A Great Way to Finish the Year

A wonderful New Year's Eve...a little nature walk on a rare sunny day in the Pacific Northwest...

The ocean making use of our irresponsibility



These colors and textures are already inspiring a quilt in my mind



 ...finished my Sketchbook!!

And my husband and I found some great things at the antique store to alter and use in my mixed media. He really scored when he found these keys for me!  I also love this little clip on Christmas tree candle- oooh, I already see it in a shrine!

Happy New Year Everyone!

The Sketchbook is nearly complete



Slave to the cupcake

...only a few more pages to go. Here are a few for The Sketchbook Project.

Trying some more journal pages

This week at Take A Word the theme is Music. Next week is Zetti...well, I've never tried that so I thought I would practice one and combine the themes. Also, I only have a few weeks to fill this for The Sketchbook Project! Better get a move on. You may be seeing journal pages a lot until Jan 15th. 

Christmas came early

The mailman brought my prize from Alter It Monthly for my domino doll!  It is such a wonderful assortment of stamps and papers from Crafty Individuals!  I just had to show everyone.  I will be spending much of my Christmas vacation in the craft room.  Hope you all have a fabulous holiday!

Celebrate Every Day

I've started using scraps of fabric for little collages with messages to leave hanging around local shops, bookstores, coffee houses, and wherever else I feel needs some fabric art. I posted one before that says,        " I'd yarnbomb you but I can't knit", and I'm happy to say it is still hanging at the local bookstore where I left it.
What is this all about you might ask! Well, my new "quiltbombing" all began from me discovering "yarnbombing" where people do knit grafitti...and being jealous of those crafty knitters I decided to try guerilla art with something I can do, quilting. Check out Yarnbombing to see more of where this is coming from. This week my message was inspired by the Take A Word challenge CELEBRATE.

Lavender sachets for all!

I've been busy making these gifts for friends and family. And  Freddie Mercury is for me! Yup, both of them! I also used some pressed flower images from my Grandma's book, and the Brad Pitt is for my boss' wife. Key to a happy boss; keep his wife happy. These are so easy and fun to make too.

Farewell Inchy By Inch

It's the final Inchy By Inch challenge. I recently started blogging and only began making inchies (or knew what they were) a couple months ago. Thank you Fiona for the fun inspiration. It's been great seeing eveyone's creations. I'm sure I will see all you bloggers at other challenges too, and I hope you stop by to say "Hello" sometimes. All the best and Happy Holidays!

Here's my "Blue" inchie finale! Who doesn't love Neil Diamond and this song! ( okay, some people don't, but keep your mean comments to yourself. hee hee!)

Quilting up a gift

pillow for a friend. Merry Xmas Jodi!

 I love the Lantern Bloom collection by Laura Gunn.  Had to use it!

Mail, and a way to gift wrap it

Thank you Take A Word for the theme MAIL. I love it, I send it, I recieve it, I save it for years, I have mail my Grandma saved for decades, and I often use it in my projects. This week I had tried out this bird stencil on some scraps of fabric. I added the postcard stamp, fabric stamp, and quilted it. I left the batting and backing showing for that shabby look. I sewed on some ribbon so I could tie it around a stack of postcards I'm sending as a gift. I realized it worked perfect to tie around my paint brush cup to jazz it up a bit.

Christmas Door Hangers

I've been making some holiday door pillows to give as gifts, and one for us, of course. I found some great vintage clipart images to use.

Endless Possibilities

Starting a new doll. We'll see where it takes me...sketched out some possibilities.

Giving people have Big Hearts

Here's my little lace and felted heart inchie for this week's theme: Giving.

Also, I must say my husband was very giving when he got me a sewing machine for Christmas a couple years ago. It is truly the gift that keeps on giving and has lead me down a whole new creative path.

Home

The Take A Word theme this week is " Home". I made this little ornament from a Christmas Carol book I found recently. Best dollar I've ever spent- I've been using this for many projects.

The Wreck of the Hesperus

The Take A Word prompt this week was MEN. I love doing these challenges because it really gets my mind going in ways I may not have expected.  It somehow brought me to one of my favorite poets, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, which then lead me to my favorite poem, The Wreck of the Hesperus. I started out attemping to make a fabric book cover but ended up making a fabric book that contains my beloved poem instead. Now I can easily open up my book and read it often.

The image of Longfellow was taken from online and printed on Lutradur Mixed Media Sheets. I bought these a while back but wasn't exactly sure for what use. They worked perfect for the photo and printing the poem. I used Peltex to stiffen the pages, and just played around with how to bind my little book.

I am really happy with the way it turned out and my favorite nautical button found a good home.

Faith and a Moon



dance by the light of the moon


This week's Take A Word is Moon -for which I did a drawing. I am in love with my new Pebbles, Inc chalks. I'm not sure if this picture is really doing it justice- can't really see all the shading- why do some things just look so much better in person?

And the Inchy By Inch theme was Faith. I used a picture of my Mom from 1959 at her Catholic Confirmation. 








At last, the quilt is complete

My Mom and I have been working on this quilt for my brother and his wife for nearly a year. We each did 22 squares, all different fabrics and blocks. We also wanted to try out the long arm machines and do all the quilting ourselves. Some of those loopty loops have run a muck, but it all worked out in the end. And thankfully, Mom is a pro at binding, so I let her take on that big job!
We gave it to them this weekend for an early holiday get together and they loved it. Now I just need to get back to work on mine.

The quilters




click photos to enlarge

 

A friendlier kind of "bomb"



I'd yarnbomb you but I can't knit



Hurray! Until I possibly learn to knit... I "quiltbombed" my favorite local bookstore's restroom.

 Hope they like it!

I need to quilt up some more to leave around the Pacific Northwest!

Angels

Take A Word this week is Angels. I haven't really drawn angels...but what better time to start since my sketchbook arrived this weekend! I had been thinking about doing The Sketchbook Project since the beginning of the year, but it wasn't until I started blogging in August that I really started drawing and doodling all the time. And I mean All the time. I also want to give some journal pages a try as well. This new little book presents endless possibilities!