Sneek Peeks

The newest issues of Somerset Studio's "Gallery" and "Sew Somerset" come out today, and I am super delighted to be included in both of these beautiful publications. For those of you who are only familiar with my current embroidered art quilts, you get to see another side of me, which would be my love of vintage materials and ephemera.



The Sew Somerset issue features my article on how I make my Vintage Bling Brooches, (pages 8 to 10).

A peek at my article:


The Gallery issues features my handmade art book, "Good Morning", (pages 129 to 131) in their "Special Book Section".

A little peek at a part of the book's cover:


A partial peek of a page from the book:

Greetings from the Hill City South Dakota and Points Southeast

We spent a day traveling between Mt. Rushmore, Custer State Park and the Crazy Horse Memorial. I have a lot to tell you about Crazy Horse but will save it for another blog. It was our first trip to the area and I just fell in love with the scenery and the people we met along the way. If you plan to see Mt. Rushmore I suggest approaching through Custer State park on the Peter Norbeck Scenic Byway. Not only is the scenery beautiful but you get a glimpse of Mt. Rushmore not once, but twice through rock cut tunnels. Very cool.

Custer State Park was a great place to explore. Plan on taking one to two days to see everything. The buffalo herd is vast and you run into them in the most unexpected places. We also enjoyed the Needles Highway with it's high lookouts and switchbacks. I did notice my brake pads getting a bit overheated on the way down. Stop often to enjoy the view!

Everyday Pleasures #6

First off, I would like to shout out a great big
"Happy Birthday!!!"
to my youngest, who is turning 14 today!
You are one of my most cherished everyday pleasures my dear, and I wish you the sun and the moon and all the magic in between!

And now for this weeks "Everyday Pleasures", where once again, I find myself in my own backyard, for it is an endless source of wonder to me. Have a great weekend everyone!


Bearded Iris


Bumble Bee on Lupine


Siberian Iris


Wild Primrose

Greetings From the Moon

Okay, It's not really the moon but it sure feels like it. We are in the Badlands of South Dakota. I have never been anywhere like this. It is a very surreal place. The hills are composed of bentonite clay that has hardened and eroded over time. The Badlands hold the fossilized remains of prehistoric camels, horses and rhinoceros dating from 37-28 million years old. It's a great place to photograph. The light and shadow are constantly changing. This is a place you must see in your lifetime.

Greetings from the World's Only Corn Palace

Here are some photos from the first stop of our trip out west. The Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota has been around for over 100 years. Every May the exterior of this concrete structure is redecorated with a new theme. This year's theme is "Everyday Heroes." The exterior is covered with locally grown corn and grains. 500,000 people tour this facility yearly. Yes, this building does serve as a giant bird feeder. That's me with my Husband Mark on the left. Mark, Matt (my son the ham) and his friend Whitney are in the bottom right photo. One thing that you should know about me is that I love kitschy places. I dream of having my picture taken in the mouth of the giant Muskie in Hayward, Wisconsin.

My voice may be gone, but the quilting goes on!

I have laryngitis. Boo! This makes it very hard to teach, especially when my final projects happen to be fairly complicated and require a lot of explaining... this makes me sad. It's too bad that my "cries of anguish" are limited to making little fart noises with my mouth. Pthbbbbt on my lack of a voice. PTHBBBBT.

One thing is cheering me up like crazy, though. I've just started getting emails from some Kansas City Roller Warriors who are donating to the quilt. Yay for contributions from afar! I'm beyond excited to get quilty-goodness from skaters I've never met. My fantasy is to have this quilt be filled with squares from skaters and refs from across the country. Hopefully this will become a reality soon.

Yoshiko Jinzenji

Yoshiko Jinzenji is an internationally recognized textile artist, known for her beautiful minimalist quilts. Jinzenji is a master of textiles; dyeing, weaving, piecing, quilting, designing, writing and teaching her art form. Pictured above is her Filled Check print.


Dot & Dashes


Dots & Glyphs

I first came to know of her through her fabric designs. When I stumbled upon some at a quilt show last year, with just a bit of money left in my pocket, I happily spent my last dime on one of her printed fabric panels, (the one pictured directly above) It hangs it on my door, by my work table. I look at it everyday. It is too beautiful to cut!

I love her simplicity and her use of line. Jinzenji's designs are like a language all it's own, which she sings fluently, straight to my heart.

All of the images above and below came fromREPRODEPOT FABRICS.


Thumbprint Mix


Dashes

The Wedding Day

Here are some photos from the wedding of Jeremiah and Rachel Daly. They were married on Saturday at Snow Mountain Ranch near Winter Park Colorado. It was a breath taking site. The backdrop in the photo is the Continental Divide.

It was the first time we had a chance to meet our nephew's bride. On top of her never ending effervescent smile was an amazing spirit. Jeremiah is a very lucky man. We met so many wonderful people on this trip. Many of the people I met will never be forgotten. The couple is surrounded by the love and support of amazing families and friends. Here is a shot of the groom's mother, my sister in law, Rebecca escorting their flower dog Fiona to the altar.

Seeing Jer and Rachel together you can tell they were made for each other and their marriage will hold a lifetime of happiness. Oh, did I mention we were honored to give the groom and his bride a lift to the reception?

Lucienne Day

I am in love with the designs of Lucienne Day. Here are some examples of her textile work which was put together by the Center for Advanced Textiles at Glasgow School of Arts.


Flotilla


Dandelion Clocks


Calyx

This book, Robin and Lucienne Day: Pioneers of Modern Design, which showcases both Lucienne's work, and the work of her equally talented husband Robin, is now at the top of my wish list.



Robin Day's Armchair for the Royal Festival Hall, 1951.

And check out these cool Jack Purcell Converse sneakers made with Lucienne's Trio pattern!


More information on this dynamic due, and many other thoughouly fantastic designers, can be found from Britain's Design Museum

More Winter Musings

Here is another winter shot of my farm from my work area. You can see one of my stained glass snowflakes hanging in the window. It is time to start making these items again. I was surprised to find out they sell year round. Sales really take off in the Summer and I can't keep them in stock the last 3 months of the year.

The Wedding Quilt

We've been waiting for this day for a long time. My nephew Jeremiah and his bride to be Rachel are getting married today. You would not believe how beautiful the setting is for this event. More pictures after the holiday.

They requested a wall hanging in earth tones. This pattern is from Evelyn Sloppy's Log Cabin Fever Book called "Delectable Log Cabins". It is a variation of the deletable mountain block. The quilting was done by a local quilter from Elroy, Jane Wiess.

Jer and Rachel are an amazing couple and will have a wonderful life together.

Thank you viaderby.com

I just cleaned my bearings for the first time using this demo as a reference. This made MUCH more sense than any of the written ones, even the pamphlet that came with my Bones Speed Cream. Thanks Viaderby!

Lovely Dress models

I just had to share these photos with you. I went shopping in Madison with my friends Cindy and Marcella. Here are some shots of the dress mannequins in the window at the local sewing machine shop. What a creative idea.

Everyday Pleasures #5

Just like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, I had no need to go any further than my own backyard to find this weeks "Everyday Pleasures"!


An old, forgotten artifact from when the girls were little, hidden in the branches of our weeping willow tree.


Looking over the farm fields from atop of the sliding board which no one ever uses anymore, but it has too many nice memories to take down just yet.


My dog Mo, who is looking forward to everyone being home for the long Memorial day weekend and wishing you all peace.

I <3 refs.

Let me just say that every skater should spend time helping the refs and/or reffing themselves every once in a while. Holy crap, what a hard job. A nearby league had its first scrimmage tonight and they were short on refs, so I got to help out. I think I was as nervous as the skaters! I'm sure I totally stumbled my way through it... I know I missed about a million "blocking out of bounds," "forearms," "back blocking," and "elbows" minors and one major that I still can't quite explain or understand. However, I learned SO MUCH tonight that my head is swimming.

After tonight, I don't think I can ever get pissed about a call, no matter how "obvious" I think it is. I don't think I've ever done anything that complicated in my entire life. My hat is so off to you refs out there. How do you keep track of it all?

I had an absolute blast, though. :D

Prehistoric Space Spores

Who isn't fascinated with cave paintings? The earliest evidence of human artistic expression! What could be more exciting!?

Well I thought it would be fun to imagine finding a cave with little prehistoric space spores drawn all over it!


I spritzed some bright pink fabric with walnut ink, water and fabric paint, then with a combination of free motion machine stitching, (the dark brown stitching) and hand embroidery, I created my little cave spores.


I was just having fun, but I like how they turned out and I think I will be exploring these more at a later date.

Shady Grove in the Winter

I've been talking a lot about the greening of our land. I thought you might enjoy some winter shots. On New Years Eve day we had a hoarfrost. Hoarfrost forms on clear nights when objects on the ground become colder than the air. I love the hoarfrosts and always look forward to them. On top of the frost we had about 3 feet of snow on the ground. I've added a shot of my tall husband knee deep in snow. The snow started on November 30th and never melted until late March. This is the most snow I have seen in years. My husband Mark had to get really creative with new places to pile the snow. The pile by our mailbox was at least 6' high by the end of the winter.

I'm BACK!!

OK so the post date is May 21st!!! Don't let it fool you! I wrote this on 5/21 and been waiting to get pictures in, then LIFE got away from me, and I just posted this 8/7/08!!!!

Where did I go??? No Where!!! What a Bummer. I've just been home dealing with family and finding absolutely no time to sit and blog. May is the busiest month of the year for families with kiddos in school and especially when one of them is graduating!

I have completed a couple customer quilts! YEAH!

This is Becky's


and this is Diane's


Lara picked up her quilt just a few days before she delivered her new baby girl!!

My Dear Daughter that is expecting in 3 weeks!, and her hubby just bought a house! It's a repo house and needs cleaning! So Niquie and I went over and scrubbed out the bathrooms yesterday. They look SO much better! I will post pictures when the house is all cute and painted etc. . . .

My parents are coming in town on Saturday for the graduation next week, so life around here will be crazy, but I will try really hard to get a few posts in during the week.