Play Ball!

C and I ushered in the 2007 Major League Baseball season today by attending the very last Atlanta Braves' Exhibition game vs. the Chicago White Sox at Turner Field here in Atlanta. Our friends Bob and Sheila, who are consummate White Sox fans, were there with us. The weather couldn't have been finer: low 70s and a bit overcast with a very gentle breeze...and (forgive me Bob and Sheila for shouting) OUR BRAVES WON!!!! This first shot is taken from our seats just before the game began. The grounds crew was out wetting down the baseline and I was busy trying to find my score book from last year. Voila, there it was! Aha!!! But to no avail: I had forgotten that the last game we had attended in 2006 had filled my scorebook. Darn!!! So, there was no scoring for me today. I believe that this was the very first major league baseball game I'd attended in which I had not kept score!! Oh well, there's always room for change!!

However, I think that I will design my own scorecard before we attend our next Braves game on April 11th. As you can read on the big screen below, the Braves wooped up on the White Sox 4-2. I loved being there, seeing Redmon pitch for the Braves at the Ted and also seeing Bob Wickman pitch as closer for the very first time, for me that is!!!

We came back to the condo, had a little nap (C is a habitual napper and my Spring allergies made me do it today!) and then tackled some plumbing challenges. Our kitchen and bathroom faucets both needed replacing. We had purchased the newbies yesterday and decided today was definitely the day. The most difficult task was removing the old fixtures...especially the one in the bathroom. I am pleased to report that after only about three hours we have brand new and fully operational faucets in both our kitchen and bath! No leaks!!! :-)

I thought I'd include a few pics I've taken this past week of pieces I've been working on over the past few days. I blogged about using Nellie Durand's technique of "ortwork" and showed my adaptation of her process. I'm adding a fan made of soy silk fusion. Here is my first attempt:

Please tell me what you think. I haven't affixed the fan or the ribbons (which are silk dyed in a very pale turquoise). My thought is that the fan edges are too predictable and need to be a little more curvey. I can accomplish that with the larger part of the fan, but not with the little "slats". I will probably finish the wall hanging edges with a ruched silk ribbon or a satin stitch in a darker turquoise. Any ideas here?

Here is the totally finished silk fusion clutch/shoulder purse:

I had to relearn the fine art of crochet (my Nana would be proud!!) and do a chain and double crochet for the little shoulder strap. And then it took me a week to relocate my little eyelet applier doohickey! But it is now completed!! WooHoo!!!


Below you will find the first stages of "Standing on HER own Two Feet", which is for my dear friend Bobbie. I've dyed all of the charmeuse, painted the background and this past week I did a bit of thread painting on the background. I hope to complete the thread painting on the bird and hibiscus this next week. I am intending to bead the yellow/gold flower centers next week too! (Mistress Bobbie/Birdey will have a round black button for an eye.)

That's all for today folks!

Cheers and Peace!!!

HaHa!!

I was sewing away and C came out to my little room and announced that we had internet, so I dropped everything and came in to do a proper blog....well, at least what I call a proper blog!

Yesterday I participated in This Day in the Life, which was a type of journaling done by women of all walks of life. Deb had talked about it in her blog, and I had signed up to participate months ago. Yesterday was the day! YIKES!!!

I decided to snap a few pics as I went along. I started my morning by squeezing some grapefruit juice for me and C:


After that, I took Barker for our 3-mile walk and along the way we admired a few flowering trees. This one is in our next door neighbor's yard. It is, be still my heart, my all time favorite Spring bloomer, the Red Bud, but this is a most special Red Bud, Forest Pansy. In the summer, its leaves are a very deep green with an almost burgundy backside. I love this tree!!



Here's a gorgeous flowering cherry, in all of its glory:



After my rather mundane "twigs and berries" breakfast, I settled in to some innovative quilting. I often read Nellie Durand's blog and am quite interested in the method of quilting that she has described. I'm not sure if I'm doing it exactly the same way as Nellie, but here is how I did it yesterday. I was wanting an overall turquoisey effect, so I snipped and tore and just used bits of turquoise and other blue fabrics that I had in my "bits bucket". I placed them randomly on top of a piece of batting, threw in some cast off threads and ribbons, covered it all with a piece of blue tulle that I had discovered at the evil WM last week, pinned it all together rather sloppily, and then started fee-motion quilting.





There were two fabric names that I found in the selvege. One said "sweet" (it was leftover from a baby quilt) and the other said "fusion", so the title of this piece will be "Sweet Fusion".

Nellie produced a very lovely and huge piece that really looked like a Monet and she quilted the word "Monet" all over the piece. Well, I decided to quilt mine as "Sweet Fusion". Do you know how hard it is to keep writing sweet fusion on a sandwich that is trying to come apart?!! All in all it was a fine experience, and I love the way the piece turned out. I have more plans for this piece, so this isn't the end of it quite yet. Stay tuned for more!!

Well, I am giddy with having internet, so now I need to go catch up on what all of my blogging buddies have been up to these past few days!!!

Peace!!!

Deprived and Depraved

Our internet at home has been sketchy at best for the past 2-3 weeks, but now it is virtually nonexistent. So I am sitting here in our church conference room downloading emails and blogging.........but no new pics to share, sorry. I think the photos are almost the best part of a blog, don't you? Anyway, the man from Charter had better be knocking at our door on Friday and fixing our little problem, because otherwise I may just strangle him!!

Long Time Gone

Well I feel like I've been gone from Bloggerville for a very long time! It's been a crazy week, but I'm glad to report that we've survived!

After about a two-hour nap on Wednesday afternoon, C confessed to me that he had been having chest pains for a day or two and felt lousy. I was more than a bit concerned but he said the pains were in his upper right side and that they didn't radiate down either arm, and he was NOT going to the Dr's or the ER. Well, he's a big boy and very stubborn, so I went out to do some weeding in the Springtime paradise of our patio:
Of course, the pain got worse and by 10:00 PM, he was really feeling rotten, but still refusing to go to the ER. I was furious with him, but didn't want our last words to eachother (I was sure I was about to become a widow) to be in the form of a fight, so I kept my mouth shut except to ask for more of his symptoms and to offer consoling words. Neither of us slept that night, but when we got up Thursday morning he did make an appointment with the Doc for that afternoon. Phew!!! Did I mention that he is German and very stoic??? So, to make this long story a bit shorter (you say, "too late"!), he has pneumonia and pleurisy! After several tests, including one that involved sitting for several hours in the Radiology Dept at the medical center on Thursday evening, it was determined that he did not have a pulmonary embolus, which made me eternally grateful!

So we went back home and I must tell you I was so thrilled to have him with me alive and better. After a very short time, the antibiotics kicked in and the chest pains subsided. I am happy to report that he now is painfree and pretty much back to his old happy-go-lucky and adorable self!!

I did a bit of silk fusion to keep my hands occupied. Here's a little clutch purse that I assembled in my free time:

The clutch is lined with hand dyed silk and has a little inside pocket for "essentials". I am going to add a crocheted strap that can be tucked inside. The pearl button is one of about a dozen that I cut off of a $3 thrift shop find.

This is a bit of left over silk fusion that I added some pansies to:

I have found that the pansies don't even need to be dried or pressed to add to the silk fusion. I did a sloppy job of adding the bottom flower, but now that I know it can be done, I'll do some more and take better care. These would make great cards or bookmarks, don't you think?

And last but surely not least, is this blouse that I got on sale from Dharma. I am in love with the sunset colors and although I don't wear that cherry red very well, it blends beautifully with the bright orange that suits my skin tones. I also love that red-violet color mixed in with the orange and bright red. The blouse is rayon and has a lot of nice cutwork and embroidery on it. I think it'll be a great "going out" blouse for Atlanta, don't you?

That's all from the blessedly sunny and warm southeast. Hope your day is fabulous!

One Won

Thanks to all of you and your wonderful critiques of No More Dark(ness) ! It is finally completed....phew! I apologize that the photos are not a bit clearer but my design wall is not in a great place for photographing images, since the space is a bit narrow.
Anyway, after all was said and done, View #1 received the most votes, and it had been my original favorite. I wavered a bit and thought that I liked 2 or 4, but then 1 won out in the end!

Here are a couple of closeups of the quilting. I used my all-time favorite Sulky Sliver thread and Bottomline underneath. I really had fun with it, but I must thank C for his patience, since he was more than ready to make a quit getaway for the condo on Saturday morning and I simply "had" to finish sewing on the binding before I could/would budge!

Each block measures 9.75" square, with the entire wall hanging measuring 30" square. It is a takeoff on Cara Gulati's "Radiant Suns", but I added the points in the purple arc, a la Valori Wells. I love to paper piece, so this filled a certain need for me, and I also love to do curved pieceing. I may have to make a few more of these!

Have a great day!

Super Sunday

There is a small Atlanta Midtown paper known as "The Sunday Paper" and we love to read it. This week we found the following article:

The article lists a few of the writer's recommendations for purchases at TJs, but nothing like my friend Gerrie's illustrated list. What a treat that was! The article ends by saying that they are still unsure of the opening date, but our friend Mitchel from MetroFresh assured us that it would be next weekend! I am so ready, and I will have Gerrie's list in hand on my first visit!!!

It was such a lovely day that we ended up taking three long walks with Barker. We were in Piedmont Park at around noon time. Here's the first really pretty dogwood I've seen this Spring, and behind it is my all-time favorite Red Bud - be still my heart!!

I hope you will be able to spot the hawk in this tree. He was enormous and not very pleased at a nearby squirrel who was scolding him.

After lunch we hopped in the car and headed north on Peachtree Street to the Cathedral of St. Phillip. Here it is:

Our organist at Grace Church in Gainesville, David Burton-Brown, was giving an organ recital at 3:15 and then our parish choir was singing Evensong at 4:00. It was a wonderful afternoon with much fine music in a marvelous setting.

Outside the Cathedral, the cherry trees were putting on a show of their own.


We met up with our friends Troy and John after the service and headed to the Colonnade for dinner. This is an old-timey restaurant that is still one of Atlanta's favorites. John and Troy love it there, as do we, and we hadn't been for years. We enjoyed lots of laughs and some great food. It was packed when we went in and there were oodles of folks waiting to be seated when we left.




I had the broiled flounder stuffed with "Krabmeat", fried okra and creamed corn. It was delightful! YUMMMMM



We came home and took Barker for yet another walk....two out of three of us were waddling this time, wonder who!

Cheers!

Springtime in the City

I was kidnapped this afternoon! This big guy grabbed me up, threw a few of my belongings into an overnight bag, and packed me and my faithful hound into the car and off we went to the big city!! It never ceases to amaze me how our little condo seems to totally change my perspective on life and all that goes along with it! We live only 60 miles north of Atlanta, but the climate is totally different. The beautiful Carolina Jasmine are blooming here in the city:

and the tulips are popping:

Barker was having a fine time, out amongst his adoring public!

Look at the beautiful pansies....won't be long now before they get yanked up for the summer annuals.

a few more pansies:
Hope it's pretty where you are!

Happy Birthday Carolina

It is my sister-in-law Carol's birthday today and I so I'm here to send her very best wishes for a happy day and year. When I married into C's family, I ended up with two very dear sisters-in-law, and I feel most fortunate! I know of some situations where that is not the case. Anywho, Happy Birthday Carol. I'd run into the other room and scan some photos of you to add here, but our internet connection has been shakey at best lately, so I feel like I'm living on borrowed time just posting this much!

Without a lot of internet time, I've been playing around with some more silk fusion. Here is a piece that I completed yesterday and put in the local art league show:

The name of it is "Daddy's Jacket", because the silk fusion reminds me so much of a sports coat that my Dad bought years and years ago. Members of my silk fusion class gave me some hints and coaxed me along with it, so all of the ideas are not my own. Thanks Ladies! There are a lot of strips of yarn couched down to help give it some texture, pluse a bunch of dried flowers that are somewhat of a bouttoniere. I also used a piece of the new Jacquard silk organza to scan a photo of Daddy, and then attached it sort of like an id badge. There are two funky buttons that I found in my "old" button jar, and a sort of string tie at his neck. Daddy died of lung cancer and his first symptoms were the loss of his voice, as the tumor was pressing on his larynx..the bow makes me feel better. So, that's that.

Here's another piece of silk fusion inclusion that I made the other afternoon. I added some dried rose petals from my Valentine's bouquet and also some dried money plant seed pods from last year's blooms. There are also a ton of snippets of sulky sliver and holo shimmer in there (I throw nothing away these days!!) I like this piece a lot and have some great plans for it...and I will cut it up!!!

Here's my latest Sowz Earz bag, called "The Becky" after my friend in Decatur. I'm hoping to take it to her this weekend. It is bigger than the original Sowz Earz and has an inner cell phone pocket and magnetic closure at the top. Gerrie, the lining is wild and crazy...wish you could see it!

And now for the socks!!! And you thought I was a slacker in the knitting department, didn't you?!!! I finished this one today, with the help of my faithful teacher, the lovely Angie. I learned how to do the Kirchner stitch (is that right?) and have sewed up the toe, so to speak! YIPPEE. So, now I get to start it's sister sock!

In the meantime, I started this guy the other week:

I've now started the heel on it..........watch out toe, here I come!!! Isn't that yarn great!

So, that's it for today. I'm off to work on that lovely wall hanging that you all voted on the other day. By the way, thank you so much for all of the input! You can read the comments and sort of get a feel for the results, but I did receive a few private email votes, just to keep you hanging here. Yes Gerrie, it was sort of like a children's game, or a trip to the eye Dr's! LOL

Oh, and Carol, I think you can post comments under Anonymous, and not have to use a google sign in name. Try it and see if it'll work for you. Happy Birthday!!! :-)

The Polls Are OPEN!!!

I've been piecing and playing with this small wall hanging for the past month or so, and would love YOUR opinion oh how you think the final placement of the nine blocks should go. I thought that I had my final and most favorite placement, but when I viewed these pictures, I was amazed at how different everything appeared. Please don't be shy and register your vote. I am ready to be done with this!

So, is it View #1:

View #2:

View #3:

OR

View #4:

I obviously have no art background, just enjoy color and piecing...so any constructive criticism and reasons for your choice would also be most helpful!

Of course, you may also vote for VIEW #5, which would be the trash can. Is it waaay to busy? There will be a very narrow border, and I'm thinking it will be the pinky multi-colored fabric that is the outer portion of the arc. The binding will probably be that fabric as well.

Thanks for taking the time to post your ballot!!

Somewhere in the City....

We did a few chores around the house yesterday morning and then packed our bags and headed for the condo...just 24 hours of R&R, please!!

It was a gorgeous afternoon with temps in the low 70s. We unpacked the car and headed for Piedmont Park. Look at the crowds:


It turned out that Park Tavern was having their "Get Lucky" weekend celebration. We're already lucky, thankfully, so didn't have to partake!

We picked up some yummy scallops at Publix and a fabulous salad from dressed, and had a wonderful grilled, marinated sea scallops dinner. Later we watched a very interesting documentary about architect I.M. Pei.

It's been a lazy morning here: a good, long walk in the hood with Barker and then breakfast at Babs'. C's plate:

Mine:

The birds':

It's great to be dining outside again! Whoever would have thought it after the freezing temps we had last weekend!

On our walk home, I admired some of the city's ironwork:

We'll be heading back home this afternoon, after a stop at the Dekalb Farmer's Market and Intown Quilters <<<<>>>>!

Loco Lotion

First off, I want to thank everyone who left comments about my auditioned silk piece. I knew that the background wasn't right, but I just couldn't figure out why....and it was the busy-ness of it all. So, I've got silks in the dye pots and hopefully by tomorrow, I'll have something to show you!

After puttering in my sewing room for a couple of hours last night, I got down to business and made some lotion. What fun!! Vicki Welsh, a new cyber friend who is also taking the silk fusion class from Sue Bleiweiss, shared her lotion recipe on her blog. I have a terrible time with dry skin and excema, so I thought that it wouldn't hurt to give it a try. Vicki was very convincing, saying it only takes her 20-30 minutes from start to finish...so, at 9:30 last night my kitchen became a lotion factory:

I had received my necessary ingredients order from Majestic Mountain Sage and was eagerly anticipating the end product. I'm going to link you directly to Vicki's instructions, since there's no sense in my reinventing the wheel here. I do want to reiterate the part about using caution when heating up the liquids because they get so hot and can burn you!! I was ok until I turned on the blender and the top came loose! Just a tad bit hot, but you know what? the lotion felt so soothing on my hands that I really didn't care! Actually, I didn't get burned, but after reading Vicki's caution, I was a bit stunned when the top came loose. I had had the beginnings of a rather large and painful new crack on my right thumb when I went to bed last night, but after two applications of the lotion/hand cream (I made it thick) it is going away and doesn't even hurt anymore!

So I'm off to get busy. Hope you have a great day too!

A Bit of the Harvest

Here is a bit of the fruits of yesterday's labors...but just one small bit. I hope I'll have time to share more tomorrow.

This is the piece of silk roving that I dyed and added in inclusions to yesterday. Funny thing is, I had so wanted to add gold leaf, and then I forgot! There are a few dried flowers, LOTS of bits of sulky sliver, a good bit of glitter, and some loose yarns. They don't show up too well here, but you can view closeups on my Flickr account at right.

OK, now here's where you come in! I'm toying with the idea of mounting this piece on another piece of hand dyed silk. What do you think of this idea and what do you think of the combo below?

Don't be shy...my shoulders are broad and I really do want your feed back! Any suggestions on how to make it better? More purple perhaps???

Below is the same silk fusion on the same silk, but just moved around a bit. Good idea or not? Speak up, for heaven's sake!!!

And I'll leave you with an up close and personal view of my new shoes. I'm disappointed to see that I've already really scuffed up the toes. :-( Bummer!!! Oh, but they are so comfy...and I can't wait to get my new hand knit socks on with them....remind me to show you my socks!! woohoo!!!!