Elves At Work....

Santa's elves have been busy....dug these supplies out of the pile on the cutting table just so I could actually say I did something creative today. 

  Think it needs a mate, just because it is so darn cute....once I get more done I'll post photos of how they look with the other holiday decorations.

Love the vintage button....you know with us there is a story about vintage buttons, but that' s a story for another day.  Let's just say we have cans, bins and bags full.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving and Hanukkah! 

Nice To Be Home, BUT.....

Okay, yes we are home, but I haven't accomplished much in the way of creating cause I needed to clean up just a bit.  Seems like we have been on the road/run all year, SO we had been opening the door to the mixed media studio and shoving whatever into it.  I did not even dare to take a picture of it before sorting it was that bad.  Now it looks almost as good as the day photos were taken for Cloth.Paper.Scissors Studios magazine...almost.

Even managed to straighten up the "stash"....not bad.  Love the new little cart from IKEA, it is such a nice pop of color, so sturdy and it isn't full...hmmmmm, this could present a problem.

 A few beads to the left, some artwork on the shelves, some ribbon and paper to the right....ahhhh makes my heart beat a little bit faster and my fingers itch.....BUT alas I need to tackle the sewing studio.  This room will not look like this for too long I fear....

See what I mean....got a new chest of drawers at IKEA too, much better than that leaning tower of plastic that was there before and it's not completely full either.....me thinks thats a good thing in this case from the looks of the surfaces around this room.

I will not be putting this little guy away anywhere but he may need to share the space better with my machines....

                                                       
 Last week this end of the room was actually clean, but.....I found many, many, many things that belonged in here in the other studio space...

 My goal is to be able to work this week on a couple of things.....like this seascape I started using water soluble stabilizer, it really needs to get needle felted and some more layers before washing away the stabilizers and beginning some stitching which is what I'm dying to do with it.  This will probably be my "year long Road project" so stop by our booth to check on it's progress during 2014.

 Also need to get into this pile of burlap and make some Christmas decorations before next weekend when I "start" to decorate....

However I am being distracted by the wonderful spicy smells coming from the kitchen...Kristin is busy baking for our Thanksgiving with extended family today...she should be relieved I did not include her in these pics.....these pumpkin-butterscotch cookies of hers are to die for.

 

 Can hardly wait to taste this loaf...it's a recipe from The Chew, Michael Symon's M&M's Pumpkin Bread....it smells divine!

We are going to try to do a blog post every Tuesday and Thursday....I should have waited and made this a New Year's Resolution, hey maybe this means I'll actually follow through with it if it's not officially a resolution.  Come by on Tuesday and I hope to have some progress to report on one of my projects....hmmmm which to do first????

Whoopee.....It's Quilt Festival......

Okay, it's age...for me at least...after checking phones and my camera we didn't find but a couple of photos from Quilt Festival in Houston.  Now I could claim that we were just too busy....a very good problem to have...but no photos of our booth, our classes in Make It University or Open Studios...really?....got nothing!

We finally got to see the quilts on Sunday morning prior to opening....surprise....we are walking Main Street looking for the "Celebrate Spring" exhibit, wow....proud Mama moment as we catch sight of Kristin's piece front and center.

Kristin with "Coming Into My Own"

As I slowly made my way back to the booth I caught Laura Wasilowski of Artfabrik and Wendy Richardson of Quilt Tapestry Studio dancing in the aisles.....think this was their way of warming up for the day.  Both these ladies grew up in my neck of the woods.

At IQF in Chicago I asked Wendy to create a piece like one I'd admired in her gallery work...she surprised me on festival set-up day....isn't it wonderful. Reminds me of chilly northern Minnesota.  Thanks, Wendy.

Houston or Bust......

Don't get me wrong I've enjoyed our cross country trip...which I've made twice before...once as a teenager and another as a mother of a 4th and 6th grader...both times I remember having an absolute blast.  This time I did too, but with an adult view of how different this country is from east coast to west....

I am so glad we have arrived in Houston for Quilt Market...only one quilt is not done....come on that's pretty good.  Kristin did finish it in time for set up....whew!!  Here's a look at our booth, the last quilt done is the larger purple one hanging on the left in this photo....

Our hand-dyed Osnaburg is front and center, we love the linen texture of this fabric as well as the way it takes the dye...it has a sueded look. 



Caught Kristin doing paper work.....

Introducing 3 more quilts in our line of modern quilt patterns and kits.  These reflect our take on the modern quilt aesthetic

This quilt is named "Data"....it is out of our hand-dyed Osnaburg.  Up close it has a primitive vibe, but is surprisingly modern looking, soft and about the weight of a flannel quilt. 

Osnaburg is a very old fabric provided to slaves on plantations for clothing.

Here is "Windstorm"....this quilt was designed using our fabulous hand-dyed Kona cotton highlighted in Modern Quilts Unlimited Fall 2013.  Our hand-dyed burlap and Kona cotton are one of the fabric lines featured in the "Focus on Color" section by Carol Zentgraf. 

Last but not least is "Visions of Plum".....this quilt features our new hand-dyed Pimatex cottons, which we are dyeing in various multi-color ways.  Here we are featuring our purple multi-color way, Visions of Plum, thus the name.  This yummy quilts' fabric is most similar to the weight and feel of batik fabric.  

On The Road Again.....

Finally headed toward Houston for Quilt Market...but not quite as direct a route as maybe we should have.  First a stop in Palm Springs at Hamburger Mary's for lunch...a girls' gotta eat you know...

                                                        

 

This burger brings new meaning to the phrase "Holy Cow"!  Guess we should have asked about the size....or maybe agreed on one choice to share...

Surprise....here's the bill....

Okay so now we are on the road again, I think we've been here before...the landscape looks the same for miles and miles...

                 

We decided to take a side trip off the interstate, into Joshua Tree National Park.....now here is where slowing down you notice the subtleties in the colors.

Wish I'd paid more attention to the sign at the Rangers' Station about Tarantulas'...I really have to read more closely.  Glad they gave us a map and information on the plant life because this is nothing like I'm used to below is a Ocotillo, they have red blossoms in the spring and often in the fall, that's a color I'd have loved to have seen out here.

Map in hand, but really no need to navigate...only one road so far and I'm not suggesting pulling off of it...not sure about those Tarantula's.  However there is a Chollo Cactus Garden, that sounds interesting...every clump of cactus we think is it.....funny....when we finally arrive we realize we couldn't have missed it.

Great texture....feeling pretty secure..on a sidewalk, not in the sand.

Finally we see our first Joshua tree....remind you of anything....like the Dr. Seuss book, The Lorax.

Love the bark texture....thank goodness for the ability to zoom in on my camera.

We decide to turn around and boogey, cause we have a reservation in Tucson for the night.  Two hours after we enter the park we are on I-10 and grateful for an exit with "services"....seems few and far between out here in the Mojave Desert.  This has the mother-load of services....bathrooms, cold drinks and ice cream....oh yeah....also General Pattons' museum.

Lovely sundown colors...

Remember I said at the beginning we should have taken a more direct route....that's because after dark in Arizona, Kristin got pulled over by the highway patrol....no, not for speeding...one of the headlights was out.  Now you'd think we would have noticed that don't you???  Well 30 minutes later, work order in hand...exhausted but with a couple hours left before we will reach our bed for the night.

 

Here are 2 projects we actually finished before we left home;

1) Our burlap Christmas stocking is from one of our hand-dyed fat quarters, one of our smalls and our perle cotton.    

2) Our burlap wine bag, you can actually get 3 bags from one of our hand-dyed fat quarters, embellish any way you choose, this one has a felted leaf on it,  Great way to make a bottle of wine look extra special this holiday season.

Have You Ever Forgotten To Take Out Your Camera?

This summer I got a smart phone which does not mean I've gained any additional wisdom, especially in regards to how this "thing" works...what can my excuse be?  Old Age????  I did celebrate a monumental birthday in October, but heaven forbid I would use age as my excuse...grrrrr!   Here's the problem we have no pictures in Santa Clara or during Pacific International Quilt Festival.  Can I simply say...I forgot and  it's not due to my age either. 

We did take a few photos before we reached Santa Clara...

like the Snowman in the desert.... 

McDonalds' in a train car.....

Or how about the airplane grave yard in the desert....

Really the fun began "after" the show when we drove up to Napa Valley for a little "well deserved time off".

Our first stop was Prager Winery in Saint Helena, CA where the gardens were gorgeous, the walls inside were covered in dollar bills from all over the world and the wine, especially the port was really wonderful.  No photos here.....Okay maybe it is age related!  Next we drove to Castello di Amorosa in Calistoga where we took our time taking in the views as well as this wonderful Italian castle that was moved to this location including a moat and gargoyle.

A little fooling around.....

                                                                 

Exploring and enjoying.....

                                                  

Next we stopped at V. Sattui Winery in Saint Helena...this was really a dash through tasting as someone had recommended their Madeira to us, but we had a reservation in a few minutes at another winery....really that is why I have no photos it's not age.  We did come away with a bottle of that Madeira....for a special occasion.  Yum!  We raced on to our last destination Frog's Leap...whew....we made our reservation with a couple of minutes to spare.  Even exploring before the tasting....a little

but afterwards just slowly strolling through the gardens.

Beautiful ending to the day!