Holiday Weekend

Yahoo! I got a chance to play with paper and glue today!

Due to the "I think I'll paint the craft room" project and a few other events (Thanksgiving), crafting just hasn't been happening around here. I was beginning to feel some withdrawal setting in, but fortunately, I had taken on leading a couple of ornament making sessions for the Christmas tree at church.

This morning, a dozen or so adults and I folded these stars using pages from art magazines...

and made some peace doves...

I would agree that they are somewhat elementary...I wasn't sure what the skill levels were going to be and it turned out even these were a bit tricky for a couple of the folks:) I was just glad to be cutting and using glue, at any level.

I did finish painting the craft room--purple on one wall, tan on the other three...

and moved all of my stuff back into the room, but this shelf is all that got organized...

so on Wednesday night, I closed the door and looked forward to a nice long weekend.

We had a very nice Thanksgiving Day...I hope that you and your family/friends did too.


And yesterday, all of our kids were here for KU/MU Border War football. Not everyone was supporting the same team but it stayed friendly and fun. I didn't really care who won (football doesn't interest me much) so I picked KU because my KU t-shirt looks nicer than my raggedy MU t-shirt, hehee. Everyone brought a snack and I think we ate as much as we did on Thanksgiving--after just two days of turkey, it was nice to have something different.

It was exactly the nice long weekend I looked forward to!

Any guesses what I'll be getting back to tomorrow?

Marilyn

Getting my hands dirty, but it's not 'cause I'm crafting!

This is me, last week:

And this is me, this week:
Not exactly blog-worthy material...

However, may I add another dimension to the painting project that is going on? I'm painting the walls in my craft room!!! Yikes!

It's a 10' x 13' former bedroom space and it's times like these that I wonder why I couldn't have fewer interests AND obsessions...paper, fabric, books, magazines, boxes, and on and on. It makes for a lot of moving and shifting of stuff and painting on one wall at a time, start to finish. I did move some of the stuff to another bedroom, but daughter #2 will be sleeping in there while she is here over Thanksgiving...so I mostly shove it all to one side of the craft room, remembering to leave a path in and out (so far, at least).

There is some vulnerability in posting a photo like this, but I know that many of you completely understand, and besides, what good will "after" pics be if there aren't "before" pics or, in this case, "during"?

Marilyn

Doll Quilt Swap 5 Completed

I stitched the label to the back of my little quilt this morning, packaged it up, and it is now on its way to my
Doll Quilt Swap 5 partner! I hope she likes it!
(Nov. 20 update: I can now reveal that my partner is Samantha, Diary of a Mad Fabri-Holic...she received her quilt and she loves it--yay!)

1. Doll Quilt Swap 5 Fabric , 2. Completed DQS5 (front), 3. Completed DQS5 (back), 4. DQS5 label

Marilyn

Doll Quilt and Virtual Quilting Bee

Yesterday, I made some progress on my quilt for Doll Quilt Swap 5 by completing the top.


When I showed you the fabrics I purchased for the swap, the stack included two fat quarters that I ended up not using. After I cut out the squares and laid them out, it was just too much pattern for an 18 x 18 inch doll quilt. Sometimes too much really is too much:) Now, on to the batting and the backing and the quilting and the binding and my swapee should have it in her hands by the December 1st deadline.

In other quilting news, Sew Connected 2 is a new Flickr group that I'm excited to be participating in. A virtual quilting bee, we are 16 quilters from around the world who will be creating 16 quilts from January, 2009 through April, 2010--one for each of us!

Each month we will make a quilt for one of the participants with fabric that they've chosen and sent to us...everybody sews one quilt block with the selected fabric and mails the block back...16 quilters, 16 blocks and voila! a beautiful quilt in one month!

I think it will be great fun...every month, seeing all of the different blocks and how they reflect individual quilting styles. I'll keep you posted too.

Marilyn

Thoughts of Winter and Spring on a Fall Day

This past weekend, the better part of my Saturday was spent in our yard getting ready for winter(!)--raking leaves, bundling up fallen or pruned tree branches and cutting back perennial plants.

BUT, there were plenty of thoughts towards Spring, too, because I planted fifty of these...

so I could have more of this:

Since this photo from Spring-2002, this bed of tulips had gradually thinned out to be a pretty pitiful sight by Spring-2008 (sorry, no photos of that in my files). So, Saturday, I set out to remedy that, with achy lower back and thighs as proof, and am looking forward to a pretty, tulip-blooming, Spring-2009.

Marilyn

A Good Mail Day and Falling Leaves

Michelle, 3rd Eye Muse, offered a giveaway during Vanessa's Anything Goes Halloween Party and I was the lucky winner of one of her Mock Sugar Skulls. Making it extra special, the Mock Sugar Skull was a piece on Michelle's Ofrenda (Altar) that she created for Dia de Bloglandia, along with a God's Eye that she also included in my package. THANK YOU, Michelle, for such special gifts that will certainly play a part in celebrating Day of the Dead, 2009!


Today, I completed this stitchery of Our Lady of Guadalupe (pattern from Sublime Stitching)...quite possibly another piece for Day of the Dead.


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Interesting how quickly trees can go from this...


and this...


and this...


to THIS in less than two days!


I'm not sure I like what it means...

Brrrrrrr!

Marilyn

Election Day

Dia de Bloglandia

I have been fascinated by Dia de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, since our first trip to New Mexico about 9 years ago. So when I read about Stephanie's and Susanna's Dia de Bloglandia, I knew I wanted to be a part of the celebration!


Dia de los Muertos...a day to pay tribute to our deceased relatives and ancestors by playing their favorite music...


and feasting on favorite foods and drink.


Sugar Skulls...


and altars surrounded by photographs, flowers, lighted candles, bread, bowls of water and other symbolic offerings dedicated to departed loved ones.
This altar is in honor and remembrance of my mom, Pat.





(The Sugar Skull pictured above is from the cover of Mexican Folk Art coloring book; and the two embroidered pieces in this post were stitched using patterns from Sublime Stitching.)


Thank you very much for coming by and celebrating Day of the Dead with me! To visit other Dia de Bloglandia posts, you can find them listed here.
I'm excited! I want to see all of them!

Marilyn