Hello all,
I wanted to share with you that I took a class this past weekend with Laura Krasinski. Laura teaches the patterns from BigFork Bay! Here is a link to their site and Laura is on the home page with one of her gorgeous quilts.
http://www.bigforkbaycottonco.com/
Laura's quilt is on the right side named Autumn Lady. Wonderful!
Anyways, the class was marvelous and I chose a difficult pattern, but Laura encouraged me that I could do it! :) She has great faith and has always told me that I could do anything! Hehehe! GOOD friend!

I am going slowly at this, but it coming along and I want to share it with you. These patterns are intricut and detailed and quite beautiful. You can look at the pictures closesly and see that we traced the pieces onto the proper fabric onto fusable web that is ironed on, cut them out and then sort of put this together like a big jigsaw puzzle. The patterns are glorious! You can see my pattern below the ironing sheet that I am assembling the first horse head on. It begins to come to life. It is amazing. Anyways, I will continue working on it and share as I move along. It is time consuming, but I enjoy the process very much. It is peaceful and artful and time spent sort of becoming a part of the creation. Neat right? Enjoy the pictures! Have a great day!

I am doing a fabulous puzzle swap with two good friends of mine! :) The pieces are about 4-5 inches from end to end.The top pictures are of the puzzle piece (each side) that I have altered to send off to the recipient and the bottom is a Valentine Card that I created for a stamping friend that is always sending me hand stamped cards to brighten my mailbox. The envelope is next to the card. The stamped image is from PaperBag Studios and I stamped her on some card stock that I bleached.I kept with the heart and love theme since we are so close to Valentine's Day! I hope that everyone had a wonderful weekend!

http://www.historicthirdward.org/events/sculpturesonice.php
Earl and I decided to take a drive down to the historical third ward in Milwaukee today and see the ICE Sculptures from a contest that took place yesterday! The theme was "Summertime and Livin it Easy". At 10 a.m. on Friday they began sculpting and then at 6 p.m. they had to stop and were judged.
There were not that many participants, but we took a drive to go see the completed pieces in person.

We were able to walk around them. I made Earl get int he shot with the lobster so you could see the size of them. It was dusk and the lights were not on yet.....and to be honest, the ice on the backdrop of our freshly fallen snow makes the pictures less desirable! :( But you will get the idea, as I will try and describe what they are!
Top to Bottom:
1. Flip Flop (tong) heel at bottom with a guy with sombrero kicked back on top.
2. Guy on top of tong, close up.
3. Bear laying back on a like a floaty with a drink on his tummy.
4. Artist drawing laying in snow of dog, who will be naughty are get someones bikini top.
5. Dog holding bikini top in mouth.
6. Palm trees, with a boat pulled up to island and hammock set up between trees!
7. Beautiful sun wearing sunglasses and woman kneeling and reaching an arm up sort of hugging sun rays.
8. Earl and lobster.
9. Lobster with tail at bottom and holding a nice drink in his claw.
10. Lobster
11. Lobster
12. Not sure what this is, even seeing it in person. I saw a face in it.
13. This is my favorite if I were judging. It is a boy fishing, leaning against a tree, with a bird at the top and a dog next to him and a distance away there is a fishing line and he is catching a boot......heheheh.
14. More of boy fishing, great detail.
15. Boy fishing
16. Lastly, our city tree is still up, so I snapped a shot, and there is an ice sculpture there with two random people looking at it. :)
This was fun to do, but it was COLD out. Brrrrrrrr! And I wish that I had seen it when the sun was out.....we were too cold to stay until the lights came on. I bet they look beautiful with a light shining.
They are supposed to reveal the winners on Monday at the link above this post. Click on the pictures to enlarge and see them better.
They were all really neat and I teased Earl that him and I should do one next year! Haaaaaahehehe!

You know, art is not just for the walls any more!
A friend of mine,
Nina Owens, is going to be doing her FLOOR with tons of vintage papers.
You heard me right, vintage papers, ledger sheets, music sheets, foreign text.......and she is adding some collaged papers to it as well! Is that not the coolest thing?? It was a neat project to join in on. Obviously, I did not put anything dimensional or 3d on it at all, as it will be walked on! :) I wanted you to see the sheet close up though, really fun I think!

Imagine an art room with a floor like that! Sounds like heaven to me! Maybe I will do my DOOR that way, she is getting my mind rolling!
Anyways, here are some sheets I am sending her along with the one vintage doctor ledger paper that I collaged for her! I cannot wait to see how her floor comes out!

Rufio says "Hello" to start the New Year (and wonders if you would give him a treat if he gave you this face?)! His hair is longer because we want him to be warm enough in winter with his own winter coat, so he is a bit shaggy, but none the less..........cute cute cute! :)

Merry Christmas!
This is Earl and Rufio and me wearing our festive hats for you! haaaaahehehe! Rufio is none to happy about it. I am taking the picture too, so over all, this came out pretty well. Earl's hat is a Star Trek hat with Spock Ears, mine is Tinkerbelle (you really cannot see it) and Rufio's, well is like an elf and includes a collar too! He was happy when we were done! Haaaaaaahehehe!

This sweet Reindeer card was made by Marcy Hudziak! I just love it! You can also see it on my Christmas card tree below! :)

Don't you love it when you have talented artsy friends?  These beautiful pieces(card and wall hanging) were created by Barb Head, she is always thinking of me and sends me beautiful one of a kind pieces to make my day!

 This beautiful ornament below was made by Marcy! My tree is filled with handmade artful ornaments this year and it brings such a fun tone to the tree and my heart!!!!!!

 The Holidays are Happier with Art from Friends!!!!!

Day 12-Terry Pritzel created a peace bird collaged with sequins and paints and beautiful feathers for the tail! You can visit Terry here......

http://theravenswhim.blogspot.com/

 Day 13-Pat Winter created a sweet little pin that is filled with lavendar! She is an amazing sew talent and created this little pin with lace, and hand beading and roses. Just wonderful!!!!! You can see Pat's sweet talents here...
http://www.gatherings100.blogspot.com/



These are the beautiful steampunk dollie ornies from Linda Morgan-Number 11! I just love these unique beauties! FUN!!!!! Her blog is here, give her a visit!
http://purplecatcards.blogspot.com/

Hope Clinchot Number 9, made these beautiful face pins surrounded by lovely layers of pretty fabric and lace. :) She hand painted the face! This will add a special touch to a scarf or jacket for sure! visit Hope here....http://www.fibermixedmedia.com/profile/Hope

Cookies made by Amber and me this year! YUM!

Number 8---Corrine Gillman....she created this handmade paper garland for our trees or it would even look beautiful on a fireplace mantel or hanging up anywhere! It is different beautiful papers tied off with ribbons and buttons. Clever and unique! Thans Corrine...you can visit her blog to see more of her creations here.....

http://www.dosfishes.blogspot.com/

This unique and special little vintage thread spool was created by Terri Lightfoot-Number 10. It has Christmas music sheet and glitter,vintage buttons and glorious glimmer and shine! You can visit Terri here.....http://lostartcreations.typepad.com/

This swap has been a wonderful Joy, having something artsy to open every day for 13 days! Thanks so much to fun artists who played in this swap. I have really enjoyed it!

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

MERRY CHRISTMAS to me! Hehehehe!

Day Seven is Vivian Neroni's ornament. He is adorable and Viv has given our teree a bit of whimsey with her skinny snowman! Heheheh! He is handmade and his tall felt hat and painted face gives him perfect personality! Thanks Vivian!!!!

You can see Vivian's blog here.....

http://vivs-whimsy.blogspot.com/

http://www.m-is-for-martha.blogspot.com/
Day 6 was from the lovely Martha Brown. Her link is above!
She created a beautiful glass ornmaent with the theme JOY, on one side and the other
has the detailed message! It can be hung either way and it is gorgeous!
Thank you Martha!!!!!

Day 5 was my ornament, a fabric cone, made from cheesecloth, vintage music sheets, flowers, lace, perarl and some free motion stitching. It was such a fun thing to make and the girls have given it wonderful reviews! That made me smile! :)