Artichoke Bouquet

Yes I forgot to cook the artichokes I harvested. But they look pretty in a vase.

That purple! I wonder how long it will last?

Purple & Yellow = Fun

Here is a quilt I am in the process of making for the ALS Hopes & Dreams project. I didn't get it completed for the original deadline, but they've extended it for a while. I got the directions from

I got to use a lot of my favorite purples which was fun. I chose the yellow/purple combination because it is one of the cheeriest ones in my opinion. It is great to work with such a happy combination.

Here it is with the first border added on. I may make a second striped border since I have a lot of strips left over from making the blocks.

I was just about to quilt this but then I remembered that this is sponsored by Quilter's Dream, so I have to go get some of that batting to use, not one of the ones I keep on hand, hope I can find it in a shop somewhere nearby.

Teapot Table Views

After dinner teapot view.More sky captured in the teapot.With added chopsticks and a wondering son.

Starting The Sketchbook Project

I've signed up for The Sketchbook Project this year. Here's the blank book waiting to be filled up with something....the theme I chose from the available list was: Below The Surface.

Like the tag line on this promo picture says "It's like a concert tour, but with sketchbooks." And when the tour is over, all the sketchbooks will remain a part of the Brooklyn Art Library, which would be really fun to visit the next time I ever get to NYC. I hope that you live near enough to one of the locations to go and checkout the exhibit. Also, since the book doesn't come back to me, I paid extra to have them digitize it so I'll have a digital copy at least.

When you sign up you get a Moleskine cahier with a barcode label with your info stuck on the back. As it is going to be in a traveling display you're not supposed to have a lot of stuff sticking out, since it would likely fall off. The books are also going to end up being handled by a whole lot of people during the tour. You'll be able to hold the books in your hand and look through them, not just gaze at things mounted on the wall.

I really like this logo, with the strangely sized letters and nicely graphic clouds.

The main reason I signed up for this is because one of the tour stops is in San Francisco, so I'll be able to actually go and see it in person!

You can still sign up and participate, I say go for it....I hope you do.

Now for the fun part, filling it up with some work!

I know I want to end up with some stitchery, and some sheer fabrics (Below The Surface being the theme and all), but haven't worked that out quite yet.

Many Eyes to See

Here is a card I recently made for a fellow artist journaller on a pen pal list. Pen pals, what a concept right? It is fun to have a list of people who like to make and send and receive stuff in the mail. It makes picking up the mail much more interesting which is a good thing.

This card was made by painting several metallic acrylic paints in layers. Then I tore some mulberry papers into shapes that would back up the stamped eye. This eye is one that I hand-carved a couple of years ago. Some letters cut out from a magazine that say: SEE were the last thing added. I did a bunch of stamping and writing on the inside, but I didn't feel like photographing that.

Here's how the same stamp looks when stamped on some of my hand-dyed fabric.

And how it looks when stamped on previously painted paper.
And all the eyes together. I kind of like seeing so many eyes in one place.

Giving A Block Here And There

Here's a block that I recently made for the GlobalChange.Me Global Quilt project. They are going to assemble all the blocks and auction off the quilt to raise funds for a latrine project at a school in the Central African Republic. Such a crucial thing and if a little quilt block from me will help, I'm doing it! They are still looking for more blocks, so make one if you have the time or inclination.

Summer Stars

Here are my first four blocks from Bradie Sparrow's Summer Star Sampler Quilt-A-Long. She puts up directions for two stars per week.

I'm having fun trying all these star blocks I've never tried before.

Yes, I question my fabric choice on this one also.

I do like this combination a lot though.

Yes this one was assembled incorrectly. Almost completely wrong. After a whole lot of unsewing, I fixed it:That's a lot better!

Maximum Tumbler Overload

I started this Tumbler Charm Quilt a long time ago (five years!) and I'm nearing the end of getting all those tumblers together into one big quilt top. I had to chose a edge fabric to put at the beginning and end of each strip and found a nice black/grey spiral. Here are the first five rows sewn together.

A sewing action shot, I'm only pinning the very beginning together, the rest fall into line pretty easily.
And two more added, up to seven rows.

Here's what the edge looks like with the black spiral fabric. I think it will make a nice framing border.Keep on sewing, strips over shoulder to avoid rolling over with chair.

All the variety, I love it! And no, I didn't manage to keep to the dark/light pattern that I'd originally started out with. But I truly like the randomness of dark and light sections.

This is the 1/4" foot that I'm using, it helps to get these long strips together more accurately. Accurately being a relative term in my quilting room of course.

Wall o' Tumblers!

Oh no! What are the chances?! The first rule of a Charm Quilt is NO Duplicates. And certainly not adjacent to each other, sheesh. And this was after the long strips were sewn together. sigh.

There that's much better.

Faces, there are a lot of faces. I've been fussy-cutting them, just because it feels funny to cut or sew right through a face.

And a few more faces. And that's how far I got, 13 rows, before I got bored of sewing the strips together. I'd say this is about 1/4 of the quilt top assembled. All the other strips sewn together, pressed and ready to go, I just have to get back into the mood to do it.

Twenty-Six Together, Halfway Through The Year

Here they are, marking the half-way point through the year, all twenty-six six-word memoir quiltlets up on the design wall. What a hodgepodge of shapes and colors! The ones that are mainly rectangular stand out as kind of odd. Just goes to show that visually we are somewhat defined by our surroundings.And here is how they look all stacked up in the big box I'm keeping them in. One thing about having big teen aged boys with gigantic feet around, one ends up with rather large shoe boxes to work with! There is probably going to be enough room for the whole years' worth in here, but I do need to collage the rest of the box since it is somewhat boring on the inside.

Yin-Yang Completion

The bag I've had in process for quite awhile now (ahem) is now.....drumroll please......tada!

Done! This is the Yin-Yang Bag from Scrap Bags-Jamie Kalvestran. I love how it turned out, and it was much easier to put together than I thought it would be. Once I had all the pieces prepared (see first picture), it went along very smoothly thanks to the well-written instructions in the pattern.

Here is how it looks from the side so you can see the pocket sticking out a bit.

And here is a shot of the inside. There is actually a lot more room in this bag than I thought at first, and with the two pockets created, it should be easy to use. I just wish that I'd thought to put a magnetic closure in as I was sewing it, maybe I'll try to add one.

Material force moves and flows in all directions and in all manners. Its two elements unite and give rise to the concrete. Thus the multiplicity of things and human beings is produced. In their ceaseless successions the two elements of yin and yang constitute the great principles of the universe. ~ Chang Tsai

Celebrating The Purple Breeze

Another in the year-long project of weekly six-word memoir quiltlets (more than half way done now!)

Was it a particularly purple week for me? Not really, just happened to be a lot of purple scraps on my worktable from cutting out tumbler patches (thus all the skinny triangles). The triangles inspired this pennant-esque look here, I left them unattached except for at the top under a purple ribbon, so that they can flutter in the breeze.

The words say:

CelebratingThe BreezeBlowing Through Today.