Thursday, July 31, 2014

Another project on my desk...

Back in November 2012 I participated in a "30 Days of Thankfulness" challenge on Facebook.  Several of us participated and did a great job sharing on a daily basis what we were "thankful"  for.  For whatever reason I saved what my sister and one of my nieces wrote.  Stay tuned for what I did with their 30 Days of Thankfulness!

Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Getting inspired!

I'm at a bookstore trying to pass some time and get outa the heat and away from my dirty house.  Having a good time looking through magazines to get some inspiration for a paper project I'm working on.  

But hang on, I got a clever idea how to use my time when I travel. Articles in the STUDIOS magazine, "traveling studios" ... how about a class on wheels?  use a camper trailer as the hub of the class...park it like a food truck and hold a class or a class at the park?   What would the class be of... beading, making a pair of earrings?  a simple necklace?  bracelet?  crochet a hat?  crochet a scarf?  paint a mixed media piece of art?  Or just offer up a menu of the day.  What supplies would I need? How to advertise?  Who would I target as the customer?  Great idea, especially when I'm visiting my family in  Nebraska.  I find I miss my studio time when I'm traveling and I always pack my traveling studio suitcase.  Never know how this idea may just grow into a fabulous adventure!  Funny how I've been bugging my talented sister, Patsy to open up a food truck and sell her awesome Mexican food on the road....we could do it together!!!  Who wouldn't want her awesome enchiladas after making the most awesome pair of  earrings!!! 

Sunday, July 27, 2014

Anaya wearing her tulle onesie!!

OMG!  I'm in love with this baby girl!  I can't wait to meet her.

The story of this photo album


Last summer I attended the Buckley family reunion in Marshfield, Massachuetts.  I know the Buckley family through my long time friend Paula and I'm an honorary Buckley through Papa George.  I've visited the Buckleys & the Marshfield/Boston area a number of times.  On all trips to Marshfield it's full of beach days, family, food, drinks, laughter, sightseeing, and tons of fun.  The day of the reunion we had a huge rain storm, with thunder, lightning & so much rain.  But we handled it and the reunion went on!  Two of the Buckley cousins, Erin & Taylor were sitting around not really interacting with anyone.  I talked to Erin about how many of her relatives we didn't know or meet. I thought how fun would it be to meet everyone in attendance by taking a photo with every single person.  We talked Taylor into doing the photo blast.  I announced to everyone we would be going around to take their photo.  There were lots of photos being taken this day of course but we put a spin on our project.  I took a photo of Erin & Taylor with every person.  We ended up with about 120 photos total.  We were successful getting most of the people there with exception of maybe a handful!  Everyone was awesome.

Erin, me & Taylor


Group photo and we met all of them individually!
As we went around the group we told our story as to how we are Buckleys and asked how they were related.  It was the coolest thing to exchange our stories of how everyone was related.  The Buckley family consisted of nine brothers and sisters, Mimi, Kay, Rita, Joe, Kenny, Claire, Dickie, Bobby and George. 

I had to figure out how to put this set of 120 photos together.  This is what I did....

I used two of my beach photos as the cover and back cover of the photo album.

I've never used a laminater before but thought with all the humidity and handling of the photos, laminating them would be best.

I sent out the photos to be printed.  Cut them to fit four per 8 1/2 x 11 size laminate sheets.  Cut them, trimmed them, punched holes and set them with rings.  On the back of each photo I added their name & their Buckley family tree information.

1
Ta da....finished.  I love the way it turned out.

Final packaging and sent off to the Marshfield Buckleys!
I need to put together two more photo sets, one for Erin & Taylor.  It was a fun project and one of the most memorable things I did on that trip.



Saturday, July 26, 2014

Jelly roll quilt

I don't if you'll remember I posted about a friend purging her quilt supplies and fabric?  I also purchased her Bernina sewing machine.  I think the post was in February 2014.  In the fabric collection I bought there were a few jelly roll packages.  I gave them to my Mom but I kept one for myself.  I read about jelly roll clock races.  I watched a video on YouTube and thought what the heck I'll do that.  It was quick and so easy.  Sewing strip after strip after strip.  I'll add the video at the end of my post.



I loved the process and the feeling of accomplishment in such a short time.  Once I put the quilt top together and found fabric for the back I decided to put a design on the backside of the quilt.  I cut four "fat quarters" into 3 1/2 inch strips.  Did the same process of sewing them together like the jelly roll strips.  I used a nice green fabric for most of the back fabric. I cut the back fabric 4 inches bigger so I could use it as the binding.  I sewed the back together, don't know why I didn't photograph it, but anyways, I used some fabric spray adhesive to put the layers together.  First time using the spray adhesive and it worked nice and held the fabrics really well.  Much easier than basting or pinning.

One of the accessories this machine has is a walking foot and it's amazing.  I had no problem with the fabric layers bunching up.



I machine quilted it by sewing random lines across the width of the quilt.  I love the look of the random-ness of it.  Once I was finished machine quilting I trimmed the back fabric  to 2 1/2 inches and the quilt batting to one inch from the edge of the top.  I turned under the edge to make the binding and mitered the corners.  Worked out perfectly.


Here's the quilt front.  I love the simple but colorful look of it.


This is the back and I love it.  It's the first quilt back I've ever done that's not one solid fabric.  Will be doing this from now on.  Did I just say that????   Yes, I love sewing and this is a great project to do over and over and over again.  I dare you to try it, I would say this is a great  project for beginner could do.


Here's the video...


Sunday, July 13, 2014

Sewing onesies!

I have a new great niece and she's the first great niece on my side of the family.  She so darn cute. 

Meet Anaya 

I bought her some onesies and they were the boring plain white style.  I thought how boring I needed to change them up. 

Here's the one I made with linen fabric and tulle overlay.  Adorable!

I used a piece of fabric the size of a quilt fat square and cut it in half lengthwise.  I sewed two side seams to make the skirt.  I did this with both the white linen fabric and the tulle.  To gather the top edge I put both the tulle and linen together and sew two stitch lines  to be able to gather the skirt.

I pulled on the threads of the two stitched lines to gather the top of the skirt.

I used a pencil to make a guide line on the onesie where the skirt will be placed.

Pinned the gathered skirt edge with right sides together. Notice the gathered edge is facing the bottom of the onesie.

Had to take the arm off the machine to make it fit.

Made a wide hem on the linen skirt.

I have this great new sewing machine, but it didn't have a neat edge stitch so back to my older machine.  I used a scallop stitch to edge the tulle skirt part.  So cute and so easy.
I used the same scallop stitch along the neck edges.  It was a good idea but I didn't like the look of it and it stretched out the neck more than I liked.

Check out the rest of the onesies on my Facebook page www.facebook.com/the.brokenwing

Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Phoenix Desert Botanical Garden - Chihuly Exhibit




Ever since I've been in my painting e-course I've been inspired by what surrounds me.  My brother and I went to the Botanical Garden around the holidays a year ago.  We found it to be a pretty cool place to hang out since it was so festive.  We're like, let's make this a new holiday tradition and come to the Garden every holiday season.  Well "jobi" time didn't allow for that to happen over the holidays.  But, even better I read the Garden was going to have a Chihuly glass exhibit lasting into May.  We went in April and boy what an exhibit and we weren't disappointed!  We got there early to catch all the glass exhibits in the sunlight and we stayed late enough to see all the glass exhibits lit up.  It was a fun night.  I do  think we should make it a tradition to go to the Garden, yearly.  It's always good to spend time with my youngest brother.







Daylight

Night time

Daylight

Evening light

Tuesday, July 1, 2014

2014 Road Trip - Churches

A common thread of my road trip was coming across churches and taking a moment to sit in the silence.   I love how it feels to sit in that space.  The churches had ornate altars, statues of Saints, beautiful stained glass windows, worn wooden pews, the smell of candles burning, and most of all, the absence of judgement.  Not to get into it too much, I love being in church but not a fan of going to church.  

My Dad told me about a church he read about and even saw a movie about it years ago.  I've been researching what he told me and found the movie and then found the church.  It's in Santa Fe, New Mexico.  Our Lady of Light Loretto Catholic Chapel.  The story goes like this, the church burned down and they needed a staircase.  A man showed up and built the staircase.  It's built without nails and wood unknown in the area.  It's beautiful!









The altar is beautiful.

The staircase



Great stained glass windows


Outside the church was this tree filled with rosaries.  An amazing thing.



St Pat's Catholic, North Platte, Nebraska
This is the church I attended as a kid.  It looks very different inside.
St Anthony, a favorite Saint of mine
Touched the water in this many many times!

St Charles Borromeo, North Bend, Nebraska

Loved the interior of this church

Stained glass windows are so beautiful

Immaculate Conception Catholic Church, Leoville, Kansas



This window was absolutely gorgeous


Our Lady

Immaculate Conception Catholic Church, Boys Town, Nebraska


 Cathedral of the Epiphany Catholic Church, Sioux City, Iowa

A great tour of catholic churches on this road trip.  I will continue to walk into catholic churches everywhere I travel.  Love the silence of the space, love the peaceful feeling of the space and love spiritual love of the space.