Fiber Rhapsody

Sunday, March 23, 2014

Manistee Spring & All Music Festival

Manistee Lighthouse in Spring (!?)

Yesterday, my bestest travel buddy Irene and I attended the Manistee Spring and All Music Festival. We had a whole lot of fun and it was good to be two intrepid travelers again.

I had seen all of the bands either at house concerts or in East Lansing at The Pumphouse and wanted to go. Since she's wasn't treking around Europe at the time, Irene said "Sure, I'll come along".

We got to see Linsay Lou and the Flatbelly's, Harper & Midwest Kind, Drew Nelson, The Lincoln County Process (Jen Sygit and Sam Corbin) and Josh Davis and friends. All Lansing/East Lansing staples.

This morning we went to say hello to The Lake. I'm not a cold weather person and I think I haven't seen Lake Michigan in winter since high school. It's pretty awesome.

We stopped at House of Flavors for a wonderful Apple Cobbler with dried cherries and walnuts. Silly us, decide that we would replace the scoop of vanilla ice cream with Bear Claw (very dark chocolate, and chocolate covered cashews). It wasn't just a small scoop on the side but pile of ice cream on top which melted over the warm cobbler. Very intense. Needless to say, that was lunch!

Manistee Lighthouse in August

Irene, ready to attack a mountain of richness

Sunday, March 16, 2014

Out of Control?

Taking a necessary break from my Steampunk quilt. It seems I CAN'T FIND the blocks I have already completed for my "grunge" quilt which were going to be the basis for my reinvented Steampunk quilt.

I went to the drawer where I was sure they were stored and found lots of really exciting fabric that I've been in the process of collecting but no quilt blocks.

Tried my second and third guesses and still no blocks. I thought I was organized. Apparently, not.

This is a challenge quilt that I started with a friend. She already has beautiful wool applique flowers in her border. I have thoughts of putting this in the Sauder Quilt show this year but already it's the middle of March and the show is the end of April. Maybe I should aim for next year.

This afternoon, as I was taking my time viewing the exhibits at the Michigan Historical Museum, my grandson thought I was taking too long. He told me to "just keep moving Gamma and focus".

Would a little more focus find my quilt blocks or get my applique done?

Monday, March 10, 2014

Steampunk Bunny

Here is a little Steampunk bunny that I fell in love with at the Kalamazoo Show. I'm sorry I didn't note the quilter but I really appreciate her work. The whole piece was tiny,
maybe 8 x 8" or 10 x 10".

When I think of Steampunk, the Robert Downey Sherlock Holmes comes to mind. My other thought is Jack the Ripper's East End of London. I haven't watched Dr Who but I think that fits this category also.

Steam engines, victorian, industrial, sort of goth.

I want to use some cotton lace. Maybe dye it with coffee. There was also an article about throwing fabric in a jar of water with nuts and bolts so it would "rust". The instructions are in an issue of Quilting Arts Magazine around here somewhere.

Sunday, March 9, 2014

Steampunk

Okay, so I haven't posted in so long that I'm not sure I know how anymore but I'll give it a shot. Pictures take up too much space on my sister's phone so one day she told me, "why don't you just post them on your blog?"

I guess I've been bitten by the "Steampunk" bug or as Michaels calls it "Industrial Chic". I saw a magazine on the stand at JoAnn fabrics yesterday and at $13.95, I flipped through it and put it down. I then went across the parking lot and spent that and more on clearance embellishment treasures at Michaels.

About two years ago, I started my "Grunge" quilt. I haven't finished it yet but my ideas for that quilt will fit very nicely with my new steampunk embellishments. Maybe my imagination was just ahead of the curve. I didn't know what to do with it at that time and now my vision is becoming clearer. I'll have to see what develops...

Monday, November 19, 2012

Past, Present and Future

Past - Here's a quilt top 5 years in the making (60" x 60"). I finally finished it at Cindy's Up-North Quilt Retreat. Baptist Fans keep calling out to me for the quilting. I don't think I want to hand quilt it though. Not sure how I would go about it on the machine.

Present - Claire is very adamant about not decorating or listening to Holiday music or any other acknowledgment of Christmas before the day after Thanksgiving. This past weekend she admitted that it was just too beautiful to waste the good weather. She decorated the front of the house with lights and bows and garland. The lollipops are a new addition this year.

Future - not very far away now-unless you're 6 years old - then it's forever! This is the "real" Santa at Van Atta's Holiday Open House. Cubby is hoping for a very Batman Christmas.

Sunday, October 28, 2012

It's a car of course!

"Gamma, Gamma, what's that?" "It's a flannel board Cubby." I guess even with digital computer programs and Pinterest, etc., sometimes the old fashioned toys are still the best. Cubby stayed occupied for a long time (in 6 year old terms) manipulating shapes on the flannel board. He didn't have enough circles for wheels. He picked the fabric, a few snips and done! It's a car of course!

Claire is busy in the kitchen making chocolate kiss peanut butter cookies. One of her co-workers has found a new job and they are having a good-bye celebration. Claire's gotten quite the reputation as the Betty Crocker of the group and these cookies were a special request

We had a sign-up event last week for students to choose their dorms for next year and I was unable to attend the last block exchange. After conferring with JanG., we figured out the proportions for the leaf blocks to go with my pansies. Here are a couple in progress. The flower blocks are scattered (as they would be in nature) and not aligned in rows. My next challenge is to figure out how to get the blocks together with the least amount of set-in seams.

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Now We are Six

Saturday morning, it was off to the Fiddle Scouts, a newly created music program by The Ten Pound Fiddle. Kids get hands on opportunities to learn about instruments and music. This month's program was on drums. What 6 year old doesn't like drums? Cubby did ask to leave after about the first 10 minutes of warm up songs but when they split the group into ages 6 and over and he got to go with the big kids, it was so long Gamma Gamma.

Next month's program is about Ukuleles and one of Cubby's favorite people is going to be the "Scout Master".

Yep, he had a birthday this month. Still haven't quite gotten rid of the training wheels. I'm sure next spring we'll just have to go for it! Still time to enjoy a few more beautiful Michigan fall days.