Art Piece Decision

The SAQA Regional Meeting was great.  We planned a gallery show and some workshops for the group.  We are small, very small, compared to the larger metropolitan cities across the US but we are so lucky to have Suzi Stone as our Regional Rep.  She is a person who likes to make things happen.  And I can help her with that.

This group has the anility to take our art to the next level if we pay attention and do stuff.


So I know you are wondering what I decided to take with me to the SAQA Regional Meeting!

I took my 100 Meter Swim and ……….

Hang on...…..

The Nudes!  But you won't believe this...…..

Another lady brought HER nudes...…..

And can you believe I just spent half an hour trying to fix the color on the Nudes rather than get up from the warmth of the sofa and take new pics?

Sawyer left me with his whatever infection.  When I had him earlier this week he was running a fever and his ears were draining.  An he was coughing.  In anybody's face he was near.

After a while he would cough into his arm, but the learning curve was steep in that 20 month old boy.

So now I have a scratchy throat and stopped up nose.  But I am fighting it.

Tomorrow we shall see if IT wins or now.  I want to try the new MDLive our new insurance comes with.  I am sure that will be another story!

Stay warm everyone!

Off The Wall Friday - The Wet Uptown Girl Purse and the Nude Dog Walker

I spent a goodly amount of my time this week either in meetings or working on that Uptown Girl Purse.  I really love the thing!

Go to Nina Marie's Creations to see some people who really did some great leaps on their pieces.  Check them out!

I used some of the vintage houndstooth fabric from Cousin Karen's mom, Aunt Evelyn.  And it is incredible!  The pattern is from McCalls Quilting Nov/Dec 2010 Magazine.  I found a black leather purse at the Purple Cow Resale Shop for $1 and used the handles and strap for that.  In the bottom I put two pieces of foam board in a sleeve.  They did not add pockets, and I think if I did this again, I would add some pockets.

Anne, I can show you how to put pockets in the lining, easy and very convenient to have in there.

The pleats made the outside look like a schoolgirl skirt!  Too funny!  They were easy to create.  Not a lot of trouble, I don't like stuff with trouble.  I get into enough trouble on my own.  Like, when I was making the sleeve for the foam board, I put one piece in and promptly dropped into the dog's water bowl that they never drink out of (they prefer the toilet). And everything was pretty wet for a while.

I recommend it if you want a classy tote for your classy quilting stuff.

The Nude Dog Walker did not get much play this week.  But I did find a nice pencil that erases with a fabric eraser to draw in the quilting lines.  It is a graphite marking pencil by Dritz and the eraser is sort of like those gum erasers we used in grammar school.

I plan on working on it a bit today since the weather took a turn for the cold.  We woke to 42 degrees this morning!

In May?  In South Louisiana?  Really?  That Nude there is just about shivering!

Nudes Make Their Debut

You will be pleased to know the Nudes were very well behaved and appeared in public for the first time ever.  They were well received and actually even impressed some people at the Fiber Group!

I was a bit nervous when it came to my turn to present my work.  I slowly drew them out of my bag and presented them to the group. The leaves were flat so I shook them out to re-fluff them.  And nothing fell off! LOL

I got a lot of questions about making the leaves, the background and their cute little butts!

Everyone loved their butts!  And I got some suggestions about what to use for shading their butt cheeks.  Makeup!  Like I have any of that.......I guess I have to go buy some.  Or maybe I can get some that someone has used and just has the dregs left.

You should have seen the other pieces.  Michael displayed a 3-D butterfly he made for the Hoffman Challenge in New Zealand a bazillion years ago.  It was possibly the most incredible thing I have ever seen!

I have to run, I am going to talk to the State Police today!  And no, not in handcuffs!

(OOOHHHHHH!  A nude in handcuffs! I am thinking Betty Boop........)

I Saved His Life......Only to Kill Him Again

Yesterday I spent time at Red Stick cutting out my fabrics.  Today, I will sew them together.

I really can't show you what I am going to work on, because it is for the Mystery Quilt  at River City.  But I can tell you that i cut a ton of 3 1/2 inch strips yesterday that I will sew together today!

LOL.

In other news..........I saved McGee's life but once again.  And I so wanted to beat him with blunt objects.  But I stayed my feelings and saved his life in the end.

He was upset about having to wait for his morning walk since Frank had left so early.  And he panicked.  In the form of tearing my book apart.  In the afternoon, I have no idea why he wanted to eat the mat under his water bowl, but he did.  But those pieces were small and not likely to twist his internals.  So I will just watch to make sure things come out properly.  Those emergency vet visits are darn expensive!

Then after I made him throw up the book parts, gave him some yogurt to coat his stomach and a bone to put something in there, he ate my favorite tote.  I won this from Stephanie (I think) a couple years ago when she had a contest to see how many string projects you could do.  I won for making a couple of charity quilts and donating it to the nursing home.

I had to make him throw up polka dots too.  You can see how much he ate, a considerable amount of each.  And he likes to do it in strips, notice.  I really don't need an Accu-Cut, I have McGee!

I won these fabulous blues at the Remember Me Guild meeting last night.  It will go into the pile for my indigo quilt.  I have big ideas for that.  The pig?  Oh, that is a pitcher from my grandmother.  She used it to pour milk and lemonade for us, although not at the same time.  My mother hated it, she refused to drink anything that came from a pig's mouth.  But I totally adored it.  It is a Smiley pig, and I had it appraised for $2500 about 10
years ago.  So you can imagine my concern when I was trying to take the picture and this happened.

I used my wonderful light box to trace some additional nudes on to the nude fabric.  I found that I need to work on finding a nice pencil or tracing apparatus.  My mechanical pencil was too light and the thinness of the lead affected the weave of the fabric.

So I need a better thing.  Something you won't see when it is cut out.  I thought to use a permanent marker that is ultra-thin, but it bled out into the fabric.

Any ideas??????

Design Wall Monday - Water and Halloween

I hit the button too soon, lack of sleep I guess.  So this is supposed to be my monday morning stash report.  Just ignore until tomorrow!

You may be getting quite bored with the Nudes but they are nearly complete.  I put the tulle water on yesterday.  And decided that they needed to be bound first before the leaves went on.  I still need to make one more set of leaves for one of them.

Here are pictures of the whole piece and close ups of the nude.

At the urging of my "fans", I am going to do a series of these nudes.  I couldn't sleep last night thinking of all the places they could be.  Walking on the beach, walking her dogs, swinging, playing Carmen Miranda!  I don't know where that came from but I was certainly sleep deprived.

Anne of Quilting in the Desert (not dessert like the chocolate swirl cheesecake I made) says we should make purses with the nudes!  So I think Carmen Miranda will go on my purse!

I bought some Las Vegas fabric when I was out there and not hugging the porcelain throne, no i was NOT drunk.  I wanted to make a purse with that, I wonder if my nude can shoot pool?  Or craps?  Or maybe the slots!

Obviously Chocolate Swirl
Cheesecake

Actually that cheesecake came from the Diabetic Cookbook and is not really sweet.  It is really good, and healthy for you.  It is sweetened with stevia and agave.  Both are nice to cook with because they hold at high temperatures.

In addition to that, I am  trying to clear out some UFOs.  I assembled the blocks from the Twisted  Halloween quilt with that Twisted Sister block ruler.  I did a baby quilt for one of Carrie's friends last year with that ruler.  Pretty cool.
I don't remember making all these Halloween
blocks but I have enough for a huge quilt and another smaller quilt and two table runners.  I can do 3 table runners with the smaller quilt blocks, and I just may to that and spread the love between more people.  

I make the label into the back.  I HATE HATE HATE sewing on labels.  So I do that as I am piecing the back together and I don't even feel it!


This is the back over the front on the design wall.  I do this so I don't have to keep measuring and measuring and finding I am just 2 inches too short for one side.  I just make all the fabric cover the front and overlap about 2 inches on each side.

The back is bright, it is the same as the outside border.  In fact, if i hadn't done the border I would have had enough for the back,  geez.  I did have other fabric I could have used for the border, but I thought I might be able to do it.  But no, it wouldn't make it.  Darn. Darn, Darn.

This will go into the Cream PattyA Pile for the June Quilt Your Quilt Challenge.

Are you in?