Tonight I went to the first yearly meeting of the Berry Basket Quilters.   It was a entertaining program put on by the IQ3 (secret quilting code for Industrious Quilting of 3 great women:   Susan Painting, Sherry Brown and Debbie Rouse).    So glad I got to see their quilts and hear their tales.   All of them are very talented and if I can sew 1 quilt block for every full size quilt they have made it would be a whole lot for me.

The reason for my post is that a few of the ladies came up to me and said “wow – great resolution you put in the newsletter” and “oh I am going to follow your resolution”.    LOL    I forgot what I had even written but said thank you to each one of them anyway.  

It all started towards the end of 2009.  Carol, the newsletter editor had sent out a message asking us what our resolutions were for 2010.   I overlooked the first email somehow but then I got a 2nd one sort of pleading for people to participate.   I had been thinking alot about the new year and all the new things on my plate so I quickly typed an email back.   

Here is what I submitted for the newsletter:

“Instead of taking away, I decided to add a few things into my 2010.   Create more, pray more and focus on Jersey Made.”   

Perhaps I should add “keep up with my emails” to the list so I am better prepared for the feedback! 

www.jersey-made.com

Jersey Made is my business.   A retail shop located in the Mill Race Village of Mount Holly.   It opened on December 2nd.   100% handmade by NJ artists and a variety of classes too!     This is where I am 5 days a week now.    I work hard, set up displays of incredible artwork, and creating art of my own in between.   Since I am praying constantly along the way perhaps I have been following my own resolution after all.

Today I visited http://www.smokeybear.com/ and found out that he has recently turned 65.   Does Smokey qualify for Social Security benefits?   He has been putting out fires and spreading the word about fire prevention for 65 years.   He didn’t wait until he was 18 to start working.  He certainly is 100% American and would therefore be more eligible than the many illegal aliens who currently do receive this money. 

Although I really don’t want him to retire.   It’s important to keep reminding people that “only we can prevent forest fires”.   I know that forest fires are something that does happen without human help.  The forest actually thrives after a fire and needs this to happen occasionally for rejuvenation.   It does not need to rejuvenate as often as careless humans leave campfires unattended or discard lit cigarettes out the window. 

So join me in extending birthday congratulations to Smokey the Bear.   We will not be lighting 65 candles on a birthday cake.  I do not think he would want cake anyway and the anxiety of 65 burning sticks of wax could be bad for this old bear.   Not to mention that he strongly reminds us to not play with matches!  

So in place of these standard ways to celebrate I offer this alternative.   Why not become a fan of Smokey’s Facebook page? 

There are many fan pages out there but to get the official one go to www.smokeybear.com and click on the Facebook link at the upper right hand corner. 

Thanks for helping to stop forest fires started by humans!

Last night my sis and I went to see Pure Prairie League.  It was a free concert sponsored by the Camden County Freeholders at Cooper River Park.   What a great night it was for sitting outside!  The ‘front’ that came through took the humidity out of the air and it was warm but pleasant.  The sunset was beautiful as we waiting for the concert to start.  

The moon was still mostly full and the band kept commenting on that.   Of course this set off a girl sitting down the row from us who started yelling “Bad Moon Rising” over and over.   Many of us tried to quiet her with words like “wrong band”!   At one point I think 5 of us said it at the same time – yet she still did not stop.   She was so loud that the band actually heard her and quickly moved on to another song.  

They played many of our old favorites and some newer ones too.   Michael Tierson of WMGK came out announced that after the concert the band would come out to sign autographs.   The sale of CD’s and t-shirts benefited autism and $5 of each would go to the cause.   Since all my PPL is on cassette or vinyl it seemed like the time was right to get a CD.  I quickly tried to get the cellophane wrapping off the package.  The man in front of me insisted that I wanted the inside front paper to be autographed.   So I made my way over a little to get into that line.   All 5 of them signed my cover and I was so excited.  What a bunch of nice guys.  They were even extra patient when this guy nosed his way in to get his entire collection signed that he had brought along with him.  

My sis, Amy went up to get some closer photos.  I mean Ammmmmmyyyyyyyyyyy  – hehehe!

Here I am trying to keep my place in line.  Finally Fats saw what was happening reached over to take my CD cover and started the process for me.

Look how close I was – standing right next to these guys!   It was great!  

I thanked them for coming and danced away with my CD.

This was the 34th year of the quilt show held at Kirby’s Mill.  I was pleased to have many of my quilts on display throughout the rustic old Mill.  My Christmas star quilt somehow ended up right inside the entrance.  This quilt was from an advanced collaborative class that I took in 1992.  The center star is the one that I made.  Each month we all made a block from the same pattern – some included cathedral window, crazy quilt, fine applique.  At the end we all got the squares for a quilt and I was so thrilled that this one was mine.  It remained unfinished for many years.  If I was to do the hand quilting it would still remain undone as time just does not allow such things.  My machine quilting is not very good.  So it sat in a pile until a solution finally presented itself.  Kathleen Johnson is a machine quilter who was recommended by another member of Love Apple Quilters.  She quilted in stars and holly leaves and swirls.   It was perfect and finished just in time for the LAQ Quilt Show which was held back in March 2009

The night the quilts came in to the Mill there were not quite enough to reach our goal of 100 quilts.  At 9:45 PM I called Carole and asked her if please could I pick up some of her quilts to bring to the Mill the next morning.  Being a great friend she scurried throughout her house and had a bunch of quilts for me, including Sarah’s “Bob and Friends” quilt (from Veggie Tales).   Carole’s quilt was hung directly below mine near the entrance.  This quilt has such meaning for Carole so I was glad to see that it had a place of honor. 

“Bob and Friends” was on the 2nd floor atop a display case so everyone could see that kids can make great quilts too!!!

This is one of my very favorite people.  Betty to the 4th power as she calls herself.  Bad Betty Brown Black has been lighting up the quilt show at Kirby’s Mill for many years.  She is an avid quilter and shares her joy with everyone around her.  She was demonstrating quilting by the doorway all day on Saturday so it was fun to sneak up into the “Authorized Personnel Only” area to catch a picture of her.  I assured her I was not authorized but doing it anyway.  She liked that!!!

Here is Charlie delivering my chocolate milk.  That was exciting!  Always nice to see men in kitchen.  When business was slow in the kitchen I would walk through the Mill telling all the ladies “men cooking in the kitchen”.  Charlie & Bill wondered why suddenly there was a line for hot dogs – hehehe!

Dawn Heefner, and AQA Certified Quilt Appraiser was on hand and I brought my charm spools quilt for her to give me a verbal appraisal. The binding is not yet done on it and I also got to ask for her opinion on how to finish it.  I was really pleased with all that she told me.  It was so neat to see that many of my quilts made over the years and on display inside were included in the spool shaped pieces that I had been hand piecing together for many years.  My nephew Josh is 21 now and there are fabrics included that I used to make him clothes when he was just a toddler. 

The Museum Shop looked great.  The Kirby’s Mill “Feedsack” collection was a big hit.  I took some old barrels from the cooper area and made a little display of the tote bags, towels and t-shirts.  Abbie Galie (official screen printer for the Museum Shop) did an awesome job.  The best part was she screen printed the design onto a paper towel.  I put little notes to explain – the paper towel is “not a green item” and the feedsack towel “is green”.  A few people got the joke – LOL!!

Even less people got this joke.  I made up little “logs” and put them inside the wood burning stove.  The Museum Shop is not too big so I figured I would use every available space for stuff.  So I got some piney power inspired fabric and cut it into fat quarters.  The fat quarters were placed inside toilet paper tubes and wrapped with old sewing patterns.   I had flashlights inside and red plastic flames attached to the door.  There were signs directing people to “See What’s Hot” and “Open the Door” and “Disclaimer:  Not a real fire – do not call 9-1-1″.    Hehehe – Well at least I had fun and a few people got a laugh out of it.  I gave the leftover “logs” to the ladies of the Berry Basket Quilters whose help was so appreciated.  Their boutique was awesome again this year and I added another chicken to my collection.  But that will be something to blog about another day.  My chicken collection doesn’t get out of the coop as much as they’d like.

Hope you enjoyed my tale – maybe it left you in stitches!!!

Well I am a little behind on my blogging but life has been hectic.  So we will travel back a few weeks to Sunday, May 31st.  My neice got confirmed.  As her godmother I wanted to have an extra special gift for her.  You might remember the antique skeleton keys that I purchased at a yard sale awhile back.  

Well I spent a bunch of time with the Dremil tool getting the rust off and making them look really pretty once again.  This began the idea for my neice’s gift for her confirmation.   I added a Scrabble letter ‘G’ for her name.  Abbie helped me with some beads to decorate it a bit and we had to include a wheatback penny that we had spent all that time drilling and polishing too.

I stamped a card to go along with it using Stampin’ Up! ”Refuge and Strength” set.   The box is recycled and the lid was decorated with some beautiful paper that I bought at a yard sale.   Together it was a great gift set and I was really pleased with it.   More importantly – SHE was pleased with it.  In her thank you card my neice called the necklace “cute & creative”.

It is great to be able to make my own cards.  I had spent so much time on the preparing the making of the necklace that the card was left until the last minute.  Hehehe – I don’t want to mislead my readers into thinking that I do everything ahead of time.  Like most people I need a deadline.  My Mom is famous for her motto that she often reminds us “never miss a deadline” and she never did!   Deadlines help me keep up with things and often I have so many things on my agenda that I need to follow in the order when things are due.  This of course keeps me burning the midnight oil sometimes.  It is also the reason I am blogging at this late hour since I really had an urge to blog before sleeping tonight.

As always, thanks for listening to my tale…..

Well this was my first big weekend with my modified table display for doing shows.  I was really pleased with how things turned out.  My creations never looked better.  I am really getting the hang of this and liking the new direction my recycled creations is going.  My displays worked great.  Here is Elmer (my fiesty and curious cat) who decided that the first thing my display needed was for him to sit upon it.

My friend Carole assures me that Elmer was just expressing his approval.  Hehehe – she is in Elmer’s fan club.   I am fortunate to have a boss who rehabs houses.  He had seen my chicken wire display and mentioned that when he took out all the windows in an old house I could have them.  I quickly said “oh yesssss”.    He saved 12 of them for me in assorted sizes and the best part is he had the guys smash all the glass out over the dumpster.  The glass was a big mess and I was so careful not to get it everywhere or wake the neighbors with all the noise.  So that was a huge help.   Perhaps the posty notes I left all over his desk saying “don’t forget windows for Holly” was a good idea too!!!   So I just had to clean them up and do my re-creating tricks to make this spiffy new display.  There is ribbon across it so I could attach my greeting cards with clothespins.   Another display at hardly any cost and it worked really great.  I have considered offering these type displays to other artists and crafters.    I really enjoy taking all these stray pieces and putting them together into something useful.  Plus they are light and easy to store in my car.

Remember my curly willow blog and the wreaths that I had made with them?   Well, I finally found a great way to use the wreaths.  I made some bows out of scraps of wine fabric, attached some fake grapes and corks to make these cool decorations….

Here I am in my new space.  I really liked having the tent and found all kinds of ways to attach items for display with bungy cords and zip ties.  So I have some plans to further improve how my creations look at future shows. 

Plus I have decided that new tablecloths are the next order of business.  The tablecloth in the middle will be my inspiration to get 2 more to match.  Those are 2 of my favorite colors – Eggplant Engy and Forest Green – plus there are leaves all over it.  That combined with a few more displays and a sign to hang in the back of my space will be great additions in the future. 

The thing I didn’t take a picture of was my little car.  I have a Saturn and it was jam packed with stuff.  I couldn’t fit another tub or table in there and still see out the back window.  It worked out great though and I had plenty of room for what I needed.  Next time I will take a photo of that to share with all of you.  The logistics of packing the car was kind of funny.  It only went in a certain way but nevertheless I got it all in there.

Again, thanks for reading.  Your comments are always appreciated and offer great encouragement!!!

 Remember – buying handmade items made locally helps our economy where we need it the most!!!!

As promised, here are some photos of the graduation cards that I finished this weekend. 

It seems I make great tassels – another quirky talent!  

I did alot with these 3 days off.  It was fun to have time for family and friends.  Went to the theatre with Mom and my neice and saw Midsummer Night’s Dream – the musical – but I would have called it a comedy.  Very entertaining and a job well done by the Ritz Theatre in Oaklyn.  I worked some today out at the Mill getting ready for the quilt show next weekend.  There were lots of people in the area today – fishing, painting, and enjoying the day.  I saw an older couple come with a card table, tablecloth, 2 chairs and a picnic basket.  They set it up along the stream and played cards for a few hours.  It was a special sight.   I really enjoyed the artists.  These ladies were fun to talk to and see them work.  One of them got bitten by a red ant and her thumb was starting to swell.  Of course Bill came out with all the fixings of a first aid kit to help her out.  She was grateful for the relief and continued to work with her charcoals.

I am now a dogsitter (in addition to my many other diverse jobs).  Bebe is fun to play with and have around.  She loves car rides and people so I took her with me to the Mill.  She liked it and the guys were happy to have her there.  Even had George play with her while Don & I moved a set of steps.  I had to keep her on the lease cause this yellow lab is trained to chase geese.  There are a multitude of geese around the Mill.  Of course today we didn’t see too many but they left remnants as proof that it really is their turf most of the time. 

Mostly I created alot and that felt great!  Tomorrow evening I am getting out the sewing machine to put all the pieces together on a few more things - the finishing touches.  Ah!  My favorite part of every project is seeing the vision inside my head become a reality.  I record my ideas in my art journal almost daily.  Not all of those become a project but often they do.  Sometimes the finishing doesn’t happen and a UFO (unfinished object) happens.   This weekend many UFO’s became finished creations. 

A friend from church told me on Sunday that I blog too much.  His complaint didn’t have much validity since upon further questioning I discovered that he has never even come to my website to see what is going on here.  So to McMatt and all the others missing out on what is happening in the bloggin world – TRY IT!

So while I was the Kibry’s Mill last week, on the day that I fell down at work and hurt my knee, I was busy getting the Museum Shop ready for the upcoming quilt show.  In the course of this I needed some help.  So after a quick glance around the 1st floor of the Mill for something that would assist me in my task.   Here it is….

This cast iron fork-like thing on a stick was what I found.   Can you guess how I might have used this tool?   I don’t really know what it actually is … so I printed a copy of this photograph to I can interrogate the curator next time I see him – hehehe – he will just love me pestering him with more questions!   Plus I have a few more tasks in mind for using this antique unknown gadget on a stick!

Meanwhile I am busy getting things ready for the quilt show.  The Museum Shop will have a feed sack theme.  www.OriginalAbbie.com has designed a logo for our sack-like items and I can’t wait to see them.   Stop by to see – I will blog about them soon but you’ll want to see them in person.  Thanks Abbie!

I have signed up for a few shows starting with the Art, Wine & Music Festival in Medford Village on the 1st Sunday in June – see my events calendar for particulars.  So I have been getting prepared.  Last evening I set up my tent in the back yard to make sure it was in great shape and today I purchased some new lightweight and sturdy tables.  It seemed like a good idea to revamp my whole display and go with the rustic recycled flair that is the new direction I have chosen to be my focus.  I have alot of items all ready but of course there are a few more that I hope to get finished as well.  Finish – oh that is a big word in my world….  Today I am making graduation cards – this is a new project since I have an order for 10 plus a special order for 1 more.  Graduation time is just around the corner so I think they will be a big seller.  Tonight the finishing touches will go on and I promise to blog about them by the end of this weekend.   These will also be available in my Etsy store.

Did I mention that I am the proud new member of the Etsy NJ team?  It is great to be able to meet other artists from New Jersey and hear what is going on with them.  We meet at shows but that isn’t always the best forum for a conversation.   There is a wealth of information there and it has been encouraging me to continue pursuing making my creations and getting the word out about what I am creating.  I haven’t linked my Etsy shop to my website yet – more for me to learn in that area but I will get there eventually….  www.creatinginslippers.etsy.com

Thanks for reading my tale – Happy Memorial Day - make and keep memories every day…..

Stop and see me – it’s easy to find me – see my events calendar.   As usual, mention my website and you get a free gift – FREE GIFT – hehehe.  I am still losing the battle of ‘real’ comments vs spam.  Why do they think I want to buy that much amoxycillian?   I can only spell that word cause I see it so often.   It is all worth it when a real comment comes in between.  So take a moment and comment – bring a smile to the bloggers of the world who really do appreciate it!  

Power tools are so much fun – it’s great to alter stuff and accomplish the tasks that just cannot be done by hand.  So when Abbie mentioned that she wanted to drill pennies I quickly volunteered my drill press.  We tried every pair of pliers that I had to hold the pennies during drilling but none seemed to do the job.  So we switched to clamps – finally a giant orange handle clamp did the job.  It was kind of a large clamp for such a small job but it worked!!!

The first drill bit worked for awhile but then it bent.  The 2nd drill bit we tried was too big.  The hole was almost the size of Lincoln’s head – oh no!!!  The 3rd drill bit came out of my Dremel set and worked for quite awhile but then the tip broke off.  The last bit we tried wasn’t giving us the right effect so we stopped drilling for the evening.  Too bad I have to go to the hardware store again – hehehe – I love hardware stores!!!

We tried several combinations of household stuff to clean up the pennies a bit.  Abbie must have been a whiz in the science lab cause she had a lot of fun coming up with idea.  The white vinegar and baking soda that helped her create volcanoes wasn’t the look we wanted.  The peroxide that I thought would clean them up for sure didn’t do much at all.  The perfect mix was lemon juice and salt stirred with a chopstick and applied with a toothbrush.  Sweet!!!!!!

My antique Pinch scotch bottle that has been storing my wheatback pennies for many years.  It is a family heirloom passed down from my grandfather who used to have a bar in Camden many years ago.   After being bottled up for so many years I brought it down from its safe storage display space and dusted it the bottle one more time before taking out a bunch of pennies.

I didn’t know what this photo was at first but when I finally figured it out I thought it was the coolest ever….   This is the view looking down into the bottle, something I have done so many times but never occurred to me to capture it in a photo.   Very clever!!!

It was quite an evening.  We decided that this was something we both had to blog about and we are linking out blogs together so you can see what each of us wrote.    Abbie and I have different ideas of how we are going to use the pennies in our re-creations.  You will have to wait to see our blogs on that….

A few weeks ago I had feed sacks on the brain and I posted a bunch of pictures into my Flickr account.  Actually I often have feed sacks on my brain.  I am a quilter and hear so many stories of how feedsacks were used and see so many examples.  So I went to the Mill and took pictures of all the feed sacks that I could find.   Those pictures were following up on the inpsiration that had been rattling around in my brain. 

I take care of the Museum Shop at Kirby’s Mill.  The Mill was finished being built in 1778 and was in operation until 1964.  Surely feed sacks were a big part of what happened there.  So in trying to keep new items coming in and people interested in stopping into the shop each time they visit the historic Mill I try to find items that are historic but useful.  The purchases benefit the preservation of the history.  Not always an easy task to top last year’s new items but this year I think it’s a real winner.  When people came to the Mill to purchase grain, flour, cornmeal or whatever it was carried home in a sack.  Feed sacks became a widespread way for women to gather fabric to make quilts, clothing or other household items.  Kirby’s Mill is a gristmill and there are many chutes throughout the Mill of many different sizes.  A sack was placed underneath when the customer made a purchase.  Can you picture getting your 10 pounds of flours that comes barrelling down a chute into your waiting sack to be taken home to bake bread?  So it seemed the perfect addition to have some feed sack related items that tell a historic story as well. 

So I shared the photos that I took with my creative and artistic friend, Abbie.  She has turned my idea into an awesome graphic. OriginalAbbie.com will be screenprinting some cool new merchandise for the Museum Shop at Kirby’s Mill. Very exciting!!!

The grand unveiling will be the Quilt Show on May 30th and 31st……  see my events page for more info! 

http://www.originalabbie.com/