And Some I Sent

And now, some I have sent over the years. Some of you may be very thankful I have not been your partner. :o) When I first joined the swap, we made two blocks each month, so the first two pictures were a pair. They were the very first blocks I made in the swap, and the request was simply pinks and greens. I had a great time making them but I'm not sure the recipient was as enthused! As you will see farther on, I have slowed the pace since them.

Don't know why I didn't take a picture of this one when it was finished but, for whatever reason, I didn't. She wanted flowers with embroidered centers so I embroidered them with beads and stuff. I wish I had taken a picture since she said she never received the block. :o(((

She wanted a wonky house. This is as close as I could get!

Everything's Coming Up Roses (And Leaves)

For an uncounted number of sporadic terms now, I have taken a metalsmithing class at the college where I work. Much classier, of course, to call it silversmithing except that one is not limited to working in silver. I figured it would be fun to show you a few of the things I have made. You will be seeing more of some of these in another post, hopefully soon, so I won't explain right now what they are all about. You'll just have to stay tuned for further developments.

These pieces were made by a process called lost wax casting. The piece is created in wax then encased in a type of plaster, which is heated in a kiln until the wax burns out, hence is "lost", and molten silver is poured into the cavity left in the plaster. Various types of wax are available ready-made but none were suitable for what I wanted to do, which was to model the roses as one would do with clay. There just isn't a type of wax available that would do that, so I had to create my own. Hmmm . . . . . . . maybe I should market it . . . . . . .

These are all made of sterling silver. Not the traditional .925 sterling everyone is familiar with, these are Argentium sterling silver. The major advantage of Argentium sterling is that it doesn't tarnish. Well, it tarnishes exceedingly slowly, always a lovely thing with silver!

The picture shows the roses as they came out of the mold - there are three of them which are all on a common "stem". I later cut them apart. The leaves also were made into a sort of a tree-looking affair to cast and were later cut apart. The wax I created produces that matte finish on the roses. The leaves were made of commercial casting wax, so are smoother and therefore shinier. I polished the roses, which removed the matte and made them shiny, but I didn't like the result so unpolished them again, after which they looked more like the leaf in the third picture.

The picture below shows the third rose, which is behind the two in the above picture. It shows what the roses actually look like without the lamp shining on them. This picture and the one below it will give you just a hint of the end product. :o)

The brownish color in the first picture is due to the lighting when the picture was taken. The roses really are silver-looking, as in the second picture. Well, at least they were . . . . . before I baked them in the oven. Now they have a lovely bronze-ish color. Haven't photographed them since I did that, but will do that shortly.

As I said, stay tuned for pictures of the finished project. Yes, thank you, it was finished this past February. Our professor had a show of her work in the gallery of the college President's office and kindly included work by three of her students, this project being among them.

Quilt Blocks Received

Since I have so many quilty friends online now, I thought I would share some of the quilt blocks I have been fortunate enough to receive over the past four years. Hard to believe it has been so long since I originally joined the Quilt Block Swap. Time sure flies when one is having so much fun! I have not photographed very one I sent or received but a number of them I did, so I hope you will enjoy this selection of them.

Found a picture

In looking around that the quilt block swap blog archives, I found a picture I posted of Dad's quilt. Our local quilt guild hosts a quilt show every other year and I entered Dad's quilt in the last show. The bottom is cut off a wee bit but otherwise it is pretty much all there, including the little things I added in after the fact.

Round Robin swap

October begins the third month my mom, Joy, and I have been involved in a round robin swap with four other ladies. We each made our own center block, which was sent to the next person in the swap. That person will add a round and send it to the next person, who will add the next round, etc. After the sixth person adds the final round, we will each receive our own quilt top back. Theoretically, it will only need to be made into a finished quilt at that point.

If anyone would like to check out the blog for the swap, the address is Roundrobinswap.blogspot.com.

Feel free to comment!

My One and Only

This is the first quilt I have ever made – indeed, the ONLY one I have ever made! - and it was for my dad's 80th birthday in November 2006. He is a horticulturist and Master Gardener, so when I found a pattern for a vegetable patch on QNM (actually, it may have been McCall’s) website, I knew it was the one. Unfortunately, the pattern is for a wall hanging but I wanted a quilt for him to snooze under in the afternoons. Just enlarging it was my first thought. But....my mom said, "Well, you know it has to go from his nose to his toes" so that sent me scurrying back to the ol' sketchbook. And this is what I came up with.....

Unfortunately, my working sketch has managed to escaped from the original posting on the Quilt Block Swap blog. Some fine day, when I find that sketch again, I will scan it again and insert it here, as it originally was. In the meantime, those who might not choose to wait until eternity for it to show up here, you can visit the address below, click on 2006 in the archives, and scroll about halfway down the page. I will still leave the description about it in this post. Picture it in your imagination as you read and see how close you come to the actual design. :o)

http://quiltblockswap.blogspot.com

The blocks at the top and on the right are vegetables from the pattern I bought, a cart, and a barn, all of which are paper pieced, as well as some other elements.

The diagonal stripes and the octagon in the center are cobblestone paths. The lower diagonal stripes I decided not to put in. The ones going out to the sides have been ripped out because the fabric I bought for the back (before I had a real clear picture what the final product would be) was 6" too short, and that was a less expensive fix than buying more backing fabric!


The pictures below are the various sections which are more or less complete. I had it laid out on my folks' king-size bed, which is higher than most. Since I am pretty short, some are taken standing right beside it, but others are taken when I was standing on the bed looking down at it. Thus the weird angles in some of the pictures!

This first is the whole back yard.

This is the left side, more close up--sorry for the odd angle. At the very top is a strip of fabric printed with sunflowers.Those brown things are squirrels from a printed panel which I raw-edge appliqued on. Between the onions and the beets is a scarecrow from the same panel.

On the far left below the path, the speckled green is a swamp and the speckles are butterflies and dragonflies (buttons), stuff like that.

On the right side, the lighter green irregular pieces beside the path are bunnies sitting in the grass, which I appliqued on. The brown things above the bunnies on the right are old-fashioned beehives. In the way-upper right corner are some deer from a pillow panel. They don’t show in this picture but can be seen in the almost-completed picture. On the barn door, I embroidered "MDJ"--short for "More Damn Junk", one of my dad's favorite (or at least frequently used!) phrases all my growing up years. After I left home, he put up a pole barn for a garage and storage area, and put "MDJ" on the door with a street number.....hence the MDJ on this barn door.

This is 2/3 of the front yard, and looks so odd because it was taken upside down and lost something in the rotation.

There is another picture of the left side of the yard which I tried umpteen times to insert here and it just refused to put it in for some unknown reason. It shows the beginnings of the house to go in the middle, the fabric for the stream along the left side by the swamp, and some chenille sheep I made from 5 layers of flannel. Oh well, I guess you'll have to wait for the picture of the finished product to see them.

This is the front yard on the right side. Those white spots are daisy buttons.

What's a Florida house without flamingo yard trash??? If you could zoom in, they are playing music with guitars and enjoying long cool ones. Daddy doesn't really have any in his yard but they were too cute to pass up. :o)

Along the right edge is yet another piece cut from a panel (my mother, who has sewn all her life, is a veritable treasure trove of fabrics!) and is quilts hanging on a fence.

The above was written in 2006 as I was making the quilt. Below is, well, not quite the finished quilt but close to it. The only “quilting” is machine stitching in the ditch (right in the seam lines) along the various components of the house, vegies, driveway, and swamp. The grass in the front yard is tied with a lighter green crochet cotton. All those shiny lines in this picture are the safety pins holding it all in place, which were, of course, removed after all the stitching and tying were finished. Other that than, the picture below is the quilt as it was given to Dad for his birthday – yes, I actually finished it in time!!! And no, the shoes peaking out the bottom are not part of the quilt. They are attached to the quilt hanger. ;o)

And here is the man with his quilt.

There were some other things added after the fact but I do not have a picture of the quilt as it is today. Next time I visit them, I will take a new picture, as well as some close-ups, so stay tuned.

Family picture

A month ago, when my brother was visiting from Tucson, I had family pictures taken and decided to post one here. It was taken two weeks before my granddaughter's first birthday. She apparently has decided that turning a year old made her eligible to walk- just last week she started taking her first unassisted steps!



















The duo responsible for the whole thing . . . . . .






















My boys - Brian, on the left, is the father of the two mini-folk, and Timothy is on the right - and grandboy, Matthew . . . .

And my girls. My lovely daughter-in-law, Lauren, is the mama of the wee ones. We got caught in the rain (which is why I look like a drowned rat!) and we girls took refuge in the resident gazebo.

And the star of the show is . . . . . Abigail!

Gosh, it's been a long time!

It has been three years since the last time I posted anything on this blog! Three years and five days, to be precise. Don't know where the time has gone but it sure has flown. So much has changed since then, too.

I now have a wonderful daughter-in-law and the cutest two grandchildren in the entire world! When I figure out how to do it, I will post pictures of them.

Since the last time I wrote - actually, about the time I started this blog, I think - I took up silversmithing, if one can besmirch that term with what I do. At least, I have been taking a metalsmithing class at the local community-turned-real college. That means it has now become a four year college instead of two. It would be nice if I had pictures of my projects to post but I have not as yet taken any. Currently I am in the middle of a multi-piece chatelaine project I have orders to finish by February to put in a show in the President's (of the college, that is) office. Wednesday I did the last of the casting and I think I am down to things I can work on at home until the studio opens again with the new semester.

Yes, amazingly enough, the Fall 2oo9 semester is now a thing of the past as graduation is happening even as I write (unless it is over already). Speaking of college and graduation reminds me that I now have a new job, too. Well, sort of a new job. I still work for the University of Florida but I no longer work at the University of Florida. Instead, I now work at the aforementioned local community-turned-real college. They have an outpost of the University infirmary on the Santa Fe campus and I am now the front desk person there, greeting the little dears when they come in with their sniffles . . . . . and various other complaints. The staff consists of two part-time nurse practitioners, a full-time RN, and yours truly, full-time secretary. I was there for the first half of the summer semester, then was out having surgery for the second half. In August, I was back just in time for the fall semester, and am assigned there permanently - whatever permanently means. It has been interesting, adapting to a position so completely different from what I was doing at the UF infirmary, but it's coming along. They seem to be quite happy with me, which is always a good thing. We are having a changing of the RN guard - Jane is retiring the end of the year but her last day is next Friday, the 18th. Bruce is taking her place and it is an interesting change. He is totally different than she, I can tell you that! I was a wee bit nervous about it since it has been 10 years since I have worked in close quarters with someone of the male persuasion - and never ever in such tight quarters as this. But Bruce and I are very much on a wave length in our views and thoughts so I think it will be good thing. The students seem to like him, which is a very good thing.

Also since the last time I wrote, I have become the "mom" of the quilt block swap I belong to. It has been a lot of fun getting to know the gals from a different perspective and becoming friend with some of them. They are a fun group and are making some beautiful blocks. When I figure out how to post pictures without having them wander all over the place, I will post some of the blocks, too.

Must run along. Supper is about ready and it is Shabbat, for which I am ready!

80th birthday signature quilt

My parents will both turn 80 on their upcoming birthdays, Dad in November and Mom in January. In honor of the occasions, my brothers and I are having a celebration the Saturday after Thanksgiving in the Village where they live.

For reasons unknown, I decided we needed to make a signature quilt for them--a quilt the guests can sign or write something (short) to them. Ideally, the quilt would be made ahead of time, people would sign it at the party, and Mom and Dad could take it home with them. However, ideal seldom happens and this, instead, is a work in progress. Pieces of fabric have been sent to out-of-town guests who have requested them, to be included in the quilt, and there will be pieces at the party for those present to sign. The blocks will, unfortunately, have to be completed after the fact.

This is not quite the correct overall diagram of the quilt top--I made it larger and need to re-scan the diagram, but this one will give you the general idea. I will change the picture once I have a chance to do that. The quilt will be 11 blocks wide and 12 blocks long, making it large enough for their king-size bed. The large block in the center I will explain a bit further along.


This diagram is of the border layout.

















The solid black lines between the blocks and in the border will be black-on-black rose fabric. It is difficult to see but I hope the design will show because it really is beautiful fabric.









There will be three different seven-inch square blocks used in the quilt, a butterfly, a fan, and a flower. The fabrics used for the background of the blocks are those three prints, each with a black background.

These are the fabrics and the paper-pieced pattern for the butterfly blocks. The solid blue at the top is the one guests will write on. The gold and the darker blue will be used for the other parts of the wings. The body, of course will be black. This is my working pattern and the numbers are the order in which the pieces are sewn together. The pieces numbered "1" are the signature area.



















Here are the pattern and fabrics for the flowers.



















And these are for the fan blocks. Several of the colors in the fan fabric are the same as ones in the flower fabric, but I did not want to use the same solid colors. Therefore, I have picked up different colors for the signature areas—a darker raspberry pink and gold so far, though I am hoping to find the slightly darker green and perhaps off-white. I would like to put the purple in but I am afraid it would be too hard to read. Actually, after I posted this, I found another fan pattern which is quite similar but will be easier to make. :o)) One of these days (after the party!), I will post the new pattern.



















The large block in the center will be the equivalent of 6 blocks. This is my original drawing, which has since been revised. I enlarged the quilt to 11 X 12 blocks, which is what made the center block 6 blocks in size, but the overall idea is still the same--someday I will post that revised picture, too. The center block will be one solid piece of fabric, which I am hoping my older brother and his wife will send me from China, where they are living for the next two years. If they are able to send more fabric than that, I will find other ways to incorporate it. There will be, either written or embroidered in the center, “Happy 80th Birthday” or something to that effect, with Dad’s name and birth date on one side and Mom’s on the other.

As blocks are finished, I will also add pictures of them to this story, so please be sure to check back, though it may take a while for that. I also need to finish a quilt I am making for Dad, and it is the priority at the moment.

If you are interested in seeing Dad's quilt, there also is a posting for it on another blog I am a member of, which I invite you to peruse. The quilt is finished now except for tying it (yea!!!), although the pictures are not yet posted.

I hope you enjoy my quilt project. As always, your comments, suggestions, etc., are welcome.