Happy Thanksgiving Weekend...

One of the house elves reminded me "the blog needs updating."

Oh.  Let's see what I can come up with...

  Thanksgiving morning the guys went up to watch the high school football game. I stayed back to keep an eye on the turkey and get some sewing done. Instead of sewing I sketched a cornucopia. 

(I'm using it for this week's prompt-gratitude. Okay, I finished it before Jaye even posted... but it works, so I'm going with it.)

We had a nice Thanksgiving lunch and spent the day with friends.

The youngest had an art assignment: to sketch an action figure. So while he sketched his guy, I sketched my guy.  I thought in the New Year I'd like to look into taking a drawing class...

Little by little these guys continue to get faces. A friend stopped over and we had a conversation about the sashing and border.  While we were chatting.... the house elves quietly put the tree up. What a surprise! I'd show you, but all the lights don't work... so that is on tonight's agenda during the Celtics game.

And while the fabric guys were getting faces, the wooden guys marched their way down one by one.

Some went in for repair. It's always a long, hot, dry, off season in the attic. Stuff happens.

And while all that was happening this sat on the frame waiting.....

a face, a knot and a brain...

The first nutcracker got his face. I  lined the white fabric with interfacing and Misty Fused it to another piece of white fabric. Now you can't see through the white and it has a little dimension.  The teeth lines are drawn on with a fabric marker and will be stitched over with black thread.The eyes, nose and cheeks are fused.

All the parts of all the guys will be zig zagged over to hold them down.

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I think I picked up some new readers last week. I hope you have fun poking around and get inspired to try some things.

If you are new and are wondering what the line drawings are I show; click on the cow to the right. You will be linked to the Creative Prompt Project (CPP).  Each week a new word is given by Jaye. The reader can interpret the word in any way. It's been fun, challenging and gives mindless doodling a purporse on some days.  You should give it a try if you like to doodle.

And don't be embarrassed to post and show off your doodles.  It's fun!

Below is the Creative Prompt knot. 

Remember the big, wide (thick) ties with the fat knots? And what about the knit ties?  Wasn't there a little comeback of knit ties? Last year of so?

And this is the CPP core.  I've had the brain on the brain lately, so I used it for core.

And speaking of remembering, do you remember when Dr. Hfuhruhurr did some brain transplanting?

not much new to report

 Most of the Nutcrackers are completely dressed but are hairless and faceless. As I start to satin edge them down, I'll decide on the faces.  Still fussing with their angry looking mouths.   

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The finished table quilt.

It was fun to work on.  I recently had a conversation with someone about stippling as a 'fill'.  I'm not opposed to stippling. I still like it, it works.  I think traditional stippling has taken a back seat because there are so many beautiful fills being used. I'm not sure all quilts require the intricacy of beautiful fill work.  What do you think? 

(ed note- this quilt is Louise's see previous post.)

I decided why I don't post many finished quilts. Getting the quilting to show in the photos and look good is hard. Lots of taking and retaking pix. I'd rather be quilting.  These were taken with the side light on, overhead off and camera flash off.

Happy Quilting!

Spirit

Two weeks ago the CPP was spirit. I'm just getting around to it... and it's pretty lame at that. My intent was to doodle out a bunch of intertwined lines all over the page. It was going to be one of those pom pom things. That got boring, so I stopped here. And doodled a  gourd with the extra time I would have invested in the lines.

And keeping in time with spirit..... I dragged out this unfinished project. I'd like to finish it this weekend. It's for my son, who reminded me yesterday- "the Holiday Spritit is right around the corner." He is the Nutcracker collector and this was once going to be a surprise, but not anymore. Sometimes it's hard to go back to projects once they are put away for awhile, but this is so mindless it will be a good change of pace.  I need to figure out something to do with the faces. Nutcrackers can look so angry and I want these guys to look happy. So right now, they are faceless.....

And I'm asked why I don't show more quilted quilts....?  So here is one that is on the frame. Funny thing about this quilt is, Louise brought this to me and said "do whatever."....  A long time ago I had purchased this book and was going to make it for a Valentine's gift. I never did..... So now I get to quilt it as I would've.  That is a great thing about being a quilter..... I will never  make the quilts I quilt, but while they are in my care - I love them and quilt them as if it were my own.

more vintage buttons

I strung some beads and used more of the vintage buttons to make a necklace.

The glass buttons are hard to find. They are my favorites.  There is a tiny sweet pink button attached to the end by the key. And two tiny ivory buttons, the old threads still attached.

I love making stuff with these charming old buttons.
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Judy  chose the first theme word for the Fiberactions challenge. Go on over and read what she had to say. Then remember to check back on 1/15/10 for the 13 reveals!

Visiting Mulligan Lake

I worked on this yesterday and pieced the squares into the background. I don't love it, but I'm going with it. It'll be covered with trees anyway. I think eventually it will look better. I need to get the swans painted and the reeds made, that will give the foreground life and make me stop looking at the background.

Creative Prompt Responses---

Jaye's creative prompt for this past week was wish.

I think it's safe to say we all wish for a little more of this---

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Awhile ago the prompt was feather.

I like to see how many different ways I can doodle out a feather. This is one.

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On 10/23 the prompt was glimmer.

The glimmer or glow from a burning candle can be relaxing.

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And on 10/16 the prompt was gracious.

Gosh, this was a hard one.

Thank you to our gracious hostess Jaye for pushing our creativity by posting challenging prompts each week....

Vintage button pin..

Using beading thread, vintage buttons were stitched to a scrap of pleather.

(I can't get the top photo to load vertically....)



I knotted the threads to the back and left the tails attached.

Taking some of the smaller buttons, a silver heart and using beading wire, I made a charm.

For stability I used a piece of cardboard on the back. The charm was looped through beading wire and glued between the cardboard and the front piece.

Over the cardboard I glued a piece of red, fake suede. The pin is a little heavy for the pin closures I have, so I will get a larger pin closure to glue to the back.



Once the pin closure is glued in place, the pin will be ready for gifting. I loved making this simple pin.

A new journey...

I was invited to participate in a fiber art journey with 12 other creative, talented women. Our group is called Fiberactions, you can connect to our new blog with the badge above or in the side bar to the right. From there you will find the list of members and their sites. This shall prove to be an exciting journey which I'm looking forward to.

Every other month a member will select a theme word. Each member will create a quilt based on the theme. The quilts will measure 16 x 20, utilize any technique, but must have three layers. We've made a two year commitment and should end up with 12 quilts each. You may follow along by checking our progress on the Fiberactions blog. Our first theme will be introduced on November 15th.

how lucky am I?

Really. Just for admiring the Quilt Rat's talents she sent me a package full of treasures. She is our friendly neighbor from Canada and if you haven't already - I hope you go visit her page. She is multi talented and always has tid bits to share about her fiber art and quilting. Recently, she had a great recipe for treating fabric before printing. So go check her out here.....

On to the treasures---

Inside my package were these lovely painted pieces of fabric....

...inside each piece of fabric was a matching dryer sheet. Can you see the delicate, beautiful color?

Then came the post card.

Quilt Rat has been participating in the CPP and has turned some of her doodles into post cards.

Burried in all of that came came the original doodle.
I love it. It looks like an antique pair of scissors, I plan to frame it and hang it in my sewing space.

Thank you Jill, I'm honored to have your work in my collection.

finished quiltlet

This quiltlet is the creative response to- Source. If you haven't been following along, click the cow in the right sidebar and join in with the Creative Prompt Project. I've been trying to keep up with the prompts and for something extra- I've challenged myself to come up with a 12 x 12 quiltlet using my responses. Part of my personal challenge has been to use only found or recycled items from around the house and sewing room.The photos are copied on to organza. I stuck the organza to printer labels with the method mentioned here, then I sent it through the printer. Below is the response as it looks in my sketch book.
And here it has been run through the printer and color was added with inks.

The little plastic pieces are made from meat packaging trays. After washing thoroughly- you can stamp onto the meat tray, cut out a shape and put in a low oven. The plastic will shrink. Once cooled color can be added. I had forgotten about these until I went digging in the treasure chest of 'stuff'.

I used family with my source prompt as family can be the source of many things depending on the day.....