Twenty-First Weekly Study Square

 Catching up posting these weekly quiltlets, here's the Twenty-First Weekly Study Square.

 Some details of all the stitching.

Words of the week:

• snail
• foundation
• sky
• pad
• observation
• hail
• fertiliser
• salary

Post-Holidaze

I haven't taken down any of our holiday stuff yet, (and I'm not planning on it any time soon) so I thought I'd share a few pictures here. First, here's what our front door wreath looks like. I make one of these every year out of trimmings from our trees and bushes. Redwood, fir, madrone, bay laurel, rosemary. I wish you could smell it, it's still so fragrant. This year I had a bunch of bright orange rose hips so I stuck those on for some color and added a new ribbon that has red LED lights embedded in it to tie the whole thing all together.

 Here's our tree, he was named Paolo. When you buy a tree at our local Feed Store/Nursery they ask you to name a tree that's replacing the one you just chose. Because your tree has a label with a name, it's kinda cute. This one was lopsided on the bottom, but it fit the space pretty well.

This is one of my favorite ornaments, it's vintage, either from my grandma or my mom, I forget. I love the shape, the color, the shiny, and that it's still in one piece after all these years.

 I started buying ornaments that either said PEACE or were peace-related way back when our country first went to war in 2001.

 And I've been buying them every year since then. Unfortunately I have a whole lot of them now.

 They really stand out on the tree.

 The word PEACE repeated over and over again.

 Broken up by a few stars here and there of course.

 It's not just about war/peace of course, but also a wish I always concentrate on especially during the holidays. for all sorts of peace, finding some level of peace of mind, finding peace with what you have vs. what you don't, peace and quiet, the stillness of peace, all forms of peace.
Wishing and hoping for peace for the whole wide world and my teeny tiny corner of it too.

For all beings, Peace.

 This is a dragon we usually have up somewhere in the house or on the front door. I thought he wouldn't mind carrying a load of Peace for us for the season.

 I'm looking forward to the year when I don't feel the need to add to my collection and can just search out silly plastic dragons, candy and tangerines to put in my family's stockings. Someday....

Solstice Challenge

 

Here are the first three 12" blocks I've made in the Solstice Challenge that Pat Sloan is running in the 182 days from the Winter to the Summer Solstice. She's posting weekly blocks with great, clear instructions. You're not too far behind to jump in and catch up.


 As you can see I'm using all batiks, but not in any certain color groups. Because why not use allll the colors??? One of my most-used mottos I suppose. Here's hoping they play well together in whatever setting Pat has planned for this project...

Going from making a daily block to a weekly one, and also doubling the block size makes this project seem really easy in comparison. Funny how after 100 days in a row I got used to making those 6.5" blocks.

Weekly Study Square #20

Up to number twenty already on the Weekly Study Square Quiltlets. Hard to believe, but these are stacking up, the box I'm using to hold them is about half-filled. I suppose I'll stop making them when there isn't room for more. But for now, this size and shape is still working for me. Plus I'm using up scraps and keeping my creative muscle a teeny tiny bit loosened up. A detail shot showing the embroidery stitches I used. I love seeing these stitched out in variegated threads.

The 8 random words for the week:

• referendum


• leg


• bulldozer


• shorts


• frock


• remedy


• label


• tattoo

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to all!

I am resolution-free as of the moment, although that may change.

This is a picture of the cake I made for the Winter Solstice this year. It is a conglomeration of a few recipes and I'm going to write it out here so I can make it again because it was worthy of being enjoyed for many more years. Someday I will successfully turn out a bundt cake without it breaking, but alas, it was not to be, luckily that does not affect the taste.

So...the recipe along with my best-wishes for a wonderful new year:

Cranberry Almond Mandarin Bundt Cake

Ingredients:
3 Large Eggs
1.5 Cups Sugar
1/2 Cup + 2T Butter, melted
1t Baking Powder
1/2t Salt
1.5 Cups Cake Flour
2 1/3 Cups Chopped Almonds
1.5 Cups Whole Fresh Cranberries
1 Cup Satsuma Mandarins, peeled, roughly chopped

Preheat oven to 350F

Beat eggs, gradually adding the sugar.
Continue to beat while adding the melted butter.
Add flour, salt, baking powder, missing until well-blended.
Stir in the almonds, gently mix in the cranberries and mandarins.

Pour/Press mixture into spray-oiled bundt pan.

Bake for approximately 50 minutes., use the toothpick test to check.

Frosting:
Combine
2T melted butter
1 Cup Confectioner's Sugar

Add in 1/2 t Lemon Extract
1T Limoncello
1 T Key West Lime Juice

Mix until smooth. Drizzle over cake.
Decorate as desired.

Nineteenth Weekly Study Square

 The nineteenth Weekly Study Square Quiltlet is entitled "Get Your OY On". There was a whole lot of oy happening as I worked through making this quiltlet. Mostly due to my turning a cone of Madeira Poly thread upside-down. A huge amount of it slid off in its finely wrapped loops and the resulting thread tangle wrapped-up my attention for quite a long time. After saving some of the thread and doing some of the stitching, the rest of those tangles made it onto this quiltlet forming the letters O and Y.

 Close-up of the "O" thread tangle, stitched down with the same thread in a zig-zag.

 Close up of the "Y and some of the other stitches.

The orange background is the fabric envelope my new cellphone case came in. I love how it glows against the green and fuchsia.

Words of the Week:

• bulb


• perch


• pension


• ambulance


• pincer


• blanket


• hospital


• motel

52 Weeks of Being 52

This is my 52nd year, and I've started a visual journal titled:

52 Weeks of Being 52

It just seemed so perfect, 52 weeks in a year, why not?

 This is my "title" page, I'm not sure it's completely done or not. I'm using a Strathmore Visual Journal that has nice thick watercolor paper that is suited for mixed-media work. And my media was indeed mixed, as I used Prismacolor colored pencils, Derwent Inktense blocks, Sakura Pigma Micron Pen, rubber stamping with Distress Ink pads and a few stick-on foil stars.

I won't promise that  I'll share all of the pages here or not, or even manage to share them as I create them (hopefully) weekly. But I'll try. And since I'm 52, I get to get away with things like that!

Great Gifts

It's great having a friend who can make you presents when your birthday rolls around yet again. Friend Jaye made me a handy-dandy One Hour Basket in lovely purples. It's nice and roomy and has just enough stability to stand up on its own.

And inside, four double-sided cloth napkins with a cute coffee cup print. Wakey Wakey!

Green and Orange

 Two color mosaics I made recently, using pictures from the last few months.

Orange and green, green and orange they always go together, don't they?

Eighteenth Study Square

The eighteenth Weekly Study Square Quiltlet is made up of selvedges and printed ribbons as well as a few fabric scraps in-between. I liked the look of all the different fonts lined up on top of each other. The numbers in circles of color on selvedges is one of my favorite parts of fabric, weird huh?

Words of the week:

• address


• leather


• measure


• misnomer


• sedative


• bonus


• wire


• finger

Three More for the ATC Collection

 I was lucky enough to swap for three new ATC's at the December CQFA meeting. And got to keep one of mine. These little beauties just shine, don't they?

 Jaye's has a lot of really nice details, and I of course, love this color combination.

 Maureen's has so many great colors and textures.

Virginia's is a perfect little composition.

Painted Silk ATC's

Here's the story on my ATC's for the CQFA meeting.

 I started out with this cream colored luscious piece of textured silk-blend snagged from FabMo.

 Using my Tsukineko ink brushes I highlighted the ridges with red.

 And then dotted the whole thing with blue. Blending the two colors with a wet brush, the inks combined with the crinkled texture acting as a mild sort of resist.

Keeping in mind that when it dries, it won't be as dark or intense, while it was still wet I added more color with Inktense watercolor blocks and then wet brushed the additional pigment to blend.

 Here's how it looks after it had time to dry and was heat-set with my iron.

 Measuring and cutting the 2.5x3.5" ATC's out of the stitched piece.

 I did some minimal quilting on each ATC, I didn't want to smash down that wonderful crinkled texture.

 Closeups of each one. I used striped washi tape which I machine embroidered either a 2 or a 5 depending on how many lines of quilting were in the ATC.

 Then I added a small piece of pink dyed wool roving, held down under some paper lace that I stitched down.

 I stitched around the edges and then zig-zagged once also.

I was really pleased with how these ATC's turned out this time and I was happy to have something to trade at the CQFA meeting. More on that tomorrow.

Thankful Post

 Looking back at November, there's a whole lot that I'm thankful for.

 Spike absolutely loves the new dog bed. As our resident cat-dog, his word is respected by the dog-cat who could have cared less about it.

 Some early winter figs still ripening on my tree.

 Downtown Santa Cruz, at the MAH for Radical Craft Night working the FabMo table. Super fun, and absolutely mobbed.

 Rainy windshield + Neon

 My turkey turned out pretty damn great this year.

 We finally carved our pumpkins, just in time for my husband's late November birthday. A new tradition is born??

 The reason I insisted on at least cutting into the pumpkins, (which I am no longer authorized to do given past events, sigh.) Roasted pumpkin seeds. We made about 6 cups of these, which lasted a few days. nom nom nom.

Our Japanese Maple finally began turning color.

What a difference a week makes!

 The angel's trumpet is still growing and blooming, no hard frost yet. It's almost visible from the second story window.

Harvested my first (and only ever) pomegranate!