Leaving . . .

RIP, Debbie Reynolds. 

Years and years ago, in 1964, I was a young, "rural Montana kid" working at the Montana Pavillon at the New York World's Fair. Somehow I was fortunate to go with others to the opening of The Unsinkable Molly Brown at Radio City Music Hall that summer. Debbie was there in one of the balconies high above where we were seated. When the lights came on, she stood and had on the red feathered dress she wore in the movie. She plucked off several of the feathers from that dress and let them float down. 

Go with love, Debbie. Hold Carrie in your arms as only a mom can.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058708/mediaviewer/rm2440861696

2016 is coming to an end. . .

It is December the 26th.  I haven't been blogging for 11 months but feel the time is here to start again. The year has had it's ups and downs.  I will fill you in as I go along.  But I do want to start again.

Walker completed his chemo in October.  His scan is clear and he will have another one later in January.  He is getting stronger each day.  I had a bit of cancer myself in September.  I was diagnosed with rectal cancer.  I had surgery and was blessed that in the colon resection, they were able to get all of the cancer.

I finished several nice pieces of fiber art this past year and I will show and share my work as I go along.  I am glad to be back.

Here is a piece I did call Pansy Morning.  I finished this is April.  I started it at a workshop that was supposed to help me learn machine quilting on my domestic machine - and it sure did.  It seemed more like free hand machine embroidery but it was great fun.  And now I feel I can quilt as well on my domestic machine as my longarm.

Thanks - I will be back more often.

Sunny Monday . . .

Well the sun is shining outside, but it is still cold and there is still a foot of snow on the ground.  That snow has been here for a couple months now so I am getting close to being "over it".  Whatever good that does.

A little work here on an old table runner.  I made it as one of those easy, simple ones with no pattern that you sew and turn inside out.  There was no batting and the end were to be folded down to make pointed ends with buttons added.  So I did that but looked at it before adding the final buttons part.  I loved the fabric combination but not the design. The outside pattern overpowered that inner print which is what I loved.

So I opened up one end and added some batting and loaded it on my quilting machine.  Of course I had to baste on some muslin top, bottom and sides.  That caused me a little design problem when I quilted that I didn't think about until I was taking them off after I was done.  I had quilted right over the edges so when I unhooked the muslin, it also unhooked some of the quilting stitches near the edges.  Not good!

So I just added a fancy stitch all the way around that secured those loose quilting thread ends and I like the way it looks.

Here is how it looks in the dining room.  I hung one of my other quilts on the wall in there a couple weeks ago and I love the colors all together.  

The quilt on the wall is one of the very first quilts I ever made.  It is from a pattern from the designer, Cheryl Wittmayer.  I think it is over 10 years old and once I had it complete, I gave it to my mom. I used the same fabrics that were in the pattern and part of the fun was in finding all of those fabrics.   When Mom passed last January, I kept it.  She loved it and always bragged about it.  So I know she likes that it is on display again.  

I used the leftovers from that project a couple years later in a round robin with an online group and ended up with another similar quilt that I hung a month ago in our family room.  That online group is long gone but I made lots of quilting friends there. Our house is nine sided so there are no square rooms - this wall is at an angle meeting the fireplace so it really looks slanted.  

I quilted this with lots of thread to create gold ginkgo leaves that floated down over the quilt.  I love it almost as much as the other and the memory of the online group is important in my quilting travels. You can see some of the quilting in the pic below although the binding wasn't all sewn down. It is easy to see what colors make my heart sing.  

What is happening here . . .

Bob got home late Monday night so yesterday we just caught up with each other.  He had been out in Portland helping our son with a bathroom remodel in a new little house he just purchased.  They had a great time.

I did get some quilting done on this piece of reverse applique that has been waiting for some finishing.  I did some quick machine quilting and will now look at it for a while on my design wall.  I think I want to add some hand embroidery and some beading before I bind it.  And then I am thinking I want to mount it on another quilt from the stripe that I have mounted behind it here.  That stripe is also one of the layers in the reverse applique.  I will just stare at it for a a couple days and move on to a piecing/sewing project while I wait for the next words for direction.

OK - 2 months later - And now - I am REALLY back.

A quick couple of updates first -

Walker continues with the chemo every month or so.  He is in Denver now with his second session. It is tough on the little guy and it breaks my heart that he has to go through this but he is a tough little guy.  Here is a picture his mom took while in the hospital on Thursday morning getting ready for the day long chemo process.

It hit me about 2 weeks before Christmas that I was needing to prioritize my deep desires to work on my art in my studio instead of lamenting about not having time for art.  Easy to do.  Just get up early and try for a couple hours each morning before the start of the day.  Just like the days when I was a single mom raising my sons and working.  If I wanted time for myself, and I did, I got up at 5 and had a couple hours to myself before the start the busy morning.  Just like that.  

It is working.  I will post some pictures now as I work on various things.  This Thursday, I finished my quilted piece, "Fire Walk".  It is about my feelings - how I feel when I think of the chemo in Walker's little body.  I have shared it with some friends - some saw see trees, some saw women dancing - I saw nothing just felt turmoil and pain as I quilted.  It was great therapy.

Here are some pictures. . .