Projects to be Finished

The Fairie Goddess Mothers have created a challenge for 2007: Finish your UFOs. First you have to name them and then, when each project is complete, send the coordinating FGM a picture. Participants get a ticket for each named UFO finished or converted to something else. The tickets go into a drawing at the end of the year. As an incentive (for me) to get these pieces finished, I hung most of them on my design wall. It seems "out of sight, out of mind" is very true for me. If I look at them every day - I will get them finished and off the wall. If they're in a drawer, I forget about them. I have kept them all in the same place, so this wasn't hard to put together.

So from Left to right: top row - there's a table runner, a twisty log cabin block, Holiday Hexagons, a machine applique rose, another rose and Hummingbird and another log cabin block. Second row is another table runner, an applique inspired by freinds who are ballroom dancers, Twisted Tulips, a bag of fusible still life objects, stars on point left over from the trees quilt and a strange medallion thing that needs some blue. More than half of these started in classes, but a few are my own design.
This isn't so much a UFO as it is a work in progress -- It's hand applique and I've been working on it for about 5 months. It's my evening and traveling work. The design is inspired by the pressed metal tops on two tables we have.
Sorry for the sideways - this is a machine applique of Quilt Poetry's floral meditation. It's sandwiched and ready to be quilted.
OK - this one is the oldest UFO. It's a reproduction of an antique quilt that is in the Minnesota Quilter's book. I used QuiltSmart's Lone Star pattern to create the spokes. It's been sitting for at least two years, needs some fixing and quilting. It is about king size and will be quilted by a long armer -- I'd just as soon not struggle quilting huge quilts.

After examining the state of my in-progress projects I feel I'm in pretty good shape. I really want to finish these before starting anything new. But garment sewing, purses, crochet and knitting somehow get infront of these projects.

ART MEME - pay the creativity forward

In response to Ginabee's posting at http://ginamariebee.blogspot.com/ I'm joining the ART MEME challenge. I've also taken the lazy way, since Gina is such a good writer and copied most of her posting. She says it so much better than I could. Google Art Meme to find other bloggers who are involved.
The first five people to respond to this challenge via comments on this post will get a small piece of my creativity. It will be something to do with string being sewn, beaded, embroidered, painted or manipulated. I'm not quite sure what, but you will get something that I have made with love in order to 'spread the love' and creativity. The catch with this is that you also have to make the same sort of offer on your own blog. That means, this is not an exchange, you do not have to send me anything in return, but you must try to "pay it forward" through your own blog. So get commenting, and once I see you've taken it up, posted it and got people taking part then I will start making things.

Harmony 880 Remote

Having spent too many hours setting up this remote I'm ready to rant, just a little bit. OK, it's actually not the hard to set it up, but the update takes way too long. And when something doesn't work the way you want, you have to go through all the menus and update again, which takes way too long. Once you remember to click next after selecting what you want to do, update takes way too long. I even got into a loop where the set-up program wouldn't recognize that one of the devices was set up ok. Did I say update takes way too long??? It mostly works ok with one slight problem, but I was able to get it to switch the AV receive from TV to VCR to DVD to IPod.
Really, this is a wonderful remote that means the other five can sit in a drawer. The on-remote help feature really is helpful. I got this as a Christmas Present and now that it's set up, there's only one remote to get lost in my cave.

My Cave

For the past year I've mostly been hiding (sulking, skulking) in my cave. This summer we painted and rearranged it and I feel like a light has been turned on and the Creativity Fairie has come to live with me. I really do believe in Feng Shui. It probably still needs some fine tuning, but I'm quite happy here now. This is the "studio" side with windows on the left (as you're looking at this picture) that look out on a pond.

This is the other side of the space which is my "office". You can see the window that looks out on the pond. There's also a sliding glass door in the middle (far right in this picture). That blue chair is where I put my ice skates on in the wintertime. Beside the door is a Futon with a quilt cover. Opposite the door is a TV on a turntable so it can be seen from either side. Originally, my studio was on the office side and felt very cramped. When my DH started working from home I had to give up the office on the main floor. By switching sides, reorganizing (donating a lot of stuff) and working mostly on a laptop, there's more space. Now I just need to get more lights on the studio side for those early morning hours and grey days.

The Quilted Book of Quilted Fairie Tales

This was created to document the first exhibit of the FGM quilts at AQS, Nashville in 2004. All the quilts use the Rainbow Fairie pattern by Linda M. Poole which she had taught the year before in Nashville. Each page has a picture of the quilt and the fairie tale that goes with it. Each page is quilted, but the back of the page is just more of the same fabric from the front.

A variety of prepared fabric was used to print the text and pictures. All the edge and backing fabric came from my stash!! I thought about this project for a long time and was a little stymied by how to bind it. Fabric Art Journals by Pam Sussman was published a year after this was finished. Having that Pam's book would have made making the quilted book much easier.
These are a few of the pages from the quilted book. The book is travelling with the actual quilts.

Table of Contents

Karma Karpenter by Cheryl Robinson-Atwood

Reflections by Shirley Taddonio

Chrona, the Lack of Time Fairie by LuAnne Williams

Just in Time

Here's the last piece I finished, just in time for Christmas. It started as a mystery class by Gwen Lundgren for the Minnesota Quilters' Fall Retreat in September. It's about 36 inches square. I added all the borders and just had to quilt in candles in the corners.

This is my first fairie created with a little help from Dover. She is the centerpiece for the quilt that's under the needle right now. That quilt will be posted when it's finished.

Well, this blogging thing isn't that hard, but other demands call.

To be continued...

Here Goes Something

Since being pulled from my cave to help the Fairie Goddess Mothers (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/fairiegoddessmothers/) with their 2007 year-long challenge, I've finally stepped into the world of blogs. I've struggled with a website (www.beadlique.com) so we'll see if this proves easier.
This space will first be used to help those FGMs and FITs create quilted books and as a place to post photos and observations.