Here it is January 5th of the new year and I’m just now blogging.  Been sick all through the holidays, tired and still had to do all the festivities stuff.  Now I’m just tired!  I am better though and thankful for that.

In my last blog post I said I would share a picture of a pattern that caught my eye.  I was too busy to do art during the holidays, but it’s interesting how my attention was taken by a pattern made by the dipped pretzels on the wax paper!  I may use this for something. That’s a plaid dishtowel laying beneath it so that I could photograph the pattern. I wonder what India ink would do?  Would it go around the outlines of the patterns?  I may have to try that tomorrow.

Today I “autographed” a couple of my art pieces in stitch.  I recently heard a horror story about someone being denied their art because their name wasn’t stitched on it….I am not going to have that happen to me!  I am taking these two quilts to a photographer’s studio to be photographed next week and wanted to get my name on them before that. I am considering entering these in an exhibit and want to get some really good pictures as I don’t think mine are that great.

And now my playtime event…a piece of screened cloth from a long time ago with lots of white spaces in it because I used torn paper…I decided to paint those white areas and then maybe I can finally do something with it.  This also gave me ideas for doing a larger piece of cloth.  I ‘m really loving the colors, but not sure where this goes from here.  When I screened it, I used screenprinting inks which made the cloth kind of stiff.  The inks are very thick.  I came back in with fabric paints and liquid acrylics to paint the white areas.

Well, I guess it will sit again until I get an urge to do something with it.  I am really wanting to do some free form piecing….maybe on the retreat I’m going to later this month….

I planned to blog on both of my blogs today, since it is the last day of 2009.  I am actually doing that (in a way), but I have run out of time to say anything significant.  I have been preparing for company coming tonight, which means I’ve been cleaning and cooking…sooo here’s wishing all my readers a wonderful, creative New Year.  In  the midst of all my activities today, I did see a pattern emerge on the wax paper after I pulled all my chocolate dipped pretzels off of it.  I had to take a picture.  I’ll post a pic later…gotta go…good bye 2009…you  have been a very full year.  Hello 2010, I am looking forward to what you will bring…

That’s my birthday.  I took a total break from all the have-to-do things of the holidays and celebrated the day to my choosing.  I have pictures to share of what I managed to accomplish!

First is my left hand warm up drawing from the morning…

Then because I was searching for something, that ended up with hours of cleaning in my sewing room…not that it needed it or something. lol!  I soon gave my attention to a piece of “paper cloth” I had made some time ago.  I found it in the piles I was looking through.  It’s called paper cloth because you  make it by adhering papers to cloth.  This particular piece I adhered papers to a product called do-sew (I think that’s what it’s called).  It’s used to cut dress patterns from.  It’s a thin woven product.  Because it was thin is why I wanted to use it as the base to make the paper cloth rather than muslin. My paper cloth actually ended up being quite sturdy.  I cut it in a 5 inch strip and layered it with batting and started stitching vines on it; when I got tired of that I threw some hearts in…then with a fabric marker, I “painted” the leaves and the hearts…

This folds in thirds and, after adding a felt strip on the inside, is now a needle holder.  Keeping track of needles can be daunting, but now with this very cute case, I think I can manage it.

There was enough paper cloth to make a…you guessed it…a cell phone pouch to hang from your neck!

The more I feel this “paper cloth” the more I am impressed with the sturdiness and feel of it.  I think there’s enough left that I could make a wallet if I wanted…yes, it’s that sturdy…almost feels like leather…

Even though I didn’t get any world-altering artwork done, I am pleased with the experiment with paper cloth…now I want to create more of it!

…And I did have shrimp and wine…

I had a birthday Friday.  Yep, a week before Christmas…my birthday has always been on that day of the year.  I got a lot of interesting birthday cards, but I have to say I think this one took the cake.  This is the first time I ever got a hand made card from my nieces.  I was pretty impressed and touched. The envelope was addressed to “Aunt Kathy” (no last name)…good thing my address was on there. Take a look…one is a budding artist…she is always drawing and doodling something…and she’s pretty good at it too…”Happy Birthday Aunt Kathy and Merry Christmas”

I know those are presents on the left side and I’m not really sure what the drawing is on the right side of the page…

But it was the last page that really got me…

I’ve been working on cookies and candy today.  Cut the fudge and package it, bake the sugar cookies and get ready to decorate them, dip the peanut butter balls in chocolate, dip pretzels, vanilla and chocolate, and bake the pan of brownies for the mint brownie.  So now I’m ready to decorate the sugar cookies…but…my decorating leaves something to be desired…this is supposed to be fun..but instead I’m frustrated…

Ugh…these don’t look so great…I need a cookie decorating lesson!  And I found one on the internet….I’m going to share it here because I thought you might like a cookie decorating lesson too!

So what do you think of my cookies cut like scissors and thimbles and spools of thread and a sewing machine? I could not find my holiday cutters anywhere in the house. Of course that might be because I stashed them in the sewing room to use for quilting designs since I never made cut cookies…til now.  I have two sets of these cutters left for sale if anyone is interested in a set…contact me.

Today is a day to ponder growing older…and how to do it gracefully.

Today is a day to eat shrimp for breakfast.

Today is a day to break from the holiday bustle and choose to make art deliberately and thoughtfully.

Today is a day to try something new. (but not bungee jumping)

Today might be a day to enjoy the rare glass of wine, but maybe not while I’m sewing.

Today is a day to be thankful for the energy and good health to enjoy life.

Today is a day to be thankful for good friends and family.

Today is a day to pray for those less fortunate than I.

Today will be a full day.

Life has been incredibly busy around my house lately…but I don’t think I’m alone in this…it’s the holidays!
The first weekend of December was the Art Fair at New Harmony. Sales were good. This past weekend was our first Tri-State Artisans Studio Tour. I set up a “shop” in my garage. My friend Kay, who weaves baskets, joined in with her wonderful baskets.

The weekend warmed up to the 40’s so we stayed warm enough with a big heater and a small electric heater.  We had fun, visited with people that came by,  and had good sales.

Now it’s time to get started on Christmas baking…one week from Friday the party is on!

I made these little cell phone/credit card pouches last week.

I had 6 of them…before a nice new Facebook friend purchased 4 of them.  Then I went to  the New Harmony fair and sold 1.  The other one sold yesterday in my Etsy shop.  So last night I was scrambling around trying to make a few more.  You see, these bags came out of playtime in my sewing room last week just using the scraps from the other bags I made.  The scrap pieces were already layered and stitched; they just needed to be pieced together and then sew the bags.  That made it easy.  To make more, I have to layer and quilt a piece of cloth, maybe add more stuff to the cloth, then make the bag.  I was scrounging around through my unfinished pile last night to see if I could find something already quilted…and I did.  These were made from a collage that just never did work for me.  I loved the cloth, but never could get it to come together so I cut it up last night and made these…

The bottom one is sold and I am awaiting her buttons to sew on it.  The other two are in my etsy shop. One has a cool dark green antique button on it and the other has a dark brown one.

The Artisan’s Fair at New Harmony was better than last year in sales.  Maybe everyone was really scared last year and they aren’t so much this year.  The crowd wasn’t massive, but there was a fairly steady flow of people and they were buying.  I sold several scarves each day.  Although not blockbuster, I am pleased with my sales.

To purchase one of the two bags in the last picture, click here.

…for everyone!  This is a kitty Christmas stocking.  A friend from church posted a picture on Facebook of these, but got them a long time ago.  Therefore, she could not tell us where to get them.  So I went and made my own version, using red fleece and some furry white felt (I forgot the name of it). Joann’s didn’t have fur in white; that would have been nice.

Got new glasses this past weekend.

The piece of artwork I was working on has fallen by the wayside.  Maybe I will just paint over the whole thing and start over.  Geesh, I hate it when I get lost on work…seems like it takes forever to come back to it and get somewhere.

Yesterday, I trimmed out the fleece and cut the edges of a blanket for my niece.  It’s two layers of fleece and the edges are tied.  I only tied three sides and I think I will stitch one end instead.  That will be the top of the blanket.

Art fair coming up this weekend and studio tour the next weekend, but I’m not getting any more art done…however I am getting all my Christmas shopping and birthday shopping done, so that’s good.  Today I may piddle around with some small ideas for handmade gifts.  And I have one more rag quilt to make. Next week I will prepare my entry for Form Not Function for shipping…and perhaps ship it as well!

The December/January issue of Quilting Arts is chock full of exciting articles (at least they are for me).  I can’t wait to dive in to them and try some new things.