Five Shadows

As it turned out, I did not work much at all on the journal this final week. Flipping through it the only new page I find is the doodle on the envelope page. So maybe that is kind of a closure - sealing up the envelope with all its pretty and strange contents and setting it aside for another time. I had a silly little project in mind, but the week was taken up in other activities. So here is the doodling …

Thanks for the awesome journey fellow wreckers! Thanks Jamie for hosting the Next Chapter. I have so enjoyed visiting all the blogs and getting to know each of you! Blessings to each precious one in what your future holds!

Wow! These two months are just flying by … Soon we will be saying goodbye to Sunny Days of Summer - and I am not ready for that yet! Are you ready to get back into the swing of a new school year? The good news is, my husband has found a one year position at our local state university and HIS school year has started this week! The girls and I have a few more weeks to play before buckling down to another year of school.

This past week in the Wrecking adventure hosted by Jamie Ridler,  I did tackle some of the ‘writing’ pages. Thanks ladies for the encouragement! I filled the ‘Internal Monologue’ pages with small print and won’t share it because it is after all my own personal thoughts. ;-)  I also filled the ANGRY page with a weird happening that involved a very ballistic person directing his anger at innocent by standers! (My daughter and Me!) And I have a few pages that friends helped with. Butch scratched ever so lightly on the ’scratch with a sharp item page’. His last name is Rose and he scratched a very pretty rose on it, but it does not show up enough to share in a photo. And he left an ‘X’ mark cut in the ‘friend destruction page’  and Marsha ripped a corner off that page. Tee hee! Thanks my dear friends!

I received Kim’s lovely white pages filled with lace and trims and buttons and pebbles and other such items. It is a very pretty page! Thank you Kim - I think it is happy in its new journal home!

So what have I learned through this experience? I think the biggest thing was to just let go and have fun with this whole experience. I did step out of the comfort zone a bit. I found it fascinating how the friends I shared the journal with would just jump in and wreck away! (Altho some thought me a bit strange! You know the type who would never ever damage a book!? They watched, shaking their heads as the others wrecked!)

And I have so liked checking in on what all my fellow wreckers have been doing to their journals! I think I have visited each website - sorry that I did not leave a comment on each one. But I enjoyed each visit!

Happy wrecking ladies!

Here is the progress on several of the canvas round robin bags that have passed through my hands. For the Flower Garden theme bag, I made Prairie Points using two fabrics (notice the yellow center of the prairie points) and then added some silk flowers and buttons. They are actually sewn on a vertical seam of the bag but I rotated the picture to post …

Next I played with Dimensional Applique, (see The Quilting Arts Book by Patricia Bolton, page 76) making several leaves as described by Heidi Lund. These are so fun to make! Here are three of them added to the Autumn theme bag. I also added the hand died variegated ruffle on the top edge of the bag.  I cut the ruffle from a piece of fabric I  won from a drawing held on  Kelli Perkins blog. (Thank you Kelli! Do you recognize it?!)

Then  I played more with the dimensional applique, making bird feathers for the Bird theme bag. And I also played with painting on fabric with using Setacolor paints and salt to create the letters ‘B’ ‘I’ ‘R’ ‘D’  which I sewed on the side of the bag and then attached the fabric feathers and a real feather.

I am trying to experiment with new to me techniques as I work on the bags. So far the dimensional applique and fabric painting has been the most rewarding!

So friends! How about signing up for the Generosity Project as I described here? Just leave a comment here and you may receive a gift from me, made by my own hands - hmmm, how about some dimensional applique or needle felting!

This week I have had a blast and lots of laughs as I have visited blogs of other fellow journeyers  on the Wreck This Journal book club. I personally have decorated the title page, added my fav number to “start numbering here page”, I’ve added sticky stuff, tea stains, fruit labels, punched holes and received advice from my daughter! The best part is laughing at what others have done with their journals. If you have no idea what I’m talking about - go check out the link!

Fruit label page. I added the Ale 8 label because we just took a quick trip to KY and bought the Ale 8. I read the label and they say they are a unique mix of ginger and fruit!

This is my sticky page that I will add more too as time goes on.

"Help" is my one word for this week! My husband's job ended May 31st. We really thought an offer was coming this week for a job he was very interested in. But alas, when the phone call came it was not with a job offer. Totally bummed. "Help" was the word I was internally screaming. Wrecking is a good thing to be doing right now!

I have more pages to share but need to run on to the next activity of the day. I look forward to continuing this trip with my fellow  brave  wreckers!

In today’s mail I received this lovely fiber art piece from none other than Creative Lenna as part of her  participating in the Tapping into Generosity Project 2009. Lenna made the home theme for me because she knows of the 99% possibility that my family will be moving out-of-state due to my husband’s job search. She said in her note to me, “I know you don’t want to move … hard for everyone, but I think you will find a new “home” for you and your family.”

I know Lenna is right, we will find a new home. We will all adjust and life will continue with smiles on our faces. Thank you Lenna for the encouragement and the lovely fiber art!

Now, about the Generosity Project. I have linked to Lenna’s page which explains it, but I do not know who originated the idea. I followed several links, but it seems to go on and on! (If you know the origin, please let me know so I can give credit! Thxs!)   Here is how it goes: since I added my name to the draw on Lenna’s blog, I am now to offer a generosity meme on my blog. It is about making something with my own hand, from the generosity of my own little heart, and then giving that something to five people who comment about the project on this blog. The hope is that if you sign up for the drawing on my blog, or anyone else’s, you will continue the generosity meme by holding a give-a-way on your blog. Sounds fun! I I love the gift I received from Lenna so I hope I have lots of responses on my blog! I will randomly draw 5 winners next Monday, June 15th.

I have copied the following from Lenna’s page and it applies to my generosity meme :

“This offer does have some restrictions and limitations so please read carefully…
I make no guarantees that you will like what I make. No refunds… and no exchanges!!!! What I create will be just for you, and handmade with love from me. It will be created sometime in this calendar year (2009) and sent to you, and when you receive it, you will need to let me know it has arrived.

I will not give you any clue what it’s going to be. It will be something made in the real world that I’ll decorate and send to you through the US postal system. It will not be something cyber. It will be handmade, it could be any size, and it will be created from my heart in any medium I choose. I may take my time or I may make it quickly. I reserve the right to do whatever comes to mind when I create something for you!

The original meme requires you to post this text (or similar) into a note/blog post of your own and then make 5 things for 5 people who respond to it. I’m not going to require that of you. If you would like to do this generosity meme too, that would be great. I encourage you to participate and generously create, but it is not a requirement in order to enter and win.” This meme does not have to be an art or craft - we are all creative in our own ways. I do hope you will join me in this! Leave a comment and I will get back with you on June 15th. You will have to leave a way for me to contact you and a mailing address if you win.

I have no idea what I will create - a quiltie?  - some felted piece?  - or applique? But I am looking forward to this project! Hope you join me!

One of the things my hubby and I like to do is hang out at Barnes and Noble. I usually head to the Arts and Crafts section and then go to the magazines. Hubby heads for the photography section and then checks out the bargain books. Many times, but not always, we share our finds with each other, explaining why we think it is such a good book and then deciding if it should be placed on our ever growing wish list.

Several months ago, while at B & N, Hubby came up to me while I was flipping through Keri Smith’s book Wreck This Journal. I had read about the book and now I was giggling as I flipped through it. I told DH that I would one day buy this book. That day came yesterday! I happened upon Jamie Ridler’s blog and saw that she is hosting a book club using Wreck this Journal. So I high-tailed it over to B & N and bought the book.

When I got home, I paged through it and thought this will be a lot of fun and a bit intimidating. Will I be able to take it in the shower with me or drag it around the neighborhood? My gracious! But I jumped right in and “cracked the spine!” thinking that would be a good place to start and documented the purchase of the book.  Then I picked a blossom off my Christmas Cactus that has decided to bloom in June and pressed them on the appropriate page. And yes! it did bloom around Christmas too! What is it doing - over active plant. And I so do NOT have a green thumb.

So here is the beginning of what I think will be a crazy wacky summer of wrecking a book intentionally! I look forward to stopping by and visiting my fellow journeyers.  And Jamie explains on her blog that it is never to late to join in. So check out her blog if you think you might be interested! (see link above)

I just read Jacquie’s Spring to Finish post over at Tall Grass Prairie Studio. She is challenging her readers to join her if pulling out the unfinished projects and seeing how many you ca complete by the end of April. Since that is just what I have been doing, I have decided to join in! I have a curtain to complete for a customer, a quilt top to finish up for a friend, and Yikes! I even have a deadline to meet by April 22 for a swap I signed up for and have not sewn one stitch for yet. And do I get to events count too? I’m coordinating a spring formal dance “prom” for 120 teens happening April 24. The to-do list for that seems to be getting longer rather than shorter as the date draws near! - just two weeks away! But yet, here I am blogging! LOL I needed a break!

Look at this oh-so-lovely Inner Child Doll I received by participating in Pat Winter’s One World One Heart giveaway! She is so lovely! Do you see the tiny shoe charm and the tiny hand charms? Pat’s bead work is really something! I do not do such small work, so I’m just tickled to win this doll. And she is filled with Lavender and smells so nice. THANK YOU PAT!

Today I received the news that I have won Pat Winter’s Inner Child Doll through her OWOH giveaway! I am so excited to have this good fortune to win one of Pat’s lovely creations. Pat creates wonderful Crazy Quilts - purses and dolls. She has been published in several magazines and has a published book and I have to run out and buy the winter 2009 issue of Sew Somerset to see her Mermaid’s Tale Fiber-art Book. If you did not get a chance to visit her blog or website during OWOH, do find the time to visit and see her amazing handwork!

Yeah! for OWOH hosted by Lisa “oceandreamer” Swifka! Please click on the above logo if you would like more information about this event.

This is my second year to participate! I am offering the wool appliqué (17″ x 9 1/2″) pictured in part below. I had to use the scanner for the image as my daughters and their cameras are all out about right now. Sorry that it does not give the complete piece, but I think it gives the idea of the whole appliqué. Please leave a comment on this post if you would like to be included in this giveaway. You must be an active blogger and have a way for me to contact you if you are the winner - email or blog address. The event ends on February 12th, and I will announce the winner Februray 13th.

Red Wool Hearts on Black Wool Background

Have fun! And I look forward to visiting may of you on your blogs!