The party is almost here!

A beautiful time of year for a party, you say? I couldn't agree more!






Fortunately, Vanessa's A Fanciful Twist, Halloween Blog Party is just the day after tomorrow!

There are still a few things that need to get done before then...

like raking the yard...

and cleaning the house...

but certain prima donas would rather just sit and look pretty...
whatever!

Marilyn

Craft Day at Karla's

Wouldn't you love to craft everyday in a studio as lovely as this?!


Yesterday, I got to spend a whole day of crafting at Karla's, surrounded by so much beauty and inspiration.




Here's Karla sitting at a table in her granddaughter's very own art space in Karla's studio.


She's setting up to spritz Glimmer Mist onto square parchment tags, just one of the things she worked on yesterday to get ready for a vendor night.


Beth also worked on several things for a show coming up in November.


She wrapped lovely colors of seam binding around vintage wooden spools and planned to pretty up the ends of the spools too...can't wait to see how they turn out!


Shawn, her daughter, Bethany and I "went green" and carpooled to Karla's house, about an hour drive from where we live.


Bethany definitely inherited her mom's crafting gene! She created more than any of us and gifted us with lots of very special artwork.


Shawn made several ATC's and scrapped some pages for Bethany's Halloween scrapbook.


She has such a knack with paper and brought Halloween collages for all of us too. Here's mine (isn't it great?!).......


I worked on pages for a Halloween book and actually completed three whole pages. Here is one of them...


I wanted to bring gifts for my crafty friends, too, and made Halloween scrapbooks for them. The covers are mini quilts and the pages are colorful papers that are, hopefully, just right for Halloween photos.
(Thursday, 10-16-08: I just added a similar scrapbook to my Etsy shop if you are interested in one for yourself. Thanks!)


Even the weather yesterday--cool, cloudy, some rain--was perfect for crafting, and for the soup/potluck lunch that we shared. What a wonderful day! Thanks, ladies!

Marilyn

Sneak Peeks

This week, I received my swapee's name for Doll Quilt Swap 5. I'm pretty excited! Her likes are very similar to mine and I loved choosing the fabric for her quilt. If you don't mind my saying so...I think they're gorgeous.

Can you guess one of her favorite colors?

I've also been getting ready for the Halloween Blog Party hosted by Vanessa, A Fanciful Twist. My giveaway is completed and ready for sending to its new home. Do ya want a little peek?

That's all for now. I do hope you'll visit me this Saturday, the 18th, to see more and enter for a chance to win!

Marilyn

Look who joined us for lunch...

It was a beautiful day for dining alfresco so Rick and I took our lunch on the deck this afternoon. Apparently, Ms Praying Mantis was enjoying the day also...or was it our conversation?

Have a nice weekend!

Marilyn

Planning is half the fun!

What's the first thing we plan when we're having a party at our house? It's the food and drink we're going to serve. After that, I start playing around with our Fiestaware dishes. The beauty of having dishes in multiple colors is the ability to mix and match them to the occasion!

So, planning for Vanessa's Halloween Blog Party, it was just natural for me to go to the Fiestaware and decide on a color scheme--tangerine, sunflower, chartreuse and black. I also thought the hobnail ice bucket and glasses added a nice Halloween touch.


From this photo, it appears that candy corn is the only thing on the menu at this point. I can tell you there's no way that candy is still going to be in the house 10 days from now! So it will either be off the menu or new bags are going to have to be purchased.


I hope you'll stop by to see me on October 18th. I'm working on plans for a giveaway too...what's a party without prizes?

Marilyn

Fiesta, a Party and a Swap

Here it is Monday again, the start of a new week which just so happens to coincide with my readiness for a new project.

I finished this last night and listed it in my Etsy shop...another little art quilt (13" x 13"):


I've had the Terrie Mangat fabric that is the outside border and binding for a while--I knew, someday, it would be just the piece I needed for something.


I tried a pieced backing for this project and like the result--something a little different.


I can't remember if I titled this quilt "Fiesta" before or after the yo-yo border was added, but the yo-yo's (with faux turquoise and coral bead centers) remind me of all the flowers I see in pictures of Mexican fiestas.



On to new projects...

I signed up for Doll Quilt Swap 5. My head is already swimming with visions of sugarplums, OOPs, I mean visions of color and fabric and patterns! But I'll wait to see who I'm creating for before I make decisions. Sign ups continue through tomorrow (Tuesday, Oct. 7) if you'd like to join in. C'mon, I know you want to!


Then there's this!


Vanessa, A Fanciful Twist is hostess-ing a Halloween Blog Party and I'm excited to be joining in with a 'weenie party of my very own right here! I'll be linking up with Vanessa who will have links to soirées and extravaganzas being held all over blog-land that same day! Isn't that going to be FUN!?

Happy Monday to you:)

Marilyn

Hopes and Dreams

Today, I completed this project using the first of my embroidered faces. It's an art quilt (appx. 14" x 14") made using a reverse applique technique with perle cotton, beads and star sequins used to further embellish it. This was my first try at a scalloped binding--it was easier to do than I expected and I like how it gives the quilt a different look.




I added a rod pocket to the back to insert a dowel rod for hanging on the wall.


The title is "Hopes and Dreams" and is listed in my Etsy Shop.



**********************************

On a different note, guess what THIS is!

It's Lucy's (Fantazya) Diary 2009 Project! My copy came in the mail today and I can't wait to sit and look at all 392 pages of it! Quickly flipping through it earlier, I saw pages contributed by some familiar blogging friends--what fun!


Lucy had the diaries assembled with plain card stock covers so we can personalize them any way we want to.

I contributed two pages to the Diary Project. My birthday...


and Rick's birthday...


I'm really glad I learned about this collaborative--so many creative people, and where to find them, all in one little book!

Marilyn

Winning a Giveaway is f-u-n, FUN!

Tina, Needles 'n' Notions celebrated her 100th post recently. I met Tina through Doll Quilt Swap 4. She's the sweet and talented quilter that created "A Day at the Beach", the beautiful doll quilt that I received in the swap.

To celebrate the event of her 100th post, Tina offered a really nice and generous giveaway--2 one yard cuts of fabric and a package of 20 flower head pins--and lucky, LUCKY me, I was the winner in her drawing! Isn't the fabric gorgeous? Both pieces have such a lovely vintage look to them and the flower head pins make me smile--they're such happy looking pins:)

Thank you very much, Tina! I'm excited and looking forward to thinking up with something fun to sew with my new fabric!

Marilyn

Works-in-Progress

The art blog world is full of special souls, isn't it? Artists encouraging, supporting, caring for each other--it's mighty wonderful. You've been encouraging about my stitching of this little gal and I thank you. Here she is, finished...


I had so much fun with it that I drew and stitched another...


and another...


I remember, growing up, I would draw girls' faces...influenced by my mom, I'm certain. She would draw pictures of women, some were faces only and some were full length. Her drawings were that great pin-up girl style of the 1940's and they were amazing. My older cousin and I, however, preferred to draw girls with more contemporary hairstyles such as a teased up Bubble or Flip! I hadn't thought about all of that in ages so reminiscing was part of the fun.

While stitching, I also wondered what I would do with the finished faces. I did come up with an idea and, so far at least, this pieced quiltlet is part of the plan.


I never know how a plan is going to come together, so I'll just call it a work-in-progress for now. Hopefully, soon, both you and I will see how it turns out.

Marilyn