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Friday, October 31, 2008

Wish Upon A Cure at Ludington Michigan

While DH and I was on a day trip to view the Autumn Colors I always look forward to seeing the annual Halloween Display in front of the Ludington Hospital. This Halloween display raises money for different organization in the area. I especially like the "Wish Upon A Cure" Halloween Display.


The Halloween Spider and Tin Man was also very impressive display. I wish everyone a Very Happy Halloween. Also the community of Ludington is going to celebrate "A Pink Christmas" this year with many event to raise money to buy equipment for the early detection of Breast Cancer.
Hugs Judy

Thursday, October 23, 2008

My Sweetie's Surprise Birthday Party

For the last several months I have been very busy planning a surprise birthday party for "My Sweetie". He has been constantly reminded for the last year by oodles of mail he has received that this year he will be "65 years Old"!!! So I thought this would be a good year to make his birthday very special for him. I had the help of his daughter Robin and DIL Ann. Everyone arrived at the same time and as they pulled into the driveway while we were sitting in the living room he said, we have company what have you been up too??? LOL I could hardly believe that we truly surprised Bill. Yippppeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!
This photo is of "My Sweetie" with his grandson Brett sitting beside him. Bill's daughter Robin brought the lovely balloons, "Gold" ones for supposedly the golden years, "Black" ones for "Over The Hill"!!! and a big smiley face too. In My Humble Opinion I do not think "My Sweetie" looks anywhere near "65" years old in fact I think he looks fantastic for being "65" years old.

My DH is a "Chevy" man and hence he got a new Chevy Hat and T-Shirt.


I had a very special cake made for my Sweetie. Our local Sweet Traditions make the most outrageous yummy cakes and candies that is out of this world. This was a lemon cake with lemon cream between the layers with butter cream frosting and burgundy roses.


Robin gave us these three wood bowl Mushrooms for in our garden. They were so unique. I loved them. They will be proudly displayed next summer in our front yard. We had 17 family members come and I made a good old fashion traditional baked Ham dinner. Everyone brought something to eat so everyone had plenty to eat. It sorta felt like an early Thanksgiving Dinner Celebration. VBG My Sweetie was so very Happy with His Surprised Birthday Party. Bill truly loves having his family around him and he enjoyed every minute of his special day. I hope I have many, many many years of being with this wonderful man and having family gatherings together.
We are off for a day trip to Lansing this weekend to attend a Christmas Fiber Festival and do a bit of shopping. We love going on day trips together because it gives us quality time to chat with each other and visit the beautiful countryside of Western Michigan. I bought "My Sweetie" a Tom Tom GPS that talks to him to let him know what directions we should drive to get to our destination. It also tells him when he goes more that 3 miles over the speed limit. VBG When this happen for the first time he told me, OH Dear Now I have TWO woman tell me what to do and where to go!!! LOL I love it. LOL So I will have some wonderful photos of the Fiber Festival next week.
I hope that life will slow down a bit now so I can get back to visiting my favorite blogs and chatting with everyone.
Hugs Judy

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Autumn Decorating and Autumn Colors

I have been doing some Autumn cleaning and decorating. I got some of my old quilts I have made many years ago. Above is an Autumn Table Runner I made from a Thimbleberry pattern back in 1999. On the bottom shelve is an Angel and Heart Pennie Rug made by my friend Karen who lives in Sault Ste. Marie Canada. Karen gave it to me for my birthday back in 2006. I also made the wool felted pumpkin.
The turkey and pumpkin wall hanging I made back in 1997.


We have the most gorgeous huge Norway Maple in our front yard that is in the process of turning its beautiful gold colors. I will take another photo when it is at it peak color.

I have many decorative flags than I hang outdoors year around. This scarecrow one I like allot.

While I was searching through some drawers I discovered this antique Dutch table scarf I forgot I bought. So out it came to admire for awhile.

The above photo is of an Autumn Leaf that was made for me while I was living in Germany at a local florist. Good memories.

The above photo is of our home in the Autumn. My garden blooms are just about gone. My Autumn Joy Sedums just look pretty good. I hope you all enjoyed the wee tour of my world.
Hugs Judy

Friday, October 10, 2008

First Wool Felted Base: Beginner's Tutorial

While I was visiting The Flower Lady's Farm and Woolery shop Kim gave me a basic beginner's wet wool felting lesson. I picked out some lovely Icelandic wool roving from her shop in two different colors seen above. We decided what size we wanted the finish wool base to be and then cut out a piece of plastic template about 1/3 larger to allow for the shrinkage.

Then I started pulling out thin wispy of wool roving beginning in one corner and laying it out on top of my template slightly overlapping the wisp before by 1/3. The above photo above is the first two layers of the light beige wool roving. trying to keep them as even as possible in thickness. The ends of the roving should not extend past the edges of your template.

Then I added one more layer (3rd layer) of the white pinkish wool roving at a 90 degree angle to the second layer. Then Kim told me to feel the wool to see if there was any empty spots that I needed to add wool roving too. When laying out any fleece it is better to use multiple thin layers instead of one or two thick layers ones, because the thin layers felt together better.

Now it is time to "Wet It Out"!!! Kim gave me the above "neat tool" to use to spread the hot soapy water over top the wool roving. If any know where to purchased this tool please let me know. Thanks. Working with wet soapy hands I pressed down on the wool roving with the white texture mat you see above. Saturate the wool without disturbing the fibers. Imagine pressing the water through the pile , all the way to the bottom. One of the most common beginner mistakes in felting is using to much water.

Then I we wrapped the wool template with a netting and wrapped that around a foam tube and tied it all together with string. Then we rolled it over the brown ridged mat. The job of the netting at this point is to keep the loose fibers locked and immobile so they don't float apart. Keep rolling your wool over the ridged mat for about 10 minutes or so applying pressure and rolling. We continually would unwrapped the wool base and add a wee bit more soap and water and tied it back up and kept rolling.


The goal of the felting stage is to get the fibers saturated and lightly connected to one another. You will know you have achieved this when the felt behaves as one coherent piece of fabric rather then a bunch of loose hairs.


The "Pinch Test" is when you slightly pinch the wet fibers between your thumbs and forefingers. Are the fibers beginning to hold together? You will know they are if you've left a tiny, hairy tent where you pinched . You can do this all over the piece you have a prefelt.



Expel the water: Once the entire piece if felted it will feel like a soggy piece of paper towel. Roll up your felt loosely in the netting/tulle and carefully lift the while thing into your dishpan or sink and press out all the water.


Rinse out the soap: Rinse out the soap by pressing clear warm water through the felt. Pressing or lightly squeezing is OK but never wring your felt.


Let It Dry: Prefelt is fragile so gently drape the prefelt over a drying rack or the back of a chair. Or better yet, leave it flat to dry on the table.

The above photo is my finished Prefelt piece of fabric. Not sure what I plan to do with it. It came out to be approximately 24 inches by 19 inches. Not sure what I plan to do with it. I was thinking maybe I will added some other prefelt to it and do some embroidery on it. This class was allot of fun and I enjoyed every second of the class. The above beginner's tutorial is what I remember from the class. I am sure there is many other ways of doing wet felting too.
I hope you all enjoyed this wee wet felting story of mine.
Hugs Judy

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Diane Phalen Autumn Patchwork

Hello Everyone, Diane Phalen is one of my favorite artist that is known for including lovely quilts in her landscapes scenes. Besides Spring Autumn is my favorite time of year. I have been recuperating from a very bad Autumn cold and I've had no energy to get to the computer until today. I have missed chatting with you all and hopefully I will get back into the swing of things soon. Until then this lovely Autumn photos gives you a hint of what my world is staring to look like. Hugs to everyone. Judy
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