Roadtrip time again :-)

Today begins a 4 day road trip for me one day in NJ to celebrate my granddaughter Charlotte's 3rd birthday, then it's off to Detroit MI to attend my nephew John's wedding shower. I am flying home with the quilt I made for their shower gift but photos will have to wait until they see it first. Hoping they enjoy the design it is kind of hmmm ? Unsure of descriptive word for it lol.

I also managed to complete my round on a Round Robin quilt piece from my Weds quilt bee.
I am always nervous working on others quilts. I wish I had taken the before photo of this piece.My turn involved the seam ripper to take out some of the last person's addition and then trying to make an addition that would balance up the piece. One hint the large bottom row was on it before I began working on it. Hoping my quilt buddy likes the end result.
well signing off for now I have a birthday party to attend. (Blogging from my iPad so hope this works)

It's time to set some new goals.

It's difficult for me to believe the hubby and I have now been in our Quakertown home for a year.
We had a heck of a year, there were some wonderful events along the way but also many tears and loss. The car we purchased last fall has 13,000 miles on it already so that shows that we've also been on the road a lot, here and there.
I've decided it is time for me to set some goals and try to stay focused until I complete the goals.
I have a list of projects that I have ignored due to stuff we've endured during our last couple years but it's now time to buckle down. My intention is to have my list completed by the end of June at the latest because come July I have an online class with Lisa Call that I magically won. YUP you read that correctly I won! Since I have been given this opportunity I intend to clear as much stuff off my calendar as possible to free me up to focus 100% on my class and fiber art.
So today day one towards completing my goals was a productive day. I got the first coat of Annie Sloan paint on our old china cabinets, I'm hoping to get the second coat on tomorrow?

Before photo

This paint does go a long way, one coat completed so far.

One coat applied, have to decide the color I will paint the inside.

The second project of the day was to try to complete my grandson James rocking chair that sadly I was not able to complete last year when he was born due to our move and other stuff that screwed with my schedule. The chair has been sitting in our basement waiting for my attention.

Of course wouldn't you know even though I have all these paints shown
I had to run out to get the 3 colors I needed before I could begin? Geeeeshhh!

The design has been requested by my grandson's daddy.

So first coat completed on this today, if I can keep my focus I'll soon 
be able to cross two more projects off the list.
 I wish I could share that my list is a short one but just not so.
 Will just keep on chugging along and try hard to keep focused.
Tomorrow is another day ;-)

Two quilts to bind and lots of marbled fabrics to begin experimenting with…a good day.

With all the bad news today everywhere RE: the Boston marathon bombing it was a perfect day to spend some time in the studio to try to complete two quilts I've been working on. From the photos you might see all I have to do on the quilts is the binding. ;-)

Quilting being done on the little quilt top via HQ16

Quilt ready to have binding sewn on.

Binding now ready for both quilt tops.

Here is another of my marbling fabric from last week's
Arrowmont Class I hope to experiment on next.

Here is my first sewing experiment with one of my marbling fabrics.
I went with one I was not that happy with which made it perfect to cut up and experiment on.

Strips sewn back together.

Marbled piece sewn back together into a little piece.
Going to add quilting next.

Wow I've neglected my blog

It's amazing how quickly my days fly by along the way I seem to have developed some new sad /or bad habits- neglecting my blog, I used to post at least once a week, sometimes even daily but now I  forget to share my thoughts, plans or new creations.
Somehow I hope to get back in the saddle, set new goals to post more along with setting a more consistent schedule for my art and studio time.
So a lot has happened since March, too much to share so I'll just try to catch you up on my past week or so…
The hubby and I took a pleasant road trip so we could attend classes at Arrowmont School of Art and Crafts. http://www.arrowmont.org/about-arrowmont/history  http://www.arrowmont.org/about-arrowmont/history
For anyone who does not know of the the school it was set up in Gatlinburg TN over 100 years ago to educate the surrounding settlers and in later years turned into Craft School to preserve and sell the crafts of the Appalachian area. This was my hubby's first time taking a class at this type of setting and I believe it was my 3rd or 4th time to attend Arrowmont.
The hubby's class was a digital photography class focus/ scenery, so he headed into the Smoky Mountain Park each day while I took a class on campus/ marbling on cotton and silks.
Here are a few photos of some of my marbled fabric.

A couple samples of my marbling on black silk 

A few samples of double or triple marbling

My stack of fabrics

A couple examples of my single marbling

Clothes line full of my work

One of my favorites/ marbled on hand dyed gold silk

I recommend signing up for a class sometime at Arrowmont Craft School if you ever have the chance, you will not be disappointed you can ask my hubby. ;-)
So now to get in my studio and decide how to use all my lovely marbled fabric.