Art Journals At Spring EXPO!!!!

Back To The Land Of The Living!! (Sort Of)

With only the remnants of the holidays left in boxes around the house....I've returned to the land of the living. Hockey season is in full swing. Anthony's college and scholarship applications are the main focus for now.

The deep freeze has made it possible to spend time in the studio and getting some new projects ready for Spring classes. The Art Journal is a fun, fast "No-Sew" project. Trying to post a slide show, but there seems to be a glitch today. I'll keep trying.

Spring EXPOS are just around the corner. YEAH!!!! We go to Atlanta and Tampa in March. With the SUB ARCTIC COLD that we have in Ohio right now, I can't wait to go south. Oh, wait a minute.....didn't it snow in Atlanta last year? Well, there's still hope that Tampa will be warm.

Hottsie Tottsie Quilt Designer reveals All !!!!

I always imagine that the BIG TIME quilt designers have very expensive and knowledgeable photographers.They get MEGA BUCKS to photograph the quilts that appear on the covers of the patterns. In the world of "Not Yet Ready For The BIG TIME", I came up with a plan which should probably stay a secret forever. Unable to photograph my new "KNOTS" quilt on the family room wall, like I usually do, I called Teri. We drove around town with a ladder a roll of tape and a pair of scissors, looking for a wall big enough to tape the quilt onto. We tried the brick wall outside of the elementary school, but tape wouldn't stick to the Brick. (It sticks to everything else???!!!!) Looking across the parking lot, we found the perfect spot!!! The tape really sticks to bus garage doors!! Anyway...we're probably lucky we didn't get arrested.

Anyway...we got the pictures, and through the magic of Photo shop, I have "Not Quite Ready For BIG TIME" MINI BUCKS pictures. Kind of makes you wonder about Karen Stone, doesn't it ?

FALL EXPO CLASSES

The FALL EXPO classes are pictured in the slideshow, below!!! NOT REALLY KNOTS looks complicated, but is actually done in FOUR easy steps!! The best part is....there is NO curved piecing or handwork. "Knots" is the third quilt in the "Inside-Out" series.
REALLY REALLY BROKEN DISHES was the first in the series. It is also done with NO curved piecing and NO handwork. It's a fun and interactive class.You start out with only 2 fabrics in your kit, and end up with a block containing 16 different colors.I'll also share the scoop on adding the ART QUILT embellishments.
Magic Mirrors is the newest addition to the "AhHa!!pattern line.Hopefully, you will leave the class with a nearly finished tiny treasure. (If you go crazy with the beading and embellishments, you may need to finish the binding at home)In a workshop last March, my friend DEB finished 2 mirror quilts in the same time everyone else did ONE!! There's one in every group! And YES....I want some of whatever she's taking!!!
Last but not least, POSTCARD PARTY. We'll discuss the basics of postcard construction, and go on from there. I'm bringing my collection of hundreds of handmade fabric postcards from all over the world. I'll share surface design ideas, mailing tricks, and some swap group info, so you can start swapping right away with old friends and new ones all over the world! You will leave class with about 6 finished and ready to mail postcards.

New Purse Idea!!

I'd love to thank Annie J. for the wonderful purse idea!! She e-mailed me a while ago, saying that she liked the style of my box purses, ( THANK_YOU !!!) but they really didn't work for her.(Too bulky) Soooo...she asked me to think of an envelope style purse. Something with a longer strap that she could wear across her chest and keep it out of the way. It needed to be large enough for a cell phone, drivers licence, and a couple of small items. Here's what I came up with. I'm really looking forward to expanding on this idea!! They are a lot of fun to make. (notice the postcard re-purposing??)

Pretty Nice Day In Ohio

It's about time we had a nice day!!!! Maybe I should explain...... The definition of a "Pretty Nice Day In Ohio"(As well as out neighboring states up here by the lake) is "Any weather that you don't have to Rake,Shovel, scrape off of your car, or pump out of your basement". Last Friday night we had some crazy wind, which split our big front yard tree,right in half!!!! The left half of it was laying on the power lines.Yikes! Luckily, the tree service came out on Saturday and munched it up in about 40 minutes!! They had a giant crane and muncher and just lifted it right over the house!!!

So.....today was a pretty nice day in Ohio. Hot and Humid with hardly any funnel clouds!! Sure makes it hard to focus on work!!!!