Catching up

Where does the time go? I haven't spent much time in the studio so far this week. I have been busy though. I mailed my Journal Quilts to Houston yesterday. It will be another year before I see them again. My 2005 Journals will be back soon. They are beginning to mail them back again. It's always a nice surprise to open the package and see them again.

I sorted out my class samples for my Monday and Thursday classes. I called the college to see if anyone had signed up - I have 12 students on Monday and 15 for the Thursday. The maximum is normally 10 but we have added each term! I started with one class, now I have two and I really don't want to add another one.

I cut 40 pieces of Fast2Fuse, front and back fabrics for my fabric postcard workshop at North Barn Quilt group on Monday evening. I am giving them a little kit each as it's much easier for me to cut it all for them and they can play with decorating them with angelina fibr,es, fusible applique, paintsticks ....... just play really with whatever takes their fancy.

My friend and I had a trip into Linlithgow yesterday. I hate the large shopping malls and so it was off to the lovely town of Linlithgow. Birthplace of Mary Queen of Scots. It's such a lovely place and some really nice little shops. Nifty Needles is my favourite - threads and beads galore! It was wet and windy when we left Livingston. I haven't put the hard top back on my car yet - I live in hope I will get a day or two with the roof down before winter sets in.

As we left Linlithgow the sun was shining, there were still a few clouds but it was lovely. I decided to go topless - now, now I mean put the roof down. It's about a 35 minute drive home, "A" roads with not many places to stop safely. The clouds got darker and darker as I drove through Ecclesmachan - still another 20 minutes before we got home. We kept wondering whether we should find a place to stop and put the roof back up. We went on a bit further...... then a bit further ....... we got home and parked the car in the garage and the heavens opened. It rained heavier than I have seen it for a long time! We made it though. Norman was laughing at us when we got in and we told him we drove all the way home with the roof down. WHAT! It's been torrential rain since you left he said. I guess we just missed it at each stage of our journey. What fun we had - laughter is such good medicine.

I wanted a book to alter. It's something I have never done before and wanted to try. As a bookworm I looked through my own collection but couldn't bear to alter any of them. So it was off to the charity shop. I searched for a suitable one to bring home with me. I wanted a really old book. The oldest one I could fine was 1997! "Night with Moon" it is called. I had visions of how I could alter it. Last night I picked it up intending to get some more ideas of how I could go about altering it ...... I started reading it and am hooked........ it's about Wizards and cats (the cat is the wizard) .... I wonder if I will be able to bring myself to alter it when I have finished reading it. I shall keep you posted.

When I was making the fabric postcards from the RR fabric the other day I made the one above as well. The appliqued piece is a piece of silk I printed with an image I created with Paint Shop Pro. I stitched a piece of Fibretex to the back of the silk in a grid. Heated it with the heat gun and cut away the unstitched fibretex. It left this ruched like piece of silk. The background fabric is batik fabric and I just free motion stitched the silk to the background. Satin stitched around the edge with a variegated thread.
This is a piece of my overdyed fabric that came out the dye bath on Tuesday. It's still a little bit too orange but I am leaving it as it is.
Here is another overdyed piece. I scrunched this one up really tightly and it has a crystal effect don't you think?

I popped into the studio last night for an hour before dinner and made a couple of pieces of silk paper, it should be dry this morning. I also needed some different papers for my PSP designs and so I took some wax rubbings and painted with Indian inks. I am not sure how they will be but fingers crossed I can photograph them and use them as backgrounds in Paint Shop Pro.

It's terribly windy here today and it is supposed to get worse tomorrow. We are getting the effects of ex hurricane Gordon apparently. 70 mph winds are expected.