LCgirls Night!!!

Yep our Lewiscraft girls night out is still going strong and mostly at member's homes and we do some type of craft or play a game the odd time and have an awesome potluck meal along with heartwarming friendships.

This last one Saturday night was at Mary Grace's and she taught us how to "QUILL" and I'm telling you I'll not be doing any larger projects with this technique! ROFLOL!



See I caught onto the winding those narrow strips onto a tiny post and managed to make a flower card with them but the part I hated (remember this from my crafting days too) is the fact that all my fingers etc gets covered with glue!!! I even went a couple of times and cleaned off too!!!

So thank you Mary Grace for hosting this fun night and also thanks to Vic for visiting his friend so we can have the place to ourselves. Ohhh and thanks everyone for the very tasty snacks and meal and "Mom" (Pat & Georgina's that is) for the dessert!!!

Pat's NEW Kitchen!!!

WOW WOW WOW, I dropped over to my niece's house tonight and got an awesome surprise! See their house renovations are slowly but surely nearing the end and hopefully by year end will be all complete. Apparently over the weekend most of the hardwood was installed in the master bedroom.

Then today the kitchen countertops were installed and WOW WOW OH WOW it is just gorgeous!!! I haven't seen such a stone/granite/whatever you call it but it is just beautiful. And with all that WOW I didn't see the built in pantry fitted so nicely into the corner and the wood sort of just flows around the doorway joining with the cabinets etc.





Yep, I LOVE their kitchen and I'm sure she's relieved to finally have it back to just about 100% - the sink still needs some work but the fridge, stove and dishwasher are all working!!!

Then tomorrow some of Randy's family are coming over and they'll start installing the hardwood floors in the large open area - dining and living room!!! Wonder how far they'll get before a halt is called?

GOSH it will be just wonderful to have their HOME back and maybe even Christmas in their home too again??? It's sure been a long painful steady haul but I think the end is in sight!!!

Previous posts on the progress are here and here!

Diane's Faces RR completed

Okay my promise to get this block finished and out at the beginning of this week went !@# for tea kettle I can tell you! See I am in the middle of a "dustup" in a local fibre arts group and have taken it pretty rough considering how it was done, now I can imagine how my friend is feeling as she's positive her designs were stolen . Oh well nothing I can do but keep doing what I've done for years and that is note the book/pattern that the inspiration arrived from. Enough of this verbiage! Onto the good stuff!

Okay right off the bat (as we always do) I’ll tell you that my block was inspired by the “Feather Maiden” watercolour by Judy Balchin in “The Complete Book of Art Nouveau Designs”.

Diane wished someone would use her lovely face beads so I decided to give it a try and I sure hope my idea stands up to it’s beauty! I had such GRANDE ideas and plans (before it even arrived) for an art nouveau block until I read her message and realized feathers are not washable so had to rethink. Then I found this book at the Library “Stitches for Embroidery” by Heather Joynes (awesome landscape embroidery) and inside were these awesome stitched feathers so back to the grindstone to try this. I kinda like it, even if I had to shorten them some and it hides those larger white patches on the bead that should be black me thinks.



Okay, now the DMC floss and metallics for the braids along side the feathers with shorter strings of beads (had to redo this as the multi-coloured beads I first had didn’t do anything for this elegant Indian Maiden). So far it’s progressing but slowly. Then a beaded fringe over her doeskin (let’s pretend) dress, learnt at the beading workshop I was at resently and found inside “Beading on Fabric” by Larkin Jean Van Horn and again had to redo it as my spacing was wrong. I tried to have it lie over top the lower portion of the bead but no dice so I gave up. And then the finishing touches were embellished patches and seam finishes of sweet grass wreaths, feather-wheat ear-herringbone-cretan stitches and added a bird charm which I hope passes for an eagle besides sequins and beads.

Closeup
Full block.

Though, I’m not sure of the idea of putting these blocks into a jacket my dear – I’d be scared of them being damaged with wear and tear along with laundering – but it’s your blocks and definitely your decision. LOL! I enjoyed working on this baby but am very sorry it took so long. Now onto the next DYB and hopefully it will go a lot smoother!!!

My Faces DYB - update

Oh my it is nearing the end of this round robin soon and I'm anxious to see these blocks all together and in person - they are all looking so lovely.

Here is the latest edition and she even has the Gemini Twins on the block - that's what I'm calling them.



AND here is Diane's blog to read up on her making up! I've yet to read it all. I was just so excited to see the picture and post my blog entry! He He He!!! Also here is the previous post on this RR. Yes when they all come home I'll put them together and post as one picture - unless I finish it off lickety split!!!

My Tree of Life - ASL presentation

Okay the only way I could upload my video taped ASL presentation was to go through YouTube (checked Private there) so hopefully it will now upload here in my BLOG for my friends to check out (7 min 18 sec duration). Here is my video:



For those of you who are new to ASL maybe you'll get a kick out of how nervous I was and this was not memorized, I only had three run throughs - two with notes and signs and one from the notes only. And those that do sign I hope I didn't botch it too badly and I promise I am going to try and continue to use it daily with John. Enjoy!

Shuttle Finds

Okay, I'm sure these are not antiques at all but I had gone for a walk to the Forks today and checked out the Antique Shop there and actually found 7 shuttles (3 were metal and I didn't even look at those) and the other 4 were some plastic but two were grungy like so I settled on these two for myself ($5 each).





Now I checked Tatmeister's site and I think one is noted there (PLASTIC, Plastic, Ivory - mine has closed tips) but not the other. Not sure if I can find it or if it's even worth the time searching. I'm just going to find some type of glass covered box and line it with whatever that these can sit in with a little card identifying them if known. I'm sure I'll be checking for others in my travels to add to these. If needed I will use them periodically but right now the thread on them is way to fine for my expertise to use at this time.

More Tatting!

Okay with various projects on the go, company down for a few days and then a quilting retreat along with the ASL project to complete my evenings have been occupied and my tatting etc has taken a back seat. Well last night I finally felt up to (head cold) trying some tatting and I can tell you not successfully!

Okay I finished off the Tatters' Round Robin for Beginners (assuming by Georgia Seitz) but there is something wrong in the large loops - will have to try another to see if I can figure it out.



Then did the GR-8 Butterfly by Gary and Randy Houtz and I can tell you that my first attempt was a total disaster because what I read I did not understand but went ahead and did what I thought it was - MISTAKE!!! The second attempt turned out great!



And just because I did the Butterfly Tatted with Chains by Riet Surtel-Smeulders and I used two shuttles which turned out okay the first time.



And to finish off Lesson #3 practice pieces I TRIED the German Snowflake by Cristel Wutzmer and I can tell you I hated this cutting and joining with every point so I only did the one point which is not right for some reason and won't be trying it again.



In the NSAN group (tatting online) we are doing 5 weeks of lessons and this is my second time around and I've still not finished with the group. I guess I'll be joining them again in December for Lesson #4 and #5 as I did not get much out of the chatting since I did not do the reading or lesson work ahead of time. Lesson #5 is tatting with beads and I can't wait to experiment with that as I've a snowflake pattern for this and really do want to do it! Oh well I have like a month to catch up!!! I still have LOTS of trouble reading patterns though - most leave out things they assume you know goes with certain steps - not fair for beginners.

OHHH and one of our male tatters said "that you can add various types of lace work - he adds in bobbin lace - to your tatted pieces and it's a perfect marriage of needlework"!!! Just a tidbit if you did not know this already.

ASL "Tree of Life" Presentation

I can tell you that I survived my ASL Tree of Life presentation (video clip is 7 min 17 sec) today, but just barely. Actually at one point I saw black dots in my eyes so I closed them and took a deep breath and slowly exhaled and heard in the background my Manager saying I was doing good just breath deeply! LOL! It seemed forever but on the video just seconds and then I finished off!!! A few co-workers were a might concerned as they thought I was going to have an attack or something. SHEESH!!!

After an intensive 12 week-3 hours/week of day-to-day-type sign language training we had a presentation to do basically our own "Tree of Life" - to sign - no talking. Well I prepared it and took my camera to work and asked Mike to video tape my presentation - it was great but talk about what a nervous person I was - even before it was my turn!!! In the end I'm glad I did it my way even if it was a might trying!

Prejitters!!!

Left to right:
Lorne, our division's Assistant Deputy Minister, Sylvia our Instructor, John our deaf co-worker, and Margot our Director - after the Thank You speeches and flowers (made by co-worker Terri) were presented to Sylvia.

Okay this is my first time to upload a video clip and it didn't work!!! Why I don't know - maybe too large? Too bad as I was told by Sylvia and John that I did good! Maybe I'll get it uploaded another time.

Something Different!

Okay, this is work related but also very interesting (to me at least) and thought maybe some would be interested in it too. See our office has undergone a 12-week "on the job" ASL signing course geared to day-to-day communications with our deaf co-worker John G! At first I was very hesitant as I've heard it is very hard to learn and at this point in my life I was not sure if I wanted that challenge. BUT once in the class and seeing how it was set up I found it interesting and much easier to have a bit of conversation with John instead of writing things down or emailing for any chat or questions to be answered.

Anyways, for our last class we have to prepare our "Tree of Life" on a flip chart page and then "sign" it to the class and there will be graduation ceremonies too!!! WOW! So I've been working hard for a couple of weeks now planning, drafting, redrafting and then revising after my friend Susan (an interpreter) had noted changes and then finally gone over with John. Then tonight (or guess it was last night) I finally put together my flip chart using fabrics and actually printed off onto cardstock some of my pictures. It was fun but gosh talk about time consuming. Here it is!

Now I sure hope I don't mess up in my signing presentation!!! Mike even said he expected me to prepare a "quilted" Tree of Life - I doubt it!!!

NOW I'm not saying I know what, how or why pertaining to ASL but I do know enough to get by and I can fingerspell slowly and hope that John is willing to continue the 2X/week practice sessions indefinitely - I certainly will attend!!!

Pinawa Retreat Weekend

Well my sister Sylvia arrived Wednesday and we partook in the MPQ guild meeting that evening, then I had taken Thursday, Friday and Monday off as vacation leave to enjoy our various activities unhurried like. Friday we left early for Pinawa for a quilting retreat hosted by Oma' Quilt Shop (Grunthal, MB) at the Wilderness Edge Retreat and Conference Centre in the lovely Whiteshell on the Winnipeg River, but this year the wild deer were not as visible as last year but still entertained us some. We had a smaller representation from our Aurora Online Quilters group this time but still met up with many friends and new acquaintances from all over. There were many large quilt tops completed by a number of quilters too and can be seen in my Webshots album.


Some smaller Show n Tell projects.

The "bag" ladies - Oma's weekend group project.


Our Norma and another retreater showing off their recent Shop Hop projects.


And our own Jan's newly quilted piecemaker calendar quilt ready for binding.

As usual most of us took more quilting projects with us than time or efforts allowed for. And this year I did not allow for problems with my plans so projects had to be set aside until once again at home to sort it out. BUT I did, with Sylvia's help, finish off my "Parent's First Homestead" started at the Photo Landscape Workshop taken March 21, 2009 (YAHOOIE!!!) and then I added the label and binding to my Miniature Curves wall hanging started during my August vacation in Ontario - just forgot about the hanger so have to do that yet. As usual the food was in abundance and good home cooking like along with many desserts to finish off.





So yes it was a nice weekend that ended with Happy Birthday sung to my sister Sylvia and Adiena's Thelma. My sister and I had a LOVELY time but she left early this morning for home and accidentally LEFT behind her watch and her suitcase full of FABRICS/PROJECTS! Ohhhh is she gonna be kicking herself. It's a good thing she'll be back this way in a month's time. I still feel bad that my car was not here as I noticed as soon as I walked back in so could have caught up with her on HWY #1 sooner than later. LOL!

As for me my last day off started with making breakfast for us and then off to lunch with my retired co-workers Joan and Evelyn (just awesome and finally after just about a year since the last one) and then dressed for the McNally Robinson - Manitoba Craft Museum & Library fundraiser dinner tonight. Well I came home with the Silent Auction Christmas package of - glass coasters, peppermint candle/holder, handmade ornament and two hand towels. Then home to upload some pics and blog about it all. Yes so far a lovely day off!!!

Then it'll be nose to the grindstone and try and prepare my speach in ASL format like and prepare my visual Tree of Life. I cut out all the pics last night while chatting with Sylvia before going to bed early as we were both tired. Now just to put it all together before Wednesday's presentation! YIKES!!!!!!!!!!!