Camera

Our digital camera is scheduled to be delivered tomorrow. It better be repaired correctly this time! Once it is, I plan on writing a very detailed letter to the company. I don't think I've ever written this kind of letter before, but I'm still mad about this whole ordeal, and I want Olympus to know it! I'm not sure what I expect by writing to them - I probably need to figure that out before I write the letter. But this has been some of the worst customer service I've experienced in a long time. And the company should know!

I hope to be able to start posting pictures of some of my quilting projects sometime tomorrow!

ABC Atc Swap

Another ATC Swap - this one is ABC's. There are 26 participants, each one chooses a letter and makes 26 atcs using that letter. I chose "C" because I wanted cats on mine. When all swapped out, each participant ends up with a set of the whole alphabet.

Here is my completed atc. Kind of cute I think.

Design Team Work

I am on the Design Team for Our Stamping Studio. What this means is that each month, we have a sponsor (usually a rubber stamp company) who provides us with free product. We then create artwork with the sponsor's products and promote the sponsor for the month. At the end of the month, we provide the sponsor with our samples or scans (whichever the sponsor prefers). It has been a really great program for both the sponsors and the Design Team, and I love doing it. So here are a few of the things that I created for this month's sponsor, Silver Fox Stamps.

Christmas Stocking

I finished another quilting project today - this one is a Christmas stocking for my son's girlfriend. It matches the rest of my family's stockings as closely as I could get it to match - I found many of the same fabrics in my stash (which is amazing, considering I made the other stockings 9 years ago!). The stockings have patches with applique on them. All of them have a santa for one of the applique patches, and then they have other Christmas-type images (tree, present, ornament, gingerbread man, etc.). Then each one is also personalized in some way - for hers, I added a paint palette and a camera, since those are things she likes to do. It turned out really cute - and as soon as I get my camera back, I'll post a picture of it!

Ornament ATC

I am in a local group that swaps ATC’s. We meet twice a month and generally swap once a month. This month’s theme is ornaments (as in, an atc that can be used as an ornament). Here is the one I completed for the current swap. The green tree is a metal charm, and the circle is actually punched out of the atc, so the white you see is from my scanner.

Vision of Women ATC

I finished this for today for a swap on Our Stamping Studio. After stamping the lady, I colored her with Walnut Ink Tintz from Fiber Scraps and also with Distress Ink from Ranger. Then I collaged some papers around her and added lace and a fancy brad. I also stitched around the edges with my sewing machine. One will also be sent in to Technique Junkies for their current contest.

Circle Journal

I am in a circle journal swap on Our Stamping Studio. This is basically the same thing as a deco swap. There are 11 of us participating in this one, and we have a month to work in each journal, which means it will be almost a year from start to finish. Our journal had to be mailed out by April 15, so it has been going around for a long time now. I only have 3 more journals to work in, and then I get my own back! This one has been much better about staying on schedule than the other one (Asian Deco) I'm in.

I finished my pages today in the journal I have now. This was a very thought-provoking theme for me - Treasures. Our instructions were to fill the pages of the book with what we treasure - whatever is most important in our life. We could include photos if we wanted to, journaling if we wished, or an artistic expression of what means the most to us. I spent a lot of time just thinking about the theme before I did any work in the journal - it was a great chance to really think about all of my treasures. I did a 2-page spread, and tucked some journaling into a pocket. I really enjoyed this one once I got started.

My Own Asian Deco

And here is the cover of my own Deco. I'm anxious to get it back and see all the wonderful artwork created by the other members of the group! This group has been running behind schedule though, so I don't know when I'll get it back. I really hope I don't have to wait TOO long.

Asian Deco Swap Completed

These are the other two deco pages I've completed. As you can tell, I really like my geisha and kimono rubber stamps. The kimono is an outline that I stamped on Japanese paper; I stamped the geisha on vellum and colored her kimono on the back.

Asian Deco Swap Continued

Here are two more Deco pages I've done for the same swap. Since each person made her own book, each book is a different size and shape. The most original book in my opinion had pages in the shape of fan blades (the left picture).

Asian Deco Swap

I've already mentioned that I love participating in swaps. This one is called a Deco: each participant makes a book that she sends to the next person in the group. Each person in the group creates artwork in each person's book, and when each book has been around to each person in the group, it is returned to the person who made the book. Decos usually have a theme, and the theme for this one is Asian Art. Here are a couple of pages that I completed in other artists' books. The one on the right was the last one for me to work in - I hope to get mine back soon.

Camera Woes

Well, my digital camera arrived home on Monday, just as scheduled. I opened the box and looked at the packing slip first. I noticed that it referred to the first problem I'd sent it in for, not the second, and it also stated "no problem found." WHAT?? So I put the battery and the memory card in it, turned it on, checked it, and NO, they DID NOT fix the problem. I can not believe this!

Here is the story - sometime in September, the lens stopped retracting into the camera when you turned the camera off. I sent it in for repairs - which meant having Mail Boxes Etc. double box it so that insurance would cover it if it was damaged in shipping. They repaired it and returned it (but we were without it for about 3 weeks). The day it came back, I loaded the battery and memory card back into it, checked it to be sure the lens retracted like it was supposed to (it did), and put it away.

A couple of days later I tried to take a picture with it. This model has a button on the back that lets you switch back and forth between using the LCD monitor on the back of the camera and the viewfinder (when one is on, the other is off). When I turned the camera on, the LCD monitor was on. I pressed the button to use the viewfinder, the monitor went off, but the viewfinder didn't come on. I pressed the button again, the monitor came back on. Every time I pressed the button, the monitor either went on or off, but the viewfinder never came on. So I called the company. I had to send it back (of course). They told me that since it was a "REDO" (their word), they would reimburse the shipping. They gave me a service order number and told me to include copies of all the paperwork. I did that.

When I called them Monday, the guy I talked to tried to blame me for calling it a "REDO." It seems they "thought" I was sending it back to redo the lens, and since the lens worked, there was "no problem found." Of course, if they had READ what I wrote on the form they required me to send them, they would have known I was sending it in for the viewfinder and not the lens. Needless to say, I am still pretty steamed about it.

The guys at Mail Boxes Etc. are getting to know me pretty well now - they gave me a "frequent shipper" card and even stamped it 3 times (since I hadn't had the card for the other 2 shipments).

All of this rant is just to say that I have a number of quilting projects that I would like to post, but I can't until I get the camera back in working order. But I can still share some paper projects - at least my scanner works!

Latest Layout

And here is the one I finished yesterday. This was the third lesson for my second class on using brushes in Photoshop Elements. I'm still behind - I have one more lesson to finish for this class, and then a new class that started on November 1st. These photos are of my husband and me searching for letterboxes in Colorado.

Two More Digital Layouts

Here is a layout I completed a couple of months ago. This is the first layout I completed for the first class I took in Intro to Photoshop Elements. The pictures are of my husband fishing in one of our favorite vacation spots in Colorado.


And this is the second one I completed in the same class. Most of the digital scrapping that I've seen tries to recreate the look of the more traditional paper scrapping, but this one is strictly a graphic style layout. While I probably wouldn't do a lot of layouts like this, I really like the way this one turned out, and I certainly learned a lot doing it. These are more photos of my husband fishing, but these were taken in HIS favorite spot - the Boundary Waters Canoe Area.

Spring Quilt

I finished my spring quilt today. I so want to take a picture of it to post, but my digital camera is in for repairs (for the second time!). I do know that it has been shipped back to me, scheduled to arrive on Monday. So at least I can take a picture of it then. I'm loving my new sewing machine though!

I've fallen behind on my online classes for digital scrapbooking with Photoshop Elements - I fell behind when I went to Houston and haven't caught up yet. But I worked on it last night and did finish a layout. I'm not completely happy with it, but I may post it anyway.

Aurora 440 QE

Well, I did it! Yesterday I bought the Bernina Aurora 440 QE (stands for Quilter's Edition). With stitch regulator! I love it already, and all I've done so far is sew 3 strips together to test my 1/4" seam allowance. But it was perfect on the first try! Sometimes you really have to work at getting that 1/4" seam allowance right, but I had no problem whatsoever. Then I played a little bit with the stitch regulator. It will take a little bit of practice, but not much - it's already pretty easy. I'm really excited to actually start using it (just need to find the time).