Lil gadget bags

I started making these and they are FUN! Thanks MaryAnn for the idea.

These are made from a 7" X 9"rectangle of fabric (embellished or not),

a 7" zipper and some fusible batting.

Fuse the fabric to a piece of fusible batting. (I love that stuff!) quilt if desired.

Sew the zipper to the short side. stick a little strap at the top of the zipper. (I made them from 2" wide fabric turned twice to make 1/2" straps.

Sew the 2 ends wonky from each other, turn right side out and viola!

2 cousins and a half

Look at these 2 artsy funny boys.

Autumn in My Neighborhood

It stopped raining for a minute, the sun came out and lit up the beautiful leaves! The light was awesome so I snapped a bunch of pictures for posterity........ its raining heavily today so the leaves will be gone soon. Click the slide show on the right to see all the pictures bigger. Its about 1 minute.

Jungle Mania - For Koben

Quilt for Grandson. Sorta Kinda matches his brother's.
Jungle fun! 72 X 72 - good for bunks & camping. Its brighter than this in person and the back is scorching hot yellow flannel!




















Here's big bro with his quilt. They share a room so maybe it will be fun. The back of this is crosscut black corduroy. I got it dirt cheap a few years back in Canada, like $3 a meter and it is 60" wide. Too bad I didn't have an extra suitcase to buy the whole bolt!

HFD T-Shirt Quilt

I just finished this T-Shirt quilt for Marc my sorta son in law who is a firefighter paramedic search & rescue etc guy in Hawaii. He's donating it to the Sayer Foundation - they have a fund-raiser every year to purchase rescue equipment for the HFD. His HFD t-shirts are sashed with a batik denim (who ever heard of such a thing?)

Here's the helicopter. The blades are stitched in and don't show up as well as I would like.

Ginny & her Jacket

Here's Mom in her fun jacket! It fits all right but pokes her in the neck I think.

Ginny's Jacket

I few months ago I decided to make Mom a sweatshirt jacket. She is always complaining about being cold. I got this sweatshirt & 2 pairs of sweat pants to match (pink & purple) and proceded to chop up the sweatshirt to Beautify it.

I appliqued roses & leaves, and added a collar I purchases years ago for 10c at the Daisy Kingdom remnant room. It was fun, a little challenging and as usual - when the fun part is done (sewing on roses & collar) it went into a TBF pile - aka UFO pile, or P.I.G.S (project in grocery sack)

I thought I should finish it for her birthday. She was 88 on July 17. I am only a few days late. Here's the jacket. I'll get a shot of her wearing it on Thursday and add it here.

Here's the roses - fussy cut from some rose fabric + batik leaves. Fused & stitched.

Woman is a Tree of Life

Finally I am posting my piece for the SOST Challenge.

(Sisterhood of Sagging T**S) Everyone had a blast with this subject and the results were really amazing, and soon to be posted on the QuiltArt site.

http://www.quiltart.com/

I got the idea from a photo of a fountain I saw surfing. It had a tree growing from the center, and it just said ZING! My first thought was "Old Woman Willow" But I wanted my woman to be lithe and sophisticated, a classy and contemporary of Old Man Willow. I decided she wasn't ancient enough (yet) to be Old Woman Willow. Commercial batiks, (fussy cut boobies - I didnt paint those, honest) hand dyed binding, machine embroidery & quilting.

When I cut out the shapes of the roots, one was definately needing a shoe.

The label was fun so I posted its picture here too.

Cat Face - Positive & Negative Space

I just completed this little exercise having to do with positive & negative space. I attempted to make a cougar face, but I didnt get the chunky jawline that cougars have so its just a cat after all. Batiks, FME, some razzle dazzle threads couched for the whiskers & eye. I rushed the binding just so I would complete it, so thats a tad sloppy but otherwise I am satisfied with the fun result.

The back is about as fun as the front.

Northwest Rain Flower

Not Quite a Sunflower... rain drops for petals.
Not the best image but its given away so...

5 X 7

Doll and Bird House

A while back another Granddaughter requested a shelf for her Bratz dolls, and Larry told her he'd make her a doll house. She and her brother were here Saturday and Larry started building the shelf/house. It evolved into something with a balcony & front porch. The kids wanted to paint it the same colors as our house (they helped paint a bit last summer) so we got out the paint cans and let them have at it. I decided it needed some flowers to spiff it up.































Click this one to see the flowers up close and personal.





















While I was at it, I hunted down an old battered bird house that has always hung on our front porch. I gave it a paint job. The chirping of many families of sparrows have given me cause to smile over the years.

Tea Party Chairsies

Some Little Ladies came to visit and we had a Tea Party. They don't really want tea. They just want to pour into the cute cups, spoon in lots of sugar, stir and stir. Then they are done.
Our itsy chairsies are perfect for tiny tea parties.



















2 granddaughters (on the left) and a friend.




















After pouring, stirring, sipping & spilling, bed jumping was just the ticket.

Little Chairsies At Home

Here's the Little Ducky Chairsies
At home in their places.

front porch

Bathroom
















TV room keeping Mini Me company
















Parlor

Old Newspapers

Some pieces of newspaper from 1942. These were used for insulation under our living room floor. I am contemplating how to use these. I don't want to just throw them away.

Click the pics to see some detail.

Water stained, cut, crumbling and dirty, but oh so cool!

Itsy Chairsies - Just Ducky

My girlfriend rescued 8 of these little chairs from the church dumpster. I've had them around for 10 years or so, painted various colors. They were in a sad state of disrepair, having used them in the yard to hold plants and I even left some of them out in the weather. It was time to give them little face lifts. Larry patched and glued them back together, getting them all straight and sturdy, and I painted them some bright colors that match the new colors we painted inside and out.

The red is for the parlor, to sit beside my Victorian Settee & love seat which are upholstered in red, gold & cream. The lavender goes in the spring green & lavender bathroom. The cocoa chair goes in the TV room which is 3 shades of cookie & cocoa brown, with my "Thinking of Chocolate" quilt on the wall. The final bright berry chair goes on the front porch next to my berry door (they are different berries but fun and bright) to hold a bowl of pansies.

Cyber Fyber Postcard Exchange

I had the Happy occasion to exchange a fiber postcard with Susan Lenz.

These fiber postcards will be on display at CYBER FYBER, an international exhibition scheduled for January 8th through 20th, 2009 at Gallery 80808, 808 Lady Street in downtown Columbia, South Carolina.

You can see all the fabulous postcards that she made, and the exchanges on her blog -Here- .

Here's the postcard I received from her.
















And here's the one she recieved from me. (Its one of my recent Sunflower series)

Sunflowers for the Postcard Exchange

Last Fall I joined a Postcard Exchange.
Click the title "Sunflowers... " above to view the whole gallery.
There you can click the images
To view each one individually .
Enjoy!!

My Piano Adventure

Last chance to Play :

Katharine Hepburn hands and Old Keys

In 1997 I inherited a 100 yr old Steinway grand piano. She belonged to my grandfather who was a musician all his life. He played at the Bohemian Club back in the 20's and 30's. My grandmother was a radio singer in the San Francisco Bay Area also. When my grandmother passed away, my dad got this piano. It's been in disrepair since the late 1960's. When Dad passed, the piano came to me.

I love the old gal, and agonized for these past 10 years about restoring her. She had a lovely voice even though she was in wretched shape. I pretty much stopped playing piano. I didnt have something to play and couldn't really afford to restore the Steinway.

Finally this year I was pressed to decide. We are putting new floors in the entire house and the piano had to go somewhere, it might as well go to the repair shop. I had a technician come look at it and give me an estimate. They wanted $18,000 for a complete restoration. Just the works would be $12K. Well. Never mind. I can't afford that.

At last Classic Piano in Portland gave me an offer to trade it in on another piano. I was so sad to let the Steinway go, but stoked at the new piano I traded for. A brand new Yamaha baby grand.

Here's some pictures of my Lovely Lady. There is even an old signature inside.