New Journal Cover

I'm taking a class with Mary Ann called Remains of the Day.
We make a journal cover and fill it with papers in her style. It's outside of my box as it is much more free-form than I usually am. Why don't you take a look here for the class as I believe it's ongoing although she'll be on vacation and won't allow more signups till she comes back on the 16th. You will enjoy it so do check it out.

This is my journal cover. I've still got to fill it which I am finally able to do. I wasn't going to prepare any till I finished the cover! The square of lace in the middle is from my wedding veil as it some gauzy fabric just above and to the left of that square as shown in the picture at right.
I added a pink poodle because I love poodles and want a teensy tine pink one someday when all my current fur babies are gone.
Later I'll show the full journal when it's done.

Journal Class and Challenge

I've been taking Sue Bleiweiss's journal making class. It's been a lot of fun so far. I will be making a post showing all that I've done but on another group ( A.R.T. ) there is a challenge to make a project of any sort in olive green and purple. So, I made the third journal in Sue's class in the colors for the challenge and killed two birds with one stone. I really like how the journal came out and I would never have picked these colors for it were it not for the challenge.

I painted the sticks used to embellish the stitched part of the journal with green and then glazed them with gold since there was a bit of gold in the patchwork of the cover.

I highly recommend both Sue's class and A.R.T. You might want to take a look at both of them.

ATC Swap

About a month ago Julie of Mixed Media blog asked me if I'd
like to trade ATC's. We settled on fabric as the basis. I made her the beaded moon ATC shown at right. The green fabric is hand dyed by Grace of Barnyard Chatter (I'd previously used some here.) I enjoyed making this for Julie but I think I got the best end of the stick! Look at what she sent me.

She sent me a note on handmade paper. That's always nice to feel and even to repurpose later.

Then she sent me a Celtic prayer. I really like those. Julie, my maiden name is O'Keefe and my grandfather was born in Ireland - came over to the U.S. as a baby.

Then she sent me a packet of buttons, beads and charms! I saw a couple of orange buttons in the packet that will find their way onto my November BJP page as orange is the color for this month.

And last but the best by far, much better than what I
sent her, is the ATC she sent. She titled it The Beach at St. Ives, Cornwall. Isn't it beautiful? Seashells and sea shards along with embroidery and beads, needle felting , or maybe it's what is called embellishing and rust-dyed fabric make up the surface. She used wire to wrap the shards to keep them on the surface. I just love this. I feel the ocean through this piece Julie. You really are an artist.

Well, Christmas may still be more than a month away but I felt like it showed up in my mailbox today! Thanks Julie.

March BJP - To My Mother with Love

I've done it! I have finished my March page. It
didn't take near as long as any of the others. I love how it came out as it looks pretty true to the real thing.

The "real thing" was my mother's Cecil Bruner rose bush. It was a climbing rose with small flowers that my Dad bought for her and planted on the fence that was at the edge of the pool which I did for my July page.

I used some fake pearls that my mother had (they were really, really in bad shape but worked great for this page) to make the centers of the roses. I goofed and used dark purple for the background instead of light as my other purple page was but there isn't anything like serendipity as the dark purple symbolizes suffering and my mother did a lot of that. Her dad was killed be a hit-and-run driver while crossing a street, her third child (first son) died at one month while sleeping in bed with her so she was blamed by the coroner for his death, her fourth child needed open heart surgery and was about the 5th one to use the new heart/lung machine which gave her a 50/50 chance of survival (she did and now has 3 children of her own), and then she got multiple sclerosis finally dying during surgery for a ruptured appendix at age 56.

I didn't know what I was going to do on this page except that it would be for my mom as this was her birthday month. I thought of a sewing machine as she made a lot of the clothes us five daughters wore plus doll clothes and some of our wedding dresses. I thought about making a decorated cake as she did many of those including some of our wedding cakes. After many other ideas I found myself worrying about a family situation and so I prayed to her asking her to pray for my family. The next day I knew I wanted to put flowers on her page. I didn't know what flowers or why I wanted to do this so clearly so I wrote to my oldest sister who understands odd things like this. I told her only that I had a strong urge to put flowers on Mom's page but didn't know why. She came back with: She LOVED pink Cicel Bloomers, the very small pink rose. And I think that she is sending you love which she would do with pink roses. She is letting you know that she is with you and sending you blessings. It is a be in the moment thing again. sewing, decorating cakes, hats, shoes, are all doing or memories, roses are an enjoy the beauty of the moment, growing thing, that we get to enjoy. Tell me if this helps, for she is enjoying your company and the honor that you give to her. It was so perfectly tuned to my prayer which my sister did not know about. I did feel so close to Mom just then plus to my sister. (Sisters are one of life's blessings as are daughters and...). So, roses it became and it went soooo smoothly and quickly.

Inchies

The theme for this week's inchie is Dots. What better way to express that than using a dotee doll! This is the smallest one I have made so far.

I glued a batik fabric with dots on it to a piece of card instead of making a stuffed body for the doll. Otherwise I feel like I've stuck pretty closely to the heart of these dolls. This was fun to make and now I am off to post it on The Inching Artists.

I am still working on catching up on my bead journal pages. I finally gave up on the TIF challenge. I just can't keep up with everything I want to. It was stressing me out till I wasn't able to work on anything. Someday I hope to try that one again.

March TIF Done

I finally finished my March challenge as a fiber ATC. I even used the colors, at least as close to them as I could come. That meant using a metallic thread for the tree which worked out fine but when I tried zigzagging around the edge it just bound up on me and made a mess. I ripped it out and tried adding a binding but my new (and cheap) sewing machine didn't have a 1/4 " division even using the edge of the foot for guidance and I couldn't get any of the feet around the tree-base rocks. You can see the stitching where I tried and had to remove the stitching. (I have now wet it thoroughly and left it to dry. Hopefully this will remove the needle holes).

My moment in time comes from posting a picture of our tree just breaking into buds with a few green tips of leaves barely showing. I figure spring always happens in a blink of an eye. Sure enough, what was barely breaking out on March 1st is in full leaf as of March 31st!

I machine appliqued the layers together for our desert landscape. I machine embroidered the tree and then added brown and green #18 seed beads for the buds and opening leaves. I used OO nymo thread and a size 15 beading needle. I finally got to use some of my vintage teeny tiny beads. That was the highlight of this challenge! I also added cat's eye chips for my quartz rocks which are around the real tree. I finished it off with blanket stitch. After all the false starts and changes, I find I like the end result. It definitely took me further than I intended and was a big challenge too!

Pink Artist Doll Is Done

The Pink Artist doll is done. Her name is Love Squared. I have a few pictures but there are many more on Girl Gone Thread Wild's blog . Be sure you go check her out. So many people contributed squares.

It's amazing how many want to help others. Some do it by joining in on walks or runs for cancer cures. Some help by making money to contribute through bake sales. There are just so many ways but this call for two inch artist squares was right up my alley. Obviously is was a call many answered.

But the one who started the whole thing off and actually made the doll is Monica Magness of the above mentioned blog. She did such a super job. Her ears must be hurting from all the applause she is getting. I don't think anyone could guess how the doll would come out but she is so perfect. Monica used needle felting for the hair and face. Oh, I can't beging to describe how she did it. Just go over to her blog where she tells all.

The crown for the doll was made be another artist Grace Beading who is also a member of the Bead Journal Project. She did a wonderful job as did the artist who made the box and well, like I said, just go on over and see it all.

The first picture shows one of the squares I made for the doll. It's the second from the right on the top row. Monica (actually her husband Jeff) took lots of pictures so everyone could find their square on the doll. The other pictures show front and back but they don't show her base which is beautiful too. Go and see.

Pay It Forward

Look what I got from Sue in western WA! This is for joining in her Pay It Forward on her blog. It is a postcard she made for me.

I love the colors and look at the sequins and beads that make it sparkle. She even included a bird since I am Freebird. And notice the little heart. This makes me feel like I am in a steamy, colorful rainforest with it's heart thump, thump, thumping to the tune of all the life in it.

Thankyou so much Sue! I treasure it.

Now, I haven't had any takers on my second Pay It Forward. Who knows you might get something like this if you sign up. Then again, it might be something really different. You won't know unless you sign up here .

Baby Quilts

I thought I would share pictures of the quilts I
made for my grandchildren when they were born. The green one is the first one. It was made for my grandson. This picture was taken last summer when the quilt was 13 years old and I can say the quilt has been in constant use all these years.


Next comes the big-star quilt. It was made 11 years ago for my first granddaughter.

The small-star quilt was made next but the squares were made by hand as a portable project I had started a couple of years before. I pieced the blocks together by machine though.


And last comes the 7 year old quilt for the baby of the family. Good ol' Attic Windows. The kids are all pretty attached to these quilts.


My daughter, thank goodness, didn't relegate these to the awful status of "family heirloom" meaning no touching, no attaching to, but instead felt the kids should use them even if they wear them out. I sooo agreed with her on this but we lucked out and the quilts have held up very well.