2013 –

August 2013 Garden

August 27, 2013 4 Comments

This is my monthly garden post, but first, I wanted to show off dear daughters new racing bike. She has great plans with it in college… She has fallen off of it three times already! (something to do with getting used to clips) But I shouldn’t laugh, while waiting for her at the bike shop, I took a spin on a hybrid, and fell off it too – like mother like daughter. I am hoping for a new hybrid for my B-day 🙂

And now for the monthly garden update. Basically, everything is overgrown. It’s been so hot, I barely have gone out to even check on things. So, I dashed out and took these photos:

Filed Under: Family and Friends, Garden 2013

More Lampwork Beads

August 26, 2013 2 Comments

Here are a few more of my handmade lampwork beads that I made a few weeks ago. The weather has not been conducive for making beads in my garage studio lately… Must wait for cooler weather. Meanwhile, you can find these beads in my Etsy Shop:

Filed Under: My Handmade Beads And Jewelry

Quilty Barn #10 & Vintagy Farm Girl Tractor

August 25, 2013 2 Comments

August is such a hot month around here. I’ve kept busy, but haven’t sat down long enough in front of my computer to post. Anyway, here is my Quilty Barn #10 & Vintagy Farm Girl Tractor Label Block of Lori Holts Quilty Barn Along. Lori came up with this cute tractor block to use as a label for the finished quilt. I may have to make another one, since there will be at least two quilts coming out of this Barn Along.

Filed Under: Quilting

Pink Saturday & Quilty Barn #9

August 10, 2013 3 Comments

Happy Pink Saturday! Thank you to Beverly at How Sweet The Sound for hosting this weekly event.

Here is Quilty Barn #9 of Lori Holt’s Quilty Barn A Long. The wind was kicking up a bit when I tried taking these photos.

I think there are three more barns to go, and then there are also the Quilty Silo Barns to start on as well as the tractor label.

Filed Under: Quilting

Retro Rebel Girls With Attitude

August 9, 2013 4 Comments

When I saw the latest issue of Mollie Makes, I decided to make dolls #5 & #6. The instructions and the patterns seemed a bit unclear when it came to the head, so I added a bit of a neck – too much I think. And, of course I deviated from the pattern further by using yarn for the hair, and googly eyes instead of felt. I actually used felt, but mine looked a bit funny, so I opted for the googly eyes. And what’s a Retro girl without her pearls and apron? Oh, and since Chris has been talking about the play Wicked and wanting a green baby, green was on my mind. I reached in my quilt stash and pulled out this pretty green for one of the Retro girls. A bit odd (both of them), yet oddly cute…

Thanks for stopping by!

– Linda

Filed Under: My Handmade Dolls

Quilting, Practice Practice Practice…

August 5, 2013 4 Comments

I just got my sewing machine extension work table – yayyy! Now I have everything to quilt, except for my machine quilting skills. My instructor said you need 24 hours, or was it 48 hours? of practice before you become somewhat adept. So, with my usual can do attitude ( only for things that I really want to do and am interested in :)) I have been doing the 3 P’s. I have thus far two quilts waiting to be quilted, and will probably have a couple more before I feel ready to finish them off…

Always nice to read up on things:

Goofing around. Haven’t mastered the speed/hand coordination yet – still really jaggedy:

Another one of my sweet dolls keeping me company:

Thanks for stopping by!

– Linda

Filed Under: Quilting

Pink Saturday & Happy 21st!

August 3, 2013 3 Comments

Happy Pink Saturday! Thank you to Beverly at How Sweet The Sound for hosting this weekly event.

Our dear younger son celebrated his 21st birthday recently. Before putting some of the decorations away, I thought I’d share the pinky ones for Pink Saturday:

Filed Under: Announcements

Upcycled Shirt

August 2, 2013 5 Comments

After losing 40 pounds, dear hubby put aside some old shirts. As I am so into quilting, I thought, yes! more cotton fabric for a new upcycled quilt! Then I saw what Nan over at Retired In Alaska did, and of course I had to try it too. I thought it would be more fun to fit dear daughter, so I had her pick out an old shirt. She went for the old red flannel shirt. Here she is with it on before I tackled it:

And here is the finished top. DD is rolling her eyes – modeling is not her thing:

The shirt was a Men’s size L, so I had to take it in quite a bit to fit DD. I made a few tucks, and darts in front and back. And I cut the shoulders and sleeves and made it into a 3/4 length:

I think it came out pretty nice, and it was fun to do. If you’d like to give it a try, visit Nan, or go directly to Cotton & Curls.

Thanks for stopping by!

– Linda

Filed Under: Crafting, Family and Friends, Projects And Interests

Quilty Barns #6 – #8

July 31, 2013 2 Comments

Ok, so here are my Lori Holts Quilty Barn Along barns 6, 7, and 8:

I think so far, my favorite block has been the Water Turn Block.

Thanks for stopping by!

– Linda

Filed Under: Quilting

My Lampwork Studio

July 30, 2013 3 Comments

I have noticed many bloggers giving wonderful tours of their home studios. I do not have a dedicated studio for my art/craft in my house yet, but I do have a lampwork studio in our detached garage. Viv asked me about it, and I thought, why not? So, here is a tour of my garage studio. It is more industrial than cute, but with melting glass, and sometimes exploding glass, it serves it’s purpose:

This is a view of our detached garage, and half of the fuel for my torch – a propane tank. Dear hubby put in the exhaust vent above the tank:

And here is my studio in one corner of the garage. In the middle is my work station with my torch, and all around are my tools, supplies, and equipment. to the right is my kiln for annealing the beads, and below that is my oxygen concentrator (added with propane, fuels the torch). And above is my air vent and fan. I use a Nortel Minor torch. It has a graphite marver piggy backing on it so it looks kind of funny. The little round white things are DH’s socks filled with beans that I use as arm rests 🙂

And here are a few of my beautiful glass rods. I use mainly Moretti and Bullseye rods, but I also have CIM, Lauscha, and Vetrofond. I just purchased some Devardi rods, which I am looking forward to trying out next session:

These are the tools of the trade. Marvers, hemostats, molds, presses, scissors, knives, kitchen spoons, mandrels with bead release, and some stringers I pulled for decorating. Starbucks coffee bottles make really good containers for glass storage:

Here I am. I think these photos were taken a few years back. You can see I used to drink a lot of starbucks coffee 🙂 I am wearing my didymium safety glasses, melting glass, and winding it on a mandrel. When I’m done, it gets popped into the kiln for annealing.

Finally, here are some glass beads I have made in the past. I tend to make florals and rounds in happy cheery colors:

Thank you for stopping by!

– Linda

Filed Under: Crafting, My Handmade Beads And Jewelry

Quilty Barns #3 – #5

July 29, 2013 1 Comment

Dear Hubby would say that I have a bit of an OCD going on – and I think he would be right. When something catches my fancy, I go full on into it. So, I am almost caught up in Lori Holts Quilty Barn Along. Here are barns 3, 4, and 5:

I had planned on all the barns being red, but that pink somehow snuck in…

Thanks for stopping by!

– Linda

Filed Under: Quilting

My Handmade Lampwork Beads

July 28, 2013 1 Comment

Here are a few more handmade lampwork beads from my last beading session. I just love to make round beads encased in clear – and in my go to color, Pink!

You can find these and other beads in my Etsy shop. Thank you for visiting!