Happy New Year!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Above is my disgruntled and non-photogenic cat, Jet.

She is still strugling with getting used to a new dog in the house and seems to be wigging out a bit. If Jet doesn't run then Annie doesn't chase... now to get Jet to understand that!

Seeking artistic direction in 2008.

I've been playing with some fabrics I received in the mail, color wonderful color... I painted the base fabric then ironed on the shapes, then am embroidering by hand. I will NOT recommend embroidering onto painted fabric unless you like to use needlenose pliers to pull the needle thru! Don't they make sewing machines that do all these stitches???

I hope all your dreams become reality in 2008!

A Million Diamonds

First, a flashback to Christmas 2003;

Blue getting ready to aggressively open his present.

It's a blue Christmas without you....

And now (with the spot on the other side)...

Is Annie in true JRT fashion...

ready to open her very first Christmas present.

Ta Da!

And what did I get....

A million diamonds.

Click to enlarge and just look at all the diamonds in the snow!!!

I hope you all have a Blessed Christmas too.

Tuckered Out for Christmas

Finally done and whew are we tired!

Now it's time to sit back and relax for the rest of the Holiday week.

I hope everyone else is at this point by now too.

ENJOY!

Have a Holly Jolly Christmas...

You may have noticed that I have not been stitching for a while now... Yep, I haven't. But I did machine sew up a wine gift bag. It was way easy and will make a good gifter.

Then this week I found some wine labels on ebay and bought a batch of them. The seller is Inkpainter and that link should go to tons of labels of all kinds that he has listed.

These could be used in paper collage arts or printed onto fabric... I thought they'd be cool printed out on fabric and incorporated into a fabric collage wine bag.

Here are 4 of my favorites...


And... yes, I love wine. I can hardly wait to taste the wine that Jesus makes.

Tag, I'm it.

The 4 things.... I got tagged to do the 4 things meme by ALLIE. Check out her blog, she is one talented crazy quilter. Here goes… but I just couldn’t think of 4 things on all of them… and well… none on one of them.

4 Jobs I had...
1. Electrical design/drafter. 2. Built F-16 cables. 3. Seismograph – Oil exploration. 4. Retail Sales.

4 films I can watch over and over…
1. The World’s fastest Indian 2. My Dog Skip 3. 4.

4 Tv-shows I watch...
1. House 2. News 3. 4.

4 Places I have lived...
1. Utah 2. Oregon 3. California 4. On the Road for 8 years.

4 Favorite foods...
1. Tomato 2. Nacho’s 3. Chili 4. Beer (can be a food)

4 Favorite colours...
1. all reds 2. sea foam blue 3. salmon 4. mint green

4 Places I would love to be right now...
1. On the Oregon Coast. 2. 3. 4.

4 Names that I love but would not use for my own children...
1. 2. 3. 4.

4 People I would love to tag with this Meme...

YOU!

Annie got Mail!

A package came in the mail to "Annie"!

It was sent by a very nice lady who makes doggie sweaters and

other crochet item and sells them on etsy.

Here is a link to her shop: Crochet Cabin

She also has Jack Russell Terriers.

Here is Annie modeling her new sweater.

CUTE!!!

It slips over the neck and has a buttoning strap that goes under the chest.

Very easy to put on and Annie seems to like it a lot.

It has an adorable hood on it too.

Annie thought she try it out for a roll in the snow.

Yep.... kept very warm!

Now it's time to go try on Santa's hat.

The Little Pill

THE LITTLE PILL

I needed something for depression when Blue died.

I got this little pill.

At first when I took it, it had reverse effects.

I missed Blue worse.

Then it sent me on an emotional roller-coaster.

I almost took it back.

But then I had a break-thru and realized she wouldn't "replace" Blue but that I would love her for her own personality and ... yes she is a little joy.

She is a 4 month old Jack Russell with long legs and rough coat.

We named her ANNIE.

Bright Angel

Until a person has loved an animal, a part of one’s soul remains unawakened.
~Anatole France.

Blue went to play ball with the angels yesterday. He had a very aggressive cancer that was shutting him down and we had to say goodbye.

Blue had a wonderful life. He went on countless motorcycle trips, must of logged tens of thousands of miles. Always up for a new adventure. The picture shown is one of my favorite pictures of him; it was by the Grand Canyon at a place called “Bright Angel Fault”. Blue also loved to boat; we always had to keep an eye on him because he would drop his ball in the water for us to fetch. Many times we had to circle around with the fish net to capture the ball. Blue also loved to hike and explore and poke his head into every crevice and notch. He explored the Redwoods of California and the Red rocks of Southern Utah, plus many many other places.

He was always inventing new games to play around the house. You would never see him without a ball in his mouth, the ball even muffled his bark.

I will miss him dearly.

Light in the Darkness

LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS

GRACE RAIN ON ME

HAPPY IS THE HEART THAT LOVES

If you click and enlarge the picture of the train - you will see words on the front of it.

These are three of six that I am listing tonight or in the morning.

They are all 4 1/2'" x 5 3/4". Go see the other 3 in my etsy shop.

Color My World

This weeks offerings...

DREAM

Dreaming expands your horizons. Dream good things.

Amazing Grace

When I heard Chris Tomlin's make on Amazing Grace,

I had to put these words onto a mini quilt.

The first time I heard Amazing Grace was when Carly Simon

recorded it in the 70's. I loved it.

There is nothing so freeing to me as grace.

Storms

Life has storms.

We are not alone.

Peppers

Here are some of the peppers I grew this summer - the 3 at the top are "Red Hot Cherry Bombs", then there are red and green jalapeno peppers, and the skinny ones are Thai peppers - very very hot. I also grew green Bell peppers and Anaheim this year. It's Chili makin' time! I sautéed up a batch of Chili starter this morning consisting of diced carrots, Anaheim peppers, and one cherry bomb. I will use it later this week for a batch of bean-less chili.

My whimpy first year garden here is done. I did have beautiful onions, and dug up the end of them yesterday. The tomatoes were weird - I think I over fertilized the soil because they all over grew and split. The peppers loved the hot temps this summer.

I haven't made any new cq collages this week, instead I have been working overtime and had too much going on. Soon... I hope... but I see no end to the OT for a while.

Happy Harvest!

To you...

These simple words speak tons. A touch... a life... a change... a difference.

You make a difference.

You touch lives.

First Snow

First snow - at Mom's in Wyoming. She just sent these pics to me.

I'm jealous.

We had snow in the air but nothing stuck on the ground here.
Our mountains are white.
Summer's gone, Winter's come.

Book - The Lost Mother

Next?

I received a book in the mail from Pat Winter. She had posted it on her blog after she received & read from another blogger, and it is going around the blogs…

Thank you Pat, I totally enjoyed this very touching story – it made me wish I could jump in and do something.

You won’t need a bookmark for this one – you won’t be able to put it down. So now I am passing it on to the first one to let me know you would like to read it.

A Time for Everything

A TIME FOR EVERYTHING

More positive attitude art in Autumn colors!

I just finished 6 pieces and listed on etsy, my fingers are yelling at me from the abuse.

LISTEN TO THE VOICE OF TRUTH

If I listened to my fingers I would of listed these for $200 each! But no....

GIVE THANKS / PRAISE

GIVE THANKS / REJOICE

Click pictures to enlarge.

Thanksgiving art is my favorite of all to create.

I guess because I have a lot to be thankful for and because I love the fall colors.

Above are 3 new bird images to my collection; they are from Vintage Funk Designs shop on etsy. She has some great images, along with her art for sale. Check it out!

And... my etsy link to see the above and more...

Positive Attitude Art

2 new scrappy collages all dressed up in Autum colors.

These are both 5" x 7" and in my etsy shop.

-SOLD-

Changing Colors

Here's a picture from our weekend trip to Wyoming.

Brilliant reds and oranges are spotting the hillsides.

FAITH

"Faith is the bird that feels the light when the dawn is still dark." ~R.Tagore

Happy Collage

Still playing with fabric collages this weekend.

The reason I'm not playing outside or in the mountains is that I'm recooperating from a nasty root canal done last Thursday.

Fabric Collage

Different than a crazy quilt, but very similar, is this fabric collage. I placed the colorful fabrics on a piece of iron-on interface and pressed them in place. I then added the words. I placed the block on felt and stitched randomly across the pieces by hand with a running stitch and a feather stitch. Next added a back and blanket stitched the edge. This was a very simple project, maybe I'll try a second one with more embellishing.

Happy Holiday Weekend!

P.S. These fabrics will look very familiar to someone out there! (THANKS)

Ahhhh!

Flaming Gorge

Below is an Osprey bird with the catch of the day.

Click to enlarge.


I could, and did, spend hours looking at the rocks.

I am amazed at the artwork of nature.

It was a very relaxing weekend.

After all... it's a dog's life.

Weekend!

Just a little weekender... to this huge reservoir that twists and turns it’s way thru cliffs and rocks. It’s always amazing to just LOOK UP! I will hopefully return with pictures I take… but leave you with this aerial shot I found online. It's looking down instead of UP!

Flaming Gorge, Utah & Wyoming

Pray for Miners

Huntington, Utah: A town of HOPE.

This HOPE crazy quilt is on it’s way to Mayor Hilary Gordon in Huntington, Utah. This small town received another blow yesterday evening when the mine had a “bump” of seismic activity that killed 3 miners and sent 6 more to hospitals. These miners were part of the rescue effort to reach the 6 miners trapped in the mine for over a week now.

“PRAY 4 OUR 6”

Utah flags are at 1/2-staff today in honor of the 3 men who died last night.

Huntington is a community holding on to hope.

Comfort Doll #2

I sent off Comfort Doll #2 to Pat yesterday. Check out her site, she is getting some beauties coming in. She is putting together the 4th dozen now!

I added the note "Hope Changes" for encouragement. Hope is such a big factor in attitude and I believe in outcome - if we can envision it...

Young Pheasants

This was a very exciting site this morning to see these young pheasants perched on the fence top. We have enjoyed watching a rooster and a hen thru the winter, and suspected young this spring. My DH even rescued a chick from an approaching cat a month ago. We had hoped that a chick or two survived. I was shocked to count 9 young survivors and the mother hen out in the yard today! Apparently they are enjoying our newly constructed fence while catching some sun and ruffling their feathers.

Speaking of survivors, I have watched the mine crisis in Central Utah hoping and praying thru the week that there may be good results. My heart goes out to the families of these 6 men in the collapsed mine. No news yet if the men have survived the cave in. A second hole has been drilled about 1800 feet down thru the mountain, wide enough to put a camera thru into the cavity that it is believed the miners may be in. No contact has been made from the miners. It must be increasingly difficult for the families as each day passes. Keep them in your prayers.

Comfort Dolls

COMFORT DOLLS

If you haven't already, check out Pat Winter's project for Comfort Dolls.

It is a terrific idea and she is getting some amazing response.

Pat's Blog link

Here are some Comfort Dolls I have found on the blogs I frequent:

Jo in NZ

Sewing Southpaw

SammyStuff

Heart of a Dove

Still working on this one.

Hope to finish this weekend.

It is still HOT HOT HOT in Utah.

Happy AUGUST everyone!

Progression of a Crazy Quilt Block

Find a great centerpiece picture, print it on fabric.

Choose the fabrics to go around it.

Sew the fabrics around the picture & press.

Add some lace, and embroider.

This was made for a friend's parent's anniversary. (I removed the names.)

It is 8" X 10" and ended up in a frame.