Digital Photos

Another one I did last night. This time I used a photos scan of one of my jewelry bracelet..Oh so pretty, purple..

I have finally found time to play with Kaleider software that we got to download in the class taught to us by Lily Kerns called Digital Fabrics at QuiltUniversity.com . It is so much fun. Can you guess what it is?
I believe if I am correct it is the funnel one, but can not swear to it..as all this was accidents for me..hitting this and that and walla..I do not think I could do another one right now till I read it all over again..lol

My ugly orange charms/other orange inches

I received these in today's mail. Jean again you did such a wonderful job on these beauties. Do you like orange? thank you so much. 10/12

Received thest today 10/11 from Pasty M for orange inches, thank you and they are pretty.

Here are my orange 1 1/2 by 1 1/2 charms. I do not have much in the orange color as this is my least favorite color to work with but always take on the challenge...I just used charms and beads to do these..and threw on Halloween one in there the witches hat with the orange moon, a sequin..lol Enjoy girls For a Felted charm group.

Received ATC

I received this metal ATC today from NoeLani F from a group I am in. I just love it..Anything with palm trees or an ocean view is what I do love most..it just reminds of home..thank you so kindly.

Swaps done for September

I am done with my swaps for September. I wanted to get them as soon as possible.
My Mom is sick and her emphysema was fine and her doctor gave her machine to use if needed.
Her weakness the Dr. thinks it is her heart and has a blockage, so she goes in on Tuesday of next week and just do not want anything hanging over my head with a deadline. I do have some orange charms due on the 15th and will try and get them done over the weekend. My flower quilt, not sure if I will get to it but I rather do a good job than a hurry up job for another challenge or show, who knows...
I am working on a class and did one part and working and the second part. So I do feel good knowing I am almost caught up.
The two PC is for my group, Victorian and Ocean. Victorian is french knot flower and beaded pearl necklace. Two of my swaps I call Less is More..lol The other one would be The Asian ATC for another group. The Ocean is puff paint with beading. The other ATC for the other group is Victorian also and this one is Embellishment for the Victorian Ladies..I love glitter and use it on this one with a few beads. The other is is a Tag, a travel one, use whatever I could find today. Never made one before a swap, also my group. So hope all who receives them likes them.

The Dentist ordeal-chat

I am feeling a little better. Never again, when they say they can't give you those pills again for another 5 years, makes you wonder why they should anyway. I broke out in hives the day before going off them but stuck it out and when I told her this, she was concerned as I might have been allergic to one of them but have taken one of them before so it had to be the other one. 1500 mg of antibiotics a day. I would say it took the bad as well as the good with them..I do not wish for any of you to have to go through this. But at least all my teeth are saved and it is all over now. I slept 8 days away. lol
Now just the cleaning every week for the next 3 weeks. Guys, I have not been to dentist for over 12 years knowing I had gum disease but I did what they hygienist told me to do and I guess that is what saved my teeth. OH, I have to use a bleach solution every night before bed..but very little to a gal and she said bleach is the best bacteria fighter and I believe her to the most on this. It will kill anything..stain anything and all. lol
They gave me laughing gas and I did get a buzz from it but did not feel a thing, I do not know why I do not like going to the dentist. It could be the shots they use to give for cavities. lol When I was done with one fourth of my side they gave me a recipe for using bleach to wash my mouth out every night with a syringe.
So maybe now I can get really creative with something. Right now I am worried about my mom. She has emphysema and has an apt today and I know she needs oxygen. I am making her a healing doll, never made one but to me it will be a healing doll with her lungs made out of tyvek and silk roving. It is very small and she probably won't like it but that is how I feel today. I drew out a pattern. Tea dyeing the fabric and than I can work on it. I have already cleaned out my room and now can get onto sewing and embellishing again...for now I have had enough of the gluing stuff..onto the pretty fabrics to play with ..I also have my Flower Quilt to sew up and get photos in by the 30th, will I make it do not know but will give it a try, if not than I have another pretty quilt to hang.

Another ATC received

Received this ATC yesterday from Ann J in France. thank you and love the butterfly.

Felted Pins

Here is about 5 I did yesterday. I like a lot of beading. The stitching is nice too. This is almost like what I do with just fabric in all different colors and follow the color to make beaded pins, expecially my butterflies. I am done with this class. I just tried again to put a photo in the forum and did not work. so here it is. Very time consuming so if you have the time, go for it..it is fun. 9/25

These are ready for lesson two with Susan Sorrell class, Felted Pins. These are tiny, like doing mini very mini art quilts..lol I know what they are but maybe you can not figure them out. The next photo you will, lol

My Elder Futhark Rune Tiles

I did the clay the other day. Prepared them yesterday. Painted them this morning, while I was a bit better. They are set and are suppose to one color but I liked them this way. Maybe the next set, which I think I will do them in a brown distressed look instead of color. I also made 13 tailsman, pendants, for my sisters, nieces and one for my dil, the-INGUZ (xx) is for fertility, lol hope she will wear it. The TEIWAZ (the arrow) is for me, two of the definitions is determination and courage..The other one is for my mom, WUNJO, the P, for joy, bliss happiness good fortune..So far this is a lot of fun.
If you would like to read more this sites sells the stones but if you scroll to the bottom it has its story. These are suppose to stone looking tiles.
http://www.awmarker.com/runes.html
Even better one is here:
http://www.sunnyway.com/runes/
Have fun reading

2 ATCs received

I have received these two ATCs yesterday from Donna M from another group. They are just wonderful as this is first time for Donna. You did just great. Looking forward doing more with you.

Purple ring

I made this ring yesterday as I am not feeling well to do anything else. So little stuff like this is all I can do for now. It is made out nylon twine and I had drops of hearts and half moons that are violet in color with silver dots in the middle of them. I have made crocheted rings but when I go to wash dishes I forget that I have them on and the get soaked..now I do not have to worry. It is very pretty in person.

My projects for today

My dh is trying to clean out some stuff in my our large shed and he found books/magazine box that had projects I had save since 1974. I had ceramics, pottery, crafty, knitting and crochet among other stuff. lol I did wonder what happen to these binders, 2 and 3 inch thick, that I knew I had somewhere.
This fish is one of the projects in one of the magazine pages from 1988. I remember doing this about 6 years ago. I had used a mold of a cross/Jesus .. do not know who I gave it to. Also on the same page or the back of it it had a project with where you print on paper from a copier machine and not a computer ink. You go through a process but did not pay much attention this time. Than you can leave what ever you did onto soap, candle, fabric and so on, I was going to make this for Fr. Rick with his parents but than he got sick.
The thrid photo is the mold, it should be at least 1/8-1/4 inch so that you can pile the "toilet paper" into to leave an imprint. This mold I used was a cheap mold I bought somewhere for a soap dish. It takes about a day to dry depending on how much toilet paper you have.
When it is dry, you paint it the way you want and than put what you want to make it stay together, I use modge podge. It made it feel like rubber.
The very last one is of tissue paper and only used one layer..so it did not work but it also feels like rubber.
I made a chime with my fish with glass beads that my sister sent me. She bought a bag of glass beads at Michael's and when she got home they were so many broken ones so she split the bag with me and this is a time to use them. Of course I use my favorite colors..lol
You see each side of the fish. Isn't it just so cute..lol I have one right now drying, as I will do 4 more so I can just make a fish chime..I will use the back of a dish for the top with toilet paper. People have been using toilet paper for years and looking through this articles that I save, they have been using a lot we think is "new" to us..but not so. I used toilet paper last year on a pc. I have use dryer sheets, paper towels, paper bags and so one on all of my post cards that I did last year. So if you look at something and wonder "if" or "can I" just do it and try something different, it is fun.



The other side.
On the mold.
Tissue paper, one layer. Also used these colors in my gourd and now you can see why I change the colors to bright for the inside of my purse. It also looks as if it one solid piece and has no seams, really neat looking.

Gourd purse is done, I think lol

Well, finished my purse and am very pleased with it but almost felt that the photos need a frame around them.. But it is a photo purse and just adding the nails did add a lot to them. What a challenge this was for me. But I did order 2 more gourds. I will do one up with glitz and glitter next..not now but later one. I might add some photos on the side as they are bare..

My Gourd and what I have done to it

Went shopping last night for my hinges and latch. Found them but did not have much of variety to choose from. So these will have to do. Well the hinges are fine but the latch could have been a wee bit larger. Than I have a brave wave while there and decided I wanted to add upholstery nails to them. The ones I really wanted was way to large for this purse so I settle for these. I did nothing after returning home. Went to visit Mom and ate out at Shoney's. We must have name a few restaurants and none sounded what we wanted to Shoney's always come up. We were in luck as the must have been shrimp night..boy did that affect our cholesterol or what.. I love their fritters and bread..lol Went to be at 10 pm and that is a wow for me, but got up about 130 so than I was up till about 4am..lol You can say the my days and nights will be messed up for a bit again..oh well.
Here it the front of the purse. You can see the nails better when you click on the photo. I did all of it myself, but was hoping dh would help, since my right shoulder still hurts..would you believe no hand held drill. I had to use his heavy drill. I also had use his big nail clutters to trim 80 nails tips as they just a wee bit to large. Hard work but always worth it.
The bottom is the back with the hinges and my experiment photo. I wash it hole thing with a purple blue mix paint..I knew I was inside of me from the start, lol I wanted to sand it and dh said no it looked like wood the way it is so I did.
You all will not believe what happen today. While I was doing all this, dh was mowing our yard. He was about 25 feet mowing around the mail box area when I heard this crash and awful noise but did not investigate, thought it was Suzie playing in the newspaper again, she likes roll all over them and makes a rustle noise..Well dh comes in, in a tone of voice I did not like and ask me did you not hear that noise and said he heard it all the way out there..A rock hit our security door and busted the top part of it and it had glass all over my living room floor..I will be a bit nervous this week as I will feel I have no protection with my open door..He has shut down at work and has to work 10-12 hours shifts for four days straight with no time off. So he will be a very tired man and there is no way he can get a new window..OH we could not find what ever hit the window door and smashed it..lol Another expense to this old house...lol

ATC received today

I received the cutest ever ATC from Dot Ray in Australia. It is for the Asian swap from another group. Thank you kindly, this is my favorite.

What I have done so far on my gourd

Since I had taken a nap at 6pm to 9 pm I was up till 3am..lol So this is what I was doing. I just could not wait for the hinges, no dh had to work late and than I would had to rush looking for what I wanted. First thing I did was put apoxie sculpt in the inside of the gourd. what a job, with my hands, which are still hurting. I had bought the vanilla instead of white..thinking I was going to leave that way, but as it seems my gourd is much larger for the 2 oz..so I barely made it and did not like the way it looked.. Than I added tissue paper to the inside of the gourd..wow what a mistake..look liked a giant Easter egg-inverted...So this morning I painted both insides with paint and than added mod podge, much happier with it.
Below is a practice that I did to see what the outside will look like. kinda plain but also did some script with our names on fabric and cut a curly q design around it to give some appeal..But also thinking that I still might do some painting on it when it is all dried..all around the photos or stamping do not know yet.
We will go to Loew's today, just hope they have what I want.
I have been taking sleeping pills for the last 4 days trying to get in the habit of getting to bed around midnight, but mess that up last night. I will stay on them for another few days. This does not help my sugar problem. My doctor did not like the fact that I stay up so late and not sleep a full 8 hours. My mine is restless and always has something it wants me to do. I am going to stay this way till my first grand child is born than I will have a new life..maybe it may not included any arts at all. do not know.
I have been all glued up this week. lol. I have worked with so many types of glues and such, trying to learn them all. I have worked with Paverol, Powertex, Mod Podge, Apoxie scuplt, Gesso, worked with this with my oil painting, regular glue, fabric glue, hot glue, super glue..did I forget anything, lol worked with polymer clay and air clay. Now plan to work on plastic shrink..make more beads and utee beads..maybe next week. I still have a lot to learn about all mentioned above. I might take a class in sculpting..sounds interesting but in Nov. Better get ready to go shopping, have a great day everyone.

My girls

Finished my girls. They took me longer than I thought for many reasons. I used air dry clay and it was so soft to use and did not know if it was going to make it. So my girl on the bottom was done first for experimental reasons. I call her my BAD HAIR DAY girl..lol I also had trouble putting them together..but a lot of glue and they are intact..whew..The most fun was of course painting the faces and using a toothpick and TWEEZERS to put the hair together... The blond is called Marilyn.. as she reminds me of Marilyn Monroe. lol I could not find my gallon bag of feathers so I use my fibers and messed them up bit and they look just great. I am using them for hanging and not a pin. I just can not see me wearing this 5 inches or more for a pin.

Tonight I will go shopping at Lowe's to see if they have hinges and I might buy a frontal locking system for my gourd purse. Oh I order two more and also will buy some seeds as dh and I decided to grow some next year. I just working with it.. I have plenty of time to buy the tools that are needed for this craft. I did put one of the photos on the gourd and it looks good as the natural color of the gourd shows up a bit darker and the photos is just great. so I will work on it after all holes are drilled. If any of you are curious about gourds here is a site that tells you all about it. http://www.turtlefeathers.com/index.html It tells all about growing, washing, and all. wonderful site. Enjoy

Shows I love to watch on DIY

I just love this show. It is on 2 times a day and can not get enough of this show. Michele Beschen is such a talented person. I love working with metals but could not even get where she is at. I tape a lot of her shows as I do not know if they are going to do new ones.
Another show on DIY is Jewelry Making but they only have it on if your are lucky 2 times a week. I did not know that Jackie Guerra was in the show Serena. Everyone loved her jewelry on the show and she started from there. YOU just never know what life is going to bring or how. How awesome. I like Knitty Gritty with Vicky Howell too but a lot of repeats now for sure.. I have no idea why I had to state this but just had to. lol

Check out my Slide Show!

My Last Blooms for this year

Details of my tulips. These where here when we moved in 21 years ago, so I have no name of what type of tulips they are, but they sure are getting fuller every year. They bloom in the spring and in the beginning of fall, so maybe it is getting to fall around here. yeah..lol I am not a very nice gardener anymore, I should be thinning them out, all the bulb flowers the previous owner has laid in the ground but I do not, I like them this way. I have them in 5 different areas in the front of the house against the brick.
They start at the or almost the edge of my home. As you can see dh has clean it out and looks pretty bear but rather have it than the weeds..lol
My Monkey grass, on the south side of the house. Soon will be flowering. I had a mess of it in the front next to the steps but had them removed. They can become a nuisance sometimes..lol but on the side of the house does not bother me at all. The only flower that did not bloom for me this year was my hydrangeas..I still see green leave but very few, I will have dh to remove it and will buy new ones for next year. They were on the north side which I was told to put them, but every else I see them all over east, west and south and blooming like crazy..so that is what I will do. I use to clip this time and used them for dry arrangements in my ceramic vases..oh well next time.

What I am doing for now

Here is my gourd cut, clean and ready to have something done to it. lol I have decided to grow gourds next year. I am wondering if the seeds that came out of this gourd can be used to grow them. I will do a search on gourds. When I did the hula in Hawaii, I have to get this wonder gourd implement to bring up and hit and make sounds to go with the music. I still have it in my attic, I just hope what I have done to protect it is good enough. I better have dh go and fetch it. In the samd container is my feathers things too. I have my bamboo sticks in my bedroom. The stones I never did get..why do not know why, but we ended up quilting as this was the lovely hula hands type of hula but the chant one and boy it was killing me and my friend Chermain. The excersise was tough. we did for about 4 weeks. but than I took hula, the easy ones. love doing the one show we did. it was so much fun. oh, those were the days..lol sorry got of the subject but than I do that all the time even if we were speaking face to face, as there is so much going on in my brain..when it shuts down, I will too..
This is what I want to put on my gourd on the outside. The upper left photo is us 5 sibling sitting on this beautiful Banyan tree. It was a neighbors yard in Oahu. Than my mom when she was 18, Dad at 18, grandfather Delfin on mom side, Priscilla on Mom's side. The Next row is my brother Don, graduation, sister Patti, graduation, Bob, graduation, me, graduation and my twin Mary, graduation. All before 18 years of age. Than come our baby photos. Donnie, Patti, Bob Me and Mary. I think this will be awesome on the outside of this gourd purse. My trouble is I have never worked with gourd before and do not know if I should leave natural or paint it or whatever..I think I would love the natural look but will the photos show up. I do not have a piece of gourd to practice on. The inside will either have a beautiful African print glue in or satin. or I might just add paint to show through, like a translucent type.
I am also making flower pins. with air dry clay and I do not like it. it is so soft to work with but doing it.

Received ATC and chat

I received this ATC from Jan in another group for the red and two colors swap. This was her first and it is just wonderful. You did a great job Jan.
I have been busy but not enough to finished what I am working one. I am taking 5 classes in different places. I have finished 2 of them and still working on three of them. Also will finished my Flower Challenge and not the Journal Quilt. I have intensive work that needs to be done to my teeth and gums in the next 6 weeks and I am not going to worry about it at all. I had two different types of arts in the Houston quilt show last year, my self portrait and post cards for sale, that is good enough for me. But I will take photos as I do finished as I haven't seen this type of work done in any other quilt. Maybe I can show it somewhere.

Anne of Green Gables Books

I also received these today but did not know they were for me as the package was in dh name. He bought them on ebay for $19.69 that is with shipping, used. I joined a group of girls who are

started in October going to read the first two books and so on for about 4 months and also do a knitting project at the same time dealing with the books we read. I have always loved this red headed girl..lol and a prize or something like will be voted for. I think it is a fun thing to do. If you are interested let me know and I will look up the url for the blog for this and so on.

What goodies I received in the mail today

I received my gourd to make my purse, now to cut it and clean it..lol Dh will help me with the cutting.
Received this from one of my group member Phyllis McKay for our Ocean theme. thank you Phyllis it does remind of home. one day I will get back there..
I received this from my twin Mary Adkins, who made this for me. She knows I love purple and love the way she did one side a different fabric and reverse it on the outside too. I have two pockets..I added my little purple fairy inside of it..lol
Received this from Cyn from another group for a jewelry swap. I just love it and hope she likes mine. thank you so much.

Swirling Bracelet

Made another one, It is nice knowing what your are doing as it than becomes so much fun..lol

Finished and did the row with violet and green seed beads sizes 11 and 13. I did it in the swirling way and it was fun and will do a necklace when time permits.

I was suppose to make a necklace but had some snags in making this trying to follow the directions..so instead I went small. very far from being done right. But practice makes perfect. You should have seen the necklace. I had loops on it instead of swirling, but I did add some to my bracelet as I did like them and will do some for other projects. I love teal and lime green so that is the colors I choose.

2 ATC received

I received two lovely ATC. One today, the Asian one from Jenni and the metal one from Ella. Thank you girls. My Asian ones are not done and haven't started on them but I still have time for them.

3 More Fins

I did these 3 in different colors for the mermaid fins. One bluish, green and purple. What am I going to do with them. I leave a couple as is but the other two I will try and make a mermaid top with them. I have some figuring to do. Since this is something I did not create and am taking classes I will no tell.

Mermaid Fin

I finally finished this class. I did not do it the way the teacher wanted us to as I saw my mermaid fin a bit different. The body should be larger and maybe my fin a little smaller. But when I think of the a mermaid I think of larger fins and not small ones..why I guess it because of some of the painting I have seen. I have lots of fairy dust on this one and you can see them. I have use 3 different colors. Fairy dust is so fine that I did get a bit carried away on a few areas but it looks pretty.

Flower Challeng quilt in progress

The Flower that is suppose to be me is a snapdragon but I do not feel like one. I feel like a hibiscus, whatever that means..how does one feel like a flower, lol but I do. So I am doing a hibiscus.

It is pinned and I need to experiment with the leaves as I got a brainstorm about doing something completely different with the leaves to make the veins pop more.

I do have photos as I progress in making this quilt. From designing it. tracing. printing a larger version and such. I will put them up at a later time.

It now measures 19x22 with out borders or binding. I am also going to add one of my beaded butterfly to it somewhere. The fabric for the leaves and flower and buds are my hand dyed fabrics and the background is not.

Memphis Musical Festival

My youngest son treated my whole family for dinner last night to celebrate my pass birthday, 8/29. I wanted Chinese food and not at my home either. I wanted to go out and eat. lol So since he is single and goes out quite a lot. I let him choose the restaurant and he chose Wang's Mandarin Chinese Restaurant downtown Memphis. Lo and Behold to our surprise the Memphis Musical Festival that celebrates the Southern Folklore was going on. After eating I could not wait for him to pay for the bill and left and started my strutting down Main Street. lol. My mom and I had a ball and the music was awesome. I did not know they even had this Festival here and ask the woman that takes your money for parking how long has it being going on and she said for a very long time..I have been here over 20 years now and never knew it.
The weather was so nice and we did walk from beginning to end. The vendors were awesome. For about a few minutes I missed being a vendor for my arts and ceramics but it did not last very long as it is hard work setting up the booth, and all. lol
I stopped by a few jewelry places and yes did buy some stuff. A few of them liked the jewelry I was wearing and told them thank you and they asked me did you make those, and I say proudly yes. So now I feel pretty about them all.
Now if I knew that this festival was going on I would have brought my camera and had loads of photos!!
I saw art that had some funky art on canvas and around them painted bottle caps. bought a pair of earrings from a sculpture of African art from Nashville..I remember when searching for art in Tn a few years ago running across his name and it was a pleasure to met him in person. I had so much fun and we will do it again next year but earlier..and hope the weather is as nice as it was.