Patty's Heart

I can finally put my picture up of my BFF's Christmas present. She got her package & seeing as I didn't wrap it she has it up somewhere in her house. I made it to be like one of those Best Friends necklaces where she has one half of the heart & I have the other. I am making one for myself (almost done) where the right side of the heart is filled in with many different stitches & the left side is cross-hatched. Patty loves it, thank goodness. I love it too & can't wait to get mine done as well. But other Christmas presents need to be finished before I finish my half. Hope you enjoy.

Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative-Stay at Home Challenge Finished 2

Here's my second piece for the AAQI Priority Quilt Challenge. I was sent a piece of rusted fabric from Lois Jarvis of Rust-Tex fabrics that I used for the background. I fused the pear from a piece of hand dye & then added the shadows with Shiva Paintstiks. Zig-zagged the acrylic yarn around the edges for the binding & voila I am done!!!

Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative-Stay at Home Challenge Finished

Here it is finished. I added purple shadows on the pear with Shiva Paintstiks & then the drop shadow in pewter. I am really pleased with how it turned out. What do you think?

Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative-Stay at Home Challenge

I decided that I don't have enough to do with my days while job hunting, taking care of the cats, and other assorted projects I have going, I am going to do the Stay at Home Challenge. The SAHC is for those of us that are not going to the big Houston International Quilt Show. I am not able to go this year so I thought I should make a quilty to donate. We make the quilts size range of 4x6" up to 9x12" so that it fits into a Priority mail envelope from the USPS. To learn more go to: http://www.alzquilts.org/paq.html. The quilts will be auctioned & the money goes to Alzheimer's research. A very worthy cause & one I hope we find a cure for.

About my quilt: I bought the Kemshall's latest book, The Painted Quilt, and was inspired to give some of the techniques a try. I am making a larger study for myself with 4 pears in a row but made this little one to try out the quilting & threads. I like it so much I am going to use it for my Priority quilt. It's not finished but I wanted to post my progress so far. It needs a border or wide binding. Once it's done I will post again but enjoy for now.

Lily & The Pumpkin

These are some of my favorite pictures of Lily taken in 2003 right before Paris joined our family. Lily is so spoiled whatever she does I think is adorable so when she started climbing on the counter to play with the mini pumpkins I got the camera out. She hasn't played with them since. I have bought her pumpkins every year & for whatever reason she isn't interested in playing with them.

I hope you enjoy these as much as I do.

Sharks Opening Night

Last night was the NHL's North American opener to the 2008-2009 season. Another chance for the Sharks to prove to themselves they are worthy of winning the Stanley Cup. I would say "try" but as I am reminded that Yoda says: Do or do not, there is no try. Here’s to doing what needs to be done to bring the Cup to San Jose.

They are off to a great start beating the Anaheim Ducks 4-1. First period saw no scoring as both sides seemed to be struggling with the puck & the ice quality. The puck was stuck to the ice on more than one occasion or rolled over sticks. Finally in the second period saw some scoring when Jonathan Cheechoo got two quick goals early in the period. What I was most impressed with is the Sharks didn’t let up. Last season would see them resting on their laurels a bit after a goal or two & the other team would score. I didn’t see that this game. Granted it’s only one game but I see changes in their game play that must be attributed to new head coach Todd McLellan.

Next game is this Saturday with San Jose hosting the Los Angeles Kings. It should be a great game against another California rival.

White Chocolate & Violets

This little quilt is for the Take it Further Challenge for September, http://sharonb.wordpress.com/2008/09/01/september-take-it-further-challenge/ . I chose to do the color challenge rather than the concept. When I saw the colors I thought of white chocolate & violets, so hence the name of the quilt & this post. It measures 10" square. I am proud of the fact that I was able to get it square with no wobbly edges, it just looks off in the picture due to the angle I took the photo. Now my quilting, I do need to practice my swirls & spirals more but other than that I am pleased with it. It is a fused quilt on a hand painted background. All of the fused fabrics are either batiks or solid. I did buy some wooden beads for this quilt but have yet to figure out if I am going to use them or put them in the drawer. I am leaning towards the drawer at this point since I am not used to beading on abstract pieces.

Just a quick note: hockey season is starting soon so expect that other obsession of mine to pop up here on the blog.

Meet Lily & Paris

I thought I would explain my name & have you meet Lily & Paris, my girls, my cats. Lily is the tabby & Paris is the Russian Blue. Both are rescues, literally.

Tigerlily, or Lily for short, was found with her 4 other brother & sisters next to the Pepsi machine at my apartment complex. It was February 2002 & it was one of the coldest winters in a long while. We guessed correctly that the momma cat was moving them to a warmer location & had gone back to get the last kitten. I decided to take all 5 kittens for one night & give the people that rescued them a break. Every 2 hours I got up & made bottles & fed them. What an ordeal, these ferals were not what I expected, they fussed until they got their bottles & fought while they were getting them. All except for one kitten. She seemed to be hungry after her bottle because she kept trying to crawl out of the plastic barrel we were using for a bed for them.

It turns out she wasn't hungry but wanted to be held. She didn't want to be curled up with her siblings but with me. I had lost my cat of 14yrs to cancer 9 months before that & thought I would never want to get another cat or love another cat again after she passed away but here is this little bundle of fur telling me it's time. I decided my other cat, Friday, had grieved long enough & needed love too, so Tigerlily joined our house. Later that year Friday passed away. She taught Lily how to be a cat, use the litter box, groom herself, etc. Lily was an “only child” for over a year, when my mother called & told me about a kitten that had been tossed into a backyard of friend’s brother & would I take it? Of course, but secretly I was worried about Lily’s reaction.

The kitten was estimated to be about 6 months old & I am pretty sure she is a Russian Blue. Her double coat is like silk, and has purple-pink pads on her feet. She is solid grey (blue) but does have a few stray white hairs which would make her ineligible to be shown if she had papers. She’s exotic looking & truly a beautiful cat that deserved an exotic name. It was November 1, 2003 when she adopted us & Paris Hilton’s sex tape had just been released; I thought this new kitten was pregnant because her belly stuck way out. I thought she had “gotten around” a bit while being outside so I named her Paris after the beautiful city & for getting around like the other Paris. Turns out she just had food in her belly for the first time in a while all she had was a bad case of ear mites.

So the seeds for Lily & Paris were born. Jump ahead 3 years on Mother’s Day & I made a purse for my mother & put a homemade label inside that said Lily & Paris, too (the way I signed my cards with my name) Walnut Creek, CA. It was meant to be a joke but when I went downtown to my local clothing store Belinda M Designs, http://www.belindamdesigns.com/, to get a flower pin for the bag she was excited by what I did & told me to make some more & bring them in & she would sell them for me. And thus Lily & Paris Designs was born.

Annie's Heart

Here is an embroidery piece I call Annie's Heart. My dear friend Annie had her feelings hurt & her heart broken by some very insensitive people. My reaction, like many of her friends, was to come to her aid & let her know we love her & she is perfectly fine the way she is. This is my interpretation of that. The flowers represent all her friends & the plethora of animals she has that all love her. The red stitching is the blood that flows through the heart making sure it doesn't become cold as ice. The green is new growth of love & friendships.

I decided to add a border frame of Hoffman's commercial hand dye in Raspberry. I think it pulls the colors together nicely, don't you think? Echo quilting to come.
Here it is finished, 8.5" x 11". I echo quilted in Caron's Impressions 50/50% Silk/Wool in raspberry & lime, also used DMC Crewel Wool in dark lime & raspberry. The binding is satin stitch in Superior's King Tut thread in Black. It's a wonderful black that almost looks like velvet. I am really pleased with this piece & can't wait for Annie to get it. That will not be until sometime in October. Others are making journal pieces for Annie as well. I just hope she doesn't read my blog!!!

Needle in a Haystack

I went to Needle in a Haystack (http://www.needlestack.com/) on Saturday to pick up some threads for embroidery & also some of the wonderful Zweigart linen that I hand dye. I have a love of Caron's Impressions 50/50% silk wool blend threads. They are soft and smoother than plain wool & glide wonderfully when I do bullion stitches but have enough tooth from the wool to stay in place. I picked up several variegated colors:




As you can see I also picked up some other 100% cottons, silk perles, & wool. The organdy ribbon is a new type of thread for me. I saw someone do some beautiful embroidery with it & decided to give it a try.



I dyed the linen last night:


Living in an apartment complex I don't have the room to dye fabric traditionally. So I use Ranger's Adirondack Color Wash Sprays. They were made for the scrapbookers but it is a pigment dye so can be used on fabrics. No soda ash or other chemicals are required however I find it will continue to bleed even after setting with an iron & rinsing; I use Retayne after the preliminary rinsing & let it soak for 20 minutes & that stops most of it.

Chihuly at the deYoung

About a week & a half ago I finally went to see the Dale Chihuly exhibit at San Francisco’s deYoung Museum.
I took my friend/surrogate daughter, Larisa. Larisa is a joy to be around and at 17 I wish I had the smarts & confidence this one has. She enjoys art so I became a member of the FAMSF so we can go from now on as many times as we want w/no additional charge. Now if we can only learn the Muni system so I don’t have to drive & park there.
We did go on a Friday night which is music & culture night during the summer months I believe at the deYoung. That night there was Brazilian music, an area for kids to make art with their parents.

My First Blog Entry in my Third Blog

So I am giving this a shot. My first blog entry in my third blog!!! I have tried 2 other blogs & the management tools do not make sense so I will use the blogspot that my friend Patty uses, at least she can help me if I can't figure it out!!! If you are reading this, welcome & thanks for visiting. The photos are my entry for the Breaking Traditions Art Quilt Exhibit at the American Sewing Expo in Novi, Michigan at the Rock Financial Showplace. The exhibit dates for 2008 are September 26 - September 28.
Inspired by sspyndel's photo: http://flickr.com/photos/sspyndel/2465950118/

Fabric paint, Shiva paintstiks, thread painting, hand beaded, machine appliqued & quilted, hot-fix crystals.
Made in honor of my dear friend Patty , http://pcoxdesign.blogspot.com/

I must admit I am very proud of this piece, proud as a peacock. Oh very corny, well get used to it there will be more I am sure.

I have resisted starting a blog because I wasn’t sure what I wanted to write about. My quilting art, cats, hockey, or TV. Welll I think a bit of everything will be here. My 3 main loves are my cats, hockey, and quilting. I like to make my own fabric or paint what I am quilting, but am not opposed to using prints or batiks if they serve my purpose. I am not a purist, yet. I’d find it hard to part with all my print fabric that I have collected since I started quilting in 2002.