Appalachian Trail

My son and daughter-in-law starting their hike on the Appalachian Trail. They plan to hike north from Harper's Ferry WV for about 6 weeks or so, hoping to make it to New York State.

We took them to Harper's Ferry and hiked about a mile with them this morning (May 21, 2008). Then they went on while we went back (to the car). We are now in Kill Devil Hills, NC, which is on the Outer Banks.

Packing for a Trip

I really like my new suitcase that I've got all packed and ready to go in the morning.

The writing on the page says, "We are leaving in the morning to take Brian & Jessica to Harpers Ferry, WV, where they will start their hike on the Appalachian Trail. We will then go on to the Outer Banks of North Carolina.

I bought this suitcase awhile back, and it's by far the best one I've ever owned."

Everyday Matters by Danny Gregory

I finished this book this morning. It was a very quick read - and quite fascinating. It is a memoir/art journal/inspirational book. Very hard to describe - but well worth reading whether you're an artist or not. You can read more about it on Amazon. I would rate it 4.5 out of 5.

The author has a wonderful yahoo group that I also belong to, which is here.

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

This is an auto-biographical novel about a young woman's breakdown. The book opens with Esther Greenwood on an apprenticeship to a fashion magazine in New York. When she returns home, she is already deeply troubled. Her mother seems to believe she can just snap out of it. She tries to kill herself with sleeping pills and is found. She is institutionalized for six months.

Just before her release from the asylum, her doctor tells her that a lot of people will avoid her:

"My mother's face floated to mind, a pale, reproachful moon, at her last and first visit to the asylum since my twentieth birthday. A daughter in an asylum! I had done that to her. Still, she had obviously decided to forgive me.

" 'We'll take up where we left off, Esther,' she had said, with her sweet, martyr's smile. 'We'll act as if all this were a bad dream.'

"A bad dream.

"To the person in the bell jar, blank and stopped as a dead baby, the world itself is the bad dream."

I rate this book 3 out of 5.

Sample Journal Page 04

Mixed media surface using fusible webs from lesson 2.

Sample Journal Page 03

Dress pattern tissue from lesson 1.

Sample Journal Page 02

Torn paper surface from lesson 1.

Sample Journal Page 01

I finished the first four pages for my sample journal for my Mixed Media Surfaces class.

Tissue paper fabric from lesson 1. I'll post the other pages in separate entries.

EDM Challenge #100

Draw or paint a landscape.

I drove to Guthrie to go to Homestead Quilting's going out of business sale today. These yellow flowers were all along the highway. This is my impression, painted from memory.

Goodbye Fred

February 12, 1993 - May 14, 2008

Mini Wrap Folio

This is the second item I've made using the second lesson of my Mixed Media Surfaces for the Fiber Artist class by Sue Bleiweiss. The instructions for the folio are in the free patterns at her Fibre & Stitch magazine. This folio is smaller than the one below - it holds a 3 1/2" X 5" pad, while the one below holds a 5" x 8" pad.

Padfolio

The lesson was to make a 3-drawer box out of our surface, but I decided to make this padfolio instead. The instructions for this are in the free patterns at Sue Bleiweiss's Fibre & Stitch magazine (here).

Pattern Tissue Book

I finished my book. I decided to add buttons and beads to the threads that I used for sewing in the signatures.

EDM Challenge #76

Draw some flowers - DH bought me a dozen roses with greenery and baby's breath - gorgeous! I thought drawing one was as much as I could tackle now. The color isn't quite right, but it's close.

EDM Challenges #97 & #19

#97 - Draw a present you have received - Cool pottery pot from my DDIL.

#19 - Draw something you've made - Good for You Chocolates.

Postcard from Tissue Paper Fabric

I used some of the tissue paper fabric from Sue Bleiweiss's class (Mixed Media Surfaces for the Fiber Artist), added the tissue paper stamped sentiment and paper flowers, then covered with black tulle.

Online Class

I'm taking another online class - I know, I'm addicted, but they're so much fun. I'm really enjoying this one - it's called Mixed Media Surfaces for Fiber Artists, taught by Sue Bleiweiss. We've just had one lesson so far, but I've already made several things!

This first picture is of tissue paper fused to fabric, and then colored with several things - including color wash sprays, acrylic paint, and silver krylon pen.



The next two pictures are of the back and front covers of a book for the samples from class, and the book itself. I still need to add some interesting fibers to the binder rings, but otherwise it's done. This has torn pages from books and newspapers. Then it has cheesecloth on top and it's colored with color wash sprays (I love sprays!). Then I put the flowers on and covered the whole thing with tulle.



This is going to be the cover of another journal - I still need to cut the signatures, which I think I'm going to make from watercolor paper. I'm really happy with how this turned out! It is layers of pattern tissue, colored with walnut ink spray, cut apart and fused to black felt. I used a decorative stitch on the edges of the cut pieces too.



And finally, this is a mother's day card I made for my mom from the tissue paper fabric in the first picture (luckily, I don't think my mom reads my blog).



You can't tell the sizes of the pieces from the pictures: the first piece started out as fat quarter size (18" X 22" approximately); the sample book is 9 1/2" X 6"; the journal cover was 9 1/2" X 13 1/2" before I used a pinking rotary cutter blade on the outside edges; and the card is 4 1/4" X 5 1/2".

I'm trying very hard to keep up in this class, because we're going to be gone for a little over a week about halfway through the class, and I'll get behind then. So I'd like to be caught up when we leave.

I highly recommend this class - if you're interested, you can read more about Sue's classes here.

Helen of Troy by Margaret George

I finished this book today. It was a very long book - 638 pages - but I really enjoyed it. I actually like long books if they're good, and this one was. It is the life story of Helen, Queen of Sparta, who runs away with Paris, of Troy, which is the cause of the Trojan War. Helen is the narrator. I always enjoyed studying Greek Mythology in school (I know, I was weird). And I really like historical fiction, although I was surprised to learn after finishing the book that historians don't know whether any of the characters existed. In fact, the after word states, "We have no evidential corroboration that there ever existed a Helen of Troy - nor an Agamemnon, nor a Menelaus, nor an Achilles, nor a Paris. Among scholars, there are fierce disputes about Homer, and whether, even if there is an actual site of a historical Troy, there ever took place anything we can truly call the Trojan War." But it is still a great story, true or not. And this book was very well written. I rate it 4 out of 5.

Paducah Quilt Show

I got home from Paducah Sunday evening. It was a great show! This was my first time to see the show, and I was not disappointed. I think it is probably the most prestigious quilt show anywhere. And of course, there were lots of vendors, so I spent way too much money.

We stayed with the most delightful woman as well. Paducah doesn't have enough hotel rooms during the quilt show, so the visitors and convention bureau works with local people to offer bed and breakfast rooms for the show. This was what we did, and it worked out extremely well.

On another note, I finished the machine appliqué that I was doing for Darcy Ashton at the quilting retreat I attended the previous weekend. They were the cutest bunny blocks. You can see Darcy's website here. I explain why I'm doing these blocks for her in an earlier post (here).

And I got just a little bit of machine embroidery done today. We've been shopping for a new refrigerator the last 2 days. Yesterday morning when I took my soy milk out of the refrigerator, I noticed that it didn't feel as cold as it should. I put a thermometer in it, and it only registered about 45 degrees or so (it should be below 40). This happened a few months ago, and we turned the setting as cold as it would go. It's only 28 years old - time for a new one! We finally agreed on one today and ordered it - it should be in next week. This is what we ordered in black: Amana.

Scanner

I think my scanner just died! I've checked all the connections, even switched the plug in with the speakers, and it just won't turn on. The speakers come on in either plug in, so I think I'm going to have to go shopping for a new one after I get back from Paducah, Kentucky. Oh yeah, I'm headed to Paducah in the morning for the Annual American Quilters Society Quilt Show and Contest. I'll be back home Sunday night.

Hope

The friends we visit in Tennessee have the sweetest cat. Her name is Hope, and she loves brown paper bags. I took this picture of her last week.

EDM Weekly Challenge #29

#29 - Draw something architectural (the house of the friends we were visiting)

EDM Weekly Challenges #11, #137, #24, #91

I drew these in my journal last week while we were visiting friends. They were for the weekly challenges on the Everyday Matters group.

#11 - Draw your glasses or sunglasses (my first pen and ink sketch)
#137 - Draw something you can turn on or off - my MP3 player
#24 - Draw a piece of fruit (an orange)
#91 - Draw an apple

I've Been Tagged

I've been tagged by Quilting Diva and this is how it goes:

1. Once you are tagged, link back to the person who tagged you.
2. Post THE RULES on your blog.
3. Post 7 weird or random facts about yourself on your blog.
4. Tag 7 people and link to them.
5. Comment on their blog to let them know they have been tagged.

Here are my 7 random facts about me:

1. My wonderful marriage of over 30 years is my second marriage.
2. I was the first girl in my high school to take wood shop.
3. My ethnic heritage is Jewish, but I don't practice (that or any other religion).
4. My aunt taught me to knit at the age of 7 or so.
5. I was a CPA when I worked - but I only worked for 12 years.
6. I had a picture framing business in my home for 7 years.
7. I have one son, who is the only grandchild on my side of the family. And on my DH's side, there are only grandsons, no granddaughters.

Now, to tag 7 other bloggers:

1. Danielle
2. Shelina
3. Rian
4. Vicky
5. Margaret Ann
6. Zeborah
7. Carol

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See

I really enjoyed this book, which I finished while we were in Tennessee. It is the story of Lily and Snow Flower, who at the age of 7, become laotong, or old sames, a relationship closer than any other, even marriage. They share so much of their lives together, beginning with foot binding. But a terrible misunderstanding drives them apart. The story is told by Lily as an old woman looking back on her life. It was very well written - I couldn't put it down. I rate it 4 out of 5.

Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

I finished this today. I liked parts of it, found other parts to be rather boring. It is the story of Fermina Daza and Florentino Ariza, who fall in love as youths. Fermina decides to marry a wealthy doctor instead. Florentino is devastated, but he waits over 51 years for Fermina's husband to die. He declares his love for Fermina again the day of her husband's funeral. The book starts right before Fermina's husband's death, proceeds through Florentino's declaration, then flashes back to their youth. Most of the book follows the 51 years of their separate lives.

I was disappointed because I was expecting the book to be better. I liked the beginning and the ending, but it often bogged down in the middle. I would rate it 2 out of 5.

Traveling again

I won't be able to post for a bit - we're headed off tomorrow to visit friends in Tennessee. We've been visiting them each spring for a few years now and always enjoy our visit. I hope to get some drawing done.

Today's Quilting

I worked on the Diamond in the Rough quilt today. I had to fix a mistake - I hate it when I do something stupid! If you look at the picture (a couple of posts down), you might notice that I had forgotten to add the black sashing strip on the lower left corner. Well, I didn't notice it until I had cut off the excess corners on the setting triangles and sewn on the corner triangle. So, this meant I had to "unsew" the corner triangle, sew on the black sashing strip, add patches where I'd cut off the corners of the setting triangles, and re-sew the corner triangle. But I did that today, and that part is done. Now all that's left is squaring it up and adding two more borders.

Quilt Every Day for April

I know that I won't be able to quilt every day this month, because we are going to be out of town visiting friends for a week or so (leaving either Sunday or Monday). And then later in the month I'm going to Paducah, Kentucky, with a friend to see the American Quilter’s Society Quilt Show & Contest. But I'm going to try to quilt on the days I'm home. And if I don't keep track of what I'm working on here, I won't remember at the end of the month.

Yesterday, all I did was make one block for our guild's president (the members always make a block for the president as a thank you). I forgot to take a picture of it before I turned it in at our meeting last night, but it was a Sawtooth Star block. Today I'm continuing to work on Diamond in the Rough.

This past weekend, I attended the Oklahoma Quilt State Organization's Spring Retreat at Western Hills State Lodge. It was a lot of fun! But that means I have a couple more unfinished projects to work on, although I did get one of the tops finished - I just need to quilt it. And one of the classes was actually making a basket - out of reed, not fabric! I really enjoyed that. And that is also finished, so I really only have one unfinished top! It's a table runner called Tulip Bells Table Runner by Southwind Designs. I finished one block in the class and also the centers for the other two blocks - so it shouldn't take too long to finish.

One of the teachers at the retreat, Darcy Ashton, does hand appliqué. I don't do hand appliqué - I do machine. Her patterns and books are really great - and can be done by machine just as well as by hand. I had taken a class with her about a year ago, and my friend and I were the only two in the class who brought our sewing machines! Anyway, Darcy is working on a new book, and she wants people who do machine appliqué to realize that they can use her books and patterns too. She asked me if I would do the machine work on about 20 blocks. I would get a signed copy of the book and my name would be listed in the book. Of course I said yes! I was quite flattered and pleased that she asked me. You can see her website here: Darcy Ashton.

March Quilting

I managed to quilt most days in March after joining the challenge to "quilt every day." I finished one project:



I also worked on another quilt that I had put aside for a couple of years - it's called Diamond in the Rough. I'm not finished with it yet, but I have all of the blocks completed and sewn into rows; I'm in the process of sewing the rows together. I needed some more fabric for the borders to make it bigger, which I was able to find recently. Here are the rows (the little white squares you see are my notes pinned on to keep the rows in order):



And here is a close up of one of the blocks:



The reason that I hadn't worked on this quilt in a long time was that I was unhappy with a couple of the fabrics in the star points; there wasn't enough contrast between them and the background, so they disappeared. I decided to use Fabrico ink on the couple of fabrics that were too light, and it made all the difference in the world. It's a reminder that value is often more important than color.

I also did some machine embroidery this month, but I don't have a finished product to show yet.