Omphaloskepsis

Ok, so the second I say something like 'stick with me as I blahblahblah', the Evil Blog Monster rears its ugly head and snorts my blog out of whack. My last post I told you about the spirited QA discussion and my mini-challenge from a wonderful lady who loves teasing almost as much as I do. And I even finished it within the required amount of time. She dared me to do something really risque (view a particular pair of consecutive syllables and draw your own conclusions!), but...

So anyway, what does this have to do with the post title today? Well, the conversation revolved around omphaloskepsis, meaning 'to contemplate one's navel (belly button)'! It's 6x4, paisley fabric with a round, orange fabric navel, fme that you can't see in this pic (more tomorrow,; I was too excited by my blog working, HAD to post!!) using the ONLY decorative stitch this old machine has (White Blue Jeans, at LEAST 12-14yo) -- a 'briar' stitch, it's called, looks rather like feather. I used paper from a hole-punch for the eyeball whites in the rounds of some of the paisley figures, and turquoise beads for the irises. A bit of silver fabric paint added to the eyeball effect, IMHO!

Anyway, I'm happy!

Tongue in Cheek or Foot in Mouth??!!

After a lively exchange today on and off list, I've ended with a small personal challenge due to be finished in 3 days (YES, that's right, THREE DAYS). "Contemplating belly-buttons" came up, and I replied, sort of tongue-in-cheek, and someone replied to *me* off-list, and I'm already excited about my Great Orts Project (posting/pic'ing in a couple days), so the replier told me she could just *see* two quilts related to the discussion, so I whipped back, ok give me dimensions and a time-restriction and you're ON!!!!!!1 So she did, she is, and I am... Stay posted as I grump, groan, whine, and whistle my way through to Saturday and the finished product(s).

Heart-2-Heart Postcard Project

VALENTINES FOR WOUNDED SOLDIERS
Receive-by Deadline: Wednesday, February 7, 2007
For more information -- get in touch w/Karey Bresnehan by clicking here --> Heart-2-Heart

"To recognize and encourage the many American servicemen and women who have been wounded in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, we have created the Heart-2-Heart postcard project. Our goal is to send artist-made postcards as Valentines to our military wounded at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, DC, where all branches of the armed forces are treated. A quilt artist from the DC area has generously volunteered to deliver the cards directly to Walter Reed for distribution to the wounded. Thanks!"

Tags Part 2

The gold thread shown here is going to be couched down in a swirl design, interspersed with buttons, sequins (bunches I've collected over the years) and beads.

I have two of the rolls of that gold thread, and they have yards and yards of the stuff coiled on each roll. If you want some, email me privately w/your snail mail addy and I'll send you some. I know that not a lot of folks are reading my blog yet, but the first eight (8) people who email me can have at least 5 yards!

Another B-Find...~~

Ok, waiting A-gain for the dratted screens to catch up with my ever-churning brain, I went off on my usual pass-the-time poking around, guess what I found?! Go check out Bernardine Hine's Fabric, Dye and Threads blogspot and feast your eyes! Bernardine has an awesome Astral Quilt which you MUST see, and her next quilt pic'd, a tropical piece, won 2d prize at the Queensland Quilt Show. Also, her Alien Oddity quilt, a couple posts down the page, is too cool!

Tags - Part 1

I belong to a group led by Patti Medaris Culea, a fantastic fiber doll artist. If you go to her site (linked over there on my sidebar), you'll also see some what-she-calls Tome Pages. Each Page Project teaches you a particular set of skills, or helps you sharpen skills you already have; when the Pages are done, you bind them with the Tome Cover and store them in their Tome Box.

Anyway, we're making tags for trade! Never having done this before either, my first step was to cut a piece of cardboard (I usually use the backs of notepads but you can use cereal boxes) into the right size. In this instance, we're making a set number of tags with a set size -- 2"x5" max. SO, I cut both sides of the fabric that I want to use. The theme is "friendship". Being from Texas, I may go gecko and cactus, with turquoise (turquoise is one of the Gemstone Symbols of Friendship). I'll have to ruminate...

This is similar to FPC's, I guess, but different in that there are possible 3-D additions, movable parts, etc. I don't know why learning each new technique becomes such a task for me; once I get the hang, I love it! Am I the ONLY one in this virtual universe with this problem? AAAAACK!!!!

My Beaded Butterfly

Well, I'll have to work on cropping this pic later, but I wanted to get it up. It's a beaded butterfly that I'm attaching to a piece of beading from an old wedding dress (not mine, but a friend was going to *GASP* throw hers OUT...). The background, which I also want to try to make clearer, is a piece of greenish/bluish with touches of orangish/pinkish. It's a background that I will be/am using in several projects -- I want to see how it translates. This could qualify for my 6x4, although my beaded bush will run over the edges just a touch there at the bottom and on the side. I'm finally pleased with how something is turning out, so I'll be posting this through to its finish.

Traditional Quilting w/a Twist

Here are two more quilting UFO's...my ambition

is to finish the squares (it's a 'sampler' quilt in shades of pink and green) and pick a sashing and border fabric, then SEW ON the sashing and border. I may hand quilt this one, so that final step may have to wait a year since I hope it to end up queen-sized. But I definitely want to get the top all done, including sashing and borders finished.

The square on the left is called "54-50 or Fight". It has something to do with the setting of the longitude for the acquisition of Washington State and Oregon, but I haven't finished researching the title yet. In this piece, one of my favorites, I used the strip-piecing technique for the points of the star in dark greens, burgandies, light pink floral, and cream floral.

Quilt names fascinate me...for instance, the three squares pictured on the right are known as "Carrie Nation". Now Carrie Nation was a real woman in the early 1900's who had an incrediblly endearing hobby of plunging through the doors of an alcohol-serving establishment and smashing the bar into smithereens with an axe -- a full-sized chop-down-huge-trees AXE. * I kid you not, and you should see the fierce expression depicted on her face...that is one p'd-off woman! These squares utilize dark greens and self-print muslin for the main squares, with the smaller 1" squares in shades of blue/blue-green prints/green.

I still have work to do on my pic-taking, camera-cussing (I mean) utilizing skills, but at least things are more in focus, and the new camera may yet have its name changed from "Damn Camera" to "Damn GOOD Camera"!!!

*Note: I don't know what it is with women and axes in the early days, but there was also Lizzie Borden [who] took an axe and gave her mother forty whacks and when she saw what she had done, she gave her father forty-one. I guess women were thorough back then in their endeavors.

Quilt for DH

This is a quilt I've started for DH. It's three shades of blue fabric with a self-print muslin as the background. I've only cut myself four times with the rotary cutter so far, AND I still have my fingers correctly attached to my hands! I think I'm going to add three Wild Goose Chase borders. This is for either his birthday or Valentine's Day or our anniversary, depending on when I get it done and when he's home!

Damn Cameras...

I sure hate a learning curve. The pictures are taken. The camera is plugged in. The correct button is clicked. The message comes up -- "Warning: No images in camera" @#% $#% B...

TAST No. 1 for 2007

TAST

The first stitch of the year for those who are participating in the TAST Challenge is the Herringbone stitch.

In A Minute Ago Emergencies

http://sharonb.wordpress.com is where Sharon can be read and reached in times of stressed sites and blocked blogs. Let's wish her not only a wonderful 2007, but also a year free of internet irritations!

Regards,
The Pesky Texan