Serendipitous Altruism. . . Wow! Thank you so much Bea! (holee)

Yesterday I came home to a package waiting on my doorstep. . . the contents of the package unfolded the most beautiful treasure box i've ever laid my eyes on! I think you'll agree!

My friend Bea of Bea's Hive made this and I am so grateful I cannot believe the detail and how textile it is! The carefully placed stitches and ribbons. . . silk ribbon embroidery. . . just beautiful! It goes perfectly on my table of treasures, doesn' t it?!

The star tea light candle holder was from my mom as a house warming gift 4 years ago

*the little lamp was an expensive purchase i made to hmm one of those expensive candle home party companies

*little kitty photo holder is from my sister

*tatted doily & little CQ/quilty mouse from Kathy S. (shawkl) isn't the quilty mouse so adorable?!

*little glass mouse was a purchase i made in LBI while on vacation last year

*the photo in the top left corner was me, my mother & sister in law & her sister in law while on that same vacation

*other photo is of Allan & I while at my nephew's 2nd birthday party

*the 4 glass perfume bottles are all i have left of a larger collection i had that mostly shattered during basically being homeless & many moves.

*The lighted primitive 'garland' is from my friend Rae

*The blue crocheted afghan i made while staying at my brother-in-law's when Allan & I were homeless

*the blue/purple glass plant spritzer was a purchase from Acme that i made when we got our apartment 4 years ago

*the small little tea light candle holder was a gift from my friend Sandee when i worked for the March of Dimes - i was a secretary that helped her with work requests and she is the sweetest thing in the world!

*The glass white "stem" was to another tea light 'lamp' but the top fell & shattered, there is a home-made sachet from my friend Jean (jayardi) that was given to me at our annual CoF retreat

*the coaster is from a set of 4 that my mother bought me several years ago

*lastly! the little fox on the right is from my mom & he's sitting on top of a covered mason jar that i throw change in. *The chair was from my mom's aunt's friend who was giving it away, it's a beautiful rocker with a floral print that i take most of my photos in

Look at little quilty mouse from Kathy of shawkl.com!!! Kathy knows how much i love mice & hamsters :) how adorable!? ♥

Thank you again so much! I am surrounded by such beauty, talent & passion for art, all I can do is smile :)

CQ RR, Artfire Sale, CoF Retreat and more!

Hello blog land!  It's been over a month since my last post and wow, do I have so much to update you on!

Ok, let's do this in chronological order so that my little mind can get everything!  

We'll start with the last 5 peeks that belonged to two people in my CQ RR.

These were Libby's 2 peeks:

The first peek was a spray of flowers that I saw in the Silk Ribbon Embroidery Bible.  The 2nd peek is just a small area of a large scale seam treatment that looks really cool when seen as a whole. 

These next three peeks were for Shelly: 

The first picture - the "beaded ribbon" was inspiration that came from Jo in NZ's blog.  I am a big fan of hers and since she posted hers, i've really wanted to try it.  It was pretty easy, just time consuming.  The picture looks a little silly because the peek had some other girls' work in it and i couldn't show that :)  The 2nd picture was an embroidered Eiffel Tower.  I had seen that in a motif book that was sent to me by a good friend, another thing i had really wanted to do and that was fun too, so much fun to see it come along!  Lastly I beaded a piece of dyed lace. 

So Shelly's block was the last one in our group for me to complete and I got mine back!  First girl in the swap to get hers back and I was just so excited and when I received it, it just brought me to tears, it is phenomenal to say the least!  

This is how my block was sent off, naked to begin with:

This is how my block came home to me, so gorgeous isn't it?!

A couple close ups, you can click on the 2 images above for high resolution pictures, but here are a few:

This is work done by Rae & Shelly.  Shelly did the heart and Rae did the rest:

Organza flowers by Mary:

Center faerie wings done by Shelly, she calls herself a newbie... isn't that just ree-diculous!?

The swirls were done by Lisa

The crystals on the black were done by Edna

Button cluster top left by Shelly

So yeah... can you just imagine the shock and awe I was in?!  I hope you enjoy the pictures as much as I enjoyed getting it back... well maybe you can't be that excited ;)

Over the weekend, I had my very first artfire sale!  It was so very exciting!  My needle tatted choker "Dianthus" sold to (get this) a woman who will be wearing it on her wedding day!!!  Well, didn't I just feel like as proud as a peacock!  She then asked me if she could commission me to make the jewelry for her bridal party!?  6 bridesmaids, a flower girl, her mom & step mom.  WOW!!!!  

Here is the choker she purchased:

The necklaces that her bridal party will be wearing will be 2 & 4 strand "illusion necklaces" with pink & clear swarovski crystals.  Her wedding is in August and she said she'd e-mail me photos so that I can use them promotionally... even more cool!

The past few days I've been making jewelry.  I've been wanting to make jewelry again a lot so since all of my sewing obligations are now finished, I can focus on jewelry making oh, and adding more to my artfire store.  My friend Erica is doing the write ups for me because I am just not clever enough to describe my items & she's just doing a bang up job!  I'm going to add pictures even though I hate inside pictures with flash!  It just washes everything out.  I need to get outside to get some good natural daylight photos!

I still have lots more ideas, and I cannot wait to make more!  If you'd like something custom made or if you'd like to check out my artfire studio, the link is: Talia's Artfire Studio

Oh, earlier I mentioned Jo in NZ... a few weeks ago, I ordered her book: SEAMS Like Fun

it was a lot of fun to page through, her work is just so beautiful.  I encourage anyone interested in CQ (whether you've jumped in or you're still just collecting items, waiting to jump in) to make the purchase!  They're reasonably priced and you can find them in her etsy pagre.

In December I ordered an industrial sewing machine & table from harborfreight.com.  Well, first it was back ordered for something like 8 weeks, so I didn't get it until February.  My mom's boyfriend was putting it together only to come across the pulley on the motor being cracked! :(  When I called harborfrieght to ask them to send me a replacement part they wouldn't and told me I had 2 options: 1. return just the 42lb motor and i'd have to wait for it because it was on back order or 2.  I could return the entire machine (over 100lbs) back to them, shipping paid, and they'd send me a whole new machine.  What the hell?!  The machine, complete with the motor was in stock, but the motors individually weren't.  They came separately.  Well, I was so beside myself.  Part of the machine was already put together with oil in the bin and everything!!!  I couldn't go taking it back apart and loading that monstrous thing into a box and to the PO!  So, I took the part to my lqs that repairs machines to see if they could order the part.  (That was back in the 2nd week of February)  Well, to make a long story short... the part just came in Monday!  Almost 4 months!  What a tease and a bit of a disappointment.  I just hope when he gets back over here that we don't come across anymore broken parts.  Luckily for me, since the lqs was having so many problems with the people they were ordering the part from, they kindly gave it to me for free!  So i saved $15-$20!  Lucky me!  Now it probably won't get put together until after I get home from the retreat, but that's ok because I won't have time to learn to play with it before then.  I've only sewn on one once and that was enough to understand the speed and power of it!  

Lastly, I've been packing my suitcase because in 2 weeks, I'll be leaving on a jet plane ;)  Heading to Manchester, NH to reunite with old friends and make new at the HGTV Quilting & Needlwork Messageboard Circle of Friends Retreat (CoF)!  I'll be staying from Thursday thru Sunday.  My suitcase is half packed and I just keep piling items in it.  There are still things I need to complete to bring with, but things are coming along!  We're making the "Miranda Day Bag"  I'll be making a large and a small bag.  I love, love, love the fabrics I have picked out and i cannot wait to see my new bags!  I know i'll be using one of them for tatting.  I might just have to make the other one day to day practical because I don't want them collecting dust, they're going to be too pretty!

Well!  I think that is all for now!  I hope to get back to blogging at least once a week!  

Cheers!

Embroidered Pillowcases & an update on what I'm up to!

I made these pillowcases for a dear friend who was my "Secret Sister" last year.  I have been working on them since early December and I had really wanted to get them to her by Christmas but it just didn't work out that way.  So, I got them off in the mail to her on Tuesday.  Hey, at least they're done and they've arrived!  She was very good to me, extremely attentive - always right on top of my posts on the messageboard.  I always received a heartfelt letter in a box that was packed full of bows and ribbons with lots of care.  Hope she enjoys them!

I seem to be lacking here in blog land.  I have been extremely busy, honestly... seems I don't have too much to show for it though.  Ah!  I know, i'll have peeks to share with  you from this round of our CQ Round Robin and I also just finished the siggy wedding quilt I was hired to make!  I'll have photos of that for you soon!  

What's coming up for me?  Starting Tuesday, January 20th I'll be teaching four 2 hour classes at a LQS for a Crazy Quilt heart (i had blogged about this earlier this year.)  So that is very exciting!  I am prepping my kits for that, still have some work to be done but it's well on its way!  2 weeks after that I'll be starting my 8 week class on CQ.  I still have lots to do for that one.  I'm also taking a class for Cheryl Phillips "WedgeWorks" book.  (the first one)  That starts Thursday January 15th!  I am a little concerned that it's a time intensive class and I have so much going on I hope I can give it the attention it deserves because I also have the CQ RR going, 3 more rounds to go!  Oh!  Oh!  And i'll be visiting my very best friend of (eep!) 15 years in New York for the weekend of Jan 23-25!  Then i'll also be visiting her for my birthday on the weekend of Feb 20-22.  We're going to a comedy show and we'll hang out a little bit, i'm so looking forward to a nice weekend away, but you know i'll bring at least one needlework project ;)  probably my tatting since it's so space friendly and portable.  

Well, there's my update for the new year.  I hope this entry finds you healthy and well!  See you soon with some CQ peeks!  Stay tuned...

Valentines Day Themed Crazy Quilt Heart Class

Do you remember some time back when I had posted 2 naked hearts for one of the classes I'll be teaching?  I had finally started embellishing them.  It had taken me around 2 months to really dream up what was to be for both of them.  I finsihed the pink and white one and moved onto the red and white one.  I embroidered my first peacock, who i thought was very dorky looking, then I adjusted his eye a bit and was a little more pleased, but still, much to learn in the way of making peacocks.  Next time i won't outline his body in black that's for sure!  Anyway!  Last Sunday 11-23 while shopping, I had taken them with me while looking for a few embellishments.  I lost them.  Yep you read it right.  I lost them.  I didn't realize it until I got home with dinner and my boyfriend and I were about to sit and watch a movie and eat.  As the movie was playing and i was picking at my food, I instinctivly went to reach for my red and white heart to work on it and then I couldn't find it.  Well we looked everywhere.  Tore the apartment down, looked in the bags and in my purse and emptied everything 6 or 7 times, checked the freezer and the refridge, checked all over the car and found nothing.  We retraced our steps back to Joann and the parking lot... still found nothing.  I left photos of each heart with my name, phone number and that I'd pay a cash reward for them if found.  A week later and still nothing.  That night, even though I felt completely horrible and like my world was coming down, I sat and whipped up 3 new hearts on the machine.  I managed to fully embellish one to take as my class sample for Tuesday.  The store had been asking for a class sample and if it's going to be a January class, people should at least have a good month to look at it ya know?  So I raced against the clock and finished the new pink and white one.   It's almost a replica of the old one but it's all I could manage given I only had a day to work on it.  

I brought it to the store and the owner is out for a week, but the one woman who works there is so sweet and was very flattering even saying she'd be signing up for the class!  I feel so unworthy or something lol!  Like it's so simple I feel so silly when I get compliments, even though I agree they're beautiful I feel like anyone can do it!  Oh well, overall I am thrilled I got them a class sample, but I sure do miss my old ones.  

Here are some photos...

These are the original 2 that I recently lost, the pink and white one was finished.  The red and white one was in the works...

The 3 new hearts I made.  I know the top left one is way too busy.  It'll surely be a 'what not to do' piece ;)

Class sample finished...

Close up of the fully open roses, they were fun!

I miss my old hearts but I really hope whoever found them will treasure them as much as I do...

Crazy Quilt Christmas Ornament Swap!

I finally got my pretties back!  And wow they sure are lovely! 

These are the two that I sent in:

I have some of my needle tatting on the left one and lots of silk ribbon embroidery on the right one!

And these are the two I got back!  How beautiful are they!  They're so shabby chic! ...and guess who loves shabby chic?! ;)  I love all of the stitching and charms and lace and how cool is the one that is in the shape of a tea pot?!  I'm grateful that I was encouraged to be in this one!  Yay!

CQ Ornament Swap!

I joined a CQ Ornament swap about 2 months ago VERY excited, having thought of this earlier in the year.  I kept thinking "wouldn't it be so beautiful to have a tree full of small crazy quilted ornaments?!"  And then, it happened!  Unfortunately for me it came at a time where I had already committed myself to so many other things, including paid work, so I could only make 2.  I had hoped for at least 12, i mean jeesh! Nevertheless I made my two and here they are!  Of course I love the one with all of the silk ribbon embroidery.  On the 2nd one I know something is missing over the tatting... i just don't know what.  I hope whoever receives them enjoys them!  Those little bees and critters are so fun to make!  The tatting is mine, i just added some gold seed beads for a holiday effect.

Healing Heart for Sweet Tea

Recently we found out that a friend of ours on the HGTV Quilting and Needlework Messageboards lost her dear husband in a car accident to a drunk driver.   We are all very sadend by this and so the CQ girls have been rounded up to make what we call "Healing Hearts."  It is a 6" Crazy Quilt heart.  We will be mailing them all to our friend Tammy who will then mail our friend the package.

This is my healing heart for her.  My ideas were that showers bring flowers.  I hope that her showers are soon over and that the flowers will start blooming all over the place for her.   Maybe our Healing Hearts can help them grow a bit faster? ;)

I am quite fond of the little flower garden here and the little ant who is curiously going to make one of these flowers a shady rest area for a nap time snooze.