Block of the Month with Terri Stegmiller

This is my Block 2 for the Block of the Month Club with Terri Stegmiller of Two Creative Studio. This is actually the October block but since we were out of town in October, I am just making the block. We already have the pattern for the November Block 3 and I hope to complete it this week. New blocks are available around the 15th of the month. If you are interested you will find a link on my side bar.

You can see my Block 1 here.

Emma's Tree

I signed up for this pattern recently with LearningFA Yahoo group. It's made of 2 1/2" squares. It's a great way to use up that scraps of Christmas fabric. It was very easy to make. I did this one last evening. I still need to whip stitch the area of the truck where quilt was turned. I'm also planning to edge stitch around the entire tree. The directions don't call for quilting but I may decided to stitch in the ditch of each square. I think these will make great Christmas presents for family and friends.

The Story of Emma's Tree

This little quilt is called Emma's Tree in the memory of Miriam's daughter who died of breast cancer at age 29. During her daughter's illness, Miriam had difficulty sleeping and spent many hours in her sewing room making these little quilts for family and friends. Now they are called Emma's Trees and are being made by people in many countries around the world. What a great tribute to Miriam and her daughter, Emma.

Snowy Sahuary

I designed this little sahuaro cacti a few months ago. The cacti body is painted batting. I didn't have the correct green for the sahuaro, so I mixed acrylic paint and painted the batting. I really liked the resulting fabric with a wonderful texture and the perfect color. I drew my cacti shaped pattern and cut the front and back from the painted batting. I then stitched the spines with my sewing machine. I used a decorative stitch and silver thread. I then cut out the mouth and added brown fabric with a reverse applique technique. The snow is white novelty yarns that were attached with my embellishing machine. The two pieces were stitched together with wrong sides together. Sahuary was stuffed with batting and a base of painted batting was added. Buttons were added for eyes. Last a chili pepper necklace was placed around his neck. I've very fond of my Snowy Sahuary. He will be added to my Christmas collection.

Pink Saturday

Vintage Pink Check

I love to find vintage sewing patterns at thrift stores and use them in my altered fabric art. They bring back so many memories. This little pink check reminds me of my high school days. (Darts, fitted waist, big skirts, petticoats, and bows in my hair) Those days are long gone and so is my 23" waist!!!!!!!

Thank you for visiting my Pink Saturday post this week. To find out more about Pink Saturday, check out How Sweet the Sound.

Montezuma's Castle

Our granddaughter's First Grade class has been studying Native Americans. Today we did a day trip in the motorhome with her family to see where Native Americans had lived in the Verde Valley of Arizona. The weather was lovely and we had a great time. Traveling in the motorhome (even just for a day) is wonderful. The two granddaughters loved being able to play games and eat snacks as we traveled along I-17. Both girls became Junior Rangers and received a certificate and a badge.

Christmas Purple

This is a stocking I made for a stocking swap in one of my yahoo groups. My partner likes the color purple. I found this light purple fabric in my stash of Christmas fabrics. I made placemats and napkins from the fabric a few years ago. There was just enough to make the stocking front and lining. I made my own pattern and used fusible fleece as the batting in the stocking. I'm very pleased with the results. The stocking will be stuffed with purple items for Kathie to use in her altered fabric art projects.

Happy Thanksgiving to All

Wishing each of you a very Happy Thanksgiving. I am so thankful for family and friends. They have provided me with so much love and support these past few years. During the most difficult of times, friends have been there for me. Thank you.

I am also thankful for all that God has provided for our family. As we sit at the Thanksgiving table and count our blessings, we realize just how blessed we are.

Shirley Temple Girls

I don't usually post about family or personal life but had to brag on my granddaughter. She participated in her school's fall play last week. She was one of the Shirley Temple girls (third from the left). She is a first grader and loves to perform in front of an audience. We are so proud of her. The entire show was done by First through Third graders.

Black and White Trench

This is the article from Belle Armoire magazine that I told you about earlier. The article is written by Amanda Crabtree. My trench is the top one with the white pockets and trim. This is one of the first items I submitted to Somerset magazines. Since I hadn't heard from them for over a year and a half. I assumed they weren't going to use the trench. I was surprised when I received the email telling me that it was going to be published. The article is actually three pages. The last page has two photos of details of my coat. The trench is made from a thrifted vintage designer trench and a white formal gown. It really looks great in the magazine, don't you think?

Pink Saturday

This is my very first Pink Saturday post.

I discovered Pink Saturday last week and decided to join. My Think Pink is this lovely little vintage planter. I found this beautiful pink planter at a local thrift store. Written on the bottom is " Julie '47 from Gram Til". I just wonder where Julie is today and why she discarded this little gem. Click here to find out more about Pink Saturday.

Fabric Christmas Cookie Swap

Norma is hosting a Fabric Christmas Cookie Swap on Fabric in Altered Arts 2. The inspiration was an article in the 2009 holiday issue of quilting Arts Gifts (No Bake Treats). I found the most difficult part was clipping and turning the edges to the back of the cookie before attaching the back. I tried three glues and didn't find any of them to do a great job. My Ultimate Glue usually works on all projects but didn't stick well on this one. I think the issue may have been that gel medium was applied to the fabric and it become almost plastic-like. And we all know how much fun it is to glue plastic.

I am however pleased with the results. This is the 6 cookies that will be mailed to Norma. I made a dozen cookies plan to use the others I made a gift tags.

"F" is for Face Quiltie

In the Fabric in Altered Arts 2 group this month's letter for our alphabet quiltie is "F". I decided to use one of my sketches from the Faces on Fabric class. I completed the class recently and had a number of sketches to choose from. My "F" includes a Face and Flowers on Fabric. Guess that qualifies as an "F" quiltie. I sized the sketch to the correct size and printed on an ink jet fabric sheet. Color was added with colored pencils. I added a spray finish to the fabric before adding backing and batting.

Felt Like Fall Fabric Postcard

This is my Felt Like Fall Fabric Postcard for a trade on Fiber Art Traders (FAT). This is the final postcard in a set of the four seasons. You can find my winter and spring here, and summer here. The trade is hosted by Gretchen. She promises a goodie bag to those of us who have participated in all four trades. This has been a fun trade. I've used my Husky Star ER 10 for some of the postcards. This postcard has a layered felt leaf. It gives it a 3-D effect. I then sprinkled mica chips on the top layer to represent the sparkle of frost early in the morning.

Eat Beef Fabric Postcard

This is my November postcard for Fabric in Altered Arts 2. My partner this month is Norma. I used an image of a vintage Thanksgiving card. It's difficult to read the message but it says "I'm the popular birdie. All right! All right!" I decided to stamp the words EAT BEEF along the side of the card. Black snaps were used as the final embellishment. Hope Norma enjoys the card.

Altered Couture "Apron-All"

This is my second item in the Winter Altered Couture magazine. The Apron-All was made from a pair of thrifted child's overalls and a vintage apron. I removed the pocket from the apron and added to the bib of the overall. When I purchased the apron, I thought it was a child's apron but I've since learned that many vintage aprons are smaller than those of today. I did make the waistband smaller to fit the waistband of the overall. I also used a red sharpie to add detail to the buttons. This item will be available in my Etsy store when it is returned from Stampington's.

Altered Couture "No Sew Sweater"

I just returned from vacation to find my complimentary copy of the Winter issue of Altered Couture magazine. I have two items in the magazine. This is one. The 100% wool sweater has been embellished using a Embellishing (felting) machine. The flower petals are wool fabric that has been felted to the sweater. I them added the strips of a multicolored wool fabric and novelty yarn with the felting machine. The entire upcycled sweater was done with the felting machine. No sewing involved. The sweater and wool fabric were purchased at the thrift store. The novelty yarn was from my stash. I used my Huskystar ER 10 embellishing machine.

Just Sold on Etsy

This little altered jacket just sold in my Etsy store and is on it's way to a new home in Pennsylvania. I'm hoping to add more items to my store in the next few weeks. I have neglected my store for some time and just reactivated it this week. Just click on the Esty link on my blog to see my Etsy store.

The jacket was embellished with pink lace and rickrack. I added a machine embroidery applique on the back and added fabric to the collar.

Roswell, New Mexico

We recently visited Roswell, New Mexico. I decided to post a few of the pics from our visit. We enjoyed our drive through NM especially the White Sands Missle Museum, Roswell, and Cloudcroft.

Falling Leaves

This was the view last week from my front yard. Doesn't the neighbor's new barn look great with the changing leaves in the background. Notice the fallen leaves in our yard. They have since been removed by wind and the lawn mower. Most of the leaves have fallen and it's time for my DH to clean gutters before we leave our wonderful country home.

Fabric Postcards

I recieved these two fabric postcards recently. Aren't they lovely? The autumn themed card with the lovely pic of boats is from Pam C. in Maine. She took the photo on a trip to the coast of Maine. This was for the October postcard swap on Fabric in Altered Arts 2.

The Frida postcard is from Anne in CA. It was for the Day of the Dead postcard trade on Fiber Art Traders. Thanks to Anne and Pam.

Hip Hip Horray! We now have high-speed internet!!

Even our resident squirrel is celebrating the installation of high speed internet here in the country. Finally found someone who didn't just go by what the girls in the office said but thought we might be able to get a good signal so far our here in the country. The signal is great and we feel that we are back in the technology age. No more dial-up. I can now see the granddaughter's Halloween costumes. Some of the photos didn't download and the two that did were just like that t.v. ad where it takes forever for the picture to download.

Now I can blog from the country. I'll post more photos of fall in the country later today. Now I'm off the look at emails I haven't even tried to open because of size.