Gone with the Wind

Another breezy, rainy day thanks to Gustav. Fortunately, he is passing well offshore of us so we are just getting fringe effects.

But it reminded me about our MQR postcard swap...this time's theme is "Gone with the wind" As a Floridian, this is what comes to mind when I think 'gone with the wind'.

Another Floridian and online friend Barbara also did a similar postcard recently for one of her exchanges. When I saw hers I told her I had done one too...only my hurricane was on the west coast LOL....she lives on the east coast. Of course, those of you all along the Gulf coast and southern Atlantic seaboard can relate to this. Right now, I hoping Gustav's 'bark' will be worse than his 'bite' as we have family hunkered down in Louisiana waiting.....

And on another note, I got this postcard yesterday from my cousin Mary Ann. This one is for our August family exchange....the theme was "Heat". Isn't it cute! Thanks, Mary Ann.

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Can you believe it!!!

It's pouring....again. Thanks to Gustav. Don had to drain the pool this afternoon, and will again in the morning. We are OK, but just a few miles south of here, there are still so many people out of their homes from the flooding of Fay last week. Now, we are sandwiched between TWO storms! Fortunately for us, Gustav will be mainly a rain event for us and not a land falling hurricane.

I really am concerned for the people of the Louisiana coast..it looks as if they will bear the brunt of Gustav. We have family there, as do some of you. Please, lets all think positive thoughts for them.

And Hanna...what are you going to do? Where will you go??

It is the peak of 'cane" season after all. I'll be glad when it's over! Just 3 more months!

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The class

OK, after the little video, some of you have asked...others may be wondering. What class, when and where.

I posted a quilt here based on a textures series of classes that I am doing locally. Well, that now is going to be an online class at MQR..THE best resource for machine quilters around. For ALL machine quilters, not just longarmers.

So anyway, you have to be a member, but there's time to join. It's a great resource for all quilters. I know I've been through all this before, but...it's a wonderful place, so if you aren't already a member, you should consider it. I probably should mention, that I am a member of the staff, but in spite of that, lol .... it is a great place...you should join us.... really.

The class starts September 22 and goes for 6 weeks. Suzanne and I have been working hard to make it a step above. Not only will you have written lessons to download each week, you will also have access to video that SHOWS you how...each step of the way.

So if you like texture, or making your own unique fabrics...join us. You'll make your own --one of a kind fabrics, and then a quilt using all those wonderful fabrics. It'll be fun, and you'll have tons of support as you take this journey.

OK, commercial over now.. I accomplished nothing today....other than playing with video...mostly getting kitty footage, which I'll share later.

Have a great night!

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A trial

I'm trying a video in preparation for a class, so let's see if the trial works.




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Cool Mail and a peek

Aren't these shirts just the coolest! Vicki sent them, one for me and Don. Thanks Vicki we both love them. I'll get you a photo of Don when he puts his on, but I can pretty much guarantee it won't be as entertaining as Gina's was!
Busy again today...finished this one up. I'll get better photos tomorrow after I've trimmed all the threads.

And Fay, though pretty far away now, is still sending those feeder bands down here with wind and rain! Don has had to drain water from the pool every day, but at least we're not having flooding like some other areas are.

Have a great night!

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A busy day AND a new toy!

After we got all the storm shutters rolled back up, I got to work. This is my first week back to work since surgery and all the visitors.

So first, I finished beading my inchies and got them off in the mail to Carla for our MQR swap.

Then I was ready to quilt. Thought I'd ease my way back into it with a quickie. A while back (actually, a long time ago) I posted the one and only turning twenty quilt I have quilted. The client wanted custom, and got it. Well, a few weeks ago she brought a table runner made from fabrics left from that TT and wanted it quilted exactly the same way. So here it is. It was a good warm up.
And she has already picked it up, happy as a little clam!

I loaded another quilt on the frame and worked on it the rest of the afternoon.

Then the UPS man brought my new 7 treasures of Buddah template from circle lord. This has tons of potential to customize....and I have just the quilt waiting to use it on!

Thanks Michael and Kay for another terrific tool!

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just about over

The worst of Fay is about over for us. It really was not bad, which is a good thing. Our highest winds were 60 mph, and we are getting lots of rain. The winds have really dropped off now too. On the photo below you can see the 'eye' is north and well east of us now. The storm is really moving slowly, so the gusty winds and rain will be here for a while yet. The power flickered a couple times, but never went out for us. That is a very good thing....cause that is a major pain. Even though we have a generator, you can't really get it going till after the storms pass. We were lucky this time....and lucky is GOOD.
So, during the night and early this morning while the wind was howling and I couldn't sleep, I worked on beading my inchies. Not yet half done...I have to make a total of 29, but they are looking pretty good I think. I used hot pink, hand dyed dupioni silk stitched with Sulky holoshimmer thread in lime green. The beads are pink and lime. I love these little word beads!

I'll get the rest beaded so they can go out in the mail tomorrow.

Hope everyone else in the path of this storm fairs as well as we did.

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OOPS..forgot 2 things

First, Happy Birthday to my youngest...baby girl Kelly, who is 32 today! Wow!


And second, here's the latest Fay picture. We're just getting the outer bands now. But like I said before...things are going to be OK.
See ya after the storm!

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Last minute

Last minute prep done! Including finishing the machine work on my inchies. Now I have hand work/beading to do during the storm, while I can't sleep tonight. And if the power goes out, I have a good, bright flashlight to work by. ( we have a generator, but don't normally crank that up till the storm passes) Though the latest forecasts are more reassuring...looks like at most it will be a weak Cat 1...more likely a strong tropical storm. All good news. It's due to come ashore in the wee hours ....but I've got my beading to keep me occupied(:-)

Thanks for all the good thoughts....we'll be fine, cause we're prepared for the worst, and it will likely be better than that.

See you on the flip side!

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Fay

All the prep is done. The hurricane shutters are up, the furniture moved inside from the lanai, as are the plants, bird feeders and baths. We have plenty of food,water and kitty supplies. The cars are filled with gas, we have flashlights and batteries; and gas for the generator. We are ready...as ready as we can be for whatever Fay throws at us. The boat is secured, all the sails and canvas off. The propane tanks full as are the water tanks. We are ready. The outer bands are pouring on us now....just a taste of what's to come. But this is south Florida...hurricanes are are way of life here. The main thing is to be ready. And the best part is ...we always have plenty of warning---time to prepare. Unlike those who live in tornado alley, or earthquake country. Mother nature always gives us several days of warning. We have learned over the years to heed that warning. We did, and we're ready. So we hunker down and hope for the best, knowing we have prepared for the worst. We have endured worse than what this one will be. SO ... in preparation, I also did some sewing. Got a couple postcards done, and my inches made and quilted. So that if the power goes out, I will have work to do by hand...beading my inches. The longarm doesn't like the generator power...we found that out after Charley in 2004. So now each year I prepare hand work to keep me busy until the power is restored.

We have a family postcard exchange deadline coming up, so I got that one done. The theme is "Heat". I also have an MQR postcard exchange coming up...theme is "Gone with the Wind" worked on that too. Bet you can guess what mine will portray.....

And Kelly wanted a bookmark postcard...so this is what I made for her.

I will go first thing in the morning to the post office, before things deteriorate too much to get these in the mail.

Tomorrow I'll try to post . Tuesday will be the worst day...so I may not be able to talk to you then, but will be back as soon as I can.

Have a great night!

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Class sample done...almost

First, look at this great quilted postcard I got in the mail today. Mother sent it to me for my birthday which is tomorrow. Isn't it cute! Thank you Mother, I love it! And the class sample is finished...except for hand stitching the binding down and the crystal eyes, and shell charms on the beach. Not a minute too soon either. The class is Sept 3rd and 4th. It is the second in my series of textured quilts. It has painted batting, tyvek (both types) Textiva film, Angelina fibers, and dimensional fish. All the applique and the couching was done on the longarm...though it all can easily be done on the domestic machine.

This photo doesn't show the color accurately, but this backing fabric is a piece I won in Randi's blog contest a while back. Thanks Randi...it was perfect for this back! Oops, should have trimmed the threads before I took the picture! Sorry.

And of course, I leave you with a photo of my helpers.....who decided to be lazy today. LOL. But they're cute anyway.

Have a great night!

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Party!!!

Suzanne is having a party, so head on over. Her cookies and lemonade look good. I think I'll bring wine and Ben & Jerry's cookie dough ice cream. What are you bringing?


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Carla's having a contest!

Carla's having another blog contest. Better head on over quick, it ends Sunday. She's giving away one of her fabulous scarves.

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Textures

The girls are gone, and I miss them already! But I am exhausted! It has been a whirlwind 3 weeks...two sets of kids and grand kids visiting with surgery in between. I don't think I would recommend that kind of schedule.....but I certainly did enjoy every second of all my visitors.

Today, however it is back to work....sort of, and slowly. I have a second textures class coming up to teach and need to get this class sample done. The background you saw when I made it in an earlier post. The other "fabrics" you saw in the post just the other day. Now you can see them being put together. This project, as my other textures project is appliqued and quilted in one step. I thought I'd show you step by step as I pin them on the background so you can see all the layers.

These are the cave and rock formations. I draw them on freezer paper and iron them to the fabric...or in this case, the batting. All cut here and ready to go.
Placed on the background.

Harry was helping me pin them in place.

Next is the sea fan. the branches will be added later.

And the turtle body....which is batting.

and my helper again.....

And the turtle shell and shell skirt. The detail will be added later. All the shell parts are soft structure tyvek.

Some coral formations...also tyvek, but these are hard structure tyvek.

And the cap of a jellyfish...this is felted wool.

The inside of the cap....it is Angelina fibers, fused into a sheet then cut in the desired shape.

And the second layer of the cap....it is textiva (Angelina) film. (sometimes called Fantasy film)

And the tentacles added...they too are Angelina fibers.

Here the seaweed has been added. They are batting, and will be further embellished with yarns later in the process.

And finally the fish are added. These are from a fish print fabric, fused to a moda marble and fussy cut.


The branches of the sea fan are metallic chenille sticks. They will be couched on later.

There are lots of other details to be added after the basic quilting is done, but this gives you an idea of what it will look like.


The backing is loaded, and I'll load the batting and top in the morning. This puppy should be
quilted by noon. Then, I'll finish the couching (I do it on the longarm), add the final
dimensional elements and some crystals, and it's done except for finishing the edge.


I haven't decided yet if I'm going to bind it or face it. Right now I'm leaning towards
facing it. We'll see how I feel when it's done.


Have a great night!

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yesterday's fabric done and the dolls!

Today I heat set the batting and cheesecloth I painted yesterday. Here is some of the cheesecloth.
And below is a small sampling of the batting.

All ready to go into my Textured reef quilt sample.

Between pool time, the girls worked and finished their dolls. Grandpop says they look much better than Grandmom's crack whore mermaid doll.....


Here is Kara with hers.

And Sammy with hers.

Tomorrow is our last full day, this trip. (:-(


Nite all.

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