These bead’s are from the spinning store in AZ.
Big Beads
Brown Beads
Miscellaneous Beads
San Xavier del Bac April 21, 2009
I found some really beautiful patterns in the artwork at the Mission Church – San Xavier del Bac, that I went to in Arizona. Some seemed almost like something one could embroider onto a piece of cloth.
- Painted Wall Detail
Carved Wooden Ornamentation
External Pattern Detail
Grandmas’s Spinning Wheel April 19, 2009
Of course since my Mom is a quilter I visited several quilt shops in the Tucson area. I picked up some lovely fat quarters of various Southwestern patterns, petroglyphs, hands, and kokopeli. I told her ahead of time that I was wanting to stop by a spinning shop and there just happened to be one in the shopping center with a quilt store. Grandma’s Spinning Wheel carries a variety of yarns, fibers, beads, jewelry, handbags, spinning wheels, spindles and fiber. I told the very personable and helpful owner that I was looking for fiber that was unique to the area and she pointed me in the direction of some Navajo wool, ready to spin and dye. Also some locally raised sheep of a gorgeous grey color. I will post these in the coming days. For now some photos of her shop.
Bats from Grandma's Spinning Wheel
Entrance to Grandma's Spinning Wheel
Various Fibers from Grandma's Spinning Wheel
Richard Heade April 19, 2009
A new doll just completed, all I had to do was finish knitting the scarf which was a foray into intentionally messing up stitches, very difficult for a person with pretty consistent tension and regular even stitches. I was lucky enough to start teaching third graders how to knit and watching them make mistakes like unintentional yarn overs, dropped stitches, skipped stitches and unintended short rows help me to do this and made it fun. Well anyway his name is Richard Heade. You may get the point. Apologies to my very dear friend Richard - hugs. He is not named after you I promise!
A new wacky doll named Richard Heade
Fiber Items from Tubac Arizona April 18, 2009
I went on a trip to Tucson and my Mom and her friend Sue took us to Tubac. Tubac is an artisans community in the desert. It reminded me alot of a similar community that we visited a couple of years ago in Venezuela. These are some of the many textiles for sale.
Central American style story quilt
Rug Detail
A wonderful day April 6, 2009
I finally got around to hot gluing the spools for my spinning wheel. The ends were popping off which the previous owner warned me about, telling me that the woodstove dries out the wood on the spools and causes the glue to fail over time. It was a simple task, given that of course I have a glue gun, two in fact, one high temp and one low (hahaha still burns the crap out of your fingers). Once repaired wow the spinning wheel was working again. The tops being loose is a problem because they spin on the spool instead of remaining still when the tops are on tightly it allows the yarn to wind onto it while you are spinning. I have been watching some youtube videos of spinning and think I am doing okay! I had to wind some yarn from a broken spool onto an unbroken one to be able to glue it and noted that my yarn is not too stretchy a good thing and also that it wasn’t breaking when I was winding it, strongish but not yet great. I am pleased with my progress.
I wanted to post these images of the quilts that were hanging in the show yesterday.
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- detail of white on white handsewn quilt
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- Holly Hobby quilt
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- detail of quilt
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- embellished quilt
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- detail of quilting
Bed Turning at the TowPath Quilt Show April 4, 2009
Two springs ago, I drove over to Michelle’s apartment in Fayetteville and we walked to a quilt show at one of the elementary schools. Today we drove over, stopping first for lunch at King Davids. We split dolmades, eggplant fries and she got a pita pocket and I got a gyro and turkish coffee. After we ran into the LL Bean outlet because about 10 years ago I bought a windbreaker that is not waterproof and to be honest is sinfully ugly, I needed a real raincoat though, and got one. I also had to buy a new suitcase because the travel one I bought for myself was irresponsibly borrowed and left in another country by the person that borrowed it, leaving me only with an old one that is ripped. I also needed purse supplies so we stopped at the fabric store too.
butterfly quilt
Antique crazy quilt
double wedding ring quilt
antique log cabin
We arrived just in time for the bed turning. A display of several antique quilts and also a history of the quilts, various historical pattern names, discussion of battings, hand quilting which by the way does not show up well in photos, fabric choices and so on. These are some of the real highlights of the bedturning. Tomorrow I will post the new quilts we saw.
She is an eyedoll April 2, 2009
Eyedoll
The queen of all butterflies existing in three states of being all at once. She is the caterpillar stuffed and ready to pupate, she is the pupa, waiting for her true self to emerge, she is the queen of all butterflies, her wings starting to burst. She is regal in her winged robes, a belt of copper leaves at her waist. Her antennae are many she is reaching out to fill all of her senses. Reina.
