Thursday, January 27, 2011

My Dear

Robert Burns

O, my luve's like a red, red rose,
That's newly sprung in June.
O, my luve's like the melodie,
That's sweetly play'd in tune.

As fair art thou, my bonie lass,
So deep in luve am I,
And I will luve thee still, my Dear,
Till a' the seas gang dry.

Till a' the seas gang dry, my Dear,
And the rocks melt wi' the sun!
O I will luve thee still, my Dear,
While the sands o' life shall run.

And fare thee weel, my only Luve,
And fare thee weel a while!
And I will come again, my Luve,
Tho' it were ten thousand mile!


Friday, December 31, 2010

The Sketchbook Challenge

Looking back a the old year, looking ahead to the new one, even though according to MY calendar, it shouldn't even be October yet. humph.

Starting tomorrow, I will be participating in the Sketchbook Challenge. I've taken an online class with Sue Bleiweiss before, so I know this will be a wonderful learning experience. Loved that class!






When you make your resolutions, keep this in mind...  “The question for each man to settle is not what he would do if he had means, time, influence, and educational advantages, but what he will do with the things he has.” Hamilton Wright Mabie.  Plan to make the best of what you have, not what you don't have!

Happy New Year, everyone!







Sunday, December 5, 2010

Holographic fiber art

Took a class yesterday from Wen Redmond on her Holographic Memories technique. Had a great time, such a great group of ladies and Wen is a wonderful teacher. She has the best laugh (which is an important skill with our group). We all went home with a finished, ready to hang work of art. I wrapped up mine and gave it to hubby who LOVED it. Wen put it on her blog which you can see here, it's the one at the top. It's a picture from a hike up Kearsarge in 2006. We had never hiked this one before, so we weren't familiar with the terrain. On the way down the kids went ahead to this point. I looked up, saw what seemed to be my precious children on the edge of a precipice. After panicking for just a split second, I thought, "What a fantastic picture!", and whipped out the camera. Priorities. When we caught up to them it wasn't nearly as dangerous as it had looked from the previous vantage point, so I was very glad not to have trusted my first primal instinct to protect my babies and instead had taken some snapshots! I love this picture and it carries with it some great summer memories.


Monday, November 1, 2010





It's done!!
I need to get better pictures, but this is the gist of it... I know the letters are hard to see, that was intentional. I want people to have to look closely to figure out what it says and what it's made of. This is actually pretty close to what I had originally envisioned. I love the look of rusty metal and peeling paint, and I wanted an aged, neglected look to the paint. There are some changes in the process that I would make if I did it again, so I may make a series of ones like this or smaller, experimental ones. Would love to play with the colors and the streaky/smudgy effects.

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

latest quilt

My current project, started in July... the letters were not staying stuck, so I finally decided to stitch them in place. I didn't want the texture of stitching, so I will have to figure out how to cover that up. Just an added challenge and an opportunity to play even more!

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Solarfest!!!

Getting ready to go...
Solarfest

Fun, educational... and I'll be there... what more could you ask for?

Thursday, July 8, 2010

thoughts

No pictures today, I need to find my card reader. I was thinking about the baby quilt that I just finished and is now hanging on the back of a chair waiting to be gifted. It looked really awful as I was pushing and shoving it around the needle to quilt it. Now it looks beautiful. I love the soft shades of browns, the wrinkles and the poofies. What has changed? Not the quilt. Is it because I'm not looking so closely? Because it's finished?

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Not Destroyed!




It's quilted and bound... just have to check for loose threads and it's done! Look out Harriet Hargrave, here I come! Maybe in another 50 years or so...
The fabrics are organically grown and not dyed, the top quilting thread is organic. I used a conventional backing and bobbin thread because all I had left of the organic fabric was the plain off white. My machine quilting is not up for that yet.




Immediately after finishing this I started in on another slowly progressing project...this is kinda how it looked before..


I used an upcycled shirt from Listen, stenciled on some gesso, then painted with metallic paints. Now it is cut up because I didn't like how the shirt melted under the heat gun, but i really like the texture of the gesso on the shirt (velvety). Stay tuned!

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

new quilt ready to destroy, uh, quilt

The top and batting are organic fabric which had been purchased a few years ago. Organic fabric, or this stuff anyways is much thicker and stretchier than quilting cottons. So don't look too closely. (the back is a conventional cotton)

I really really wish I had been able to line up the little strip of white in the skinny border with the off center points of the center. But it went like this:
Me: Ok, I have this one narrow strip of the brown check left. If I cut it just right I can get a skinny border to go all the way around. No problem. I got this.
Rotary Cutter: HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

The Rotary Cutter always wins.

As does the sewing machine... We will see how the quilting goes.




Friday, February 12, 2010

Anne Gallo and Susan Raban classes

www.YankeeQuilts.com

for more info about taking the classes email michelle@mainstreetmagpie.com

Batik Wedding Quilt, Saturday, March 13





Trip x 2, Friday March 12

Thursday, December 10, 2009

new journal

Made from fabric printed from earlier Photoshop experiments. Photos aren't great, but you get the idea! There is much more depth in the printed fabric than shows here.



Not sure what i think of the blue stripe, but it looks ok in real life.



The inside is also blue. I was able to make the pockets to hold the journal and wrap it around the front using one strip of fabric.

playing with photoshop!

I'll make a journal for the first person to figure out what the these started out as (of what was the original picture?).




Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Journal Twin Powers.. UNITE!

Will anyone else get the reference in the title??

Anyhoo... the fraternal twin to the previous journal. I started out thinking that I would keep alternating the pieces until I had one large piece, but this one yelled "STOP!". So I did. I never understood what my Rice Crispies were trying to tell me, but sometimes I understand my fabric!




Friday, December 4, 2009

Quilted Journal Cover



a completed journal cover... Inside is a purchased blank lined journal and a place to put a pen and pencil.

The back is playing with pieced curves using a technique recently learned in Wen Redmond's class. (and, of course, enhanced with sparkly thread. gotta have the sparkle!)

This will be donated to the prize table at the December NLQG meeting... Hope to see you there!!

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Bow Tie Day!



but, alack, alas, he didn't have one. So mommy whipped one up last night. in two hours! Was able to find a downloadable pattern from Burda, and even found the "hardware" (sliders) for the back in my mom's button stash (my inheritance). woo hoo!

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

lookie what you can do in Photoshop


from a "boring" picture of a river


and a sunset.
now I have to figure out how to make "quilt blocks" out of them and have them printed up!

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Cyber Fyber





This is a very belated post about a swap with Susan Lenz of Cyber Fyber fame. The orginal swaps she sent seem to have gotten lost in the mail. (It was well after our mail box got blown up, so it wasn't that!) She very graciously sent two freshly made ones from her retreat in Maine in the fall.

The first one is post card size, and you can't see all of the beautiful shiny threads in the scan, but it is a wonderful snapshot of fall in New England.



This one is an ATC, has a very fuzzy texture that reflects the look of the actual piece of bark that is attached. Sue, thank you for taking the time to make these, they're fantastic!


The next two were part of an international swap. This one is from Cheryl in OK. It looks like she felted the background and then added machine embroidery to it. My favorite colors! Thank you Cheryl!



Is it fireworks or a beautiful summer bloom? Either way I am delighted with Sue Singer of CA's ATC. Thank you, Thank you!


So, now I have a collection... How to display them??

Come, Spring


Done for a swap in the Thread Society Yahoo group.

Wednesday, September 24, 2008


two projects finished... a tea cozy (it's a gift, I don't have a teapot to fit it, i am hoping it fits one she has!). the pattern is from the AntiCraft. Will anyone dare to share her tea now?


And a quilt!!! It was started at a retreat in February, from book called Shadow Quilts. The piece sizes were rather futzy sizes (like 5 7/8")(ha!) so not many points or matching corners, etc, but the quilting disguised a lot of that and I am actually going to hang it in our living room. I was so frustrated with things not matching that i paper pieced a smaller version of it, with greater success, but now i am quite happy with the original.