Five Shadows

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!

The winner of my One World One Heart giveaway is Paula of Paula’s Serendipity! Congratulations Paula! I have sent an email to you and look forward to hearing from you!

Thank you to all who have visited my blog! Do come back again and leave a note!  I did not have as much time to blog hop as I did last year. But I do hope to continue to visit all of you.

Thank you Lisa for hosting this wonderful event!

Here is the completed quilt that will be raffled off to raise money for Autism Speaks. This quilt was commissioned by Sensory Critters for the fundraiser. I believe this weekend starts its many stops at functions where the raffle tickets will be sold for the drawing that will take place in the Fall.

You might remember from an earlier post that I am participating in a canvas bag round robin. We each started with the same size 13″ x 15″ x 7″ canvas tote bag. We each picked a theme for our bag and included fabric and items in that theme to pass along with the bag – for using in decorating/altering the bag. This is the third of twelve bags to which I will contribute. The theme for this bag is “Mary Engelbreit.” The owner of this bag included yards and yards of Mary Engelbreit (ME) fabric, along with a ME magazine and several ME books. The first picture shows the bag as I received it. A beautiful cross-stitch with a small border of yellow fabric. The second picture shows what I added – in a fabric collage style. First I purchased and attached a wide yellow rick-rack. Then I fused ME fabric to fusible web. I cut out several motifs and fused them around the cross-stitch. Then I stitched around the motifs in black thread. The cherries above the bowl on the left side are fused to a red fabric and stitched only at the top of the stem so they are three-dimensional. The cherries on the right side I hope look like they are pouring out of the teapot and into the teacup.

fabric collage I added

This past fall, Daily Window announced a sale on their demo bags. I bought two, with the plan on giving one to a dear friend for her November birthday. She loooooves purses just about more than any other possession! To create a card and tag, I used fabric with butterflies, the color purple, and the theme of love, all of which are her favorite things. Searching for a quote for the card, “Love is like a butterfly. It goes where it pleases, and it pleases wherever it goes.” (author unknown) seemed appropriate. The card was placed in the clear pocket and the tag was attached to the bag with ribbon. My friend is still using the bag as I decorated it. I have encouraged her to create her own art to display in the window pocket – and I’m sure she will! If you have not seen these clear pocket bags – they come in a variety of styles – for displaying your own creations, I encourage you to check out their website and blog!

I love this song by Kristin Andreassen. Crayola Doesn’t Make the Color of Your Eyes. You can listen to it here. It is such a fun and upbeat song!

Lisa’s One World-One Heart event begins January 19th! 2009 marks the third year for this event. OWOH is a world-wide blogging community event. Bloggers offer a piece of art or ephemera as a give-a-way on their blog. Lisa posts links to all those participating. The we have fun visiting the world-wide blogging community entering the give-a-ways (if you want to) and getting to know our world-wide neighbors. I plan on offering a piece of wool work as my give-a-way. If this sounds at all intriguing to you, go visit this post to read Lisa’s guidelines. You may have hundreds of bloggers visiting your site, and may even make some wonderful new friends!

Wishing you a wonderful New Year! I’ve been reading my favorite blogs and the topic of New Year’s resolutions are popping up all over. Not uncommon for this time of the year! I particularly like what Calamity Kim had to say about shutting the door on 2008 and getting on with 2009! I guess she has done just that (thank you Kim!) because 2009 did appear right on time, just like we hoped for! And I read Pokey’s blog (Clothe Paper Scissors & Quilting Arts editor – my two fav magazines!) and entered her giveaway. Her resolution is to “keep it simple.” My dear husband and I talked a bit about resolutions and he thought he’d go with the “lose 25 pounds” type. I suggested he change that to “go for walks several times a week with my wife” and he would not have the guilt of NOT losing weight, but would actually see a weight loss because we are out walking together. Both of us would benefit! My resolution is to “live guilt free” this year. I tend to let myself get involved in things because of the guilt factor. Things I don’t want to do, but do anyway, because of what I think people expect from me. THAT is a silly way to live one’s life! I want to create more and see where that leads. I ran across the Creative Everyday blog and thought that was such a good idea! It is a challenge to create something everyday but in a way that sounded like no pressure. Creating could include cooking, singing, doodling, etc. I got to thinking, by Leah’s definition, I do create every day. Bye-bye guilt for thinking it has to be some form of art or craft! I cook from scratch, I lite candles, I like simple center pieces, I often sing in the shower, and I do even make it to my sewing table to create. I enjoy a walk in our backyard garden and I occasionally will sketch something I see. I guess I do more creating than I thought! So “living guilt free” will be my 2009 catch phrase!

What about you? Do you have a word or phrase, or resolution to live by for 2009?

I wanted to show the quilties I received from the Shades of Forest Swap hosted by Lenna. But for some reason I can not figure out, I can not get them to load properly in my post. They are all so pretty! You can see all the quilties on Lenna’s blog – follow the above link. Lenna will be hosting new swaps in 2009! Do consider joining! And I’ll try figuring out how to post the pictures.

Greetings faithful readers! And Belated Christmas Wishes to all! I’m still behind on things due to the ice storm that hit here last week. Our power was out for four and a half days. We could still communicate to the world by our cell phones. On the second day we went to my husband’s office to warm up, but then power went out there too! What a surprise to suddenly be sitting in total darkness. We had flashlights with us, as we would be returning to a dark house. So we packed up and headed out. A generator did power a light at the end of the hallway as we headed to the door.

Back at home, my husband was able to hook up a small generator, (Thanks Denny!) lent to us by a friend, to power our gas furnace. For the next three days, we would warm up the house a bit in the morning, cook breakfast on the gas range, and then turn off the generator and head to some warm public place – like the library or mall. Then in the evening we would return home and once again heat up the house, light the antique oil lamps, and play games and drink hot chocolate. Then turn the furnace/generator off again and head to bed with extra blankets and quilts. It would be in the 40s by morning and we started the whole routine over again. By day five, the kids got home around 8 p.m. and sent a text message saying, “Power!”. What a wonderful word! It was so nice to drive home and see the Christmas tree lights on and to step into a warm house!

Even with the inconvenience of no power for a few days, the ice on the trees was beautiful. My daughter took the pic.

Back in October, I played along on Kelli Perkin’s blog and received some lovely goodies from her! Thank you Kelli!  I oohed and aahed over every thing! Seeing Kelli’s felt ATC’s in the bag of goodies was a personal favorite! Have you read her articles in Cloth Paper Scissors? I have played around a little with needle felting.  And must get back to that!

some of the goodies from Kelli