What's Shaking?!!!!

Hey everyone...

what's shaking?!!!

Apparently, my hometown!!!

I just saw a tweet from my flickr friend, Sarah, saying that there was an earthquake there!

There have been others.

When I was still living at home (maaaaany moons ago),


(groovy, man!)


we had an earthquake in the early morning

and I thought my little brother was jumping on his bed!!!!

(I couldn't find one of him jumping in bed so this will  have to do,
apparently he didn't like loud noises LOL!)


Here...
we aren't shaking, just sweating slightly as the temperatures and humidity rise

but today is.....

so enough gabbing all ready!!!

The exercises in the second last chapter of the book focus on embellishing.

 I don't have a large inventory of embellishments
but I do have some beads...

Staying with my cactus theme, 

I created a free pieced sun beaming down on a free pieced cactus

(I suppose the Arizona sun is probably scorching the cacti these early summer days)...

and I embellished this spiny, prickly cactus with a variety of beads that I had in my stash..

and I found these fun, square beads to create rays of sun...

The fabrics are from my most recent stash of hand dyes.

The last chapter of the book is 'finishing touches' which I will not likely touch on in a blog post.

I have too many other projects I want to try out!!!!

I have these books from the library...

and this one at home...

Stay tuned...

In the meantime, I plan to kick off my shoes for a while and enjoy the first few days of summer!

WHOOOOSSSSHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

That's the sound of Workbook Wednesday rushing by...

I know, I know!!!!

It's Thursday all ready!!!!

Somehow, this week has been flying by and 

I am not sure that I can create as fast as things are moving these days!!!!

The exercises in this chapter of the book incorporate

the use of papers and found objects.

I did quite a bit of searching (both in my brain and in my house)

before I realized that I had a bunch of stuff from

my days scrapbooking (which I abandoned mostly because....

it is tough enough to find time to sew/quilt let alone scrapbook!)

I decided to continue with my cactus theme

and used green mulberry paper to create a cactus.

For those of you who have never seen mulberry paper,
it is a kind of woven, almost fibrous paper

which easily rips apart when water is applied (I use a small paintbrush).

So I outlined parts of a cactus on the paper with my damp paintbrush,

 pulled the pieces apart
and secured them with machine sewing in black thread.

The paper almost has a spiny appearance when ripped!!

Then I found (!) some metal letters...

et voila!!!!

Not sure how I might quilt it

especially with the letters all ready sewn down.

Next week is all about embellishing....

And when I regain my creative (and physical energy),
I have some inspiration from the library...

 Talking about energy...


do you ever feel exhausted when you finish a project?!

I think maybe I am still recovering from the fast, chaotic pace 

and huge mess with ensuing clean up from my last project!

Yes....

I did finish the million little pieces project....

(or at least it felt like a million pieces!)...

Truthfully, it was only 900 one-inch squares and many assorted triangles....

But it was a labor of love...

Sugarbaby and her grandfather (my dad) walking arm-in-arm home from the ice cream shop.

  Ker-plop!!!
That is the sound of me collapsing with exhaustion!!!

Gone Fishin'....

Yes, once again, it is Workbook Wednesday...

But just like the sign says, I've gone fishin'....

But not literally!!!

Not like the fishing the kids enjoy...

though even they didn't catch any fish!!!

No....

I am fishing through this mess.....

for a found object (what a joke... literally!) 

for exercises in the next chapter....

 see any??????

In the meantime....

I am fishing through the hundreds of wee little squares...

to place them in the right spot...

so I can complete this project!!!!

No wonder I am up on the cutting table!!! There isn't any where for me to stand (literally)!!!

Working for the weekend.... or is it working on the weekend?!!!

These guys are working for the weekend....


  (for all you 1980s Canadian Lover Boy fans.... lots of big hair and leather pants... those were the days!!!!!)

But I seem to be Working ON the weekend!!!!!!

 Once again its......

 Workbook Wednesday...

and I accomplished most of my work for Workbook Wednesday on the weekend!

This past weekend was pretty brutal....
very warm and muggy....

and my sewing room is akin to a sauna with the lights on,
so I sewed without 'em....



and still the sweat poured down (not much will stop me from sewing)!!!

The subject of chapter 6 in the book is....

Thread Painting!!!

I have never really tried it so I gave it a whirl....

(this guy is made using variegated thread)

and naturally, I tried a cactus too!!!

I have been thumbing through a bunch of art quilt books from our library and
have seen this technique of image transfer using gel medium many times.

Of course, I had to take a crack at it, using cactus flower photos from my trip to Arizona...

and now I am here....

Not sure what I will do with this but only time ( or the weekend) will tell!

Mathea has posted some photos of her creations in our flickr group
including her strips...

and her awesome collage!!!!

I have to admit that I haven't really been waiting during the week while my sewing room collects dust...

I have been playing around with a UFO lately...
which started with this piece of fabric....

And....

Behind door #1 you can have this....

or.....

behind door #2 you might find this....

(where is Monty Hall when you need him?!)

Which door do you prefer?!

  So as the weekend nears, I might work... or I might wait....

It's a bird... it's a plane...

It's Workbook Wednesday....

and I have been trying to expand my horizons....

From the Urban Dictionary......

1. expand my horizon

New Ideas...open to many different options and ideas. Being free.

Today I would like to expand my horizons and go sky diving.

(But I promise NO sky diving.... I am afraid of heights!!!!)

So...

I finally dove(!) right into the exercises from chapter 5 and had loads of fun...

I even took the supplies out of their packages (okay, so I live dangerously)!!!!

and they were dyeing to be used (haha!)

I tried my hands at hand painting......   

Faster than a speeding free motion quilter!!!!

took a stab at using foil (with glue and with fusible web)...

Able to leap tall fabric bolts in a single bound!!!!

Et voila!!!!

More powerful than an iron!!!

it's...

Supermanquilter!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(I feel like I can do almost anything now!)

I did keep the quilting lines simple, following the line of color movement

and embellished the edge with some long, fuzzy fiber.

This fabric painting thing is quite addicting...

so I painted a few more small pieces that I can use in future exercises...

but I avoided exercise 2.... representational painting.
Maybe next week (more expanding to do!).

Remember this sketch?

and the pieces that I started last week?

Well, it has transformed into a cactus!!!!

Now the sky is the limit!!!!!!

This expanding my horizons is tiring... I need a nap now!