Studio Mess

My messy studio. How do I get any work done? I often clean between Christmas and New Years.

More 12 days of Christmas tags

Here is a tag for Tim Holts 12 days of Christmas. He has finished all 12 now. I am a little behind on them. I did the deer this past weekend. I think this was number 7 or so.


I did the one on the left at a local store this past week. I then made the other two at home after wards. My deer are made with two layers of hand dyed fabric that are fused with heat and bond. I then cut it out with the die cut and then added the embossed snowflakes.


Sorry for the side ways look. It just happens now and then.
This is a tag from earlier. I am not sure but maybe tag 5. I like the red of Christmas. I still have plans of making many more tags this next week or next. After Christmas I may try a make some tags that have the Valentines theme or make them in the form of a card. I love the vintage look with the many many layers of techniques.

Baking started - Thumb prints

I started to make cookies today. Here is Raspberry Thumb Prints. I had to use the good homemade Raspberry Jam. They are very good. This recipe has a almond icing on the top. I have to leave them out for the icing to dry enough to place in the cookie tin. A very dangerous time for these cookies, some have already been eaten.


My recipes out of the box. I plan to make all these things. Chocolate fudge, toffee, Shortbread cookies and special cut out cookies. I got my Christmas cakes done last night.

Leduc Guild Friendship Blocks

The Leduc and Camrose Quilt guilds are having a challenge. We are making blocks for charity quilts, we call them Friendship Quilts. There was a method to picking your colours. I have Citrus Fruit (lime green), Lilac, and Magenta. We then could use a background fabric, Black White or cream. We each needed to make one block. I know many ladies will be making many more. I have not made charity blocks for a long time so this fall I started with one block and handed it in. Then I thought that `was easy` and I have a stack now. I still have to hand in the other 7 or 8 blocks. I am thinking I should make a different but matching block to go with these. Not sure and will think on this some more. Any ideas out them quilt friends (question mark key not working).

My very first quilted project

I am posted this because many of the projects I am working on are presents for Christmas. I do not want to spoil the surprise for some of the people lucky enough to get a homemade gift. My dear Mom is to get one of the handmade gifts. Please do not tell her (you know who you are).


I made this pillow in Grade 9 so many many years ago. My mom was quilting back then and I had done lots of cross stitch at the time. I had hand sewn some stuffed animals and fluffy pillows from kits. I still have one of them in my sewing room. For grade nine Home Ec we had to do some project the teacher led us in and then we got to work on our choice. I wanted to do hand work. I made mini patch work by hand. I stitched the baby horse with batting and the very tiniest of stitches. I look at those stitches now and can't believe it was me. The back side of the pillow did not show well in a photo but it is a hand quilted in a feather heart pattern. The fabric on the back is pink with polka dots.


I got a good mark on the project. The only trouble I had was that I sewed the two sides and the lace by machine, then turned it right side out and stitched by machine the hole closed. It was stitched kind of sloppy and the lace was pulled funny in the corners. I would fix it but then it would not be my first project. My dear mom was a great helping hand on this. I remember her showing me how to transfer my quilting pattern to my fabric and to start to hand quilt. She did not do any of the stitching but was a great help.

Tim's Christmas Tags

I started to make some of Tim Holtz tags last year. This one here is the tag he posted on his blog Saturday the 4th, Tag #4 for this year. I did not use a commercial paper but instead still spent time making the tag background. I did not have glossy paper last year but I do this year. So for this tag I used the alcohol inks and glossy paper. I then stamped the Santa face and an embossed scroll. In Red I stamped Believe. I also used this nice thick trim and sewed it on with my sewing machine. Tim's 12 days of Christmas


This tag needed some bobbles and I have not purchased Tim's package. I have many beads and jump rings for making jewelery so I just did not want to buy his. I have made my own bobbles of beads. I am sure most of this years tags will get one or two bobbles. I also used a small mini ornament that I make from last years tags. It has a Graphic 45 paper in it. The white ribbon I have used is a good silk ribbon, I think it is 20mm wide. Finally I also added the bling to the tag.


This is tag #2 for this year. I made this one on Thur the 2nd at one of the local stores. Treasured Memories in Edmonton is doing up kits and mini classes for Tim's tags. I was in the store Thur and did this one and the Tag #1 below. I did not like the ribbion in the kits so I coloured my own silk with Tim's Ink pads.


Here is tag #2 with a snowy white house. I do not have the die to cut the house or the fence. So I took the mini class on this one too. I changed my ribbon again.


Here is one of the tags I did last year. I really love this one. I drew my own tree on grunge paper using the clear embossing pen and then using the green distress embossing powered. I did not have a tree stamp. I did however have the little truck. Love it. I tied the tree to the truck using a linen thread I had. I also loved gluing the paper on the tag and taring the edges, then inking and blending the edges. I used this one on many of the men presents I wrapped last year for Christmas.


This tag is not one of Tim's but it does use some of the techniques that he should in last years tags. I made this one myself. I stamped on vellum. I stamped and used the distress powder on grunge paper to make the Eiffel tower. Then I finished with a flower.


This is the snowman tag from last year. I did not have the snowman stamp that Tim used but instead I painted three balls on the grunge paper then cut it out. This was the first time I did so much to the background. Ink and dry ink and dry a few times. stamp. Added the snow on the top edge. The scarf is two ribbons and a wire all taped together. This way you can bend the ribbon to show the blowing wind, oh so cute.


Here is the inking of the ribbons. So far I am doing really good on this years tags 3 of 4. Did you notice I do not have a number 3 done yet. It has a sweet bird on it and I do not own the die cut. I think I might draw out my own bird on to grunge paper. I have a red ribbon for it ready to go. I must go and get started on #3 and take a look at #5 today. I also have to get some quilting done too.

Christmas Felt Balls

I made needle felted eggs this spring and then was asked to teach the same technique but in Christmas Balls. Here is the little tree and the samples I did for my class. The class was for the Rug hooker's guild. We had a great time. All the felt is needle felted onto Styrofoam balls. We first needle felted the background colour and then added the details.


The Bear was kind of cute. Sorry the photo is side ways. I had it correct but three out of five photos still up load sideways. I have tried to fix this but can not get it correct.


Here is my angle, she looks so much better in person as some of her wings wrap around more.


The Snowman also looks better in person. He did not photograph well and his scarf wraps around and looks wind blown.


Santa what can I say, he is the cuties of them all. I just love how he turned out. His beard is silk and soy fleece, and only the ends are needle punched in place. His eyes and nose are just a stick pin with a coloured end stuck in.

Leduc Pizza Box quilt

With my Mom's help I have gotten the quilt top done. My mom did the top left block the beet. She also helped get the blocks together and sewed the green leaves on. She also gave me more of the purple and black fabric for the boarder out of her stash. I have not quilted this quilt yet as I have not found a backing that I like. I think I want a flannel but I would like black and pink. Or maybe Black and white. It will have to wait to get quilted. I have one block it use on the back as a label. I have been trying to make some lap quilts to use in the living room for TV watching.

Gooffy Dog Photos

Beer Dog, loves to carry stuff around.
I see other bloggers have all kind of photos of their pets. I do up horse reports because I do have friends that want to hear about our horses. They ride or did ride at some point in their lives. Now for Lex the big brown dog. He is a male Chesapeake Bay Retriever and is about 3 and a half now. Today, Thursday is Dog Agility Class. Lex is really enjoying class. It is more fun then the obedience classes we have done. He does seem to enjoy the work of agility better than obedience classes. I have taken him to three obedience classes in the past. So will plan to post more dog photos but not every week.
Ready to go to class
Camping at Lesser Slave Lake this summer

Snowman Cards

I have started to make some Christmas Cards. I started by stamping a Northwoods stamp on my water colour paper. Then I coloured them with my Copic markers. I used a Bo Bunny paper for the background. I have used pop dots to mount the snowman circle and the snowflakes. I used stickels on the flakes and the snowmen. I have done 12 so far, each is a little different.

Toffee for my sewing group

It is the night before my sewing group or Bee group. We are meeting at my mom`s house tomorrow. I think she is planning on making muffins. I wanted to make something sweet. I have made toffee. I found this recipe in a magazine a few years a go. Here is a link for the recipe Land of lake
I do not use the pecans. If I was to add nuts it would be toasted Almonds. I always make sure to boil the mixture enough. I boil it 9 minutes or till the mixture changes colour. I want the colour to be a light brown. The times I have not cooked it enough it is softer and not crunchy.
We will miss you Shawna.

Betty Swap 7 Cards

I am doing a Betty Swap on Two Peas in a Bucket. We had to send in a soup recipe on a 6 by 6 Page with some embellishments. Here is my card on a pull out tag and pocket page. I think there are 20 of us so I will get back 19 other recipes cards that can be made into a book.
There are a second part to this swap. I am to send a list of things to a fellow Betty. I Christmas movie, Christmas story, Christmas CD of music, A winter hat scarf set, Some scrape book stuff, A reading Book, I would have to check my list twice. I have made a few things for my partner. I will be getting a package from another Betty partner too. I did this swap last year around Dec. It was a lot of fun.

Brad's New Horse Socks

This is Socks, Brad's new horse. We just got him this last month. Adam is next to Socks. We are hoping that Socks will be quiet enough that he can became Adam's horse in a year or two. So far we are very happy with him. He has been very friendly and very quiet with everything we have asked him to do.

Wendy's Quilt

I have been long arm quilting most days this fall. This is Wendy's quilt. I am not quiet done yet. I hope I get enough time to quilt on Saturday to finish the quilting and then I have the trimming and binding to sew on. I love the colours of this scrape quilt. I have many of the fabrics in my stash. I love the lime green flannel on the back. It is going to be a very warm soft quilt. Hope you enjoy Wendy.

What have I been doing

I am going to try and get back to my Blog. My friend Shawna has moved away and is looking for me to make some posts. So this is for you Shawna. Let us see if I can make at least two postings a week till the end of the year or longer.

Here is a Perigee Falcon in my Garden. Brad worked with the birds for a few summers so he know a lot about them. This is a young male born this year and not banded. He took this gull down and ate it in our garden till a Red Tailed Hank came to bug him. He left most of the feathers here. He stayed in the garden for about 15 mintues and we got a good look at him. The boys enjoyed it.

Leduc Guild Block in a Pizza Box Exchange

Last year the Leduc Guild stated a block exchange in a Pizza Box. We were to do our first block and some fabric we would like used in our blocks. I did this block as my first one. I also asked that they use the black and purple dot fabric in the background. I sent one meter of black and a fat quarter of purple and some pink and lime greens. I also had about a doz of these hexagon flowers left from another finished project and included then in my box. I used a little note book to tell the ladies what I would like. They could then add their comments as they worked on my block. All blocks were to be 12 half inches.
I used an old pizza box that had some writing on the top and I wanted it to look good. I painted it with Gesso and the pen writing bleed though I painted it again. Then I used a ranger crackle paint in a green. I wanted to try the ranger masks I had just bought so I inked over the crackle paint and masks. I finished with a sealer and a ribbon to open it. I know I spent more time on my box than the block inside.
While the year has gone by and all the boxes are back to their owners. Here is my 8 blocks. I also have a striped fabric I bought thinking I might be able to use it with my blocks. I know I will need more blocks for a quilt but I am not sure what I will do.

Tree Trunk Vessel for the endowment fund

This is a Tree Trunk Vessel I have made out of felting wool. I have made it to donate to the Edmonton and District Quilter Guild. Every year at this time they take in donations for the Endowment fund. The Quilter`s guild started and U of A endowment fund and each year, give a scholarship to a student in the textile department at the U of A. This year we were asked to make a vessel. Other years have been Soft sculpture, Journal covers, and Bags. At our year end dinner they will sell tickets and draw for winners of the Vessels. You buy tickets and place them in the vessel you hope to win. You can place all your tickets in one vessel if that is the one you really want to win. Some people buy enough tickets to place one ticket in each vessel.
Here is how I made my vessel. Choose the wool to use. I used 2 oz of merino wool. about half was the darker brown.
This is a cardboard tube wrapped in a plastic bag and then wrapped with bubble wrap. This is the form I used to build the wool on.
I started to add wool on to the form. I wet the wool a bit as I went a long. This is the inside layer.
Here is more wool on the form. I think one more layer of brown went on before I started to felt. I did some felting and then wanted a whole on the side of my tree trunk. I just used my finger to push the wool around till I had a whole. This whole is the birds entrance to his home in the tree trunk. I moved my hand around the wet warm wool. I used soap to help with felting.
When the wool is started to felt and becoming one unit, It is time to take it off the form. More felting is needed with more pressure. While the wool is still wet, warm and soapy, it will get rolled and more felting. I used a place mat (bamboo) and bubble wrap .
I placed a piece of plastic inside the tree truck ( so the middle will not stick together). I flattened the wool and started to roll it into a jelly roll. I rolled like I was working a rolling pin over the counter. I applied pressure. Rolled more. Then unrolled and changed the direction of the wool in the roll. I rolled more.
When I thought the wool was well felted I started to rinse out the soap. I also poured boiling hot water on the tree trunk (while on the form). I pinched the bottom edge so that the tree trunk to give the tree trunk a real bottom and not just a rounded bottom. I left the wool on the form to dry. Once it was dry I spend a couple of days adding the thread and beads.
Showing the front finished.
Here is the edge beaded. I love the feel and weight of the beads on this edge.
This is the back side of the tree truck. I used a couple different colours of hand dyed thread. I used four different seed beads. Lime, copper, and brown in two sizes.