Visit to Az and Art

I flew back to AZ for 5 days last week to help April sort, clean, and store the supplies in her craft room so that they can get the room set up for their baby due next March. It was a lot of work, but I think we did a good job. Most of the give-away supplies went to my friends, Karen and Miranda. I'm sure they will make good use of them. Lots of stuff is winging its way here for either me or my friends Cheri and Mary Ann. Since most of it was mine to begin with, it has come full circle!
Before leaving I began several projects, one of which I am calling my Rag Journal. The original cover for these pages was a gutted hardcover book with a painted canvas spine, buuuuut......I should know better than to make a cover prior to the pages! The pages didn't fit (there were too many, not the wrong size) so the result is Plan B. I used latch hook canvas and used LOTS of scraps:

I made nearly a bazillion pages trying out different techniques. One day I painted, the next I sewed, another I got out tape and stamps, etc. Very random, but I'm liking the color schemes. I just match up what I want to go on the page, for instance I found a red ticket which went perfectly with the page below. The dress stamp is an image I practiced tangling on as seen in a book April got for me, "Zentangles 3" by Suzanne McNeill. Very cool book and I am loving practicing the new tangles!

I plan to make more, smaller sized Rag Journals for my Etsy shop, but want to focus the pages so I am trying 2 or 3 techniques in a limited color palette. I paint scraped on the reverse of some scrapbook paper with terra cotta, sage green, and blue (the muted colors on the patterned side).

I joined "Art a Day Month" (there should be a button over on the side if I can get it there!) so the pages above are what I created yesterday as well as the third lesson of a mystery quilt over at Thistledown & Co. blog. I'm thinking it won't be much of a stretch to create something every day since that's all I do! Now it will force me to record my projects and keep my blog up to date!
So over at April's zoo, I mean house, she has a new puppy (90 lbs. of boxer), Jackson who is a sweetie-pie and strong enough to pull me and the futon across the floor in a rousing game of tug-0f-war! He thinks he's a lap dog and who am I to argue?

Last (but certainly not least!) April got her gender ultrasound, originally scheduled for mid-November, rescheduled for last Friday while I was visiting! Got to see many, many parts of the baby in utero. Sucking HIS left thumb, waving arms, etc. Pretty cool. It was VERY apparent that it is a boy so I made a journal page in my new Moleskine:

Buh-bam!

The finished purse:

Includes hand-sewn zipper and zipper pull (not in the directions). The seams even lined up on this one.......ha ha! On to the next project, a little wallet to match my purse. Google here I come.

Poof!

It's magic (or will be)! One of the aspects of creating that is satisfying to me is taking a small pile of something and turning it into a three-dimensional creation. Take like, oh for instance, this small pile of Moda fabric:

Add some thread, batting, buttons, and zipper and soon.... POOF! it will become a small purse for April. Watch and see, I dare you!

Packaging Overkill

I understand careful packaging. I get it.......I don't want my Zig Writer pens to explode or rip the packaging while in transit. Seriously, I appreciate the care with which items are packaged and sent through the ruthless USPS. Thank you, Amazon and Ben Franklin for your extremely careful packaging of my 2 Zig pens:

However.... seriously? I needed a box THIS big (5 1/2 x 7 12 X 12) to transport my two lonely pens from Grand Rapids, MI to Woodlawn? Get some smaller boxes! I appreciate the quick shipping, really I do, but........ what a waste of cardboard to send me the pens.

Nuts! and a finished project

I actually started and completed a project in two days..........unbelievable. I usually start a project, get partway through and abandon it to my ever-growing pile of UFOs. *Sigh* However, I bought a couple of cute patterns at the Cazenovia fabric store while visiting central NY. One was a cute quilted bag made from the 5" squares you can buy at quilt fabric stores. I purchased a pack of Moda's Urban Couture (Basic Grey paper line) earlier this summer and decided to go for it. There's a very good reason why I don't quilt! I'll leave that up to my mother, I'll try art quilts. None of the seams matched up and some of the pieces are upside-down, but by God! I finished this little sucker, hand-sewn zipper and all! I think it's cute despite it's flaws. I may even try another one being a little more careful with my seams. I'm much better at random sewing than trying to make even seam widths. Maybe if I just practiced more? I'll have to ponder that.....

The squirrels are out in force the past couple of weeks finally eating some of the bazillion acorns littering our property. I tried out my long lens to shoot one of the guys eating:

Finally: Elf Ears! I'm planning to use this as my Facebook pic, it's SO me!

Favorite Photos from Central NY

I traveled to Central New York last week to visit my mother in Madison and my sister in Binghamton and while there I assisted at my mother's quilt guild's bi-annual quilt show. I chose a few of the photos (from the 200+ that I took) to show you. It took me several shots and flocks of Canada geese to figure out how to shoot them (manual focus!) so here is by far the largest flock I saw. This was taken at Madison Lake in my hometown of Madison:

Again at Madison Lake. I was going for the windmills in the distance (they were not around when I grew up in Madison so they fascinate me) and ended up with a fab shot of the trees' reflection on the lake:

A view of the street in Madison, again showcasing the beautiful fall colors:

A close-up of the Maple leaves:

And finally (for this post) the fog over the hills on my way to the quilt show:

I have more so check out the post below!

More Favorite Photos from Central NY

After the heavy rains, Chittenango Falls in Chittenango were running pretty fast. There was so much mist on the falls that it created a rainbow like Niagara Falls:

The lake in Cazenovia was also heavy with rain water, the low end was overflowing. A seagull in flight over the lake:

Also near Cazenovia, a pastoral color laden scene:

After picking apples at an orchard in Nelson, I shot these last two photos. Wild apples growing along the road:

and the church steeple of the Methodist church nestled in the fall colors: