Quilt Show Info

http://www.bvpiecemakers.com/page04.html

HOLY FAMILY PARISH

1851 3rd Avenue

New Brighton, PA 15066

Friday and Saturday

Oct 12th and Oct 13th 10 AM till 5 PM

Sunday

Oct 14th 2012- 11 AM to 4 PM

Admission $ 7

Children 12 & under Free

We'll be looking forward to seeing you!
This Year's Theme is Scrappy

 

 

Out of Hiding

Hello, it's been a long long time.  I've been wrapped up in the million things that life throws at us all.  Hopefully I'm back and will be able to keep up and post someething at least once a week.  We'll see how that works out.  LOL

Houses

I joined a house swap for the Textile Challenges group. This is the most recent one that I have completed. I had a lot of fun working on this one. Thanks go to hubby and kids for making the huge sacrifice of eating ice cream so I could have the sticks. : )

Bookmark and Collage Tutorial (and trying out my new camera)

Several people have asked how I did the fabric for the bookmarks. So I put this together. It's really easy. I'm pretty sure the painted fusible idea came from Two Creative Studios. I think the idea for fusing threads etc. and then covering with netting came from the same place but I can't remember where I saw it first for sure. Lots of people use it for surface design. If you get a chance do click on the link for Two Creative Studios. It should take you directly to the free project page. They also offer online classes at very reasonable prices and I'm dying to take several.

The background for the collages were created basically the same way but without the paint. I used snips of fabric and steps 4 and 5 to create the fabric then layered like a quilt and used fmq all over the top. I cut them to size, used a fairly large zigzag on the edges and stitched on some leaves. I then mounted them to bristol board that I had previously painted and stamped.



Step 1:

I put a piece of fabric down and painted fusible webbing that I cut into different shapes on top of it. I really like the negative that you get with this process. I don't remember what kind of fusible I used, it was either heat n bond or steam a seam. I used lumiere paint.
Step 2:

I fused the fabric to peltex 70 and fused a backing fabric on the other side. I did this first because I used netting over the entire thing and it can't handle very high heat.

Step 3:

The previously painted fusible got arranged and fused down at this point.

Step 4:

I fused a layer of mistyfuse over the entire surface. It really shows up in the picture here because I didn't really fuse it down on this piece of fabric. I'm not sure what I will use this fabric for yet so I just laid it down to get a picture.

Step 5:

You could add anything else you wanted to at this point. I just left the bookmarks plain. The postcard shown below has candelight thread on it, I just laid it out in a grid pattern over the mistyfuse. Add a layer of netting and fuse it over the top. Make sure to test your iron temp first on a scrap. It does melt. : )

Step 6:

Cut it up to whatever size you like and finish the edges. On the bookmarks as well as the postcard below I couched candelight to the edges.

Have fun. : )

P.S. I really like my new camera. : ) Very user friendly.

Real Life - Discrimination? And New Work

It has been a week now since I quit my job. I know that sounds crazy with so many people being laid off and so many companies closing. My former employers really gave me no choice. My options were to stay and risk injury and further physical deterioration or leave. Not really much of a choice.

The short version of my physical condition is that I was born with a birth defect that required multiple surgeries and ultimately a hip replacement. I also have constant pain in my back. I don't go very many places I don't absolutely have to go. It about kills me to ride in the car. Every little bump sends waves of pain through my back, head and arms. That's not all but enough to get an idea.

I was with my previous employer 4 1/2 years. During that time I was off 10 months for the hip replacement. I pushed having the hip replacement done until I could barely walk. Some days walking was a gamble, I would take a step, my leg wouldn't hold the weight and down I would go. Almost immediately after I got off the crutches I went back to work with restrictions. No running, jumping, climbing or crawling. I also had to sit down quite often, though much less as time went on, by last week I was only sitting down a few minutes (less than 5 usually) at a time 3 or 4 times per shift and I was generally working on paperwork during those times so I wasn't just hanging out not doing anything. I should mention that I had worked my way up to assistant manager during my first year there so there was not much I didn't know how to do. The only reason there were a few things I didn't know how to do is because we were purchased by a different company shortly after I came back. Same concept, different procedures. When I returned I gave my manager at the time a doctor's statement outlining my restrictions. This piece of paper mysteriously disappeared when a different manager took over and I tried to talk to her regarding my restrictions. Hmmm....

Anyway, she kept insisting I do things that involved crawling on the floor (organization of floor level stuff), and climbing. I made several attemps to speak with her about this. Her response was to tell me that she knew I could handle it. At one point she asked if I could handle an hour by myself every once in a while. While not thrilled we were short a couple people and I figured I could suffer through an hour a week alone. That hour alone every once in a while turned into every day. Then a couple of days a week it was 2 hours alone. Finally on the last schedule it was 2 hours alone every day. Um..no. I tried to talk to her about it and asked her to fix that because my body couldn't handle it. Her response: No, our labor hours have been cut and I know you can handle it. End of discussion.

I'm seeing a pattern here. Was she just trying to get me to leave? Maybe. Was it discrimination? I'm not sure. Was it just poor management or did it go beyond that? I can't answer any of these questions.

Has anyone else been in a situation like this? What did you do?

On the bright side - there is almost always a bright side - I have more time now to work on art and play with fabric, fibers, paint, beads, you name it. I am even playing with the idea of trying to sell some stuff.

Here is a photo of a bracelet and pendant that I have been working on. The colors are kind of washed out, they are a good bit darker. This is my first attempt at jewelry. What do you think? I really like working with beads, I'm sure I'll be using them more frequently in the future.

Check Out These Babies

These were taken at the Easyrider Bike show in Columbus OH on Feb. 15. Aren't they gorgeous? My apologies to anyone who had a bike in the show that didn't get a picture posted here. My camera is on it's last leg. I took oodles of photos of the bikes and these are the few that actually came out decent.

Winners

This is a little (lot) late but I'm finally getting it posted. Better late than never so they say. Anyway Congrats to the following winners of the OWOH drawing. Everything has been sent and is creeping its way to you all.


Michelle was the first name drawn and got the fiberart collage.




Geri, Jody, Mary, Snap, and Martha are the other five (not necessarily in that order) and they each got one of the bookmarks.


I really love participating in OWOH and am already looking forward to next year. Thank you Lisa for all your work in organizing this and inspiring so much sharing.


I want to apologize to everyone who's blog I haven't visited yet. I just didn't have the time to get to all of them. I didn't even make it to 100 this year. Yet. I am still working my way thru the list though and will visit every one as time allows.



If you didn't win and are interested in one of my fiberart collages, Autumn Day has been accepted into Collage Mania and will be available starting on May 5. All the money goes directly to the American Cancer Society. Please stop by and check it out, there are many wonderful artists participating and it is for a good cause.

One World One Heart

It's that time again. There are over 600 people participating so far, each having a giveaway on their blog. You can click on the globe and that will take you to the One World One Heart blog and there are links to each one on the right. If you want to enter my drawing just leave me a comment on this post with a way to contact you and on Feb. 14th at 11pm (have to work) I will use a random number generator to pick winners. The first name drawn will win this:

It's matted to 8x10 and ready for framing.

The next five will each get one of these bookmarks. I had so much fun with these.

So please be sure to leave a comment and a way for me to reach you, you can email me if you want and I'll enter you in the drawing. Don't forget to check out all the other giveaways there are lots of fantastic bloggers out there. : )

Pictures

Grandbaby Update

Christopher Brian Michael was born Dec. 19 and weighed 9 lbs. 4 oz. Sorry no pics yet. Hopefully I will have some to post very soon. : )

Blue Leaves

And purple, and green, and yellow, and pink, and gold. Goodnight. : )

Art Alarm Clock?

Have you ever been so tired that you can barely hold your eyes open? Your eyes are watering and you're yawning your head off and the only thing you want to do is sleep? I was like that earlier tonight. So off to bed I went. So nice, so comfy, so sleeeepyyy...
And then...

Why can't leaves be blue?

Huh? I just want to go to sleep.

Why can't leaves be blue? Why Can't Leaves Be Blue? Why CAN'T Leaves be BLUE?

So there you have it. The question that has been bugging me for 2 hours now and not letting me sleep. Apparently I must make some blue leaves before I can sleep. So here I am, back out of my cozy bed looking thru fabric scraps and waiting for my iron to get nice and hot. I'm sure this is all because someone told me way back when that leaves are supposed to be green and tree trunks are brown and for the past umteen years all my leaves have been realistic colors and my trees have been, you guessed it, brown.

Okay so I'm sure someone has done blue leaves. Probably lots of people. I've probably seen them but I'm too tired to think about it now. The real question is 'Why can't My leaves be blue?' I have spent pretty much my whole life trying to do things right or what other people call right. I have been trying to let go of that especially in my art and it's hard after all those years of conditioning. But I'm working on it. I do this for me, not for anyone else so why shouldn't it be the way I want it? Yes, blue leaves are a breakthrough as simple as that sounds.

So is this where the real journey begins? With blue leaves?

Cyber Fyber Videos

The videos of the postcards and ATCs sent in for the Cyber Fyber exhibition are online now. Go here to see them. It's a great way to spend about 20 minutes. My ATC is at 4:35 and my postcard is at 3:52. It's so exciting to see something of mine in a show like this. It is truly amazing what can be accomplished with such a small format. Alot of the cards are very intricate. Very nice.

Fiber Art

I liked the way this came out so much that I decided it would look nice framed. I painted bristol board and stamped over it with leaves for the first background. The second background I left white and stamped gold leaves on it. You can't see it very well in the picture but I'm very pleased with the way it came out. I'm considering donating this one to Collage Mania. I need to figure out how to get the image sized right to send. I have a couple more of these in the works. Hmmm...Could be a series.

Sugar and Spice

Aren't they cute? These lovely little girls are looking for good inside homes. They are very affectionate and playful. It would be wonderful if they could find a home together but would do fine separately. I would really love to keep them but we already have 4 other cats and keeping these two would just be too much. So if you are in the central Ohio area and are interested you can email me at rice.pamela at yahoo.com. Please, serious inquiries only, and you must be 18 or older to be considered. I am not charging an adoption fee but there will be some conditions that need to be met as I need to be sure that these babies will be loved and well cared for.

My Birthday

I had to work on my birthday. Bummer. But this is what I came home to. : ) I'm a lucky mom. I have such great kids. Thanks guys, you made my day. : )

Out of Hiding

One of the problems I have with keeping up with my blog is that I feel like I have to have pictures in every post. Since I haven't been really productive, I haven't had any pictures. And when I did finish a couple of mini quilts, of course, I forgot to take pictures. Anyway I finally have some pictures so here's what I've been doing.

I love making fabric postcards. I was in a fall kind of mood when I made these. I also had oodles of tiny scraps left over from making a batik mini quilt (that I forgot to photograph). So I used them to create the background for these, then added the leaves on top. I really like the look. I'll definitely be playing more with this.

When I have the time and energy I participate in the block lotto on about.com. Sophie designed some really cute house blocks. I adore these blocks. In fact I'm pretty sure I'm addicted to them. I made some 6 inch ones for the lotto, then more for me. The ones in the photos above are of the 3 inch mini blocks that I have done so far. Thanks Sophie, these are just too cute.