I just visited the funniest blog! Toodie of Babbelot has a great sense of humor and a very upbeat style. She featured my overall dress, and left a comment on my blog, which is how I found her. She is a wood artist – she burns designs on pieces of wood, and they are fantastic. She also makes boxes: check out this box!

Toodie’s other blog is the Rural WoodShop, and you can see more of her work there. If you like quality work, you’ll enjoy going through this blog.

I was a little surprised to see some of my photos on a Turkish blog; she does have a link back to this blog, so hey, it’s all good! She seems to be impressed with the embroidery basket I rebuilt a couple of years ago. I would have loved to leave a comment, but couldn’t figure out how to do that. Darn, I guess I need to take Turkish lessons

I tried to translate the Sporadic Packrat into Turkish, but the best I could come up with is tek tük kolektör.

Anyway, I just thought it’d be fun to send people her way, and she’ll figure out that I saw her blog. So please visit 10marifet.org!

Well, I was surprised to round up seven things to enter in this year’s Tanana Valley State Fair, and even more surprised to get two class champions, three firsts, three seconds, and a third. I also won the Bob Hage award for the most unusual piece of needlework in the Needlework Division.

There are larger images on my Flickr site, if you’re interested…

Dinosaur’s Garden

Flowers were drawn freehand and colored with wax crayons, then embellished with simple embroidery. The grass is a silk hanky, separated into a single layer, covered with netting, and embroidered. The green felt at the bottom is stitched onto the quilt, covering the edges of the silk hanky. The tiny dinosaur at the bottom right corner is a commercial applique, as is the dragonfly. The butterfly-gosh, I can’t remember what it really was; a pin maybe? This was just a fun little experiment with crayons on fabric. Made in 2007. Class champion and first place in the art quilt division.

Blue Fish Reef

The block print in upper right corner was made in a print making class at the University of Alaska Fairbanks in 1992 or 1993. It’s my own design, and I’ve used several variations of it in different quilts. The kelp bed in the lower lefthand corner as well as the print fish, are embellished with ribbons that are folded, embroidered, and beaded, with some buttons attached. The small fish and the star fish are entirely hand embroidered. Made in 1998. Third place in the quilt division.

Photo box

I found this field box in a pile of junk at work, and kept it for a couple of years before figuring out what to do with it. I think it was originally used for taking field notes; data sheets were stored in the box and it was a good surface for taking notes and filling out data sheets. I liked the rough weathered finish, so I didn’t do any re-finishing of the wood but just washed the dust and cobwebs off. I used the peeling bark off birch trees in my yard to cover the sliding cover, gluing them down with a lot of diluted acrylic gel. There are two small clothes pins, painted a flesh color, to hold a mounted photo. Made in 2009. Second place in the reduce/reuse/recycle division.

Embroidered pillow

The pillow cover was constructed several years ago by machine. The folded fabric flowers are based on designs found in Fabled Flowers by Kumiko Sudo. The design and placement of the flowers and leaves is my own plan. The flowers are embellished with chain stitches and french knots; the leaves are embellished with feather stitches, and cotton and metallic threads. The stems are feather stitches in three shades of green cotton embroidery thread, or chain stitch and back stitch. Made in 2003. Class champion, first, and winner of the Bob Hage award in the needlework division.

Black lace hat

This hat was an experiment to see if I could make a full-brimmed hat that was stylish and comfortable to wear. It was a challenge to make the brim stiff enough so that it didn’t flop into my eyes! I used a discarded skirt, and a bolero vest I found at the transfer station. It’s based on a baseball cap, and I drew the brim pattern to fit the cap pattern I’ve used on many, many hats. The seams on the crown are covered in ribbon and embroidered with black feather stitches. The lace drooping off the edge of the brim was the hem of the skirt. I purposely left flowers off, as I couldn’t decide which ones to use! Any color that compliments the outfit worn with the hat will work. All the stitching was done by hand. 2009. First in the sewing division.

Needlelace hat

I’ve written about this hat earlier; it was entered in a competition in England two years ago, but didn’t garner any awards then. I made it in 2007. This year it placed second in the needlework division.

Bra bag

I found this black lace bra along my road while walking the dog; it must have escaped from someone’s laundry basket. And who’d want it back? But it was too pretty to just throw away. I added some Chinese style black on black fabric to the top, lined it with white cotton fabric, and embroidered small leaves and flowers on it. I also added a couple of silk flowers. The drawstring handle fits over my wrist, dangling alongside my leg. All the stitching was done by hand. Made in 2009. Second in the sewing division.

New bag from scraps

I’ve been wanting to try a bag pattern from Bag Boutique by Amy Barickman, so I gathered up some scraps, added a lining fabric and a zipper to come up with this. I don’t really like the end product… the shape anyway. I do like the way the design turned out. The pattern was easy to use, with clear directions (I even kinda read them!), so I will be making another bag from Amy’s book one of these days.

new bag detail

Denali from the Parks Highway, heading north

I escaped Fairbanks this past weekend, to visit a friend in Anchorage. Fabric shopping, Title Wave (used/new bookstore), the Anchorage museum, dinner and some tasting at a wine bar, snowshoeing/walking, entertaining baby, walking Gizmo. It was a wonderful break from real life.

I was totally surprised to enjoy the drive back and forth. About an eight hour trip, interrupted by potty breaks and dog walking, and constant scenes of Alaska’s winter beauty, the Parks Highway was in considerably better condition than the last time I drove it. The Subaru Legacy was a pleasure to drive; I was hardly tired when I arrived in Anchorage.

Test fabrics for the tee shirt quilt I’ll be making for the friend I visited:

for the tee quilt

test fabrics for the tee quilt

and fabrics for future projects. A few other odds ‘n ends for gifts too, that of course I won’t be showing

A cap?

Possible child-oriented wallhangings, or maybe a pair of baby overalls?

Kid fabrics

Laurel Burch is one of my favorite artists.

Laurel Burch fabrics

And some wool for applique; so easy to embroider!

wool for applique

Couldn’t get out of Title Wave without a few books!

Chinese butterfly, journal cover

Now that I’m back home again… ran out of oil, heater wouldn’t restart, so I stayed at a friend’s for three days. Finally got the Monitor oil stove going again-yay!!-after working on it for 4 hours in a 40° below cabin. I couldn’t sew at my friend’s house due to poor lighting, otherwise this would be finished. But hey! I was warm, the dog was warm; that’s what counted!

Symbol of hope, freedom, renewal, for a new journal, which happens to coincide with a new year. Lovingly attached with metallic threads to the black felt, backstitching along the inside edge of the wings and body, and inside the blue thread on the tail. A small what-if I don’t attach the tail edges? Let them fly with my hopes and dreams for future. Let them fly with happiness and a tiny bit of freedom.

The design is from Oriental Designs CD-Rom and Book, a Dover book. I used metallic threads to attach the butterfly to the black felt, backstitching along the inside edge of the wings and body. I did the same thing on the tail, but instead of backstitching along the buttonhole stitch edge, I did the backstitching along the inside of the blue chain stitch, and then did a herringbone stitch over the orange.

I’ll add a line of yellow beads on the yellow wing edge, and then it’ll be done and I can attach it to the cover of my next journal. If it’ll look nice, I’ll do it in such a way that, when I’ve finished the journal, I can remove the butterfly and use it in another project. I keep my journals of course, but I don’t want to hide away my covers!

Well, my thermometer says 20° below zero (Fahrenheit; that’s about -29° Celsius), but the radio insists that it’s -33° F (about -36° C). As you can see from the photo on the left, Gizmo doesn’t care! He is all about his Frisbee. So we played outside for about a half hour, garbed in dog booties (Giz), Carhartts head to toe, Sorels, and polar fleece (me). And that’s what happens to a Frisbee when it’s cold; he doesn’t tear it up on purpose, it just breaks.

I wanted to work on organizing the storage shed with all my sewing gear, but it’s just too cold to handle boxes. The cold goes right through two layers of polar fleece mittens and my fingers hurt too bad. So I measured for shelves, and stared at what could be. Soon…

Update 12/31/2008: And today the news is: Colder!! It’s supposed to get down to – 60° F. Good thing I could put some fuel in the oil tank last month. I was just putting in five gallons at a time, til lower prices collided with some extra money and I could afford to put 100 gallons in the tank.

And since I live up in the hills around Fairbanks, I have been enjoying warmer temps than at the airport, but the article I read said that colder temps will “…the growing cold will begin spreading into higher-elevation areas in the borough later this week.” So my warmer-than-town weather is over, dang. It’s about -30° F, or it was around 4:30 p.m., and Giz was happy to get out, but me? Hey, I was running down the road dragging the dog, trying to hurry him up!

It’s been quite awhile since I’ve seen these kind of temperatures; I think the last time was 1990, when we had 3 or 4 weeks of -40 temps. And the last time I’ve seen -60° was the year before that. I’m guessing that’s why it feels so cold to me; other than not liking to drive in those low temps (it’s really hard on cars), it’s never really bothered me before. You just dress up and go. Oh, well, just dress up and go!

Sunrise over the Alaska Range

Okay, so I’m a tad late… but I am soooo happy to have Winter Solstice behind me! The picture was taken on Solstice (Dec. 20), about 11 a.m. Sundown that day would’ve been around 2:20 I think… I love the short days; quite often the sky is just fantastically colored. If it’s cold enough, the trees and brush will  sparkle brilliantly. It’s a great time to go walking.

And just for fun, here’s our lab Christmas card: Merry Christmas!

Aren’t these cute baby booties?? One is plain, to get the feel of making. The other is embellished, to see how the colors go together, get a feel for design placement, what can I do with this? Originally I was looking for a slipper to make for myself, but three babies this summer subverted the plan, at least temporarily. Cheap polyester felt on the outside, organic cotton flannel on the inside. An elastic cord and satin ribbon tied together to help keep them on. Soft and cozy. Almost makes me want one of the little munchkins just so I can make more slippers! Thank goodness for friends with babies…

Some free-for-personal-use patterns:

Star Dust Shoes cloth shoe pattern (this is the one I used); be sure to check out the cloth shoes Flickr group!

ohelene syr’s leather shoes (very similar to pattern I used)

Poo Pocket three seam footies (0-3 month & 3-6 month sizes)

Heather Bailey’s Bitty Booties

Tacky Baby Shoes (similar to the pattern I used; has lots of information on baby booties)

Martha Stewart felt booties

and it worked out just fine. I kept this one very simple – just a jumble of the first six and last six letters of the alphabet, embroidered with simple stitches. It was something I’ve wanted to do for quite awhile, inspired by the pentagon patch balls (or Grandmother’s flower garden, if you prefer).

Baseball cap ball

another view

But, I used a baby’s baseball cap pattern, sans bill , for my pattern. Okay, it’s not exactly round! And it’s a bit large, so next time I’ll shrink the pattern. I think for a smaller ball, I would embellish the seams instead of the sections though. And wouldn’t it be fun to do a crazy quilt ball?

And just because, here’s a list of other patterns for fabric balls:

Purlbee’s fabric beachball

Baby grab ball

Use up your scraps on this rag ball

Another beach ball pattern

IHanna’s balls using the pentagon patch

Sigh… I’ll be glad when my class is over. Two more weeks. Then maybe I can find the time to rearrange the shed and get to all my stuff. And get MORE stuff out of the house. I am so tired of tripping over stuff, the dog, things that aren’t put away because there’s nowhere to put them. And I’m tired of not knowing where this is, and that is, so I can go get it, do whatever, and put it back. I am frustrated with not being creative and thinking about projects to work on, but no room, no materials, and no time to work on them. Only three more weeks and Winter Solstice is here! I’ll get back to being my creative self again