Progress is slow, so slow...
Here is a quilt top I just finished using mostly Barbara Brackman's Civil War reproduction fabric:
The blocks are paper pieced using Piece by Number's pattern "Colorwheel Geese". I thought it would be interesting to get a secondary pattern going by using red instead of the background color for piece number nine. Interesting, but distracting, I think. Now to quilt it and get a better photo!
Where have we been? Well, it took a while to sleep off Thanksgiving...
This table doesn't look as jammed with food as it felt, but after all, it was taken before I realized that I had left the asparagus in the oven. And the pies are not represented.
As you can see by the bandanna napkins and plastic margarine containers, it was quite the classy event.
Then we had the big bizarre bazaar... Which was as fun as usual. We sold about half our inventory, after some price adjustments. All in all, a good weekend. (Some of the remaining items are now available at 1109 Gallery.)
No more time to prepare for the big day. What is done is done.
The last project for our Bizarre table is a quick bagful of rodents, made out of a recycled pair of acid washed jeans and ultrasuede scraps.
Catnip Rats!
Why is my turkey always so tough and dry?
Maybe they are high mileage birds...
Have a great day!
Still making things for Bizarre Bazaar. These guys started with some sweaters found in a "free" box at an up-scale garage sale. I disguised a couple of weak spots in the knit with embroidered flower or maybe star shapes... and then liked the effect enough that I did a lot more of them. Next, I added in fabric from some thrift store Hawaiian shirts for eyes and ends of the arms and legs.
But something seems wrong.
There. That is much better.
Quite a while back, I saw a tutorial online for making baskets out of strips of newspaper or magazines. (You can see it here.) Having a lot of newspapers available, I thought I'd give making one a try. Here is the result:
Not as beautiful as the baskets in the tutorial... In fact, it didn't really stand up on its own. The weaving was too loose. I didn't finish off the top edge. After it sat around for a month or two, I gave it to my small green bird. He loves to shred paper. Here is first day's work:
I thought I do a picture diary of the destruction, but he and I have concentration issues... working in fits and starts. So, here is later in the week:
Here is a while later, when I noticed he had chewed a nice hole:
And here is a month or so along:
Shortly after that, I got tired of cleaning up paper bits from the floor and I threw away the whole mess. That colorful, store-bought bird pinata is the focus of his efforts now, and it is coming apart in record time.
So, my number one daughter and I attended the opening at the Topeka Competition 29 show at the Alice Sabatini Gallery in, of course, Topeka. A very nice event. There are pictures of the exhibit here. My favorite piece in the exhibit is this plaid rhino head by Jason Shaw.
"Plaid Rhino" is made out of a plaid flannel-which seems very huggable, with wood horns-that are not huggable. There is a lot of humor in the pieces that were juried into this show... so much so that I kinda wonder how my two quilts got in... but here they are
Geode Slices
Tiger Stripe
I had two quilts, "Tiger Stripes" and "Geode Slices", accepted into the Topeka Competition 29 exhibit at the Alice C. Sabatini Gallery. The exhibit opens this Friday... judging by the pieces selected for the postcard, this looks like an interesting show.
Still making items for the Bizarre...
Here is one of several Bad Birds:
I'm addicted to bread. This week was the last sack of vegetables from what I call my "vegetable subscription". Most years, we sign up with Rolling Prairie Farmers Alliance for a weekly sack of locally grown produce. It is like having a garden without having to do all of the work! Even though, or maybe especially because, my husband is on the road most of the time this year, I signed up for vegetables again this summer. It was a weekly reminder to not just live on bagels and breakfast cereal...which I do when there is little incentive to cook. Well, and candy too. Bread and candy and diet pop. Anyway, when I saw this image on Hop Hop Jingle Boo, I thought what a perfect Halloween costume for me. Is that hat a loaf of bread?
Looks like she enjoys cake, too.
Hope everyone has a Happy Halloween! (Don't forget to eat your vegetables.)
