The Bridge is Out!!!

For the past two days, I have been literally trapped at home. The lady who owns the pastures around where I live has replaced the little bridge that is the entrance to my long gravel driveway. She's done this for several very good reasons but I already miss the quaint bridge with the white rickety rails. If it's any consolation, I just got off the phone with her and she hates it too! ;o) I'll miss the phone calls from UPS drivers and visitors who have never been to my house and call from the other side and say "is it safe to drive over THAT bridge?" I laugh and say, "YES, it has concrete and huge I-beams underneath...it's very safe." Which indeed it was...it took the guys who took it out three times longer to disassemble it then they thought...thus causing us to be trapped an extra day.

So now I'm stuck with plain old silver culverts running through my little stream and a plain old gravel road...no cute little bridge with white railings to peer over and watch the little fish, tadpoles and whatever else might be floating in the water. No more watching the sunlight flicker in the reflection of my face as I peer over the edge in deep thought when taking my walks.

Sigh!!

Back to my creative roots

Several years ago, I was inspired by a beautiful appliqued angel quilt I saw hanging in tiny local quilt shop and decided to try my hand at designing my own applique patterns. These are prototypes of my first attempts and one of the many drawings that I used for a pattern (please note it's in the reverse). I never did anything with them other than try to see if I could do it...now I'm feeling the creative bug again and have all kinds of ideas just running around in my head trying to escape. I've again been inspired by all the wonderful mixed media works I've seen as of late and I'm just itching to get my hands into all that fabric, glue, glitter and just fun stuff. Now, don't all excited....I'm not giving up my little Apple Dumplings...oh no...I wouldn't do that!!!


I also just purchased two books, Material Visions & Transparent Art published by Stampington & Co. There were several more I would have loved to have added to my "shopping cart" but I had to save some of my $$$ for supplies...silly me!

Soooo....keep your eyes open and see what I come up with...it could be delightful or it could be frightful...one never knows with me!!! HA!!

Thanks for peeking in on me!!

Great Grandma's Quilt

Several years ago, my Grandmother gave me a few quilts that were either hand sewn or sewn on an Singer treadle machine by my great grandmother (her mother). My mother actually has the Singer treadle machine which is in absolutely wonderful shape with almost all the parts including the instruction book...and it still works!!! I wish I had a photo to share along with these pictures.

I just love this particular quilt which I had encased in a frame to perserve it and so I could also hang it in my studio/office. Sections of it are coming apart from years of just being stored and it's yellowed in places but otherwise it is in wonderful condition. It was never completed but I love it. My mom tells me that she remembers "helping" work on it with my great grandmother when she was about 5 or 6 years old which makes this quilt almost 60 years old. It's made from flour sacks that were once little dresses or outfits from either my mom or her sister...or so the story goes :o). Vintage quilts have always fascinated me but this one is especially spectacular to ME.

I just wanted to share...