Izy in "The Skirt"

Here it is on the Birthday girl. She wore it to perform in the talent show at her school.

Yippeeee! She likes it!!!

Scraps

At the October Minnesota Contemporary Quilters meeting a number of us exchanged gallon bags of scraps. Mine was FILLED with triangles cut from quilt projects. What to do?! What to do?!

Here are the results of those triangles...one tote bag (lined and with a pocket), one funky skirt for my granddaughter Isabel and 36 9-inch squares made from the rest. There were still scraps left so I put them back in the bag and offered them at the next meeting. It was quickly grabbed up!!!

See? Here's the little funky skirt for Izy.

And the tote bag.

And here is the finally finished Black and White project...

...but I couldn't stand to have all that black and white without some color - so on the back it got a little bit of golden yellow.

Black and White MCQ Monthly Challenge

Each month the members of Minnesota Contemporary Quilters (MCQ) offer a challenge project to the members. This month is a "Black and White" challenge. I won the "Two Bit Bag" deal that had a baggie full of black and whites PLUS six Snickers bars. This design is a little trial of an idea in the Book, Cozy Modern Quilts by Kim Schaefer. Lots of squares in this one...I like it. There will be more border on this one; probably using up more black and white printed strips sewn together and then sliced up to make a checkerboard border between black strips.

The Asian Quilt

A quilt for Carolyn and Pete is loooooonnnnng overdue. This one has Japanese ladies who are reading and/or writing. The nine patches were used as an interesting filler around the pictures.
Now I'm trying to decide if I should quilt it or have it done by a professional.













A close-up of a lady reading.














And another close-up.

Safari Quilt #2

I call this a "nap quilt" since the size was not predetermined and it just plain got finished when it was done. This one was made using the scraps from Safari Quilt #1.
...and the back side. I often like the back sides better than the fronts of my quilts.

Safari Quilt #1

Did I show you this one? Well, here it is - and now I'm working on Safari Quilt #2 using all the scraps from SQ #1. It should be ready for binding today sometime. I'll post that one in a couple of days.
But wouldn't you know it --- those scraps keep multiplying like little rabbits and there will be a Safari Quilt #3.
Right now there's an Asian quilt up on the design board and it's turning out quite lovely. It's been a stretch for me since the colors are not the usual palate I work with. That one will be next.

Once upon a time...

About fifteen or twenty years ago I was commissioned to create something for a small but very tall elevator entrance at First Lutheran Church in St. Paul. They said anything I saw fit to put there would be great. So I made a five layer, 18 foot waterfall using an aqua blue lamee with a lot of machine stitching to create current, fish and other sea creatures.
Beads were added for special effect on the dragon fly, star fish and other images.

A plaque beside this piece gives an explaination of the baptismal waters ... but my name is not anywhere on the piece or plaque! Better take care of that.

Fabulous inspired photographs

I've just added my friend Robin Riggs to "My Blog List" (even tho it is not a blog). Robin lives in Southern California and is passionate about her photography. Each image offered will show the amazing results of Robin's patience. Every page of photos can be advanced so don't miss the second pages - and in one case about five pages. Take the time and you won't be disappointed.

Galloway Cows

We are staying with friends in Fearrington Village, NC which is near Chapel Hill. These are Galloway cows that roam the various fields in the village including right across the street. Aren't they unusual?!!!

More Foot in the Door

Almost forgot the feet that are trying to "get in the door!" Here ya go.

Check out my fish pond!

You can feed the fish in the pond at the bottom of my blog. Just click anywhere and the fish will swim over and eat the food you left!

Betty's Bucket

So here is Betty's Bucket. It begins with a paint bucket size pail. It is covered with Betty Boop fabric, machine stitching and some metalic paint.

She's cute on the inside too!

...and the bottom. Now I'm hoping to see it at the MIA among the 5,000 other entries!

Foot In The Door

Finally! Deb Svedberg helped me with an alternative way to get the pix off my camera...and it worked! Thanks Deb. She talked me through getting a quilt added to the slide show. See it? It's the last one titled Safari Quilt #1. Now if only I could get the Foot In The Door pix onto this danged blog.... Check out the F in the D site at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. I've got a piece there!!!....among about 5,000 others. http://www.artsmia.org/foot-in-the-door-4/index.html

Oh crap. Can't get the danged picture up. I'll try again tomorrow. My piece is called Betty's Bucket. Looks like a paint can covered with pieces of fabric including Betty Boop.

The best birthday present ever!

The best birthday present ever came from Sarah Gannett; she offered her services to reorganize my studio - clean it up and make it workable again.
Last Friday Sarah came over first thing in the morning. we worked our fannies off (only in the literal sense), had lunch and worked again. By 2:00 in the afternoon it looked so darn good that I was afraid to go in there!!! Sarah went off to her real work after five hours of the Englund household - how DOES she do it?!!! - and I took a nap! Boy is she good.

Here's the best part: I now have a medium stack of "to dos" and have already finished up one of them. I'm going back up right after church.

I LOVE MY REORGANIZED STUDIO!!!!

Thanks you soooooooooooooooo much Sarah. You are my new hero.

Now I just have to figure out what's wrong with my camera wiring that it won't download pix into this danged computer! It worked before. Something is wrong. Deb? Got an idea?

FINALLY!!!

Hey! I finally was able to figure out how to put a slide show in!!! I'm so excited. Don't know if this process can be repeated tho - Can't remember exactly how I did it!! Dang.
Anyway, enjoy some quilts made over the last couple of years - mostly for the grandchildren of ours and our brothers.