The Goddess of Will It Ever Be Summer 

It Started With Wings...

Quilting Arts magazine had issued a challenge to make a fantasy guardian angel. Well, I live in northeastern Illinois (Chicagoland) and I hate half the year. It's cold...snowy...grey...gloomy. I spend half my life pining for summer.

One day I was playing in my sewing area (can I call it a studio?!) where I have been experimenting with curves. I had some tropical flavored fabrics...pieced them together...and began quilting the hell out of them. When I was done, I thought, "these would make great wings."

And the journey began! I've posted the pictures in my picturetrail account because I can't figure out how to embed them in posts! Here's the link http://tinyurl.com/6j4gm.

I started with FrankenDoll. My own creation. Misaligned limbs. Lumpy body. Too fat. Too thin. She now lives on my sewing machine when the cover is on---and gets a lot of attention from my sons.

Then I made the doll that ultimately became the Goddess of Will It Ever Be Summer. This is a doll made from my own pattern. I learned a lot. Necks cannot be too thin. Makes it really hard to turn and stuff. In general, all areas where stuffing is to go through need to be just a little thicker.

I beaded the hair. I had a bead soup I've been adding to for months. I got tired of all the individual packets of beads and dumped them into a mason jar. There are delicas, seed beads, bugle beads, bigger beads. All colors: brown, silver, clear, several shades of blue, green and pink. The beading was the best part and I had a blast!

Alas! The beaded hair made the head wobble because the neck was to flimsy. I tried making a beaded choker--I remember seeing a tribe in Africa where the women lengthened their necks with beaded choker type things. I thought I could get it to work here. I tried tacking the head to the torso. Still no luck!

So the head is tacked to the wings. And the wobble-factor has been reduced.

The clothing of the doll was the hardest part. As I beaded away I kept thinking about this great organza I had been collecting in my stash. All the gorgeous tropical colors. Except when I went to my stash it didn't exist. Sure, I had the gorgeous colors--in satin. So improvised and this is what I came up with. An organza bodice made out of two criss-crossed colors. And a quilting cotton skirt.

She's not perfect. But she's all mine! I cannot wait to make more. I'm thinking a Goddess of a Good Poker Hand next...

Some Knitting

I'm going to try to post pictures of some of the things I've knitted recently: a doll blanket (by machine), a baby blanket (by machine), hat (by hand), and mitten (by hand). I'm still working on the sweater!

I also came across an article in a knitting magazine about prayer shawls. While you knit the shawl which is to be given away, you think positive thoughts about the recipient. I'm going to make some of these!

Hand knit roll bring hat 

Hand knit mitten 

Machine knit doll blanket 

Machine knit baby blanket 

Greta & Me, Summer 2004 

My Picture Posted

I posted a picture with my profile. I don't normally wear crazy hats--although in the life I should be leading I am more than courageous enough to do so! This was taken last summer in Fort Scott, Kansas, when I went antiquing with my big sister Greta and our brother's girlfriend, Debbie. We were trying on all the hats when I found a wedding veil and what was obviously a bridesmaid's hat. Greta wore the veil and I the hat. It's our "wedding party" portrait since we don't have an official one!

I've been down with a nasty cold which involves a lot of coughing--mostly during the night. I'm functioning on very little sleep. So, this has been a bad week creatively! Monday was Valentine's Day and I did my co-room mom thing with my son's kindergarten class. We had a nice party, the kids got way too much candy, and that was my energy allotment for the day. Poor Jim is still waiting for some sort of Valentine's day celebration!

I continue to work on cleaning up the sewing area. Wow, the treasures I found. I forgot that I had picked up a few things when the local Joann's closed to make way for an even better superstore. I have iron-on beads...fat quarters. Also found some Angeline-type fibers--these came from Michael's and I cannot wait to use them.

I'm still knitting the best friend's jacket from Sally Melville's book. I'm nearly done with the one side, and it is getting heavy. I think circular needles are the best, but now I understand about them "holding the weight" of your project!

On the way to our monthly poker game, my friend Kelly and I stopped in Long Grove, IL, at a yarn shop. This was my first experience with yarns not from a craft store or discount store. The yarns were great, but I bought nothing. But I touched everything! I did go into shock when I found a skein of yarn that cost $102 and some change! yikes

Tomorrow I want to paint some fabric. I am involved in a challenge on a quilt list where we were given a piece of fabric. It has to become a prominent part of the piece we create. I think the fabric is cute--pink pigs--and can't get beyond "cute." So I am planning on painting, coloring, stamping...whatever it takes to get past cute. I'll get to use my Createx paints--which are my favorite paints in the whole wide world! I hope to post a picture of the finished piece soon--I've already named the quilt!

Saturday, February 5

I've spent the past three days at home with my youngest son who has been sick with a cold/cough. And I had to wait at my in-laws' for the boiler repair man. So I spent some time hand-knitting. I started a second pair of mittens, these for my husband Jim. I'm doing his in WoolEase and wow, what a nice yarn! It really is soft and cuddly. I might abandon my first pair which was done in acrylic yarn and do a pair in the WoolEase!

I machine knit a baby blanket for my cousin's baby. After several days of attempting to knit it, and failing miserable (I was getting ready to give up on the machine and sell it on Ebay!) I was successful last night. I have the body of the blanket all knit...and it took just over an hour. It's 100 stitches by 275 rows done in a light blue and a coordinating variegated yarn. Now to do the edging. I'm considering trying out the pie crust edging--if I can follow the instructions I have, Otherwise, I will hand crochet a border. Then it needs to be steamed flat and mailed away. I just wrote my aunt this week that this project was underway and hopefully they wouldn't be getting it when he's graduating from law school!

I have also signed up to participate in the 2005 Journal Quilt project. The idea is to create an 8.5 x 11" quilt each month. You do this for nine months and the five best are sent along to Houston and then to Chicago for the international Quilt Show. I don't know if I will be accepted to participate and the list doesn't come out until 2/14. Waiting to know is almost worse than wondering if I had gotten into grad school!

I also need to organize my sewing area. Today Jim walked past the ironing board and knocked over a pile...neither one of us was amused! I can get to the sewing machine...and there is a part of the ironing board cleared for work. But organizing everything else in my small allotted space is a challenge. Where does thread go? Fat quarters? Fibers? Fusible web? I'll keep you updated as I go along.

Getting Started!

I'm jumping on the blog bandwagon. It's February 1, 2005, so I'm just a month late. I meant to do this in January!

This year my creative goals are to create something tangible every month. A completed quilt project. And I plan on working small. I've gotten stuck at 24" x 24" and want to go smaller. Last week I worked on some pieces that were around 4" x 6" and they were the perfect size. Just big enough to play and to try something new.

I've also been working on knitting. I'm almost finished with my second mitten (the match to my first mitten!). And I've been playing with my knitting machines. This morning I tried to make a baby blanket on my USM (Ultimate Sweater Machine by Bond) and couldn't get it to work. ugh! But I will conquer it. I will!

To boost my creativity, I started a creativity group: The Art Tarts. We're meeting once a month and exploring different ways to be creative. Last month we played with paper. We weren't creating things with paper; we were just doing things to paper. Manipulating paper without creating something is harder than it sounds! But you can fold, tear, cut, slice, weave...you get the picture. In February we're going to tackle altered books. This is a great way to try different techniques with paint and glue.

I received my copy of "The Artist's Way" today and plan on reading some tonight. I'm still waiting for my copy of "Art & Fear."