going commando

in a manner of speaking.

Adam on the leni at his dad's

That's me in the window

My DBF has taken the camera with him to Hilo to visit his dad, who is seriously ill.
so I am without picture taking abillity for a week.
so y'all will just have to wait for pictures of my new stuff.
I'm almost done with the navy and the sun box top so those will be coming soon.
and I have started some small hawaii themed pieces and I was thinking of doing some small table top versions of my witchy-poo hat for the Sunshine serenity shop at countryvilliage here in bothell.
there are about 4-5 I'm still not sure what they will be yet.
but I'm bee buzzy! and if it keeps raining here I'll be productive too!)

Agaust BJP

This one is called Whatever a sun has sung

I used stiff stuff for the first time instead of felt and woo, woo!

does it work nice!





I still need to put the back and the bells on (so it sings)

But it is done




I wanted lots of movement on this piece to represent solar flares and the constant movement of the sun
but also how the sun "sings" to us here on earth.
it warms us and keeps our planet in the perfect orbit for life to exist

 So here is my work on Barbara Warner's Hanki CQ for the FFT #16

I only did two heavily embellished seam treatments because I didn't want to overwhelm the delicacy of the overall piece

this is the top corner

 and the lower corner by the belly of the bird

 and the left corner

 the bird is an embroidered motif done in DMC cottons and sparkle threads on felt I followed Gerry K's tutorial here.

this is a closeup of the beadwork at the tail







and here is the whole piece together
I tried to balance the colors with white, yellow and blue being the main colors using the red, pink and green as accents only.



this is my first RR in CQI how'd I do?

Grey challenge is done!

naked block

 well that was a challenge!

finished block

keeping to one colorway is hard for me.
I generally like to go all over the place with my colors
and this was a learning experience too!
I tried Gerry K's advice that button clusters need to go somewhere,
and tried my hand at spiderweb roses
-note to self, 4mm ribbon not good for web roses
unless they are tiny!

We had a wonderful time at the Kirkland fireworks!

the teddy bear was rambunctious

jumping around and scaring people

Mara couldn't stop wiggling and giggling which made everyone else giggle and laugh!

it was all she could do to catch hinm

it's almost worth the time and aggravation of escaping kirkland in the inevitable traffic jam afterwards!

Happy 4th of July

Happy 4th of July holiday to all of you out there in bloggerland!

I have survived the first week with my girls (there are 7more with the littlest)

let me tell you what the 4th means to me,
I declared my independence from my ex-husband on this day.
after 20 years in a bad marriage forever making it a very special day to me.

and now my family is further splintered but to the good this time.
my son is embarking on his own life in the world and leaving home for the military.

my eldest daughter after the worst year of her young life full of horrible clashes with her father and his rather dictatorial controlling ways has decided to move in with me in Seattle and finish out H.S. here. Yea!!
It leaves my youngest at home alone with her father but she gets along with him better than anyone else in the family does being his baby girl.
I don't anticipate the clash of personality with her that there was with #1 DD. #1 DD is and always has been an opinionated, loud, curious, wonderfully interesting, funny, handful!
and dad is, well think Hosni Mubarak without the country and you have an idea of how living with the ex was.
some people work well within that system some do not.

anyway this all makes the 4th a special day to me,
so go enjoy the fireworks!

grey challenge

 this is how the grey study started off looking.
I soon decided that that shiny piece was too shiny and must be muted!
just putting something over it didn't seem to work
so I took that seam out and re-worked it a little.

 this is what it looked like after I fixed it and added a little bit of trim.
the dark lace toned down that shiny piece nicely.

for me the challenge has been to keep it all in just one colorway and not let it spill out into all the others. though I did turn up an amazing array of greys in my stash!I really didn't have to buy anything!

t a good start I worked on this while Pat, Donna  and I had our first ever Crossroads CQ meeting.


we meet in front of the Jo-anne fabrics.
Wednesdays at 3:00pm.
everyone who can come is invited.
the more the merrier!

 I like how this seam treatment turned out.
the ribbon is couched to keep it from curling up on the edges
but otherwise its threaded through that cheepie plastic silver trim.

 I found a few greys in my stash!
do you think I have enough to finish?
Ok, so I cheated, I bought some beads and the grey silk ribbon,
but I had the rest!

i will also finish the mourning heart for Hideko since it is in the same colors anyway.

some of what I've been up to

here is some of what I've been up to lately.





i got inspired to make up a whole bunch of new base






pieces for boxes and small wall hangings.







got the fft #16 RR pieced, marked , packaged
and sent out Tuesday, too!








I also re-worked the grey study.
I didn't like the shiny, shiny at the top of the piece so I made it smaller and worked in a piece of dark grey lace to cover most of it.
now the shiny is muted and not the only thing that catches your eye.




I made up a mourning heart for Hideko





and a Navy piece for my son who is taking his ASFAB
(don'cha love military acronyms?)



I've started augusts BJP but I can't seem to get motivated to do much on it.
It will probably languish until the last minute.
the monthly journal aspect is starting to loose a
little steam with me but I want to finish it.
the BJP stretches me in an unfamiliar way and I like that!

big hawaii

Finally finished this wall hanging, it's only been like 3 years!





boy do I know how to procrastinate or what?





some of you may recognize this from a CQ for newbies RR



way back in 2008 this is how the block came back to me.
this is what they looked like before I really got to work on them
And this is what they look like now

I have added a lot of details from each of the blocks taking elements from the other pieces and adding a few more of my own to blend the four parts into a cohesive whole.

I think I did an ok job what do you all think?

I'm getting ready for the summer invasion of kinder,
my girls are coming to visit for the whole summer!
one is coming to visit and the other my oldest girl is coming to stay!
to say I am excited is a vast understatement!

she has had a rough time adjusting to her father and then there was
"the Rumor"
this was an anonymous tip someone called into the school, accusing her of sleeping with a teacher. not the teacher slept with her mind you, she slept with him. this was my first tip that the whole thing was BS, aside from talking to her and getting "EEW! hes like 28!" and "I have a boyfriend" I know my girl, she may be boy crazy but she's not an idiot!

anyway, this prompted an uncoordinated DCFS, CPD, CPS investigation that took 3 weeks of bumbling and harassment  interviews and "observation" only to come up with nothing ( i could have told them that!) 
and they never found out who called it in either!
you would think making false accusations and causing 3 weeks of resources to be wasted on a bogus investigation would have prompted them to at least find that out and get back their pound of flesh.


my darling ex, who loves to make mountains out of molehills, decided she was guilty until proven innocent and grounded her, instead of listening to her and trusting that she wasn't involved in what they said she was.

this is after 2 years of treating her as though she were a mini version of me.
to say that she has had enough is putting it lightly!
and if that weren't enough the "rumor" got out and is making her life miserable at school
she was ready to burn down every bridge she has there and run away from home!
I told her to put down the torch, take a deep breath and start fresh here.

so lucky me I get my girlies back! at least for the summer!
here's hoping the weather cooperates or at least gets warmer!

BJP whatever a moon has meant

I started this piece in december it was one of the first pieces I envisioned for this years project and was one of the many visuals that lead me to pick the poem to use in the first place.

Junes poem phrase is "and it's whatever a moon has meant "

in nature based religions the moon holds a very important place. she is always female and always changing.

maid, mother and crone are very important cycles in the human experience as well.
we all hit most of these stages in our lives at some point.
the moon points out that even though it is a constant in our night sky it is always in flux just as we are.
the moon helps us count the days and lights our way in the night.
despite science making it possible to walk amongst the stars and on our moon it's self, it has lost none of it's magic and wonder.

WTF is up with the weather???

DBF on the deck friday

It's flooding in the midwest,
burning in az and boiling everywhere else
and here its 50* and raining, AGAIN!

this past weekend we had 3 days in the upper 60's with
beautiful sunny breezy weather (I even got a little pink!)
and now I'm freezing my butt off in 2 sweaters and
wooly socks and the furnace just kicked in.

it's freaking JUNE!

so I ask in all honesty WTF is up with the weather!!!!

I'm thinking of building a fire (and pouting)