My Self Portrait-finally made it

http://quiltingartsllc.com/qamag/portraits.html
My self portrait and another 29 finally made it on the Quilting Arts Magazine after waiting since the last of Jan for it. I knew my initial S was coming up and sent to all my friends and family for them to only get discourage because it never showed up..but it is there now. For how long I have no idea. I have another friend that is waiting for hers to show up. I did not make the magazine and 24 others did not out of the 75 that travel around the USA last year to all the big quilt shows and the Caribbean too. I was very honored to be among the others..such variety of self portraits to view.

Blanket Stitch PC

I have worked on this most of my afternoon, about 4 hours. I am not very good with hand stitching, with my nerves damaged but do try. This is a pc I can say I am very proud of. It looks a lot neater on the the outside. One on the girls in my group, Paulette Reed, taught a class in my other group on how to do a blanket stitch Thank you, Paulette. This is a batik fabric. Not much left of this fabric, my all time favorite, bought about 3 years ago and have only scraps left. I call this Wagon Wheels..how simple..the fabric made it easy, it had curly-q's on it.

Knitting Books received

I have finally received my knitting books I ordered last week. Actually I did not expect them so quickly..
The first one is Fiber and Beads from Bead and Button Project...this is project . Really nice pamphlet.
The second book is by Larkin Jean Van Horn and it is called Beading on Fabric. I do this anyway but wanted the book. I have done a lot of the beading she has here but it gives a great review on different types of beads and glad to have in my book collection.
Lastly and finally, Knit and Crochet with Beads by Lily M. Chin. I am so glad I received this. I do not know why I thought you had to knit the bead through the knitting needle...dahhhhhh..that is why I am or was having problems. I would put the beads on the yarn like the directions said but would use a needle the bead would fit through..I guess I never thought this through..the necklace I am going to make did not give any directions but in text form on how to knit it..Glad to have this book also. I still have another one coming in but bought a use one almost like new for $3.01 cents..so it should be here sometime next week.

Sun Printing and Painting

This is out of order as this is the last one I did and still do not know how to put them in when you want to add something to the posting. This is my fern leaf and a small leaf from my birch tree..As you can see it is alright with the emerald green and blue but the orange did not do so well. this is where the ends would not stay down. I had added 2 scrims to the side of the birch leaf and it looks weird..lol again some peddles to the left too.

I finally got to do some sun printing. I have used up that I did a year or so ago and those I did in Michelle's Fabric Painting class in 2003. I do try this as least twice a year but haven't done it over a year. I did not know if I could do it today, so I wasn't prepared. Dh told me it was going to rain the rest of the week. At 7:45 I saw that the sun was out so I gathered things together. Than I noticed the sun was casting a shadow so I waited till about 10. Well, it was so hot in the direct sun, I was a bit in hurry to get back into air conditioning..lol I usually have the paints all ready to go the next day but I did not this time. Anyway It all came out okay..the above photo is the cheese cloth over 2 Seta paints I bought these from my teacher, she mixed them for me..so anytime I want to paint they are ready..They are in larger bottles than what you buy..about 3x larger. If you look closer you can see the imprint of the cheesecloth..I did in a long piece as it is going to be a border for one of my quilts.
This is the salt effect, came out OK but some spots a little too much salt.
This is 3 colors, yellow, red and orange..than I folded the the left side and wrinkled the other side. Nice effect. I will us a bit of this in my son's quilt for his dragon flames.
This is sun printing with cords and scrim. Again if you look closely you see the scrim on the sides of the cords.
This is a close up of the area.

I have one more with a plastic fern (above) that for the life of me, could not get it lay flat, so tonight I will hammer the middle so it does. lol it is done in 3 colors. I also threw in some pebbles, was to weight down the fern, but they were to light..lol..Had some fun anyway even if it was so hot.

Tomorrow if time and weather lets me, I will do a landscape with 1/2 yard of fabric. Today they were fat quarters. Have them already cut and now just need to mixed some paints.

3" squares

I have been trying to use my Cigarette Silks, a copy from mine, on transfer paper, for a swap. So I used them on the 3 inch squares. I have been collecting these for over 5 years now and have 25 of them. I am still trying to get the Indian themes ones but someone always out bid me the last minute...but will one day...After felting them on the fabric of which I choose, I added fiber around them like a frame. I then took sheer/tulle and covered the picture with these. The green ones had some sort of round disk of silver on them, so I removed them so my needle would not break..The lilac ones had some sort of glitter over them and did try it on the felter and no needle breakages..lol Than I use a multi metallic thread for the sides. So I do hope my swappers like them as much as I do.

ATC's finished

My 8 ATC's finished..all 8 of them. Took the sheet of my practice piece, as I did not need more art hanging around as I do not have any more room...so I decided to used them for the ATCs. I beaded them with all different colored of beads..used metallic thread, multi..for the zig zag. Very pretty, bright and shiny in person. The digital nor the scanner picks it up.
A close up..These are felted metallic threads, lame and any shiny fabric I could use for this practice piece. It is on the other page called Felted Experiments as a whole.

Updating-been sick

Just up dating as I have not done so in awhile. I am now being treated for pneumonia. This is why I have not put anything in here. I am feeling much better and not so fatigued anymore. Had no energy to anything.
I have read books that have not been read and some beading. Worked on making a knitted necklace that I have taken apart about 3 times. Then did smaller experimenting and still took them apart. So decided to order books on this and I have ordered 4 books..lol I have knitted for over 35 years, have knitted just about everything even a winter coat many years ago but do you think I can get this, noooooooo...lol very frustrating..but when I do get the hang of it, it for sure will be posted.
I have finished up about 4 swaps for my group and working on 2 ATC's swaps at the moment. Than onto some charms, I have 2 swaps of these.
I took my last pill today and hope it will be all that I need but do not think so, but will wait till Wed to call the Dr. for more antibiotics. It is still in my chest.

More Embroidery on Machine

We learn how to download from the website this weekend. I had so much trouble. This is all that I had accomplished only to find out why even after I had unzip the files. Redid the embroidery machine hoop and all, it was my Wizard that was stopping me. Wished I had told dh that it stops me from downloaded a few things from the web. So about 10pm I finally got to do this flamingo for my sister who collects them. It was a freebie and will post where as I can not remember now.
This little are quilt is not done. I still need to some Angelina fibers, some beads,

FM, add borders, and maybe a binding and than quilt it.
After my Dr.'s appt. on Tuesday I will play with it again.

Embroidery I did on my machine

Well, I am a happy camper. I practice all evening on my embroidery machine. It was frustrating at first. I read and read and in my mind would go through the process of working with it. Got on the machine and took an hours to just get the the dumb bobbin to work for me..lol..any way I learn how to get into the laptop. Than the Machine!! lol I was a bit nervous. I started out small. an inch size..lol. and one color and boy the first one messed up so I decided to do one more and than next thing you know I have 5 stars. but at least I know how to run it now. Than I wanted to practice doing more than one color and did the flower. Than I added the sun. But it was way to spacey and took it to the felting machine and added some grassy area and fluff to the sun. Than I added a felt bird. all in all, I now love this machine and we will learn how to download next week. now that will be a challenge. lol..

My Futura CE100 set up

Now that I am feeling a little better I will start learning my Embroidery machine. It is a Futura CE100. I have had it for almost a year and tried to use it once. Dh ended up doing it all because I just couldn't get it to stop beeping at me. He bought this machine as a surprise birthday gift for me in August. I just mentioned to him the the girls were using embroidery on their pc.
The NEX has some that came in and when he went to buy one, they were gone. So he came home and ordered one online from the NEX. He just paid $588 for it and it ran at $899. No tax either. When it came in the mail I was so surprised. I really did not care if I really had one. So far I know why ..but now QU has a class with Joanna Winn called Beginning Embroidery and I believe I will finally learn how to work with it. I have it set up where my working horse machine use to be. I have my sewing machine and Embellisher on my working table opposite each other. Looks promising working this way. Maybe I can get something creative done today.

Just updating

I haven't been able to do anything interesting for me. I have this awful thing and it has kept me in and out of bed for the last 24 hours. Just do not feel like doing anything. I did make myself seal my clay beads and do some clay work . I was trying to keep myself busy. I made a hibiscus and a tulip, child's play, lol. My next project is going to either to knit with beads making a double row necklace or wire knitting a necklace. haven't decided but will end doing both. Something I hope I can do being sick.
I painted these like I do my ceramic pieces. I always have a least 3 different shades of each color to add dimension. These are about 2 inches. Why I have use dragonflies, because it was the only stamp I had at that time, to lazy to get another one..but they will come in handy for a card or on a quilt somewhere.

Clay Covered Up Tins and chat

This is what I have been doing. These are Altoids cans. The first one is is done by base coating black and dry brushing with 7 coats of burnt orange and than gold. The second one is done with a base coat of black and dry brush with three coats of gold. Dry brush violet around the sides. Painted the dragonflies violet. I have also one stamped dragonfly on the back. Only to more to do which are the heart ones I got during Valentines..but will cover them with another method and not clay.
These about the only things I can get done besides in and out of bed with this nasty thingy I have. Feel just awful at times and great at times..the sore throat is harder to deal with than any of the other stuff . Oh, I tried to spray my clay beads on the deck but ended up chasing them more than spraying them and it is something I do not like doing. I decided to spray them instead of hand painting the glaze on them, it would take me a year to finished them, lol. Still have a lot to do.
We had some really terrible thunderstorms today and finally they are gone for now but looks pretty nasty out there..
I am taking a class for my embroidery machine so need to check in in the forum. I finally get to know how to worked this machine. I hope anyway.

Charms received

Received these lovely red 1 1/2 inches and 3 inche square from Jean S. today and love them all. Love all the hearts on the squares. Now how will I display them or will I finished them up. thank you Jean.

Lynn's charms and 3 inch square, how did she know I love butterflies..I collect them..just add a few more last week. lol..The charms are not all one inch but I have one that is and can add this to my bracelet..Love them all and thank you Lynn.

Charms received by Paulette and 3 inch square.

More charms received by Liz in UK Emellisher. Very pretty. I will work on mine after Tuesday. thank you, Liz.

I received these pretty charms today from Jean Spillane from a group I am in. UK Embellisher. These are felted front and back. I did notice that all the eyelets were all off when I opened the package. This tells me the when I do mine, which will be felted too, the backing should be a sturdier fabric or base. This is how we find out things like this. One shell is broken but I can remedy that myself. I have tons of shells from Hawaii. I will also use my spring action eyelet tool and see if I can fixed this. Maybe not. We will see.

Beaded Butterflies

These are 3 inches by 4. Some a just a tad bit smaller or larger. I do these on my spare time. One day they will end up in my quilts. I take a printed fabric with the butterflies, cutting them out leaving about a half an inch around them, iron interfacing in the back and than follow the color theme of the fabric, if I do not like it I add my own colored beads. They look so better in person. I have another one in progress now, but this one is a dragonfly. I collect all types of butterflies and dragonflies. Right now the best of my collection is from my friend that died and bought me home 5 stain glass butterflies from her trip to Pa. They hang on my glass window. I will take photos later one when the window in the back side it clean, lol

Total of all the fiber beads I have made..

This is the side view of all the fiber beads.

The total of all the beads I made is 2610. (I have added 61-June 16th-07, more beads to what I have made, yes, still making them, lol) What I have pictured is what I have left of them, 2406. I have given some to my bead swaps, put some on pin cushions I made and I sent out some for the prizes. I still have to experiment with Utee, shrinking dink and felting ones. They will come one day. For now I wanting to experiment on other textiles and textures.
I still have a quilt to make for Journal quilt for Houston. I have drafted it, but that is how far I am. When I go to make it and know what I want to really do than I remember that I have to 3 or 4 artist techniques from the Journal book. That is for all 4 journals that is to be connected for a larger quilt. This for sure stops me from continuing on....so it may get made and it may not, no biggie..at least I did not spend a lot of money for an entry or something like that. I am not really into doing it like I was last year but had to pull out of it do all the happenings around here.
Today I am taking it easy as I do not feel to good, got that sore throat again for two days now and a cough.
Yesterday, I tore this room apart looking for those felted needles and my Dreammaker foot petal..did not find either one. but found my Twinklings H20..lol knew I would after buying the smaller ones..sis will get these. Now every thing is LABELED..

Round Clay Beads and Buttons

I did these this evening. I love the buttons. The round beads are smaller than the ones below. These are made with Sculpey Clay. I prefer either Polymer or Sculpey Clay to work with. I found Kato to be a bit hard and also it crumbled so much. It was very hard to knead, especially the white and black. I just bought these about 2 months ago. I have made a total of 268 clay beads, round and shaped types. I still have to glazed them and also I want to go through the holes to make sure they are opened. I will use a tiny drill.

Since my server was done for almost 24 hours and did not do felting, I decided to play with clay again. This time making clay round beads. I had to mix Polymer and Kato clay to get some of these beads so that I could have two colored in them. The yellow, blue and orange, I added acrylic paints to the Polymer clay to get those colors. I am going to make more but smaller round ones, square and odd shapes ones. I will also going to try and make some buttons.

Adding Clay to Decorates Tin Cans

I dried brush these, sun and moon. These are the ones made of paper clay.

Well, looks like I have added my finished clay work twice. This is the decorated cans that I bought for Christmas with cookies in them and really did not want to keep packing them up every Christmas so I decided to cover them with polymer clay. I first sanded the pieced to that the clay would adhere to the can. Than I painted them. I love them now. I will do some of my Altoids cans that I have too.

More Felting Experimenting

I did piece for a challenge in Machine Needle Felting group, called Textures. I had a great time using all the different textured fabric and other stuff. I have used regular cotton, upholstery fabric, organza, tulle, dyed batting, ribbon, satin, burlap, painted dryer sheets, yarn, dyed cheesecloth on felt and hologram fabric, these are the one with the shiny disk on them..What did not work for me was puff paint, cellophane, bubble wrap, zapped with the heat gun, and my shim, it is quite thicker than my cheesecloth. I will try these in another method later one. I have lost my package of needles that I bought awhile back and only have one spare needle that came with the machine left.
My machine is so simple to use. It is easy to change the needles, clean and sounds wonderful. How in the world did I go without for so long.

Lemons and Oranges Challenge

I drew my design for my lemons and orange challenge. I knew from the beginning of this challenge what I wanted to do. But not having a machine it would have taken a toll on my hands, so I waited. I wanted a tablecloth, wallpaper. The one lemon is suppose to leaning but it did its own thing. the oranges were both suppose to be behind the lemon. so I did not really get what I drew but came close and had a ball doing it. It is not done but I can not finished it till Monday. I still need to put a backing, border and bind it. It is 71/2 by 9 inches. I will hang it in my kitchen.
]I am going to meet one of the two great nieces that were born 3 weeks apart the last 3 weeks. She is about 3 weeks old. Her name is Gwendolyn Alisa. My nephew, Chris and his wife Tracy are the proud parents. My oldest son, Mike and his wife Pauline will be here too. As always will have my Mom here too, love having her here.
I am going to make Spaghetti and Meatballs, with a salad and cake for dessert. So this means, yes, housework in the morning and slaving over the stove and oven..whew, getting tired just thinking of it. lol..

Experimenting with Felting

This is black felt with all the left over fibers, yarn, from projects that I have done with some lame to add some glitz. Experimenting is so much fun.
This is with all the metallic, holographic metallic threads I use all the time in all my post cards and quilts. Left over sheers, holograms, lame. I put these under black tulle and than felted them. Scanning or using the digital camera never shows the glitz in them. It is so much to do felting and see this is going to be a new adventure for me.

Dale Rollerson new book arrived

I received Dale Rollerson's new book today and so far what I have been reading is just great. I love the front page, of course, purple is my favorite, lol. It is not a very thick book and I can not believe the works of fibers she has done. I am going to follow her steps till I have done all of the book. I have a no other commitments for now so it will challenge me with my new machine.