To everyone that has visited me in the last year.... a big Thank You ...
I appreciate your friendship....
and to all a very Blessed 2009.

Another Project Finished!!

I have been knitting socks for my one daughter for a couple of years. She loves the handknits. I had to stop knitting for awhile as it was making my arms sore.... but I have picked it up and doing a bit at a time...... finally finished... Took this picture 6 times and it's still blurry!!!!! sorry!!!!

Recycle Your Christmas Cards

Cathy Filian has provided a great Tutorial on how to recycle your Christmas cards. I just LOVE IT! and always wondered how to do it.....

More Embellished Postcards

I needed to design two FAP's for a trade at Fibre Arts Trader portraying a winter scene, This is what I came up with.The red speck in the tree is a cardinal....OK ,,OK,,so use your imagination!!! hee hee

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR....

Tutorial...Embellishing a Post Card

1. Start with a 4 1/2" x 6 1/2" piece of pellon. I use Pelletex 70.

2. Decide what image you are going to do. Sometimes a picture is helpful, or just use an idea in your head.
3.Lay out some wool rovings and begin.

4.Use a piece of netting over your work to do the punching so the wood doesn't get tangled in the needles...

5. Punch, Punch, Punch...... Oh what fun!!!

6. I use a shishkebob stick to guide the wool and keep it where you want. It is much safer than your FINGER!!!!

7. Depending on where you want what I go to my sewing machine and do some thread embellishing with rayon thread.






8. After I get the tree in place, I go back to the wool rovings and put some leaves on the tree.

9. Pretty well done now...

10. The last step will be attatching the main piece to a background. Trim to 4"x6" and satin atitch around the edge...

11. Woops I forgot to take a picture of the finished card.

This is the beginning of another card where I sketch out what I want on the pellon and go from there.

Punch, Punch, Punch...

This is the finished card .If you look closely, I have put 2 layers of green tulle on top of it all to give a green cast. The wee snowman was hand appliqued and some beads and sequins have been added. This particular card went to Mary Lou in my "Stitching Fingers" group. We have just started exchanging FAP's there.. LOL

I wish I knew how to do a video as it would be much easier, but til I learn that, I hope this has given you some idea as to how I go about making these.

More Miniature Quilts

This miniature I call Umbrella Girls.. It measures
6 1/2" x 8" and the blocks measure 1 1/2".
I tried to get the picture larger and lost the first post!!!!
The blocks are hand appliqued with a blanket stitch.
I made a full sized quilt which I have on the bed in the guest bedroom. I had a quilt my gramma made like this, but when it got worn I got rid of it!!!! I was young and did not know anything about quilting then...Oh how I wish I still had it! When I made the bed sized one I was thinking of Gramma the whole time hoping she would forgive me!!!

Miniature Quilts

I thought I would share some of my miniature quilts that I have made beginning with this one.
This one is in a private collection.

This little quilt measure 9 inches square. It has 49 blocks that measure ONE inch each.The design is "Pineapple" and is paper pieced, and there is 1250 little pieces sewn to-gether. It took quite a long time complete this little work of art. I am known around here for my miniatures, and the smaller the better.

The title is "One Thousand ,Two Hundred & Fifty Pieces Of Amish Pineapple"

Stay tuned for more.

Christmas Countdown

--------------------------------------The Countdown is Running!--------------------------------------The annual Christmas countdown running now! Grab the printables that have been posted this week, and help spread the word by posting a link to your favorite art groups, message boards, blog or web site:http://countdown.tentwostudios.com/If you can't wait until December 25th to have all 47 of those holiday images for your very own, they're available for purchase via digital download:http://countdown.tentwostudios.com/buyit.html

Apron Exchange

I Joined in on an apron exchange with the Yahoo Fibre Arts Traders Group.
The leader of the group Normajean Brevik has just published an apron pattern called" No Strings Attatched" and this was the pattern we used for the trade. You can get her pattern here.
The apron is made from a tea towel and because my towel was quite large, I used part of it to make pockets...... what is an apron without pockets!!!!
I used my embroidery machine to embellish with a few Xmas motifs....
I hope my trade partner likes it.

MYSTERY PROJECT

I have been knitting up a couple of balls of this gorgeous 100% wool. This is just the first stage of my project. I'm not going to tell you what I am making, maybe you can guess.??????

New Items on my Etsy

I have listed some new things in my Etsy Shop....

Here is the cutest Christmas wall hanging .....available now.... hope you will take a minute and look...

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

To all my USA Blogging friends.....

May your day be full of blessings.....xoxo

Big, Bigger, Biggest!!!!

Here is the progression of the blizzard we are having..... DH is trying to set us free but I think I will choose to stay inside anyway!!!!

PATIO CLOSED!!!!!!

Look what I woke up to this morning! No more having my coffee on the deck watching the sunrise until next year. Mother Nature always gets her way!

More FAPs

I told you I was addicted to my embellisher machine!! VBG





These are three postcards I just finished..In addition to the design being done with wool rovings, I have added some embroidery by hand and machine... as well as some beads. Landscapes seem to be a never ending source of Nature's beauty.

Give Away

Oh My.............. Kristen is having a wonderful give away.... be sure to stop by her blog Retro Cafe` Art and enter.....This is a picture of what the prize is.

A SURPRISE FOR ME!

I spent the week-end at a retreat with 30 quilters.I was tired out from all the fun but when I got home this award was waiting for me... Did that ever jazz me up!!! What a surprise! Woo Hoo!!!!
The generosity came from Jenna Louise. Be sure to visit her Blog.. Lots to see there.Thanks Jenna Louise for your kindness. I surely appreciate it.Now I must pass this honor along.....

The Rules of this award are :
1. 5 People are allowed to receive this award
2 4 dedicated followers
3. 1 New follower to your blog who lives in another part of the world.
4. Please link back to the person who gave you this award.

So here are the friends I am passing this award along to...
1.Jackie at Beadin' Gram
2.Phyllis at Carolina Arts
3.Tammy at Crooked Heart Art
4.Judy at CJ Stitching and Blooms
5.Miri at Milk and Honey Quilts

EMBELLISHER TIME AGAIN

I was asked to do a piece for a fund raising silent auction . This is what I chose to do. I was inspired by the delphiniums in my garden...


I used some wool rovings to create the basic shapes using my embellishing machine. then I went further with some detail using dozens of french knots. The cloisonne butterfly seemed to be the icing on the cake..I wanted the frame to blend with the piece and I tried to make it look old, so I crackled and sanded until my arm nearly fell off!!!!
I think I like it!

Girly Comments & Graphics

AFRICAN GALA

They brought some of their wares to sell . The proceeds help their village in Africa







These are some of the quilts in the show made by the African quilters
This was the workshop I took. The teacher was from Africa, but she was born in Enland.
I made one doll in an African theme to use for a draw in my class and one of the african ladies won it. she was thrilled





One of the local quilt shops called Cotton By Post presented an African Gala last week, which I was involved in
The village is small(pop.600) but the enthusiasn is big.It took Suzanne and Garnet Smalley, the owners of the shop 1 1/2 years preparing for this event, including a trip to East Africa, where they met available teachers willing to come to Canada and teach workshops.
I was invited as a Canadian teacher to do a 2 day doll workshop with a Canadian theme.
I also took one of the workshops which was an appliqued wall hanging (2 african women pounding grains for flour) The class was the last one of the week and the teacher had a draw for an african story wallhanging and I WON!!What a treasure.
The wind up was on the Saturday night . All the African teachers were dressed in their native costumes...Beautiful... There was an African Band and African food tasting including goat stew. DH wouldn't try it but I did and it was delicious. It tasted a bit like lamb...African beer and wine was also served.All in all it was a very exciting week to meet these people and to learn a bit about their culture. Last year it was Russia(previous post) and next year it will be Ireland.Enjoy the pictures..