooped over to Hannah's temporary abode. If she looks tired, it is because she is, having been up all night with a feverish Nina who is almost one! Here is Hannah, Ella and her new baby sister Nina (who was doing much better when we were there):

And here is Nina exploring her mom's glorious bead and sequins haul from shopping in China:

Ooooh pretty!

Best of all, we had cake for Kate's birthday (which I totally missed...sigh!), BUT Kathy remembered and made these treats...aren't they beautiful?