A Worthy Cause...

...No, I am not talking about finishing the Christmas Nine-Patch Pizzazz quilt I blogged about last time. Although I would have liked to finish it in time for Christmas selling, it's not to be...sigh. Perhaps next year.

In the meantime, I thought I'd show you what I am working on - to meet a deadline.

These are parts of some scarves that I've pledged to make for the Special Olympics - Wisconsin. These are their colors and instructions are given on what yarn, what colors, and a deadline for creating these scarves, which will be worn by both the participants and coaches, etc. It's an event of "unity" to be wearing the scarves during the Special Olympics activities. The deadline for shipping the finished scarves you've pledged is January 14th. They may be crocheted or knitted and may include specific phrases.

If you have any interest in this project, you may visit the Project Guidelines page (for Wisconsin), at www.shopredheart.com/default.aspx?PageID=424&ProjectID=3+ (You can probably navigate out of there to your particular state for colors, etc.)

A Sneak Peek...

...at a holiday fabric family that I am currently working on for a project for Christmas. Yes, I know, I'm pushing the envelope on this one! But then, when don't I?

The first photo reveals one of the 9-patch squares that I will be using as "dancing" blocks in my Pizzazz style quilt, which are meant to get your eye to "travel" through the piece like a painting on a canvas.

Ah yes...the second photo reveals a little three-dimensional "pucker" project I've decided to include in this quilt. Won't that be fun?

The third photo shows the red I will be using to create a border around the piece when finished.













A little more detail in the last photo reveals the type of greenery - lots of long pine needles - that will be scattered throughout this Christmas piece.

The Joys of Owning a Doxie...

...it's called "Doxie Moxy"! And, anyone who owns a Duchshund knows exactly what I'm talking about!

In this first photo, "Daddy" has created a "cave" on the couch next to him for Teddy to sleep in while Daddy watches TV. Well, that also happens to be my spot!

Not lifting his head when I come into the room - he is pretending to be asleep so "Mommy" doesn't make him move! But wait!...the second photo reveals that he is indeed awake and trying not to be noticed! (When have you heard of a Doxie not lifting his head or greeting you when he hears you come into the room??)


 
Uh-Huh...I can play this game...so I grabbed my camera to catch this little actor and he still did not lift his head! (He also does not want to go outside to piddle - it is snowing after all!)









Putting the camera right in his face - and he still does not lift his head - his eyes are open but he still won't look me in the eye! Now how "Doxie" is this?!

(I'm laughing.)

Attracked to the Flame - Part VI

I just finished taking some finished (annealed), beads off of their mandrels, and thought you'd like to take a peek...

The ones with "fish eyes" and black bumps are a continuing series I'm making for a jewelry project for my boutique Poladora. The other beads are my attempt at some "Christmas" beads.

I wanted to make some wine stoppers for Christmas...I guess I'd better get going - huh?

Golden Harvest is finally finished!

Golden Harvest is now offered in my Internet boutique Poladora!

Since the last update below, I have quilted the front to a backing of coordinating fabric - a beautiful and elegant leaf patterned fabric in the same color way as the top, with golden outlines of some of the leaves. This fabric made up some of the pieces in the top as well.

The bias binding is made from another coordinating fabric that I also used on the top, with swirls and golden dots.

To see close ups of the detail of the embroidery and beading, click on Poladora and take a peek!

Attracked to the Flame - Part V

Here you can see my kiln with its front door open. Inside is a collection of waste glass (bad work or trouble with annealing), that I'm reheating so I can remake it into something else. (In order to do that, I have to make sure that all of the release agent is removed from the inside of the bead.)

The little "tray" is enamel-coated steel and is filled with popcorn salt. This is a great way to place your marbles in the kiln for annealing and not have them either roll around - or worse - roll right back out of the kiln and into your lap! The popcorn salt is fine enough that if you place the marble into the tray at the right moment of hardening, it will not make any marks on the marble's surface.

If I am not making marbles, I remove the tray and lay my mandrels with finished beads on them right on the floor of the kiln, which is coated with a thin layer of popcorn salt in the back. (The inside of the kiln is short enough that the mandrel can still stick out a bit at the end.) The "trap door" of the opening, with its soft insulation layer, wraps itself around any mandrels that may be sticking out of the kiln to seal in the heat.

Different glasses need different temperatures for annealing. I am usually working at an annealing temperature of between 950 and 1000 degrees F.

Attracked to the Flame - Part IV

In this picture, you can see some of my mandrels laying on my work surface. (My work surface is metal in case some hot glass spits off of a rod I'm trying to heat, or if the glass gets so hot that it literally drips off of the rod and onto the surface of my desk.)

The mandrels are the metal rods and are made out of stainless steel so they don't rust. They look lighter in color at the tip because I have just finished running each of them over my hubby's belt sander to get a nice roughed-up surface for the release agent to adhere to. The release agent is something you stick the rods into and allow to dry before using the mandrel to make a bead. This allows you to remove the bead from the mandrel after it has been annealed in the oven and cooled down. If you did not use release agent, the melted glass would stick right to the rod permanently. You can get release agent in dark gray or light blue. I prefer the light blue since you can never remove 100% of the release agent from the hole in the bead, and anything left over, if light blue, has a cleaner look than the dark gray, which tends to look dirty. If I have a really clear bead, I like to do the extra work to get all of the release agent out, which takes a lot of sanding with tools with diamond bits on them, and then finish the piece by coating the inside of the hole with a clear laquer.