Halloween

Hayden's preschool Halloween party was this morning. She was dressed as Dora the Explorer.






For those without young children in their lives, Dora is geared toward preschool kids. She is a cute little girl with a bit of a chubby tummy. This is what she looks like on the program.



The powers that be seemed to think that Dora's image needs updating. They have introduced a 'tween' Dora that looks like this:


I think the revamp is terrible and the message they are sending to young girls is not a good one.

What I've been working on

(click for larger view)
It's really hard to see what is going on with this piece. I started with a Jinny Beyer border print which was cut and pieced back together. It originally was supposed to be a square but I could not get the design to match up in the middle. I eventually ended up tweaking the center and it turned into a rectangle. I still had some match-up issues but not as bad as it originally was.

What this photo doesn't show very well is the embellishment. I first used some of my machine's decorative stitches and followed along some of the stripes in the fabric with a scallop (using a variegated thread) and two different width fill designs using metallic threads. I then heavily beaded the entire piece following along with both the fabric design and the scallop stitch.

Once I sandwich the piece I may follow the suggestion of my friend Virginia and do a simple serpentine stitch along a few of the very narrow stripes as the final quilting stitch. I also need to decide if I want to add any additional beading.

While working on this I tentatively named it "To bead or not to bead..." What do you think about that name?

Birthday Boy

Today is Jerry's birthday. It just so happens that some old friends are in town this week and so we're meeting them for dinner tonight.

Happy Birthday!!

Grandkids

I think it has been a while since I posted any photos of the kids.

Noah was pretending not to pay attention as I was taking photos.



I found this cute Halloween dress for Hayden yesterday and when she tried it on today she wouldn't take it off. This is certainly something I could have made myself, but would I ever get around to it?? I doubt it.



I'm actually amazed she was smiling so big for the camera. She was overtired today and spend a lot of time whining.

State guild retreat

The Quilters of South Carolina held its annual retreat this past weekend. About 280 quilters from across the state gather for a weekend of classes and fellowship. The teachers are picked from the guild and we are blessed to have many talented teachers in our midst.

In the past I've just signed up for Bring Your Own Project, but this year elected to take a class called Fabricating from Nature with Marilyn Wall. Lots of great work was started in the class.

This butterfly was my project. I pinned it to this pink background temporarily for show & tell on Saturday night and think I like it. So, the background may stay. My original photo had the butterfly resting on a flower but I may decide to leave the flower out. The poor thing still needs a body. (click photos for larger view)


Karen was in the same class and she used a photo of flowers from her garden to create this. You can see the photo she worked from at the bottom right. I love the colors she used.


I think my two favorite works were these 2. Veronica's boats (I think I got her name right!) are beautifully done. She will add some buildings/homes at the edge of the water in the background.


Joyce's bridge scene was created from a photo she took in China. It was fun watching the composition coming together. That's Madonna's dog on the wall next to Joyce.


We were all inspired when Sandy visited our class with the quilt she made in last year's class. We saw how adding paint, etc. can really enhance the work. Sandy has a painting background and it's very apparent in this piece. Isn't it beautiful?


I highly recommend a class with Marilyn.

Home again

I'm back from my most recent trip to Detroit. My mother had a surgical procedure on the fracture on her back a week ago. While she still has some pain it's obvious by her reactions that the pain is better. However, now her oxygen levels keep dropping and they have to increase the amount of oxygen she has been receiving. Yesterday they drained off about 30 ccs of fluid from her chest and lungs. Hopefully she'll turn the corner soon.

While I was gone the TTT group delivered 3 quilts to a family that recently moved into a Habitat home. The home was a Women Built home and all the labor was by women. Sheila, one of the TTT gang, suggested that we make quilts for the mother and her 2 daughters. She contacted Denise, the new owner of the home, and found out what color schemes we should use. We raided our stashes and pieced the quilts as a group project. Karen donated her quilting talents.

The quilt in this photo is for Denise the mom. She asked for earth tones.

Left to right in this photo: Karen, Sheila, Betsy, Frances, Janice, Denise, Virginia, and one of Denise's daughters.


This pink and black quilt was for the youngest daughter.



The older daughter asked for a yellow and blue quilt.


I'm sorry I wasn't able to be there for the presentation and I hope that Denise and her daughters enjoy their quilts.