Rolling Out the Old

So this last day of 2007 came upon the Howes household and what do you think we did? We let it crawl in slowly, and lazily go about it's duty of counting down the hours while the whole household just did the same. We had our last family breakfast of 2007 at 12 pm and just a little heads up for everyone...6yr olds do not get the concept of eating brkfast for lunch. Nada, nope, no way!

I decided though that I should end the year as I want the new one to
start, by making ART! All thru the months leading up to Christmas I saw boxes being made and decided I'm supposed to make one as well. I'd created a fabric collage made from pink strips sewn to a base and then covered with an irresdescent sheer and quilted the heck out of it. It had been staring at me for a couple of weeks and I was tired of it's accusatory look that said "DO SOMETHING WITH ME, DARN IT!"

Whether it wanted to or not, it was going to become a box and it had better be glad I didn't turn it into inchies, doggone-it! Anyhoo I figured out sizes for each piece and started cutting - 1 bottom (4" sq), 4 sides (2 1/2" x 4"), 1 lid top (4 1/4" sq) and 4 lid sides (7/8" x 4 1/4").

I also cut the same from Fast2Fuse.com and a lining fabric. I sandwiched the Fast2Fuse between the top and the lining fabrics, right sides facing out, and fused all three layer between two pressing sheets (no need to get the iron all messed up on what is supposed to be an easy art day). Then came the tedious part of satin stitching all the edges (40 of them to be exact).

You've got to understand something, for some reason, unbeknownst to me, I can't stand doing satin stitching. I don't know if, in an earlier life, my only job was to satin stitched garments (probably by hand, no doubt) or that I resent the use of all that gor-gee-ous thread just for the darned edges or that I could be reading a new issue of Quilting Arts Magazine during that time or what. I just don't like to satin stitch! I'd rather do needle turn applique (which I've actually come to like). When one actually convinces oneself that raw edge applique is now one's favorite form of applique then you really really know that I strongly dislike (I save "hate" for really good stuff) satin stitching.

Okay, don't laugh, truthfully it wasn't all that bad. I got thru it anyway. Above you can see the pieces set up to be joined. I butt the edges and, increasing the length on my machine, I ziz-zag stitched the edges together. I did this in one continous stitch and broke the threads only when I reach the beginning threads. Then I turn it over and re-enforce the stitch form the inside by zig zagging over the butted edges again. Repeat same with box lid.

When finished, the sides of the box and the lid easily fold up. As you can see from the photo above I cut the box top sides in a curve before I satin stitched the edges. Gave it a little more pizzazz I thought. I then folded up the sides and whipstitched the sides into place. I even remembered to hide the knot by starting on the inside of the box (below).

It's fairly easy to hold the sides whilst you sew them up. No pins are needed at all. Be careful when stitching though cause the thread kept getting caught and I'd realize this 4 or 5 stitches away and notice that the thread wasn't pulled all the way thru. No matter, I really like what I ended up with. I really really like the way the irrisedescent sheer fabric is frayed all around the box.

A few hours later here is my finished fabric box. The year 2007 has passed along a great treasure. I am grateful for all the good that rained down on me and mine in 2007; a family to love, a new direction to follow and a belief in myself and my art that was a long time in coming.

In my 2008 Dream Box I will put all my dreams and goals for the coming year, a special space for all the good things to come.

I wish all my friends, and the many more friends I will make in 2008, a wonderful New Year filled of lots of love, happy contentment and creative success thruout the year. Hurrah!

See ya next time, "In the Hayloft",

Take it Further Challenge

In order to challenge myself and not wallow too deep into procrastination (which has been a good friend in the last few years but needs to find another shoulder to sit on) I have joined the Take it Further Challenge.

Sharon B of In a Minute Ago, came up with this one and each month she will post a key concept. Our challenge is to take the idea , develop it and push it towards a resolved design during that month.. She will make it even easier on us by posting a colour scheme as a 2nd option should we not want to complete the design concept. An even cooler thing is I can work in any medium I choose as long as I make one project per month. So for all those other techniques I wanted to try.....here goes!

I really think I'm gonna enjoy this. It fits in with my working small concept but will also challenge me to think on the spot towards a finished project and get me working more on art in my studio. Much like the Houston journal project that I couldn't commit to at the time, I get to work intuitively in a fairly quick time frame which I'm not used to but need to train myself to do.

The Take it Further Challenge (TIFC) begins in January '08. Please visit again each month to see my progress as I have committed to posting my projects each month. Also check out the TIFC blog in my sidebar to see the other 277 artists (can you believe that's how many signed up?) who decided to challenge themselves.

BTW, check out the Santa's new elves. Just click on the link below. Enjoy!
http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1658668882


See ya next time "In the Hayloft",

A New Pattern

I finally finished my latest pattern called "Bloom Where You Are Planted". Yeh me! It is a small fused wallhanging measuring 24"x 31" (see some detail shots below). Even the black and white border is fused down.

The story behind this quilt started with my 15 yr old daughter who, at the time, was struggling with her identity among her more slighted "advanced" friends and trying to find some much needed self-confidence . Her solution was to move to a diffferent school. Ix nay on that! Things were not insurmountable so I sat her down to talk and basically told her to stand her ground, don't change who she is at the core (which is a very sweet and caring person) and to "bloom where she was planted". No matter the difficulty BLOOM! I think this is a great quilt for a girl's bedroom to remind them that their beauty will shine no matter what.

If you would like to purchase this or any of my patterns please email me at
crzyqults@hotmail.com.


I am planning on launching my website,
RedBarn-studios.com, in January for all the world to see. On my website I will be offering my patterns and original artwork for sale plus a list of workshops I will be doing at shops and nearby venues. Check back soon for notice of my website launch. I can't wait!


See ya next time "In the Hayloft",

A Gift for a Friend

Last week I went to a baby shower for a good friend who also happens to be my neighbor. She got all the regular things - car seats, stroller, bottle and breast feeding paraphernalia and all manner of clothing.

Being a different sort of folk I decided to get her the Boon Frog Pod , a cool looking green froggy thing that scoops, drains and stores all those bath toys. Don't know bout you but I always found the job of gathering the toys after bathing the kids a tedious job, especially the ones you had to stretch for at the back of the tub - arrgrh! (we always enjoyed the splashing much better anyway).

As I looked at all the things she received that day I also got to thinking that I wanted to do something different for her. This small quiltlet is the result. I collect all sort of sayings and this one sort of presented itself to me as I went thru my collection.

I had originally intended to put a a sleeve on the back but decided to do something different. I'm going to cut a 3/8" dowel to size, paint it, stitch it to the back of the quilt then tie a colourful chiffon ribbon at the ends for hanging.

She's decided not to find out the sex of the baby so this had to be in neutral colours. It's only about 12" square and came together quite quickly, even for me. I'll see her later in the week and surprise her with it.

Back to writing pattern directions for me. I should have this new pattern (my latest) up on the blog in a few days. Also will have an update on the next few classes I'll be teaching in the new year.


See ya next time "In the Hayloft",

Christmas Has Reached Our House

We finally finished decorating the tree! After we strung all the lights and plugged them in, the lights in the middle of the tree simply would not work. No matter how much we twisted and jiggled them. It took an extra trip to the shop to get four more sets of lights and no...we did not take off the ones that weren't working, just wrapped the new ones in.

Needless to say taking down the tree this year will be a bear of a task. Only after I took the picture did I notice that Connor jumped in the picture to show off his truck.

Below is the view as you enter our house from the front door with the tree glittering in the sun room in the back. Again, did I notice Connor jumping into the shot from the stairs? But he was too cute to reshoot it. So here are the pictures of the Christmas in the Howes household and one member who refused to be forgotton.

See you next time "In the Hayloft",

Cleaning is Overrated...but necessary

It must be getting near the end of the year because I seem to be in a cleaning frenzy. My mother has this thing about bringing in the new year with a clean house and I guess I've adopted it (don't we become just like our mother's in the end anyway?)

I cleaned my son's room last week and what a major reshuffle that was. Whew!!! Let me explain something to you...he is just six yrs old but happens to be one of the biggest hoarders I know. He wanted to throw away nothing, NOTHING I say! His pile for keep was gi-normous compared to the throw away pile. I must say though that he was generous with his give-away pile (alright so he has outgrown most of those baby toys but still couldn't bear to throw them away, but giving was okay).

He absolutley loves to draw and draws this superhero he made up, KAP * W (pronounced KAP-STAR-W) all the time. HE IS KAP * W, the stongest superhero in the world! So do you know how many pictures there are of this superhero? I'll tell you...a small laundrey basket full and none could find it's way into the largest garbage bag I could find.

I was even told at one point "you're killing me Mum" to which I said...Okay hon, but only KAP* W pictures we are keeping. I know, I was a sap, a sucker and now have to come up with an ingenious way to store all these papers and probably thousands more to come.

So we are sitting there in a clean room where we could finally see the carpet and he tells me "now we need to paint". I might add that it is not even 5 minutes after we finish heave-ho his room! Do you think Santa can handle that job? No, I mean the real Santa, the one that swoops down the chimney and all.

So now I am finished with his room and will start on the next cleaning job, something I've been putting off for a long time................my studio! It needs a complete overhaul-----new storage (yummy), lots of dusting/sweeping (cough cough) and replanning where things go for easier retrieval. Wish me luck!


See ya next time "In the Hayloft",

p.s. will post picture of "before" when I've taken picture of the "after". Will not embarras myself w/o showing the bee-u-tiful results.

Punche Needle Mania...Oh No!

A friend and I have recently discovered punch needle embroidery. Boy is that darned stuff addicting. I finished the above piece in about 6 hours over two days. I just couldn't stop punching that fabric. My kids thought I was obsessed because every time they came into the room there I was hunched over this small frame...poking that tool again and again .

My husband was on a business trip when I started this piece and when he got back he just couldn't get use to the punching noise so I had to stop for the night on day 1. Oooh man was I having serious withdrawal symptoms that night. All I could thing of was the fact that I would get to it tomorrow.....

" Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love ya, tomorrow,
you're only a day away"

Anywho...I thought to put it in a frame but I have an idea for a small quilt. Hopefully I'll get a chance to finish it this coming week.

Isn't that about the cutest little house you've seen? Speaking of houses, been working on a new house quilt. Will show that soon.

See ya next time "In the Hayloft",

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hubby and 6yr old with my first poinsettas of the season

Hope everyone had a gobbly good Thanksgiving. It was nice just having the family around but it felt strange as well cause we usually have friends over (they also have no other family near them) but this time they chose to have a quiet day themselves. Got a call from one of them and he said he missed being at our house! Ohhhhh. So me thinks we'll end up together again next year as was our tradition for over 12 yrs. Ya live and ya learn.

Yesterday, because we didn't have guests I got to do some of my own thing (which I promised myself to work on) and I finished the look of my website...the struggle with that had more to do with being content with what I produced enough to like it for the long run.

I have a few pages to fill out...one being the "about myself" page, aaagrrh (waxing on about my accomplishments is something I'm still not very comfortable doing) and secondly I need to take good pics of my large quilts to post on my gallery page. Have to set it up outside to get good pics cause I don't have a studio wall big enough.

Wish me luck that it works the first time around so I can finally upload it to a server so that the whole wide world can see me. Yikes! Just the thought of that gives me the heeby geebies but...I WILL NOT GIVE UP, I WILL PERSEVERE!!!! .

I know, I know you're probably thinking"she got a blog for goodness sake, how's that for worldwide" but having a website is somehow different in my mind. Here I'm just enjoying "chatting" with friends.

By the way I usually end my nights just before I go to sleep by finding something everyday to be grateful for. But this Thankgiving I am more grateful than you can imagine for having my family, all my children at home to celebrate the day with. We've been in upheaval for such a long time it was good to just appreciate them all. Of course my 6yr old kept telling me, "Mummy you're staring at me again". What can I say, they make me smile and those tender feeling just rise to the surface.


See ya next time"In the Hayloft",

Quote of the Day

I love little life sayings, serous and funny alike, and have post-it notes filled with them, some stuck on the wall in front of my studio desk, some in my bedroom, a whole page of them in my sketchbook and some I post on my daughter's bathroom mirror at night so she can take it with her during her day.

The one below I love because it speaks to me everyday. It's in a prominent spot...everytime I look up from the computer I see it. It says:

Who looks outside DREAMS
Who looks inside AWAKENS

Carl Jung


See ya next time "In the Hayloft"

A New Pattern

My time has not been my own of late and I have not had a chance to create anything new but finally, a new piece "Bloom Where You Are Planted". It's only a small wallhanging that I still have yet to write the pattern directions for but at least the top is done. I originally wanted to make it for my daughter to let her know that her beauty will shine no matter where she is in life.

The ragged boot I absolutely love how it turned out. The only thing is I'm always stymied trying to come up with quilting designs to enhance my quilt tops so I've been auditioning designs on my makeshift design board. It's just a piece of plexiglass that I place over an unquilted piece and draw on with a dry erase pen. It's much easier that way because I get to erase the design without having to unpick any threads.

We all have so many ideas for quilts in our heads and think we'll never get all of them out in a sketchbook, far less in fabric? Well...I'm here to tell you...you probably won't get to them all (hee hee) but every one that's plucked out is another one you can feel good about. And then another 2 are ready to take its place. I'm glad this one is finally out and almost finished. Hurray!

See ya next time "In the Hayloft",

My First Ribbon!

Look, look, I won a ribbon!

One of the guilds I belong to is the Lake Norman Quilter's and we had our first show last Saturday. We are a group of about 44 members and we worked our butts off to put on the best show we could muster. We had very good feedback from attendees who loved the variety of quilts (about 224 at last count) we had on display.

And lo and behold. I won a first place ribbon for one of my quilts "ColourBlocks" (which is also a pattern). Yippee!!!!!!! This is only the second show I have ever entered and I am tickled pink to get my first ribbon! I also won a 3rd place ribbon for my quilt "Bluberries and Mint Parfait".

Not bad for a newbie huh?

See ya next time "In the Hayloft",

Some Rain at Last...Thank Goodness!!

Whenever I'm on the road I always have my camera at the ready...just in case. On the way into Charlotte for an appt yesterday it was all I could do to keep my eyes on the road, the sky was absolutely beautiful, it looked like a piece of cloth that had just had fun painting. It was heavy with clouds that were bursting with long overdue rain. This little bit we get will just have to tide us over for now.

I wish I had a better shot of this next photo. I forgot to roll down the passenger side window before I took it so you can see the messy glass I shot it thru.

See ya next time "In the Hayloft",

Picture of the Day

So I'm driving along the road and and I stop at a traffic light just turning red. I know this light will probably take a while to change to green so I thought it a good time to take out my camera to check some recent photos I'd taken (make good use of time my mother always said). I turn the camera on and look to my left. This is what I see.


Hurriedly I take a picture before the car racing up to break beside me cuts off my view. Maybe the people who hung the sign can be excused for being dyslexic or...

.......maybe they forgot that we don't live in Japan where things are read from right to left or...

.......maybe the credit union thought it was a good advertising idea and asked for the sign to remain thus hung or...

........maybe they were pissed at their boss for making them work...yet again darn it!

No matter the reason, me thinks someone is gonna get in BIG, BIG trouble for this one.
We'll file this one under picture of the day.

See ya next time "In the Hayloft",

I'm Still Here

Bet you thought I got lost somewhere, never to return again. WRONG! As I mentioned when I started this blog, things (read LIFE here) will get in the way but........I'm back and eager to fill you in on happening things.

First I had such a fun time with Karen Stone this weekend. She came to visit our guild (Charlotte Quilter's Guild) this past week and she was a real hoot...warm, funny and very generous with her knowledge and time. We had so many members sign up for her workshop that I had to ask if she could do two instead of the usual one workshop to accomodate all those who wanted to attend (that was 40 ladies all eager to be near Karen). Sent her off on her merry way on Sat so she could prepare for her daughter's 18th birthday. Happy Birthday Chelsea!

News about my wayward foot...I will eventually have to have surgery done. Remember I told you that I was SPECIAL because I have all those extra sessamoid bones on each of my toes (the nurse still insisted I contact the Guinness Book of World Records to report this). Well apparently the original X-ray (taken in June!!!!) was mislabeled and when my new Doc looked a bit closer last week he could see that one of the small round bones was broken. The only thing with that was it showed I should be having pain in my right foot and not the left.

Got new X-rays done that same day and YUP...one of those little teeny tiny bones cracked right down the middle. That's why I'm still limping darn it, they were all looking at the left foot X-ray which really was a wonderful picture of the right foot with no problems!

So, in the end, Doc decided I should just have those little culprits both removed, hence the surgery and six weeks convalescence for healing...3 wks on crutches and 3 with a boot. Would you believe the best time for that is Christmas??? It's only then that I can almost guarantee that DH will be home long enough (Business Trips'R Him.com these days) to let me recuperate without too much getting up and down.

That's all for now. Will have some pics of new work next time including the new ones of the last piece I posted with the Sonji-like bundles I added to it. Cool stuff those bundles.

See ya next time "In the Hayloft",

Progress

I'm quite estatic this early morning. I finally have my 1st web page done...well... not really...I have set up a, uno, one page and now need to tweak some images so they show up better. Boy am I happy (can't you just see me doing the happy dance?).

I bought a couple of books (see previous post) and found four more at the library that I thought would help although you know those are really out of date at 3 years old. I considered for a millisecond purchasing DreamWeaver but my budget just ain't there. I decided to go on the web and see if there could possibly be anything else a teensy tiny bit cheaper (like $200 cheaper) and would you believe I found it.

I FOUND THE ANSWER TO MY FRUSTRATION! Yippee!!!!!!

I came upon a little HTML software editor called CoffeeCup. They have been in existence for a while now, since '96, but I had never heard of them before. I downloaded the trial software and two days later....did you hear me, I said 2 DAYS LATER...I have a web page, of sorts.

Tomorrow I will purchase the software (now that I know I can use it.) Next step...to get the other 150 pages finished. Oh people, I'm just kidding, I really only have about 10 or 15 more to do to be able to upload it to my server. Half the battle is over. Yippee!!!!!

See ya next time "In the Hayloft",

New Small Piece

I have not had much of a chance to get into my studio lately and sorely miss the action that happens there. So, last week, instead of working on a big quilt I chose to cut up a piece of fabric that I hand dyed last year with my group, Pandora's.

I like to work small sometimes cause it gives me a chance to keep my fingers and head busy with some creative stuff but it doesn't take a ton of time!

I've always wanted to work with just one fabric but I always thought it would be with a commercial fabric, finding some way to try and make each piece I used look different. You know how hard that can be.

For this piece I just cut strips from the yard of fabric, then cut those into smaller rectangles. Because it has a nice mix of toned down blues and purples it worked quite well as a one fabric piece. I wanted to work quickly and not think about things too much so I fused the rectangles to a large piece of fusible web. Next came a frame for it.

My daughter helped me audition the border and we settled on a cool eggplant batik. I cut a rectangle to include the borders I wanted, fused a piece of fusible to the back then...beleive it or not, I cut a whole in the middle for the hand dyed center section. I told you, I really didn't want this too take long. I then fused the two to a larger piece of batting. Top was done!

It's not quilted yet, been testing out some ideas and I still have to add some embellishments, thinking about beads or bundles. Got that last idea from Sonji Hunt (June 25th entry). You have to take a look at her work, the colour is what drew me in at first. Ooohwee!!

Gotta run, you may have not noticed the time of this post but I really should get some rest. I have an early day tomorrow.


See ya next time "In the Hayloft",

On Being a Pandora

Today was a good day. Today was a good day to be a Pandora. We four Pandora's hadn't met in a while, not since we had such a blast dyeing fabrics back in July. So it was a good day for us to get together and talk and relax and just be with each other. Don't get me wrong, we see each other quite regularly (all belong to the same guilds and talking constantly by email and phone) but it was nice to come together as the group we formed, Pandora's. We are not, by the way, the Pandora's, we are just...Pandora's.

One of us, Lushorn, had just finished building a pool in her backyard and she invited us over to christen the pool. It was such a hot day that a cool dip in the pool was just what was needed. She, in fact, spoiled us today, us Pandora's.

We all arrived by 9:30 and Lushorn had a small breakfast of fresh fruit waiting for us...smooth cantelope, juicy watermelon and sweet strawberries. We sat outside on her pool patio and got business out the way while we munched on all that gorgeous fruit. When it got to hot to sit still, those who brought swimsuits geared up and went for a cool and refreshing dip.

Thirty minutes later we were called out of the pool to a beautiful lunch of baked salmon and pasta (didn't I tell you we were spoiled today?). Another member, Susan, brought her version of Tiramisu, the fantastic coffee liqueur dessert. Yummy, yummy, yummy. By this time it was just after 1 pm and we all needed to head back to normal life, picking up kids and feeding dogs, etc.

No matter what our daily lives brings it's always really good to be a Pandora. Thanks my friends.

See ya next time "In the Hayloft",

Art Dolls with a Twist

A friend told me last night at our guild meeting that she likes to read my blog but thinks I should update it more often. Well...me thinks she's right. I have been amiss and will make every effort to keep it better updated. Thanks RM, I really appreciate your honesty. It's not that haven't been in my studio working, I just haven't had a chance to post and let you all see that I've been working on.

It didn't help that my modem got fried (3 days without internet) in the brutal thunderstorm we had last week. The rain came down in sheets and blew patio items all over the place, couldn't see out the windows because the rain was so heavy against the glass themselves. Anyway I am back online and love the new little dolls I made.

Growing up I really didn't play with dolls much, at least not the cuddle up kind. I loved making paper dolls though and all their clothes . I use to forget sometimes to cut out the little tabs that helped the clothes stay on their bodies...whoops! My sister and I had a whole set of them.

I saw an article in the magazine Art Doll Quarterly, summer 2007 issue, and knew I had to make one...okay....I kinda got carried away. I decided to make 6, one for me and a couple of quilting friends.

I painted a large piece of 90lb watercolour paper with Pebeo Setacolour paints in a rainbow effect. I knew that some of my friends liked certain colours and cut out each card with their colour in mind. Then it came time to embellish...yummy! I wrote, painted some more and stamped. To get the charms to stick to the heavyweight paper I use heavy gel medium. These are a few of the finished cards.

Each doll has a different personality and as they sat on my worktable for a couple of days, I contemplated whether I should add more. Alas..........no. In the end I decided just to add the arms, legs and the head by punching holes thru each part and connecting them with square brads (found in the scrapbooking section of the craft store).

I was going to mail them to each person but thought not, even though they fold up quite nicely on themselves (see back of doll below), It was better in peson seeing them unfold their special dolls. I wish I was still as agile as the picture shows.

Here they all are, kicking up their heels in joy at having been created!

The 1st and 4th dolls are obvioulsy way too cute to kick up too much in their pictures but that's not their real life personalities though. Those two really kick _ _ _ sometimes! So watch out for all these girls, they ROCK baby!

See ya next time "In the Hayloft",

Mess has it's Merits

Okay, so I was watching my regular sunday morning news programs to get my fill of all things political and I hear Bill Geist, from CBS News Sunday Morning say "if I could see more executive offices that look this messy I bet we'd be a more productive nation"...and I sat up to listen.

Apparently mess is GOOD!!! who the heck knew! I constantly bemoan the piles of paper and magazines I have lying around my studio and the few in my bedroom. I stack mags by date with the latest at the top, papers are stacked as well. As the guest, David Freeman said, "Piles have a chronological meaning to them. And people know how many inches they have to go down on a pile to get so many weeks or months back in time, and that makes it very easy to find things."

This is ME!!!!!!

How wonderful to know that I am not just a messy person but a messy person with purpose. There's such a thing as "useful mess". Whoopee!! Halleuah!

Furthermore, Mr. Freeman has these thoughts:

"...Had Sir Alexander Fleming not kept such a filthy laboratory, penicillin would not have been discovered" (big one here folks)

"...employees with messy desks are 36 percent more efficient (tellthat to your bosses)

"...the bigger the salary, the bigger the mess ( yeh but I'm thinking those CEO's also have people to clean up their messes)

and lastly "...Albert Einstein said, "If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk?" Mmmmh?

So some food for thought folks: mess ain't what it's cracked up to be. Go ahead be messy, feel good about it, more efficient production is right around the corner. YOUR ART IS WAITING!

See ya next time "In the Hayloft",

Designing Web Pages

I thought it would be fairly easy to design my own website (most of you really need to stop laughing at me now). So after days...okay so it's been a month plus but who's counting...of reading ,writing and lots of frustrated behavior I won't describe here, I finally have....a half of a page done!!!! Eh! I can see why people get paid good money to do this FOR you. But...

I WILL NOT GIVE UP, I WILL PERSEVERE!!!! yadda, yadda, yadda.

Actually I'm having a bit of fun reading the books I have, "HTML, XHTML & CSS by Elizabeth Castro and "The Principles of Beautiful Web Design" by Jason Beaird. It's fascinating read believe it or not and I'm learning so much.

Like when I post stuff to this blog and then view it, why the picture of a fruitcake is over there by the description of my husband's best friend (disclaimer: my husband's best friend, who's name shall remain nameless, is not a fruitcake, I'm just using that as an example) or now knowing that the html language that I see on a page is not really some web page designer mouthing off, it really does translate into web text.

Alright, enough goofing off. Hopefully my website, RedBarn Studios with it's new logo (yippee!) will be up and running soon...suppose that depends on your definition of soon...or you might see more posts that aptly describe my frustrated behavior. I'm off to buy MORE school supplies (whatever happened to just the paper and a pen deal?) but that means they go back to school on Monday and I get my daytime hours back to myself again. I think I prefered year round school afterall.


See ya next time "In the Hayloft",

p.s. As I write this my 6 yr old is playing "bowling" with my beautifully beaded ball and my 24" long ruler propped up on a the drill case. So much for it being MY place for play.

Living Rainforest Finally!

I know I promised the photos of the Living Rainforest that we visited near Pangbourne in England. Here are just a few. It was facinating walking around because every corner you turned was another interesting and sometimes rare species of life that exist somewhere on this planet of ours.

We'll start with the Pitcher Plant. Its leaves form pitchers that lure insects inside. The insects are attracted to the nectar that is produced at the bottom of the pitcher.

There the insect is trapped and digested by the plant.


This second photo came at great peril I might add. Someone had to hold me by the waist as I leaned over to take the picture of the bug struggling near the bottom of the plant. You can see his poor spindly legs in the middle of the photo. I think he knew he was done for by then.



This next photo intrigued me. My daughter came running to me telling me I have to come see this. Well since the whole environment was like that and I took my time going over. She came back pulling my arm over to where she was and this is what I came upon. I was no more than one and a half feet away from this "flutterby" (as my 6yr old calls them) when I took this photo. There we at least 5 people in the area and the flutterby did not move a muscle to fly away.

The Swiss Cheese plant is aptly named. It's large leaves resemble swiss cheese, duh! It's upward climbing roots are used for ropes in Peru, made into baskets in Mexico and boiled to treat snake bites in Martinique!! I loved the way the leaves formed a canopy over our heads as we walked under them.

These roots were about 2 ft wide by 3 ft high.


There were so many different varieties of plants it's hard to show them all here but I thought the swirl one was way cool...my kids hate to hear me say that, they say it sounds "so not cool Mummy"... so I say it all the time anyway, hee, hee. Anyway, enough about embarrasing my kids. The leaves swirl in bunches so there would be 3 or 4 of them on a branch.

Can you imagine a few of these trees in your garden and the leaves just swaying back and forth? How magical it would look especially when lying down on a large white hammock with a cool drink nearby and someone feeding you grapes...oops, sorry I got carried away there for a moment!


One thing that was not very pleasant was learning the facts about a particular flower, the Madagascar Rosy Periwinkle. I'm sorry that the photo is not a better one. It's a native plant of Madagascar that has been horribly exploited because of the discovery of its anti-cancer properties by western pharmaceutical scientist.


Unfortunately the majority of the profits never made its way back to the country, one of the poorest in the world. Organizations are trying to rectify that but think of the millions lost so far (75 million pounds in profit for that industry) that the people of Madascar will never see. Shameful!


To end on a better note the other photo I have I really couldn't post here on the web. If you want to see a picture of it you'll have to email me and I'll send it to you. As soon as you see it you'll understand why. Whoa johnnie!



See ya next time "In the Hayloft",

Family Art

I had planned to upload pics of my latest project then thought you might enjoy this better. It all started when I said to the kids let's make birthday cards for Daddy this year, whose birthday was a few days ago. This is what they came up with. The red is by my 15 yrs old...can you tell she is into drama? Here's the front of the card. And lo and behold, this is the inside of her special card. Her Dad cracked up when he opened it (BTW, Git is a loose English term meaning jerk or sillyhead but in a fun loving way.)

Our 6 yr old loves to colour and draw...right now it's all about Superheros (that's his made-up superhero on the front). I speak "Connor" language so translation of the phonetically spelt words is "Daddy I love U (see inside Love) I am happy that you are turning 44". He had to pause at after he read it too. Ha ha ha ha ha ha...

What a gift...kids!

(Front cover and inside of card)

See ya next time "In the Hayloft",

The Year of Me

The best day of your life is the one on which you decide your life is your own.
No apologies or excuses.
No one to lean on, rely on, or blame.
The gift is yours—it is an amazing journey—and you alone are responsible for the quality of it. This is the day your life really begins.

—Bob Moawad, Motivational Speaker

This quote spoke to me the instant I read it. I started out this year on a very positive note, saying that this would be the year of me, my beginning so to speak. It is known that if you say something often enough you believe it, well that has happened to me. I KNOW this is the year of me. Not in a stringent goal-oriented way (although I've put to paper all the goals I want to achieve for the year) but more that I will come out of my shell and GO FOR IT!

I truly believe that all who seek shall find...eventually that is.

See ya next time "In the Hayloft",

A Week at Quilting By the Lake

It's 9 am and I'm sitting in Syrcuse Airport waiting to board a 12 o'clock flight, the first of two flights to get me back home to my family. It has been a long three weeks traveling but I would not have missed it for the world.

This past week has been wonderful and I feel as if my creativity got a kick-start, a big nudge from a very genourous intructor, Bill Kerr of FUN QUILTS. He and his wife, Weeks Ringle, usually teach classes together but my classmates and I got a rare chance to work just with Bill at the Quilting by the Lake Conference. The staff of QBL and the staff at Morrisville College (part of the SUNY University system) were fantastic at making each participant feel right at home.

QBL started 26 years ago and there are actual participants who have attended all 26 years, if you can belive that! One of the longtimers was Sally Davis, a former quilt shop owner and friend from my NJ days, with whom I had the chance to renew a friendship when we bumped into each other on the grounds of the campus. It really was like old home week for me because a few of the members of the the fantastic guild I belonged to in NJ were there as well and it was good seeing them as well.

Bill's class, "Idea to Quilt" really helped me see that the process to a finished piece does not have to be full of details. His suggestion to distillate an idea to it's barest essentials was so key for me. I realized I didn't have to put the whole cow in the cereal just to get a bit of milk. One of his tools I think I will use from now on...maybe not for every quilt... is to create a maquette. Having never heard the term before I was intrigued. A maquette is a small version (say 8 x 10) of an idea that might just be a colour study or a function study to see if what I envision will work. I came away with all sorts of ideas and different techniques, not to mention a whole lot of valuable information, resources and germinations of ideas for the next few quilts.

I cannot finish without mentioning my quad mates. We we housed in one of the dorms on campus that had four bedrooms, a kitchen and a sitting room or common area as it is referred to. Me and my friend DeLane, who I convinced to come on the trip with me, made two new friends, Sandy and Eva from Toronto, Canada. The evening activities were over by 8/8:30 so we were were usually back in our rooms soon after that. I can't tell you the amount of nights we just stayed up talking and laughing with them. They are a hoot and I miss them already. We promised to try and bunk up together again if we attend QBL at the same time but in the meantime we will definitely keep in touch. Here are the four quad sisters themselves: Sandy, Eva, DeLane, me.

I am exhausted from traveling and I haven't even begun this leg of the journey yet. I have some good memories and made some new life-long friends (especially all my classmates) and will definitely be back at QBL again...maybe not next year but certainly the following year. QBL is an experience you shouldn't miss, think about coming with me next time. It has been a fantstic, fun, brain swamped week and I am eager to get back into my studio and play.

See ya next time "In the Hayloft",

Back and Going Again

Oh my goodness!! It's great to be back home at least for the next few hours at least. We got back in Thursday afternoon all safe and sound and I got to sleep in my own bed!! What a blast that was! Even after all that traveling and time change can you believe my body still got me up at 6:45am on Friday. It caught up to me though b/c I was in bed by 8pm last night totally konked out.

I'll be leaving tomorrow morning to fly to NY to attend the Quilting by the Lake (QBL) workshop I signed up for. It should be so much fun not doing anything but qulting for the whole week and having my friend DeLane along for the ride. Whoopee!! I am busy packing supplies (and obviously still online) and machine and clothes and all those things I think I shouldn't forget (but probably will anyway and will have to beg to borrow from DeLane or any other poor soul who happens to sit next to me in class).

One quick story...the day before we were supposed to leave I had hubby drive me to a quilt shop I found and afterwards we stopped at a pub he remembered frequenting way back when for a drink. (The English love their pubs and there are plenty of them around to be able to stop for the proverbial drink). Anyway...everyone sat down at a table overlooking the River Thames and what was next door but a beautiful garden...so I proceeded to take out the camera and take some pics (BTW, my daughter accused me of having more time for the camera than her this trip...uhm, so what if she's right this time?).

I am busy clicking away trying to get all sorts of shots of flowers and foliage and water and experimenting with certain views, that I took no notice of the barman come out to ask me to please come back to the pub's side of the area because I was trespassing on private property (cheeky girl) until hubby stepped in to get my attention. Oh the shame of it. NOT! I did returned to the pub side and continued to take pics, with my hubby just smiling and shaking his head. I had informed him when we first started the trip that my focus, including being with his family, was to look at the English world for ideas for all sorts of things depicting line and shape. I came back with almost 700 pics that I now have to sift thru and sort.

It was a good trip and not at all as long as I feared. I promise as soon as I get back from QBL to post some of the pics I took while in England, especially the ones from the Living Rainforest that I promised.

See ya next time "In the Hayloft",

Visiting Friends

Today we drove to Bournemouth to visit a mate of Dave’s from high school. Craig is as solid a guy as he ever was and Rachel hasn’t changed either, still a happy-go-lucky sole and a lot of fun to be around. They have a 5 and 4 yr old. Together we all prepared a barbeque lunch and sat in their lovely garden under a wide, wide umbrella to eat. So very relaxing that it seems like we sat around and chatted for hours afterwards. Tomorrow it’s off to Bath and Bristol where Dave grew up. He's so excited to show us around.

See ya next time" In The Hayloft",

Our Vacation: Part I

Tha family and I arrived in England on Thurs morn to visit the in-laws and have a bit of a holiday. Yesterday we went to a place called "The Living Rainforest" which is a little hole in the wall place but with quite an oh-so-facinating set-up. You walk past double hanging plastic sheets (like vertical blinds only heaivier) into an atmosphers that hits you immediately with its temperature change...humidity up the ying yang!! But, the first thing that greets you is a beautiful pink orchid growing off the bark of a tree. What a welcome.

As you walk round and round the area, on planked pathways, you find yourself looking over barriers into pools of water below and while gazing overhead to make sure you're not runing into overhanging plants that jsut beg to be seen. I just went around clicking photo after photo of the most amazing plant life that sometimes took my breath away and animal species that I wouldn't ordinarily want to meet up with at any other time.


We picked the wrong day to go though because 3 charter buses (yes three) full of middle school students had decided to decend upon the rainforest as well and since the paths were very narrow it was harrowing at times walking thru, with everyone trying to take pictures and oohing and ahhing at all there was to see.

To put all the pics I took would take me a long time and you a lifetime to look thru so Ill post them as I post updates. If you ever get a chance to go...it is definitely worth the effort.

Extra Sesamoids?????

So I go to my podiatrist's office today because I've been limping for a few weeks...okay so it's really been a month and a half. The nurse asks me to put on the dreaded lead "apron" (more like a brick coat) and to step onto the x-ray machine. Did you know that podiatrist have their own x-ray contraptions? Anyway, I digress. After I twist my foot this way and that for all the different angles they needed to diagnose my problem, I settle in my room and wait for the Doc. She comes in, intoduces herself and proceeds to squeeze the beejeezuz out my hand to give me one of the strongest handshakes I've ever had. Now I need to go see another doctor about the pain in my hand!

Doc presses and prods my foot then looks at my x-rays. She is blown away! Apparently I have a really rare condition...extra sesamoid bones on ALL of my little toes-ies, something she's only ever seen during her clinical work. Most people just have them on their big toe but, lucky me, I have two of them on all five toes, on each foot no less. She explains that although it is a rare condition it should not be a problematic condition. She then tries to fit me for inserts and adds pads that she fashions herself, cutting these cushiony soft supports to fit the ball of my foot.

Next it's onto a little bit of papier mache casting of the feet. I'm told to lie down on the examination table face down and the nurse massages (yes, I said massages) a cast-like substance onto each foot thereby creating cute little impressions of my long and slender feet. I'm not kidding, the nurse oohed and ahhed at how "slim" my size 9 feet were!!! Nothing but the genes kid, nothing but the genes (although I could have done without the butt I inherited on my backside. I call that HERITAGE now).

Long story short I now have to wear othopedic inserts in all my shoes---no more heels (not that I wore them much anyway), no more flip flops (which I just discovered how to wear only a few months ago with help from my teenaged daughter who laughed incredulously when she found out that bit of info) and no more slip-ons. What is a girl to do? Obey doctor's orders and wear those sneakers that's what, especially since we are headed "across the pond" to England to visit the in-laws for a few weeks. Notice here no in-law jokes what-so-ever...father-in-law (luv ya Ron) might be reading this sometime.

With all that said, I decided to take sick leave when I got back home. Haven't been in the studio today...I know, I know, how will I produce art if I don't even set hurting foot in the room? Tomorrow is another day...and I'm in there early in the a.m. as usual. With my aching foot I'll...

See ya next time "In the Hayloft",

Working with Line and Shape

First a little background on an Art/Crit Group I belong to. There are five of us; Judy, DeLane, Jean, Christine and myself, who meet once a month to crit each other's work and work on any new techniques one of us might be interested in. One of the things we decided to do after each session was try to create piece of quilted art out of the small samples we produced.

At Judy's house we had a fantastic session the other day (okay...so it was a few weeks ago), where she has us working from Katie Pasquini's book "Colour and Composition for the Creative Quilter", in particular, the Line and Shape chapter. Following the directions in the book we proceeded to produce six pieces, four of them in black and white only.

Our first piece we had to use linear lengths cut from a fused black fabric which was then subcut into different widths. There were no restictions on how long or short each shape had to be but you had to choose one of the compositional arrangements from the "Nine-Patch of Composition" suggested in the book. I came up with the piece at left.

It was extrememly hard at first to think of what to do and I just sat there for a long time waiting for something to come to me. The pieces I design are usually not so off the cuff and therefore it takes a little longer for me to produce a finished piece. That's one of the reasons this particular session was so good for all of us...more of a don't think, JUST DO kind of mentality. Something I want to do more of in my work.

Working with fused fabric helped because you didn't have to think about how you were to get it onto the background. There were some anxious moments though trying to get the completed piece over to the ironing board to fuse it in place. Minor expletives were uttered by some.

The second piece was to have no lines parallel to the edge of the foundation and have some form of diagonal placement. When I finished this piece I was not overly enamoured with it. Can't place my finger on just why yet. Sorta boring I'm thinking. You can see where a fused black shape that was part of the semi-circle in the lower left was lost in transport somewhere from Judy's house to mine.

The third piece had to be created solely out curved shapes. By this time I was more confident that I could produce something fairly quickly and was really pleased with what I came up with. It was easy to guess my circular composition layout. If you turn it so the large black shapes are on the bottom it looks like a burning fire. Real cool this one.

At this point in the process I was impressed with what could be produced from different lines and shapes. The shapes I used in the composition were not strictly curves (though not the straight linear pieces I was using before) but their placement suggested a curved shape which I think enhanced the design. I learned a lot from this piece in particular.

The last exercise had us combining any or all of the shapes we'd previously cut but using a fourth composition layout. I wanted to make use of an asymmetrical composition with a negative space without creating unbalance or tension. The heavier shapes at the top add the needed balance (or anchor) to the whole piece that the bottom doesn't have. I also noticed that the curved shape in the lower right and the thinner strips in the bottom center helped to balance the piece as a whole, as well as creating movement, so your eye goes to the negative space and back up to the undulating thick strips. This in turn moves your eye around again. Pleased as punch you could say I am.

Here is a preview of everyones pieces. I think we all did a slam-up job...now to put it into a quilted piece...mmmmhhhh. The coloured pieces were the second part of the exercises we did composing with shape alone and a focal point. these we chose not to include in our finished black and white study. I'll post those as soon as everyone gets them to me.


Jean's and Judy's work


Christine's and DeLane's work


See ya 'In the Hayloft',