"Snowin and Sewin"

I don't imagine anyone needs a reminder of the big storm - a crazy amount of snow and wind but a perfect time to hunker down and do some sewing as long as there was power.......AND power there was, so all was good.

 I do like snow and to have 1 or 2 snowfalls a season is just fine. It is so pretty and as long as you don't have to go anywhere, it works for me.

 We have some nice size hills, the kids were out sledding and I watched from inside. We gave our new kitten (13 pounds) a taste of his first snow and he wasn't quite sure what to make of it.

 The sky was beautiful that night, meanwhile back in the studio I decided I needed a no brainer - to sew for the sake of just sewing. I've been anxious to use up scraps and thought I would put together this little scrappy quilt.

 I started to see a pattern of this Kokopelli running through the quilt. By the way, I could not for the life of me remember his name so I googled "little man with arched back playing the flute" and up popped Kokopelli - you can find most anything on the internet.

I also started to see the gold was really needed to pop and the dark brown batik really made the gold work more effectively so scraps were replaced and rearranged.

So it has some sashing and borders and now it just needs to be quilted. It's a fairly small piece so it should go fast. I think I'll call it either "Snowed In" or "Kokopelli's Maze"....think Snowed In will always remind me of this huge snow storm.......Til next time.

PTA January 2015

Our first meeting of the new year for PTA  was at Georgia Bonesteels home; it brought lots of laughs (as always) and wonderful inspiration to give us a jump start on some new projects. 

 Dort is using up lots of scraps to create some beauties like the one above and

 this beautiful landscape.

 I love the choice of fabrics and the unique way of depicting the 4 seasons through a
"mountainscape".

 Linda is still busy knitting some wonderful, warm (all wool) socks which should come in handy in the next couple of months....although I for one think they need to be framed and hung up.

 Mary, our resident felter is always busy and producing wonderful things. She makes some beautiful bowls which get better and better.

 Another one of Mary's pieces which is a wonderful piece. The photo doesn't do it justice as it's a bit blurry.

 This was my favorite piece of Marys. I think the use of deconstructive screen printed fabric is so well done as it's such a difficult fabric to work with.

 Mary had a cabuchon she wanted to highlight but it had an odd shape, so what to do...add some beads. Great idea and focal point.

 This is a quilt Kate made at a former retreat. I made the same pattern only in soft roses and greens. Kate is an amazing piecer and sailed right through this. I on the other hand am very challenged by piecing. I did finish mine but still waits to be quilted.

  We all decided that this quilt of Kates should be called "a Happy Quilt", that is the first thing I think of when I see it. Her use of fabric is so uplifting.

 And a detail.

 And another one of Kates in earthtones. This was made square and a sleeve will be put on both top and side so anyone can change the orientation of the stripes and being square, it will fit the same way in either direction.

 And a detail.

And Rosie the cat who decided she needed to be part of our group, made herself quite at home on top of Georgia's patterns.
It was a great day, full of inspiration, good food and lots of laughs. What a wonderful way to start the New Year.

All Packed Up and Ready to go......

back into my studio. It was a wonderful holiday season and with my birthday tucked in-between, making it even better and a little more hectic. I'm finally back on track and sooooooo ready to get back to creating. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday and I wish you a very blessed, healthy New Year. Tucked in with my good wishes is the hope that you'll all find lots of wonderful moments for creating or just doing what you love to do. 

 So first on my list for this week...first week of January...was to take down all the decorations. Fraggle wanted to help so desperately but just created more craziness, but you gotta love him!

 I do a lot of decorating, it's a lot of work but I love the way it looks and keep it up a long time.

 So consequently, the take down is just as much work. There is tissue, bags etc everywhere.

 There are 10 of these bins to be filled, so half way there

The table is full of stuff...

 The tree is bare...
 
 along with the mantle...

 and bannisters...

 So when everything is packed up, vacumned (although I know I'll be finding pine needles for a long time) it's my time to get out some books I love and spend time perusing for inspiration. SAQA puts out a wonderful publication every year called Portfolio. It features work from the professional members of SAQA. Every page features a different artist; the artist chooses what she/he wants to be featured on their page.

Another series I turn to is the "Masters" series featuring artists who were invited to participate. The Masters has many different books each concentrating on a different art form. Of course my favorite is the art quilts. Each artist has 4-5 pages dedicated to their work so you can get a good feel for their style.

And I love Elizabeth Barton and her newest book - Inspired to Design and all the Benn and Morgan surface design books. So hopefully very soon, I'll be listening to the sound of my sewing machine and again...Thanks so much for hanging in there with me....and a very Happy New Year to each and everyone of you my dear readers!