At LONG last, I can share! I was thrilled beyond belief to have my quilt, The Tide is Hire, juried into the prestigious Viking Masterpieces exhibit which will be in Houston, Chicago and (I think) the next Expo in Europe in 2 years. Reflecting on it, I don’t know why this exhibit is so prestigious, and I can still barely believe I made it in, but I did…..a new internet friend who is at Market confirmed for me before I got to Houston that indeed my quilt is there and on p. 95 in the accompanying show / exhibit catalog! Now that the exhibit is public, I can share this quilt here and on my website (that’ll come next week).

The picture above is, of course, the full quilt. I used a technique I learned from Dianne Hire for “curvaceous squares” for the center blocks, then went on from there. I wanted to use the blocks for the Viking entry, but the quilts must be 51 x 51 inches, and the blocks were nowhere near that big. So I added red! and the inner border, and it worked, especially once I added the “waves” appliqued and satin stitched to the top.

I did beading and sequins on this quilt…more than I’ve ever done before, and I’m in LOVE with the sparkle and glint of bugle b eads (the long ones that look like colorful chocolate sprinkles). I also learned from Eco (a friend from an on-line group) that using larger b eads, size 6 and 8 instead of little 11 seed beads, gives a great impact with fewer stitches! So I used them, too, inside the appliqued waves.

I thought the squares on point looked like the surface of the ocean. The show theme is “Imagine That,” so I imagined a technicolored ocean. The color of the thread ranges from yellow at the top to deep blue at the bottom, and I quilted in a seagull (see detail photo), a parrotfish swimming into the quilt, and swimming out of it on the other side, an anemone on a rock, a starfish and lotsa wave froth and bubbles. FUN!

Eli wanted to be a mage (a wiseman, wizard, sage) since he has been playing a game on the computer with said character. He asked me to make a costume just like his characters, so here you go…white robe with black trim, silver-grey hood with black trim. There isn’t quite as much “room” in the upper body as I would have liked for warm shirt underneath…the temps are dropping into the freezing range every evening here!

On Sunday, while internet was down (all day!), we finished the costume and carved Eli’s pumpkin. He drew the face, cleaned out the innards, found the candle, and I used the keyhole saw (the kind for drywall) to carve…a VAST improvement over a knife!

And Eli took some photos of our house and critters:

Thumper (of the many, MANY toes):

Zeus, the kind daddy-cat:

Hannah on her high perch (at the top of the cat tree…the large, wide-load dark blob…..)

Tyger, as usual, was hiding somewhere. He is sweet, but can really absent himself very well….

Yeti, the wonder dog, asleep as usual:

The stovetop dragon (aka steamer…when he’s running a good boil he blows smoke out his nose)

The fleece mouse Eli and I made: he gave directions, I figured out the “how”, make the pattern, etc. Eli helped a tiny bit with sewing, but decided I could handle it. Still need to add eyes, whiskers, maybe a belt and sword….. think Reepicheep in one of the middle Narnia books….

The pumpkins pre-carving:

During (Joshua making Jack Skellington from The Nightmare Before Christmas)

and after:

And to add one more photo to this hodge-podge, I went for a walk on Monday the 30th and this was the reward for looking up! Glorious!

Last summer I did some postcards for the FiberArts for A Cause fundraiser that featured nudes. I didn’t get these cards done in time to include with the ones I did manage to get to FFAC in time for the Festival fundraiser, but they are done in time to share here. This year, in addition to the man and the woman, I have added one that I love, called Anticipation (there are two blue ones…one above, #2, stitched in blue thread, the other–#3– in a lavender/purple).

All the cards are “wholecloth”, that is there is just the background cloth and the thread, not piecing, no applique.

I used Peltex stiffener in the middle, and couched yarns to the outside edge.

There is a tweedy wool on the purple ones, cotton on the blues, and on the orange. All are free-motion machine stitched using Superior Threads Highlights 40-wt. trilobal polyester.

For some reason, one of the plum cards appears lighter than the others, though all three were scanned on the same machine. The actual color is closest to the darker versions.

All these cards are for sale, $30 each (including first class domestic US postage). I don’t have paypal set up yet, but will take personal checks. Write if you’re interested. I AM headed to Houston and will take these with me…don’t know if I will sell any there or not….

In one of those bursts of activity…occasioned by not having been able to sew for a while…I finished up a whole BUNCH of postcards! Since I leave for Houston tomorrow, I’ll try to do two or three posts today and in the morning. Our internet service was down for nearly 36 hours (EEEK!) due to the storm and winds here in Maine yesterday, so am behinder than ever!

This short little series called “From My House to Yours” were sent as thank you notes to my dear Frayed Edges friends for their birthday thoughtfulness!

I really like using yarns to “bind” the edges of the cards…faster than satin stitching, and frequently has a nicer, more finished look to it. And an added design element! For the card at the top, I twisted two lengths of the same yarn together to get a bulkier look (Lion Brand yarn…the one that is thick and kinda curly looking in the skein). I also have some wonderful cottons leftover from a sweater, and use them often.

Deborah’s new house near Dallas has arched windows if I recall from the pictures, so I sent this one to her:

For these last two postcards, I wound two cotton yarns together as I couched them to the edge of the card to get the twoo-tone effect.

Next post: the Hot August Night series continues!

Had a glorious day today….since tomorrow is due to be sodden and surly, and since I’m driving 4+ hours round trip to teach at Cote Brothers in Auburn, I went for a bike ride today. First, however, I got rid of two albatrosses: I hemmed hubby’s karate pants and repaired Joshua’s backpack, and started on a third: Eli’s Halloween costume. About 11:30 I set out and rode about 8 miles over rolling hills…just out route 135 to the town limits and back: the skies were blue with puffy white clouds, some trees still have autumn leaves, but many branches are bare letting more and more light down to the ground.

THEN, drum roll, I actually got to sew some…I hope on Sunday I can post pictures of my most recent postcards, in the Hot August Night series (discreet nudes). In the meantime, I wanted to let you know that these three cards are for sale ($30 each, includes regular first class postage in the US)–the one above is called Turtle Moon. If you’re interested, let me know by Monday, because on Tuesday I head to Houston for Quilt Festival (hooray!). This first one below is Confetti Moon:

And here is Winter Tree:

Just for fun, I’m posting pics of the last remaining available card in the Hot August Night 2005 series…which is mounted on a painted canvas ($90)

and my favorite one of the whole bunch: