Last Sunday was the monthly ATC swap at the Grind in Vancouver, but before the swap began those of us who participated in the "Tell The Bees" tag book received the finished books. Here is my whopping 60 tag pages book. Thanks to our Queen Bee (host) Penelope Harris we have a beautiful book to treasure. Can you smell the beeswax. The covers Penelope created look wonderful and are candy foe the eyes and nose. Our ambitious Queen scanned all the tags, cut and punched them, designed the backs, collected secret messages and bee lore, as well as the wonderful little bead and wire bee on the name tag. All the art is wonderful and a big thanks to the other 14 worker bees. You can catch a glimpse of my tags in the book and check them out in my previous post.

ATC Oct 2008 Flower Garden

ATC Oct 2008 Flower Garden
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

Some paper napkin applique ATCs and one yoyo ATC I made for the Sept ATC swap at the Grind. I added small wooden picket fence embellishments to some and small pieces cut from silk flower bushes to others. The bottom right hand corner ATC is paper cut from a gift bag and embellished with a fabric yoyo and button. I made yoyos many years ago, but this is the first one I've made in a long time and the first time I used the new Clover template. It makes the process quicker and easier to do.

Pink Rolodex Swap 2008

Judy of the Byhand Artist's Yahoo group is hosting a Pink theme Altered Rolodex swap and this is a sample of my contribution. I started with a fan brush and painted the woven pattern with 2 shades of acrylic craft paint. I adden a small piece of weaving and the quote "friendship is woven of many threads" The back uses photos of some of my alrered heads and a piece of pink ribbon.

BeeTags Oct 2008

BeeTags Oct 2008
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

I am participating in a "Tell The Bees" tag book swap and these are my contribution. Each artist is required to make 1 to 3 tags.

ATC Coffin Oct 2008

ATC Coffin Oct 2008
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

ATCs using the Quietfire Design coffin template. For 3 I used Cuttlebug embossing folders for the coffin and rubbed copper pigmant ink on. The other 2 I cut the ciffin a little smaller and cut it into pieces. I then glued to a larger black coffin shape and embossed with gold embossing powder. Pieces of plastic skeleton, wooden birds and stickers are the embellishments.

Holiday Mystery Knit Clue 5

Holiday Mystery Knit Clue 5
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

Well here I go again, falling behind on the knitting and then more behind on posting. It is still a puzzle what I am making, but I'll post clue 6 later tonight.

ATC Oct 2008 Wax Play

ATC Oct 2008 Wax Play
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

Todays play time I decided to try melting wax crayons for the first time. I used a piece of corragated cardboard and pealed most of the top layer of one side I was pleased with the results, then decided to add the beads. I think they look like a waterfall. I'm sure I'll be doing more of these.

Holiday Mystery Knit Clues 3 and 4

Holiday Mystery Knit Clues 3 and 4
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

Well I got a little behind on the mystery kniting and when I started knitting to catch up I forgot to stop and take a photo after day 3. Here is day 3 and 4 finished and photographed all at once. I finished knitting on Oct. 3 and just got time to post now. This is still a mystery at this point. Any ideas?

ATC Oct 2008

ATC Oct 2008
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

I spent time on Sat. Oct. 4 playing with my Cuttlebug embossing folders, rubber stamping and my first try at Spirelli. Some had pigment ink rubbed over with a cosmetic sponge to highlight the raised portion of the embossing.

Delicate Bloom ATCs

Delicate Bloom ATCs
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

More napkins with rubber stamping and gold embossing. The more faint images are done with the second layer of the paper napkin. Most of these were traded at the Sept swap at the Grind.

Tea Time ATCs

TeaTime ATCs
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

Some of these were sent for the Sept Byhand Artists monthly swap and some were swapped at the Grind swap for Sept
All are napkin backgrounds with vintage premium coupons which were in Nabob and Blue Ribbon tea and coffee.

Guardian Angel

Guardian Angel
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

Way back in another lifetime, or last year my friend Linda T asked me to make something for her guardian angel. I was very slow getting this done and by February of 2008 I was about half done the beaded stole I chose to knit, then disaster hit and I slipped on ice and fractured my wrist. Of course this put all knitting on hold for awhile and when I was finally able to hold knitting needles and knit again a new disaster reared it’s ugly head, I had redesigned the stitch pattern to fit the small format of the stole and to add beads. Well of course I had not written my pattern down, so I had to rip back to see what I was doing and write my pattern down. So now I could finish the stole which is knit in gold cotton thread about the weight of bedspread cotton and has multi-coloured beads added in. So now, when Linda had probably given up all hope of ever seeing her guardian angel again, and before any risk of her getting lost in the sea of moving boxes, I mailed it back to her in August. There was a little purse which had small blessing cards and so my blessing to Linda was “Live life with a peaceful mind”.

Heavy Knit Socks

Heavy Knit Socks
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

While getting ready for the big move I found a number of treasures, and this pair of socks was one of them. One sock was done and the other just needed the toe finished, so I finished it before packing them. These are knit of a wool and acrylic blend yarn of unknown brand and is a bit heavier than knitting worsted. They should be nice and toasty when my garage studio is in operation and gets chilly.

Holiday Mystery Knit Clue 2

Holiday Mystery Knit Clue 2
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

The second clue was posted and I've finished this part, but still no clue as to what I am making. Any ideas? At least I am keeping up so far.

Holiday Mystery Knit Clue 1

Holiday Mystery Knit Clue 1
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

Well, since I fractured my wrist last year, I have been slowly getting back into knitting. The Holiday Mystery Gift Knit-a-long Yahoo group has just started a special project with no information as to what we are knitting. This is day one of the pattern clues and I used Berella 4 knitting worsted in medium navy on 4.5mm needles. Now I just need to wait for Tue. to get the next part of the pattern. I will post the next part as soon as it is knit. This is a great way to get my knitting fingers moving and I can't wait to see what this becomes.

52 Quilts Journal Week 2

Since I was on a role I started the week 2 quilt on Sun. For this one I chose a dark blue and gold print from my sample stash and recycled a crochet sample motif. This is the first try at crochet since I broke my wrist and the sample turned out a little large for an ATC, so here it is on my mini quilt. I stitched it on with assorted brown and cream beads and then joined it to the back of quilt 1 to make a page for my journal. Later I will join this to 2 more quilts to make a signature and eventually decide how I will bind the journal.

52 Quilts Journal Week 1

I have decided to take the challenge of creating a 52 Quilts Journal, one a week for a year. I sure hope I can keep it up so here goes. The idea comes from the Feb/March 2008 issue of Quilting Arts magazine and the challenge is to use something recycled or found in each quilt. Since most of the fabric I will use is rescued from fabric sample books that were destined for the landfill, I have that covered, but I will try to incorporate something more is each quilt. I have chosen to make my quilts 6 in. X 6 in. My first quilt for the week ending July 12, 2008 is from my fabric sample stash and the recycled item I've used is a mesh vegetable bag stitched down with 2 sizes of blue and greenish yellow porcelain beads. I think I'm off to a good start and will likely try out different techniques I'd like to explore for future projects.

Christening Dress

So here I am with more historical projects. This Christening dress is sewn from handkerchief linen and the neckline and sleeves are trimmed with a crochet lace edging. The centre panel is assorted crochet samples and motifs in white and ecru cotton. Most of the lace was in my stash and I decided this was a good place to use them. The lace on the bottom is filet crochet and I am pretty sure that I designed and charted it. The crochet roses were created for this dress and buttons were collected from family, including one from a wedding dress. I created this dress for a family member a few years ago.

Stocking

Stocking
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

I haven't had much time for creating lately but while I was cleaning I came across some photos of past projects, so I'm sharing a bit of my history today. This PNE second place winning stocking is a lace sampler knit with worsted weight yarn with a cotton lace edging added below the ribbing. Burgandy and white flowers and ribbons trim the back. This was made for a niece and there was a bit of a panic when I went to pick up my entries and it was missing. It was soon found with a group entry and all ended well.

Altered Plastic Laminate Pendant

I needed a gift for today and I knew what I wanted to make, but last night I hadn't even started yet. The challenge this week on created byhand is for altered art so here is my filling two project requirements in one. This is similar to the previous Plastic Laminate Pendant, but it was for Leanne of the now closed Ruby Dog's Art House. Since Leanne likes houses and has admired the various forms of my digital house drawing, that's what I used on the front of her pendant. I used microfiche for the window, an old school photo, a key charm and a sailboat charm which also came from Ruby Dog's. The cherish stamp is from the Quietfire Design mini compilation. The back is the same Artella puzzle collage image that I used on Mary-Beth's Tree Fairy pendant.