Road to California

This last weekend was my birthday and to celebrate, I went to the Road to California Quilt Show '09 with my older daughter. It was a great show with lots of quilts on display, tons of vendors, plenty of places to sit and rest and it was wonderful! It was so big that I didn't get to visit all the vendors or see all the quilts, but I had a nice conversation with Helen Gibb, and also with Barbara Willis. Her dolls were absolutely amazing! She goes to France and England to buy wonderful trims, buttons and laces. You can see pix of her dolls on her website here.

I took some pictures of some of the quilts on display. Of course, the pictures just can't do them justice. This first one is, of course, inspired by Klimt's "The Kiss" and is called "The Kiss Dressed in 9 Patches" and is by Joyce Hughes. It got an Honorable Mention. It was so beautiful! This is a favorite painting of mine, so to see it stitched was glorious! If you've never looked at this artwork, it is so interesting - all the motifs on the man's clothes are square or rectangular, with lots of corners. All the motifs on the woman's clothing are circles, rounds and curves.


Here is a closeup of the bottom of the quilt, with all the flowers


This quilt is called "Rhapsody at First Light" and is done by Bonnie Keller. This is the center medallion of the quilt. It is surrounded by lots of interesting details.


Here is a close-up of one of the corners. You can see a bird, and then there are many "hidden" creatures all over the outer border, like this trapunto mouse.


This is a small quilt, and all the cherries are 3D. Their stems are seed beads (on wire?), protruding out of the quilt. This was cute and clever. It was done by Elaine Emmons.


There were some purses there also. This one is super encrusted with beads, buttons, etc. and is called "Hippie Chic" by Susan Gannon O'Connell.


Here is a closeup.


There were not a lot of crazy quilts there, but this one is by Charlotte Noll and is called "My Crazy Life".


This quilt is called "Fairy People on Parade" and is by Janis Hooker. I really liked the different styles of the people here. I'm not a big fan of cutesy and know how hard it is to avoid when you can't draw well (since I can't), so I liked the whimsy of it.


This one was cool....


OK, the picture quality here is not too good, but I really loved this quilt. It was very small, about the size of an 81/2" by 11" piece of paper. But it was so beautiful and very dimensional. It was by Nicole McHale and was called "Garden Walkway". The grain of the wood is done by machine embroidery. The plants get very 3D in the lower left corner. I apologize for the poor quality of the picture - this small quilt was breath-taking.


Here is a closeup of the grasses at the top - they seemed to be done with untwisted thread, maybe silk?


All in all, it was a great show. The only thing was, it ended at 6 and at around 5 we realized there was another whole room we hadn't even seen yet! Also, my husband did NOT get laid off from his job(YAY!), so after being on pins and needles for 3 months, I was able to rescue my poor husband from his problem of "Oh, no, honey, I don't have anthing for your birthday." by saying "Oh, you poor thing, I guess I'll just have to buy stuff at the quilt show!" It couldn't have worked out better...

Happy Stitching,
~Lin Moon

Cutest pincushion

Isn't this the cutest pincushion you've ever seen?!?!!!! I just love it. My sister gave it to me for Christmas.


My daughter gave me a box she painted - here are some pix of the top and the sides. She's only 16, and did a great job!





I am sort of grasping about, wondering what project to start working on. This is typically the time of year I have the most time, but I feel frozen in time wondering if my husband is going to get laid off, whether to start trying to get the house ready to sell, to look for a better paying job, what to do, what to do.... I've been toying with the idea of a joggles online class, working on a quilt for the quilt contest, etc, but just can't get focused on anything....

Hope you're more creative than I've been lately,
~LinMoon

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to you all!

I hope you all had a good holiday. Although we still don't know about my husband's getting laid off, we had a very nice Christmas. It was small, but with lots of family and love and laughter.

Four of us gals used to get together for coffee every Thursday night years ago. One moved up north and the other moved to NZ a few years back. They were both in town at Christmas and the "coffee club" came together once more! Our kids were younger when we used to meet regularly and it was always hard for all 4 of us to be available to celebrate birthdays, etc, so it was amazing that we were all 4 available on a day's notice to get together! It was very fun and I made my friends a couple more matryoshka ornaments. (I think I spell that "m word" different every time!)

More Matryoshka

Well, the Matryoshka machine is still spinning. This first one is for a friend named Sakura, which means cherry blossom. How perfect is that? I usually don't like using plastic beads and don't even know where I got these, but I just HAD to use them. The middle one is my favorite - I just love the combination of these two fabrics. I am having such fun with these! And the last one is for a friend whose favorite color is this green. I'm so enjoying picking out the flower beads and the other embellishments!
Happy Stitching,
~Lin Moon

Matryoshka Ornaments

Well, the Making of Matryoshkas has begun. These will be the "giveaway" gifts for my close friends at Christmas. The first one is for my good friend whose favorite color is pink. (So many people like pink! Did you know there's a list for pink-loving Christmas crafters?) I drew the face on paper using a combination of pen and chalk, scanned it in and printed it onto fabric you can put into your printer. I like the soft effect of the chalk on the hair and cheeks. I'm trying to make one in everyone's favorite color. But I think one of my girlfriend's favorite colors is orange, and I really don't like orange, so I have no orange fabric...hmmm we'll have to see what I can do about that.... It's really fun to mix and match fabrics and I so enjoy the embellishing with flowers and beads!

Happy Christmas Crafting,
Hugs,
Lin Moon

Christmas invite

I've been busy working on our Boutique and my Christmas party. Our Boutique made almost $4800, which will ALL go to charity - which is just great! I was treasurer, so I was running around with different envelopes for the different areas: bake sale, cinnamon buns, taco boats, candy booth, Grandma's Attic and the Boutique itself. Phew! It was fun, but I'm glad that's over. So now we move into the holidays!

Since my husband may get laid off, I wanted to make my Christmas party invitations as cheaply as possible. (I considered not having a party because of that, but if he DOES get laid off, the party may be one of the funnest times I have this season, so I decided to go ahead with it) I had almost everything I needed in my stash, so that was good. I used parchment envelopes that I had saved (for someday) for the angel wings, which curved in a nice way once they were embossed with the swirly design. The angel is a Victorian lady that I printed onto sticker labels - I seem to use those every year. They are so handy, just one whole sheet of paper that's sticky on the back and I just printed 8 or so angel busts on it, then cut them out and glittered her bodice. I glittered the edges of her wings and used velour paper for the ribbon below her. The NOEL was written in metallic gold (doesn't show up too well in the picture) I cut two of the leaves out of some organdy ribbon and two of them out of olive green velour paper - I thought the card needed something up above and a little touch of the maroon also. I usually do some rubber stamping, but not this year....

I almost wish they (Xerox) would just tell us now whether my husband will still have a job or not - the waiting is torture! Oh, well, I hope everyone has a happy Thanksgiving!
Hugs,
~Lin Moon

June TIF

Yes, I know it's hardly June, but this idea has been percolating in my mind for quite awhile. This is my "Stash Story"! In case you can't tell, this is a Magpie, the bird that likes and collects shiny things. She's ready to adorn her nest with some purple! My stash has lots of "shiny things" in it. I guess I'm just a magpie at heart. Sometimes I feel like I must be a 5 year old girl, who likes pink & purple, glitter and shine, although I must say, I draw the line at princesses.

The bird is needle felted - I've never felted anything 3D before - it is challenging to keep the shape you want... The "nest" is made of felt with batting inside, stitched randomly with metallic threads. This is the most fun. I really like making things for which there is no pattern, just blending colors as I go...freeform and all.

Happy Stitching,
Lin Moon

Ornaments

I'm not up to my usual millions of ornaments I make for our Christmas Boutique, but here are pix of a few: snowmen, raggedy anne and more bird ornaments.







Well, I haven't posted for awhile - if I had, the post title would have been "too sad to stitch". My Dad has been in and out of the hospital, first with pneumonia, then with a stroke. His wife called me one night at 10:30 because they were at the emergency room, so I went there and stayed 'til the wee hours. It's so hard to get any information at the hospital. And, it turns out he never got around to writing a will or making a medical power of attorney, so if he had been unable to speak after the stroke, no one would have been able to get any info from him. He's kind of a stubborn man, you can't tell him anything. They wanted him to wear pressurized knee socks to prevent another stroke and he flat out refused the first 5 people who told him to wear them. I really miss my daughter who's away at college and feel so sad when I get home from work and she's not there to talk to. My husband's company is laying off 3000 people and we won't find out if he's one of them until they announce it December 16. I love Christmas, but I'm not sure how it will feel this year.... I'm sure there are lots of people worse off than I, but sometimes it is just overwhelming. If you've read this far, I thank you and ask for a small prayer that my husband may be one of the lucky ones.
~LinMoon

Babushkas and Matryoshkas

Well, it's been a long time since I have blogged; I've been getting my daughter ready to move to college and we got her settled there yesterday. It seems all I've done lately is shop shop and shop - sheets, towels, bedspread, computer cables, lamps, storage, etc. etc. etc.- everything you need to live away.

I know not all of you are into Christmas yet, but I have been having fun making ornaments. I discovered this book: Sew Pretty Christmas Homestyle, which I really like.

It's by Tone Finnanger and full of mostly red, white and pink projects. I really fell in love with these Russian dolls in the book.





And if you want to see some more wonderful cloth babushkas, check out Ravenhill Designs' site here. They are so cute!
I have a couple of the wooden nesting dolls myself, see the picture below. A friend brought me back the blue one from Russia; I think the other one is from a catalog.


The book also has some cute birds, but then I've already made bird ornaments.


I have lots of cottons that I haven't sewn with for awhile, so I am looking forward to mixing and matching them for some fun babushkas!
Happy Stitching,
~Lin Moon

Bird Ornaments

This bird was not made or designed by me!


I found this picture on Flickr - isn't it cute? It belongs to Karen (aka Mrs. Kwitty). I saw this and asked Mrs. Kwitty if I could copy it to make ornaments for our Church Boutique. Check out her wonderful etsy site here where there are plenty of wonderful shabby/chic type items. She graciously said I could copy it, even though she sells it on her etsy - now that's generous! Thanks again, Karen.

Our Boutique is the Women's main fundraiser of the year and all the monies we make go to charity. We sell coffee and cinnamon buns in the morning and taco boats around noon. We have a bake sale, opportunity drawing, Grandma's attic and a candy booth. Our whole church comes together to put this on and it's lots of work and lots of fun.

So here are a few of my versions of her bird - they are really fun to make. I can't decide if I like the bow under the beak or on the back of the head....(any opinions?)

Washington DC

Well,
I've been away from the computer for awhile - vacationing to Washington, DC and doing crafts at Vacation Bible School. While in DC, I went to Smithsonian's Renwick Museum. This is a picture of a quilt there, made by Jane Burch Cochran. Isn't it wild? - buttons sewn everywhere! Click to enlarge and you can see some of the detail. (I tried to take a detail pic of it, but it came out blurry.)


I saw this quilt in a shop there - it had so many different fabrics in it! (Sorry about the lamp hanging in the way) It was so beautiful.


The Peacock Room was fabulous:


I just loved the patterns on this door.


Everything at the Renwick was so special, even the beautiful lace curtains at the windows.


This was at another museum - can you imagine having such opulence at your windows at home?

Arte y Pico Award

Wow,
I go on vacation and come home to this wonderful surprise! Violette Severin of the blog Hand Quilting, has nominated me for the Arte y Pico award. Thank you so much Violette! I feel so special!


The rules for the Arte y Pico Award are:

1. You have to pick 5 blogs that you consider deserving of this award for their creativity, design, interesting material, and also contribute to the blogging community, no matter what language.

2. Each award has to have the name of the author and a link to his/her blog to be visited by everyone.

3. Each award winner has to show the award and put the name of and link to the blog that presented her/him with the award.

4. The award winner and one who has given the prize have to show the link of "Arte de Pico" blog so everyone will know the origin of this award.

5. To show these rules.

6. Choose 5 other people for this award.

Well, since I've been on vacation for awhile, it may be that some of the blogs I most admire have already been chosen, but we'll see.....

Check out
Sara Lechner's The Fabric of Meditation. Her artwork is so magical, original, unique and inspiring!

Emmy and her Cramzy blog. Emmy really knows how to play - and create wonderful things in the process. There's a real freshness to her creations.

Marty of Textiles in Time. I don't know how she keeps working on that large project of hers - it really takes patience and dedication. But when she's done, it will be just fabulous. I have to hand it to her for such delayed gratification and such lovely stitching.

Lauri of Don't Call Me Crafty. I like the attitude she expresses in the name of her blog. How she manages to get ANYTHING done with 5 kids is beyond me, but not only does she get things done, she wins ribbons and shares great pictures with us of her colorful work.

N. Rene West's Fembellish Journal. Although she hasn't updated her blog lately because of caring for her mother's health, she has shared how to do everything! If you read older entries and follow along with some of her projects, she is very generous with instructions and step by step pix on how to do some of the fabulous and wonderful things she has made.

Happy Stitching, everyone!
~Lin Moon

May TIF done

Yes, yes, I know it's July, but I've finally gotten back to the May TIF, now that all the June graduation hoopla is over. The theme for May was "how you see yourself (as an artist)". Here I am on a needle - I feel like stitching is a wild ride; I fly with excitement, there are ups and downs and it's a magical journey. The wings are made from ribbon with burned edges. That was a challenge! It's hard to get the flame just close enough to seal the edge, but not so close that it melts the ribbon and changes its shape. I'm paranoid about fire, so I did it with the candle sitting in my kitchen sink. I really enjoyed felting the background, although I added some gold Angelina and I'm not sure I'd do that again. The Angelina had a lot of fly-away ends that got in the way of the embroidering. I'm pretty pleased with this, even though it's way late.
Happy Stitching,
~Lin Moon