Curlicue

I probably won't have much to show this week, with Thanksgiving and all. I baked some bread today ... maybe I'll share my recipe for Cranberry Apple Bread, if you'd like. Let me know and I'll post if there's interest.

I did manage to complete and ATC for Carol in Wales, who is the owner of the Textile Challenges group. She chose the motif of "curlicue". Well, I always thought a curlicue and spiral were the same thing, but that wasn't what she had in mind, so here is my interpretation. The background is layered and fused, and the motif is hand beaded. I hope she likes it.

I thought you would like to see my hanging mechanism for my inchie display. I can't take credit for the idea, because I read about it on Ami Simm's Alzheimers Quilt Initiative site. An excellent place to find art and support alzheimers research, by the way. Since I used foam core, I glued two pop top pieces (from soup, I think) to the back. They make excellent hangers!

We are dog-sitting for a friend this week. It took about 24 hours, but Rosi and Angel seem to have finally wore each other out. They are both sound asleep at the moment. I'm sure I'll have some pictures for you before long!!!

A Long, Long Time Ago ...

Back when inchies (little one inch pieces of fiber art for my non-fiber art friends) were all the rage, I participated in a swap. Shortly thereafter I began to make this display for 25 of them. Today, I finally finished it. It took me about 15 minutes to finish ... don't ask me why I waited so long. It's hanging on the wall now.
It was very hard to photograph. I'll try to get a better picture when it's daylight. I started out by covering a piece of foam core with copper leaf. I cut a piece of peltex to size and cut windows into it. I used eyelets and hung hooks and put an inchie on each hook. I used balsa wood around the edges to give some depth, so the inchies would hang free, and then I used decorative upholstery tacks around the outside. I like how it turned out and the little bits of art are unique and fun.

So last Saturday it was 76. There were a bunch of tornadoes about an hour east of here. We just had some wild clouds. Yesterday we had flurries! Craziness. Well, the only one home besides me, was Rosi, so we popped out onto the deck and I took this photo. Not a lot of snow by any stretch of the imagination, but any snow in November is pretty rare here.

And since you're still with me, even after another photo of Rosi ... here she is all tucked in. We had the sleeping bag out and Rosi thought it was wonderfully cozy. She sacked out on it and Joseph covered her up. She slept there for a loooong time!

Well, then.

So I haven't posted in a month. Well. First, when the computer's not working, I can't load pics, so I can't share. Computer's been out for most of the month. Finally is working - who knows how long. I'm sure you are as sick of hearing my computer woes and I am experiencing them, but that's how it goes ...

Anyway, now that I can post, what do I have to share? Well, I made some ornaments, but I can't show you because they're a surprise to the recipients. I also worked on some complex cloth for a trade, but I can't show you that either. I made tons of bottlecap stuff for a fair at a local preschool, but you've seen that already. So, lucky you - here are pics of life over the past month, more or less. They're mostly pics of the dog. lol.Meet "Fitty Biskitz" - she's such a patient animal. The kids had fun with her costume. This was just a test though. She wore a witch's hat and helped me pass out candy on Halloween.

This is my favorite Hickory tree in my front yard. It was a really pretty yellow this year. The fall color came and went quickly this year. Most of the leaves came down this weekend in the wind and rain.

Our Rescue (Palisades Animal Rescue) had a "reunion". Here's a pic of Rosi with her mama. I was shocked that Rosi is taller than her mom. I knew she wasn't nearly as fluffy! Actually, mom was starved and she looks so different now I never would have recognized her. Rosi got to reunite with one of her sisters and two of her brothers as well. We also got to see Cassie, the dog that we fostered briefly last April. She is doing great. It was wonderful to see all the dogs happy and doing well.

Last weekend we drove to Charlotte for a soccer tournament. Jenny's (DD) team played and Tom (DH) coached. Well, never in a million years would we have predicted it, but the girls won the championship! It was amazing and we were all so thrilled. The girls worked really hard to overcome some challenges this season and it was so nice to see their efforts pay off.

And finally, Rosi turned one year old on November 7th. Here's she's enjoying her Frosty Paws doggie ice cream. She loved it. You can sort of see the jute necklace Jenny made for her, and PawPaw bought her a bully stick. Birthdays are a good thing!!!

Beauty and the Beast

Well, they're both beauties, really, and neither is too beastly. I bought some Honey Crisp apples the other day. They were grown in Washington State. Having grown up in New York State, I do miss apple picking. It's too warm here in North Carolina to have much in the way of an apple crop. I think there might be some places in the mountains, but it's just not the same.


These apples were simply gorgeous, and I took of photo of this one, right before it was gobbled up. They lived up to their name as well - sweet as honey - delicious!

Rosi likes to sit on the couch in the bay window in front of our house (the only piece of furniture she's allowed on) and keep watch. See that wadded up blanket? Yeah, well that is supposed to be tossed over the couch to give a little protection to the upholstery. You can see how far that gets me. Anyway, Rosi is a pretty mellow and quiet dog. She's rarely barks and is pretty submissive, in general.

But...if she feels the need to protect us from some threat, she turns into this...

Hackles raised, ears pinned, growling, barking ... we call her our BTP (Big Tough Puppy). Because she doesn't bark often, I enjoy listening to her when she does, it's almost comical. And what dire threat is she usually warning of?

Yeah. Oooh I'm so scared. This guy roams the neighborhood - mostly across the street. I have no idea who he belongs to, but he's nicely fed so I don't think he's stray. Now, we have our own cat who lords over Rosi every chance she gets, and Rosi readily submits ... but there must be something about plate glass that gives her a confidence boost. I wonder what she'd do if we ran into him on one of our walks?

Spooky

Here's a little ATC I made for the Textile Challenges October Lottery. The theme this month was Halloween and we were each assigned a Halloween theme, based on a draw. I lucked out and got "cat". Since I have a fondness for black cats, and here they symbolize Halloween, deciding what to do was a no-brainer.

Fortunately I remembered that I have some velvet tucked away. I found a crushed black velvet that was purrfect (sorry couldn't resist). I made a small sheet of Citronella Angelina for the eyes. I have a tendancy to over-heat angelina. I'm not sure why. So the eyes aren't quite as sparkly as I'd hoped, but it works anyway. I used glue and embossing powder for the black pupils - of course when I ironed the eyes onto the velvet, the EPs melted and some came off. I was going to fix it, but decided it looked like reflections and that I liked it that way.

So fusing two glowing eyes onto black velvet hardly seemed to be enough. I used some holographic thread and stitched the nose and whiskers. As I went to trim the thread tails around the nose, I realized that they rather added to the effect - so there they shall stay.

My little spooky kitty will be off to England today. But I love him and I might have to make one for myself.

Lots of stuff

I wanted to post yesterday but the day got away from me - so here I am playing catchup! The drawing for Love Squared has happened and the winners will be announced tonight! Head over to Monica's Blog to see how much was raised for the Komen Foundation.
I say "winners" because many, many artists donated prizes for the drawing. There will be many happy winners this evening! Head over to Amber Dawn's blog to check out the charm bracelet made from all the pink charms we swapped. The gorgeous jewelry is in the October 8th post and you can see my bottlecap charm peeking out at the top. It is amazing to me that you can tell a group of artists to "make a pink charm" - and you can get so many unique and varied results.

I got a few things in the mail yesterday (finally!). Below is a postcard that I made for a Cyber friend who lost her father recently. The heart is made from the paper bag technique, that yes, I promise I will post a tutorial for!!

The word "Love" in the lower right corner was done by twisting silver wire into the shape of the word and then pounding it flat. I'm rather amused that my handwriting is apparently neater when twisting wire then it is with pen and paper. Go figure!

Below is a piece that I started a while ago, but it got stalled out. I finally pushed through my stumbling point and, as always, it came together quite nicely. It is a thank you piece, 6" square, for Arlee. Arlee organized the Exquisite Corpse Round Robin that I participated in. She did an amazing job and the group is now in round two (which I did not participate in). The group makes a lot of comments about the "corpse" aspect of this - so I thought I'd send her a corpsalicious little piece of art to add to her collection. You can see the results of our trade at the Corpse Blog.

The bottlecap can be removed if she wants to use it for a piece of jewelry. This is a surprise for her, so I'm hoping she doesn't stop by my blog in the next few days - but Arlee, if you are reading this - surprise! and thank you!!

Below is a detail shot. It was interesting to me how the various sheers all melted in a different manner when blasted with the heat gun. The skull is an iron on patch that I received from Andrea during the Sweet and Sinister swap last year. She also sent me many of the ribbons, including the white leaves, which ended up being the final touch that the piece really needed.

And finally, I am doing a complex cloth round robin with three other ladies from the Surface Design group. We are sending one yard of fabric through each member, and we get to alter the fabric with the surfaced design method of our choice. We get our piece back in the end, although we might swap small pieces of it.
This is the yard of hand-dyed failure that I am sending. It is actually much duller in real life than it looks in this photo - and that's saying something! It is a piece I dyed last year, that obviously didn't work out. I can't wait to see what the other ladies do to it. Anything will be an improvement! I'm looking forward to playing with what comes my way, too.

I've got a few more projects to complete. This week has broughty myriad days off and early releases with the three kids, so I am trying to get things done here and there.

Soup Bowl - Seriously

The owner of Fusions in Pittsboro asked me to make a bowl for a fundraiser to benefit the Cathmam County Soup Kitchen. I think it might be connected with the "Empty Bowls" project, but I'm not sure. For a set donation, you get a simple soup lunch and you get to choose a bowl made by a local artist to take home.

Since all my art at Fusions is made with recycled materials, I felt I needed to create a bowl that reflected that. I found a pattern for a simple fabric bowl and went about fusing old NC map pieces, dyed paper towels (purple), painted dryer sheets (blues and greens) and candy wrappers (gold) to my base. I finished it by fusing a layer of blue tulle over the top and stitching. It took longer to create the layers than it did to assemble the bowl!
I need to neaten up my satiin stitch along the seams. I put the grommets in, thinking I would "faux lace" the sides, but I didn't like any of the lacing that I tried, so I just left it as is. I am considering adding bead dangles to the four corners for a little more interest. It goes to the shop on Thursday, so we'll see what time allows.