fun photos, jumble puzzle

Once in a while I attempt the "Jumble" puzzle in the newspaper. This morning I had figured out all the mixed-up words except one: FACTRY. When I finally figured it out, I had to laugh out loud. (answer at the end of the post for those who need it)

Here are a few photos I took on Skype on Monday.

That's the little elf cap I knitted for Samantha, with thick/thin yarn. Doesn't she have a cute smile?

Here Samantha is holding a small quilt that I kntted for her. Darn, I forgot to take a good photo of this before I mailed it. I'll try to take one when we go to New York next time. It's a simple flannel quilt, just tied instead of quilted, but it's fun and colorful.

She loved ripping up the wrapping paper. Yippee, who needs presents when you can play with wrapping paper?

The answer to the jumbled word is: CRAFTY!

more stuff I made recently

I've got my crafty working on overload these days.

I've made several of these cute little bags. They're great for gift bags. The designer originally conceived of them while thinking up an alternative to the little plastic bags for produce in super markets. Got the pattern from http://www.daisyjanie.com/

Also I recently finished these fingerless gloves for me. This is
another of those fabulous patterns from More Last Minute Knitted Gifts by Joelle Hoverson.

This is how they look on. I used an alpaca sport weight yarn instead of what she suggested. It's a tad snug, but okay on my small hands.

Front view. I can't wait to make more!


I have started planning my Beneath the Surface quilt, not much to show yet. I'll get more serious about it in January.

holiday cheer

The holidays are here and it's great to have family around us. Our son is home, and this morning we went to my brother's house for a family brunch.

Here's our son Warren with his cousin Alex, working on their respective flying objects.

This is Xavier with her mom Amity, and they are showing the sweater I made for him.

This is a better photo of it.

Couldn't resist showing this scene with Xavier clutching his dad Scott's glasses and not letting go.

Of course we miss those who could not be here this Christmas. Hope we can get the Skype to work at some point.

Its Your Fault in IQA catalogue

Jamie gave me a heads up that one of my quilts is in the Cincinnati IQA class catalogue. Yippee! This is "It's Your Fault," part of the Beneath the Surface exhibit, which has already toured in Long Beach and Houston. Not the best photo - for some reason this quilt doesn't photograph well, in my experience. 

Alzheimer's Breakthrough thanks to quilters!

Ami Simms has announced that one of the studies funded by the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative has yielded positive results!

According to Ami, "Scientists that we financed basically created a molecule that is able to break up the plaques in the brain that may be responsible for cell death in Alzheimer's. In smaller pieces, it may be possible for them to be removed. Much more work needs to be done, but this is certainly promising."

Go to the AAQI Update blog for more information. Here's the blog address: http://www.aaqiupdate.wordpress.com/

I am so proud to have been a small part of this. I had a quilt in their travelling exhibit that was called "Alzheimer's: Forgetting Piece by Piece," which wound up its run recently at the Sherbourne Museum in Sherbourne, Vermont.

Matilda and what's for breakfast

Here's Matilda in her annual climb-to-the-top-of-the-ladder photo while I decorated the Christmas tree. She is pondering how she is going to get herself down, as she always does. When will she ever learn?

What's for breakfast? Cold leftover apple-cranberry pie, which I made for last night's Cut-Loose party. Yum. Life is good!

Also I had the first homegrown grapefruit from this year's harvest. You can see I was reading the "Craft Inc" article in this morning LA Times. They're talking about the popular local craft festivals, juxtaposed against the foreign-made handcrafted ornaments being sold in places like Crate and Barrel.  I have mixed feelings on the subject. On the one hand, it's good to support women who are making their lives better by making crafts in developing countries, and I do buy things like that from time to time. On the other hand, it's great to support local crafters and artisans. It's not only patriotic: buying local crafts is more eco-friendly than buying things that had to travel from many thousands of miles away. Support your local crafter!





Holiday Gifts

Deepest apologies, it's been ages since my last post. The tree is up, shopping has been started, projects are still underway. Many projects cannot be shown, but I still have much to share, dear reader.

This is the gift I received at the ornament exchange, a casserole tote with matching hot pad. I love it! It will be perfect for carrying my dish to the Christmas brunch.  Darla Cox made it. Unfortunately I forgot to take a photo of the scarf that I knitted for this exchange. My dear friend Carol McDaniel received it - it was so nice to see her.

I made these bags, with matching flower pins, for my Cut-Loose friends. We had our holiday party last night at Joanell's. Great food, fun conversation, wonderful friends!

Three of the bags were made with fabric I painted or printed. The red and blue came from Rayna Gillman's workshop on deconstructed screenprinting. I think the other one was a paint rag from that class. Sometimes paint rags made the best fabric! The pins were made with multiple layers of fancy fabrics, blasted a bit with my heat embosser. I've seen similar elsewhere and wanted to make my own.

The rest of the bags are made with Ghana batiks. I just love these fabrics - many of them also appear in my "Tie Dyes and Dyed Ties" quilt. I let my friends pick the bag they wanted and was surprised by what they chose. Which confirms my inclination to let 'em pick their own!