Art, Quilts, and Other Adventures

Check out my updated website!

Now open, my fresh new website.

Salt Creek Quilt Company

I'm so proud of myself -- I did the banner and the seamless tiled background all on my own. 

It's not perfect, but it is functional.

And, by the way, you could preorder a copy of my new book if you were interested in doing so.

At some point in the future, I'll probably move my blog so that it integrates with the website, but that's a "someday" project.

I'm happy to report that I actually sat at my sewing machine for 2 15 minute sewing sessions in which I sewed together a bunch of 2.5 inch strips of red and white fabrics.  I also visited a quilt shop today with my mother, where we purchased a gob of neutrals for a log cabin that she is going to piece and I'll quilt.  My sister's best-childhood-friend is getting married in May, and we are going to Texas for a Blessing of the Wedding -- and figure we'd better have a quilt to take with us!

Tomorrow I intend to sew some more strips together, and maybe I'll even show off the results if I get the pieced into blocks!

Right now, though, it's bed time....

Ways to waste time

Time Waster #498:  Print 30 copies of a 49 page book, but don't verify that the "COLLATE" box is checked.

Thankfully I discovered my error before too much had gotten printed, and only have to hand-collate a few pages. (Well, the first 6 sheets times 30, plus put those together with the rest of it.)

By the way, how is it possible that today is March 30th?  What happened to March?  Wasn't yesterday March 1st?

Seen on a bumper sticker

My friend Susan sent me an e-mail telling me about a bumper sticker she had seen:

Don't believe everything you think

I think I need to tattoo it on my hand or something so that I can see it and remind myself that not all of my ideas are brilliant. (Some of them are....but not all of them....)

Proofreading

Proofreading is such a fun job.

My book has been proofread by a number of very helpful souls, and the latest is my long-suffering husband.

I told him that he probably wouldn't find much since so many people had already looked at it.

He had this funny look on his face and said "Oh, well maybe I'm finding too much then."

I accused him of trying to edit it to sound like one of his reports at work.

But -- it turns out that he has found some funny stuff that hadn't been caught be any of us yet.  One error in particular was similar to the following:

I want some apples and
and some oranges

Oops.

In quilt related news:  I did actually quilt something the other day.  And this morning I finished the binding on Peppermint Ice Cream.  It is pinned to my design wall drying out right at the moment.  I never used to block quilts, but definitely learned the value last year.  At least for wall quilts or quilts headed for a show.  This quilt needs to be on its way tomorrow (it has to be in New Hampshire by the 3rd), so I hope it dries really really fast.   (I have I mentioned that I occasionally procrastinate?).

I also thought about my March journal quilt but didn't get much further than thinking.

Mostly the last few days have been caught up in website things (why does computer stuff always take 10 times longer than I expect it to do?) and book/class things.  Only 13 more days until MQX!

A Trip to Nowhere

I have mentioned before that my Grandma has had to move to a nursing home.  It's been a little over a month since she fell and the determination was made that she could no longer live on her own.  It's been a busy and difficult month.  The brunt has been borne by my Aunt.  Her daughters both just had babies within the last 6 weeks.  My Mom and I have tried to help as much as we can, but we live about 30 miles away.

This past weekend we had a sale at her apartment to try to get rid of some of the stuff that wasn't being kept by either or another member of the family.  Before I left on Saturday I had offered to help take the rest of the stuff to Goodwill.    My Aunt called later to say that they wouldn't need me after all.  No biggie -- I have plenty to do...

Well, she called last night because it turned out that my cousin wouldn't be able to help after all -- Could I please come?  And bring the truck?  Well, since I didn't think I needed it, the truck is not here right now.  We decided that between our two cars, we'd probably manage.

This morning I called to let her know I was on my way, and I'd meet her in 30 minutes.  20 minutes in to my drive:  she called back.  She didn't really need me after all.  There wasn't nearly as much stuff as she had originally thought.

LOL.

I'm just glad I didn't get all the way there before discovering that I wasn't really needed.  That would have annoyed me.  There wasn't really any point in being annoyed, though.  The stress that she's been under is pretty crushing.  I might have done the same thing -- looked at it all and panicked about how much it was.

What I probably should have done was just turn around and come home, but my inner brat said "You've driven all this way, it'd be a shame to take a trip to nowhere.  You should go to Pamida."

Pamida, for those of you who don't know, is a Discount Store.  In the range of discount stores, I would rank it thusly: 

Target (where I do a lot of shopping)
Wal-Mart (which I try to avoid, but sometimes you just have to go to Wal-Mart)
K-Mart (I can't even remember the last time I went to a K-Mart, let alone bought anything of value there)
Pamida (They might have some name-brand stuff, but mostly, the housewares and stuff is way way off-brand).

I wandered around for awhile, found that they had some scrapbooking stuff (and bought some paper and some stickers), and finally gave up and came home.

So that's my story of my trip to Nowhere.  I am in need of a break, but I wasn't really in need of an hour in the car.  I've been sitting too much lately, which is jamming up my hips (well, my sacroiliac joints, I think).  On that note, I think I'd better stand up and maybe go do some stretching....

And so it begins

This is probably only interesting to...well...me....but, printing has begun: 

(My trusty Photosmart 8250 printing front covers)

I'm still proofreading (mom found a few things, not the least of which is some punctuation issues...), and I still have photographs to add in.  I took some samples outside (70 plus degrees today!) and had a photo shoot.

Look!  It's green out there!

And here, how about a sneak peek at one of the designs from the new book:

This one is called Hanging Hearts.

I've shown off the cover in a past post, but here's a closeup of the picture that's on the cover.  This design is called Corkscrews.

The quilt itself is a pattern by my friends Miki and Diane who designed it just for me!  As soon as I have pattern ordering information I'll be sure to share!

In addition to finishing the book, I'm trying to spend time today getting things ready to take orders.  I just love messing around with website stuff.  Ugh.  Everything takes twice as long as think it ought to, and I know just enough to be dangerous, but not enough to be really efficient. 

Well, time to eat something and then back to work.   I may have to go change into a t-shirt (and shorts?)!

Big Fat Tears

Why am I crying?

Well, first are the tears of sadness. I went to see the movie Bridge to Terabithia last night.  I didn't even bother to try to wipe away the big fat tears rolling down my face.  I recently read the book, and I thought the movie was a beautiful adaptation of a wonderful story.

Second are the tears of joy.  The book is nearly done.  I have some photographs to add and a little bit more proofreading to do.  I have definitely taken it down to the wire, but I think I'm going to make it.  This is one of the reasons why I like the fact that I am printing them on my own, and printing them on demand.  I do wish I had made myself stick to the schedule I made several months ago.  I intended to be done with this part close to 3 weeks ago.  A lesson for the future....

And last -- the start of the running eyes thanks to the fact that it is Spring!  I'll try not to complain too much yet about my allergies, because I am very much enjoying seeing the green grass and feeling warm again.  My husband is actually wearing shorts today!

We started talking about a summer vacation today.  We are thinking about the Grand Canyon and other points of interest in Arizona.  We are contemplating a cheap flight into Las Vegas and a rental car.  Mark wants to see Hoover Dam, and I know that we could probably spend at least 2 weeks exploring.

OK, I've got to get back to work, but thought I'd post a quick update.  After staring at the computer for hours working on the book, I haven't had the energy to try to post anything on the blog.  You should be hearing from me more this week, though....maybe even with actual quilt and art related content!

A Treasure

My 85 year old grandmother has had to move into a nursing home.  I am helping my mom, my aunt, and my grandma sort through Grandma's apartment and decide what to keep, what to toss, and what to sell.  I have come home with a few treasures, one of which I wanted to share just because it'll bring a smile.  It's completely out of season, but that's OK:

The idea came from a preschool project.  We made several of these for Christmas in 2003.

I think we had a lot of fun making them, but that was a long time ago, and I might be remembering the project with rose colored glasses.  I think I got the wooden trays at Hobby Lobby.  I was just looking at the big bottle of blue paint in a drawer, wondering why I had purchased it -- now I remember!  I think I probably let them do nearly all of the painting.  I think all I painted was the bottom of their feet so that they could do the print.

The book is going well, but still lots and lots to do to get it finished.

I'd better get back to it....

Another page done

Turquoise "T" on Two-color fabric with Twin circles

I Trapped Tangled Threads with Tulle and did some Threadplay on Top.  (Actually I did bobbin work, as the Thread I wanted to use is Turquoise Kreinik metallic blending filament, which I didn't think would work coming through the needle).

The fabric was layered with Two layers of Totally Stable stabilizer (a Sulky product).

Some of the "T"s were on purpose, some I only realized after I got going like the Twin circles or the fact that the name of the stabilizer started with a "T"...)

The color is much prettier in person.  I still need to attach these to the appropriate places in Marilyn's book, and will get it in the mail next week.

ABC RR Pages for Marilyn

This post is a copy of what I posted on the ABC Round Robin blog that we are using to keep track of what our group is doing.  (Which can be found here if you are interested.  I should put a link in my list of links, I guess.)

*****************
I'm still contemplating what I'm doing for my second letter in Marilyn's book, but I wanted to show off the front and back of what I did for the letter "P" for her book. In all honesty, I'm not sure yet which is the front and which is the back....

I'm particularly fond of wordplay and being clever, although I hope it isn't too silly.

Make note of plaid, pink, poetry, polka-dots, pocket....the pink background is painted paper...

There are 3 printed poems in the pocket (which is made of two layers of polka-dot fabric and a layer of Peltex interfacing). I might add more poems, just haven't picked any others yet. I was trying to see if there is a shade of green that has a "P" name, haven't found one yet...LOL.

Are the blue letters and brads Powder blue?  I don't think they are Periwinkle, but they might be Persian blue.

Oh wait -- what about Persian Green or Pine Green?

I told you I was silly.....VBG