A Rose By Any Other Name...

I present my latest finish. After the quilt show I decided I wanted to work on something that gave me a deadline. I have had this pattern for a little while and wanted to make it in time to take on a trip.

It is knitted and felted. The wool for the bag body felted so nice. The roses are beaded yarn (Tilli Tomas flurries). I then made it a lining (sorry no photo but very simple) and sewed it to the handle. I still need to hand stitch the roses to the bag so they don't flop around.

Michele

Quilt Show

Halloween weekend marked the Lake Norman Quilters second quilt show. We had a great turnout and an overall great show. Here is my winning patchwork pumpkin.

This is a quilt by Sandy Palmer. I just loved it.

The Sailing Under the Harvest Moon Challenge.

The Roots Challenge.

We had 244 pieces. That is an amazing number for only 57 members.

The pink quilt on the far right was Best of Show.

The Flights of Fantasy Doll Club display. I am also a member of this amazing group but I forget my doll to add to the collection.

All in all a great experience but a lot of work.

Michele

Halloween

As you can tell from an earlier post, Natalie was Dorothy for Halloween. Her costume was good (I found my own mistakes of course.) She did forget Toto for the parade.

Here she is with Daddy. He took his lunch early so he could be there. It was important considering he was in Talladega for Trick-or-Treating.









Here we are.

Michele

October Happenings

I've been waiting to upload all of the happenings here at Casa Gray Barn. My camera is MIA and I was using Jason's and couldn't get the photos downloaded. Anyway, success, so here we go.

Natalie really wanted to carve pumpkins, so thanks to Pop and his garden, we have FREE pumpkins.

Here she is getting ready. Of course, she did not do any of the actual carving but she did enjoy slopping in the seeds.

Here we are carving.

Natalie with pumpkin number 1.

And pumpkin number 2.

After we were done, I figured out it had been at least 15 years since I carved a pumpkin. Needless to say, I had fun.

Michele

Spooky Fence

I am definitely in the spirit right now. I've had this Raise the Roof chart for a couple of years and finally felt the need to make it. It is made with Weeks Dye Works thread and Just Another Button Company buttons. I'm seeing it as part of a quilted wall hanging but now I really need to finish my stuff for the quilt show.

Michele

Studio Tour

Welcome to my Studio! Here is Haley, the official greeter. My studio is located in the bonus room above our garage and it is approximately 250 square feet. When we built our house, the plan was always that this room would be mine while my husband has a detached garage for his "car things."

Here is the view from the top of the stairs as you come into the room. With the knee walls, I don't have flat space for a design wall. I use an easel and small design board. You can see the bluish piece in the background. Someone still hasn't hung my curtain rod.
I absolutely love these wire basket units. We got them in the closet organization section of Lowes. It took Jason 10 minutes to assemble each one. He hung the counter top on the wall. He did most of this work one evening after work. It took me longer to clean and then put it back. I will fill in the two spaces with drawer units.
A close-up of the counter. I love my pincushion from the Daily Pincushion. That is a matching emery in front. The set was my "welcome to your new studio" present to myself. I store brushes in old mugs.
He built me a high counter and then a low counter with a space for either a second sewing machine or my embellisher machine. The wooden box next to it is my lightbox. Jason built that for me. It has a great large top.
Here is an opposite view of the counter.
This is the far corner. There is a bookcase, some magazine organizers for my Australian magazines and a reproduction sewing box.

This is my grandmother's sewing machine and a spool holder that my dad built for me.
My messy sewing machine cabinet.
One of two steel tables someone was throwing away. It is a small ironing station or an additional workspace.
This is the nook next to the staircase. It is the paper station. There is another steel table. Next to it is my bookcase. There is a cube bookcase across from it where I have some UFO's.

Thank you for visiting.
Michele

Open Studios Tour

Cloth Paper Scissors is hosting an on-line studios tour on October 3. I know I just posted about my studio makeover but I'll take some new photos just for the tour.

Michele