I'm still feeling a bit hesitant about my style of illustration Friday, but I surfed around and it seems anything goes....so, here's my entry for "crowded":



This is a photo of a mass of fibers I had yet to organize in my little workspace. I took them into photoshop and did some photoshop magic with filters. On top of that I printed it out on muslin and this is actually a scan of the fabric with the picture on it. I really like it. I'm considering doing some cq and embellishment around and in it. I think fibers on top could be really cool.

Well, there you go...Illustration Friday is doing it's job and inspiring me...something I never would have tried otherwise! Stumble It!

Gosh, the title makes it sounds like I've "made it big", eh?

I'm not sure how many of you have run across this new "exercise" on other blogs - but it's to have folks interview you. I think it's cool to have to research other people on the net, come up with questions and learn all about them, so I asked a new friend on the art quilt list...Elle (I really dig her art style and the fact that she's new to all of this like me!) to interview me, here are her five unique questions and my answers:

1. What do you like the most about making crazy quilts?

NO RULES! I would die if I had to measure, cut or piece something that had to be "just so". I have NO attention span and love the exciting way you put fabrics together that have no apparent connection other than they look great together. On top of this I ADORE fabrics. ALL fabrics...I love the feel etc. I collected fabrics long before picking up a needle...I had them all over the house and had no idea what to do with them. My husband and I were talking about why I like hand sewing them better than using the machine..he thinks it's a tactile thing that I love to hold the fabrics as I work with them and I have to agree.

2. What is your favorite type of embellishment and/or stitch to do on them?

So far, I really like most embroidery, needle-turn applique and beading, but again the limitless nature of crazy quilting is that I never have to have a favorite embellishment. I do love the feather stitch...it's so versatile and fun...plus easy enough that I don't have to get out the instruction book to figure out how to do it!

3. As a "stay at home" mom, are your children often involved in your craft and quilting projects?

Probably more my daughter than my son. Matey Moo doesn't really seem interested...even when I'm working right in front of him. My daughter is always wanting to "watch me" (which can be good and bad). She helps pick out fabrics (and has picked out some spectacular ones!) and I let her play with pieces all the time (she uses them with her Barbies and dolls). I really hope she's developing an interest and so far she seems fascinated. Who knows, maybe I'll suck Matey Moo in at some point too.

4. What do you like the most about your crazy quilt group?

I love that we are an addictions group...not to CURE the addiction, but to support it. When we talk about buying heaps of beads or fabric just "because" - we all understand how it feels. I also felt bad not finishing projects (you know, pick a project, start and finish it) and yet all of the folks in the group are the same way. It seems to be fairly common in CQ to hop from project to project and even to jump around on a piece. It made me feel much less attention deficit.

The other fabulous part about it is how different we all are. Different styles, different tastes and yet VERY accepting and appreciating no matter how different we all are. Steve, our first guy, is a sane quilter and it's been fun to see what he pieced for the round robin...he has a fantastic eye. Several of the gals are VERY Victorian and Leslie loves Brazilian and landscapes. My background (and still favorite art form) is Pop Art and maybe some graffiti art and yet I still feel accepted.

5. Restoring your grandmother's quilt and UFOs has been very important to you. How did it make you feel and what do you think she would say about it?

I guess I remember moving all of these projects around (unfinished) for most of my life. Giving credit to my Mom who didn't throw them out, I really always wanted to see something done with them. I loved finishing the pillow - the frankly unusual (you can read ugly here) background color made it interesting to find an attractive solution that actually looked good and made the whole thing usable.

As for the crazy quilt, I've actually stressed about it. I have some motifs picked out (family crests on spoons, her signature, etc) that I want to put on, but haven't felt like my skills were up to par. She made this crazy quilt when her eyesight was failing and so just used the feather stitch on all the seams. But I wanted to add some more "flourish" to it. I have decided to keep just the feather stitch on seams, but add motifs to the middle. I have a feeling I'll be working on it for a LONG time, but it's fun and gives me a connection with past generations that is some-how very zen.

**If any of you want me to interview you like this, post a comment saying "Interview Me" and I'll send you five questions. Then, post the answers to your personalized questions and include an explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post. I'm really looking forward to doing some interviews, so please let me! :-) Stumble It!

I was reading a discussion among the art quilters on Fiber and Thread where Teri and some of the art quilters (read the comments) are discussing getting "overrun" with keeping up with blogs. So, I thought I'd share some of my opinions on this "issue".

First, I REALLY have to not let myself surf blogs all the time. It can be very addictive, especially once you find a variety of rings and directories, and then there will be other "favorite blogs" on each of the blogs I read....UGH! too much! However, I also find some buried in there that are fantastic (like when Loobylu went through and highlighted all of her favorites!).

Second, as much as I hate to highlight a product, I will suggest downloading Firefox. The reason it's fantastic for blogs is that it has "tabs" (you'll know when you download it what these are - the are little tabs across the top of your window for each window you've opened).

So, here's my approach - make a folder under "your favorites" called "daily blogs" and "blogs to watch" (or some more clever titles). Then I bookmark them by the ones who update daily and the ones who update less frequently. The good news is that this gives me a MUCH shorter list to check once a day and the others I check every 3-4 days (or when I'm avoiding work!!). The tabs on Firefox are really cool because you can load the whole list (just go get your morning coffee or tea while it's loading) and then I click the tabs closed if they haven't updated.

Ocassionally I go through and move blogs from "daily" to "watch"...depending on people being out of town, etc. And also VERY ocassionally I delete them. I add them all the time, mostly to the "watch" catagory. I read blogs with my morning coffee and sometimes I surf for new stuff at night or on the weekends. The HARDEST part about them is that it's a GREAT excuse NOT to work (especially when you work at home) and so I am forbidden from reading them during the day (yeah RIGHT! - but I do try!).

Anyway, love to hear back from all of you if you have tips or information about how to tackle a LOT of blogs - I know most of the best bloggers ready HEAPS of them...there must be more techniques! Stumble It!

I've been wanting to do this for a long time and finally got a subject easy enough and time to do it. This is colored with prismacolors and then put together as a collage in my journal. Then I scanned the whole thing into photoshop and played with it.

As it turns out I was too late to get on the official list, but that's ok. I did it and I'm finally pushing myself a bit. Next week I'll try to get it up on time! Stumble It!

I have a question for any of you out there "in the know"...a very nice gal is trying to complete the ring on the bloggers who embellish webring and she has AOL's blogging tool. Does anyone know how to post the webring code on AOL? Let me know...she's tried to do it, and not having any luck! Stumble It!

Well, I am LOVING having a designated night to stitch. It's fantastic. Great food, relaxing...trading ideas.
Here's Holly (who joined us for the first time last night) working on her beaded butterfly. I didn't get a close up of this fantastic piece, but I'll get her to bring it to the next meeting.

Here's Antonia with her collection of 5000 Edmar threads. One of the reasons we meet at Antonias is the lack of children (my house is really pretty crazy at 7pm) and the enormous amount of cool stuff. Plus, if I've forgotten anything I'm pretty sure she has large amounts of replacements!

Note the food...we were talking about ordering in next time or maybe trying some of the local specialties - like tamales. They had fantastic input on the stuff I'm doing (which I'll maybe have pictures of tomorrow) and all sorts of suggestions and encouragement. It's really fun to do this stuff with a small group.
Both gals were singing the praises of Martha Green who is going to be teaching at this year's Crazy quilt retreat. You can read about her in this publication, or her dolls here on caron net. Supposedly she has talked about doing a book and it looks like she needs to! I know I'd buy it! :-)
Well, I'm off to get something done tonight. I really want to work on my fabric journal, but should clean out the linen closet. Good heavens, what kind of a choice is THAT! Stumble It!

Hey all, I'm tired and going to bed, but just HAD to get this little sneak peek up (to tease those RMCQ'ers who missed tonight! I told you I'd bring my camera!)



You all missed it! - (there were three of us there tonight!). More tomorrow!!! Stumble It!

I'm finally done with my portion of Antonia's round robin and I think it looks pretty good:

The original inspiration for all of this was the peach shells which I thought went great.

I needed to do one more seam embellishment so I decided to try the Basque Stitch from Sharon B's stitch index - I think it turned out pretty well, but it brought up a couple of questions.

When you are stitching into a tight corner, do you end the stitch sequence early? Or shorten the stitches? Or just stitch over the other seam? I wasn't sure and in one corner I kind of stitched over the top. The worst part of this is it kind of limits what you do with the other seam...but since I don't have to do it I guess I can leave that to an expert! :-) Any advice out there ladies?

I'm fairly proud of the fish. I just made it up. Rog (hubby) helped me with a bit of fish anatomy to make it look more realistic, but for a girl who's always lived pretty landlocked I think my little seascape looks pretty good! :-) (she says humbly!!)

Ok, today is a "real work" day (LOL) - so I'm off. Stumble It!

It's a busy day here in Cloudy but warm Denver Colorado (warm in the winter here is 54F or 12c)- Rog is busy making candles (I'll have to get some pictures tomorrow...it's way too crazy and hazardous in candle making world!), I'm stiching on my round robin and watching a little HGTV (home and Garden TV...gotta love it!). I'm having a heap of fun beading:

I'm ending up beading and filling in under the coral and between the shells using kind of a lazy daisy (I'm making it up as I go along). I had the shells and the ribbon and has ideas, but he coral was inspired by Sharon B's pouch last night when I was grasping for ideas.
The rest of the block looks like this:

I love the spiderweb. I saw a webshots where a gal was keeping photos of great ideas she sees on round robins. I'll have to try to find it again and pass it along to all of you.
Ok, so here's the other one:

I haven't done anything on this one yet...I love Leslie's Brazillian and Ronni's button cluster...aren't they great? Not sure what to add yet tho!
Oh, and here's the update on my butterfly...not a lot farther on the swirl, but pretty much done with the fan...just want to add a bow to the base:

Okay, that's the end of my WIP update....back to work! :-) Stumble It!

I found this site via Pam Rubert at Pamdoras box and I know some of you art quilters are going to love this needle felting of her friend Rosemary's. I was truly inspired, but I have to say I'm afraid to get into needle felting...I need another hobby like I need a hole in my head! :-)

Pam Rubert's blog inspires me every day...her art quilts are absolutely fantastic (my husband said "now I wouldn't mind owning one of THOSE!" - however I hate to ask what they go for!). Her studio she shares with her husband looks like an adventure. It's funny when you read these blogs and don't interact much with them, but feel like you know them anyway. I must say the blogosphere is a funny place!

Speaking of which, thank you all for your comments the last couple of days...I think Blogger has been having "issues" with their comments feature and I haven't been very regular with all of this - it's nice to feel reconnected with everyone. Stumble It!

So, I had mentioned that we moved the office and that it got combined with my craft area....so here's before:

This is the desk where I worked at the computer...its in the dining room right by the kitchen...great for watching kids, not fantastic for any sort of concentration or workspace.

This is the craft room/guest room and I had the whole room...I really was spread out a lot more than I thought I was...LOTS of stuff. However, none of the space was terribly workable and it was dark and in the basement, so not a wonderful place to hang out and work either.
So, now:

This is my new desk setup....bright and sunny with needlework workspace next to the computer! The picture over my desk is an illustration that I put a down payment on before Cheyenne was born and now she says "I don't like it" and didn't want it in her room...so FINE! I get it! :-) I can turn around and get any of my supplies:


In this area. I can actually scoot a chair up and sew here, and almost everything is organized on the shelves behind. I have another little shelf with my beads to the right of here....it's pretty cool. So far so good! Stumble It!

I've been primarily working on web stuff. I just got a couple of new jobs, one is a postcard design (which should be fun) and I have more ebay work to do - however, that's off topic! :-) On the subject of websites tho, I've been busy updating our Rocky Mountain Crazy Quilters site! I've put in all of our new meetings with subjects etc and even put up some eye candy. I started a flickr account for the group...so now I just have to teach them all how to load photos! LOL!!!!! We're working on our first newsletter - which we figure we'll put out every other month, so aren't we ambitious! :-) We seem to add 1-2 members each meeting, so we're growing without really having much publicity (just word of mouth) and we even roped in our first sane quilter! :-)

So, this is what we did at the last meeting:



It was fun to do Silk Ribbon Embroidery, I do like the results, but I find ribbon pretty hard to work with. I guess I just need practice, eh?

I also printed out a heap of these:



Our next meeting we're all bringing our ideas for transfering images....these images are from Needlecrafter.com which I think I found on Arlee's blog, but I bet she found it somewhere else...help me give credit here....do you know Arlee? The site is fantastic for images like this you can use for FREE! I just printed these off the printer onto fabric that I ironed on to freezer paper. I really need to play more with that idea and that site! So, what does everyone out there do to transfer images? I know the gal at Thimble has a fantastic tutorial on one method....does anyone use that method?

So, I'm in a really "bloggy" mood today so there may be more posts! So, brace yourselves! :-) Stumble It!

In the sea of trying to catch up with all the blogs I'm behind on I may NEVER get back to actual blogging...so here I am. I have a habit of hitting my "blog this" button (for those of you who aren't familiar with this, it's on the "Google tool bar"...which is fantastic for finding great sites you want to write about later and I use it ALL the time for the search box) and I have about 10 sites I need to write about. I haven't even told you all about my last RMCQ meeting! Wow, I am SO behind!

Anyway, a really quick note, that Pinyon Creek Stitchin'! has moved...same blog, just a location that is connected to her site (which I host! :-)) - anyway, we shoved it over, so your link may go to a blog that won't be updated. We need to figure out how to post a message on it that it's moved...anyone have any ideas? Stumble It!

Okay, I really really needed a laugh today...Leslie will know why. But when I found these bunnies on Camilla's blog I laughed and laughed and laughed (did I mention I laughed). Anyway, I'm probably punchy, but did I mention I needed a laugh today?

Camilla traded her stuffed animal with Loobylu. Good heavens, what cute cute stuffed animals both of these gals do. Ah, the talent of the net. I bask in it every day!

Speaking of the net. Here's an anomaly that Leslie pointed out...if you search google for "brazillian embroidery" (nothing more specific, that GENERAL topic), I come in first. Can you believe it? I think Google kind of gives it's own blogs a little ranking...don't you think? Now, mind you, I'm flattered that I would come in first, but come on....my silly little project is the first Brazillian embroidery project ANYONE comes across. Oh, wait. I just realized that I spelled it wrong. Ok, so I'm the first entry with the wrong spelling. Hmm, not sure that's notoriety after all. Ok, I'm punchy and I'm going to bed.

I did work on my butterfly block today tho...maybe I'll get Rog to plug in my camera and I'll have pics tomorrow. Stumble It!

Ok, so I'm still settling in. No connection for my camera yet, so no new pictures...and I'm still figuring out where to put everything. The great news is that the network is almost totally up and running again and I actually dug out my round robin to work on tonight....BUT! HHELP!!!This is where I need some help from all ofyou....how do you poke a hole in a seashell without a dremmel drill? I'm trying a "grinding or gouging technique" I found on this site and I have tried a bit of hole punching too without much success...any tips?

Just as an aside, Loobylu (who's site I read religiously everyday) is listing her favorite blogs...LOTS of cool stuff there and heaps more to add to my list! I don't know whether to love her or hate her - not like I don't spend a heap of time on the net now anyway! Stumble It!

Ok, when I started this blog entry yesterday I hadn't had any intention of being that negative. However, I'm sick (have no voice at all) and the office is a disaster. This all started when I took my brother's piano. He's moved to England and is selling his house. The piano is my grandmother's and so my Mom didn't' want it in storage. Here it is in our living room (right after it was moved in):



So, I decided we needed to rework the living room. Then I decided that the kids might as well just move downstairs (we've talked about giving them their own rooms for a long time). So, we totally uprooted the house. The office came upstairs, the kids moved into two rooms downstairs and we totally reorganized both the living room and the family room. The bad part of this is that the office now has to also hold all of my craft/crazy quilting stuff. NOT much room! UGH! So, I"m here, trying to organize. ICK!
AND, on top of this, yesterday we played outside....no coats, LOVELY weather and today it's snowing. Kind of a cozy day, but I'd rather be stitching than sitting in a big mess! Stumble It!

Last night Antonia and I got together for our every other week sit and stitch. It's absolute heaven for me...I can drop needles at her place and not have to frantically search for them before I go to bed! :-) I stole some goodies for her round robin block (isn't that terrible?) - I'm going to do seaweed and didn't have enough greens...or the "right" greens! She said some wonderful things on our Yahoo group about having a "support group" for crazy quilting nearby. I have to say, it is SO nice to get together with someone who really "understands"!

Then I worked a bit on my butterfly block:



The beading will continue down below into the other block. The fan is loosely based on this one from Chloe's blog (ok, now that I'm looking at it, not even "loosely" based, it's a direct copy! I hope that's the sincerest form of flattery!!!)! I thought I'd give it a try on my own block before I messed up a round robin with it! :-) Anyway, I'm having fun with it. Not sure about the juxtposition of a kind of "contemporary" beadwork with the fan, but maybe I'll put something flowery in the beading...we'll see! :-)

This came from my Grandmother's stuff (the other side..not the Grandmother with the buttons...aren't I lucky!!). Anyway, I thought it was a perfect fit, so that's just pinned on there, but I think it will look great - it definately fits with the theme anyway:



Well, today was crazy. I had a piano delivered from my brother's house and now my living room looks totally overcrowded and we're considering moving the kids into the basement, so I have a feeling that a complete upheaval of furniture and family is coming...if I can only live with the chaos long enough! Stumble It!