Art, Quilts, and Other Adventures

S is for Smiles

I promise to have some quilt-related content really soon.  Promise. (LOL)  And that the "letter a day" series will return to being related to actual letters and words.  But not for a few days. 

In the meantime, here is a picture of the boys right before they were allowed to start opening presents.  They had already dug through their stockings and were just chomping at the bit to start ripping paper.

You can barely see their faces, their smiles are so humongous!

Thanks, Santa

Dear Santa,

Thank you for all of the wonderful things you brought our family.  You were very generous, as usual.  We hope you had a nice, safe trip and that you didn't get too full eating all of the goodies that children left you.   Do many people remember your reindeer?  We hope they liked the baby carrots we left for them.  Will was happy to get rid of so many.  He doesn't really like them, even though I make him eat them almost everyday.

The boys have one of the big Lego Star Wars sets put together and are working on the other one.  Mark is pretty excited to work on his Batmobile sometime soon, as well.  We'll be going to Chicago for a couple of days, so it might be awhile before he gets to it.  Mark had some help getting the air hockey table put together yesterday, and several lively matches have been played.  He has threatened to make me play with him, too.  Maybe I'll surprise us both and beat him.  Maybe not.

I need to find a good place to display my Pink Ribbon Barbie.  She is beautiful.  I haven't had a Barbie in years.  I wonder if I should leave her in the box or take her out. 

We are all looking forward to many family game nights this winter with all of the fun board and card games.  The boys weren't really impressed with them (in comparison to the Lego sets, who can blame them?), but as time goes on, I'm sure we'll have lots of fun playing.

Thanks for all of the other fun things you brought us, both big and small. 

I suppose you have time now to rest before you need to start working on next Christmas.

Take care of yourself and the reindeer and all of your helpers.

Your friend,

Suzanne

r words

I feel a little like I'm exposing my underwear when I show projects like this.  It's very uncomfortable and likely to be embarrassing, but here I am anyway.

I'm a quilter, and I have a pretty high comfort level with my skill as a quilter. I love to share quilt projects, because I'm pretty confident about them.

I'm trying to try some other things, and when I do they end up looking like I'm back in elementary school.  Which, I suppose, is true in a way -- my "art" skills are frozen back in the day when I decided I didn't really have any "artistic" talent, so I quit trying that avenue of creative pursuit.  (The words "art" and "artisitic" are in quotations to denote the fact that yes, I have figured out that maybe I do have some talent in that direction, it's just different than I thought it had to be in order to use those labels in regards to myself).

After seeing a variety of altered book projects online, I've decided to try one of my own.  It seems to fit in with the fascination I seem to be displaying for letters and words, and I hope that maybe it'll lead to some fiber art ideas as well.

I've done a couple of pages.  I haven't decided if I'll post all of them (maybe in a separate blog?) or not.  At any rate, I'll probably post the ones here that fit in with my letter a day series.

For today's entry I turned to the next page and circled all of the words that started with the letter R.  I used Prismacolor pencils to color in the grid.  (Plus a few Derwent pencils, but I discovered that I vastly prefer the Prismacolor -- much creamier and easier to color with).  The black "R" is glued on top.  Originally it was colored in with a red and purple grid (with 2 purple blue dots), but I decided to color over the top with a black Prismacolor art marker.  Something about the scan makes the "R" look odd -- it doesn't look that ugly in real life.  Honest.  I may try photographing the page instead of scanning to see if that might look better.  Or not.

I do like that you can still see the hint of the grid underneath the marker.

You do not need to be kind if you choose to comment. (LOL)  I won't even be offended if no one feels the need to comment! (VBG).

And now, I'm ready for bed.  It's only 9:10 PM, but my day started at 5 AM when one of the boys crawled in bed with me and started to chat.  He would let me snooze for awhile, but then he'd think of something else to say.  He was waiting for 7 AM when he could get up and go check out what Santa brought.  He fell back asleep and we had to wake him up at 7:10.  It was a busy and wonderful day, and I'm exhausted, so time to go throw on one of my new pairs of jammies and hit the sack!

Letters to Santa

Today's letter is actually two letters -- the letters that the boys wrote to Santa.  These were published in the local paper, and they were also sent to Santa.  The boys both got replies back -- a form letter from Santa with a personal note from one of his elves.

Dear Santa,
I've been good by cleaning the house.  How do you get to every house in one night?  What I want for Christmas:  Lego Jawa Sand Crawler and Lego Jabba's Sail Barge.  If you could change the world, can you make it so there's no more wars?
Sincerely,
Joe

Dear Santa,
This year I shared my toys with my brother, Joe.  How's Rudolph doing?  I would like a Nintendo Wii and a PS3.  Could you have your elves make something that flies about the clouds and absorbs the air that makes tornadoes and sucks up lightning?  Merry Christmas and don't forget to visit me!
Your friend,
Will E.

Thanks to all you have been reading and commenting.  I can't wait to spend more time writing and reading and getting to know you.  I hope you are having a wonderful holiday season filled with love and laughter.

Merry Christmas!
Suzanne

Katie's New Stocking

Santa always brings treats for our doggies, so of course, they need stockings, too!  Last year, I'm not really sure what we used for Katie, but today I decided she needed one of her own.  Actually, I decided this about a week or so ago, and actually cut out the flannel for the stocking at that time.  Today, I decided to get it finished and make it my letter of the day entry.  The "K" and the cuff are made out of white dotty minkee.  Now, I must go back into my studio and clean up all the little bits of minkee that are left behind.  That stuff is so nice once it is finished, but it sure is messy to work with!  This project was supposed to be quick, but I messed up the cuff the first time.  I won't even try to embarrass myself with telling you the details.  Suffice it to say, there is a reason why I generally make quilts and not clothing.

Here's a picture from last year when Katie was small enough to actually fit inside one of our stockings.  I'm not sure when this was taken -- I look exhausted, don't I?  And what's with those grins on the boys?  I just checked the date on the picture -- 11/24/2005 -- they must have been working on their best behavior act.

 Now, I'd better get back to work cleaning and getting ready for Christmas.  So many presents yet to wrap!  Why didn't I wrap them when the boys were at school?

From the Big Purple Bin

Dear Suzanne,

I

t was so wonderful to see you last week. Some of us little bits have been stuck way down in the bottom of our purple container for years and years. We thought maybe you had forgotten about us and did not love us anymore. A couple of the littlest guys tried to run away and hide, but you muttered something about a puppy finding us. We were sure sorry when you scooped every last bit up and put us back in the bin, but we were kind of scared of the puppy.  Is that that thing that barks a lot?  She sure is noisy.

We are feeling a little sad that some of us had to go into a white garbage bag. However, we had been so smashed together before, it was nice to stretch out a bit. We hope the ones in the bag do not get thrown away by accident!

I bet you do not even remember what projects some of us are scraps from! And some of us are not even leftovers – we are abandoned and orphaned blocks. We sure hope you come back and visit us again someday. Even though we cannot see the rest of your fabric and quilts, we can hear. We know that you are starting to make more scrap quilts and think you should probably spend some time with us and see if you could use some of us. A lot of our members are really quite big and even most of the smallest are probably usable.

 We understand you are busy with lots of projects; we just want to make sure you do not forget about us for another couple of years.

 Sincerely,

 The Scraps in the Big Purple Bin

 

p.s. Is it true that there is another bin just like ours that is also full of scraps? Maybe you need to put us all together in one place and see if any of us would work well together. We would sure like to meet the rest of our cousins and other relations.

Initial Ornaments

Today's entry is quite simple, but represents the finishing of not 1 but 2 UFOs.  Yes, they are tiny, but darn it -- they are finished!

And yes, I know this is actually 2 letters, but...see....I have twins, and everything has to be done twice.

I cross-stitched these letters ages ago.  Probably way back when the boys were only about a year or so old.  I think I have letters for Mark and myself in the bin of abandoned cross-stitched projects, too.  Maybe in another 6 years I'll make ornaments out of them.  I just fused these to some Timtex, there's some Christmas fabric on the back and I zig-zagged with metallic thread twice around the edges. 

I'm trying to learn how to use the fancy-pants graphics software I own, and so I've wasted a whole bunch of time playing with the photo.  I ended up just doing a drop shadow frame thingy.  I was trying to figure out how to just cut out the ornaments themselves, but I really don't know what I'm doing. 

Have a great Thursday!

A is for...

I should mention that these are in no particular order, and I reserve the right in the future to do another post with "A" words in them.  I actually had to get out the dictionary to jiggle some ideas loose.  I probably ended up with way too much, but it was sort of fun.  Hopefully I've managed to refrain from anything that's in the TMI category!  I suppose I could have also tried to illustrate some of these with photos or something, but enough was enough already!

Alphabet – This one seems pretty obvious, I guess. I like letters and words. I love to read. Although, in the past I’ve often wondered who it was that said the alphabet has to start with A and continue on to Z. What’s so special about A that it gets to be first all the time? Growing up, my last name started with an S. I was so excited to marry “up” in the alphabet and become an E. When I help at school, I often take kids one at a time into the hall. Sometimes I start at the top of the alphabet, but a lot of times I try to start from the other direction – or even mix it up and do something random. Maybe next time I’ll try to do it alphabetically by first name.

 Apple – We eat a lot of apples and applesauce. We used to eat only Red Delicious apples, but I sure got tired of the lack of consistent quality. Sometimes they were nice and crunchy, but sometimes they were nasty – mushy and not sweet at all. We have switched to Gala apples – yum. I think they are even better than the best Red Delicious.  The boys sure hated it when we started making them eat the peels. Every so often we “treat’ them and peel their apples for them. Mostly we just do that when they are losing a tooth.

 Angel – I have a small collection of angels. When I started collecting, though, it seemed like all of a sudden EVERYBODY was collecting angels, so I pretty much quit. I wanted something that wasn’t a dime a dozen. I do have some pretty ones, and a few weeks ago I posted a picture of my favorite. One of the funniest pieces in my collection is a plaque that my mom gave me that reads “I collect angels. My husband thinks I started with him.”

 Astronaut – I have 3 wanna-be astronauts in my family. I hear quite often about how the boys are going to go to the moon or to Mars or someplace even further away when they grow up. They talk about being other things, too, but this is one of the few that comes up consistently. The “big” boy still dreams about being an astronaut, too. NASA will be holding another round of astronaut selection in 2007, and I think he’s going to actually submit an application. It turns out that most astronauts get selected in their mid-30s, (which he is…), he is pretty danged brilliant (if you ask me), and is in great shape physically. I know his chances are pretty slim, but it doesn’t hurt to try, right? And I’d hate for him to be 80 years old and wonder what might have been.

 Art – I have read some pretty interesting conversations about just what exactly art is or is not. I’ve actually been pretty amazed at how heated those conversations can get. I’m not really sure I could give you my definition right now, because I’m still not sure myself. What I do know is that I’m trying to learn about art and the elements and principles of good design, so that hopefully I can think and speak about it much more intelligently.

 Artist – This is a word that I have had a hard time applying to myself. I suspect that there are some who consider themselves artists that would argue with my use of it. I think part of my trouble has always been that I thought that art = drawing/painting, a misconception that I think a lot of people hold, although the ability to draw is a useful tool for any artist, regardless of their medium of choice. I always thought that you either knew how to draw, or you didn’t. What I know now is that nobody really *taught* me how to draw, and that I can actually draw, and that while I may never be super-talented at it, it is a skill that requires practice.

 Aragorn and Arwen – I am a huge fan of the Lord of the Rings – both the books by Tolkien, as well as the movie trilogy by Peter Jackson. For awhile, a picture of Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn was my computer wallpaper…. I know the movies aren’t perfect, but I enjoy them, and accept them as one interpretation of the amazing work that Tolkien created.

 Acreage – I live on a small acreage (2 acres…) on the edge of town. We are surrounded on 3 sides by crop land. We can pretend that we have no neighbors and that town doesn’t even exist. But when we want town – by golly, it’s just across the road, and we can still walk to school.

 Actress – In the past I participated in a number of local musical theater productions. I really enjoyed doing it, but don’t have any opportunities like that in this area. Well, there probably are, but they would be further away than I would want to travel, plus they would probably take away too much time from my quilting.

 Adult -- Even though I’m a mother, own a small business, have been married for 10 years and am a homeowner (6 houses in 10 years…), I don’t always feel like an adult. I know some of my family probably thinks my husband and I are too serious, but inside I think we are just as silly as anybody else.  For example, my husband is terribly embarrassed about my new purse. It’s tiny and has Tinkerbell on it.

 Agriculture – My father-in-law farms (corn and soybeans, got rid of the hogs many years ago…) and my husband works for a large manufacturer of agricultural equipment. He’s a mechanical engineer. Some day he would like to retire from his day job and be a farmer. I’m not sure he’ll ever be able to farm full time, mostly because of the costs of health insurance. Having grown up on the East Coast, the experience of living in small town rural Iowa has been eye-opening for me.

 Allergy – I suffer from seasonal allergies. June is pretty bad – all those grasses. Late August through the very freeze is even worse, though. Ragweed is the worst. Yucko.

 American – I am glad and proud to be an American. I don’t think that the US is perfect, and I don’t always agree with what our government does. I’d like to visit other countries, but I don’t think I’d want to live anywhere else.

 Anniversary – My husband and I celebrated our 10^th Anniversary on March 2, 2006. Time sure flies when you are having fun!

 Australia -- I would dearly love to visit Australia someday. I have several quilting friends in Australia, one of whom has even been to my house! Some day – some how!

 Alcohol – I’m not opposed to alcoholic drinks, but I don’t drink much of anything. I think it is an acquired taste that I missed acquiring. If I’m going to have an adult beverage, it had better be something glike a Strawberry Daiquiri – in which you can’t actually taste the alcohol at all. Come to think of it, I did have a drink in Duluth this summer that was pretty yummy – but again, it had ice cream and chocolate syrup in it – so it probably doesn’t really count!

Autumn – My least favorite season. See above, allergy for more information.

Age – I am currently in my mid-30s and have been quilting for 10 years. I have been longarm quilting for 5 of those years. My chiropractor asked me my age the other day at my adjustment. This was right after he asked me about doing my exercises. I replied with my age and then laughed – “That means I’m old enough to know better, right?” Yes, I really need to take better care of myself. Particularly when it comes to my back – between my height, my tendency to slouch, the weight I carry on the front side of me, and the fact that my quilting keeps me bending over much of the time all add up to a need to be careful about my posture and the future shape of my back.

A Letter A Day

I mentioned this in my previous post, but it has taken me all day to work on this and get my thoughts in order for my first entry in this series.  The first post will actually be separate, because I don't think I want to slap all of my thoughts into one huge post each day, I'd like to have some separation.  I think.  We'll see how it goes.

So my idea is this:  I'm going to try to post daily (or as near as I can) something related to a letter.

It could be literally about letters -- for example, my first post will be A is for...and list a variety of words that start with the letter A and some random thoughts about those words.

It could be a small piece of artwork about letters or words.  Small quilts, maybe some drawings, maybe some collages.

It might be an imaginary letter to or from a quilt, a UFO, or a piece of fabric.  I've got several ideas for those.  I should mention that the inspiration for this comes from some of the "Secret Life of Dresses" posts over at A Dress A Day.  (The link is in my list to the right).

Or it could be something else entirely that I haven't imagined yet.  I have spent way too much time on today's entry, and will try to be more conscious about how much time I'm spending on this project in the future.   I'm planning that my entries in this category should only take me 15-20 minutes a day.   We'll see how it all goes!