My first 5X7

I took some pictures of the setting moon yesterday.  They fall short of the actual scene.  I need to either learn better photography or play with it in Photoshop to fix the round, white dot that does not resemble the beautiful moon I saw!

 I used this photo as inspiration for my fiber art.  I've been a longtime admirer of Monika Kinner-Whalen's work.  I'd love to take a class from her.  True, I didn't spend a great deal of time on this.  Maybe I'll keep trying until I'm more satisfied with the results.

I cropped my finishing zig-zag out of this picture.  I didn't care for the rainbow colors--too distracting...but I can trim it off and do a different finish.  It's all about the practice of art and working out solutions.

And here is a morning sunrise picture--it had been a while since we had a colorful morning.  "Red skies in the morning, sailors take warning."  Wind warning for sure, as it's blowing like crazy out there!

 

More production and an art challenge

After Pat left, I got another of her homespun quilts quilted and bound.  I just realized I haven't taken a picture of it yet.

I was inspired to make the same pattern with some precut batik squares Pat had bought to use for Dr. Kaufman quilts.  I'm liking it too much and am thinking of keeping it.  

I'm planning on trying out the really dense Mayan Glyphs pantograph, and then I'll really want to keep it.  I've been auditioning borders for it--and am likely going to go with a big 10" border so I can do the palm trees panto that is part of that set.

I've been looking for a challenge to make some sort of art at specific intervals.  I really didn't want to do a daily challenge--that's a little too overwhelming.  With some help from a member of the About.com quilting forum, I found this 5X7 challenge.  It seems to fit my needs.  I didn't start at the first of the year...but that's okay.  

Company and the sweatshop!

Pat was here for a long weekend.  She amazes me every time with how much she can get done.  

She made three of these homespun tops.  I got two quilted so she could send them off to her sister.
 

As always we had a great time.  I got a top for Dr. Kaufman started and almost finished.  I'm amped up to get to work now.

Christmas finishes in the New Year

So, after we got back from Colorado, I still needed to make stockings for Jackie and Justin.  

I finished them up and also made a few little house ornaments.

I won't be rushing to finish stockings for Christmas 2013.  But given my nature to procrastinate, I imagine I'll be hurrying to finish something for Christmas!  Making these now, I was really procrastinating cleaning up my sewing room before Pat's visit!

Christmas stockings

Jackie let me know rather late that she didn't have Christmas stockings for the boys!  She had seen some at Pottery Barn, and so I set about making them before we left for Christmas in Colorado.

I got one done for each of the boys, but not for their parents! 

She gave us a Keurig coffee maker and I'm enjoying making single cups of coffee just for me.  

Lindsay got a picture of her fobot.  I'm starting to collect more "stuff" since Justin decided that he would like a new tradition--a fobot every Christmas!! 

Another fobot

Dale and I have been working together on fobots.  Forgot to photograph one before wrapping it up, so that one will have to wait until after Christmas.  

Our latest creation is this one, going out shopping!  It was a lot of fun helping it evolve. 

Here is Mrs. Hall taking little Thyme (Pat's fobot) out for a shopping spree.  The missing one could easily be the Papabot.
 
Sunday, I finally got tortellinis made.  We'll have them Christmas eve.  I thought the spinach gave them a nice green Christmas color. 

Winter blows in

Winter arrived with snow yeterday.  Big huge flakes fell that clumped together.  The wind blew, then the snow changed to little corn snow.

The clouds moved off before the sun completely set, just in time for a sliver of moon again.  

Quilts delivered

I finished up these quilts and we delivered them to Dr. Kaufman yesterday, probably the last for this year.

This is the last one of the quilts that Pat put together when she was here.  The twin sheet that was a perfect color for backing turned out not to be wide enough, but I found another that had small purple flower print for backing instead.  

I put this snowmen BQ3 together quickly over the weekend.  I think the most time consuming part is cutting it out.

Had the perfect backing flannel for it!  Looks like we might be in for more snow tomorrow.  Let it snow, indeed.  We can certainly use the moisture.

Quilts and a sunrise...

We finally got some much needed moisture!  Fortunately it came after Lindsay had gone back home to Albuquerque.  She finished another top for a friend.  We sure love the BQ3 pattern.

I did the faux piping binding that I blogged about here.  Unfortunately the tutorial for this is gone as it is now featured in a magazine article.  I still had the sizes so it was easy to recreate it.  I think it added a little to the quilt, since we had no additional fabric for borders.

I also finished the boys' quilts.  Similar but not exactly the same.  I wanted to use some of my Laurel Burch stash for quilts for them.  

 

I had the perfect, bright, colorful binding in the binding stash.  Thanks Pat, for keeping me stocked with a variety of bindings.

Got this row quilt that Pat had put together from leftovers done as well.  

 And the morning sunrise spectacles continue.  Yesterday I caught the tiniest, sliver of a moon and Venus above it in the early morning sky.

A parade of sunrises

I can't believe it's been over two weeks since I posted.  We spent Thanksgiving in Colorado and it was great to have the whole family together! 

The boys are growing up and are no longer babies.  They provided a lot of entertainment over the long weekend with their antics.  So much to be thankful for.  

 The sunrises in Colorado didn't disappoint.  Pikes Peak in the background shadow from the kids' balcony.

Back home it's a daily display of color in the early morning.  Not so early since I've been routinely waking up way before dawn.

 I caught a star, or more likely a planet still bright in the sky.

 Every morning it's another spectacle.  We've had a quite a few sunsets worthy of photos too, but I don't seem to get out to photograph them.  I just enjoy them unfolding.  They are frequently short-lived as are the sunrises.

I fought the temptation to touch up these photos.  They never seem as awesome as the real thing.   

Cranes continue fly over, back and forth.  They are so graceful.  Sometimes they fly fairly low right over the house, but I've yet to capture them when they do.  It seems like this is the first year since we've been here that they've stayed in the area this long.