Change of Seasons

This weekend I had planned to stay home while DH went to the mountains for opening day of black powder (muzzle-loader) deer season. However, my sister called Thursday night and said she would be going, and this would be her last chance until Christmas. So, at the last minute, I decided to accompany my husband.

The weather had been rainy here at home Thursday and Friday, and it was like pea soup as we ascended the mountain in the fog. Saturday morning began with rain, but by the afternoon the sun poked its way through the clouds. I was doing a little patchwork on my tiny sewing machine in the cabin when I decided the sunlight was just about right for some late afternoon shots of the photography kind. While the guys are hunting, I limit my walks to the area around the cabin, creek and pond. Look at all the bare trees! A big change from my last trip back in October.

This is a view of the pond from my yard. Some day we will clear out some of these skinny trees so we have a better view.

As I walked around the pond, I noticed the sunlight creating slats of light and shadow across the pond.

I also liked the look of the sun dappling the rocks and grass near the dam on the creek.

And reflecting on the water.

After all the rain, there was a lot of COLD water spilling over the dam.

I noticed a little spot of color across the street from the dam, and zoomed in on this little red shrub.
About an hour later, the weather turned bitter cold and windy. My husband had a successful day, shooting an 8-point buck that was about as big as he is. I'm not sure how he picked it up and got it in the Gator. My nephew also shot an 8-pointer, so the guys were all pleased with themselves. There was a little dusting of snow that night.

My father came over for dinner, and we had a lot company with my brother-in-law's family also visiting. We did not get home until about eight o'clock Sunday night. I have a message to call a school about a teaching job, so I guess I better get my act together.

Journal Class: Part Two

Alert readers may remember when I purchased this fun fabric back in August. I decided to use one of the "fruit ladies" fabrics for the cover of my second journal in Sue Bleiweiss's online class. This one is a sketchbook with watercolor and drawing paper. The velcro closure is covered by a piece of fabric with a giant pear bead from one of my old necklaces. After all, I do identify most with the "pear-shaped" lady!

The inside cover has a wild peach and orange fabric that almost looks like bookbinding paper, plus a colorful, juicy faux patchwork in red, pink, orange, yellow, peach, and purple. The pocket on this one goes all the way across the bottom of the journal from front to back. I was able to sew along the lines of the print to create some of the pockets for art supplies.

Instead of sewn-in signatures, this journal features hammered-in eyelets and removable hole-punched paper. I had no problem with the eyelets until the bottom two, when I was also going through the two layers of pocket fabric. Loose-leaf binder rings are used to hold the pages, and are decorated with strips of fabric and fiber along the spine.

The first page and several other divider pages feature painted watercolor paper.I used Setacolor sprayed or painted on, and then either used plastic wrap or paper towels to create mottling. I also added some metallic Lumiere paint to give it a gleam.

The cool text on the first page arrived at my house serendipitously when my husband picked up his annual box of wildlife calendars from the N. C. Wildlife Association. Included was a fabulous poster encouraging children to enter a wildlife art contest.

Here is the inside back cover, loaded with bookmarks, sketching pencils, and some colorful gel pens.

And here is my first page of doodled feathers, created while DH was trying out his new surround-sound speakers on the VERY loud movie Iron Man.

And a couple of doodled bookmarks, made from leftover pieces of the painted divider pages.

I have some coordinating Fruit Ladies fabric that might have to become a tote bag to carry additional art supplies like watercolor pencils and a water jar.

Fun (?) With Paper

After my first attempt at Journal-Making, I realized that I had an insufficient supply of specialty paper. Fabric by the ton, but not much paper. Of course, I had ordered some from Cheap Joe's made of silk, but can't find it. Too much moving stuff around lately.

So, off I went yesterday with my coupons from the Sunday newspaper to the local crafts shops. Browsing the scrapbooking section was an eye-opener. Wow! Lots of papers and embellishments in a beautiful array of colors. And so many ready-made decorations. You could spend a fortune on just a few pages. I used to make scrapbooks by cutting up wrapping paper and old greeting cards. Much more economical. I purchased a large and a small pack of card stock in various colors, and then some of the large album-sized scrapbook paper. Aren't they pretty!I really like this one with the smudgy stripes.

And before I left Michael's, look what I decided to get with my 50% off coupon: a paper-making kit. With some dried flowers included.

Now, I have been intending to try paper-making for some time now. In fact, when the grand-babies were here last week, they showed how to make it on Sesame Street. Looked messy but fun!

So on my morning walk, I came back armed with a grocery bag full of leaves, petals, and berries. Wouldn't these look grand with my new specialty paper?

But, they were not dried yet, so I started laying some out on paper towels, and drying them in the microwave with a plate over them to keep the leaves from curling. Here are some marigold and pansy petals before "nuking".

And after. Whoa! Shrinkage!

I used to dry and press flowers and herbs all the time. I had them dried and hanging in bunches all over the house. Once a friend asked DH why I had all these dried weeds hanging in my kitchen. I overheard him reply, "She's a witch!"

Anyway, after making a grand mess, sloshing stuff through my blender and sopping the frame and screen with pulp, I had this wet mess to show.

Then I dried it with the iron between sheets of muslin. This took some time. And look at the results.

After a morning's work, only four and a half sheets of this gray, cardboard-feeling stuff that looks like I used it wipe up the leftover sweepings from the kitchen floor!

Enough fun for one day!

Another beautiful, sunny, but much colder day. Here are some photos from a neighborhood walk.


The morning sun creates a blaze of light on these yellow trees.

This is a pond at the former end of our street. Nice autumn reflections!

The ducks have been clustering near the spring head where the water enters the pond.

My street looks pretty rustic in this view. There are several vacant lots across from the pond that are preserved as natural areas due to the springs. You can just see my dog Maggy at the bottom.

This is the driveway entrance to the house with the pond. They have about six acres of land, some of it very woodsy.

Went into the "big city" today to get some supplies for my next journal project. I had a 15% off coupon at the Teach Me Store, and got some wonderful Christmas gifts to put away for the grandkids. A nice day!

Journey into Journal-Making

It has been a few days since my last post. Instead of meeting my daughter-in-law halfway to return my grandchildren, I had to drive them all the way home. Her car's brakes went out on her on the way to work, but fortunately she did not have an accident. Anyway, I spent the night down there, and drove home on Thursday. It was a gorgeous day, finally, after all the rain and cold weather when the children were here.

So, on to my online class with Sue Bleiweiss, "Journal Making for the Fiber Artist." The first lesson was available October 31, but as you can imagine, I did not even begin until after I got back from South Carolina.

Here is the journal with a velcro closure under the pink flower.

The outside cover is a pretty water-color looking fabric with gold lines imprinted in curvy branch-like patterns. I fused it to a stiff interfacing, then couched on some fibers in gold and pastels.The inner lining is a coordinating solid fabric with tiny gold dots. I added a pocket of pretty fabric. Uh-oh, mistake number one. I stitched the velcro closure on to the front and right through the pocket.

For my journal pages, I used paper cut to size from a large sketchbook. I kept the edge where it was connected to the pad, because it looked kind of deckled. I may add some gold paint to the edges. Some of the pages have a pale wash of Lumiere paint and some accent squiggles. Here's another little boo-boo: a gap of about a quarter inch between the signatures, or sets of pages. I had the hardest time figuring out how to sew these in. Apparently no one else in the class had a problem, so I studied their pics and got the idea.

One of the suggestions for the lesson was to "wrap" each of the three signatures with an enclosure of colored card stock. All I had was manila- way boring. I decided to use an old quilting calendar page as my signature wraps. OOPS- what to do about the old calendar and writing on the other side? I could have used it as is, but decided to paint with Lumiere paints. That did not quite cover up the calendar blocks, so I started collaging some painted paper towels left over from another project, and some strips of the calendar quilt picture. I had to let these dry about two days because of all the clear gel I used to apply them.

So, then I decided I liked the collaged side better than the quilt pic side. This one was used to wrap one of my signatures.

But I do love that quilt with all the polka dot circles. Here it is with a pocket attached.

So, I proceeded to cut my calendar picture into three strips of various widths to make my signature wraps. Then, when I lined them up with the signature pages, I realized that two of them were too narrow to use, because the holes I poked in the paper were wider apart. So, I left two signatures unwrapped, and made the extra collaged pics into pockets and bookmarks. I guess these are supposed to be bookmarks? I still don't quite get the whole journaling thing. Probably these are supposed to be something else you write on.

This is a pocket made of one of the collaged pieces.

I made a couple other pockets out of gusseted paper with decorative scrapbook paper glued on it. (Yes, I have some scrapbook paper.)

I cut out the letters for LOVE and added them to this pretty scrapbook paper.

So, I am already behind on Lesson 2, but I am eager to get going on that one. It will be a sketchbook. Wish me luck!

Sigh of Relief

The wood floor installation was finished at 8:30 on Monday night.

We moved a lot of stuff back in, and cleared enough off the beds to permit sleeping, and redecorated in time for company on Friday night. There's still a lot of stuff hidden upstairs.

I was touching up the paint in the dining room where I had spackled nail holes, and the paint no longer matched. So that room got LOTS of quilts and pictures on the walls.

I got granddaughter Lily into her hard-to-put-on Patsy Aiken romper. (Her hair is not really that close to the candle as it appears in this picture.) She and Avery enjoyed the new granite island.

The yard was looking pretty good in time for the party, too.

These purple berries grow along the branches of the beauty bush. I saw one growing in the middle of our woods the first year we moved here. Must have been deposited by a helpful bird. Then I finally found one in a nursery nearby. Daughter-in-law Emily helped me get things ready for the pig-picking. We hung up some quilts on the deck rail and made a lady scarecrow . Behind her is an old quilt that I purchased on E-Bay.

I tried to take Lily's picture with Aunt Emily in front of the mums, but she decided not to say "cheese" this time.
Avery was not too into the party at first, but he made friends with two other little boys who arrived later.


My father drove from Boone to attend the pig-picking. That is him down by the pig cooker, talking to two ladies

The party went just fine. We had a beautiful day, absolutely perfect! Sunny and mild.

The next day Bryson was packed and ready to take the kids back to South Carolina. Since Avery's pre-school was closed Monday and Tuesday, we talked him into letting us keep the kids here a few more days. I will meet their mom halfway on Wednesday morning.

So, you know I love 'em when I have just finished remodeling, and allow Thing 1 and Thing 2 the run of the house. So far the floors are winning. They have both slipped on the wooden floors several times.And I'm glad we got the tile in the kitchen instead of wood. That bowl of Fruit Loops wiped up very easily!

Although the weather was perfect on Saturday, Monday and Tuesday have been rainy. We played with Play-Doh and decorated pumpkins on a plastic cloth on the garage floor. This worked better in the summer when they wore shorts and went barefoot. Both came in with Play-Doh stuck to their jeans and the treads of their shoes.

It was Lily's idea to use Play-doh to make pumpkin faces, but she pulled it all off before I came back out with the camera.

I am hoping to inspire a new generation of quilters. Lily loved this little trapunto quilt with all the crystals and beads.

She was trying to claim this one. It is PINK and has a heart and sparklies. Just what she likes! I have promised this one to SAFE Child for their Valentine's Day auction.

And I was tickled that she called this one the "Cupcake quilt."

Well, it has taken me three days and about twelve sessions to post this blog. Tomorrow I will be missing the little messers an awful lot!