I'm BACK

We have returned safe and sound from Nashville, TN where we attended the AQS Quilt show which had my quilt in the "On the Wall" display. The show was very nice and I enjoyed every minute we had at the resort. It was unbelievable, beautiful and all enclosed so that the temperature and humidity was perfect. This was the view from our balcony in our room. It over looked this lush area where there were restaurants and a place they did water shows and other events. This other picture is the giant structure that covered this 53 acre resort. It kept us all at a comfy 75. It was great.


The first day we just settled in and tried to plan our week of activities. We thought it would be best if we did the quilt show but also took advantage of our vacation by soaking up the local color and attractions.



My quilt did not win, the judges seemed to prefer traditional quilts although a few great art quilts did place. There were several different challenges, one of which was the Alzheimer's challenge. It was touching, and heartwrenching, I had to stop reading the descriptions after the third quilt. We decided to buy the CD and look at it later. It was a wonderful opportunity for them to raise money for research.

This beautiful blue quilt won best of show and the quilter said it took her 16 months to make it! She plans on putting on her bed. The giant bee was a beautifully done whole cloth painted quilt from France that won in it division.

Houston

I was notified by Houston that my Quilt "Crepe Paper Poppies" was accepted into the show. I am really excited and can't wait to hang in Houston. Since I am going to Nashville I don't think I can swing going to both shows. Whats really nice about this show is that they let you know before the show if your a winner. That way you can try to go to the awards ceremony. Most of the shows I have entered don't let you know and you just have to decide early whether to go or not. Its very disappointing to not be able to go and find out later you won! They notify by the end of September.

Bette's Mom

I was invited by a quilter friend to Bette's mom's house, they needed to get rid of all of the sewing stuff to make room for a caregiver. Her health had gotten to the point where she could no longer care for herself, nor was she able to speak. Bette told us that she hadn't touched her sewing in over 3 years and that they needed to sell it if she was going to stay out of a nursing home. The family had decided it was best and called all the quilters they knew to come in and buy the stuff, the money would help to fund the remodel. Even with hearing all of that I wasn't prepared for Bette's mom to be sitting there watching us. Bette reassured us yet I couldn't help feeling so sad as I watched her watch us disassemble her life, piece by piece. She sat, not saying a word with her mouth but her eyes read volumes. Her hands were no longer able to hold a needle or manipulate fabric the way it used to but her love of it was apparant. Her sewing room was full of organized plastic boxes, each holding treasures for the next quilt. In some of the boxes we found perfectly choosen coordinating fabric with the pattern awaiting their turn at the sewing machine. There were shelves and shelves of magazine holders, full of quilting magazines which help patterns she planned on making. On the sewing table were bits and pieces of things that we all use and love, pins, scissors, tapes, and buttons, thread and bobbins. So much stuff, a life time of accumilation, of dreams, of UFO's. I couldn't help but thinking that there sat all of us, one day we will all arrive at a place we can no longer do the things we love. I think the hardest part of that realization is the fact of all the unfufilled dreams, knowing inside that your life is almost over. I hope Bette's mom knows where she is going, believes in our Savior, for then nothing is lost, but all gain. Elsewise, its a lifetime of bobbles and bits and fabric that little value to others. As I got home I sat and looked at the things I had gotten, I found a beautiful thimble, used many times. I placed it on my finger and wondered how many quilts she had quilted with it, I wish I knew the stories behind the tiny treasures. No one in her family sews or quilts, and they didn't feel it important to keep an momentos. My girlfriend found a drawer full of finished blocks, she took to make a quilt for them, probably to be delivered after she is gone. This is not unlike my family, do we really know the person when we don't really know what the person loved. It has been a hard day of looking in through a window to our future. It reminds me to make each day count, to enjoy every process of each project or adventure and so that when its over I will have no regrets, only accomplishments and peace knowing I spent my time wisely.

Gone Fishin'

Last week we went fishing with the rehab hospital where Jennifer has her outpatient therapy. They have the most wonderful program that uses adaptive equipment to allow handicapped people an opportunity to feel normal and have some fun that the rest of us take for granted. The program has activities all year long and last week we all got to go deep sea fishing. They let us take Mikey (our grandson) along with us so he got to enjoy the day with Nana, Umpy and Aunt Jen Jen. It is such a wonderful opportunity to be able to do that since many of the activities the kids do are very inaccessible to Jennifer. Mikey had never been fishing and was very concerned about having to bait his hook once he saw how big the bait was! He said he would be excited to catch the bait fish (about 8") long. He started out a bit timid about handling the fish but soon became the fishing expert, baiting all our poles. The fishing is so good right now due to our unseasonably warm waters. We barely got our poles into the water and got hits. Mikey loved casting his line and then just reeling it back up to see if the fish had gotten his bait! Gus put a bait fish on Umpy's hat as he took a well deserved nap. He spent much of the day fixing our birds nest mess after our attempts at casting. I never imagined that fishing line could get so tangled up! We all had so much fun and can't wait until the 9th when we get to do it all again.

I was asked a great question

I was asked to share how quilting helped in the healing from difficulties, trauma or special challenges we face. I was surprised when I wrote it all down how strongly I felt about it. Although it wasn't the biggest thing, since I would have to say my faith is the only reason I survived, it really plays a big part in who I am today.

I did respond but would like to not share it yet, I want to hear from others. I think that is is an amazing question, in the sense that it made me more aware of how important my creativity is to my health. To me being me. So I would love to hear your story, I am going to ding some people I hope you foward this on and I will post the responses or links on my blog.

Desiree

Working on another pattern

Well, my newest grandbaby is going to be one in September and my daughter really wants a pirate quilt for him. So I am in the middle of designing and making a pirate quilt! I already have quilt stores asking for it so I need to get a move on. I was hoping for some time to get me sewing machine in for a check up but I can't seem to let it cool off enough to move it. I think that the people who have a back up machine are incredibly lucky to be able to keep right on sewing if they want to. My sewing room could use a good straightening up too, but no time, must forge on. I have been looking at the pirate stuff out right now, which is numerous, and this is one of the posters from the movie. I don't want to scare the poor baby to death before he turns 1 and mom doesn't want anything too babish because she wants him to be able to use it for along time. More to come as I make my way through process ARRRGGG!

The Hoffman Challenge

Every year Hoffman fabrics does a challenge and I love to enter challenges. I don't know why, some sickness that probably stems from some unresolved childhood issue but anyway. I entered last year and my quilt didn't win but traveled for a year. I didn't realize it would be traveling and didn't even have a picture of it before it left. Someone emailed me a picture of it at some show so I do have one now. I will be getting it back soon and decided to do it again. I am a glutton for punishment I guess. I took pictures this time too, I quickly came up with this quilt, didn't spend too much time over analyzing it. It is about 23"x23"and I am happy enough to send it next week to them. The flowers are three deminsional and the pedal pop off the quilt, I hand painted the toucans face an did freemotion embroidery for the feathers in the wing and tail. I sewed beads in the middle of each flower for the stamin. The challenge is due by the 28th of July. I would love to know what you all think of this one! I still haven't named it and I would love some suggestions.

Quilt show update

Well, today I got an email notification that my art Quilt "Transformation" got accepted into the AQS Quilt Expo in Nashville, TN. I am very excited since I had wanted to enter it into their Pacuca show and it didn't qualify because it was 1 1/2 inches too small. But for some reason this show has different size requirements. I tell you, if anyone is entering quilt shows make sure you read and reread all the instructions on entering. I think they are all so confusing since the rules change for each show, even within the same organization. I am excited to have two quilts to be able to have to show this year, my first year of showing. I had another quilt but pulled it after it went to Road and didn't do anything there or at Pacific International. It is a black and white quilt and I think that they just can't compete against all the color. It makes me excited to start something new even though my shoulders still ache from that quilting.

Finally Finished

It has been so long since I wrote on this blog, I seem to update my other one more regularly since I draw faster than I quilt. As you know I have been working on another quilt, well I finally finished it. I am not as happy with it as I was with my last one but thats ok. I had a goal this year and I made it. So I am very pleased with myself. I will share my goal later if the quilt is accepted. I first painted all the fabric and then fussy cut all the flowers. It is about 80"x49" so its bigger than the last art quilt I did which made it harder to quilt. I spend days in my sewing room "manhandling" that quilt to get it quilted with my sewing machine. I can't tell you how much my arms ached from trying to keep it rolled up and manuver it through that little hole! I like smaller quilts! Anyway here it is, comments are always welcome.

The Wendsday Night Quilt Group that sometimes meets on Thursdays Quilting Retreat

I had the opportunity to go on a quilting retreat with a bunch of great women who have been meeting for along time. When I first heard about them from a friend it sounded like a group that met every once in awhile and was not overly organized, and you just did whatever you wanted, so crafters came, scrapbookers, whoever. I had only gone to one daytime get together and then this retreat. I was completely blown away at the amount of women and how organized they were. They had games and events and they had made things for an auction. Some of the women made auction items and we had an silent auction, I think there were 28 items this year, including 2 full sized quilts and some smaller wall hangings, table runners. They pick a theme and then people start working on items for the next auction. The next theme is Jewel tones and I am already thinking about things to make. They all seem to get along wonderfully with all the diversity and there is a wide age range. Bonnie, one of the women in charge, shared some of the rules of their no rules approach to the group. She said that one of the rules was that if two quilters were together they could make a decision and if you were alone you had to look in a mirror and then live with yourself! LOL The rules are so histerical I think they should write them down but then their no rules would be in writing. They all do beautiful work and got so much accomplished in the few days that we spent in Big Bear. It was beautiful and full of fun and I hope to get to know these women better over the next few years.

My newest quilt

I am working on a new art quilt due to the fiasco with the last one left me without one to enter into the Houston show. Not that it will jury in but it was my goal this year to enter either Paducha or Houston, so I am still working on a New Years Resolution! I am painting fabric here and applying texture for my poppies.

Evelyn's Quilt

I met Eveyln online at a quilting group, she bought one of my patterns to one of my baby quilts. She entered it into a regional show and won a first! Congratulations Evelyn! She sent a picture with an email to let me know. I'm so glad she told me so can share in her good fortune. She changed up the center a bit by adding more flowers and putting the leaves over the sashing, beautiful. I love it! I want to see the whole quilt! I hope to see pictures of the other one she made too, obviously her work is very good!

Velda's class sketch

Well I sat and drew during part of the lunch break and decided that I would share the drawing since I don't have much more than samples to post, and will soon. Dianne

Velda Newman

I went to the Glendale Show and took Velda Newman's class. It was really wonderful but the show itself was a bit disappointing. It was very small, the quilt show itself only had a few rows of quilts and the vendors seem to be dropping out of this show or something. We went last year and we werent overly impressed but I think it was bigger than this year. Whats happening out there? Even with all of that I still like the classes they have and Velda was great to meet. We got our books signed and had a fun, creative day. We experimented with different techniques and tried different applications on our fabric. We didn't stay to take other classes and since it was Friday and raining we had a 3 1/2 hour drive home. Wow, its so much fun living in southern California.

On to something new

Well, its time to start something new. I have so many ideas in my head that I am throwing around. I wish I could make quilts faster so I could get some of these ideas from my imagination into fabric. I have a wonderful friend, who went to Africa for their anniversary the end of last year. They redid their vows on the African plain, she held wild flowers and the sun was setting. It was really lovely, and the pictures were fantastic. I am in the process of making her and her hubby a memory quilt. I am not using a pattern, I am just designing it as I go. I edited many of the photos she took and printed them on fabric. I also want to add some other elements such as, embroidered lettering, and leaves, I want to put some open areas for her to journal right on the quilt. Some of the pictures are so wonderful I am going to paint them too. The animals, the way they were able to capture a moment and a feeling was amazing. I will share some of the photos and my progress as I limp through designing the quilt.

IT WON!!!!

I can't believe it, after all the hassle with the shows and my new quilt "Transformation" won best pictorial quilt at Mid Atlantic. How exciting!!http://www.quiltfest.com/activities_detail.asp?id=79

More gourd pictures

Another Survivor has started!!

Yippie, I love Survivor night as you all know, martini's and El Pollo loco. Its great fun and off to another fun filled season. I am making a new gourd to collect our weekly 5$ payments. I am adding elements of each survivor episode to the gourd to personalize it for us. I have also added the islands and where everyones camp is, along with names and ages of the tribal members. We will start voting after the merge and then the winner takes home the pot on the last night!! Fun, Fun, here's a picture of the gourd.

A Final Note

Ok, this is the last I am going to say about the quilt show, I was told that if you are excepted into a IQA show you can not enter any of their other shows with that quilt wether it wins or not. The fact that it is accepted is it, so I will not be in any of their shows I guess with this quilt anyway. I am frustrated and a bit upset over this whole thing, I don't know what else to say except she told me I wasn't the only one this has happened too. So I guess others are confused too!

Thank God tonights "Survivor Night", that will make all things right again. I am making a new gourd for our money we collect and I am adding elements of each show onto the gourd. I will post a picture soon.

Another Glitch

Well, I received another email from the IQA today saying that they needed to correct an email that they had previously sent me encouraging me to enter the fall show since I couldn't send the quilt to this show. The new email said that since I was excepted into one show that I can not enter any more of their shows with that quilt. I sent them back an email that I thought you could enter more of their shows as long as you aren't a prize winner. I am waiting to hear back. Boy, this is a tough call. It will really make me think out who I submit quilts too. I would love to hear from others of you that have shown more, I am new at this and have already had a few hard blows. I want to do it right, and I havent figured out how to play their political game, I guess. Any comments would be much appreciated. I will post when I get the reply email from them.

A Challenge to my fellow fiber artists

I recently joined a webring for illustrators in which I have a blog just for my sketches and thoughts. It is similar to our ring but the people who look at the sketches actually leave comments. I was amazed at how many comments I got and I only have 3 posts in a few days! It made me realize how much I appreciate and love to hear what people are thinking when they see my stuff. It as though friends have stopped by to see what you are up to and comment on your progress. I love it and I have decided I am going to be better about leaving comments. I wanted to challenge my fellow quilters and fiber artists to take the time to stop and visit a bit. So if you catch me leaving comments during one of my visits with you, please feel free to stop by and chat with me for a spell. Feel free to check out my other blog at: http://www.myclothesline.blogspot.com

A new day

Its so beautiful today, its in the 80's and the wind is blowing. I love winters in Southern California, whats to complain about. But sometimes our dry, warm weather causes everyone a lot of grief. I feel so sorry for the firefighters that have been forced to fight a fire started by the forestry dept. How sad that we put them in this kind of harms way due to an oversight and mistake. As the sun sets on the hills the smoke rising from the fire it causes the sun to glow red and the sky to be filled with wildly shaped smokey rings.

My brother was forced to evacuate his home and they weren't allowed to return until the following day, thank God everything and everyone was safe. He stood on his balcony and took several photos of the flames and firefighters fighting it out on the ridge close to his home. This other picture is of the sun in the middle of the afternoon through the clouds of ash that have covered everything.

Oh my gosh!

Ok so I decided that I would send "Transformation" to Mid-Atlantic since I hadn't heard anything from "Celebrate Spring". So of Friday I shipped my quilt and Saturday guess what I received in the mail. A notification from the International Quilt Show that they had selected it to be hung at the Chicago international quilt show and that it was selected as one of only 53 finalist! Oh my gosh! I say it over and over as I walk the house in a daze. How did I get myself into such a mess. I guess I need to really be careful which and when I enter shows, I just never would of thought it would of been excepted to both. I don't know which show is better or anything since I have never gone to either one since they are so far from me. I think someone told me that the IQA was a harder show to win at but I have never won anything anyway. I am so sad, someone then suggested I make another, right, just hand paint some more fabric and sew it up by next week. AAAGGGHHH! I feel so stupid, like such an amateur, this is the part that I guess you learn from experience. I feel so bad, I sent them an email today, appologizing for not being able to send the quilt. I didn't know what else to do. I would be interested in hearing from people who have gone to both the Chicago show and Mid-Atlantic and hearing about the differences and both good and bad of both, what your thoughts are etc, whether you have shown there or not, just the feel of the shows. AAAGGGHHH.

Mid Atlantic

I have been so busy and unable to post lately but today I received my acceptance letter to the Mid-Atlantic show and I am very excited. If I am accepted into the Celebrate spring I am going to have to choose the show to enter, wow, I never thought that would happen. I should be notified by them if accepted, Feb. 1 so we'll see. I would love to go to PA and see the show but I think that it would be a bit tough with Jenn, so I will admire from afar. I went to road and saw my little quilt hanging and was amazed it even got in with the quality of quilts that I saw there. It is interesting though, that some of the quilts I saw at Pacific International I was amazed that they didn't win anything but at Road they won big, and others that won at PIQS didn't even place at road, so that goes to show you don't quit sending your quilts. Who knows what the next set of judges will be looking for.

I am excited to get started on my next quilt. I have decided to make it quite large, so that will be interesting since my studio is not that big and I have a few UFO's stuck to my design wall I will have to remove just to work. That might be a good thing, since I am frustrated with them anyway. Maybe I will just put them away until after and then take them back out and look at them with fresh eyes. That always works with my paintings too.

I was painting a dragon today for a little 6 yr old boys room, didn't want to make it too scarey so I am giving him a bit of a smirk on his face. I will post a picture later.

I was tagged

Deb, from Deborah's Journal tagged me so I am going to try and answer all the questions. Thanks Deborah, this is my first tag.

4 jobs you've had:
1. My first job at 15 was bagging groceries at an Alpha Beta!, wow there not even around anymore.
2. I worked as an office manager in several businesses. Got to hire and fire people. Yuck
3. Worked with several interior designers, theming rooms, painting murals.
4. Worked for the best boss, myself.

4 movies you could watch over and over:
1.You've got mail
2. What lies beneath
3. Wethering Heights
4. Lots of the oldies

4 places you've lived;
1.Upland, CA
2.Clairmont, CA
3.Tustin, CA
4.Riverside, CA wow, I haven't ever gotten out of Calif

4 TV shows you love to watch;
1.Medium
2. Survivor!
3. CSI
4.I Love Lucy

4 Places you've been on vacation;
1. Mexico
2. New York
3. Alaska
4. Vegas

4 websites you visit everyday;
1. my blog
2. this one is really hard since it changes all the time, depending on what sparks my interest this week!

4 of you favorite foods;
1. Mexican
2. ice cream
3. El Pollo Loco chicken
4. sweet potatoes

4 places you'd rather be;
1.on vacation
2. getting a massage and getting pampered at a spa
3. Italy
4. Germany

4 albums you can't live without.... no such animal, do they still call them albums?

4 people you'll pass this on to;
Its a secret, not telling

Some of my fibercards and further ramblings

I have a total of 8 done now, what fun. It is a fast, fun project and you can send them to friends. I also received another one today.

I made it my resolution to not sew today but to get the office cleaned up. It is one of the first rooms you see when you enter the house and its such a mess! It seems like it becomes the dumping ground for all the mail and junk in the house. Just dealing with all the paper work when you have two home businesses plus all of Jennifer's paperwork is quite a challenge. I really have been worried about all the deforestation due to the amount of junk mail I am receiving! I feel guilty knowing that some tree died so that I could receive one more credit card application or pizza coupon. I wish I could just stop the madness, I don't read or even look at one piece of the junk, so the waste is huge. My girlfriend started sending back the credit card applications in the return envelopes, without her information. Just so they could get some of the junk mail back.

Swapping Fiber Post cards

Well I have received 4 fiber postcards from my swapping group ( that sounds bad). They are wonderful, and so fun to receive. Its such a nice surprise to go to the mailbox and have a handmade card, its great fun. I have a few done, I am doing them all different. Some are doing series and some are keeping with a similar theme, but not me, I hate to do alot of repetition. So each one will be unique and signed, like a tiny piece of artwork. I will post some soon. Its really so easy, if you have some time and would love to surprise a quilting friend you might want to think about making a few. I love the stamps and postmarks from being mailed directly. Some people put them in envelopes to mail, but thats no good, the markings are part of the art. We have a group of 25 and a yahoo group home where we can chat and share pictures and ideas. This would be one class I wouldn't mind teaching.

Close up

I just wanted to thank everyone for taking the time to comment on my new quilt. I really appreciate what everyone said. I have had a few people ask me to give more information on some of the techniques and how I put it together. I actually painted all the fabric in the colors I needed. I use salt and water to achieve a watercolor effect on the fabric. I then fussy cut out the leaves and storks heads, and birds heads. On several of the leaves I went ahead and did some textural stitching by taking small seams along what would be the veining on the leaf then I quilted the leaves seperately to give them more a three dimensional look. The birds faces are painted with inks and paints after they were assembled. While I was at the Pacific International show I found a hand dyed fabric that I thought would be perfect for the background so I bought it. I actually had problems with it because it was like silk and when I went to quilt it the fabric started to pull and bunch up. Well if I had had half a brain I would of realized that it was doing it before I got so far. As it turned out, I ended up spending two days ripping out quilt stitches. I then stablized it and the quilting went much better. But honestly, I almost tossed it several times before I finished the rip out process. Here is a close up. I ended up quilting the background in the shapes of more of the leaves. I will let you know if I hear from the shows.

Its DONE!

I can't believe its been so long since I had a chance to write in my blog!! But I have been so busy, I finally finished my newest art quilt. I think it turned out good, my quilting skills still need some major work but I am going to submit to as many shows as I can and see what kind of response I get with it. I worked so hard to get it done in time to submit to Paducah and when it came time to fill out the form I noticed that I was 1" to short and so I didn't meet the length requirment and couldn't submit it. AHHHHH I couldn't believe it, after all of that. Working every minute over the holidays with my family here from out of town. OK, I'm over it, maybe Paducah isn't all that anyway. I would love to hear some comments on it so if you have the time PLEASE email me.

Survivor Finale

Wow, I never would have guessed it. Danni won it all. You know we love survivor and have survivor Thursdays every week. Well tonight being the finale we had a big dinner celebration before we settled in to watch the 2 hour show. Once the merge happened in the show we started to vote each week on who we thought would make it to the final two. Each week we wrote down our votes and put them in the Survivor gourd until tonight. Tonight we tallied the votes and waited to see who had won. In our group we had 80$ in the pot and Randy and Jennifer ended up splitting it. Wow what fun, we are already talking about next time and what we are going to do to sweeten the pot, how we are going to vote and what we are going to serve that final night for dinner.

I have been working hard on my newest quilt and have reached an impass. I think for me, the hardest part is the backgrounds on these quilts. Its all about the value and I want it to be perfect. I would love to hear from my fellow artist about how you go about selecting your background fabric and if you have the same problem. I find that it is also the thing I struggle with the most in my paintings. I bought the most beautiful piece of fabric for it and so far I am going to use it but.... I still wonder would something else be better. Should I go light and let the subject be darker or should I use deep, dark colors for the background and let the subject be light and pop off of it. OHHHH decisions, decisions. Tomorrow is another day and I will look at it again in the morning with fresh eyes . I would love to read about what you go through and your thoughts when you are selecting and deciding on backgrounds.

Back to work

Today I started to work on my newest quilt again. It has been so long since I have had a chance to even step foot into my studio. It really felt so good, yesterday I worked on some fabric postcards for our swap but today I concentrated on trying to get further on the quilt. I need to paint somemore fabric to finish the leaves, but the weather needs to cooporate with me.

Tomorrow I am taking Jennifer to see Narnia, we are really looking forward to this movie. I will let everyone know how it is. The computer generation in the movie is supposed to be unpresidented and they said that they worked on it for 2 years before they even started the filming part. I hope it lives up to all the hupla. There is usually not many movies worth seeing these days but suddenly I have a bunch I want to see, Geisha, Narnia, Pride and prejudice, cinderella man. I know that one is old but they rereleased it and I wanted to go and see it. I am planning on working on the quilt up until movie time.

Kylie(my granddaughter) and Christina with their houses all done 

Penny's family  

Jennifer and Kim at work together on their house. 

Some of the people working away 

Some of the Candy 

The Gingerbread Party 

Holiday Parties

This post was started Saturday night...Well, tomorrow is the big day, the annual Gingerbread House Party. I started having these when our youngest was in junior high school, that first party was a disaster. I had invited about 15 girls and spent days making the walls to the gingerbread houses. The day of the party the idea was that the girls would assemble their house and then decorate it. I don't know what I was thinking because the royal frosting, which is the glue, needed to have time to set up. The houses sagged and swayed, to and fro, from the weight of the candy. We ended up using real glue, toothpicks, pins, whatever worked to hold the creation together. Needless to say, the houses were inedible. So I learned to either make them earlier, nah, or get a local bakery to do them for me. That is what I did and now I call the order in and pick up perfect little fresh gingerbread houses to decorate. They each get their own box and cardboard base too! The cost is well worth the time and energy that can now be diverted to decorating! As I sit typing this entry into my blog the house is full of the aroma of gingerbread.
STOP
Well I had to stop there and finish up for the party and we were expected at my brothers for dinner. I had to quickly clean up and leave, when we got back home I opened the front door and was overwhelmed by a horrible odor! My daughter had left the dog locked in her bathroom and the dog was sick and practically covered the floor with doggy diarrhea!!! AHHHHH, the wonderful smell of gingerbread GONE, and for the next 45 minutes I cleaned and cleaned and opened up the house even with the temperature at a chilly 30 degrees. We finished about 1:00 am and closed everything back up and tried to get warm. Some days I hate that little dog, this must be what causes the Bah, Humbugs! But the next day everything was back to smelling Christmasy and the party was a wonderful success. We had about 36 kids and adults here all crammed into my livingroom, laughing and decorating their beautiful houses. Its so much fun to see the kids faces when they see all the candy. It was a lot of work but so much fun, its really feels like Christmas with the house full of friends and family having fun together. Enjoy the pictures.

Road to California

I just received notification that "Midnight Moves" was excepted into the Road to California Quilt show. I am thrilled and so excited to be a part of the whole show this year. It was also excepted into PIQS but didn't do anything. In this picture (which I hate) the blue ribbon was the award from my quilt guild for the most original design. I think its very hard for a black and white quilt to compete against color. My girlfriends spiral lone star quilt was also excepted. We are never in the same catagory when we submit quilts for shows. I am hoping to complete my newest quilt to submit to Paduca by Jan. but that is going to be really tight. The holiday's have a way of sidetracking my production. I need to paint some more fabric for the darks in the quilt. I can't seem to get it dark enough, by the time it dries it has lightened up to much. Today it is supposed to rain so I will wait for a warmer day to start painting. Sunday I have a big Christmas party for a bunch of friends and so I will be tied up until next week now for sure. I love having family down for the holidays and I really love having my mom, but I feel so guilty trying to sew with her here, so I usually don't. I think next week I will have to just get in there and start to sew regardless.

Fiber Post cards

Well I am finally starting to feel better. I am low on energy but I am so anxious to get back into my studio and get started again. I joined a group of artist that are getting ready to do a group mailing of fiber postcards. I am very excited and can't wait to start getting my cards from all over the world. One of the girls is from the Netherlands. In this group we are not allowed to mail them inside of an envelope, they want the cancel mark etc as part of the artistic charm of the cards. I think I agree with that, plus it is a record as to when you received it. I will photograph them as I get them and share them with everyone. I am really interested it getting a group of fiber artist together and each taking a section of a photo and reproducing it, then putting them all together. I have seen some other groups do it and it is really fantastic. Oh well, enough dreaming for now. You can always tell when I haven't been sewing for awhile, my minds tends to keep adding projects for me.

Our Thanksgiving was really wonderful. Full of family and fun, we played cards until 2 am and laughed so much our sides and jaws just ached. Its wonderful that my family can get together, even as diverse as we all are, and really enjoy one another. My brother and I spent two days in the kitchen preparing meals and deserts and it all came together beautifully on Thanksgiving day. There are so many things to be thankful for this year.

Sick, sick, sick

Ok, I have had this stupid respitory thing for almost 3 weeks and I am sick of being sick. I feel ok but I am now coughing uncontrollably. If the bird flu hits here I am a goner. I finally broke down and called the doctor he put me on quite a few medications and I think they aren't really making much of a difference. My lungs are so sore from coughing and I dont really have much energy to do anything. Hope things get better before Thanksgiving.

Garage Sale Day!

Well today was the long awaited garage sale. I was supposed to have been preparing for it these last weeks but I waited until the night before (its those procrastinating genes). I was up early and had almost everything out by 6:00 am. The rush started shortly after 7 and it was practically over at noon. I remember back when a garage sale meant a 2 day commitment and I mean two full days. For me, it started slow, I was selling mostly large pieces of furniture and I didn't have a ton of nick nacky type things. My neighbor was selling lots of toys and small stuff, and clothes and they always had a large crowd to my one or two people. I was starting to think she was giving away homemade cookies or something to keep everyone over there. But by about 8:30 I started to get more people and by the end of the day I had sold a lot of my bigger pieces to my husbands utter delight. Our dream is to someday using our garage for a car instead of having a 3 car attached storage bin!

My newest quilt

I am working on, and have been working on, this quilt for a about a month. I haven't gotten too far due to the tear up in the house, but now that I am all back together and organized I should be sewing. I have hand painted all the fabric so far ( I will be removing the darkest leaf, I did not paint that fabric and do not like it with the other fabrics). I am painting some of the birds to look like storks and I am quilting some of the leaves seperately so they will have texture and stand out more on the piece when its done. Its a Velda Newman thing. I hope the weather gets colder and rains. I need a reason to have to stay indoors and work on it, with the sun shining I want to be outside. I have gotten most of my little annual flowers planted and we have been trimming the palm trees of their bloom pods. Wow is that a nasty job. They are really quite messy and heavy. My poor little plants underneath them get walloped pretty good as they fall. Since the weather is good here all year, except for the hot summers, we can plant flowers all year and gardens. Its really nice to have the color while the trees stand naked all winter. The palm trees won't, obviously, but most of the other trees do go deciduous during the winter. We have quite a collection of birds that visit our fountain all summer to get drinks, they actually stand on the ball and drink from the water pouring out of the hole at the top(you can see part of it on the left, this is our courtyard in the front). The other day I caught a hummingbird taking a bath in the bubbling stream.

Animated sewing

This morning as I was looking at some really different blogs I came across a blog link from the pixar studio blog. It is a flip book site. For those of you unfamiliar with flip books its how they created animation early on, it is still fun to see your drawings come to life. Give it a try at "flip book " ,I created a sewing flip book. Make a series of drawings and then click the eye and they animate them for you. Give it a try.

My quilting studio

Well, as I have been surfing around the webring of artful quilters I noticed a challenge to post pictures of their messy quilt studios and then after pictures when they get them all cleaned up. Well, I have been so torn up (see earlier posts) that I was anxious to get organized. My husband installed a closet organizer for my birthday while I was gone to the PIQS. I was so excited to get all my material folded neatly and put away. You see, I seem to have fabric everywhere, the studio, my closet, the guest room closet. My family says I have a quilting house not just a studio. So my challenge was to get it all contained into one room, wow, that was tough. It was interesting folding all those squares and while I was at it I color sorted. It looks so good, my girlfriend said I should remove the closet doors so everyone could see how nice it looks. The problem is now I am afraid to sew, I don't want to mess things up! There is something to be said for messy freedom!

Dinner

Just a few words about our dinner, wow, how romantic. We went to the The Mission Inn which is very close to us, it was so perfect. We sat outside in the court yard by the fountain and had dinner.

They are getting all ready and decorated for the "The festival of Lights" they have starting the day after Thanksgiving. Its all about the Holiday's. I love to take the grandkids and sit on the curb and listen to the singers. They have period singers all dressed and singing our favorite Christmas carols, the Riverside Philharmonic orchestra is there playing, everyone dressed to the nines. They make a big production before turning on the lights that light up all of the Mission and the mechanical dolls that are everywhere.

Anyway back to my dinner. As we sat, just enjoying each other he pulled out a small box, again, seems every five years I get one of these! I opened it to find a beautiful tanzanite and diamond ring he had made for me. He had the jewelers bring in stones from New York to look at and selected the finest 4.26 karat tanzanite to have mounted with diamonds. I loved the tanzanite after our cruise to Alaska and I saw all the stones up there and learned that the mines were almost depleted and it was becoming rarer. Wow, what a guy! We spent time talking about the story behind the ring, and I decided that I was going to type up each story that went with each ring. This way, when the ring gets handed down to one of our girls and then to one of their girls it will travel with the love story behind it. Its more than the value of the ring, its the story behind the ring that I love so much. I think I will hang on to him for another 25!

Our Anniversary

Today is our 25th wedding anniversary. Wow, I can't believe it has been that long. I am more in love with him now than I was all those years ago. There is a lot to be said about living together through all the hard times as well as all the good times. It brings a relationship to a special place, of maturity and trust and gives it a warm glow.

We are different than most of the couples we know, we still love to goof around and have public showing of lots of affection. We haven't grown apart or away from each other, we have only grown closer. We still love to spend time dreaming of our future and setting goals. Our relationship, I feel, has been tested by fire and emerged on the other side more beautiful, refined. In our time together we have faced, like many other couples, birth, sickness, financial stress, joblessness, college tuition, rebelling teenagers, but by far the hardest, ongoing test has been the drunk driver that changed all of our lives forever. You see, in July 2000, a week before my daughters 24 birthday a drunk driver decided to try and pass a semitruck on a blind corner and hit my daughter, headon. That nano second would forever change the course of all of our lives.

It ended up having a far wider reaching effect than I ever could have imagined at first. I will go into that someday, but not now. For us, it has been learning to salvage our lives as a family, as a couple, and for me, as a caregiver, a mom, a wife and as an individual. I think it, in itself, redefined who we all are. When you experience this type of grief you either turn away from people and choose to grieve alone or you reach out. I often did both, but at night, after an incredibly stressful day, full of major medical decisions, not know if Jennifer would live or die, wondering if we had made the right decisions or not, I would fall into comforting arms ready to hold me and protect me from the world and he would tell me that we would make it through. How can it get any better than that. To know, deep in your heart that even when it seems your whole life has been pulled out from beneath you, that there is a safe place to fall. A refuge in all the trauma.

I am a Christian and I have a very strong faith, but we were at a place of feeling prayed out. Sometimes even feeling as though God didn't hear us. I faced everyday in the Lord's strength but I ended it curled up in my husbands arms where sometimes I could find sleep and other times I couldn't. It is truly during these times in our lives when "the rubber meets the road" that all the things that we believe in and know are challenged. Somethings never make it through, like friends, some family, parts of our lives, often our health. Statistically, most marriages, like 95%, never survive this type of traumatic event.

I feel blessed to have gotten this far and not like we just barely survived, we survived big, we are so good. Our youngest daughter said that she didn't know if she could ever find a husband when she compared them all to her dad and wanted her marriage to be as good as ours. For my husband the hardest part was the fact that we lost our freedom and us as a couple. When we married I had 3 kids under 5 that he took on and raised as his own, Jennifer was the baby at that time. We never had "couple time" and so in 2000, when our youngest child together, Melissa was in college full time and all the others had moved out, did we feel that we were at the beginning of our new life together as empty nesters. That all the years of sacrifice and being homebound were now going to open up for us to traveling etc. Instead, we are now learning how to try and be both a new family and make "couple time" when we don't have the luxury of leaving Jennifer by herself. But we are making it happen, its challenging but we will keep plugging away at it.

This morning, after church, we all went and had brunch together, tonight just Randy and I are going to get away and have dinner together. We will reminisce, as best friends do, about our last 25 years, the good and bad and plan for the next 25 years. We will sit and talk and hope and dream together, just like always.

Murals all safely shipped

Well I got all the murals finished and packaged and delivered to the shipping company that is taking them directly to the model homes in Northern California. I am glad to get that off of my plate so I can get back to some of the quilts I am working on. I have posted a few pictures of the murals. The rubber ducky room actually has 3 rubber ducks in different poses. The rabbit room has two rabbits, the other is asleep under a sunflower and the last room, animal crackers has two loose animals that go along with the wagon.

I owe, I owe, so back to work I go

Well, its Tuesday and I need to get to the murals that I have been putting off due to all the confusion and tear-up going on in the house. Yesterday was a terrible day but got better as it went on and ended up a blessing. Bible study got to meet back in my familyroom on the new floor! The builder had a cleaner come in and clean all the shutters and furniture as the movers put everything back into its place with utmost care.
Currently, I am doing a set of graphics for some homes in the Sacramento area, I am doing a rubber ducky babies room, animal crackers, and bunnies. I am so far behind that I will be painting most of today and tomorrow and then cutting them out for shipping. Then I have another set due the first week of December that I need to start on. Many of the projects I have for the year have gotten bumped to next year, which is nice for the holidays but tougher on the cash flow. I find that it happens more than not at this time of the year. One year I expected everything to move to the following year and didn't start painting only to find out that everything was due, wow, what a scramble that was, 10 projects with several murals each due all in December and I was trying to move. I am so glad that year is over. A few pictures of my familyroom and kitchen with a mural I painted on tumbled marble above my stove top.