Hand made Holiday Cards

From the art show we went to today, which I talk about below this post.

Hand made holiday cards by Terry Busse
Painting Dog Studio
tnbusse@c-zone.net

Art Show Today

Today I went to my friend Diane's house. I took my two latest quilts to show her. (Rose and Ashley)
It felt good to receive kudos from this expert quilter.
We spent time looking at many of her art pieces in her home.
Her house is like an art gallery from the hanging art quilt in pieces on the front entry way outside her front door, to the multiple
quilts on walls, beds, in drawers, over racks, etc. etc. etc. everywhere in her lovely home.
I also saw some delightful 'acrobat dolls' she made quite cleverly, and a sweet book for a baby from cloth.
After we went out to lunch, and then to an art bazaar.
There we saw excellent collections of art of all sorts: knitted sweaters, hats, and scarves, a room full of hand woven blankets and shawls, hand made glass beads,
wonderful photography, pottery, jewelry of all kinds, hand made-paper books, quilts, quilted clothing, wooden sculptures with found art,
and on and on and on. I felt literally blurry eyed when we got done there. I came away with lots and lots of ideas floating in my head.
Diane bought a beautiful bracelet made from bamboo pieces about the size of ma-jong pieces bound in copper I think, with photos and words collaged on them for her grand daughter or daughter, and a lovely pottery drinking cup. I bought three hand painted holiday cards from one of the artists there.

Maggie and Jiggs

This is an old photo of my grandparents, Abe and Ella, dressed for a costume party as Maggie and Jiggs from the comic strip of the same name. I was just on a blog where the artist, Switchsky, had a drawing that reminded me of this photo so I dug it out to post. Ella is the central figure of my next art piece that is still in my head but brewing. I love this photo!

(I wonder if I am remembering the comic name correctly?)

A Suzanne Nichelson Quilt

This is a quilt I bought in 1992 called Autumn Leaves. I bought it on a trip to Gloucester, Massachusetts at a place called BAYVIEW CLOTHING and the artist is Suzanne Nichelson.

Anyone know her?

I just took it down from one wall next to our front door and moved it after washing it for the first time! I put it on a wall that is seen when one comes in my front door. I have always liked it, but wasn't that 'aware of it', as I suddenly am now having become a quilter myself. It's lovely work with an embellishment of beads adding to it's beauty.

A request to see close up of frayed edges

Mim requested to see frayed edges close up. So here they are. The wonderfulness of them is that they are oh so soft. I pet these roses when I go to bed at night and again when I wake in the morning. I just love the feel of it.

How to: simply sew to within a quarter of an inch or so in from the edge...leave the edge unfinished and then after the quilt is washed and run through the dryer once or twice the fraying takes place. It's that easy. I've seen this done with squares too and that also looked very artsy.

Forever Young

I am such a sucker for a challenge. Forever Young has a challenge on her blog to join a group that is drawing portraits of each other. I am not joining that group, but decided to draw the photo of her that she had up on her blog. If you want to see how close I came go to her blog site. It's the first name on my blog roll.

So: Forever Young, here is one more for your collection from Yours Truly!

Preemies

My youngest grandchildren were born three years ago EARLY. I drew these from old photos of them at age eight days. The girl was born at 3. 5 lbs and the boy was 2 lb. Both are of normal size, health, intelligence, etc. today! I am amazed at how much the drawing of my daughter holding the little girl looks like me when I was her age.

The babies were so tiny we could hold them in one hand. It was scary.

Now they are just fun and wonderful to behold.

Books are Born

Yesterday and today I made cloth books for my 3 year old grand kids. In these books they will have the opportunity to "write their own stories" about the pictures on the covers. Someone on a blog used recycled paper/grocery bags for some art work, which led me to cut up grocery bags of my own and make them the stabilizer pages, as well as the pages on which the stories will be written. (apologies for not remembering right now who, but thanks for the push in this direction)... I made six little books in all using some wonderful fabric I got *yes you guessed it* at a garage sale this past summer. Wasn't sure what I'd do with it at the time...thought it might make a nice nine patch pizazz quilt with the big pictures, but for now it's books.

I cut out the pictures I wanted to use, then added a layer of paper and a layer of fleece and sandwiched them together. Then I took one more "grocery bag paper" page, and backed it in fleece. Then after sewing them together I sewed lines for writing on. Of course I will do the writing after the kids hopefully tell me what is happening in their stories.

I have no idea if they will be ready to do this or if it's a project for when they are a little older. But the books can be put away for later if need be. We will give it a try this coming Saturday when next I get to "babysit"! After the "writing lined pages are done, I sewed them to the cover (layered pages) and Wha-la! A book is born!

Henry V says hi to Nikki, Annie, Oscar, Daisy, Skitty Kitty, Twinkle, Slicker, Romeo, Snuffles, Bibbity, Miss Emily Dickinson, Bailey,and Jasper!

Out in the Country...garage sale day!

The owner at this barn sale wanted to know why all the pictures! Just am...for me...won't sell them...okay then...loved the Brownie doll but didn't buy her...DH loves the eucalyptus tree, cute ponies, he also loves the buffalo and goes to visit them frequently... did get the sequencing cards for the grandkids...and a wonderful book by Maya Angelou set in South Africa for children. Thought the potato head guy pretty funny! Llamas, ostrich, egrets...all friendly!

Hope you are enjoying your Saturday as well.

Holiday Cards...my creativity for today

(So I am into cats today. Did this drawing tonight)...


Some people have nothing better to do the day after Thanksgiving that to spend hours at their sewing machine making cards for friends and relatives...I had fun making these. The top one is for my former daughter in law...for Christmas...I used stick glue and then top quilted the fabric pieces onto red felt, which are on a card
stock. And the red felt letters onto the fabric.

The cat is for my friend who dearly wants a cat but can't have one...If you see this ahead of time it's okay dear friend. But I wanted you to have a cat even if it's to be a fleece one. The left photo is what it looks like on the top inside of the card.

All done again with free motion sewing on card stock through the fleece on front and with a piece of fleece on the back too to support the inside greeting and fabric picture..

Kaeli's Pillow And Happy Thanksgiving

Today I wrapped Chanukah gifts for my 14 yr old grand daughter to get them in the mail for her.

This is the pillow I made her a while ago to go with a red/white/pink afghan I crocheted for her last year! I also wrapped the fish pillow cases to go with the fish quilt and a ton of books! Oh and a dreidel. I like to send eight small gifts, one for each night of this holiday!

A grandma having fun!

I also wanted to draw a Happy Thanksgiving Greeting to all who celebrate this delicious holiday and for those who do not.
Happy Thanksgiving anyway!

Forever Young had a list of five things she was grateful for on her blog site.
Here is my list: Feel free to add your own.

My list:
1. I am grateful for my good health and new found energy.
2. I am grateful for my wonderful, thoughtful, caring, loving husband of 29 yrs. (Who guided me to several craft and quilt shows to see on TV this morning that were actually GOOD!)
3. I am overjoyed with having grandchildren I can actually interact with because they live close!4. I am grateful to have a good, satisfying, career.
5. I am grateful to have made many new wonderfully creative friends here in blogland such as yourself!
6. and I am grateful that my creating is being stimulated here and is flowing over the top.

Listen Up!

Did I get your attention?

It's been a settling down time, but with some really great ups to it.

Yesterday I took my "Rose" and my "Ashley" into the Quilt shop to show my teacher.

She was very effusive with her praise and it was very sincere.

We talked about a lot of things, and then as I was getting ready to leave she asked me if I had to give the Black and White "Ashley" quilt away soon? Why? She asked me if I'd let her hang it in the shop for the month of March. They are having a March Madness Sale state wide in many quilt shops and the theme is Black and White. She showed me the place of honor it would have on her walls under a window. I nearly fell over.

Hey, I am having a "showing!"

(Lynn taking a bow!)

I looked at fabrics too and am thinking of a vintage piece possibly incorporating an old photo of my grandmother. It's gelling. I'm sketching it. Ideas.

And then today (do I still have your attention?) I signed up for a three week beginning

drawing class.

Three 2 hr classes on Tuesday evenings starting Dec. 4th.

Oh and I am top stitching a Christmas gift piece for a friend I made a while back before

I knew how to top stitch! LOL

Oh goodie, something needs sewing on!

Happy Thanksgiving dear friends!

Black and White Quilt Wall Hanging Done

This Quilt took five days to make and was finished on the sixth day...On the seventh she rested!
It took thirty hours starting with the shopping and picking out of fabrics to the last stitches, not including washing and drying her.

Here you see her back and front. I almost can see this as a reversible quilt as the back is attractive to in my eye.

Down to the Hemming by Hand of B and W

I am not going to show a photo yet...but last night I got the last of the black thread out of the B and W "Ashley" quilt. It took hours of slow tedious work. But I got it all. Today I top quilted it in white on white. I decided that the black thread would take away from and over power the dark abstract shapes of layered fabrics. So white on white looked best. I used a simple back and forth pattern of long narrow loops. I think it looks good. Then I used black thread to go over the outer border in larger/fatter loops. You have not seen the back yet. It's pieced together from all the different fabrics used on the front in varying sizes and shapes. The black and white threads from the fronts on the back look good too. I am very pleased with the way this is turning out. I also sewed the binding on the front side and tonight I will sit with it and hand sew the binding to the back. Tomorrow it will get it's bath and drying. And then it shall be done! You can see it then.

Spider Art

I went out this morning to find an art show in my front yard. The spiders had left art everywhere, in trees, on fences, on flowering bushes. It was beautiful to behold. Enjoy!

OY, I've been tagged!

Seven Random Things So I was tagged by Rick AND by Lady Bug for this project. I thought I already DID THIS from a much earlier tag...but I guess I need to be a good sport and DO IT again! I will try not to duplicate what I already said about myself. Here's how it works:1. link to the person who tagged you: (Hamguin's Hide-not) ; http://www.blogger.com/profile/09208648372626654853:) ( I hope I did this LINK correctly LB) 2. Post the rules. 3. List seven random things about yourself. (see below) 4. Tag seven random people> I hope I know that many who have not yet been tagged. 5. Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog Okay here goes: 1. I garage sale shop so I can buy lots of things for very little money, and then I get my hair cut & colored (today) for $73. 2. I have a very nice smile, which won my husband over nearly 30 yrs ago! 3. I can have a lot of energy I seem to create when creating and then come crashing down when I make a mistake or suddenly start to doubt what I am doing. (today) 4. I do not own any diamonds. 5. I may never retire. 6. I love to take photographs and think I have a pretty good eye for it, or so I am told. 7. I have four grandchildren whom I love beyond reason...between the ages of 3 and 17. Okay: TAGGING TIME: Cris Andrea Elizabeth Sylvian Annie Suki Judy

Garage Sale Saturday

Wonderful finds today for very little money!
A crystal bowl of fun beads for 50 cents;
A lovely small ceramic bowl for 50 cents;
A cloth doll from Belize for 25 cents (the original price tag still on her was $18);
Wonderful large books for the children for $2 (five books).

Lunch With Judy!

Judy sent one more photo from our day together of a statue I liked a lot

Friday lunch with Cousin Judy!

Judy is my next to youngest cousin, her brother is the youngest. Today we met in a town half way between our two towns (her city, my town) and had a fun day of it. First we met near the Thrift Store and I had to take a photo of that cute dog up on top of the little house! Then we went across the street to the Jewelry store where we knew this quilt was on display.
My friend Diane the QUILTER, and a group from her Embroiderer Society made it for the Cancer Society in memory of a friend who died of breast cancer. It's a very intricate and beautifully done "crazy quilt".

Then we went to the Noodle House for lunch and had good food there. But we still wanted dessert and the fortune cookies were not quite enough, so we went to the chocolate house for apple pie (me) and coffee and an oatmeal cookie and a chocolate truffle for Judy. Judy is a Kindergarten teacher of 30 years and is very good at sharing. So we shared! That truffle was delicious!

After all that eating we took a 45 minute walk around the town fast and talked and talked and talked. The other two shots are things I saw and had to capture with my camera along the way. Then we sat in the park, people watched, and talked and talked and talked some more. It was a very fun day! We are going to do it again next month!