An Apple A Day......

 This quilt is from the book Quilting with My Sister by Barbara Brandeburg and Teri Christopherson. This is a quilters must have. I have actually three quilts in progress from this one book. They have such an amazing eye! This one is titled "apples" and is in the hearth and home section.  For those that know me, there is no hearth and my home is a small apartment. I still find these very feminine quilts so cheerful. This quilt I finished 100% on my own. I find now that I like to have my quilts professionally quilted as I just don't have the time to quilt them, nor the patience. Not to mention they come out exquisite when done on a long arm machine. This is one of the few that I did from start to finish on my own. Remember an apple a day keeps those doctors away.......

Glass plate 2

This glass plate was made at The Village Glassworks. My friend Kirsten invited me to take a glass fusing class with her. This studio is located in Auburn, Michigan. It was so much fun. The plate was made using three layers of glass. I used scraps for the larger stripes. The smaller stripes were made from "noodles" of glass. I really enjoyed this process and would love to play with glass again soon.

Village Glass Works

www.villageglassworks.com/

Glass Plate #1

This glass plate was made at a studio in Cross Village/Harbor Springs Michigan. Lynn Dinning and I met at the Good Hart market days last summer. She was at the booth next to me and was kind of enough to provide me bags for the sale of my blankets/towels for the humane society. I looked her up and was able to take a tour of her studio. I was also able to make this glass plate. The glass on the top is my favorite as it has the neatest properties. It is called dichroic glass. I plan on using this plate for my pins while sewing. It is the perfect addition to my studio. I hope to take classes from her in the future. She teaches at the North Central Michigan College located in Petoskey, Michigan.  She can be reached at her website, it is worth checking out.  http://www.artistsnorth.com/dinning/

Leaf #9 Fabric Paper

Leaf #9 is made from fabric paper. I just enjoy this technique. I am amazed that I can use scraps of paper and plain muslin to get such neat effects. This paper leaf was made using some old book pages from an educational secretarial book on short hand. It was then embellished with tissue paper. The final color was added with shimmer mist in grape. The embellishment is an old earring. The die cut by sizzix is very an oak leaf that is quite a bit smaller than the previous maple leaf. It still adds such a flair to the tree!

Glass Magnets

These glass magnets were a blast to make! I was introduced to glass fusion by  my good friend Kirsten. She had started blowing glass and making glass beads. She invited me to take a class with her at The Village Glass Works in Auburn Michigan. 

You can visit Kirsten's blog at  http://prioritythree.blogspot.com/. Her work is just stunning. Although quilting is my first passion, I enjoyed this class very much and am looking forward to doing more with glass. For now these colorful magnets adorn my refrigerator!

Thinking outside of the Box

Once upon a time in cross village michigan there was a studio called the Rug Works. Located directly across from the historic Legg's Inn restaurant they designed and completed beautiful rugs using looms, with locally grown wool. The yarn was hand dyed. I was able to take a class where I made a rug pillow. The business closed shortly after this endeavor. I was able to buy a piece of shelving from this nostalgic place. I wasn't sure what I would do with the wood shelves, and kept it stored in a garage for two years.

 The shelving has it's imperfections. It has some boards that are slightly crooked. It has some scratches and some oblong compartments. It couldn't be more perfect to me. My entire life has been right angles, straight lines, solid colors, and doing the "right thing". This is much more organic and lends itself to many surprises. I plan to place all those items that are inspirational to me.  
One of my favorite quotes is "I believe that inspiration comes to all of us; we don't always realize it."I hope that I can fill this organic, not perfect, but ever so eclectic shelving unit with things of inspiration and wonder......