Art, Quilts, and Other Adventures

Fickle Suzanne

When I started this blog, I thought this was the best way for me to go.  I like a lot of things about Typepad, but I'm finding that there are lot of things about Wordpress that I like better.  So, I'm going to experiment with having my blog over at this address instead:

http://blog.saltcreekquiltco.com

All of my photos are still hosted here at Typepad, so for the next little while (since I've paid for it...) this blog will still be active as an archive.   I've moved all of my existing posts over to the new blog (and all of the comments, too!), so everything is there.

I hope you'll follow me over there and see what I'm up to.

Overalls

I pulled on my overalls today and it got me thinking about overalls.  I'm not really sure why I like my overalls so much.   They are something of a pain when it is time for a trip to the bathroom....

But man, they are comfortable.  And they do have lots of fun pockets.  I wore mine on the trip home from NH, and was able to stick my iPod in the bib pocket, which was really quite convenient. 

I started wearing overalls about the time that my boys stopped wearing them.  Is there anything cuter than a  little boy in overalls?

I know something cuter: the backside of a little boy wearing overalls:

Nope.  I lied.  Here's what is the cutest:  TWO little boys in overalls mugging for the camera:

For those of you wondering why the boys STOPPED wearing overalls when they were as cute as the dickens in them -- I have two words:  Potty.  Training.

Part of why I'm bringing up overalls today is travel tip #376.

Overalls might be comfortable, and they might be convenient with all those pockets and things, but:  flying in overalls is not advised.  Unless,  of course, you enjoy getting sent into the glass fishbowl and having the nice TSA person scan you and pat you down because your overalls are covered with metal buckles that don't make it through the security scanner.

You've been warned.  I'll probably forget and have them on the next time I fly.

I have some quilt related posting to do today, too, but that has to wait until I go take a different picture.  The one I took earlier is very blurry.

TTFN!

Suzanne

(The overall pictures are from December 2000, we were taking pictures for Christmas cards.  I had so much fun dressing them when they were little.  We usually tried for "same, but different" if we could.  They look so much alike that we try to make it easy on people by at least going with different colored clothing.  You can't tell from the pictures but the boots they were wearing matched the outfits -- Pooh and Tigger....)

Of piano recitals, tulips and birds

Yesterday was our piano recital.  I teach 3 kids, and my boys take lessons (from someone else...).  The other teachers and I decided to do a group recital day.  There were 3 sessions -- my students and my boys were at the 3 PM session.  I think there were 13 kids playing at that session -- a nice number.  Not too long....

I had been worried about the performances of my boys simply because they've been really silly at practice time lately.  Racing through their songs....goofing off....not listening to anything Mom has to say.

Thankfully, all of the children managed to do a wonderful job at the recital.  No major flubs, nobody being silly.  In fact, my boys, and my 3 students pretty much played their best at the recital, so I was proud and relieved.

Of the 13 kids at the 3PM recital, 8 were boys. Eight!  All of the boys seem to be drawn to the bouncy, jazzy type songs.  They were all very cute. The 13 kids ranged in age from 7 to about 10 or 11.  The teachers announced the name of the next performer, and then when they got up on stage, each kid announced the names of their songs.  After they played, they all gave a bow of some sort (head bob, slight bend at the waist...one of the girls even give a tiny curtsy).

Of course, I think the kids all thought the refreshments afterwards were the best part.  One of my boys said to me later "It was really annoying when people kept coming up to the table of performers and telling us what a good job we did."

At least no one was trying to pinch his cheeks or give him a sloppy kiss!

I've had trouble getting going this week.  The weekend was a little bit foggy:   Benadryl doesn't normally make me drowsy, but this weekend, boy....I had several Benadryl induced naps.  It's such a trade-off:  sneezing and watery eyes, or drowsy foggy brain?

I have been trying to get back into crafty/arty projects.  Today I worked on the "T" spread for the next Altered Book round robin book.  I'm not sure I'm completely done with it, but here's where I'm at for now:

If you can't read it, the text is from the song "Tiptoe through the Tulips"

I also made a bird:

CarlaB has instructions on her blog (Feathered Fibers) for making this bird: she uses fabric, mine is out of paper.  I'm contemplating using it for a page in one of my upcoming altered books.  I discovered after the glue was dry that one of the leg is longer than the other.  It's actually one long braid, and I thought I'd stuck it in with the two ends hangingout fairly evenly.  Oops.

I can't remember the last time I actually cooked a meal, so I thought I'd surprise my family and actually cook something tonight.  I'd better get going on that........

TTFN-
Suzanne

Beads and buttons

I really didn't spend very much money at MQX last week, but what I did do was to splurge on some jewelry:

As with a lot of things, this is so much prettier in real life.  I wonder if taking a picture of it on a dark background would be better?  Or maybe seeing what it looks like on me would be better?

And this one (which has matching earrings):

And some buttons:

There are actually 8 of those gorgeous handmade glass button.  Haven't got the slightest clue as to what I'm going to do with them, but I'll have to find something now, won't I?

I got all of this pretty stuff from a place called We Got the Buttons

You should go visit her website -- she has some interesting information about how she actually makes the buttons.

There aren't actually any buttons for sale on her website -- the best way to use her gorgeous buttons is to ask her to make CUSTOM buttons.  Send her a swatch of your fabric, tell her what size, shape and color, and she'll make buttons to match!

I have some work to do today, but I'm also bound and determined to finish the pebbling on the red wholecloth.

First stop, though, is a trip the cough syrup bottle.  I'm feeling better, but I'm hearing horror stories from people that this crud lasts weeks.  Ugh.

More later!

Suzanne

Bead overload

So this crazy red wholecloth I'm working on has suggested to me that it might want some beads.

(Yes, my quilts talk to me.  Don't yours talk to you?  Sometimes I'm not sure if I should listen to my quilts or not.  Listening to them sometimes gets me into trouble.  More often than not, though, the quilt is right about what it wants.)

Where was I?  Ah yes:  beads.

I already have a bunch of red beads (thanks to some stash enhancing before Christmas), but I decided I needed a better variety before deciding what to put on the quilt.

I had to get groceries today (we were out of some really important stuff like Lucky Charms), so while in Waterloo I visited Hobby Lobby.  I found a bunch of red beads that I needed wanted, and also some cool clear plastic stacky thingies to put my beads in. (The plastic thingies all screw together and have one lid per size).

Now, as you look at this picture you have to remember that I already had about 2/3rds of these beads:

To me, this is a lot of red beads for one person to own.  I suspect that some of you are agreeing, but others of you are probably thinking "Sheesh, she's an amateur."  I think it's probably time for me to start buying beads of other colors, though.

I messed around a little with what beads might work.  The problem with beads is that I find that I really need to actually sew the beads on to see if they actually look good or not.  Laying them on top just isn't quite enough for me to visualize.  I've got an idea, but I need to do some experimenting to see if it'll work or not.  I just hope that I have enough of the beads that I think I've chosen (which are ones that I purchased today, so it was worth the trip).

Now, I need to start planning projects to use all of those other red beads that I am the proud owner of....

Back to pebbles -- see you tomorrow!

Suzanne

WIP Wednesday

I think I've missed about a month of WIP Wednesday postings.  There didn't seem to be much point to a weekly repetition of a post that said "I'm working on the book."

This week, though, I've got actual quilt progress to report on.  Not terribly exciting, since there isn't a whole lot of change since yesterday's posts, but at least I was able to spend a few minutes on it today -- and today isn't over.  As soon as I'm done posting this, I'm headed back to the studio.

I am currently pebbling my way across the top of the heart.  It's not terribly hard quilting, just mindless.  I've got Smallville in the DVD player and my headphones on.

The only really trick to pebbling is to make sure that you are making CIRCLES and not loops.  You almost have to think of flattening the shape out, if you don't it is easy to fall into the trap of making teardrop shaped loops.  I'm using a really thin thread that matches the red wool pretty closely.  I want this part of the quilt to recede, a thicker thread would call too much attention to it.

I'm also contemplating some additional couching.  Here's a picture of some testing I was doing off to the side:

I'm thinking about couching the shiny metallic thread (which Vicki thinks might be from Madeira) around the outside edge of all of the feathers, in addition to having it down the spines the way it is already.   My Mom stopped by and was looking at it -- she just shook her head in disbelief when I told her what I was thinking.

I told Vicki that I thought I had enough for the project, but now I'm wondering -- I may need some more of this stuff after all! LOL!

And -- I've decided to name it "Scarlet Amore" -- thanks to Shelly for the title.  I will be getting in touch with Shelly  so I can thank her appropriately.

Back to work.  For awhile, anyway, before the cold I've picked up drives me to bed.

Thanks for stopping by!

Suzanne

CarlaB has moved her blog

My friend Carla has moved her blog to Wordpress:

Feathered Fibers

She hasn't moved her archives (yet), but has posted a few things at her new site.  You should go visit, she draws very cute cartoons, and always has lots of interesting (and varied) fiber related projects going on.

Red wholecloth

On the way home from MQX, I had a brainstorm for a decidedly nontraditional wholecloth quilt.  I started doing some scribbling in my sketchbook, and got to work yesterday.

As these things often go, the resulting quilt is going to look nothing like my original brainstorm.

The original idea was going to use a piece of fabric that shades from dark pink to light pink across the width of the fabric.  (Or maybe it was going to be the piece of lime green fabric that does the same thing....).

But then I had a better idea.  Well, not necessarily better, just different.  I may go back to the ombre fabric, but this project went a different direction.

I wanted to experiment with texture, so I thought about using a piece of red wool that I had purchased to make a jacket. 

I'm going to show you the scribblings from my sketchbook -- you should be able to click on them to view them larger and try to decipher my messy handwriting.  The first shows the original ideas.  You can see that I was playing with the shape of the quilt itself, as well as how the plumes were going to flow from top to bottom.

It's hard to see, but the plumes on the right extend from a heart in the center.  In the next sketch you can see where I decided to experiment more with the heart shape.

The real Ah-Ha! moment is a tiny sketch on the right -- the asymmetry really tripped my trigger, especially because I was concerned about how to get the heart perfectly symmetrical in the size that I wanted it to be.

I pinned my wool up on my design wall, got out my white chalk, and started to work.  I marked off a square about 57 by 57 (the wool is 57 inches wide).  And then I drew a large asymmetrical heart.  I think I only redrew a small part of the bottom left plume. 

I loaded up the wool and started quilting.  This is what I came up with during the afternoon on Monday. I took it off the frame so that I could look at it and see where I wanted to go next.  This part went quite quickly.

You can see the white chalk marks.  The swirl in the lower left hand corner was an experiment in trying to fill the space.  I didn't get the marks wiped off before taking the picture.

I had already pretty well decided that I wanted to fill the rest of it with "pebbles" or "bubbles."  I'm contemplating beads and/or crystals, but don't know exactly what that will look like.

Here's what it looked like by the end of last night.  I took it outside for some photos, because the lighting inside wasn't cutting it.

Not the greatest pictures, but when it's done I'll do a better job of photographing it.  What you can't see in this picture is that I couched some thick metallic red thread (not sure what it is?  maybe razzle dazzle?  Vicki W sent it to me) along the spine.  The couching was done on the longarm.  Also, you can't see that the feathers are done with a Superior Highlights variegated thread (reds), and the pebbles are done with a dark red Superior Bottom Line.  Again, ignore the stray chalk marks.  After getting the heart done, I redid the outer dimensions, it is going to be a rectangle about 45 by 55 or so.

It has a very interesting texture.  I love the way it is turning out.  Even my DH was impressed last night.  Mostly by the pebbles, I think.  It's only made of 2 layers of the red wool and a layer of Hobbs 80/20 batting, but the feathers are going to have great dimension.  I don't like cutaway trapunto, and I hate using 2 layers of batting.  The wool is so thick that it is puffing up nicely.

I need to think of a name for it.  Any ideas out there?

Well, my break time is up, I must get back to my books and make another run to the Post Office.

Suzanne

Home and recovering

I had a wonderful time at MQX in Manchester, NH last weekend -- seeing old friends, meeting new ones, staying up too late, eating too much (actually not too bad on that one, I don't think....), looking at cool things in vendor booths, and being awed by amazing quilts.  I actually spent very little -- mostly food, a little thread, some really cool glass buttons and jewelry, a small bit of fabric.

I taught 4 classes last week, and after all of the talking in classes and at the show, I'm quite hoarse.  I think the dryness of the hotel and the planes is a factor in that, too.  Classes went well.  It was all a bit overwhelming and scary.  Most comment forms were quite positive, but you know that I am still focusing a bit on the negative ones.  Very few of those, but they stick, darn it.

I didn't take my camera -- I'm hoping to get some pictures from various friends, that I'll try to share in the next few days.

I made it to the bank this morning, but that's about the extent of my usefulness so far today.  I have an idea for a wholecloth quilt that I've been playing around with on paper, and if I'm going to do it, I'm going to try to do it right away in order to enter it into a show.

I was only gone for a short while, but it's funny -- something about the time away made me look at my boys a little differently when I got back -- they look older, more grown-up.  Small proof of the last came this morning when they made their own toast.  Kind of silly, I know -- but a milestone of sorts.

(Joe is sprinkling cinnamon and sugar on his toast...)

I keep yawning, but when I tried to lay down, I couldn't sleep -- thinking too much about my quilt idea.  I'd better go work on it a bit, and maybe later will be able to get a nap in.

I was grateful to be on an early flight -- there are a number of people still stuck in the northeast.  The reports of bad weather on the east coast are just amazing.  I hope that all of you are warm and dry and not experiencing too much trouble weather-wise.

Completely forgot picture of boys

I meant to include this in my other post, but forgot:

I didn't realize when I was taking the picture that there were crumbs on the table.  Ugh.

They built this Bionicle and want to submit it to the Lego magazine.

The boys are a little out of focus, but I wanted to particularly point out the sleeves on Will's PJs.  Look at how much of his arm you can see.  The pants are just as bad.  They do have jammies that fit properly, but they keep pulling out the old comfortable ones.

I'm wearing my penguin jammies and need to crawl in my bed.  Toodles!

Suzanne