Tidbits

Look what came in the mail yesterday! Delightful!

For now, our desk is the new habitat for a hippo and a birdy. I included a bit of their surroundings so you can get the real "desktop jungle" feel. Thank you so much, Gerrie.

I also wanted to report back on the jewelry designer I fell in love with on my birthday outing last week. It was Laura Baxter. And here is the little pin I particularly swooned over. That piece that looks like it's just flat on the top is actually a flower opened to the top. You know?

Last week I threw this together. It's a needle book.

I adore Deanna Hartman's needle books. And her appearance on Crafter's Coast to Coast (now That's Clever... but Joanne says it's usually not) was a gas! You can buy a pattern for her needle books, or you can buy her actual needle books. Or you can read the step by step instructions on HGTV. I kind winged it.

I had a ridiculous little "needle nest" made of blue and clear plastic and a piece of magnet inside. The clasp was broken and I got irritated every time I used it. Irritation does not make for good handwork.

I used two pieces of felt inside to create four pages. I could even keep needles with different colors of floss already threaded. Then I wouldn't have to switch out all the time.


Here's the outside. It's an orphan piece I created in a class from Diane Hire. This was way before the whole red hat explosion, I swear. Anyway, I liked the piece and this seemed like I good way to use it.


I could add some kind of clasp. I could put my name on it somewhere. I could sew a little pocket in which to put inspirations or scissors or thimbles or whatever. Or I could just stash it away and use it. In fact I think I will, I've got some hand sewing to do tonight during the SAG awards.

More Postcards...

I had a great time making this little series over the past week or so. I love laying out all the materials -- picking a few common elements like shape and/or fabric -- and then working with size, repetition and layering to create different, but related, pieces.


Green Row Houses

These are all made from hand dyed fabric that my mom did for me with one of Prochem's "30 fat eights kits." I asked her to dye some cheese cloth along with them and you'll see that used here also. It's fused with Wonder Under.


House of Leaves

I adore Melanie Tesla's use of negative shapes. I don't think I can link you to a specific piece of her work using this idea, but check out her blog and website and just peruse her amazing work. Those stitched outlines of the house shape are loosely inspired by this concept.


Lavendar Haze

I'm experimenting with different ways to finish the edges of my postcards. These all have fused bindings. I like the sturdy, clean edge this provides. But it's more work in some ways. That's ok, though. Nothing wrong with work for good results.


Speckled Neighborhood

I love doing the hand embroidery embellishments. It really adds so much. (And it's a great tv activity. And I'm not afraid to admit I love tv.) My best friend, Lucy, gave me a super book for my birthday. It's call Stitch Sampler and has more than 200 stitches with great pictures and directions. I mean really, doesn't everyone get tired of French knots and running stitch?


Writing on the Walls

You can probably barely see the square, green, translucent sequins in the foreground of this one. I think I'll mix in more beads and sequins in my next series. It takes careful planning though -- so it looks like all the elements come together rather than looking like I just went rooting through my bead stew for something that fit through the needle. (In reality, I do a bit of both.)

These are all for sale on Deborah's Art Blog.

Wednesday Morning

How's that for a lame title? I guess my creative juices have been all used up.

We had perfect snow man snow on Monday. I skipped yoga to work with Claire on our snowfamily.

Those are sliced of pepperoni for the eyes and quarters of apples for the mouths. Carrots for noses, of course. Do you like the fancy frilly purple scarf the snowmama is wearing? My friend Lisa knit it for me.

And now for the bad news. This arrived yesterday.

Can you see the line that is checked? "RECEIVED WITHOUT CONTENTS." This means that at one of it's stops along the way, the contents escaped from the packaging. Can you imagine anything more terrible? (Well, of course, but you know what I mean...) It gets even worse. Wait until I tell you what was supposed to be in it. This book. I know! Could you just die?!

I made a joke about this package earlier in the week saying that is was running late and thinking the postman must be enjoying it. Be careful what you say!

My mom sent this birthday gift several days ago. I think if she were giving advice after this experience, she would say: Pay extra for priority mail AND use the free, strong, sturdy priority mail boxes and/or envelopes you can get at the post office.

We hope we might be able to track the missing birthday gift down. I'll keep you posted.

More Birthday Gifts

I had the most delightful day on Saturday. Art Quilts Maine had a "sit and sew" and it was so fun to spend a whole day sewing, chatting with friends and snacking. Another friend and I worked on Madison bags from Amy Butler's pattern. More on that later. It's almost done. Just have to add the closure.

Then the Frayed Edges went to Starbucks for some decadent coffee, laughing, sharing and gift giving. I have the most creative, thoughtful and generous friends. I am truly blessed. Their gifts are wonderful, but knowing them is the real gift.

Sarah gave me her favorite Maine gift. From some one who has traveled all over and moved often (as I have), she understands how special it is to have specific things that are reminders of a certain time and a certain place.

It's a beautifully designed loon mug especially for chowdah -- or maybe chili, since I'll be taking it to Texas with me. I just love the charming and sophisticated style. A treasure!

Kathy made me this wonderful guardian angel! I think I'll need a guardian angel as I begin this new part of my life. She's perfect!

Her wings are angelina, ribbon hair, a fancy beaded hat, beautifully sculpted wire hands and pockets of goodies everywhere.

Here's a close up of a couple of the pockets including a wonderful quote. There are fabric beads in one pocket and a tiny envelope filled with stars in another. Who doesn't need a pocket full of stars?!


Kathy just started a blog. Yeah! And if you think this angel is superfantastic, and I know you do, just wait until you she what else she creates.

Kate gave me charming little wall hanging. She knows my fascination with keys and hit the jackpot at a recent trip to the dump. Seriously, her town is known far and wide for having a great dump.


I love the sentiment too. It's similar to the page I made for Kate's round robin book. Kate's got a great eye and I love the combo of the fabric, the angelina and all the embellishments. Kate has the most amazing set of rubber letter stamps. Would you believe me if I said they also came from the dump?! They didn't. But she did find them at a flea market.

I'm really going to miss them. But knowing the great joy and inspiration we've shared, I'm eager to find other women with whom I can share my life and art when we move. And I'm completely confident our paths will cross again...

Birthday Photo Journal

I had a lovely birthday yesterday. I am now 36. I was born in Duluth, Minnesota. Can you imagine how cold it must have been that day? In Maine yesterday it was in the 40s and was out and about with no coat on!

I loved Lisa's "list of 38 things about me" that she posted on her 38th birthday. Maybe I'll keep that in mind for a slow blog day.

In the mean time, I offer you all these pictures!

After I dropped the kids off at school (cue Allelulia chorus for all-to-myself morning!), I made my first stop...

Grande Mocha with a free shot of peppermint flavoring since I got the trivia questions correct. Yum-O!

Then I carefully chose my driving music...

I love me some JD Fortune!

My plan was to drive to Wiscasset to go to those two cute shops that I had passed by on my last stop. Since I drop the kids off at 8:40 and it takes less than 30 minutes to get to Wiscasset and those shops do not open until 10, I knew I had some time to spare. When I passed Big Al's Discount Shop (aka junk junk junk and more cheap junk), I knew I could easily fill out my morning there.

You can see here that I could have purchased everything I need for serving breakfast... the bacon rack, the place mat, the bagel holder and, on the bottom shelf, there is even a juicer. It's right next to the .88 cents sign. I passed on all of these.

I could have also purchased "rope by the pound."

Who knew?

The real reason I stopped at Big Al's...



















My coffee was a size grande, but my bladder is not.













My only purchases... new hairbrush (I recently left my favorite one at the gym.) and glue sticks.

Then on to Smitten. Isn't this an enchanting name?

Do you recognize the design inspiration for the "Blue Leaves Reaching" series?

Smitten was a charming high-end home decor store. Lots of inspiring shapes and colors. I fell in love with a few pieces of jewlery and even asked the name of the designer and then wrote it down on one of Smitten's cards. I can't find it now. I even looked through the trash. I'll be calling them this morning to get the name. Not because I'll be buying any jewlery (several hundred dollars!), but because I want to copy, oops... I mean, be inspired by her designs.

Down the street is Rock, Paper, Scissors. Owned by the same gal with great style, taste and marketing skills.


Rock Paper Scissors is filled with all kinds of doo-dads!

Including beautiful papers. And I just love that hanging decoration on the left. I was feeling a lot of "I could make that."

Just a few purchases...

Pencils made from rolled up foreign newspapers. A frog bank, you put coins in the mouth -- for Benjamin, of course. A pack of scraps. Look out -- paper collages on the way, remember the glue sticks from Big Al's?! And some Res-Q ointment. Because Mom has to come to the rescue for all bumps, bruises, scrapes, etc. I also bought a sand dollar for Claire. It didn't make it in the picture.

And such lovely gifts arrived in the mail too!

Two books from my Amazon wish list from Lucy. Stitch Sampler. I've been doing so much hand embroidery, I need to expand my stitch selection. You can only do so many French knots. And also Spilling Open, which I will pour over for weeks. Very inspiring.

Sitting on top of the books are some hand made buttons and a frog charm from my parents. They sent a book also, I'm told. My postman must be enjoying it.

A box of Godiva truffles from my husband! There was another divine gift from my husband which I'll post about later!

Fabric from my sister purchased in the fashion distric in LA. Joanne will love these. She's a dot and stripe maniac!

And stunning sun flowers flowers from Kate. Speaking of Kate...















She and her daughter took Benjamin and I out to lunch. I had Black Bean Mango Chicken Soup. It was incredible! And the company was divine!

Quesillas for dinner...

I grilled the chicken on the George Foreman grill the night before, so they were a snap to make up. Jeff is taking me out to dinner tonight. Surely it will be something more exciting than quesillas.

And for dessert...

Claire found a recipe for "Cookies on a Stick" in her kids' cookbook and insisted that this would be the perfect birthday dessert. I said, "Are you sure you don't want to make a box of brownies?" No chance of changing her mind.

Actually, she was right. They were very tasty and such fun to make.


Best gifts of all... smiling children!

Jeff arrived home at 11:59 pm. Seriously, just in time for a big kiss and an enthusiastic Happy Birthday. He is definetely another of the best gifts and I've been blessed to share many birthdays with him.

new

again

portrait

new portrait

Orangutan Twins

For Christmas Grma M and Grpa T gave "adopted" orangutans to the kids for Christmas. Claire is now an adoptive parent to Merah at the St. Louis Zoo and Benjamin is one of Sugriwa's adoptive parents. They named their stuffed counterparts "Sugar" and "Hungry" and they have moved straight to the top of the stuffed animal totem in our home.



The adoption kit also came with t-shirt iron transfers. Here they are with their new duds. We visited the St. Louis Zoo on a very hot day this summer and only caught a quick glimpse of the orangutans, but I think they are fascinating and this was a super gift! (Who needs more legos, really?!)

Grma K and Grpa J must have been thinking along these same lines at Christmas time because they gave us a membership to the Dallas Zoo. How cool is that? We love zoos and have definitely missed that living here in Maine.

Two boxes came from Amazon today. I'm not sure I can wait until tomorrow (my birthday!) to open them.

Project Runway
Oh my goodness, that pink stretchy shirt was such a riot. Poor poor Emmet. I say that, of course, in a you-deserved-to-go sort of way.

Nick?! What were you thinking with gray and beige? Your outfit could have been a slam dunk if you'd done it in something gutsy! Lime and teal! Orange and fuscia! Even baby pink and baby blue would have been better.

How funny was Sacha when she said she liked the rucheing on the front of Santino's creation? She really had to stretch to find anything positive to say.

Lost
Did Sawyer call the guy in the jungle Zeke because he "knew" his name, or was it just another of Sawyer's nicknames for people he encounters?

Love Monkey
Loved it, but I completely missed the dialog in that one scene because I was so excited to be hearing Pretty Vegas.

Little Yummies

When my parents were here in December, we went to a local favorite spot for lunch. Actually, it's not local. It's in Wiscasset. I had lobster pizza, my mom had lobster salad on French bread and my dad had something like lobster pot pie. We were all feeling "last meal in Maine." It was good unless you're in a hurry and have a busy 6 and 3 year old in your party.

Then we walked down the street past one of my favorite shops: Rock, Paper, Scissors. And just two doors down was a new store which looked very interesting: Smitten. (Isn't that a great name?) The Smitten sign grabbed me. I was like a deer in headlights. Great design. Must. Make. Quilt.

I didn't go in either store since we had the kids and the bellies full of lobster. But I'm hoping to make a trip later this month.

As soon as the house guests left, and before the next set arrived two days later, I squeezed out these little quilts inspired by the Smitten sign.


Blue Leaves Reaching #1, 9x5ish"
This one went to my best friend, Lucy, for her 37th birthday. I stamped a subtle 37 on one of the purple circles and I love the techno contemporary flare that adds. The zigzagged edge worked well here.


Blue Leaves Reaching #2, 9x5ish"
This one I swaped with Frayed Edge Kate for a charming 5x7 quilt that she made of three little houses on the shore.


Blue Leaves Reaching #3, 9x5ish"
This one went to Sonji for her birthday. You maybe saw it on her blog. Sonji and I met just over a year ago through Alma Stoller's yahoo group. I was lucky enough to receive a piece of her painted fabric in a swap and I emailed her personally to tell her how incredibly impressed I was. Here's the bag I made with that fabric. We've become great friends since then.


Blue Leaves Reaching #4, 4x6"
These last three hung around the ironing board and the embroidery floss a bit longer and got jazzed up a bit more. Isn't that what working in a series is about? I also did a fused binding on these.


Blue Leaves Reaching #5, 9x6"
Claire wanted me to turn that big purple circle into a turtle. I told she could make her own turtle quilt.


Blue Leaves Reaching #6, 9.5x7"
I painted the foundation fabric for a fabric swap with that same yahoo group. I used it to make Blended Morn (terrible picture), Treasures of the Sunrise and all these little treasures. It's almost gone. I just love that yellowy, melony, orangy blend.

Random Thoughts

Inspired by DebR's junk drawer posts, I thought I'd share a bit of my own.

Did you see that a new world's record has been set for solving a Rubik's cube? 11.13 seconds. This is boggling to me. How can that be? Apparently, the experts memorize algorithms for solving it. My brain is so not up for that.

I'm reading a new book. The Solace of Leaving Early by Haven Kimmel. I adored gods in Alabama and love the author, Joshilyn Jackson's blog, Faster Than Kudzu. She recently recommended Kimmel and I remembered I had read one of her early books (A Girl Named Zippy) and since I was looking for something read -- since I'm not starting any more creative projects before the move -- I requested it from the library. It's quite good and I'm enjoying reading several chapters a day in spare moments. I haven't read anything in quite some time. So this feels good.

I watch a hilarious show on Food Network last night. Ham on the Street. It was so very very funny. The host is a riot. It's a combination of Jay Leno's "Jaywalking" and Alton Brown's Good Eats and just an overall giggle-fest. The episode I watched was all about breakfast. Let's just say this, it's not easy to cook an ostrich egg "over easy."

Why must dried apricots be kept in a air tight bag? Like they are going to dry out?

My birthday is coming up and I've asked my husband for a navigation system for our cars. This is brilliant on my part -- if I do say so myself. He might not have clued in to some of the other things I am drooling over. But he is a total gadget guy and he will do a brilliant job of comparing products, reading reviews and getting me all hooked up. When we were in Dallas at the beginning of the month, I realized what an enormous city it is. Duh. And I'm not so good with the maps. Or the sense of direction. Or the acting calm when lost. I will easily be able to plug in Gabrielle's address -- or any area location -- and the little voice (You can choose man or woman.) will tell me exactly how to get there. Plus we can use it for our long drive down to TX. Some models can even tell you where the next McDonald's Playland is.

Quilt content tomorrow. I gave my best friend Lucy the go-ahead to open her birthday gift early so I can share it with you all.

Freeport Winter Fest

For the third (COLD!) year in a row we visited the Freeport Winter Fest which includes snow and ice carving. It was way cold and windy. We didn't stay long.

The theme was "The Sky's the Limit." One team carved an air craft carrier.


It looked really cool in real life. You just can't get a feeling for the size and detail in these pictures. Everything just blends into those blue backgrounds.

I know a little bit about air craft carriers... and it seems to me that plane on the end is either landing way short or pointing the wrong direction to be taking off. Can you see the helicopter in the middle of the picture?

Here's a close-up of a few of the jets. I think they are rather non-descript. There were definetely not any S-3s. (My husband is a former S-3 pilot.)


There was also snow sculpting.

Isn't this giant "cool?"

Also Jack and the Beanstalk. Carvers were adding veins to the leaves while we were there.


An enormous three-sided snowflake.


On the way out Claire and Benjamin made a fast friend with a girl building a wall of snow bricks.


You can see pictures from our trip to the Winter Fest last year here.

I can only imagine what we'll be doing in Dallas next January.

Our new home...

We're moving to Lewisville, TX.

The first week in January, Jeff and I took a trip to make some decisions on our new home. (We went house hunting in September and decided to build a home.) While we were there, they poured the foundation for our new home. I carved our initials into the driveway. I think this is a great start!

It looks like we'll be leaving Maine on February 16. Then we'll live in a furnished apartment for a few months and our new home should be done by the end of April.

This could definetely cramp my creative output. Oh well... I'll get creative in other ways.

Yeah! Baby Girls!

About the only time I piece "traditional" quilts is when my friends have babies. What better reason?!

I brought all the fabrics and my rotary cutter to the last Art Quilts Maine "sit and sew." It was a great project for a day of cutting, sewing, chatting, eatting and generally feeling no pressure.

But then I had all those blocks and I actually had to piece them together.



This is for Baby Louisa who has moved to Washington state and I've not met yet. It's also for big sister Caroline. A celebration gift for sisterhood! It's just the right size to put over a stroller, or cover a dolly bed or lay upon when one is having one's diaper changed.



And this is for Baby Hannah who is coming home from China today! I've been friends with mother Shannan since college and we've shared so much of our lives together. I was thrilled to make this quilt to honor that long friendship and the blessing of a long-awaited daughter. As Shannan said, "We didn't have an 'easy button.'"



Here's the back of the larger quilt. I was determined not to buy any more fabric and was able to piece together these wonky stripes.

The blocks are from Jan Mullen's Cut-Loose Quilts. This book is always inspiring. I've come back to it many times and it always gives me a new idea. I see you can get it used for ten bucks on Amazon.

The next Art Quilts Maine "sit and sew" is next weekend. What will I work on then?