Misc

I've been making notes, checking them twice, of choir performances, local events etc that I'd like to see during the month--Making Spirits Bright.

We visited Jacoby Storehouse in Arcata to see the tree. 24' tall.

Awesome in person…I took these with my camera…should have taken Gary’s, but these are ok.

Whenever I visit this building, my mind goes back about 60 years to what it was like in those years and following.

I guess that’s part of “maturing”. Everything has a memory.  Well, the tree has become a tradition.

Merry Christmas to you!

Many times you've seen me publish quilts of the redwoods.  I thought you might enjoy this photo. On our recent outing to the redwoods my husband shot this photo of me walking around looking for a "perfect shot". I thought it would give you a bit of perspective to the size of the trees.  They are awesome!

I've been working on some small projects.  Two of them will be gifts for some special people.  I thought I'd share them with you.  Both are redwood scenes with backgrounds constructed in mosaic style.

The inspiration photos were taken in Garberville on a beautiful fall day.

International Quilt Festival starts November 1.

I'm happy to have two quilts intered into the "Quilts a World of Beauty" juried show/contest. The quilts I have entered this year are "Into the Woods" and "Cat Tails". Also I have been asked to donate a small work for the IQA Celebrity Auction.  If you go to the show it's alwas a wonderful display to see many of the "stars" works.  Stop by and bid on your favorites. This year my donation is Wooded Wonderland.  It's a small piece that is typical of my Mosaic pieced forest quilts.

I'm happy to be at the quilting stage of a new quilt...working title: Hike Hawaii.  I chose the picture inspiration from a trip we made on our anniversary in 2009.

It's been awhile getting it to this stage and I'm happy to be swooping down these palm fronds with bright quilting threads.  As usual they are Superior Threads and mostly "Rainbows".  Here's a glimpse.  More to come later.

It was a fun day at the fair.

I had some ribbons too

This one was in the fine arts dept.

always nice to see ribbons.

People ask where my ideas come from.  That's a hard question to answer, because they come from so many sources. 

Many of my ideas have to be filtered through the reality of what I can do with fabric.  Some things lend themselves better to painting than to little pieces of fabric sewn together in some way.

Today I'm sharing an intriguing picture I found that I don't think will become a quilt, but I can appreciate it's beauty.  Maybe someday I'll use it in some way.

As usual my inspiration comes from a nature walk...this ribbons of dried weeds, just appealed to me.

No, I'm not always quilting, though many think that.

In the past I've made this vegie relish many times...but it's hard to find a bunch of green tomatoes when you don't have a garden.  So it's been several years, and I've tried all of the brands in the grocery and not found one near as good.  So I decided it was time to jump into this major (or it seemed major) project. 

I found the green tomatoes at the Farmers' Market.  It also contains: onions, green and red bell peppers and cabbage. My wonderful husband decided to help and boy was he a great help!.  Here you see him grinding with my Mom's old grinder.

It was a two day project but I'm so pleased to see those lovely jars of yummy relish lined up on the counter.

International Quilt Festival in Houston is a ! huge ! quilt show.  I'm honored to have two quilts accepted into the Quilts, a World of Beauty contest in early November. The quilts traveling there will be "Into the Woods" and "Cat Tails". 

This is a special case because it is 8Tree Quilts which are being shipped to American Q Soc show in Grand Rapids. Fiber Art Friends girls are glad to have their challenge accepted into the Ultimate Guild Challenge.  I'm packing them up and shipping them off for the show.

It is unusual to pack 8 quilts into 1 box--but this is how I've decided to do it.  There is a center roll about 3" in diameter.  I will roll the quilts one at a time with the fronts facing outward. Each quilt followed by another until all 8 are in one large roll. 

I save remant strips for the purpose of tying this type of roll. 

So once they are tied I need to put plastic bags around them. 

I use large clear bags from Costco, but they are not long enough, so I do one from each end and then tie again to "seal" the package somewhat. 

This is to help protect the quilts in case accidently they get the box wet somewhere along the line. (We really hope that does not happen).  Then I tape the paperwork to the plastic bag, load it into a sturdy box, and ship it FedEx. 

Oh, yes, we always hope that they make the trip safely all the way to Grand Rapids and back. 

We also hope they will please the judges and win a bit of a prize!